Juan Morillo’s Reviews > The Story of China: The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream > Status Update

“In no Chinese epoch of imperial times, therefore, are there historians like Herodotus or Thucydides, who were writing for themselves. In China, history was written to endorse the assumption of the Mandate of Heaven.”

Super cool story of the rise of the Zhou against the Shang:

Thought: There is a five “unblinking” planet conjunction which happens every 516 years. This planet conjunction foretold the rise of the first state the Xia in 1953 BCE. Then, 500 years later it gave rise to the Shang, in December 1576 BCE. The third one, dating to 1059 BCE gave the sign to the Zhou that they should be next. (Continue in notes)

Di Xin, An early Bronze Age king who grew delirious of power and became a megslomaniac tyrant. He was abandoned by his subjects, his family and even his beloved brother

“Ritual killing of human beings is part of the human story, and the priest and the executioner have gone hand in hand for much of history, indeed long after the formal end of human sacrifice as such.”

- On human sacrifice remains found in a Shang dynasty dig in Henan Province, China

“Ritual killing of human beings is part of the human story, and the priest and the executioner have gone hand in hand for much of history, indeed long after the formal end of human sacrifice as such.”

- On human sacrifice remains found in a Shang dynasty dig in Henan Province, China