Brendan’s Reviews > Imperial China, 900-1800 > Status Update
Brendan
is on page 137 of 1128
“Legitimate political parties could not take form, and any who expressed political disagreement were, by definition, morally deficient, hence insidious. ‘Loyal opposition’ could not be acknowledged within a system of politics defined by ethical and personal rather than by operational and institutional norms. China still struggles with the heritage of this eleventh-century political failure.”
— Dec 30, 2025 08:19PM
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Brendan’s Previous Updates
Brendan
is on page 320 of 1128
“It long had been clearly seen by many Southern Song observers that extensive landholding by the richer sectors of society encouraged abuses of the tax exemption regulations and an increase of tax evasion among officials and wealthy households. These caused severe imbalances in the revenue system, bringing about widespread hardship in risk society.”
— Jan 14, 2026 09:05PM
Brendan
is on page 276 of 1128
“The Chinese, however, have never felt that those who failed the highest examinations, under those odds, were necessarily of inferior cultivation and intelligence. Many noted literati throughout history failed, sometimes repeatedly; they were seen not as ‘failed men’ but as learned persons whom fate had not (yet) favored.
Those who did not receive degrees had to make their living apart from official service…
— Jan 07, 2026 09:11PM
Those who did not receive degrees had to make their living apart from official service…
Brendan
is on page 236 of 1128
“‘Nativist reaction’ has been seen at many times and places in human history. [] Such movements seldom have led to the mass displacement of the ‘adopted’ culture and full return to the idealized ‘native’ culture by the reacting society. But that is not the whole measure of their meaning. They can provide culturally destabilized or socially dissatisfied persons with the means to reorient their lives
— Jan 05, 2026 08:55PM
Brendan
is on page 198 of 1128
“What the Jurchens accomplished in less than fifteen years is unparalleled. They defeated in war the two largest and most powerful nations in all of East Asia, the Khitans and the Chinese. The former they entirely absorbed…the latter gave up the northern third of its territory, the China of revered antiquity, down to the Huai River boundary that separates wheat- and millet-eating North China from the South, where
— Jan 04, 2026 12:32PM
Brendan
is on page 157 of 1128
“This was the great dilemma of Northern Song elite culture: the burst of new vitality represented by Ouyang Xiu and Wang Anshi, and even by extraordinary geniuses such as Su Shi, soon became routinized in individuals’ and families’ pursuit of status and advantage, deemphasizing intellectual engagement. A new elite was formed by the examination system, more open to talent, considerably more egalitarian in tone,
— Dec 31, 2025 01:45PM
Brendan
is on page 133 of 1128
“The elite constituted through [the exam] process dominated Song life — in respect to the operation of government, the formulation of all aspects of policy, the establishment of social standards throughout the realm, the trends in literature and the arts…the definition of ethical standards, and the exploration of new horizons in philosophy.
— Dec 30, 2025 05:28PM
Brendan
is on page 123 of 1128
“Literary skill lay at the heart of intellectual life, and at this period of Chinese history [i.e. the Song Dynasty], intellectual life came to bear even more directly on political careers and on policy than had previously been the case. ‘Scholar’ and ‘official’ virtually became terms that, both ideally and practically, defined each other.”
— Dec 30, 2025 04:21PM
Brendan
is on page 84 of 1128
“When we examine these historical events quite analytically, the incompatibility of Buddhist doctrine with the basic orientations of steppe life would seem to be obvious, but social behavior is seldom governed by detached, rational analysis. The great appeal of Buddhism [to steppe peoples] lay in its accessibility; some measure of its fundamental truth was open to almost any mind, and seeming contradictions between
— Dec 29, 2025 11:13AM
Brendan
is on page 78 of 1128
“Giving the Khitan and other steppe peoples their due, however, does not demand that we forgo all value judgments. Quite simply, for most of us (though not necessarily for everyone), the norms and peculiar achievements of Chinese civilization hold more intrinsic value than do those of the nomads. The refinement of their learned, humanistic tradition did not make all Chinese admirable: they neither precluded all
— Dec 28, 2025 05:40PM
Brendan
is on page 36 of 1128
“Observing [the Uighurs, Shatuo Turks], the Khitans probably saw quite clearly that when a steppe people by degrees gave up its nomadic mobility in exchange for a more comfortable sedentary life, it ran great risks of having to compete with the Chinese on their ground. Losing in that way their comparative advantage inevitably cost the nomads their cultural integrity; they slowly became just ‘little Chinese.’”
— Dec 27, 2025 01:18PM
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And of course, an ambitious Chinese minister (Fan Zhongyan) tried to solve the above dilemma by developing a Ten Point Plan that could be, almost word for word, the platform of a reformist political movement today… but it was blocked by entrenched elites who couldn’t stand a threat to their sinecures. Then, as now, the Iron Law of Institutions holds…
(All of this was occurring while the Song Dynasty was slipping into fiscal incompetence — almost 3/4 of all state spending was absorbed by fixed costs, especially a wasteful and functionally ineffective military; much of the discretionary budget was spent on bribing steppe barbarians to prevent their attacks because the bloated military was so useless)
Reflecting on the similar dilemma between the ‘imperial presidency’, which has been often encouraged and enabled by the American political left in its quest for more effective governance, and the shifting values that have caused moral crusades (rather than effective governance) to dominate our political parties.