Brendan’s Reviews > Imperial China, 900-1800 > Status Update
Brendan
is on page 561 of 1128
The story of Zhu Yuanzhang, recounted in detail here, is one of the most remarkable biographies in all of history. An orphaned peasant boy narrowly survives famine and plague, and becomes a Buddhist monk. His monastery is pillaged by troops from the collapsing Mongol Yuan Dynasty, so he joins a gang of Manichaean bandits, then rises through the ranks until eventually defeats all rivals and founds the Ming Dynasty.
— 18 hours, 39 min ago
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Brendan
is on page 521 of 1128
On the chaotic collapse of the Yuan Dynasty:
“The government issued ever stricter laws and set ever fiercer punishments in an effort to prop up the forces of order…Social order normally was not maintained by direct coercion but by the much less intrusive reliance on society at large to uphold the norms of appropriate behavior. When that no longer worked and the government’s failures could be openly ridiculed,
— Feb 04, 2026 08:26PM
“The government issued ever stricter laws and set ever fiercer punishments in an effort to prop up the forces of order…Social order normally was not maintained by direct coercion but by the much less intrusive reliance on society at large to uphold the norms of appropriate behavior. When that no longer worked and the government’s failures could be openly ridiculed,
Brendan
is on page 507 of 1128
On educated Chinese during Mongol rule:
“Many of the elite whose education and personal cultivation under more normal circumstances would have led them to serve in public life turned away from the usual careers to seek compensatory roles in public life.
Many withdrew into…turning their backs to the world to live out more obscure lives. Many who might have been ministers of state in normal times found meaning in
— Feb 03, 2026 08:45PM
“Many of the elite whose education and personal cultivation under more normal circumstances would have led them to serve in public life turned away from the usual careers to seek compensatory roles in public life.
Many withdrew into…turning their backs to the world to live out more obscure lives. Many who might have been ministers of state in normal times found meaning in
Brendan
is on page 343 of 1128
“That [Zhu Xi’s] system of learning should become primarily identified with the pursuit of success in the examination system is a great irony; his purpose was to teach people how to enlarge their minds and their humanity through study of the classics, and he was bitterly discouraged by trends becoming evident in his time toward the debasement of learning as a mere device for gaining status and wealth.”
— Jan 19, 2026 01:19PM
Brendan
is on page 324 of 1128
“In the Song Dynasty, a new spirit in learning and thought, in which all of the elite were immersed, encouraged at its best strong individual self-esteem coupled with feelings of direct responsibility for the world in which they lived. They were free to make their own decisions on what constituted ‘correct learning,’ because those truths were available to all through their own powers of study and reasoning, not
— Jan 17, 2026 02:48PM
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 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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One major surprise for me has been the influence of Manichaeism in Chinese and Buddhist histories. I typically associate the ancient Persian religion with its influence on early Christianity (e.g. the writings of St. Augustine) and I had no idea that it also spawned Maitreya Buddhism and the Red Turban movement in China. It even explains the choice of ‘Ming’ (‘bright’ or ‘brilliant’) as the dynastic name, since Manichaeism places so much emphasis on the good light vs. the evil darkness.
I’ve left out a lot of details, but the whole story is so unbelievable that you couldn’t make all of this up!