the buddhists were selling indulgences? indulgences *specifically* about getting dead relatives time off non-eternal hells? incredible convergent evolution there
I read a number of Judge Bao stories for a college class (at an American university), which was the first time I was exposed to Chinese literature other than religious texts. I mostly remember that Judge Bao evaluated evidence and considered who had the motive to commit the crime, and then usually he would have his bailiff arrest the suspect and then matter-of-factly torture them to make them confess because that's just how it was done.
Some of these details seem like particularly good fodder for a fantasy novel:
"Another Confucian skeptic argument: “guys, I don’t think propitiating the earth does anything. We’re scattered across the earth and we take valuable things from the earth, like lice are scattered across our bodies and take our blood. But if a bunch of lice got together and performed rituals to keep us from punishing them for stealing our blood, we wouldn’t notice. They’re too small and we don’t speak Lice. So therefore the Earth doesn’t notice our rituals either."
I'm envisioning D&D-style clerics making this argument against D&D-style druids.
This is also a great detail:
"Plays in the Jin Dynasty were often very horny. One play includes a long sequence where the protagonist plays the zither. Because "zither-string" was slang for the labia minora, it was maybe about fingering women. It definitely said that he was so good at playing the zither that it moved the woman's clitoris."
One question: you say "About 7.5% of Spanish silver wound up in China." Do we know what the Spanish got in return for all this silver? Many people assume Europe got wealthy via colonialism but a lot of European colonialism was based on acquiring precious metals, other luxuries, and general half-baked economic thinking. OTOH if they took the silver and gold they plundered from the New World and traded it to the Ottomans or the Chinese for stuff that would strengthen them on a lasting basis, that would make sense. Does anyone know about this?
Silk, porcelain, and other low-weight luxury goods, I think?
And the chief thing they got from that silver and gold was the ability to hire enough mercenaries to fight every other major power in Europe simultaneously*, though not enough to win.
(*: Footnote: 16th-17th century Spain was usually allied with the Holy Roman Empire; it was only briefly at war with it and the war ended fairly quickly. But Philip II was briefly at war with England, France, the HRE, the Netherlands and the Ottoman Empire simultaneously, before he dropped to just fighting four of them at once.)
Could you link more details on when Philipp II was at war with the HRE and the other 4 at once? I haven't been able to find it by Googling easily and would like to be able to share it with others, since that's hilarious if true
I can't find a specific source online. It occurred in 1571, during the Eighty Years War, the undeclared Anglo-Spanish naval war, the French Wars of Religion and the perpetual conflict between Spain and the Ottomans for control of the Mediterranean. Troops were mobilized but no battles occurred. My source is "Imprudent King: A New Biography of Philip II", which describes the incident as:
> Philip also managed to alienate Emperor Maximilian in 1571. When intelligence reports suggested that France stood poised to intervene in support of a rebellion against the ruler of the small but strategically important Imperial fief of Finale Ligure, adjacent to Genoa, Philip mounted a surprise invasion. This unilateral action infuriated [Emperor] Maximilian, who mobilized the independent states of Italy to condemn Philip’s unprovoked attack.
... But the issue was ultimately resolved with Philip's withdrawal from the disputed area and peace returning.
nitpick: "the Russian word for China, "Kitaia"" - actually just "Kitai"
the buddhists were selling indulgences? indulgences *specifically* about getting dead relatives time off non-eternal hells? incredible convergent evolution there
I read a number of Judge Bao stories for a college class (at an American university), which was the first time I was exposed to Chinese literature other than religious texts. I mostly remember that Judge Bao evaluated evidence and considered who had the motive to commit the crime, and then usually he would have his bailiff arrest the suspect and then matter-of-factly torture them to make them confess because that's just how it was done.
> The first Sui emperor placed his own son under house arrest for building an illegally expensive palace.
Was it house arrest in the illegally expensive palace?
> might get notions ideas
Typo, duplicate words
> forever. e He assigned
Stray "e".
Some of these details seem like particularly good fodder for a fantasy novel:
"Another Confucian skeptic argument: “guys, I don’t think propitiating the earth does anything. We’re scattered across the earth and we take valuable things from the earth, like lice are scattered across our bodies and take our blood. But if a bunch of lice got together and performed rituals to keep us from punishing them for stealing our blood, we wouldn’t notice. They’re too small and we don’t speak Lice. So therefore the Earth doesn’t notice our rituals either."
I'm envisioning D&D-style clerics making this argument against D&D-style druids.
This is also a great detail:
"Plays in the Jin Dynasty were often very horny. One play includes a long sequence where the protagonist plays the zither. Because "zither-string" was slang for the labia minora, it was maybe about fingering women. It definitely said that he was so good at playing the zither that it moved the woman's clitoris."
One question: you say "About 7.5% of Spanish silver wound up in China." Do we know what the Spanish got in return for all this silver? Many people assume Europe got wealthy via colonialism but a lot of European colonialism was based on acquiring precious metals, other luxuries, and general half-baked economic thinking. OTOH if they took the silver and gold they plundered from the New World and traded it to the Ottomans or the Chinese for stuff that would strengthen them on a lasting basis, that would make sense. Does anyone know about this?
They got the usual Chinese trade goods: tea, silk, porcelain, etc.
Silk, porcelain, and other low-weight luxury goods, I think?
And the chief thing they got from that silver and gold was the ability to hire enough mercenaries to fight every other major power in Europe simultaneously*, though not enough to win.
(*: Footnote: 16th-17th century Spain was usually allied with the Holy Roman Empire; it was only briefly at war with it and the war ended fairly quickly. But Philip II was briefly at war with England, France, the HRE, the Netherlands and the Ottoman Empire simultaneously, before he dropped to just fighting four of them at once.)
Could you link more details on when Philipp II was at war with the HRE and the other 4 at once? I haven't been able to find it by Googling easily and would like to be able to share it with others, since that's hilarious if true
Sure. I got it from a biography of him, I'll track it down once I've got my taxes in.
I can't find a specific source online. It occurred in 1571, during the Eighty Years War, the undeclared Anglo-Spanish naval war, the French Wars of Religion and the perpetual conflict between Spain and the Ottomans for control of the Mediterranean. Troops were mobilized but no battles occurred. My source is "Imprudent King: A New Biography of Philip II", which describes the incident as:
> Philip also managed to alienate Emperor Maximilian in 1571. When intelligence reports suggested that France stood poised to intervene in support of a rebellion against the ruler of the small but strategically important Imperial fief of Finale Ligure, adjacent to Genoa, Philip mounted a surprise invasion. This unilateral action infuriated [Emperor] Maximilian, who mobilized the independent states of Italy to condemn Philip’s unprovoked attack.
... But the issue was ultimately resolved with Philip's withdrawal from the disputed area and peace returning.