Scholar's Stage: Chinese History↗

In “ Notes on the Dynamics of Human Civilization: the Growth Revolution ” and “ A Flawed Comparison: Inequality, Ancient and Modern ” I contended that the process through which premodern societies...

O ccasionally I come across attempts to explain the broad course of Chinese history in reference to China’s geography. These arguments tend to focus on the unified empires of Chinese history.

Born Aixin-Jueluo Xuanye and styled Kangxi, his reign was the longest of any emperor. To this day no Chinese scholar has followed in the foot steps of Arthur Schlesinger Sr .

Image Source: “ Chinese Smallpox Inoculation ” (or. image c. 1911), The Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, History of Vaccines Project (2012).

A great divide separates the worldviews of the average Chinese and American.

W hen asked by Chinese acquaintances if I enjoy Chinese food more than American cuisine I often reply, “ I like Chinese food. The problem is, Chinese food does not like me !” I speak this truthfully.

A Mongolian stamp depicting Maodun, founder of the Xiongnu Empire . Image source . A few weeks ago a friend passed along one of the least correct essays I have ever had the misfortune to read.

This is Part II of a two part series. We strongly recommend reading Part I before reading another sentence of this post. A modern depiction of Huo Qubing’s cavalry charging a surprised Xiongnu  force.

Victor Mair’s translation of the Sunzi Bingfa . Image Source . W hen translated into English, the Sunzi Bingfa , usually titled Sunzi’s Art of War , is a fairly small work.

Mao Zedong writing On Protracted Warfare (Yan’an, 1938) Source: Wikimedia.

This post is the second in a series. I strongly recommended readers start with the first post , which introduces the purpose and methods of this essay.

T he ever interesting Omar Ali, who blogs and tweets about Islam, genetics, and all things Desi, forwarded an interesting essay to me the other day.

. “Hadrian’s wall at Greenhead Lough” by Velella, Image Source: Wikimedia An increasing number of U.S.

R ecently the Samurai Archives devoted a few episodes of their podcast to dissecting the relationship between military history and Japanese studies.

Japanese soldiers approach the walls of Nanjing By Sweeper tamonten, China Incident Photograph Album, Vol 2, published in 1938 by Asahi Shimbun., Public Domain, accessed at Wikimedia Commons .

T oday Strategy Bridge published my review of Peter Harmsen’s two books on the upper-Yangtze campaigns that kicked off Asia’s World War II: Shanghai: Stalingrad on the Yangtze , and Nanjing 1937:...

L ast week Strategy Bridge published an interesting piece by Sebastian Bae . In it Bae analyzes the United States’ strategy to defeat ISIS through the lens of the Sunzi and its precepts.

“Let us go forward as with other matters and other measures similar in aim and effect – let us go forward in malice to none and good will to all.

This post was originally published as part of the Thucydides Roundtable project over at Zenpundit . I encourage you to read all of the posts in the roundtable. M eet Sima Qian.

I spent the later part of my teenage years in the forbidding climes of southeastern Minnesota.

I am the fellow who wrote the “everything is worse in China” post you linked to the other day. Thank you for sharing it with your readers.

O ne of many delightful pearls found inside the Zuo Zhuan , the oldest historical narrative in East Asia: The younger sister of Xuwu Fan of Zheng was beautiful.

Y esterday’s excerpt from the Zuo Zhuan is an excellent case study in the difficulty of translating classical Chinese into English (or into modern Chinese, for that matter).

“The nominal form of [China’s] government… is an irresponsible autocracy; its institutions are likewise autocratic in form, but democratic in operation.

A picture of a book shelf I own. We often hear of people who will descend to any servility, submit to any insult for the sake of getting themselves or their children into what is euphemistically...

The State is a machine in the hands of the governing class for suppressing the resistance of its class antagonists.

The most striking difference between ancient and modern sophists is that the ancients were satisfied with a passing victory of the argument at the expense of truth, whereas the moderns want a more...

T oday is a grand anniversary for the Communist Party of China. You will read many things about its meaning and significance.

O ver at the Washington Examiner I have a book review out of Timothy Brook’s The Great State: China and the World .

A book to read before making a poor analogy. E arlier this week I was interviewed by Erik Torenberg, for his podcast “Venture Stories.

T his post is a reading list. It is not a list of books I recommend for I have not read them all—at least, not yet. But it might form the center kernel of a top-notch reading group.

O ne of the great ironies of 20th century history: Marxist revolutionaries could only ever  seize power in the wrong countries.

Vladislav M. Zubok’s A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War From Stalin to Gorbachev is a surprising counterpart to my essay, “ Culture Wars are Long Wars .

Readers may remember my stab at a global Great Books list .

In an essay published in 2018, Geramie Barme recommends observers of US-China relations read through five pieces that Hu Qiaomu and Mao Zedong published in 1949 under the latter’s name.

Xi Jinping’s decision to openly label the United States the source of China’s ills rolled through the newsletters, wire services, and commentators on China this week.

Two years ago I ran a small reading group that met over zoom. Our reading topic: Leninism.

A few years back Ross Douthat published an interesting book titled The Decadent Society: How We Became Victims of Our Own Success .

“Head of Dionysos.” On display at the Capitoline Museums, Rome, Italy. Source: Wikimedia . IN WESTERN PHILOSOPHY AND AESTHETICS a contrast is sometimes made between the Dionysian and the Apollonian.

At the Bumla Pass In November 2024, I traveled to India as part of a delegation hosted by the India Foundation . The foundation is a part of the new nationalist establishment steering Indian society.