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11 Jan, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Chapter 409: Gongzhong Arranges a Land Exchange Between Han and Wei jenniferdodgson.wixsite.com/warringstates/…
Giggling at funny foreign names is not well thought-of these days, but I'm still grateful I'm not called Shi Ti.
If you want to know why Han and Wei were exchanging land, this is helpful.
Artwork by geng kun: artstation.com/kungeng

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More from @StatesWarring

WarringStates Profile picture
11 Jan
What’s the difference between studying and learning?

This has come up a few times lately on ancient China twitter, so strap yourselves in, put on some lo-fi beats, and let’s do this.
Tldr: learning hurts, studying doesn't. If you’re memorizing someone else’s observations, you’re studying. If you’re lying bleeding in a ditch thinking “well, I probably won’t do that again”, you’re learning.

If you want more, however, read on.
Confucius was big on studying. It’s in the very first lines of the Analects:
Read 29 tweets
WarringStates Profile picture
10 Jan
Chapter 408: Chu Besieges the Yong Clan and Han Orders Leng Xiang to go to Beg Aid from Qin jenniferdodgson.wixsite.com/warringstates/…
This is complicated but kind of fascinating, and another example of a persuader being on both sides of a debate. Leng Xiang is a Qin politician, but he seems to want what's best for Han as well, so here he's basically advising Han to play hard to get to get a better deal...
... Or is he playing an even deeper game and persuading Han to hold out in an attempt to deplete its energies in fighting a war that it can't possibly win? Who knows?
Read 4 tweets
WarringStates Profile picture
9 Jan
Chapter 407: Queen Xuan Terrifies Everyone jenniferdodgson.wixsite.com/warringstates/… Image
This is a *soap opera*. Shang Jin's argument is painfully unoriginal and all readers would have known as much. The only conclusion is that Queen Xuan simply wants to ravish him. I'm not sure why he wasn't keen on this (maybe he was running on fumes after her salacious speech).
He is replaced by Zhang Cui (apparently the Han government's official provider of mind-blowing sex?), who is so terrified of the assignment that he drags his feet, and receives a spectacularly sarcastic reception from Gan Mao upon arrival.
Read 5 tweets
WarringStates Profile picture
16 Nov 20
So... Chinese territory. Of course China has always had a wealth of words for territory (地，疆土，境内 etc.) going all the way back to the earliest texts, and anyone who says otherwise is talking nonsense. But...
They also had a somewhat different idea of how territory worked than was current in Europe and the Anglo world, and that's actually a pretty interesting topic, so strap in.
In traditional Anglo/Euro visions of politics, power is a protection racket: you give me money and I'll use my army to make sure no one else demands any. In traditional Chinese visions of politics, power is a corporation: you give me money and I'll increase your ROI.
Read 12 tweets
WarringStates Profile picture
15 Nov 20
Chapter 354: Panic Stations jenniferdodgson.wixsite.com/warringstates/…
This one forced me to look up a million fucking place names, but I still love it because it's so atmospheric. You absolutely get the sense of panic in Wei as the Qin armies advance. (Qin did eventually flood Daliang to conquer it incidentally, which must have looked epic.)
Also: we don't actually know a lot about what was going on inside the Han family round about these times, but what we do know makes it feel like it must have been super chaotic and baroque. I have no clue who the lady running things in this story was or why she was there.
Read 6 tweets
WarringStates Profile picture
14 Nov 20
This is actually a really nice intro to the different schools of thought (Chinese only, sorry). I'm consistently impressed by how clear, concise and well put-together modern Chinese history shows/textbooks/syllabuses are.
Sure, you've got 3 minutes of obligatory patriotic exhortations at the end of every show, but politics doesn't seep relentlessly into all content, unlike in *certain countries*.
(Shang Yang's reforms are covered in the next show, I assume on the basis that if an idea actually works it's not philosophy any more, just reality.)
Read 4 tweets

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