Earliest Foreign Account of China? // 9th cent. "Accounts of China and India" // Primary Source

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  • Опубликовано: 27 дек 2024

Комментарии • 1,6 тыс.

  • @VoicesofthePast
    @VoicesofthePast  4 года назад +127

    Hello all! Hope you enjoy the video. This is an extract from the book Accounts of China and India: nyupress.org/9781479830596/accounts-of-china-and-india/ and there is lots more on early China and India within it. Great read.

    • @VoicesofthePast
      @VoicesofthePast  4 года назад +12

      Also, at about 7.35 there is some Japanese writing instead of Chinese - forgive my silly mistake - language fail 🤦

    • @user-jh9nx6tl1n
      @user-jh9nx6tl1n 4 года назад +6

      @@VoicesofthePast Can you do the Suleiman's letter to Francis? Your voice is awesome.

    • @TheRickfire
      @TheRickfire 4 года назад +1

      Heading to 200k followers. Brilliant video yet again.

    • @bethbartlett5692
      @bethbartlett5692 4 года назад

      This was so well prepared and read. I found that the listening experience was both Informative and Most Relaxing.
      Perfect for New Moon in Pisces energies, a time to go within, to relax, to contemplate with harmony, and a bit of Self Spoiling is most appropriate. Completion and Beginning - 12th House Pisces with a New Moon - (Venus is excelled in Pisces the Ancient Vedics say, it is an energy that appeals to her, Feminine and Water Energies, Highly Intutive, Sensitive, Empathetic, and a most Spiritual place in the sky.)
      This audio was truly a perfect choice and I will be curious to listen when the Moon is in Gemini or Virgo, each ruled by Mercury, the planet of Communications as well as Tech/Mechanical/Marketing/Speech and Clarity. 💫
      5 🌟's

    • @TheRickfire
      @TheRickfire 4 года назад

      @@bethbartlett5692 Timothy 2:11-15 But women will be saved through childbearing-if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

  • @alejandromedina4597
    @alejandromedina4597 4 года назад +547

    His description of porcelain was excellent.

    • @thorinpeterson6282
      @thorinpeterson6282 4 года назад +3

      Can I get a timestamp?

    • @chainsaw5302
      @chainsaw5302 4 года назад +19

      @@thorinpeterson6282 4:46

    • @deedebdoo
      @deedebdoo 4 года назад +25

      “Bone china” is what we call the translucent type he described

    • @blackcountryme
      @blackcountryme 4 года назад +1

      Bone china

  • @katutaistelija
    @katutaistelija 4 года назад +1259

    I find your lack of turbans disturbing

    • @Eškala_Iśa
      @Eškala_Iśa 4 года назад +31

      katutaistelija the man folks wear some kind of cap

    • @GIF_CANCEL
      @GIF_CANCEL 4 года назад +24

      I will never turn to the turban side!

    • @jefferygoldmann2643
      @jefferygoldmann2643 4 года назад +21

      Yellow turbin rebellion gonna turn that around

    • @abdlhmdx
      @abdlhmdx 4 года назад +8

      It’s more to specify that the chinese wear something on their head but it’s not like the arab turban

    • @jefferygoldmann2643
      @jefferygoldmann2643 4 года назад

      @cloudyyo i didn't say it wasn't

  • @johnyricco1220
    @johnyricco1220 4 года назад +313

    The Tang Empire was a shadow of its former self by the 9th century. In the mid-8th century the Anlushan Rebellion had wiped out a third of the population and the dynasty nearly collapsed. It was one of the greatest calamities of Chinese history. I’m stunned the government and society still seem very well organized in this account,

    • @ruedelta
      @ruedelta 4 года назад +86

      The Byzantine Empire was a shadow of its former self after the Muslim conquests of the southern provinces, but remained influential and wealthy for a very long time. Similar situation - decay doesn't make itself apparent on the scale of human lives. You need the detached perspective of historical record to really assign these analytical descriptors.

    • @possumsam2189
      @possumsam2189 4 года назад +14

      An Lushan did not end the Tang by any means. The economy was still going strong and the late-Tang though divided by Jiedushi (Several of which were Former Yan)
      were still nominally held together by a stable central authority.
      1.bp.blogspot.com/-y9vERUxRGf0/Wul8W-QLLTI/AAAAAAAAVHU/zlsPRyS8JckW_-QfqNlXPj2pXdDg8pHswCEwYBhgL/s1600/Tang_Fanzhen_820.jpg
      In fact, the Tang outlasted An Lushan, the Tibetians, the Uyghurs & Huang Chao, only to fall to the treachery of power-hungry Zhu Wen who slayed the Royal Tang family,
      deposed the Tang emperor & ushered in the era of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

    • @Yanzdorloph
      @Yanzdorloph 4 года назад +12

      @@ruedelta the andalus was less than a shadow of its old might and advancement when the reconquista hppened, and the ottomans where but the shadows of thheir selves when they lost the balkans and got crushed by the russians and west europe ... this is how empires end all of them

    • @quanyuan6760
      @quanyuan6760 4 года назад +4

      Anlushan is actually "Alexander" translated in to Chinese

    • @elongreishinaski9800
      @elongreishinaski9800 4 года назад +16

      @@quanyuan6760 No, it is Rokhsan which is related to the Iranian name Roxanna as was named the wife of Alexander the Great.

  • @tat3179
    @tat3179 4 года назад +825

    So basically, Tang China has a welfare system, a legal system based on writing, a public education system in urban areas, urban people in China probably could read and write, a sophisticated monetary system, modern centralised taxation and customs and contracts.

    • @SilverforceX
      @SilverforceX 4 года назад +99

      China had all of those things in ancient times, BC era.

    • @aljawisa
      @aljawisa 4 года назад +5

      And no allodial title.

    • @mareksicinski3726
      @mareksicinski3726 4 года назад +45

      not modern
      also not 'welfare'
      and a legal system is not based on 'writing; in any case

    • @BoRerunn
      @BoRerunn 4 года назад +26

      And crippling wars

    • @CCPJAYLPHAN1994
      @CCPJAYLPHAN1994 4 года назад +70

      And WESTERNERS came and said we're savage

  • @daraghosullivan1157
    @daraghosullivan1157 3 года назад +204

    It’s striking how many elements of ancient Chinese society foreshadow what we consider modern practices.. Thanks for the insights.

    • @ahronthegreat
      @ahronthegreat Год назад

      Ffs ur life is much easier and of course it’s similar they were still humans

    • @MrAmitkr007
      @MrAmitkr007 10 месяцев назад +3

      China and India indeed invented and pioneered so so many things we take for granted today. Buttons, clothes, language, paper, taxes, bureaucracy, gold as reserve currency, zero, shampoo, basically hygiene, and so much more

    • @acarnivorouscat4549
      @acarnivorouscat4549 5 месяцев назад

      The underrated history of both countries are criminally underrated

  • @xlyoutube
    @xlyoutube 4 года назад +388

    “The Chinese treat each other fairly where financial dealings or debts were concerned." - Hearing this as a Chinese, I thought maybe we should bring back the wooden staves...
    A note on the taxation (10:15) : the per capita tax on the male population is because a piece of land was assigned by the government to every man when he reaches adulthood - he was expected to farm the land and pay a fixed tax every year, along with a maximum of 30-day labour when summoned.

    • @Eshray
      @Eshray 4 года назад +18

      That bit about the taxation was actually pretty interesting. On that topic, I wonder what rights a Chinese farmer had to the land they were assigned upon being assigned it. Could you, for instance, sell your land to another person? Could you grow cash crops and did you have the right to travel where your crops might be more valuable? Among other things. I find the inner workings of everyday life for ordinary people in ancient times incredibly fascinating.

    • @xlyoutube
      @xlyoutube 4 года назад +72

      @@Eshray In the first half of Tang Dynasty there were two types of farm assignments for every adult farmer : a 口分田 (Kou-Fen-Tian) or literally translated to "field-by-mouth", 80 mu per adult (approx. 5 Hectares). This is for food production and the land cannot be traded or inherited. The land must be returned and reassigned after the death of the farmer. the other type was 永业田 (Yong-Ye-Tian) or "Perpetual estate field", 20 mu per person (about 1.3 Hectares). This land is treated like the farmer's private property and can be traded. It can be used for cash plants too. Earlier policies gave out land by the household's ability to farm, e.g. ox owners receive extra land. The government officers receive their land according to their rank. They usually get significantly more than an average farmer and can continue to buy up more land from these farmers. During wars (Anlushan's rebellion) the farmers sign themselves into big landlord's household for their own security and naturally surrender their entitlement to land under their names and became tenant farmers. By mid-Tang, the aristocracy owned massive areas of land and the government gradually ran out of land that they could control to assign.

    • @inthefade
      @inthefade 4 года назад +8

      Treating each other fairly... Well that disappeared with the Lost Generation.

    • @mareksicinski3726
      @mareksicinski3726 4 года назад

      poll taxes were a common, hated feature of medieval governments.

    • @anon2427
      @anon2427 4 года назад +2

      X so it was just feudalism?

  • @reee2589
    @reee2589 4 года назад +729

    And they DONT wear turbans.

  • @dcs4947
    @dcs4947 4 года назад +863

    "they do not use turbans"
    "Not many date palms"
    I'll go on a limb and say this is a middle eastern person.

    • @RonJohn63
      @RonJohn63 4 года назад +125

      The text makes repeated references to Middle Eastern coins, says he's Arab, and the description says, "Written in 851 and added to 50 years later by renowned Arab sailor Abu Zayd al-Sirafi."

    • @CrazyPangolinLady
      @CrazyPangolinLady 4 года назад +102

      The subject is hatless, I repeat, hatless

    • @davidgraczyk775
      @davidgraczyk775 4 года назад +42

      DC S yes...that is what the title says... do you just click on videos without reading like “oh this picture looks nice”

    • @dcs4947
      @dcs4947 4 года назад +18

      @@davidgraczyk775 No...the title says "Earliest Foreign Account of China? // 9th cent. "Accounts of China and India" // Primary Source".
      It doesn't say it's a middle eastern person.
      Furthermore, why so mad David? It's a joke.

    • @hammadirfan31
      @hammadirfan31 4 года назад +28

      @@dcs4947 If you read the description it did say about an Arab person adding to the accounts.

  • @Skibbityboo0580
    @Skibbityboo0580 4 года назад +1593

    "They don't wipe with water after dedicating, but merely wipe with Chinese made paper without water."
    I know I'm not the only one who felt that sting.

    • @daithiocinnsealach1982
      @daithiocinnsealach1982 4 года назад +89

      Wet wipes.

    • @AntiTMG
      @AntiTMG 4 года назад +84

      Coronavirus land

    • @moshow93
      @moshow93 4 года назад +99

      If you ONLY use tp then you are less cleanly than a dog or cat licking its own behind.

    • @bhimakarma
      @bhimakarma 4 года назад +200

      Ya I was raised using water to wash myself. People made fun of me when I got older and went to public school etc. So I devised the chocolate test. I would smear chocolate on my arm and then wipe it with paper and then wash with water and ask them You tell me which one is dirty?

    • @anon-iraq2655
      @anon-iraq2655 4 года назад +59

      you should
      if shit got on your hand, you wouldn't just wipe it away with a paper would you

  • @abdlhmdx
    @abdlhmdx 4 года назад +207

    Just so everyone knows, those travellers made it necessary to include that the people of the Tang empire don’t wear turbans because during these arab’s path to the Tang empire they had gone into many societies and cultures with most having their own versions of a turban or garment that shields their heads from the sun.
    So they had to mention how different a society was from their surroundings.

    • @-TasyaNabila
      @-TasyaNabila 4 года назад +30

      I think the arab travellers mentioned everything that is different between them and the areas they visit to take accounts on what trades should prosper if they do trade with them.

    • @sahloull1
      @sahloull1 4 года назад +10

      @@-TasyaNabila that's exactly why he mention it for the first place and also i confirm what Toya said.

  • @Dragons_Armory
    @Dragons_Armory 4 года назад +320

    The way the Tang bureaucracy catalogs all manner of things and form various policies is nothing short of extraordinary.
    This level of management is quite robust even some 1300 years ago.

    • @KinLee919
      @KinLee919 4 года назад +23

      but we are very good at recording everything.

    • @camrendavis6650
      @camrendavis6650 4 года назад +5

      @@KinLee919 yes, very much so

    • @erlingqiericyice1977
      @erlingqiericyice1977 4 года назад +25

      Song has achieved more until Mongol came and destroy all those things

    • @unifieddynasty
      @unifieddynasty 4 года назад +24

      @Timothy Dexter No they didn't. Don't make stuff up to serve your agenda.

    • @qus.9617
      @qus.9617 4 года назад +28

      @Timothy Dexter If they did they would not have annals of the warring states, works of the grand historian (han) records of the three kingdoms (jin), history of the northern and southern dynasties (Northern Wei, Liu Song etc.), history of the 16 kingdoms (Song), history of the song dynasty and past (song), history of the Liao and Jurchen (Yuan), history of the Qing dynasty (Qing) and various other imperial records or encyclopedias. I am missing from my list other Chinese historian works and historians who documented and recorded previous dynasties, which by your assertion would not be possible had everything been destroyed.
      Chinese historiography can be thanked for that. Even Mongol aristocrats/emperors (Toqto'a) and Manchu scholars (Qianlong emperor) deeply loved Chinese history and published historian works, endorsed Chinese philosophies, governance, calligraphy, poetry, writing and Chinese culture in general.

  • @robertmiles1603
    @robertmiles1603 2 года назад +101

    "The ruler never sits in judgement until he has eaten and drunk, lest he judge wrongfully." I cannot in words describe how important this is. You should never make a decision on an empty stomach.

    • @dfgdfg_
      @dfgdfg_ Год назад +8

      There have been studies that show judges are more lenient after lunch

    • @sheepketchup9059
      @sheepketchup9059 4 дня назад

      ​​@@dfgdfg_ and that they are more quick to judge a guilty verdict, often wrongfully, when they hadn't eaten

  • @دَرْكْ-ع2ق
    @دَرْكْ-ع2ق 4 года назад +203

    2:09 The Arabs used to describe the non Abrahamic religions, or Pagan Idolatries - as Magi or Magus, they have described some pagan European religions like that, when they conquest Spain, and when some travelers traveled to East Europe. It does not necessarily mean Zoroastrianism.

    • @Kr4zYm0f0
      @Kr4zYm0f0 4 года назад +7

      Its a Zoroastrian priest....

    • @pastorwhiskey1301
      @pastorwhiskey1301 4 года назад +22

      Magi means Fire Worshiper which definitely came from Zoroastrianism.

    • @fupopanda
      @fupopanda 4 года назад +53

      Magi is Zoroastrianism. The Arabs adopted the word to refer to all paganism.

    • @Suite_annamite
      @Suite_annamite 4 года назад +9

      Speaking of Zoroastrians, *the last rulers of pre-Islamic Persia, the Sassanids fled to the Tang courts of China.*
      It must've been awkward and bitter for them to have to meet Arab envoys or visitors.

    • @roha1329
      @roha1329 4 года назад +10

      @@Suite_annamite i don't think so, since the Abbasid had a lot of Iranians supporters.
      Just side note, Mesopotamia plain aren't originally belongs to the Indo-Iranians nor the Arabs.

  • @Berkana
    @Berkana 4 года назад +189

    15:45 basically, Tang dynasty China had a form of Social Security, but instead of getting a pension from the age of 60 or 65 or whatever it is nowadays, one qualifies to get paid when one reaches 80. Pretty impressive for a classical civilization. Also, this implies that there were some folks among them who reached the age of 80, which is way longer than what I had heard the typical life span was in pre-modern times.

    • @user-hh2is9kg9j
      @user-hh2is9kg9j 4 года назад +49

      Many people reach the age of 80. What makes us think that not a lot of people do is the "average life expectancy method" which averages child deaths and young men in battles and lowers the average age drastically

    • @Berkana
      @Berkana 4 года назад +13

      @@user-hh2is9kg9j In medieval Europe, in those days, the life expectancy was something under 50, so anyone living to the age of 80 would have been a serious outlier. I wonder how common it was in various parts of the world.

    • @Bialy_1
      @Bialy_1 4 года назад +15

      @@Berkana In old times half of people was dying before age of 5... as there was no vaccination or antibiotics(so the avg age of death was low).
      And it looks that people in China were forced to work even when they were 79 years old. It would be a problem for most people even with modern medicine so in that time it was most likely a very rare thing to live for so long and be able to work until age of 80!

    • @ruedelta
      @ruedelta 4 года назад +59

      @@Bialy_1 You're missing the cultural context. Elderly don't work, the kids are expected to provide for them. The 80 year old pension is probably a measure to not punish families for having parents who survive to that point, since it's unlikely that the children are capable of providing anymore (having gone into retirement as well). It is quite a reasonable and forward thinking policy really.

    • @StudioArtFX
      @StudioArtFX 4 года назад +11

      @@user-hh2is9kg9j Thank you!! I have talked to people who literally believed that ancient people were 35 years old, looked 100 and died of old age!!!

  • @Berkana
    @Berkana 4 года назад +177

    14:02 their method of authenticating the two parties to a contract is rather brilliant. Writing over the seam where the two contract documents folded over each other meet, especially in Chinese written with a brush, is a great way to hinder attempts at forging either half. If either half doesn't match up, it is immediately apparent.

    • @faithlesshound5621
      @faithlesshound5621 4 года назад +7

      That's similar to the mediaeval English "indenture," except that there was no writing over the jagged line where the documents were cut into two.

    • @The_Conspiracy_Analyst
      @The_Conspiracy_Analyst 3 года назад +1

      That is easily faked. This is after all China

    • @12345krillin
      @12345krillin 3 года назад +4

      @@The_Conspiracy_Analyst Care to explain how?

    • @k.k.c8670
      @k.k.c8670 2 года назад

      @@The_Conspiracy_Analyst the odd troll. Fox channel is down?

    • @The_Conspiracy_Analyst
      @The_Conspiracy_Analyst 2 года назад +1

      @@k.k.c8670 looks like chang's butthurt that the only thing to cone out of China that lasted more than a month is COVID!

  • @Omar-dp5bh
    @Omar-dp5bh 4 года назад +131

    The writer was more descriptive when he said women don't wear turban, he might was a bit surprised because most nations at that time wore something over their heads, Christians and jews not excluded, nor men are, so it might have been disturbing for the writer when china men wore a cap and the women didn't, however,
    The comments are like mad, have they never seen a woman with turban, take a look at your grandma pics😒

    • @cramerfloro5936
      @cramerfloro5936 3 года назад +25

      Ikr?
      The absence of headscarfs is a pretty recent development in fashion, that started with the governing classes and expanded in the population only in the last few generations

  • @krabbcake8371
    @krabbcake8371 4 года назад +176

    9:22 im glad they acknowledged being hangry as a legitimate issue

    • @joellaz9836
      @joellaz9836 4 года назад +14

      Krabb Cake
      You’re not you when you’re hungry

    • @1wor1d
      @1wor1d 4 года назад +8

      @@@sirkeg1 I read that study, but the one I read was only related to judges/magistrates not parole boards. Good time for the offender was start of the day or just after lunch. Worst time, just before lunch or end of the day. Previous studies have shown that repeated decisions make people tired, and they start looking for simple answers, As sessions drag on, judges may find it easier to deny requests and let things stand as they are.

    • @RKroese
      @RKroese 4 года назад

      He should learn how to fast proper, so he can deal with it always. If I were to be judged by him, I'd be sure to sent him a mighty gift: 12 course meal.

  • @crazywilly3333
    @crazywilly3333 4 года назад +86

    It's remarkable that things like giving poor people the medicine they need or feeding kids in public school were apparently non-issues in 9th century China but are points of controversy in the modern USA. I wonder if there were people like that at this point in China as well, but they weren't prominent enough for this scholar to hear about them.

    • @roodborstkalf9664
      @roodborstkalf9664 4 года назад +7

      That this system was existing in many cities is remarkable enough.

    • @ahronthegreat
      @ahronthegreat Год назад

      U do realise the modern system is far better right ffs all u commenting that go live back then trust me ur lives aren’t that hard

    • @crazywilly3333
      @crazywilly3333 Год назад

      @@ahronthegreat you're right, the modern systems which guarantee healthcare for every citizen (which are employed by every developed nation except for the United States) are far better than 9th century China.

  • @chrismaguire8165
    @chrismaguire8165 3 года назад +36

    Wow ...Best travel diary ..felt like literally in China during that era .....kudos to traveler . A traveler account of foreign land with no prejudices and no malice

    • @RahmanBae-st9cp
      @RahmanBae-st9cp Год назад +4

      Unlike the Europeans who actually burned one of the most important Islamic libraries in Spain, or maybe they deliberately made such a report with the intention of hiding it and keeping it for themselves, ironically not all important books in Spain were copied in the Egyptian library.

    • @hitkid96
      @hitkid96 6 месяцев назад

      They also burned all the books of ancient Mexico which was also high civilization. Spaniards today have the gall to claim they came amd civilized us! They essentially destroyed thousands of years of knowledge and literature from an entire continent in the name of religion. What's worst is that these massive book burnings are not really lamented as say, the sacking of Baghdad or library of Alexandria

  • @tedhodge4830
    @tedhodge4830 4 года назад +398

    This is an excellent review without a lot of the mystical embellishments that seemed normal for the period, lol. I actually feel like this is an accurate period review of China.
    No people with dog heads or maneaters that worship the moon. I am impressed with the writer's objectivity and sense.

    • @Rodrigo_Vega
      @Rodrigo_Vega 4 года назад +54

      Actually is it just me or most of the accounts in this channel are pretty sensible and respecting on their comments on the cultures they meet?

    • @fortred735
      @fortred735 4 года назад +23

      @@Rodrigo_Vega If you look for the one about meeting the Russian Vikings, it is far from kind in the description

    • @VoicesofthePast
      @VoicesofthePast  4 года назад +134

      @@Rodrigo_Vega I won't deny there are some pretty eccentric ones, the Romans in particular seemed to enjoy some pretty wild claims

    • @miracleyang3048
      @miracleyang3048 4 года назад +36

      Fort Red
      It sound you're just one of those Vikings LARPers who are mad cause the eye witness said something that didn't agree with their fantasies about Vikings

    • @victoriap1561
      @victoriap1561 4 года назад +34

      He actually met the Chinese, that's probably the difference.

  • @unifieddynasty
    @unifieddynasty 4 года назад +409

    "They don't wear turbans."
    [[ABSOLUTELY HARAM]]

    • @mh2660
      @mh2660 4 года назад +21

      unifieddynasty 😂 I love how close circle medieval people were. That Arab traveler must have been so culture shocked.

    • @Seattlefan77
      @Seattlefan77 4 года назад +16

      Well you're still close circle. Cause you don't know what "Haram" means.
      Just that the circles are different now

    • @mh2660
      @mh2660 4 года назад +16

      Mr. Suhaib why would you assume that? I was born Muslim. Just not one anymore.

    • @Delgen1951
      @Delgen1951 4 года назад +2

      Yeah not a decent Top hat or Darby in the bunch..

    • @abdlhmdx
      @abdlhmdx 4 года назад +11

      unifieddynasty No it’s not, they made it necessary to include because these arab’s path to the Tang empire had them go into many societies and cultures with most having their own version of a turnban/cloth that shields their heads or face from the sun.

  • @son.pindorama
    @son.pindorama 4 года назад +25

    This channel just restored my faith in the usefulness of RUclips. Thank you.

  • @AvgWellInformedCitizen
    @AvgWellInformedCitizen 4 года назад +79

    This channel is one of my newest additions to a long list of intriguing topics. Excellent choice of documents, keep up this great work! And thank you for your contribution. Sincerely well done.

    • @VoicesofthePast
      @VoicesofthePast  4 года назад +6

      Thanks for the kind words!

    • @wothin
      @wothin 4 года назад +2

      @@VoicesofthePast yes your narrating (of other people's narrations) brings history to life. Much better than the usual style of simply saying what happened and how it was back then

  • @MadHatter42
    @MadHatter42 4 года назад +114

    I'd say that throughout most of human history, the most sophisticated and comprehensive bureaucratic systems on earth generally belonged to the Chinese. This report provides very clear and honest insight into that system, by mentioning the wide-ranging educational, economic, and healthcare systems. I'm a little disappointed he didn't mention the civil service examination for government employees, but perhaps that wasn't quite so developed in the Tang as it would later become in the Song Dynasty about 200 years later.

    • @SilverforceX
      @SilverforceX 4 года назад +3

      Civil service exams was widespread even during Lao Tze and Confucius's time, so we're talking ancient China, well BC!

    • @MadHatter42
      @MadHatter42 4 года назад +3

      @@SilverforceX I don't think that's true, though. The civil service examination was based on understanding of the Confucian Classics, and Confucianism wasn't adopted as the state philosophy until the Han Dynasty in ~200 BC, several centuries after Confucius and Laozi. Before that, Chinese government was largely feudal, with power based on being related to the ruling house. The adoption of Confucianism signaled China's move from clan-based authority to merit-based authority, and even then, it took several centuries of development to fully realize that change.

    • @ddl1472
      @ddl1472 4 года назад +6

      I remember the civil service exam was first introduced in Sui dynasty, and then inherited by Tang dynasty.

    • @MadHatter42
      @MadHatter42 4 года назад +3

      @@ddl1472 I think the exam system were around by the Tang, but at that time they were still largely limited to the nobility, making them more a formality than a real test of skill. It wasn't until the rise of Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty that the exams were opened to everyone, regardless of class background, making it a far more fair and comprehensive system of government
      At least, that's been my impression of the history, but I could be entirely wrong, too.

    • @Fear_the_Nog
      @Fear_the_Nog 4 года назад +1

      Yes, which is why they are such good test takers, literally millennia of training.....

  • @82dorrin
    @82dorrin 4 года назад +140

    2:25
    "In dealing with thieves their practice is to put them to death. If they are caught"
    Well, that escalated quickly...

    • @tmarritt
      @tmarritt 4 года назад +30

      The lesson being dont get caught.

    • @ismaelsantos5378
      @ismaelsantos5378 4 года назад +1

      Having a conversation with my mother the othey day, I suggested the idea of reforming the penal system in the following way:
      -Crimes are punished with jail time, but the guilty has two options:
      A) They serve the full sentence
      B) They do half sentence, while working for some company under guard. While they are paid, the money goes to a personal account they won't have access to until they go free again.
      -Regardless of which way the guilty serves time, if they are caught in crime again, they get executed. No third chance for the wicked.
      This is part of a larger structure, if someone is interested I can explain further.

    • @MrHanderson91
      @MrHanderson91 4 года назад

      @@ismaelsantos5378 interested. Does that mean if you get arrested twice for something minor you die?

    • @ismaelsantos5378
      @ismaelsantos5378 4 года назад +2

      @Elias Farendune Clobberer The point of the system is to discourage going back to a life of crime. Most will pick the "half sentence with a job".
      This would mean that once you get out you have an initial capital to start your new life instead of being peniless and being forced back to crime.
      The education system would largely focus on practical classes, you know, stuff that will actually be useful outside of school, as well as history, with special point of explaining why Socialism is bad.
      As well as cultivating a competitive yet somewhat lenient enviroment.
      Students would have the exact same number of subjects on all years and paths. All rated from 0 to 100.
      At the end of every trimester the score would be posted. The top 3 get a high cash reward, the top 4-to-10 get lesser reward. Everyone else gets jacksquat.
      Extra curricular activities would be organized by a student council, which would be elected by the students and would form part of the administrative workforce at school, similar to japanese student councils. The thing is that would get paid, be required a minimum score and it would have curricular value.
      Physical training with focus on teamwork, as well as self defense and discipline, would be implemented. No "body positivity" hogwash.
      Arts would include drawing/painting, sculpting, playing music/dancing, etc.
      In terms of philosophy, while different thinkers will be explored, there will be a large focus on the teachings of Kreia
      (link at the end of this reply)
      Closed borders with very controlled migration.
      Abolition of all discriminatory laws and rules (ie: no more segregation, affirmative action, etc).
      No gun control laws. And basic weapon training would be part of the public school curriculum.
      The government would consist of 2 primary forces. The standard government made of elected representatives with the 3 powers separated. Term limits, as well as limited time terms, would be enforced on all branches to get rid of political stagnation.
      The second force consist of 3 agencies:
      -A watches over the police and brutally executes any corrupt officer, as well as watching closely the other two.
      -B watches over the executive and legislative branches and executes any corrupt representative, as well as watching closely the other two.
      -C watches over the judicial branch and brutally executes corrupt judges, and watches the other two.
      Regardless of agency, all members would receive the same training and they will be required to pledge an oath of loyalty to the nation and not the state or any political figure or party.
      Citizens would largely enjoy a liberal capitalist life built on the principle of acquiring wealth by helping society.
      Socialism in all it's forms (communism, fascism, current year radical feminism) would be outlawed and actively purged by both authorities and private citizens (who would be rewarded for providing information and/or hunting down themselves).
      That's right. Private citizens would have "Bounty Hunting" as an available career. Authorities would determine if a Wanted is "capture-only" or "capture and/or kill" (in the latter case capture would award a better pay than kill).
      Kreia (compilation of quotes)
      ruclips.net/video/GrZzNbtjt7A/видео.html
      Analysis of Kreia part1:
      ruclips.net/video/-Z0S0Z8lUTg/видео.html
      Analysis of Kreia part2:
      ruclips.net/video/6EMc_S_vAsk/видео.html

    • @ismaelsantos5378
      @ismaelsantos5378 4 года назад

      @@MrHanderson91 Yes. But as I said, this is a vast oversimplification and it's part of something bigger (which I simplified in a another reply).
      The idea is to eliminate the problems "revolving door prison" and "overcrowded prisons" and actively fight crime all at the same time. The only way I see is to offer a second chance, and if they don't take it just kill them and be done with it.
      Of course, cases in which the person was not caught commiting a crime but it's being acused of doing so would have to be investigated. In the case of malicious false allegations the acusers would get the jail time the acused would have gotten, with the same rules and consequences.

  • @omni5640
    @omni5640 4 года назад +52

    If you could find it, maybe Zheng He's accounts of all the places he traveled on his 8 expeditions might be extremely interesting. I realise many of his records were burnt but you can probably find some on the internet. He went to places like Malaysia, Burma, India, Ceylon, Persia, Arabia and East Africa and saw loads of fantastical things that the insular Ming Empire was not used to.

  • @horisontial
    @horisontial 4 года назад +193

    A good way to encourage correct spelling! ".. So if there is an error, he is beaten with wooden staves"

    • @---iv5gj
      @---iv5gj 4 года назад +16

      could really use some of that in modern china, even TV subtitles and public banners are riddled with incorrect words, let alone day to day conversations by the general public

    • @fenrirgg
      @fenrirgg 4 года назад +30

      HERE!
      YOU WROTE "日"
      INSTEAD "曰"
      THAT'S PADDLING! >:(

    • @ME-hm7zm
      @ME-hm7zm 4 года назад +10

      My mother and her siblings went to a Catholic school where the nuns definitely were still doing that in the 60s/70s.

    • @hellz23456
      @hellz23456 4 года назад +6

      well you got beaten if you were on chinese family, i am got beaten cause i was left handed and forced me to write right handed

    • @demonicwarrior1
      @demonicwarrior1 4 года назад +2

      It's not really spelling but if you write a character incorrectly (use the wrong radical when writing a character EG: 狼 or 浪).

  • @abdullahsagga7195
    @abdullahsagga7195 4 года назад +31

    Wow that was amazing, I felt like I went back in time with that narration.

    • @LostArchivist
      @LostArchivist 4 года назад

      In a sense all historical counts do just that.

  • @parhhesia
    @parhhesia 4 года назад +500

    Beyond all the cute details, what really stands out is that the government loooked after the poor, providing famine relief, free schooling, free medicine, pensions and access to justice.

    • @YSLRD
      @YSLRD 4 года назад +81

      And kept the grain market functioning

    • @mareksicinski3726
      @mareksicinski3726 4 года назад +23

      this seems more like your view of it, it is not exactly accurate
      and the srouces etc

    • @anon2427
      @anon2427 4 года назад +7

      Sean Maher oh how things have changed

    • @Ellon62
      @Ellon62 4 года назад +31

      @@CelticSpiritsCoven I really like it, but what do I know right?

    • @maclee5381
      @maclee5381 4 года назад +49

      @@CelticSpiritsCoven Sure. Socialism as the concept we know today didn't even exist until a thousand years later. Besides, judging an ancient society with modern standards isn't very fair imo. Try doing that with 9th century Western Europe.

  • @KMO325
    @KMO325 4 года назад +317

    So Arab chroniclers were the most accurate and judgmental of the ancient/medieval era.

    • @SahnouneKhaled
      @SahnouneKhaled 4 года назад +114

      Islam taught them to be fair and never propagate lies even about enemies and non Muslims

    • @biotikmedia
      @biotikmedia 4 года назад +31

      This is over five hundred years after the Roman one. It should be.

    • @FOLIPE
      @FOLIPE 4 года назад +54

      Because as middle men they were closer to China and Europe than Europe to China and actually traveled to both.

    • @jordan_8329
      @jordan_8329 4 года назад +3

      @@mh2660 the Romans sailed from Arabia to India and southeast Asia.

    • @mh2660
      @mh2660 4 года назад +3

      Jordan Gathany actually nvm they did go there. 😬

  • @georgehunter2813
    @georgehunter2813 4 года назад +25

    The description of Tang period Chinese civil law and civil systems is interesting.
    The King regulates grain market price and fends off inflation. A youthful man pays, but the elderly man draws from the treasury.

  • @mohammedalssamraey9581
    @mohammedalssamraey9581 4 года назад +87

    Somehow we all love
    Rice 🍚 and Tea ☕
    Love to China from Iraq 🇮🇶

    • @dunzhen
      @dunzhen 3 года назад +3

      ♥️♥️♥️

    • @belalabusultan5911
      @belalabusultan5911 3 года назад +7

      according to this video, rice was the food of the poor, while the rich ate bread....
      it is super weird since you can also learn that the kings of China ate with spoons and forks, and were the first people to invent these stuff, while also the chopsticks were proably rom there.
      it's like 2 nations in one country.
      I love rice too lol

    • @belalabusultan5911
      @belalabusultan5911 3 года назад +1

      @Charles Huang
      perhabs you'd need to study more of Chinese history, I am an Arab and can be surprised by my people's history.

    • @papercat2599
      @papercat2599 3 года назад +1

      ❤️

  • @OneironauticalOne
    @OneironauticalOne 4 года назад +48

    9:22 The ruler never sits in judgement until he has eaten and drunk. Lest he judge wrongfully.
    They knew about "Hangry" back then lol

    • @willd1790
      @willd1790 3 года назад +10

      iirc it's a real phenomenon even to the modern day, where studies have shown that judges will often sentence convicts differently depending on whether or not they've gotten the chance to eat. The Tang knew what's up lol

  • @nobodyspecial9097
    @nobodyspecial9097 4 года назад +78

    9:22 glad to know that the Chinese keep to the "Rules of Acquisition".
    #214 - Never begin a business negotiation on an empty stomach.

  • @Muramasa1794
    @Muramasa1794 4 года назад +47

    The Longest Day in Chang’an tv series I would recommend. A direct and phenomenal representation of Tang society, culture and clothing of that period 👍🏽

    • @dtmt502
      @dtmt502 4 года назад +1

      those are often not accurate

    • @Muramasa1794
      @Muramasa1794 4 года назад +13

      Dt Mt nah bro this one is different, was well received in China and won many awards

    • @wenxiaomei
      @wenxiaomei 4 года назад +3

      @@Muramasa1794 To bad the director has to go and ruin the script, I wished that they had stuck to the plot of the novel. I couldn't rewatch it because the second half of the show was written so terribly.

    • @Muramasa1794
      @Muramasa1794 4 года назад +1

      wenxiaomei yeah it kinda dragged on a bit and got off tangent

    • @Muramasa1794
      @Muramasa1794 4 года назад

      anshu lieyi what house??

  • @joshuajacome8803
    @joshuajacome8803 4 года назад +23

    Such a beautifully detailed chronicle. One can really imagine everything happening

  • @moosen1207
    @moosen1207 4 года назад +39

    He was mad about them using paper instead of water? Yikes he's in for a surprise in parts of medical Europe

    • @noddlefoodle5691
      @noddlefoodle5691 4 года назад +13

      Oh my god did you see the video where a muslim scholar goes to meet Vikings! That video was a treat that's for sure.

  • @arthurfioratifaria3615
    @arthurfioratifaria3615 4 года назад +87

    But, as I watched this, I constantly told myself, in exclamation: "what level of civility". We western people usually think that we were pioneers in State, social, political and burocratical development, but, while our ancestors were bloodly fighting their wars in cities dirty and putrid, there were huge empires exisisting in the world... and we simply do not pay attention to then.

    • @arthurfioratifaria3615
      @arthurfioratifaria3615 4 года назад +22

      @arnold jayeola Yes I tottaly agree with you. My comment wasn't intended to say that medieval chinese civilization was better or more advanced than us, or any other great civilization in the world. Indeed every people has its shiny and obscure moments of history. I was only surprised because here in the West we usually look the mediterranean classic cultures with admiration ,as pioneers of many modern elements, but we right pass many other exemples of old but, yet, advanced civilizations, such as the Eastern ones. In my country for example, world history seems to be separated into West and East, North and South, when many events were simultaneously happening.

    • @ObsessedwithZelda2
      @ObsessedwithZelda2 4 года назад +7

      Isn’t the idea of poor hygiene in medieval Europe somewhat a myth? (To go around the ultimate point of your statement, apologies)

    • @armchairwarrior963
      @armchairwarrior963 4 года назад +19

      All modern Western Bureaucracy is copy directly from China. The British was one of the first to adopt it. Once they figure their empire was getting big and hard to control.

    • @arthurfioratifaria3615
      @arthurfioratifaria3615 4 года назад +2

      @@ObsessedwithZelda2 No problem. I think I expressed myself a little passioned in the first comment, hahaha. I fear I'm not expecialist on this hygiene subject. Probably, as history facts are aways changing (which is something good), most of the hysteriotipes portraiting medival europe as a place "dark", "poor", and "dirty" are somehow iluminist predjudice of the old times, and are now contested. But yet, is notable that regarding Hygiene of those times I think, considering that it varied a lot from time to time and place to place, compared to later and even earlier times, matters of public and personal hygiene weren't so good either... though sometimes not as bad as usually portraited.

    • @faithlesshound5621
      @faithlesshound5621 4 года назад +3

      This extract does not mention the national anonymised written examinations (at three levels) for recruiting Mandarins to the civil service, which started in the 1st century BC and continued till about WW I.
      The East India Company's agent in Canton commended this practice to his London HQ, and the idea was taken up by the British civil service and influenced other European and American nations, though they may have got the idea directly from China as well.

  • @Manxkaffee
    @Manxkaffee 4 года назад +148

    15:38 China with MediCare in the 9th century

    • @erlingqiericyice1977
      @erlingqiericyice1977 4 года назад +30

      @arnold jayeola it's not communism destroy them.. its mongol. China in 19th centuries are already destroyed twice. once by mongol and then by manchu Qing. little is left. Communism is just final blow

    • @MariaMartinez-researcher
      @MariaMartinez-researcher 4 года назад +6

      @@erlingqiericyice1977 Which does include public healthcare. You bet that even in this dire circumstances, Chinese patients aren't dealing with insurance, primes, copays and premiums.

    • @fsdds1488
      @fsdds1488 4 года назад +4

      @@MariaMartinez-researcher If you are lucky enough to receive the treatment, Chinese hospitals have a budget that allows them to offer medical service under national healthcare scheme, thus they will be real conservative when it comes to major health problems, and its not unoften to see hospitals offer very limited service or even reject the patient simply because the hospital don't have the money for complete treatment.

    • @张炜-r3b
      @张炜-r3b 4 года назад +30

      @@erlingqiericyice1977 LOL, Communism has built China from a weak and poor state nearly demolished by Japanese invasion and civil war to the second largest economy of the wolrd. Communism may have destroyed Soviet Union, but China is not Russia. It is true China was deeply hurt by manchu Qing both physically and mentally due to the fall of Ming(such a shame), but now we are recovering.

    • @cockatyusha2359
      @cockatyusha2359 4 года назад +16

      @arnold jayeola communists are major advocates of socialised health care. You don't know shit.

  • @GiGi-wg9lq
    @GiGi-wg9lq 4 года назад +37

    Such an advanced social system.

  • @lollerich
    @lollerich 4 года назад +11

    This was the most interesting thing I've heard and watched in weeks.

  • @youtubeexpert2441
    @youtubeexpert2441 4 года назад +76

    Baghdad: has libraries and public baths and advanced medicine.
    China: has advanced financial system, take care of their citizens, and many flourishing cities.
    European historians: We shall call this era: tHe dARk Age!
    Edit: rephrased a sentence

    • @roodborstkalf9664
      @roodborstkalf9664 4 года назад +11

      The Dark Ages were a myth, made up by public relation managers in the Renaissance

    • @qetyghg9448
      @qetyghg9448 4 года назад

      @@roodborstkalf9664 yeap

    • @kareemtheeb1478
      @kareemtheeb1478 4 года назад +10

      Europeans were not far behind.
      They took the levant from us in the crusades.
      Respect everybody.
      Now they are in thier golden age.

    • @t6hp
      @t6hp 4 года назад +7

      1st The dark ages were/is only used to refer to Europe, not the world. 2nd I'm from Egypt and I was taught this was actually just a myth, as the "dark ages" paved the way to many great things the world enjoys today by the Europeans. They were dark ages in comparison to the intellectual products produced in this period with the previous or the following periods. Egyptian history has many of those as well.

    • @Sleepless4Life
      @Sleepless4Life 4 года назад +2

      Well it is kinda true from their perspective. They didn't care for anything not European centric. Reality is often not even close.

  • @mongol100mongol3
    @mongol100mongol3 3 года назад +20

    Both india and china blessed with all kinds fruits and vegetation. Such blessed lands..

    • @NotiBoii-c6l
      @NotiBoii-c6l 6 месяцев назад

      by india what do you mean? ancient india aka modern day pakistan or ganges valley aka modern day india

  • @thesatisfiedcustomer4869
    @thesatisfiedcustomer4869 4 года назад +37

    They had pensions for the elderly. Folk paid their debts and traded sensibly.
    Sounds a decent time and culture to live in.

    • @Fear_the_Nog
      @Fear_the_Nog 4 года назад +2

      they also had some form of socialized healthcare and universal education, as well as general social welfare, for feeding children anyway. However, it was still a monarchy, so freedom was only as free as the current king allowed....basically, the whole society prospered if the rulers were good, and it didn't if they weren't, with no voting

    • @iceomistar4302
      @iceomistar4302 4 года назад +1

      @@Fear_the_Nog better than modern China under the communists.

    • @meilinchan7314
      @meilinchan7314 4 года назад

      Here's something.
      Most people in mediaeval China, like everywhere across the world, would not live long to enjoy that pension. Remember, this was an age when a man's life expectancy was so short that girls had to be betrothed as early as the age of 6 or 9 just to ensure that there would be enough humans to overcome the effects of attrition from disease, overwork, and warfare. Some things they did not enjoy, we take for granted. 100 is the new 80 of our day like how 60 is the new 40.

    • @danimotherofchickens479
      @danimotherofchickens479 4 года назад

      TheSatisfied Customer they beat the crap out of and abused people and were often cruel

    • @CobraQuotes1
      @CobraQuotes1 3 года назад +2

      @@iceomistar4302 modern china has all those things

  • @hamedalrashed722
    @hamedalrashed722 4 года назад +18

    There are many similar books written in Arabic in 800-1500 on social life and people around the world. Ibn Khaldun for example

  • @miracleyang3048
    @miracleyang3048 4 года назад +39

    Will the Chinese Du Huan account of Arabs be next? its one of the Earliest Foreign Account of Islam and muslims

    • @kareemtheeb1478
      @kareemtheeb1478 4 года назад +8

      Yeah I hope that.

    • @sami3566
      @sami3566 2 года назад +2

      @@kareemtheeb1478 he literally describes Arab as nomad that eat only flesh

  • @spaghettimonstersjudgingyo504
    @spaghettimonstersjudgingyo504 4 года назад +14

    This level of complexity in the administration of government and the law is really pretty impressive for 1000 years ago. Our system of modern civil law was only codified by Justinian in the year 600CE. Lost soon after and then found again by Italians in 1000 CE. Codified again in the 1600's by the Italians and spread throughout Europe as Corpus iuris civilis, or Body of Civil Law. The legal system your probably living under today unless your country came from the British Empire. To my knowledge besides the Romans only the Chinese had government administration this complex that long ago.

  • @fisebilillah4406
    @fisebilillah4406 4 года назад +77

    The objectivity of muslim accounts is really amazing.

  • @jesseberg3271
    @jesseberg3271 4 года назад +240

    I'm going out on a limb and saying that the village of the short people is an inside joke that the source didn't get.

    • @KinLee919
      @KinLee919 4 года назад +71

      mabey a racism joke about japan.

    • @wisdomleader85
      @wisdomleader85 4 года назад +1

      ​@李钧
      Right. Mabey....
      Are you Australian?

    • @jesseberg3271
      @jesseberg3271 4 года назад +1

      @Joe Blow I wasn't expecting quite so many people to join me on that limb.

    • @domasselezenevas4007
      @domasselezenevas4007 4 года назад +61

      There is a village in China named Yangsi. It's full of dwarf people and the government is very secretive about it. Might be a coincidence but if it is that village then they've been there for more than a thousand years.

    • @-haclong2366
      @-haclong2366 4 года назад +16

      @@KinLee919 Japanese people were known as "dwarfs".

  • @shibusiltan2152
    @shibusiltan2152 4 года назад +61

    Start of video: They have no turbans!
    End of video: No people have blacker hair.

  • @jimmyshrimbe9361
    @jimmyshrimbe9361 4 года назад +23

    "Undercook chicken? Beaten with wooden staves."
    "Over cook fish? Beaten with wooden staves."

    • @lolasdm6959
      @lolasdm6959 3 года назад +2

      Staves solve everything don't they?

    • @nicholasm7822
      @nicholasm7822 3 года назад +2

      Badly carve a stave? Beat with wooden staves.

  • @chiangchengkooi9791
    @chiangchengkooi9791 4 года назад +24

    What ever people may think about Chinese, they have the longest enduring civilization.

    • @w462dh
      @w462dh 2 года назад +2

      @@drderplington time will tell

    • @iamsheep
      @iamsheep 5 месяцев назад

      @@w462dh it has

  • @shanecarubbi7864
    @shanecarubbi7864 4 года назад +11

    Very fascinating, there government was alot more complex than I would have thought. Great video thank you. I can't wate to see what's next.

  • @LauftFafa
    @LauftFafa 4 года назад +21

    we still love to praise a semi fictional so called marco polo instead of those . ibn batuta for example have achieved what marco couldnt even dream of .

    • @burnwankenobi803
      @burnwankenobi803 4 года назад

      LuftWaffe ME 109bf Marco Polo was a master assassin ibn buttsack cant hold a candle to that

    • @roodborstkalf9664
      @roodborstkalf9664 4 года назад +2

      Why bash Marco Polo ?

    • @meilinchan7314
      @meilinchan7314 4 года назад +2

      Marco Polo was trying to write something that could sell as factual entertainment.
      And he was outshone for a few good centuries by the even more fantastic and less trustworthy John Mandeville - assuming such an author even existed to begin with.
      And the West hasn't really grasped much of Middle Eastern literature bar the Qur'an and Alf Laylah wal-Laylah.

    • @mahdiabderraouf5795
      @mahdiabderraouf5795 3 года назад

      @@burnwankenobi803 Is this how your parents have raised you?

    • @thedstorm8922
      @thedstorm8922 3 года назад

      @@burnwankenobi803
      You sound like a 12 year old

  • @Goddamnitiwantaname
    @Goddamnitiwantaname 4 года назад +69

    The thing I took away from this video is that in Ancient China the worth of a man could be measured by the amount of pants he wears during winter.

    • @sirkeg1
      @sirkeg1 4 года назад +4

      Even today, one layer of silk long underwear, one layer of wool long underwear, then outer pants.

    • @weirdofromhalo
      @weirdofromhalo 4 года назад

      @@sirkeg1 Especially in the freezing North.

    • @isitokaytoeatquick-wittedb2953
      @isitokaytoeatquick-wittedb2953 4 года назад +1

      I also learned that, and that I probably would've been pantless back then

  • @alexanderb7721
    @alexanderb7721 4 года назад +80

    I really want to know how you find these primary sources, as I love ancient history, especially Chinese history, and can never really seem to find the magical place where all those lesser-known historical writers dumped their work.

    • @VoicesofthePast
      @VoicesofthePast  4 года назад +23

      nyupress.org/9781479830596/accounts-of-china-and-india/

    • @julioduan7130
      @julioduan7130 4 года назад +8

      In China there are a lot of books about foreign countries written in Chinese .

    • @nusaibahibraheem8183
      @nusaibahibraheem8183 4 года назад +1

      You are right most of these "lesser known writers" are ignored on purpose

    • @StudioArtFX
      @StudioArtFX 4 года назад +1

      Joseph Scaliger. He has them all in his vault.

    • @possumsam2189
      @possumsam2189 4 года назад +2

      Hint: Historical Travel Literature

  • @NTLuck
    @NTLuck 4 года назад +63

    I'm glad you got some Arab accounts in this channel considering they are the most traveled people in history. You should check some of the accounts they have on the Maldives people as well as India and others. A lot of them i read in Arabic so i'm not sure if they are available translated or not.

    • @nerychristian
      @nerychristian 4 года назад +7

      Wrong. Europeans are the most traveled people. After all, they did discover North and South America, and were able to extend their empire to Asia.

    • @MegaMackproductions
      @MegaMackproductions 4 года назад +3

      @@nerychristian and mapped most of the World ACCURATLY

    • @nusaibahibraheem8183
      @nusaibahibraheem8183 4 года назад +15

      @@nerychristian actually thats not accurate if you compare that these travels were several centuries before with even less resources available, everything you just mentioned was probably after the 15th century, If that

    • @MegaMackproductions
      @MegaMackproductions 4 года назад +2

      @@nusaibahibraheem8183 what the feck does that mean? Traveling to and from china doesnt make you the most traveled people.... europeans circumnavigated the world, mapped it out ACCURATLY, interracted with far more peoples than the arabs.

    • @udad7625
      @udad7625 3 года назад +16

      @@MegaMackproductions
      Well thats more than 500 years before Europeans did.
      Arab travellars reached scandinvia and Rus lands in the 8-9th centuries and Japan. Look at Idrisi map in 1154 and you will know how far Arabs reached from 7th to the 12th century.

  • @seekeeng3618
    @seekeeng3618 4 года назад +38

    It sounds quite modern, except for the wooden staves.

    • @meilinchan7314
      @meilinchan7314 4 года назад

      Wooden staves are still a thing east of the Zagros.
      Also, ever herd of Michael Fay?

    • @lolasdm6959
      @lolasdm6959 3 года назад +3

      Imagine you get the wooden staves if you jaywalk

    • @longyu9336
      @longyu9336 3 года назад +2

      @@lolasdm6959 A few centuries ago policemen were quite rough and if you did not comply perfectly, they would sometimes use a nightstick on you.

    • @lolasdm6959
      @lolasdm6959 3 года назад +3

      @@longyu9336 Yes, but I don't think the police beat people for not crying in funerals anymore.

    • @tianwang
      @tianwang 3 года назад

      It”s called a “discipline ruler”, today you can buy them, but mostly as adult toys….lots of them on Etsy

  • @tatefranklin4761
    @tatefranklin4761 4 года назад +19

    I love how Arab chroniclers primarily make note of how few Arabian things people who lived on the other side of the world had.

    • @caniscerulean
      @caniscerulean 4 года назад +9

      Every chronicler writes in contrast to their own experience. Things we do the same are taken for granted, things that we take for granted ourselves are most interesting when we see someone do it differently, to whom it never even occurred to do it the way we always have, when we never thought to do it any other way.

    • @aryanchakraborty5175
      @aryanchakraborty5175 3 года назад

      How do you know he was Arab ?

    • @tatefranklin4761
      @tatefranklin4761 3 года назад +1

      @@aryanchakraborty5175 Because the video is titled "Arab traveller on life in Tang China"

    • @aryanchakraborty5175
      @aryanchakraborty5175 3 года назад +1

      @@tatefranklin4761 dude I rechecked it , and it was a Persian traveler

    • @sami3566
      @sami3566 2 года назад

      @@tatefranklin4761 he's Persian not arab

  • @jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901
    @jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901 4 года назад +61

    16:03
    that must have sounded much better in chinese lmao

    • @xandercorp6175
      @xandercorp6175 4 года назад +2

      You mean in Arabic? It sounds pretty good in just about any language, if you value the content...

    • @jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901
      @jayasuryangoral-maanyan3901 4 года назад +5

      @@xandercorp6175 it was stated as being a Chinese saying and it just didn't flow that well in its translation

  • @novaterra973
    @novaterra973 4 года назад +59

    2:00 Well, most people are gonna be unhygienic by that standard, since I am sure toilet paper is still more common than a bidet.

    • @ab-wx3or
      @ab-wx3or 4 года назад

      Use a sink :P

    • @kangaroofuno
      @kangaroofuno 4 года назад +2

      Toilet paper don't exist in the ancient world. What's a "bidet"?

    • @novaterra973
      @novaterra973 4 года назад +26

      @@kangaroofuno Well, apparently it did exist, since the account mentions Chinese wiping their backside with paper. Bidet is basically a device you attach to a toilet seat, that washes your backside with a spray of water.

    • @kangaroofuno
      @kangaroofuno 4 года назад +1

      @@novaterra973 What kind of paper did Chinese people use to wipe themselves? How does a bidet work without electricity?

    • @kangaroofuno
      @kangaroofuno 4 года назад

      @washington gibz What's a punishment tool have to do with this comment thread about ancient Chinese toilet hygiene?

  • @krisaloisio2596
    @krisaloisio2596 4 года назад +16

    I have to say it's egalitarian of the ancient Chinese to educate all kids literacy. The kids of poor families were taught in a public school and they were fed meals there.

    • @Suite_annamite
      @Suite_annamite 4 года назад +5

      No Asian or Sinitic societies were "egalitarian" in that not everyone could ever be what they wanted to be, they were just meritocratic : if they got "street cred" from a powerful person, they could get promoted easily. But that kind of mentality also breeds nepotistic corruption.

    • @Fear_the_Nog
      @Fear_the_Nog 4 года назад +3

      I wouldn't call it egalitarian but they did have a social welfare system that included retirement, healthcare and education

    • @jkid4855
      @jkid4855 2 года назад +2

      The public education is more so ppl can conduct trade properly and to find smart ppl who can continue to learn so that they can enter into exam system to become public officials. It's more a way to farm talent.

  • @daniyalk713
    @daniyalk713 4 года назад +7

    this man who documented it must've been the best of all in his field

  • @dasgupta9288
    @dasgupta9288 4 года назад +20

    When common Chinese were wearing fine silk clothes, people in most of other countries were still naked or wearing tree barks

    • @Haotheman
      @Haotheman 3 года назад +1

      @sneksnekitsasnek it's true

    • @sami3566
      @sami3566 2 года назад

      In India

  • @UranijaZeus
    @UranijaZeus 4 года назад +23

    Such an advanced civilization.

  • @thatdutchguy2882
    @thatdutchguy2882 4 года назад +74

    So, before Frederick the Great King of Prussia the Chinese already introduced the concept of pensions and mandatory schooling for children.
    Learned something new today tnx 👍.

    • @GL-ys8je
      @GL-ys8je 4 года назад +9

      And Healthcare

    • @thatdutchguy2882
      @thatdutchguy2882 4 года назад

      @@GL-ys8je Yep, that too.

    • @faithlesshound5621
      @faithlesshound5621 4 года назад +1

      Work till you're 80 and you'll get a pension! Wow, Thanks!

    • @bonawang4995
      @bonawang4995 4 года назад +2

      ThatDutchguy FYI it was not mandatory schooling (actually there was no way any medieval government could have afforded that). The free education system could only cover a very small number of people, and students needed to get recommendations and pass some exams before entering.

    • @meilinchan7314
      @meilinchan7314 4 года назад +1

      @@faithlesshound5621 : The global life expectancy was around 50-60.

  • @SaretGnasoh
    @SaretGnasoh 4 года назад +39

    5:23
    "Any goods that the ruler needs, he also takes, but he gives the very highest price for them, and pays immediately"
    Wow, why the ruler did that? He can pay cheaper than market price
    "If the price of grain rises too high, the ruler release stocks from his granaries and sell it at less than the market price"
    wow.........

    • @iniudan
      @iniudan 4 года назад +4

      Because he is the ruler, basically he there to get first pick on the best item, while also encouraging merchant who bring high quality good to come back and if it encourage merchant to bring back higher value item, in hope to get top sale with the ruler, so will the value of the 30% tariff also increase.

    • @RedStar0723
      @RedStar0723 4 года назад +9

      This practice of price control (particularly of grain) had been introduced more than 1000 years before the time of this account.

    • @SaretGnasoh
      @SaretGnasoh 4 года назад

      @@RedStar0723 to some "wise" ruler, not all ruler
      Maybe it can be count only by one hand

    • @RedStar0723
      @RedStar0723 4 года назад +3

      @@SaretGnasoh Actually the policy was first mentioned by the chancellor of Qi (a Duchy but often called a kingdom/state), Guan Zhong, around 600BCE. Various versions of the policy were adopted in other states during the Spring Autumn/Warring States period. By the Han Dynasty (200BCE) it became institutionalized state policy. The policy continued to evolve but whenever the national government was strong enough to do so, it was implemented.

    • @ankhi3585
      @ankhi3585 4 года назад +2

      If a ruler pays the low price for goods he looks poor and weak. He is supposed to look better than his subjects otherwise why should he be the one ruling them.

  • @fsdds1488
    @fsdds1488 4 года назад +28

    Sakh is quite similar to the Cantonese "caa4", thus i suspect that the author mostly stayed in southern China.

    • @soufiane4293
      @soufiane4293 4 года назад +15

      Yes. It is an account by an Arab merchant who was active in Guangzhou.

    • @rete5132
      @rete5132 4 года назад +9

      yes arabian nd other foreign merchants mostly stays in southern part as it is important centre of sea trade

    • @ML-mi7ns
      @ML-mi7ns 4 года назад +4

      anshu lieyi Norther Chinese are not as trade loving and open minded tho.

    • @sami3566
      @sami3566 2 года назад +1

      @@soufiane4293 he's Persian from South iran

    • @sami3566
      @sami3566 2 года назад +2

      @@rete5132 he's Persian

  • @johnyricco1220
    @johnyricco1220 4 года назад +138

    9th century Arab: Haha the Chinese use toilet paper
    Meanwhile in Europe: washing toilet rags for next use

    • @LordLobov
      @LordLobov 4 года назад +41

      I thought europeans just fisted each other

    • @unifieddynasty
      @unifieddynasty 4 года назад +8

      @@LordLobov Two kinks in one. Nice.

    • @johnyricco1220
      @johnyricco1220 4 года назад +18

      @Revolutionary Communist
      In days of old
      When knights were bold
      And paper yet invented
      They wiped their as
      With tuffs of gras
      And were quite contented

    • @digitalbrentable
      @digitalbrentable 4 года назад +22

      Can't top the Romans with their social toilets and communal sponge on a stick. Sit down with the fellas, have a chat, hang a shit, pass the shit-sponge along, and hit the brothel!

    • @waltertaljaard1488
      @waltertaljaard1488 4 года назад +3

      In these dark medieval days, when toilet paper wasn't yet invented.
      They would wipe their .ss with a poll of grass.
      And walk away contented.

  • @debutant1277
    @debutant1277 4 года назад +3

    Damn this channel is a blessing

  • @BryanCheong
    @BryanCheong 4 года назад +9

    The traditional salt monopoly mentioned at 10:58 is maintained to this very day, the traditional monopoly of the ruler of China, which used to be most of the state treasury's tax revenues. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_National_Salt_Industry_Corporation

  • @Underheaven8
    @Underheaven8 4 года назад +14

    This is quite brilliant for a 9th century analysis.

  • @caleb7475
    @caleb7475 4 года назад +5

    This was amazing. Hearing it like it was described over a thousand years ago.

  • @Numba003
    @Numba003 4 года назад +6

    The organizational bureaucracy of such an ancient people is surprisingly thorough. Wow. Merry Christmas out there everybody 😊✝️🎄

  • @angusarmstrong6526
    @angusarmstrong6526 4 года назад +4

    Think this is my favourite RUclips channel!

  • @menaseven9093
    @menaseven9093 4 года назад +20

    Nice Arab traveler description of China. The Chinese were using toilet paper. the Chinese wrote contract for loans.

    • @sami3566
      @sami3566 2 года назад

      He's Persian

  • @xgraharax
    @xgraharax 4 года назад +22

    Nobody:
    any culture encounters another: they are unhygenic

    • @scottyj6226
      @scottyj6226 4 года назад +2

      In waiting for the one that calls a people over-hygienic

    • @mindyourbusiness4440
      @mindyourbusiness4440 3 года назад +11

      It's usually arabs who say that, because islamic hygiene should be done in a certain way (must be with water) otherwise they consider it nonhygeinic, they sill consider anyone who wipes as non-hygienic

  • @Innovate22
    @Innovate22 4 года назад +25

    1:50 History proves once and for all that the Arabs invented that OG “Ass Wipe” burn 💩🧻🔥

  • @-TasyaNabila
    @-TasyaNabila 4 года назад +23

    It would be really interestimg to hear Ibn Battuta's accounts on places he visited 😁

  • @biliminsrlar5752
    @biliminsrlar5752 4 года назад +8

    I like your videos like this,keep up the great work!

  • @coolepicperson4150
    @coolepicperson4150 4 года назад +11

    I wonder how helpful this was to reconstructing Middle Chinese

    • @deacudaniel1635
      @deacudaniel1635 3 года назад +1

      I thought exactly about the same thing lol

  • @maxis2k
    @maxis2k 4 года назад +11

    Speaking wrong? That's a paddlin'. Writing something wrong? That's a paddlin'. Not grieving for the dead? That's a paddlin'. Not paying you debts? Oh, you better believe that's a paddlin'.

  • @richardmullins1883
    @richardmullins1883 2 года назад

    What a great idea for a RUclips channel. My new favourite

  • @sgcl10658
    @sgcl10658 3 года назад +10

    These descriptions are fair, unlike Roman's descriptions about China

  • @anonimosu7425
    @anonimosu7425 4 года назад +9

    I like how “They do not wear turbans” is emphasised.

  • @imkow
    @imkow 4 года назад +8

    I can only identify Difu as 知府 Zhi-fu, prefectural governor..and probably Tuqam as 督监Dujian, superviser, or formally 督军 Dujun, army superviser, Dugum in modern Cantonese.

    • @senpow
      @senpow 3 года назад +2

      I think you are right. 知府in Hokkien is Difu

    • @imkow
      @imkow 3 года назад +1

      @@senpow I kinda get two more titles: "Laqshi-Mamkun" 录事参军 Lùshì-Cānjūn, Book-keeping army staff.. "Tusanj" possibly means 州长史 Zhōu-zhǎnɡshǐ prefectural senior clerk.

  • @Thecognoscenti_1
    @Thecognoscenti_1 4 года назад +20

    Grape wine was actually cultivated in China until the Five Dynasty and Ten Kingdoms Period when China lost Gansu, where most grapes were grown.

    • @roodborstkalf9664
      @roodborstkalf9664 4 года назад +1

      Interesting, someone took it from China of did Gansu went independent ?

    • @voidvector
      @voidvector 10 месяцев назад +4

      @@roodborstkalf9664 China actually lost Gansu during the Tang dynasty. During the "An Lushan Rebellion" (a civil war), the Tibetans took over Gansu and Tarim Basin (Xinjiang). The "Changqing Treaty" afterwards cements that. Tibetans had a more warrior culture back then.

    • @jumpvelocity3953
      @jumpvelocity3953 7 месяцев назад

      @@roodborstkalf9664it would be very rare for a province to just go “independent” without any prior nation or idea of a nation (in the academic sense), as it is an essential component of the independent nation-state.

  • @araincs
    @araincs 4 года назад +18

    Any accounts abouit the customs of ancient arabs?

    • @SahnouneKhaled
      @SahnouneKhaled 4 года назад +1

      You can find tons upon tons of books in the primary sources books poems

    • @VoicesofthePast
      @VoicesofthePast  4 года назад +8

      I shall investigate. Any specific recommendations?

    • @Kinghassz
      @Kinghassz 4 года назад +3

      Voices of the Past Can you make a video of an account of the arabs around the time of the islamic golden age

    • @bastefren8281
      @bastefren8281 4 года назад +2

      @@VoicesofthePast Arabs describe first encounter with Europeans.

    • @kareemtheeb1478
      @kareemtheeb1478 4 года назад +4

      @@VoicesofthePast
      The chinese Du Huan on the Abbasid Arabs might be a really good source.

  • @philmay7834
    @philmay7834 2 года назад +6

    After listening to the fairness of this ancient way of life, it would appear we have lost our way with each other.

    • @subutaynoyan5372
      @subutaynoyan5372 2 года назад

      Well, all this is in piece times. Besides, authorities could just boil you in hot oil for being at odds with them and all. Rape was common in old world. Massacring people by the score etc.

  • @kahlilg9824
    @kahlilg9824 4 года назад +6

    And this my friends, is why I subscribe.

  • @jasonlawrence2143
    @jasonlawrence2143 10 месяцев назад

    American and from the Detroit metro area here. Fun fact: The song: Rock Around the clock was originally performed by Bill Hailey and the Comets. Which was way ahead of it's time for it's release for the movie of that time: Black book Jungle. To be matter of fact Bill Hailey himself went to school in the city of Highland Park Michigan which is in the current time land locked in the city of proper Detroit Michigan. Thank you and have a wonderful day.

  • @thorinpeterson6282
    @thorinpeterson6282 4 года назад +63

    When English were working their peasants to death and obfuscating any sort of higher learning the Chinese were paying their elderly a pension

    • @roodborstkalf9664
      @roodborstkalf9664 4 года назад +7

      In those times the English had Alfred the Great, who was quite a scholar. The guys who were killing and working to death ethnic Anglo-Saxon peasants had similar names as yours and where mostly from Denmark and Norway.

    • @danimotherofchickens479
      @danimotherofchickens479 4 года назад +3

      Thorin Peterson uh the Chinese beat and punished the crap out of people life was hard and they had no freedom

    • @dunzhen
      @dunzhen 3 года назад +10

      Westerners cry about "freedom" when they're "free" to work till death paycheck to paycheck. The drug they're fed is that they're "free" and love "human rights". You're the most enslaved when you're used but believe you're free. Chinese are VERY optimistic for the future, I hope the west can get it's shit together, they'd be less warmongering

    • @kaikart123
      @kaikart123 3 года назад

      @@dunzhen Chinese are not "free" and work till death paycheck to sometimes no paycheck, The drug they're fed is that they're "free" and love "human rights". You're the most enslaved when you're used but believe you're free. Westerners are VERY optimistic for the future, I hope the China can get it's shit together, they'd be less warmongering

    • @jamzy9
      @jamzy9 3 года назад +14

      @@kaikart123 imagine thinking the chinese are warmongering when US has be at war none stop for at least 20 years whilst regularly couping elected leaders and propping up dictators

  • @redcrown0694
    @redcrown0694 4 года назад +11

    15:55 Sorry FDR, Tang Dynasty got Social Security on point in the 7th century.

  • @quark31
    @quark31 4 года назад +6

    Can you also do the narration by Arab traveller for the India part?

    • @sami3566
      @sami3566 2 года назад

      He's Persian

  • @chiangchengkooi9791
    @chiangchengkooi9791 4 года назад +7

    One of their greatest Tang Emperor was the one and only female Emperor of China, by the name of Wu Zetian, During her reign China is very rich and female are more liberated.

    • @humansarenottofu
      @humansarenottofu 3 года назад

      She was an absolute monster of a human being, quite ironically.

  • @yttean98
    @yttean98 4 года назад +7

    Paper was not even discovered in the west(Europe) till the 11th century, and the US was not even discovered until much later on. So no need to talk of porcelain and silk in the 9th century, the west didn't even know they existed.

    • @Fear_the_Nog
      @Fear_the_Nog 4 года назад +6

      this was not written by a European, but an Arab

  • @AreHan1991
    @AreHan1991 4 года назад +2

    Fantastic! Beautiful and informative

  • @deanzaZZR
    @deanzaZZR 4 года назад +17

    Great material, but certainly there are records from Japanese who traveled to China as early as the 5th century. The number of missions increased substantially in the Tang Dynasty when Japanese came to learn government, law, architecture, literature and Buddhism. One of the most revered persons in Japanese history, Kukai/Kobodaishi traveled to China in 804. These records actually are written in Classical Chinese.

    • @SonofSethoitae
      @SonofSethoitae 4 года назад

      I assume you mean that Kobo Daishi Kukai travelled to China in this time, as he was already from Japan.

    • @deanzaZZR
      @deanzaZZR 4 года назад

      @@SonofSethoitae Yes, 空海, more commonly known as 弘法大師 in Japan. I just used him as one example as he is known for so many cultural things in Japan and certainly wrote extensively.

    • @SonofSethoitae
      @SonofSethoitae 4 года назад

      @@deanzaZZR My correction was more about the phrase "Kukai/Kobodaishi traveled to Japan in this time" in the original comment.

    • @deanzaZZR
      @deanzaZZR 4 года назад

      SonofSethoitae Ah my mistake, indeed. I’ll edit that so it is correct. Thanks.

    • @omni5640
      @omni5640 4 года назад +4

      I'm very interested in that. A lot of Japanese culture stemmed from Tang Chinese culture at the time. Chinese universities flourished with Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and South-east Asian students going there to learn about Chinese civilisation.

  • @epg96
    @epg96 4 года назад +10

    Hi admin, can you please make videos about these?
    Ancient Chinese historians on ancient Koreans
    Taiwanese Aborigines
    Ancient Chinese Historians on Southeast Asians

    • @Doat876
      @Doat876 3 года назад +4

      That’ll be too racist for this channel...or simply just too racist.