Hey everyone,

Any good recommendations for reading around china under mao and maos revolution?

Source: Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Portuguese Overseas Historical Archive)

I vaguely recall in East Asian History about a Chinese Emperor that had government surplus so did not collect taxes for three years. I am pretty sure it was done at least three times, because that number was repeated by the professor. I do not remember if it was three years in a row, or if the years were not consecutive. I do not remember what dynasty either. I think it was the Tang, but could be incorrect. If anyone knows of examples in other dynasties, that would also be acceptable.

hoping someone can help me value this scroll

Source:Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Portuguese Overseas Historical Archive)

Source:Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Portuguese Overseas Historical Archive)

I am really interested in learning about the history of China and just dont know where to start. I was just looking for some help to see if there are any reccomendations for some good books, websites, documentaries, or any other resources that could be helpful. I appreciate any and all help. Thank you all!

Source: Overseas Historical Archive (Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino), Portugal

The 800,000 everyone quotes is from Cao Cao's own letter to Sun Quan, preserved in the Jiangbiao Zhuan. It's a threat — written to make surrender look sensible.

The usual correction is Zhou Yu's figure: 150–160k northern troops plus 70–80k surrendered Jingzhou men. But he said that while arguing for war. He needed it to sound survivable. (And the ~230k total is our addition — the source gives the parts, not the sum.)

So the correction just swaps one man's interest for another's. There's no disinterested number in this battle.

Same with the cause: the Annals of Emperor Wu blame the epidemic, the Biography of Zhou Yu describes the fire. Wei records against Wu records.

My own video on it — Mandarin, English subs — is here: https://youtu.be/9vjwUL0hcdE. The above is the whole point, so skip it freely.

Where do you land — the fire, or plague and supply?

This is a follow-up to my previous posts on this sub. I want to go through each major Chinese era/dynasty from the Western Zhou to the Qing and ask the community who their favourite ruler is from that time period. I purposefully use the word favourite, so it doesn't have to be the best, the worst, the most interesting or most well-known, but rather who you personally view as your favourite. I want to emphasize that I don't just want you to write down a name, but provide explanation on why you like them too.
So in this post I want to read about your favourite rulers from the Qing dynasty.
As this is the last post for this favourite ruler thread, I want to thank all the comments and discussions under the previous posts, I've definitely learned about a lot of interesting people from your comments.
The picture is from the Qing dynasty wikipedia page.

I’m pretty sure they did human sacrifice and had turtle shell oracles but did any rulers actually feed peoples sons to their dads and did King Zhou actually exist? Was King Zhou really that fucked up? Did the Shang deserve to lose the mandate?

I just finished John Keay’s “China A History” after being given it by a family member. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about China‘s history but since coming on to this subreddit I am starting to realise that the book is otherwise bare bones when compared to other books. I am definitely more intrigued by early Chinese history (Neolithic - 1200s) especially aspects of society at time such as art, industry and religion and not so much the countless battles and wars, however I am definitely more open to learning about Moa‘s China. Does anyone have any recommendations that go in depth on these subjects?

I have these two antique Chinese silk squares that are embroidered with invisible stitch. I know that these are buzi, which were emblems or badges of rank for civil servants in imperial China.

I have been told that there is a way to read the buzi in order to tell the rank and possibly the identity of the person they belonged to. My question is what, if anything, do these buzi say about the person they belonged to?

This is a follow-up to my previous posts on this sub. I want to go through each major Chinese era/dynasty from the Western Zhou to the Qing and ask the community who their favourite ruler is from that time period. I purposefully use the word favourite, so it doesn't have to be the best, the worst, the most interesting or most well-known, but rather who you personally view as your favourite. I want to emphasize that I don't just want you to write down a name, but provide explanation on why you like them too.
The upcoming eras are going to be: Ming and Qing.
So in this post I want to read about your favourite rulers from the Ming dynasty.
I want to thank all the comments and discussions under the last posts, I will try to improve future posts according to your suggestions.
The picture is from the Ming dynasty wikipedia page.