[HN Gopher] Winged lions through time and space
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Winged lions through time and space
Author : gulced
Score : 15 points
Date : 2024-05-05 00:23 UTC (22 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu)
| contingencies wrote:
| For context, Victor Mair is a leading figure in Chinese history
| and linguistics. Recently there has been a raft of interesting
| re-interpretations by academics outside of China (in this case
| Taiwan) chipping away at the modern mythology of a unified
| Chinese history which is overtly pushed by Beijing against the
| scientific findings of academics, who in China are pressured not
| to publish materials revealing complex intercultural or non-
| Chinese heritage in border regions (source: personal statements
| by actual academics, 20+ years in the country).
|
| For example, in the southwest we have seen the term China itself
| come under reconsideration by other respected linguists as a term
| potentially utilised by India to refer to a tribal federation in
| the Yunnan-Guizhou-Guanxi area known as Yelang.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelang
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_China#Names_in_non-Ch...
|
| Further, mtDNA evidence has confirmed matrilineal migration from
| India/Myanmar toward Yunnan and Sichuan that does not fit with
| the official narrative of 'civilisation came from north China and
| spread south' (my paraphrasing).
|
| The precise origin of rice agriculture, the foundational
| technology of Asian civilisation, is hotly debated, but only
| within river systems effectively encircling southwest China which
| therefore was likely a major conduit through which such
| technology was shared (India, China, Southeast Asia inclusive), a
| situation that is not well researched for political reasons.
|
| Art history however confirms interesting things like the fact
| that stilt houses (such as are popular in tropical regions of
| Asia and frequently co-occuring with intensive rice agriculture
| which effectively allowed and defined high population density and
| thus power-projection capable Asian civilisations) were first
| documented on stone carvings in tombs of Sichuan and evidence
| currently supports the spread of the same southward along with
| other technologies (such as lacquerware) roughly concurrent to
| the defeat of the Shu kingdom of Sichuan by the Han (~316BCE).
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shu_(kingdom)
|
| It also confirms much later significant overland connections
| (~1000CE) from the Pala Kingdom of Bengal with the Nanzhao
| Kingdom of Yunnan for example through stone carved Hindu
| grottoes. (See also
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BB%B9_S%C6%A1n for a well
| evidenced nautical thrust of Indic culture on China's doorstep)
|
| What is often misunderstood by casual historians is the extent to
| which the premodern area was wild jungle. A partial translation
| of mine goes some way to explaining the situation ~1000CE at
| https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Manshu/Chapter_7 but earlier
| situations are hinted at through the flowery language of the
| Shanhaijing ( _Classic of Mountains and Seas_ ) which effectively
| asserts much of the Sichuan basin to be uninhibited tropical
| jungle with elephants, tigers, dense vegetation and bird life.
|
| Short version: We know only a little about what actually happened
| in border regions, but it's more important and more complex than
| people give it credit for, largely due to recent political
| meddling and socio-historical quirks affecting academic focii.
| Every instance of academic inquiry in to our shared heritage in
| this area deserves to be supported. On the Persian note, few
| people recognise the prior significance of Farsi in regional
| diplomacy, that muslims in western China derive their religious
| vocabulary from the Persian tradition, or that Zheng He (much
| lauded nautical explorer of Southeast Asia and Africa in the Ming
| Dynasty) was a eunuch culled from the abortive Muslim dynastic
| ruling family of Southwest China descended from the Emir of
| Bukhara in Turkmenistan who had accompanied the Mongol Horde on
| their conquering of China to usher in the Yuan Dynasty. Ahh yes,
| Chinese history. Not so Chinese after all.
| B1FF_PSUVM wrote:
| > chipping away at
|
| I've come to see that as a continuation of war by other means,
| to coin a phrase. Large empire A chips away at the unity of
| large empire B, by encouraging its fragmentation (i.e.
| supporting any B fishes that want to be the largest in a
| smaller pond.)
|
| E.g. the russians complain of this:
| https://en.topwar.ru/235582-russkie-sami-budut-rvat-sebja-sv...
|
| One of these days I ought to read Chesterton's take,
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Napoleon_of_Notting_Hill
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| I had _tried_ to do some joining instead of splitting, in
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40167667 , but nobody
| else wanted to play.
|
| Anyone? Ei, rebiata, how about "V nebe polnochnom, nebe
| vesennem (clap,clap,clap,clap) deep in the heart of Texas"?
| Texan, texan, texan girls You take my soul Texan,
| texan, texan girls, my baby Give me give me only love
|
| Lagniappe:
|
| US (1991): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilK39iSOVVU&t=67s
|
| USSR (1985):
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVyG0-x_9wI&t=2424s (scroll
| back to 38:45 for the two-schoolgirls-in-a-trenchcoat whose
| getaway he's covering)
|
| good that kids in both countries had the habit of not giving
| valid information to people who have no business getting it!
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| As long as Supremacist elements among the Griffons aren't
| planning an invasion of Equus, all is well, and maybe Harmonism
| as a political system may prevail:
| https://equestriaatwar.wiki.gg/wiki/World_Map_and_Geography
|
| (sure, the lore is darker than MLP, but at least it isn't W40K
| dark)
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(page generated 2024-05-05 23:01 UTC)