History Summarized: Ancient China

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And check out our website at www.OverlySarcasticProductions.com
And after that we'll defeat the Huns! Join Blue on a trek through the early centuries of Chinese History, from legendary foundations to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, past the Warring States Period, and into the Han dynasty - if you get to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, you've gone too far.
Further reading: China: A History by John Keay
Kings and Generals' fantastic videos on this subject:
Bactrians: • Ancient Greek State in...
War of the Heavenly Horses: • The Greco-Chinese War ...
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[@KingsandGenerals]

Hey Blue, thanks for the shout-out! :-)

[@XCal]

Chinese: We love those horses, we will pay you an exorbitant amount for those horses Greeks: Molon Labe Chinese: So you're saying they're for free? Greeks: Well the phrase means- Chinese: Thanks.

[@monkofdarktimes]

Mr Devin?

[@lingliu5221]

what's your favorite period?

[@Chris_MarMar]

@@lingliu5221 The Chu-Han contention.

[@Dragons_Armory]

@@Chris_MarMar kzbin.info/www/bejne/naDTe2CNpMuaeaM

[@commandervex1626]

China: Forms a Dynasty Peasants: "HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON OLD MAN!"

[@Xind0898]

@Hoàng Nguyên you do realise Vietnam and China has a good relationship for the most part of the grand history right? PS: Northern Vietnam is part of China called 'Jiaozhi' during the Han dynasty

[@chaulennam]

@@Xind0898 according to our history, we hated them lol

[@Rick-it3tz]

@Hoàng Nguyên Teach the Chinese a lesson by copying their culture and becoming a vassal state of China for thousand years? Yeah, the Chinese have indeed taken a lesson. After all, Viet Nam numbah wan

[@Rick-it3tz]

@Hoàng Nguyên LoL...typical vietnamese wet dream. So plz tell me, how could your almighty country still huddle in a corner of the Indo-China Peninsula after winning countless wars against the Chinese? How could your culture become a knockoff of Chinese one after the Chinese continually get beaten by you almighty vetnemese? I thought you would bring up some astonishing historic facts showing how glorious vetnam used to be, yet you you are only depicting a picture showing your pathetic country got slapped on the face by the Chinese over and over again. All that you could ever do is defending yourself, crying and shouting, and warding off blows. When you finally struggle to push the big guy away, he would come back very soon and slap you again. And yeah, this is your so called 'glorious Vet Nam history'. In comparison, China was aggressed by Mongols , at least we stroke back and destroy their dens in their own homeland for many times. However, we never say they were 'losers' as we know exactly who had the iniative of wars. Now, take a mirror before being a funny bragger, how many times did you fight back? How many times you bent your knees to the Chinese after your villages razed and citizens massacred? By the way, I would remind you that your pathetic soldier escaped in Hải chiến Hoàng Sa 1974 like scared rats, here is the citation from your own language, learn how pathetic you people werer ttps://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%E1%BA%A3i_chi%E1%BA%BFn_Ho%C3%A0ng_Sa_1974 Distoring the past? No, that is what your shamless creatures do.

[@commandervex1626]

@Henry P I make a Meme and this is what the conversation turns to

[@D00000T]

china's history is just "this dynasty sucks, we need to split up" then "being split up sucks we need to form another dynasty"

[@ap6480]

Geopolitically yes

[@arles1124]

That’s an oversimplification, cause there are times they got invaded, like the Mongolians who established the Yuan dynasty… and got overthrown… oh wait

[@辉阿-r7r]

Same goes for the west, remember the great Macedonian and Roman empires. The descendants of Rome forgot its glory, but the Chinese held on to the glory of the Qin and Han empires.

[@rahadityap2375]

And somehow each of this dynasty became extremely advanced,wealth,prosperous until another rebellion killed 20 milion occurred result full downfall catasthropic and another dynasty set up again and rebuild into same prosperous and advanced again, This cycle continue until pretty much some British group desperate for being rich from proviting literal drug and launch war against the dynasty for prohibiting Drugs,

[@knpark2025]

And no matter if it was divided or united, it would spread chaos (and civilization) to everywhere around them. When it starts infighting, the whole continent is dragged into chaos that is a total war which will easily go on for decades. When it is united, the whole continent still goes to chaos regardless because now the unified empire wants to expand and assimilate everyone in their grabbing distance. What's different in East Asia compared to what happened with the Romans or the Caliphate is that you have to add one or two more zeroes on all numbers from similar counterparts from other regions because we Asians can spontaneously emerge from fields of mud like the Uruk-Hai. (It just means rice can support insane population growth and rice grows out of wet and muddy rice paddies, but who would be so focused about those miscellaneous details, am I right?)

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

It seems that there are still many gaps in our understanding of ancient Chinese history. Perhaps the archives are incomplete?

[@OverlySarcasticProductions]

Master Kenobi, if an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist! -B

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

Lost a civilization Master Obi-Wan has. How embarrassing, how embarrassing!

[@serubyne57]

Is it possible to learn the missing parts of ancient Chinese history?

[@firemetal9655]

@@serubyne57 Not from a youtube video.

[@mav8535]

@@OverlySarcasticProductions next Video is on the History of Coruscant. May the force be with you.

[@MrMikado282]

"Machiavelli would be very proud." Damn it Blue you have to bring Italy into everything don't you.

[@Dragons_Armory]

Well, Machiavelli did wrote the originally titled, "Art of War" ~Dell'arte della guerra

[@Zivudemo]

Sun Tzu would be very proud

[@XCal]

It's Sun Tzu who gets to decide whether to be proud of Machiavelli, if anything.

[@archenema6792]

Comparing Sun Tzu to Machiavelli is like comparing a two page outline to a doctoral thesis

[@leonardofranzinribeiro4220]

[insert picture of Mussolini invading China here]

[@izzy1221]

Chinese person here. *YES.* THE VALIDATION IS REAL. I LIVE IN BLUE’S PLANE OF EXISTENCE.

[@samtemdo8]

Get hyped for Three Kingdoms: Total War next year!

[@beckyanderson988]

@Canned Bread me to

[@twoscarabsintheswarm9055]

I'm glad he recently did English stuff. Very sad I didn't Truely exist until then

[@kabudacat1]

真的是国人？我不信

[@wukongamatics2748]

So, China went from city states, to empire, to bigger, smaller states, to bigger empires, to states, to empire, to different empire, to other empire. Are we sure this isn’t just Greece?

[@victariongreyjoy7261]

Greece 2.0

[@MichaelBerthelsen]

Grease with Asians...?😅(Yes, the musical reference is intentional)

[@daevious_]

Bill Wurtz summarised it best: "C H I N A I S W H O L E A G A I N ... … T H E N I T B R O K E A G A I N" Edit: so naturally Blue references this in the first 30 seconds. Whoops.

[@GaysianAmerican]

Yeah but they invented their own writing

[@serubyne57]

Greece, but for some reason it keeps on uniting and breaking apart -it's probably aliens-

[@Nurat170]

I like how the history of China follows closely with Taoism, with cycles of order and chaos. Yin and yang.

[@stangao9097]

frequently separating and integrating in turn after long intervals

[@debodatta7398]

literally any Empires history follows order and chaos, the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, the Indians, the Arabs, the Germans...

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

@Pure Mrax None of the Empires he mentioned really. Except the Greeks who united maybe twice. The Persians are their own thing since they never broke, but were simply conquered by someone else.

[@solobrooklyn7911]

I like it too！

[@mintbrownieangelfish-6114]

I'll have to check them out

[@Suibhne]

You pulled a Suibhne and are making us wait for part 2

[@monkofdarktimes]

Halos

[@ryanhansen2477]

But will it be a few years before it comes out though

[@bowmanc.7439]

There is going to be at least 3 parts considering it’s only 1st century AD, there is still 1800 years of weird and messy stuff to cover assuming he is planning on ending with the founding of Republic of China (that is more commonly categorised as modern history)

[@Jimholy]

Except way better pronunciation XD

[@nobblkpraetorian5623]

I think the three kingdoms period itself deserves a video. There's so much to talk about it.

[@buddyimboden8444]

Still think it's pretty cool how China's writing system became so uniform under Shi Huangdi. There were tons of different dialects of spoken Chinese but no matter where you went, the writing style was always the exact same so even if two people couldn't understand what the other one was saying, they'd be able to understand each other perfectly in writing.

[@John_Weiss]

That's because Shi Huangdi burned the books in the other writing-styles _and burned the people_ who wrote in that style. It wasn't so much "standardization" as a civilization lobotomizing itself to satisfy the ego of one man.

[@terrainrecords6038]

@@John_Weiss No it wasn't. He killed scholars and burnt books true but mainly scammers and the ones opposing innovation and standardization. Normal people and scholars had their lives improved being able to use the same writing, same roads and same currencies.

[@John_Weiss]

@@bobhill9845 And your comment tells me that you want to kill "f@gg0ts" like me. You see, I've been out for 30 years, and the sh1t you're squirting at trans people _is the same thing you were spraying_ at me and other gay men back in the 1990s, just with some of the words changed. You think we Gen-X gays haven't noticed? Think. Again. _We know what you're doing._ We know that when you get done pounding the trans people into the ground, _we homos are your next target._ _That_ is why I put pronouns in my name: to trigger Arschgeigen like you, to let the trans people your attacking know that their Internet Uncle-Gay has their back. And I. Will. Not. Be. Your. Prey.

[@John_Weiss]

@@terrainrecords6038 Well, that's not what I had heard/learned, so I can't comment on what I don't know. 😉 Tell me, do you have any good books about that era of Chinese history that talk about this?

[@plantyplant]

@@John_Weiss the wikipedia page is enough. medicine, farming, etc, books like that didn't get burnt. he burnt history books of other states, poetry books that praised other states, and killed people that basically scammed him. they offered him immortality, failed, stole money, ran, and started tarnishing his reputation. recorded in the shiji itself.

[@hampsterdanny]

Fun fact about Sima Quan (don't know what you're calling him Blue, or why?) he had the choice about to get executed or castrated. He chose castration so that he could finish his Shiji (Also known as Records of a Grand Historian) which were originally written by his father, Sima Tan, who died before finishing. Sima Quans choice was an incredible dishonor, automatically making him a second class citizen, but the Shiji was so formative that it basically defines Chinese Historiography. I guess you could call him the Chinese Jesus. He sacrificed his dick, so that we could get great courtly intrigue stories 2000 years later (seriously read the Shiji, it's basically just game of thrones in China)

[@artofthepossible7329]

Isn't that basically any story set in China?

[@whoknows7968]

@@artofthepossible7329 Yes but this one is real

[@artofthepossible7329]

@@whoknows7968 I mean the Game of Thrones China edition, pretty much any story involving the Chinese courts is GOT in real life.

[@NoverMaC]

Sima *Qian*

[@condorX2]

Now all they need is to do is make a TV series about it with westerner actors with Asian gene.

[@EmperorTigerstar]

Great video! It should also be noted that the Xiongnu/Hun link is a bit debated. But so is just about everything in ancient history.

[@Janlingchen]

At least he is not claiming they were turks. God the turk claim is getting ludiclous on the internet.

[@edenli6421]

Wow! You really encourage others to be great like you!

[@iuriepripa3171]

@Maverick well, actually, it is believed that their language is not Mongolic, but rather, Yeniseian, so, no, even though they are from the same area, they are not really the same

[@OljeiKhan]

@@Janlingchen well i am a Turk and the Huns ARE a precursor to Mongols and Turks. The mongols being the ones who stay in the "homelands" and the turks who go west. The "Xiongnu" or the Huns had a 2 part governance system like the East and West Roman Empires. The western part was ruled by a Yabgu , who had rank above all khans. Only subordinate to the Khagan in the East. The first "Oghuz" state in history is called "Oghuz Yabgu" for a reason. Some parts of the Hunnic history is of course covered in legend but so is all of ancient history. Yet i must say that these ancient ancestors were extremely different from the anatolian turks of today. As an anatolian turk , i believe that huns in the age of backwards pagan nomadism had a better ethics in their society. I envy them. Anyways peace out.

[@麤鬻彠爨軉灪]

Olcay Alp Bayram U r actually humble enough to admit Xiongnu weren't a homogeneous group a give u respect. I've seen worse, i seen turk nationalist claim Zhou dynasty was ruled by Turkic because Zhou were semi nomadic. LOL

[@somno6878]

The Mesopotamian and Ancient Egypt had their records and scripts massively on clay and stone, while ancient China used mostly bamboo slips which could easily rot away before paper-making was improved, PLUS mid-Shang dynasty had a prosperous divination culture. This was probably one of the reasons that the oracle bone script and bronze inscription turned out to be the earliest record in Chinese history that was discovered. Those bone scripts were so sophisticated that one cannot stop believing that there had already been a long time of Chinese writing before 1600 BC.

[@papercat2599]

Yeah I mean it’s much easier to write on bamboo than stone

[@nobodytagota9813]

bamboo,ratten away? Hmn , is it that easy?

[@w8ingsim43]

@@nobodytagota9813 definitely easier than stone and rocks.

[@quanyuan6760]

Nobody Tagota When there is war, it burns, and when it's stored in to underground facilities for example a giant tomb, it gets humid, wet, soaked in water.

[@guacre2675]

Perhaps a few hundred years beyond 1600 BC if we're being generous, but it's extremely improbable that it's anything further considering the absurd odds that NOBODY would have left anything on a more solid material. On the other hand, it's entirely possible Egyptian writing is actually a bit older than it seems already considering how developed it was when it become common. Older pottery even shows art resembling very simple writing.

[@JayPao]

Alright, Blue didn't really cover much of early China, especially the first three legendary dynasties, so I'll give it a go. The name of the first real "emperor," or rather local king has been lost to time, but in China it's almost universally accepted that such a man did exist, and that it was roughly around this time that numerous advances in agriculture such as irrigation techniques as well as herbal medicine. His successor was a man referred to as Yao, and what's unique about the first two successions was that the kingdom was basically handed off to whoever impressed the previous guy rather than the normal dynastic succession in which the ruler's descendants inherit the throne that developed shortly after the Xia dynasty. It was around the time of Yao that a man emerged named Shun. Long story short, his stepmother and stepbrother were really abusive, tried to kill him by burning him and tossing him down a well, but Shun, being the nice and benevolent person he was, forgave his relatives who tried to kill him, and this event was later recorded in a text known as the The Twenty-four Paragons of Filial Piety. Yao was really impressed by this, and as a result handed the throne over to Shun. All was well for a few years until the Yellow River began flooding, causing massive amounts of death and destruction, hence why the river is known as "China's Sorrow." Shun appointed a guy named Gun, who was the Prince on Chong and a distant relative of Yao, the previous emperor, to resolve this issue. Gun attempted to use a series of dikes and dams to control the river, which failed. Shun was furious and had him banished, and in his place appointed Gun's son, Yu, to control the flooding. Yu decided to focus on drainage and created a series of irrigation canals as well as dredging the accumulated silt in the Yellow River, in particular an area near Mount Longmen which had a narrow channel that blocked water from flowing into the ocean. After around thirteen years Yu managed to resolve the flooding issue and Shun was so impressed that he decided to hand the throne over to him, thus beginning the semi-legendary Xia dyanasty.

[@AllenGrimm1145]

Man, that Yu, what a son of a Gun.

[@johnt3820]

thank you for the explanations...

[@Lukeslife0]

God damn how long did it take to wright that

[@Telopead]

Can confirm, this story came right out of Shi ji.

[@bruhxyz]

So Shun was so nice and benevolent that he forgave his stepfamily for trying to kill him but he couldnt forgive Gun?

[@carolynthomas3938]

Honestly, you pronouncing it as ‘Shang’ instead of ‘Shaeng’ is better than 90% of people in America. You did good

[@AXAXAXAYt]

Is he from America?

[@nyasputin]

@jac8093 Yes, however I think he is half Greek

[@AXAXAXAYt]

@@nyasputin ye I thought it was something like that, in one of their vids a comment says: a Greek with a Turkish roommate"? Or smth like that.

[@JustinY.]

Everything went well until the Mongols attacked

[@OnyxOlympian]

Ok

[@doommoon2564]

How are you here already

[@pook2781]

Jesus few seconds in we get Justin Y

[@Joe-hv9rp]

Mongol time

[@puzzlingllama2808]

All hail the Holy Justin Y

[@niku..]

Sinology student here: 天 tian1, although it literally translates to "sky" or "heaven", has little to do with what we in the west think about heaven. It's more like "the universe" or probably "the largest something", "the extreme". The Chinese character 天 shows a human 人 ren2 who reaches for the highest that there is: the heaven. Please don't confuse tian with God or heaven in our western tradition.

[@bethannierose1885]

Niku in Japanese ( Japanese kanji and Chinese characters are the same) 天 means “heaven” as well with the western meaning “all that is above” so you can find that character in words from the weather all the way to gods

[@hwasiaqhan8923]

天 is another name of 上帝 the supreme emperor, the highest Chinese god.

[@brucechow1588]

Yeah u r right

[@keepitprivate3856]

heaven in chinese have nth to do with god.....at least until the concept was developed it just simply, as other civilizations, the worship of nature.... the sky, the river and so on....... coz confucianism dont believe in god

[@YayaFeiLong]

Eh, it still sort of fits. "Heaven" is a rather broad term with multiple definitions, and what you described happens to be one of them

[@cloverpod]

My History Class composed of: (in no particular order) Overly Sarcastic Productions Kings and Generals Extra Credits Shadiversity

[@Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

Yo but what about Crash Course History?!!

[@cloverpod]

Oh yah nearly forgot.. thanks man already finished it wahaha...

[@albertzhang4371]

Ya missed Bill Wurtz

[@thehopeofeden597]

bill wurtz

[@gargoyles9999]

Awsamazing Eden mapajahit?

[@josephmchugh4040]

"Yeah, my empire broke." "Have you tried turning off and on again?"

[@pRahvi0]

You need to install an update to Emperor.exe. But if you're unlucky, the update is only partially working and you soon need another one to fix it. Also, be warned that the installation may take a while, after which the empire has to be restarted. Unsaved records and a bunch of lives may be lost.

[@ziconghuang7139]

Ha, that's a good one

[@Bloodlyshiva]

This gets kinda messy given there are many games with Emperor and using that filename.

[@moosen1207]

You need to reboot but the spaghetti code means important data will be still lost like LIVES of HUNDERED OF THOUSANDS and farmland since your firewall broke have a nice day

[@nukclear2741]

IT'S A FREAKING EMPIRE IT DOESN'T HAVE AN ON OFF SWITCH. Points if you get the reference.

[@Silverhawk100]

Well, that was about 1/3 of a semester I took on Chinese History condensed into 13 minutes. Yeah, about that Chin's habit of book burning: They decided that philosophy was dead and they would create a historical library to house one copy of all 100 philosophies of the Zhou (pronounced Joe) dynasty and burned all other copies. That library later burned down... as large centralized libraries sometimes do. Fortunately, the most popular ones, the Tao De Ching, Confucious, and Sun Tzu all survived because some copies were hidden instead of burned.

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

And that kids is why it is better to have a back up book somewhere.

[@ruedelta]

@@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870 Yo I heard backups were a good idea so I went ahead and made paper. Can someone get printing? That'll make this a thousand times easier.

[@-haclong2366]

Something that would later repeat during the Chinese Communist ☭ Party's cultural revolution. 😢

[@spookyshadowhawk6776]

@@-haclong2366 After studying the known History of the World for decades, I realized this: Humanity is like a broken mirror of a thousand fragments, sooner or later, they all reflect the same thing.

[@Just_A_Dude]

@@spookyshadowhawk6776 Indeed. Chinese dynasties, Rome, England, America... you get big, you get prosperous, then shit falls apart.

[@sars910]

So when are we going to get the next exciting chapter of *Tripataka Gets Kidnapped Again Due To The Incompetence Of Piggy* ?

[@epicmarschmallow5049]

Next year

[@edenli6421]

Who’s tripataka?

[@ragnarlothbrok9756]

firefrostcat62 in their another vid about sun wukong

[@twistedtachyon5877]

@@epicmarschmallow5049 woah! Bold prediction, sir/madam/high-fructose confectionery product. My money's on three years.

[@wongijen9167]

@@edenli6421 唐僧，if you can read Chinese and have read 西游记

[@RyelynCaster]

You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this

[@wunderlichcatt4420]

🦀 *WAN2T ME? LO7OK, I MASTB**ATE NAK6ED,снеск7 снann9el* 🦒

[@TTTTTTTTT853]

@@wunderlichcatt4420 nobody cares

[@asalways1504]

When the Mongols attack, 🎵 *LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS, TO DEFEAT THE HUNS!* 🎵

[@PHSDM104]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@imlonelypleasehelp5443]

As Always no Huns are not mongols

[@19erik74]

Song from Milan.

[@peiranzhang4283]

@@sicongli6594 Yeah, but Xongnu are Huns They are not mongols

[@biliminsrlar5752]

Huns are first Turks...And also they united both Turks and Mongols!But then they bored and broke like CHINA!And Turks make great empires again,again and again but then bored and went to Anatolia and then Mongols take al stuff of China instead of Turks... AND THEN KILLED HALF OF WORLD!

[@Foxfisher159]

Glad you made this. Ancient China is one of my favorite subjects and it's always great to learn more about my heritage.

[@cebenify]

The Han also had invented paper from the mulberry tree. Thank you Cai Lun.

[@Undomaranel]

Ancient Chinese history with Blue? Zhu Li, clear my schedule!!!

[@PHSDM104]

And do the thing.

[@user-tv4rq9qh9y]

Zhu Li? assistant?

[@potatonoodlebear8035]

崩星咆哮炮 hhhhh

[@somno6878]

The year 2019 will be year 4717 according to Chinese traditional calendar...

[@东皇太一-k7y]

@CrazySoon9413 chinese calander is agriculture calander or emperor calander or sunner lunet combined calander.....not luner calander this name was a translationmistake

[@nobodytagota9813]

@@东皇太一-k7y hmm，okey?

[@aladdin4715]

@@nobodytagota9813 okay

[@Volvith]

History: "Hey, so, how many China's are there?" Asia: "Yes."

[@joshualaw2670]

its not fun anymore when you are actually Chinese and have to memorize every single emperor, commander, official, governor and every policy and law that went wrong and the relationships and betrayals among the government for school

[@unknownalt5845]

Well think positively, at least you have a history to learn :) Better something than nothing

[@Xind0898]

@Hoàng Nguyên grab a better history book

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

You have it easy. Here in Europe we have to memorize every single thing of the history of everyone. Sometimes even more than the people whose history we are studying.

[@minordu935]

The First Primaris Cato Sicarius you will know what is hard history class if its like 5000 years shit.

[@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870]

@@minordu935 We study all the way from 10000 BC to 2019. More than 12000 years of history and people doing stuff we then have to study.

[@alexmorrison3442]

"I could go on for another thirty minutes about Confucianism amd Taoism" Pls do

[@TheMrPits]

Great resource, would have helped with my Far East History class. It's always much more impactful to know the history of a place when you visit it. In 2002 I paid $5 and got the entire Forbidden city almost to myself for a walk through. To think it used to take a siege or... having things cut off... walking through that gate on a fiver, was a pretty unique moment. Keep them coming!

[@MichaelBerthelsen]

Your pronounciations aren't bad at all, and no one expects you to get tones perfectly right without actually learning Chinese first, so good job, Blue!😁👍

[@mjr_schneider]

8:10 Poor Qin had to learn not to drink Bone-Hurting Juice the hard way.

[@mindhistorychannel]

I’m impressed by how this ancient history documentary covers so much information so clearly.

[@glowstickofdestiny1290]

"Are you sure you want to settle on the yellow river?" "Well it's the best water source around, so why not?" "You REALLY want to drink every day from the _yellow river?_ And bathe in water from the _YELLOW RIVER?!"_ "Why are you being so weird about this? It's just a river." "I give up..."

[@thaipankatima2234]

Aww come on. We were just getting to the good part. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Sure it's pretty much just a remake of the other dynasties of China, but still it was "Probably" the most interesting. With characters like Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Dong Zhuo, Liu Bei, and the Wei-Wu-Shu 3-way war, it was practically the setting for a grand epic.

[@houchenll3097]

not Lu Bu, his name is Lv Bu

[@thaipankatima2234]

@@houchenll3097 Well considering that all my knowledge and pronunciation of these characters come from games, i think a lot of folks here will continue to call him Lu Bu. He's pretty much the demon warrior of the Three Kingdoms era. A badass killer with a sweet backstory.

[@houchenll3097]

@@thaipankatima2234 yes, in Chinese there is a saying "人中吕布，马中赤兔", means in human Lv Bu is the best, in horse Red Rabbit is the best.

[@thaipankatima2234]

@@houchenll3097 Aye! The rider of the Red Hair! The demon riding on demon! I only wish DW 9 didn't flop so hard otherwise i'd be playing him all the time.

[@tevildo7718]

Ahh I remember playing DW as a kid and reaching the mission where Lu Bu first shows up and promptly spending the rest of the mission running for my life whilst trying to lure Lu Bu into groups of friendly officers, watching him slaughter them all and continuing to copy and paste this tactic until the man was finally weak enough to DIE. *Edit* and nearly kill both me and my dad in the attempt.

[@ho-hyongyoo3251]

Ahh. China. We Koreans have love-hate relationship with them. Our history is intertwined with them. Our ancestors had more autonomy when China was in chaos but when China was united, we had to lower our head. However, most knowledge and culture is heavily influenced by them and we looked up to them for generations. Now, Modern Communist China is an other business altogether.

[@Zivudemo]

It's nice to see someone acknowledge that without nationalist pride. I'd want a video about the Korea too. Very interesting how it came to be with that giant blob to the west. I mean, not very many managed to ascertain their identity with China around. Remember that Southern China was basically a part of ancient Vietnam and all other cultures that have been sinicized throughout millenia.

[@archenema6792]

@@Zivudemo Yeah I'm Scots-Irish, and I feel the same way about the English; they gave us a great language, hands down world's best, and representative democracy, but they're still a bunch of arrogant pompous asses.

[@Striker775]

How do you feel about the last few years of Korean media claiming a number of "Chinese" historical figures and cultural heritage as Korean figures or Korean products? I have no doubt that people can find acupuncture, rice dumplings and herbal medicine in Korea, but to say that they originated in Korea instead of China sounds like a bit unlikely to me.

[@ho-hyongyoo3251]

@@Zivudemo Koreans nothing without being stubborn. We fought, we traded, we even went under their protection and system. However we never stopped doing our own thing. The secret is keeping our head down when we need to.

[@ho-hyongyoo3251]

@@Striker775 Well.. Some of them are just high on nationalism. You know how the internet breeds that kind of people right? For the latter, We have our own version of Acupuncture, rice dumpling, herbal medicine. Original Korean stuff. However it is originated from China but we made our own version. Updated and fit for our people.

[@drowndrawn8836]

"There's no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare" Sun Tzu really haven't lived enough to see the US.

[@BJGvideos]

We don't exactly benefit from it though. We've got politicians who *think* we do, but we really don't

[@theunreadyone]

Sun tzu would be laughing so hard if he saw the us today

[@amateurishanimation]

Hello, I’m from Hong Kong and my Chinese history exam is coming up, you have NO idea how thankful I am for this video.

[@quackers7777]

Hello, I'm Filipino-Chinese and I go to a Filipino- Chinese school and I wanted to say...THANK YOU SO FRICKING MUCH. I'M HAVING A DIFFICULT TIME TO UNDERSTAND THE LESSON DUE TO THE FACT MY TEACHER JUST SUCK. INSTEAD OF RELYING ON HER TEACHINGS, I BECAME THE TEACHER MYSELF. OH MY GOD THANK YOU

[@magmat0585]

From what I've heard, much of the reason we have so many gaps in ancient Chinese history is due to the book burning spree that the Chin went on (Blue mentions it around 8:40). It's also supposedly why Confuscious became such a big deal, as while he didn't do much during his life, his writings were some of the only texts that survived (the Chin targeted everything except books dealing with specific necessities like farming and medicine).

[@raezad]

8:00 "in the 70's when they found the terracota army everyone stopped laughting real fast" global powers shat their pants when they realized china had an ARMY OF ANCIENT GOLEMS

[@joserenatomigliorini4627]

I am a big fanga of the "kingdom" manga so as soon as i saw "China" i was happy

[@kknives36]

“I can easily go on about Confucianism and Taoism for another 30 minutes” please do. I love those subjects.

[@MemoryPallace]

Ecclesiastes 1:15 What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted. History's like looking through a keyhole and seeing 1/3 of the room.

[@empressofshurima]

Nothing simplifies this video better than 0:16 LMAO China is whole againnnn~ Then it broke againnnn~

[@galfinsp7216]

Rinse and repeat a dozen times, and you’ve got one Communist China.

[@voivodadracula1936]

China's history is like my hope in humanity

[@diegoantoniorosariopalomin4977]

Get More doggos

[@voivodadracula1936]

Baskerville is the only doggo i need

[@nedisahonkey]

Starts off hopeful but inevitably ends in stagnation and destruction?

[@papercat2599]

Ned Mononymous dude most countries got destroyed and never come back in history

[@jessicaplaceres8099]

Broken

[@siemprefijre9870]

It protec, It attac, But most importantly, The Mongols ain't comin bac. 😒🏹 😡⚔️😠

[@thimo3334]

Another thing the turtle shell thing teaches us, ancient China had a ton of expendable turtles.

[@BVBYBLVNDVR]

Overthrowing dynasty -30 social credits

[@karistral.firdaus5770]

ancient china is definitely me when i think i have succeeded in forming a good habit

[@Shortchild]

My teacher turned this off when it said “screw it” The kids where making memes lol great video

[@AtticusAmericanus]

"Evidence of overlap between Shang and Zhou." Considering that Wen of Zhou was Count of that aforementioned title and served under the Kings of Shang...this is not surprising.

[@bamboo7099]

Love china from india 🇮🇳 ❤

[@Felishamois]

Internet History Curriculum, to mark this historic posting Overly Sarcastic Productions Extra History (campfire history, great people history) Crash Course History (as title indicates) 10 Minute History (whole series on British history and a few summaries) Jabzy (short summaries, extremely diverse and a bit eurocentric) Historia Civilis (mostly romans, battles, politics by year) Bonus mentions : PBS Eons (before humans history), ERB (Epic Rap Battles of History), Sam O'Nella Academy (Sam O'Nella Academy), Shiadiversity (medieval), Linfamy (Japanese), Cogito (Byzantine), Early Music Sources (renaissance music and shit), Epimetheus (summaries by country), Suibhne (summaries by country), Name Explain (name explain), The Great War (the Great War), It's History (summaries), History Uncovered (great men), Knowing Better (shoehorns history in many topics, mostly U.S), Soliloquy (a good CGP-Grey wannabe), History with Hilbert (lectures), BazBattles (battles), Kings and Generals (summaries, wars, stories) Maps : Ollie Bye, Emperor Tigerstar Now go, my children, and also suggest other channels below

[@JuiceStainded]

I very highly recommend History Time. Covers stuff from all over, but there's also a lot on Anglo Saxon and Viking Age England.

[@themachine430]

I recommend Shadiversity, Metatron, Skalligram, Lindybeige, and Potential History

[@edenli6421]

Finally a KZbinr that actually tries with the pronunciation.

[@samminden1058]

Amazing work as always, Blue! Also, another philosopher who Machiavelli would get along with from this time would be Han Fei Zi, the leading philosopher of the Legalist school. Especially since Han Fei Zi was known for being skeptical of idealism and had a tendency to use a lot of parables and humour (partially inspired by the Daoist Zhuangzi) to make his point. Another interesting thing about Mencius is that while he did do a lot to cement Confucianism, he also was something of a radical due to his belief that the Mandate of Heaven was given to the ruler by the will of the people and as such the people had the right to rise up if the ruler was bad. As for Wang Mang and his obsession with titles, that seems to be an overly literal interpretation of the Confucian principle of the rectification of names: the idea that if you are in a certain position (ruler, teacher, parent, etc) you need to act in accordance with the proper values of that position so that you live up to that ideal. For Mencius, for example, that meant being a ruler meant being a benevolent and attentive monarch who looked after the well being of the people and any monarch who acted tyrannically was betraying those principles and thus not a true monarch (and therefore free game for assassination and usurpation). Finally, one of the most hilarious things regarding the First Emperor's tomb is that sources such as Sima Qian's Shiji described there being literal rivers of mercury flowing through the tomb, and such claims were dismissed as just exaggerations...until they measured the mercury levels around the tomb and found they went completely off the charts. Qin Shi Huang REALLY loved his mercury.

[@Intranetusa]

Great video. However, the Han Dynasty didn't fight the Huns. They fought the Xiongnu Confederation. The Huns might be "some" of the distant descendants of the Northern Xiongnu who migrated west towards Western Eurasia, but the evidence is not firm for the link. The Huns are definitely not the Xiongnu as the Huns didn't even exist until centuries after the Han-Xiongnu war and after the Xiongnu migrated west to intermingle with other Central Asian people...so at best, the Huns "may" be the distant descendants of the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu themselves were a very diverse confederation of different people, and their descendants were also a variety of diverse people.

[@JustinLee620]

XiongNu actually speaks like Hun-nu in the age of Han dynasty. It's spelling is very close and we have some small evidence of their trip to the west.

[@JustinLee620]

There is also evidence by Chinese. They said North XiongNu went to the west and south XiongNu became Han Chinese after several generations of marriage.

[@Intranetusa]

​@@JustinLee620 We don't actually know exactly what languages the Xiongnu or the Huns spoke, and researchers believe both groups spoke multiple different languages - including possibilities such as Yeniseian, Turkic, Proto-Mongolic, Indo-Iranian-European, etc. Furthermore, the Huns aren't one group of people. There were the black Huns, blue Huns, red Huns, and White Huns - all of whom where called Huns but could've been similar or very different groups of nomadic people.

[@Intranetusa]

@@JustinLee620 The Northern Xiongnu who migrated west certainly could have intermarried and mixed with other nomadic tribes (there were many nomadic tribes in Central Asia, Middle East, and Eastern Europe) and become other groups. It's possible that the Xiongnu were one of many different ancestors of the Huns...but there were at least 4 different groups of Huns - Black, Blue, Red, and White so we really don't know for sure whose ancestor they were. They could've been one of the ancestors of the Huns who invaded Europe (known as the Black Huns), or they could've been the ancestors of the other Red, White, and Blue Huns who were in Central & South Asia and Central to East Asia respectively.

[@ruthchai9890]

As a Chinese person, your pronunciation is actually pretty decent!! Good job blue!!

[@ichibi3989]

Damn the pronunciation of shihuangdi at 7:32 is basically native level!

[@zhubajie6940]

The Zhou 周 is more like Joe, not Zou 邹 a small vassal in Shandong. Overall though pretty well summarised. Just finished a tour of several Shang, Zhou, Han, Tang and Song sites in Henan province. Highly recommend it. City walls that are 3000 years old make the Great Wall look pretty young. The Oracle bone script is pretty interesting too.

[@therealdeal566]

The Zhou 周 is more like Joe, not Zou 邹 My Chinese friends get really miffed by people saying to pronounce Zhou like "joe" because there is no western equivalent to the "zh" sound in Mandarin Chinese and at least zou is a little more like how some other dialects pronounce zhou. "Zh" in Mandarin is more like zzi like in Italian but muffled. That's because the "z" sound in Mandarin is not z but more like that "tsi" sound you get in the Italian -zzi like Riazzi. "J" sounds exist in Mandarin and are spelled with a "j" like the word jiu for 9. That almost sounds like "joe" but with a specific tone that doesn't exist in other languages.

[@danielburke5398]

@@therealdeal566 yeah that's not true at all. Is your friend from southern China/Taiwan? Because it's really more of a regional thing with Southerners frequently pronouncing Zhou (Joh) like Zou (Dzou), Shang (shahng) like Sang (sahng), shi (Sher) like si (Suh? Not sure how to phonetically write that si sound), and chi (cher) like ci (tzuh), as well as entirely dispensing with the erhua endings on words. Hearing him pronounce Zhou like that, my first thought was that he probably checked pronunciations with a Southerner. Which would also make sense since the majority of people who emigrated out of China were from the South (mostly Guangdong and Fujian). Anyway, all of this can get super confusing since Mandarin already has such a limited number of sounds it can make.

[@therealdeal566]

@@danielburke5398 There's no zh sound in southern dialects at all so no. My friend's from Henan. Zhou from a southern dialect like Taiwan would just drop the h and sound no different from zou. Northern dialects still don't pronounce Zhou like Joe or Joh because the j sound is present in northern dialects like jiu the example I provided. Again there is no western equivalent to the zh or any consonant h sounds. Pronouncing it properly is probably among the most difficult aspects of learning Chinese. Even southern Chinese people have problems with it like you mentioned.

[@th3omachos]

1:49 I need this Owl Wine Vessel and i need it *now*

[@dominykasmecanec2351]

Hey Blue, have you ever considered making a video about Polish - Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was a truly unique country with a special government form however there seems to be only a few videos about PLC and they are mainly about it's partitions. Love your work and hope you continue making such awesome videos

[@hiruruidas6807]

If ancient history documentaries were this fun in school, I’d be a professor by now!

[@rami_ungar_writer]

I remember learning this stuff in an East Asian history course during my last year of college. Our teacher was an international student from China whose first lesson was, "Yeah, if you thought China was always this big and unified, sorry that's not true. Also, the Xia Dynasty wasn't a thing. That's kind of a dreams-shattered moment for a lot of people growing up in China." I miss that class sometimes, though I didn't like the GTA giving us extra homework. Also, could you guys do a video on the different Chinese philosophies? Those are always so much fun to learn about.

[@elg6197]

They already did some videos on Chinese philosophers, although I wish there be more. Here's one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hH7Ol6KHg9NsnrM And here's a song: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jWathqWwab-BZ6c

[@hironagamaki9744]

Year 2022: 7:55 so Blue, you're telling me that the reason why China is called China in English was because of multiple cases of ancient Google translate ?

[@KnightSlasher]

*_We need to build a wall_*

[@magnatorra5325]

your statment in traditional chinese 我們需要建一堵牆 Wǒmen xūyào jiàn yī dǔ qiáng

[@gabriel300010]

Make the mongols pay for it

[@hemidas]

And make Mongols pay for it!

[@balamuralishanmugam5404]

*It's going to be built*

[@fireline4765]

They did, it didn't work!

[@tipoomaster]

4:40 "There is no instance of a country having benefitted from prolonged warfare" Oof, sitting here reading that on the 20th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan

[@danielborden4126]

Blue this was amazing. I do hope you plan to continue with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era. I'll admit that I've been obsessed with the Three Kingdoms since I was a young teen because of Dynasty Warriors. Please do this, it'll make my day and I'm sure so many of us would love you to do so as well.

[@fede98k54]

3:03 Blue: "And this brings us to one central concept in Chinese history, the *Mandate* *of* *Heaven* " Me: "-1 Stability, 20 Legitimacy, Unguarded Nomadic Frontier ," *sweats nervously*

[@ShyyGaladriel]

So China was the result of a line of google translate?

[@marcusalm7350]

Most translated country names are. See: Nippon ----> Japan

[@diegoantoniorosariopalomin4977]

My country too , biru - peru

[@kaanaknc5039]

I think I don't even have to mention Turkey

[@RyelynCaster]

Gradually Watermelon!

[@Skeloperch]

And sometimes everyone decides to say "fuck it" and call Germany by 6 different names. (Niemcy, Allemagne, Deutchsland, Germany, Germania, the Holy Roman Empire, etc).

[@Kiwifruit00]

"if overly sarcastic is sponsored by squarespace, does that mean that they are not sponsored by squarespace since they are overly sarcastic?" i do not know what came inside my mind

[@justaguy8481]

Thanks for putting Bill Wurtz into it! I laughed at that part.

[@rustyshackelford3590]

Anyone else see how much shi Hungdi and emperor palpatine have in common: both had power rule over a large area, both used brutal tactics to maintain control, both outlawed and executed the teachings and anyone who taught a philosophy that was against their practices (shi hungdi killed the confusionists and palpatine with the Jedi), both wasted years trying to obtain immortality, and both their empires collapsed shortly after their deaths.

[@galecarp]

You must study the law system of Qin Empirer more carefully. The system of Qin Empirer is very like a war machine based on a law system.

[@DiehardMechWarrior]

Next video on China's Three Kingdom period, you simply *must* do one of the following: --Mention the Dynasty Warriors franchise --Collaborate with Jim Fucking Sterling Son --Mention that one must never pursue Lu Bu --Use the Dynasty Warriors OST as BGM

[@wiseferret4745]

The "elixir of immortality" was probably gunpowder, not necessarily mercury.

[@DukeofTxtspeak]

So he was eating gunpowder >When you yeet some idiot, and he fucking explodes.

[@p_ma]

Yay! A video on my home country

[@Zivudemo]

Which one?

[@ryanhansen2477]

You do not have KZbin in China though

[@LunarRaevyn]

Ryan Hansen who said they were currently in China? they may have just been born there and left yknow

[@p_ma]

Hinata Hajime thank u but actually my parents fam both came from there

[@LunarRaevyn]

Prissy Ma oh thats cool!! still, glad you were happy about the video, have a good day!!

[@Dragonchick27]

"Despite two Chinese-speaking friends very generously coaching my pronunciation, I am still sure to fail." Sure. 是. Shí. Damnit, Blue xD

[@matthewlong9369]

I appreciate that even in a video about China, you still find something about the Greeks to say

[@yuxinchen7027]

Yea I appreciate the effort of putting this video together, the history and philosophy behind are quite complex, and even as someone interested in Chinese history and traditional literature it took me long time to understand. Few points: a lot of Chinese “philosophy” are different from what we call as philosophy in western world - Chinese ones are often not strictly mathematical arguments. Second by something like Daoism or Confucianism you can either imply the original philosophy or the religions that derived from it later on. Yea there’s definitely much more depth to discover from these topics

[@masont.lockhart6253]

And my social studies class just got done studying China. But I still love the video Blue

[@maddiepaddy2608]

Whatade arr u in? Acient china was in 6 th for me

[@maddiepaddy2608]

I just finished medival africa

[@masont.lockhart6253]

Maddie Patty yea 6th

[@songjunw8981]

If you want a easy chinese history you can remember xia,shang,zhou,spring and autumn Waring states, Qin, Chu and Han, Three kingdoms, Jin and the five barbarians, north and south dynasty, Sui and Tang, Five dynasty and Ten kingdoms, Song and Liao, Mongol yuan dynasty, Ming dynasty ,Qing dynasty and finally republic of China and 🇨🇳today.

[@teal_m_101]

so Sun Tzu invented the art of war, but did you know he also used his fight money to buy two of every animal on Earth, herded them onto a boat, and beat the **** out of every single one of them, and from that day forward if a bunch of different animals are in one place, it's called a zoo.

[@ayami123]

damn the pun is too cheesy it smells

[@teal_m_101]

@@ayami123 Unless it's a farm

[@raxit1337]

Taking me way back ahahah

[@qingnanduan8180]

I don't get it. Isn't that guy called Noah?

[@pr0m3th3us7]

Bill Wurtz reference 20 seconds in? Hell. Yes.

[@andrew6253]

I want to point out that at 4:00 the all red area in the map is actual Eastern Zhou. Zhou is a feudal kingdom that hand out land to its vassals. They kinda get too use to hand out land and let noble rule themselves, leads to the at the beginning of the Spring and Autumn period, the green area is the only area the king directly rules. (1000 ish years later the same thing happened in Japan but called Shogunates ) So in the Spring and Autumn period, there is no hundreds of warring kingdoms, but mostly dukedoms, with exception of Chu Kingdom, since they were not consider Chinese at that point.

[@vasilikikakara3092]

I have been waiting for ages for this video... it was worth it.

[@TrialByDance]

Yes!

[@cozetteweng2706]

Your pronunciation isn’t that bad. Good job!

[@debodatta7398]

Thankfully their is a part 2, can't imagine someone summarizing Ancient China in only about 15 minutes

[@yunli3576]

Chinese Dynasty List：三皇五帝（Three August Ones and Five Emperors）→Xia（夏）→Shang（商）→西周（Western Zhou）→东周/春秋战国（Eastern Zhou/Spring Autumn~Warrior states)→秦( Qin）→西汉（Western Han）→新( Xin）→东汉（Eastern Han）→三国（Three Kingdoms）→西晋（Western Jin）→东晋/十六国（Eastern Jin/16 kingdoms）→南北朝（ the Northern and Southern Dynasties）→隋（Sui）→唐（Tang）→五代十国（Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms）→宋（Song）→元（Mog Yuan）→明（Ming）→清（Qing）→中华民国（Republic of China ）→中华人民共和国（People's Republic of China ）.

[@kevinwu8751]

Many people have doubts about the part of the Huns. Let me add:Part of the Huns was integrated into China, and another part fled to Europe due to failure and established Hungary. This is also the reason why many customs in Hungary are similar to those in China. For a simple example, both China and Hungary have surnames and names. There are also ways to eat.Part of the Huns was integrated into China, and another part fled to Europe due to failure and established Hungary. This is also the reason why many customs in Hungary are similar to those in China. For a simple example, both China and Hungary are surnamed in front! ! And the name is placed behind. There are also ways to eat.

[@nedisahonkey]

This comment is nonsensical. The name of Hungary does allude to the Huns but in actuality they're mostly of Uralic stock.

[@d0gbug]

Nice vid

[@noirtreize2713]

In the alternate universe: 1. Qin Shi Huang obtained the secret of immortality 2. Wage war and conquer the world 3. Keep all the knowledges and technologies to himself and selective few. 4. Upload his mind to super computer (with backup robot body) to double his immortality, I guess? 5. Upgrade that super computer until it was the size of super giant fortress, also become that super giant fortress. 6. Keep his greatest advisors/generals alive for centuries by using cryogenic technology 7. Sending miracle drug to peasants, making them healthy and extending their life span. 8. That drug also possibly contain some weeds components to keep them happy and high 9. Have all peasants wore the same clothes, have the same basic house/stuff so they have almost no concept of greed/jealousy 10. Build a Great Wall in space to keep those illegal space alien from invading Earth 11. Stop some girl from planting a tree 12. ????? 13. World peace, I guess?

[@egonwu7710]

nobody knows what really were left by Qin Shihuang, modern Chinese still puzzled by what he did 2000 years ago

[@mitchellalexander9162]

Errrr...Which A.H. was that? Are you talking about Fate Grand Order's Lostbelt 3 or...

[@rainierjudedandoy5455]

And we still don't have enough quartz

[@nickblackstone5772]

One of the things I love about these videos is the comment sections you learn a lot hearing others perspectives. I'm not to good with words or articulating my viewpoints but I believe things like that can bring us together as people.

[@jamesnieder4566]

the bill wurtz reference! so good

[@Midnight_Brambles]

I came as soon as I heard

[@timothygunawan4194]

all the way from london?

[@Samm815]

Oh my~!

[@audreyrasmussen540]

Angelica?

[@garygartenzwerg9870]

Then clean it up.

[@serubyne57]

I wonder what do you mean by "came"?

[@brucec8495]

Me before the video: YOU THINK YOU CAN SUMMARIZE SUCH A VAST HISTORY IN ONE VIDEO? Me after the video: huh, pretty good

[@jujujihadist1248]

Wonderful video. Could you please make a video about an African empire maybe Mali, Ethiopia or the Ashanti, pretty please.

[@hardlineamerican8495]

There should be a history video on the British Isles between the Fall of Western Rome and the Norman Conquest.

[@trefli_truffles]

I've only just started a university course on east asian history and I'm already feeling really overwhelmed. This video, while probably not usable as an academic source, certainly is helping me spring board into understanding the flow of how the history turned out and a starting point for my studies ^-^