The alarmed Chinese turned their attention to their border defenses and rebuilt the crumbling Long Walls into a 1,550-mile long fortification with hundreds of guard towers.
I think it is very cool how they rebuild the crumbling walls and made them almost 2000 miles long and now the Great Wall is an amazing landmark that is still worshiped to this day.
Yongle tried to erase the memory of his rebellion by purging a large number of Confucian scholars in the capital of Nanjing and moving the government to his home in Dadu, which he renamed Beijing.
Yongle betrayed his family out of anger and greed because he was not given the crown by his father. I think that this is very interesting and that this happened a lot back then due to peoples need for wealth and power.
But the exams were also democratic in a way: even a scholar from a poor family could take the exam if he could educate himself; success on the top exam was a ticket to the highest levels of imperial society.
Even though families were not as fortunate as others everyone was given a fair chance to learn and take these exams and give their families a chance to become more fortunate in society.
China held a monopoly on the creation of silk, which was a closely-held state secret for millennia
I think it is interesting that China was the only country producing silk for a thousand years when it is such a valuable resource explains why China grew in wealth so rapidly.
Muslims, like Christians, Jews, and followers of all other world religions, may share common sacred writings and liturgical traditions, but are also divided by different theological interpretations and religious practices
I think it is very cool and interesting that even know the Muslims, Christians and Jews have different religious beliefs they still share traditions and sacred writings with one another.
The English language is a good example of both Germanic and Latin influences. Consider how time is measured: the months of the year are all from the Roman calendar, with the first six months named after Roman gods, and July and August named after the early emperors Julius Caesar and Caesar Augustus. The remaining months are ordinal numbers seven through ten—although in a confusing change, the Catholic Church decided to begin the calendar in January, making “December” the twelfth month instead of the tenth. The days of the week, however, reveal both Latin and Germanic influences: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday come from the sacred Roman orbs in the sky—Spanish, French and other more Latin languages continue in this vein for the other four days, but not English, which honors the barbarian gods Tieu, Woden, Thor, and Frija for the remainder of the week.
I find it very interesting that the English language is a combination of Latin, German and Roman cultures.
Eventually, the city of Rome itself fell to the barbarians in 476 CE. Western Europe was divided up among various Germanic warlords. But although the empire had ended the Roman Catholic Church remained strong
I think it is interesting that even though the city of Rome was taken over and split between warlords the Roman Catholic Church still grew and spread through the area.