Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.
This is basically the silver rule again and it's surprisingly very modern. I really like this one because it kind of relates to current events, especially within our society with how people's lines are getting wrecked in our city. The same seems like it's part of ethics based on empathy rather than having that fear of punishment.
Learning without thought is labor lost;
This sounds to me like the difference between understanding and memorizing. It really fits the overall attitude of what I was reading, and even even gives me advice to think while reading instead of just consuming facts.
“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”
This is basically showing us an argument for curiosity and some sort of classroom participation. It's also an anti-ego/embarrassment is temporary, ignorance lasts longer.
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.
I don't know why this is but a majority of these saying, I feel like I've heard somewhere in an anime that I've watched.
This one in particular is eye-opening makes me think. It feels like it's a direct challenge to pride and also connecting to learning and admitting what you don't know is like a start of actually improving.
One of Yongle’s most trusted subordinates was the eunuch admiral Zheng He (1371-1433), the son of a Muslim soldier from southwestern China who had participated in a rebellion against Hongwu. At the age of ten Zheng He was captured, castrated, and sent to serve Prince Zhu Di in Dadu. Castration was a common practice throughout the ancient and early modern world. It was used in China to insure loyalty by eliminating any potential conflict between family and duty. Educated in the prince’s household, Zheng He became a loyal soldier and later a general. Zheng He helped Zhu Di depose his nephew and take control of the empire, and the new Yongle Emperor appointed Zheng He admiral of his fleet and sent him on seven expeditions between 1405 and 1430.
This whole section at first was jaw, dropping it kind of reminded me of Genghis Khan in someway. Zheng He's overall background really helps explain to us why the yongle emperor really trusted him so completely. Even when he had no family ties, and also a military upbringing in that imperial household, his loyalty was also directly tied to the Emperor. From what it looks like it made eunuchs a better fit for those sensitive missions because he had the ability to command those large fleet, which showed the authority abroad, also his character a bit more.
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. And success on the top exam was a ticket to the highest levels of imperial society. Over the centuries, the scholars became an upper class in Chinese society, a gentry based on educational merit rather than merely on birth or wealth.
I think that that type of civil service exam system really made the Chinese government even more unusually stable. Although it wasn't even fully equal, it was really merit based then the most systems at the time that were present. Having that idea that a poor scholar could really rise to the high office through having an education really helps explain why China was really often governed by those trained administrators rather than the foreign nobles that would get it by having it passed down.
civilization began in India and China about 5,000 to 4,500 years ago and China’s recorded history began about 2000 BCE.
It's really intriguing to me how Chinese civilization ends up dating back over 4000 years and really puts western History into that perspective. It shows us that China ultimately had a longer standing political and cultural system before many of the European country states even existed.
We begin our survey of modern world history in Asia. This may surprise many who, like me, grew up believing that most of the important events of modern history happened in the West.
This opening kind of shows me the challenges that the idea of modern history being mainly western. When we start in asia, it really forces us to rethink what we've been taught about where the innovation and the power/influence actually begun.
the point of beginning modern world history with China is that in terms of population and economic power, it was the center of the world in 1500
This shows us why that the class starts with China instead of Europe. Back in 1500 China really had way more people and a very much stronger economy than europe. I think that europe becoming powerful later it wasn't automatic or guaranteed.