On next week's video, I will be talking about sworn brotherhood (siblings) and how it is defined in Danmei media. After that, it will be a series summarising all of Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel.
@@CoolHistoryBros I have to admit when I first saw it I spent a second thinking "What is Hina? Never heard of that before" haha. Anyway, the video was really great! Even though I have seen some of the content before, I still find it engaging and very educational when watching the second time!
One reason why Li Shimin is beloved as the greatest Chinese Emperor is that he never betrayed any of his battle brothers who fought alongside with him when he was just a mere humble grunt.
Li shimin was never a "mere humble grunt", the Li family was of high nobility rank and was directly related to the sui imperial family. in a way that allowed him to be kind and let his generals live, since he was already their lord before the rebellion and it makes sense he's their emperor after the rebellion, no one would think different even inside their heads. moreover, he himself was a unmatched general of the era and the entire military acknowledge him as such, no general in their sane mind would dare to rebel, and if they did their own lieutenants might kill them first. this is in contrast to the han founder, who was not a noble and had to watch out for his generals who were of noble rank originally and were much better at leading armies than he was and now their had to serve him a former commoner and a so-so general, or the Ming founder who was a wondering, broke, monk, who actually served under some of his own generals initially as a ordinary foot soldier, and he himself might prove to have the merit to claim the throne but his grandchild was never going to be able to keep his generals in check so he had to kill them all.
@@kweassa6204 Not really. The Tang Dynasty on started declining during the rule of Emperor Xuanzong and by then the of the nobles of Taizong time were long dead. It was the foreign general An Lushan who started the slow decline of the Empire.
@Rex Caesar Bit of a controversial question. XZ started off as a very good Emperor bringing Tang Dynasty to its peak, but in his dotage he favored the Yang family whose corruption and incompetence lead the way for ALS rebellion.
War isn't romantic and battles fought over a thousand years ago, despite their outcomes, may have been bloody and brutal. War is a grim business of politics, not to be romanticised.
I suggest you to see the history after three kingdom and before Tang dynasty, which is very fantastic, compare with it three kingdom is not the most surprised
This video is really amazing and entertaining to watch! I hope to see this channel grow more and hopefully continue to make great historical content ❤🔥
This channel has surprisingly given me hope for the U.S. The past few years saw so much divisiveness and rhetoric, culminating in actual violence last year- it really seemed at times like our society was going down a one way path. But the U.S. is so very young and inexperienced in the grand scheme of things. China is thousands of years old, and survived civil wars, fracturing, reunification, and multiple systems of government. What might seem like the end for us is just a drop in the bucket of history. It isn't the government that matters, or the borders, or even the language. It's the people; and if the people can endure, so can the nation, regardless of the form that takes.
The Chinese are truly the most resilient peoples on the planet. Even the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians and Romans were conquered by the Christian and Muslim polities. India is impressive too but they never really took that leap to top of the world. Maybe next century.
@@dirckthedork-knight1201 Have you been living under a rock for two thousand years? Christians have spilled billions of gallons of blood in every land they have ever cursed with their existence.
It's a shame so much Chinese history has been absent from western pop culture, but it's great that channels like this help fix that. I hope the same happens with Indian culture soon, too.
Leave her. The caste system came in portugesee rule before that there is no caste. The largest vishnu temple in cambodia. Siddartha gautama buddha is a kshytria king. He enlighted buddha never told start a new religion. Mt kailash the abode of shiva it is also sacred for buddhists.
It's so so so funny that....when you are talking about China, yes, even recent China. Most of the western people are still acting just like the old Europen when they heard the story of the amazing realm of the east from Marco Polo back to about 700 years ago.
@久无情i Well, there was no 'unified" India with common history. Such gross simplification can be applied to China as well, especially that the last dynasty of China was a foreign Manchu one.
I think Asian history in general is underrated and overlooked by many westerners as a lot of people in the west most notably white people act or think that European/American history is the only history that matters or is interesting which is absolutely not true.
So have you read any of the cultivation manhua recently? And will you do videos about some of them? On unrelated topic, will you do a video about the Timurid Empire eventually?
@@hiimryan2388 yeah for like 15 years before their only emperor of any importance died of his own ignorance immediately prompting a court takeover and implosion At least the Sui existed for over 20 years
@@Gojifann Not even comparable, Qin created the massive bureaucratic structure that would define China and the entire region. Sui gave us standardized exams.
Thank you for this series! 👏 I know you'll continue with Song (and Ming? ) Beside Jin Yong's famous trilogy, i hope you can also cover a bit story of three loyal princes of Song.
I hope you are going to follow his excellent video with one on Taizong's concubine who ended up as the Empress Wu, giving her credit where credit is due.
Li Shi Min was a great man... Except to his brothers.... Although this telling of the story is heavily influenced by the victor in this case. Don't get me wrong the brothers were in a bitter rivalry for power - but it paints the picture that Li Shi Min was merely defending himself
Fun fact: Li Shimin wore Baekje crafted and gifted armor, and the armor was so shiny and super bright when was reflected by sunlight, giving the "holiness" effect to the emperor.
@@刘蔚-s6s 伏聞 東海之外有三國 其名馬韓卞韓辰韓 馬韓則高麗 卞韓則百濟 辰韓則新羅也 高麗百濟 全盛之時 强兵百萬 南侵吳越 北撓幽燕齊魯 爲中國巨蠹 Here already modern people made error about Mahan being Baekje. NOPE. Goguri was Mahan, and see which land both Goguri and Baekje had in possession according to real records that was published by Gori Dynasty, pre-Ming edition of history. Tell me if you can find a single history book that was printed before Ming Dynasty that can deny this statement.
Used to talk to this korean guy about tang and he seemed to believe Li's family was not chinese (because his mother or grandmother side was not chinese). At the time I was a bit culture shocked and didn't expect in certain weird places of the world today a country's history could be interpreted and deconstructed in such ways.
Just ignore it. It's just few korean nationalist group.... They rejected by major korean historians and most of koreans. Many chinese think this kind of trashy things is korean's majority opinion, such as "Korean claims Confucius are korean people".... But that's not true at all... most of(maybe 99.999%) korean people know that Confucius are chinese. So most of korean were surprised when china was angry about this conflict. Because korean had no idea where does this conflict even come from. So as a normal korean... I would said just ignore it. Just like most of other normal koreans.... I kind of understand what you had heard. I think they said that founder of sui and tang dynasty was not original han people so it's not chinese history. But as you know... They soonly became han people so it's completly chinese history... And also china is multi ethnical country so it's even not a arguement. Most of nationalist from korea, china, japan....they produce national hatred through each three country. Most of their claiming are wrong or overestimate. You can see many of them in youtube...
What I like most about this channel is its critical thinking. They discuss that different sources are contradictory and are very explicit to distinguish legends from more evidenced facts. Their pronunciation is also pretty good! (I can attest for the Mandarin part.) You should also discuss, should we use modern Mandarin pronunciation or Cantonese pronunciation, since the latter is more similar to ancient Chinese? Keep up the food work!
Since when was Han Wu Di a tyrant? He's the greatest emperor of China next to Taizong himself. He's the reason China even survived as an entity & didn't get wiped out by the Xiongnu
Good video! One thing I noticed to be inaccurate though, was Goguryeo’s extent in the map. Goguryeo at its height during wars with the Sui Dynasty, spanned from the present day Han River Basin in the Southern Korean Peninsula, Almost all of Manchuria, the Liaodong Peninsula, parts of Eastern and Inner Mongolia, and parts of Northern China. Just a mistake that I want to correct since the Eastern Turkic Khaganate didnt really reach those parts controlled by Goguryeo. That said, I like your videos!
Tips: ever wonder why there is a certain type of Fish was kept in those typical rational pools in China and Japan? Bounds hint: The name of the fish and Li Shimin.
great respect for your work, this channel is amazing. i have no idea why you dont even have 80k subs. it should be 8million, and if u just keep on like this, i think you will reach that point. i think what is most outstanding on this channel compared to other similar ones is that you dont just list some facts and illustrate some pictures around them, there is a grand narrative wich you follow. this can only be done with a great understanding of history itsself. its not just counting down events, like then this battle happened, and then this battle happened, and then that battle happened, like a machine gun ratatatata blasting some corner stones into your brain at a pace that is much too high. its actually more like a real story that you can follow and understand. and i would like to encourage you to focus even more on that part. dont be scared to go into detail, like explain the characters more deeply for example. the way your are doing it, i bet it wont be boring at all, it will make the story more colorful, relatable, exciting and easier to understand. dont just list facts and events, tell a story. and dont be afraid to slow down the pace a little bit here and there. for me as a western person its almost impossible to keep track of all that strange names (to my ears, ofc). that really is a big big problem i think. when you are going too fast i cant keep up, at all, and get totally confused. really, keeping track of names and the corresponding characters is the most difficult thing for me. try to make that easier, and you will soar the heavens like a dragon. this might sound super super rude, and i apologize in advance. but, still, there is nothing that i can do about it really. so im just gonna go ahead: you have no idea how much easier it would be for me to read about the 3 kingdoms for example when you dont have a liu bei, a guan yu, and a zhan fei, but instead just call them ben, joe and fizz. (maybe even think of some fictional family names. maybe some names related to the real names...some clever acronyms, i dunno... ) i know, i know, plz dont hurt me. but still: i think if you really wanna teach the essence of your culture to the whole world (i bet 99% of your audience is not chinese), it would be way more effective to do it like this, instead of insisiting on keeping the chinese names in the honor of chinese culture, if you know what i mean. if you dont believe me, try it out. i think that if instead of a few thounands you reach millions of people, your ancestors might foregive you for a little bit of a rocky translation of names, for you are spreading chinese culture as a whole like a tiger that has grown wings.
I get what you mean, but when it comes to historical figures it's necessary to call them by their real names what people really need is to familiarize themself with chinese names, it'll get a lot more easier if you consume more. For example, i also had difficulty remembering star wars characters name because their name are weird and the fact that english is not my first language also not making it easier, but througout the years consuming star wars related entertainment and osmosis from friends etc it becomes much easier to remember weird ass sw characters name, now it also becomes jarring to me when i see sw character name that are not "space-ey" enough like "luke" for instance lol. So i think it's for the best and keep being respectfull to use real historical figure's name to tell story about real historical events.
Yang Guang has real skill and talent when he was a prince, but bad for Sui dynasty that he became a tyrant when he take over the throne, filled with his own delusion
2:56, if you call those emperors tyrants, you will definitely also call mao a tyrant. but in fact, without the so-called 'tyrants', china would not have rejuvenated so many times after the chaos.
@@samshah7628 yes, I look at the big picture. those who say mao is bad because he started the great leap forward which killed people tend to be only aware of minor issues. without the great leap forward, china would not have the ability to sustain itself and hence would be exploited by foreign enterprises if China opened up so soon. the great leap forward directly led to the rapid development of China today.
3:08 Eulji Mundeok laughs at Sui's million man army and RELEASED THE RIVER on them. 7:30 Reminds me of Fitcher from Suikoden 2. Cowardly yet a smooth operator behind the scenes. 8:08 I hope Princess Pingyang gets her own separate video soon.
He’s kind of both a talented ruler and a tyrant that killed many. Many said that has he not change his way after losing his crown prince, Han dynasty would likely be finished after his death
he was very much a tyrant. that said, being a tyrant doesn't mean you cant do things for the nation that will last and be praised for thousands of years. He beat back the xiongnu, made china the undisputed hegemon of their known world, expanded chinese territory massively and most of it is still chinese territory to this day. but to accomplish all this, he centralized a lot of the power and raised taxes/invented new taxes to almost unbearable levels, the citizens starved while he channeled the grains to the military, it was said that 1 in 20 people in the empire was a refugee during his rule, the country gained much land but lost a bunch of population. He himself, in his old age, even thought what he did was excessive and issued a imperial edict expressing his remorse. btw, qin shi huang is also praised by many, not for his tyranny, but for uniting the nation, bringing a single written language and standardized weights, roads, cart sizes etc. this is credited for helping keep china together for the last few thousand years and so praised despite the brutal methods with which he accomplished it. This thinking extends to mao today. he brought the country together and out of ww2, his decision to intervene in korea made china a great power in the region by showing that they could push the us led un to a stalemate. and despite his two major failure, the GLF and cultural revolution, he is still thought of as being ultimately beneficial for the country. Deng himself even said mao was 30% bad and 70% good for the country.
Let's be clear All the greats are tyrants themselves because, for the greatness of their kingdom, They kill all who challenge it. Han WuDi was a wise ruler who did good and evil for the survival of his empire. [And later his empress cause chaos in the empire and his descendants start to rebuild the empire and beating Xiongnu later]
I'm unsure how much this story is fable or facts? However, the Western story of Mark Antony and Cleopatra is also incredible, so maybe this story is factual. Fratricide is common among hereditary rulers.
i think most chinese people knows that, he's known as Dámó in chinese and japanese people even have something called the daruma which is based off Bodhidharma..iirc there's like a couple of chinese shows about him in the past i think..
@Bunny Crewmate well.. guess what.. u only read QSH from han dynasty source.. rite? right?😁😁😁.. ahhh brainwashed by a dynasty u bro... each winner wrote the loser as a villain..
Im curious, in the Tang dynasty which was wealthier and more populated Tang China or Hindu India? I believe that was before Muslims began attacking India and pre-islamic India was rumored to be incredibly wealthy as well...
Definitely Tang, but the difference wasn't huge. However, the difference in living standards were. There was so much inequality in Hindu India that if one were to choose what ancient time period to time travel to, Hindu India wouldn't be one of the choices.
China had several golden ages which makes it distinctly unique. Most only have one or none at all. China has its cycles of ups and downs, and even now we're in the first 40 years of a new golden age :)
li family was a noble in tuoba xianbei ruled northern wei dynasty, and they were once grant xianbei name, but the family itself was han chinese. the thing is they intermarry with the xianbei nobles very often, but mainly maternally. Anyway, most importantly, the Li family still see themselve as the longxi noble han chinese.
other emporers in hsitory book: the emporer trust the general and conquer the obsitacles and eventually win after months. Tangtaizong LI shimin : the majesty led 10 rider and crushed the enemy with 3 charges in 1 minute.
