>>20934
>European humanism tamed Christianity from being a mystery cult into a tool.
actually it was Aristotelean logic that did it but nice try.

>You just can't build civilisation on religion, though you can civilise religions to a degree.
tips fedora

>>20845
>Most powerful empire of its time
anon, I...

Could they have done it?

>>20845
>Why doesn't <powerful country> just use it to acquire even more power? Are they stupid?

The most celebrated men in Eastern cultures are more along the lines of:
>ruled boringly for 40 years
>period of peace and prosperity

Of course, to the American mind, which is inherently violent and only interested in raping and robbing, it's unfathomable that a country would just want to be left alone and focus on domestic tranquility.

>>20948
true that, Americans cannot comprehend how powerfrul this is

>>20949
Americans cannot comprehend much tbqhwy

>>20950
All information I found on that when I researched it like a year or two ago was from companies producing literacy modules.

>Chat GPT

>>20951
Yeah probably because it wouldn't really be relevant coming from companies producing plumbing accessories or telemetry instruments I guess?

>>20845
>That map

God I fucking hate what the CCP has done to tang dynasty historgraphy. Give it a couple months and they'll add Tibet to that inaccurate abomination

>>20952
No, in the sense that when I looked it up that was the only place I could find as primary sources, everywhere else linked to it. And if you can't understand what the implication of this is there's no point in explaining it.

>>20954
Behold the power of Google:
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States

>>20955
Actually, I believe this now, I forgot live somewhere that funds it's schools.

>>20956
it's even worst for numeracy btw

>>20867
>Rome did not have a meritocratic education system,
Latin was an official Govt program. From Latin class I remember Roman generals saying "were're gonna need another 4,000 new words for all the stuff we found in Gaul".

Slaves could become lawyers, and they didn't know Latin when captured.

>>20958
EG

>>20958
>Roman generals saying "were're gonna need another 4,000 new words for all the stuff we found in Gaul"
"Well, I wouldn't argue that it wasn't a no-holds-barred, adrenaline-fueled thrill ride. But, there is no way you can perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork."

>Slaves could become lawyers, and they didn't know Latin when captured
but not all slaves, surely?
And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes;
Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.

>>20960
>but not all slaves, surely?
Well no, if you're a young wench or comely lad then you're probably bound for a brothel to be a fuck toy for working class Roman men.
A tradesman gets sent to a factory or similar and farmhands are in permanent demand.

They're all probably going to be taught Latin though because otherwise it would be hard to command them.

>>20950
yeah, the incomprehensible wonders of gutter oil cuisine

>>20960
>but not all slaves, surely?
yeah, lots of slaves got worked to death. roman slavery was different from semi-modern chattle slavery that comes to westerners minds but it was still slavery.

>>20861
Unlikely. The only reason the Romans managed it was by allying with various tribes there, working with them and then giving them them the land they took to rule in their name and it wasn't until later on that Prittania could merged into Rome proper. The Boudica raped the Romans until Watling Street when they decided to use retard ugg combat tactics instead of the shit that worked (throwing javs from chariots).

>>20963
yeah, but we were discussing how widespread teaching slaves Latin was, dude
>worked to death
slavery in antiquity was a highly unpleasant lifetime of manual labour but they weren't actually worked to death in the same way the Nazis tried to do to the Poles and did do to the Jews, for example, because even if they treated slaves like pack animals, pack animals are still valuable
you wouldn't run your car down to the ground deliberately, would you?

>>20965
also in ancient Greece and by extension in Rome slavery wasn't an end-of-life brand but something that could be overcome and it was honourable to do so. the phrygian cap is literally a symbol of a freed slave and it's one of the most prominent and popular distinct Greco-Roman symbols period. one of the founders of stoicism was famously a freed slave that rose to being a prominent and recognized philosopher.

>>20962
I don't understand this bugman shit, isn't cooking oil pretty cheap?

>>20967
1stly, it's not a common practice

2ndly, it's a cultural "I don't give a fuck for my customers" attitude; the concept that "if I treat my customers nicely they will come back for more" relies a lot on gratitude (on the part of customers) and on long-term thinking on the part of both customer and cook, what Geert Hofstede called "time orientation"; and Communists are neither grateful for fuck-all nor famed for long-term thinking

3rdly, China is massive, even if "only" the bottom poorest 20% of the population do this, that's still 300 million people with some truly heinous hygiene

4thly, China is not rich, the glittering lights of Shanghai and other Tier One cities are not representative of the rest. China's nominal GDP per capita is US$15,000, but the mean salary in Tier 1 cities is as high as US$20,000, so you can see there is a massive inequality. Chongqing, Chengdu, and Wuhan are the largest non-Tier-1 cities, and even there the median salary is only US$8,400 per annum.
And thanks to globalisation and cheap shipping, everyone competes for the same oil. Those people are competing for the same syobean and palm oil as Europeans and Americans earning 2x to 4x as much.

Consider your reaction if you were to pay double or even triple for your cooking oil, anon.
And dipping sauces.

>>20928
Which still doesn't explain why a Taoist meme would use the birth of Christ as a reference point. You obviously have trouble understanding what a conversation is about.

>>20846

>>20846
>They fought and won a civil war
Technically, every country wins their civil war.

>>20858
China could barely conquer China, and only if everything went completely perfectly.

>>20845
Once you get to a certain size, the sheer distance of distant lands makes them not worth it to expand into.
Until ships started traversing the sea en mass at speed it just took too many resources and too many men lost to go further, and the desire to go further stops after you walk 2000km to what seems like endless expansion to you.

>>20845
Cowardice by their leaders. That's all. There were several moments in Chinese history where great men could brought gloey to their country, but were stopped because the decadent cowards running the country were scared of losing their power over them. See what happened to the Treasure Fleet... what a shame.

>>20873
>As opposed to the famed European unity
That disunity worked in Europe's favor, mostly, driving their self-development. China's flaws had no real benefit to the Chinese.

>>20879
>had all the technology required to industrialize
No, they didn't. Even Euros only managed it because their universities accepted a rationalistic cause-and-effect worldview back in the 13th century and even then it took them centuries, and that was with groups like the Royal Society being made to speed up the whole process. If they hadn't had their worldview, they would've just been stuck in the medieval ages forever. It's not just a matter of political will.