Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published Mar 1, 2024TBH I prefer “Moon Aquarium” but Sun Tzu is pretty cool too.
SOURCES & Further Reading:
The Art of War by Sun Tzu, translated and with introduction by Lionel Giles (1910)
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, translated by Stephen Addiss & Stanley Lombardo (1993)
“Sun Tzu’s Art of War” & “Sun Tzu Through Time” from Masters of War: History’s Greatest Strategic Thinkers by Andrew R. Wilson, Ph.D.
“China: A History” by John Keay
“Sun-zi and the Art of War: The Rhetoric of Parsimony” by Steven C. Combs, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol.86, No 3, August 2000
“The Art of War” by Mark Cartwright and “Sun Tzu” by Joshua J Mark from World History Encyclopedia
R/AskHistorians answer by u/Iphikrates to the question “Who was Sun Tzu Writing For?” https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/7ym4yr/comment/duicm6q/
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June 11, 2024
History-Makers: Sun Tzu & the Art of War
August 17, 2023
“… the Chinese invented gunpowder and had it for six hundred years, but couldn’t see its military applications and only used it for fireworks”
John Psmith would like to debunk the claim in the headline here:
An illustration of a fireworks display from the 1628-1643 edition of the Ming dynasty book Jin Ping Mei (1628-1643 edition).
Reproduced in Joseph Needham (1986). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7: Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic. Cambridge University Press. Page 142.
There’s an old trope that the Chinese invented gunpowder and had it for six hundred years, but couldn’t see its military applications and only used it for fireworks. I still see this claim made all over the place, which surprises me because it’s more than just wrong, it’s implausible to anybody with any understanding of human nature.
Long before the discovery of gunpowder, the ancient Chinese were adept at the production of toxic smoke for insecticidal, fumigation, and military purposes. Siege engines containing vast pumps and furnaces for smoking out defenders are well attested as early as the 4th century. These preparations often contained lime or arsenic to make them extra nasty, and there’s a good chance that frequent use of the latter substance was what enabled early recognition of the properties of saltpetre, since arsenic can heighten the incendiary effects of potassium nitrate.
By the 9th century, there are Taoist alchemical manuals warning not to combine charcoal, saltpetre, and sulphur, especially in the presence of arsenic. Nevertheless the temptation to burn the stuff was high — saltpetre is effective as a flux in smelting, and can liberate nitric acid, which was of extreme importance to sages pursuing the secret of longevity by dissolving diamonds, religious charms, and body parts into potions. Yes, the quest for the elixir of life brought about the powder that deals death.
And so the Chinese invented gunpowder, and then things immediately began moving very fast. In the early 10th century, we see it used in a primitive flame-thrower. By the year 1000, it’s incorporated into small grenades and into giant barrel bombs lobbed by trebuchets. By the middle of the 13th century, as the Song Dynasty was buckling under the Mongol onslaught, Chinese engineers had figured out that raising the nitrate content of a gunpowder mixture resulted in a much greater explosive effect. Shortly thereafter you begin seeing accounts of truly destructive explosions that bring down city walls or flatten buildings. All of this still at least a hundred years before the first mention of gunpowder in Europe.
Meanwhile, they had also been developing guns. Way back in the 950s (when the gunpowder formula was much weaker, and produced deflagarative sparks and flames rather than true explosions), people had already thought to mount containers of gunpowder onto the ends of spears and shove them in peoples’ faces. This invention was called the “fire lance”, and it was quickly refined and improved into a single-use, hand-held flamethrower that stuck around until the early 20th century.1 But some other inventive Chinese took the fire lances and made them much bigger, stuck them on tripods, and eventually started filling their mouths with bits of iron, broken pottery, glass, and other shrapnel. This happened right around when the formula for gunpowder was getting less deflagarative and more explosive, and pretty soon somebody put the two together and the cannon was born.
All told it’s about three and a half centuries from the first sage singing his eyebrows, to guns and cannons dominating the battlefield.2 Along the way what we see is not a gaggle of childlike orientals marvelling over fireworks and unable to conceive of military applications. We also don’t see an omnipotent despotism resisting technological change, or a hidebound bureaucracy maintaining an engineered stagnation. No, what we see is pretty much the opposite of these Western stereotypes of ancient Chinese society. We see a thriving ecosystem of opportunistic inventors and tacticians, striving to outcompete each other and producing a steady pace of technological change far beyond what Medieval Europe could accomplish.
Yet despite all of that, when in 1841 the iron-sided HMS Nemesis sailed into the First Opium War, the Chinese were utterly outclassed. For most of human history, the civilization cradled by the Yellow and the Yangtze was the most advanced on earth, but then in a period of just a century or two it was totally eclipsed by the upstart Europeans. This is the central paradox of the history of Chinese science and technology. So … why did it happen?
1. Needham says he heard of one used by pirates in the South China Sea in the 1920s to set rigging alight on the ships that they boarded.
2. I’ve left out a ton of weird gunpowder-based weaponry and evolutionary dead ends that happened along the way, but Needham’s book does a great job of covering them.
April 28, 2023
Legends Summarized: Journey To The West (Part X)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 30 Dec 2022Journey to the West Kai, episode 7: Double Trouble
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March 14, 2022
Legends Summarized: Journey To The West (Part IX)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 26 Nov 2021Journey to the West Kai, episode 6: Two Weddings And An Asskicking
FIRST EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61nuX…
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December 26, 2020
Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West (Part VIII)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 25 Dec 2020Journey to the West Kai, episode 5: Fishy Business and Mountaineering Madness!
Danger! Intrigue! Sandy fights a carp! Pigsy gets two makeovers! Monkey reunites with several old frenemies, and Tripitaka gets less screentime than the horse!
(merry christmas)
(Here’s a cheeky little bit of merch: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/656…)
FIRST EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61nuX…
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June 23, 2020
Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West (Part VII)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 27 Dec 2019Journey to the West Kai, episode 4: Trouble in Taoist Town!
Thrills! Excitement! Pigsy takes a bath! Sandy fights an alligator! Monkey helps Tripitaka cheat on a high-stakes game show! And as always, everyone forgets about the horse!
Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.
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June 16, 2020
Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West (Part VI)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 14 Dec 2018JOURNEY TO THE WEST KAI, EPISODE 3: FAMILY FEUD!
Action! Excitement! Faces from the past! Kuan Yin discovers an exciting new acupuncture technique! Pigsy is unexpectedly skilled at CPR!
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June 9, 2020
Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West (Part V)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 9 Feb 2018JOURNEY TO THE WEST KAI, EPISODE 2: LOS DEMONIOS HERMANOS!
It’s yet another episode almost a year in the making! (sorry again 🙊) Today our heroes face off against a deadly duo of conveniently color-coordinated scoundrels, equipped with an impressive array of sacred treasures! Will Monkey be able to prioritize the well-being of his friends over his love of shiny things? Probably not, but find out now!
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June 2, 2020
Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West (Part IV)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 19 Mar 2017JOURNEY TO THE WEST KAI, EPISODE 1: SKELE-FUN!
It’s the episode almost a year in the making! (sorry 🙊) The saga of the monk Tripitaka, his bodyguard the Monkey King, and the rest of his merry band of pilgrims continues in this dramatic episode! Friendships are tested! Unlikely heroes rise to the occasion! Somebody throws a punch!
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May 26, 2020
Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West (Part III)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 13 Apr 2016At last! The saga continues, as our troupe of compadres grows from three to five and the story can REALLY get started!
In case you were wondering, this ISN’T the only origin of the five-man-band archetype, although it certainly accounts for a lot of the associated tropes. The Mahabharata is another classic example, with the five Pandava brothers filling out the classic roles very well.
HEADS UP! We have a twitter now! Find us at https://twitter.com/OSPyoutube for all your dorky book-humor needs!
May 19, 2020
Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West (Part II)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 14 Jan 2016The eponymous Journey actually begins! Sure hope this doesn’t take another eighty-three chapters. OH WAIT
Sun Wukong is back, and better than ever! Or … well, or worse, depending on your point of view. He’s getting up to shenanigans again, which is generally pretty problematic — but you know what, he’s doing stuff, and that’s the important thing.
May 12, 2020
Legends Summarized: The Monkey King (Journey To The West Part 1)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 1 Oct 2015Meet the progenitor of all brash, impulsive, superpowerful anime characters! Sun Wukong, the Monkey King and Great Sage, was the most impulsive of them all!
“Wreaking havoc in heaven is so much fun it should be illegal!” -Monkey, probably
I might cover something else before continuing with part two of The Journey To The West. It’s kind of a doozy, and I’m having a lot of trouble convincing myself to cut some parts out. Watch out for Don Quixote in the meantime.
January 30, 2018
The Three Teachings – Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism l HISTORY OF CHINA
IT’S HISTORY
Published on 1 Aug 2015The Three Teachings Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism have been a backbone of Chinese society and culture since the bronze age. The Three teachings are still intertwined strongly with today’s China. There are different interpretations to China’s chore faiths. Over time, different dynasties favoured different faiths, if only to define themselves against their predecessor. Ultimately though, its all about the philosophy of combining spirituality with every day life. All about the Three Teachings now on IT’S HISTORY.
