Message from vchiu

[Anonymous]

It is interesting to compare Yuan Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. For Yuan Dynasty, I got the image of a little greedy bear, who keeps on plucking new corns under his arms(obtaining new territories), and after gathering a whole bunch of corns, he does not know how to manage them. For Qing Dynasty, the Manchurian is much more sophisticated. They skillfully integrated into the Chinese society and systems, and was able to rule over China for close to three hundred years.

Through the lecture, I also found out that Yuan abolished the Civic Exam System. When Ming came, one of the most important missions for them was re-establish the Civic Exam System. Also, how Zhu Yuan Zhang adopted Confucianism and in practice, he utilized Han Fei Zi's Legalist's method of censorship to keep the bureaucrats in line of their duties was interesting.

In looking back the Chinese history, I was wondering, if China adopted western's democracy system early on, how will China turn out today? All the great, smart, capable emperors could still be elected without blood shed, without changing the "dynasty" and still keep all the advancement they previously achieved. Instead, dynasty after dynasty, the vicious cycles of corruption, destruction, rebuilding, and back to corruption again, kept on turning its wheel. A great leader with vision (and open-minded) is important. In the meantime, a sound political system that governs the leaders is as important. Learning from the past, I truly hope China will perfect its political system along with its economic advancement.