1587

My recent bedtime reading is 1587: A Year of No Significance by Ray Huang.

It is about the history of the mid-Ming dynasty, with an aim to explore the reason of decline and fall of the last empire of the Han (漢) people. The idea was simple: You cannot run a country with a population of tens of millions merely by Confucianism and people's good will - you need some well structured legal system.

I am no expert to comment on this theory. Suffice to say any broad theory to explain everything could hardly be proved wrong. To me, the book gives a deja vu feeling of MD thesis: a collection of loosely connected chapters around a theme of ignis fatuus - without really getting in to the heart of the problem.

And it is horrifying to learn that some universities in the States use this book as their textbook for teaching Chinese history. Haven't they heard of Zhang Tingyu (張廷玉) ?