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Thursday, 10 October 2024

European explorers and the Sinocentrism of the Middle Kingdom

4:00  Space starts.

5:00  The weather

6:00  Beautiful day

7:00  The Lucky Country

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lucky_Country 

9:00  Baronetcy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambert_baronets

11:00  South Sea Bubble

Margin Call

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margin_Call

16:00  The veil of incorporation

17:00  Cash for Honours

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash-for-Honours_scandal

20:00 War of 1812

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812

23:00  Richard Spencer

24:00  Purity spiralling in the course of status seeking

26:00  RICHARD FAN joins.

27:00  Singlish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singlish

30:00  Western Confucian

https://x.com/Xiruermuzi

32:00  Penal transportation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_transportation

33:00  When did the Chinese arrive in Malaya?

The arrival of the Chinese in Malaya (now part of Malaysia) can be traced back to several significant periods:

1. **Early Contacts**: There were already Chinese traders and envoys visiting the Malay Peninsula as early as the 3rd century AD, during the time of the Wu Dynasty in China. However, these were not settlers but traders and diplomats.

2. **Ming Dynasty Expeditions**: The most well-documented early interactions came during the early 15th century with the voyages of Admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho) from 1405 to 1433 during the Ming Dynasty. Zheng He's fleet visited Malacca several times, which helped establish Chinese communities there, although these explorers did not aim to colonize.

3. **Settlement in the 15th to 17th Century**: More permanent Chinese settlements began to form during the Malacca Sultanate era, particularly after Malacca became a significant trading port. Chinese merchants settled, married locals, and created what would become the Peranakan or Baba-Nyonya community.

4. **Mass Migration in the 19th Century**: The large-scale migration of Chinese to Malaya occurred in the 19th century, particularly from the mid-1800s onwards, driven by:

   - **Economic Opportunities**: The British colonial administration encouraged Chinese immigration to exploit tin mines, work in plantations, and participate in trade. The Opium Wars and the subsequent unrest in China also pushed many to seek better lives abroad.

   - **Tin Mining Boom**: The discovery of tin in places like Perak and Selangor in the 19th century attracted a significant number of Chinese laborers.

5. **20th Century**: Immigration continued into the early 20th century, with many Chinese coming to escape poverty, political instability in China, or to join family members already in Malaya. 

So, while there were Chinese presence in Malaya from as early as the 3rd century, and notable interactions during the Ming Dynasty, the establishment of significant, lasting Chinese communities really accelerated from the 15th century onwards, with mass migration occurring primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

34:00  Chinese diaspora

36:00  What was the Chinese policy on exploration?

The policy and attitude of China towards exploration have varied significantly through different dynasties and periods:

### **Early Dynasties (Before 10th Century)**

- **Trade and Tribute**: During the Han (206 BC–220 AD) and Tang (618-907 AD) dynasties, China was quite open to exploration, but this was more in the context of trade and establishing tributary states rather than exploration for its own sake. The Silk Road is a prime example of this, where trade facilitated cultural exchange.

### **Song Dynasty (960-1279)**

- **Maritime Trade**: The Song dynasty saw significant advancements in maritime technology and an increase in sea trade. However, exploration wasn't necessarily about discovering new lands but expanding trade networks.

### **Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)**

- **Expansion**: Under Mongol rule, there was some interest in expanding territories, but this was more conquest than exploration. Marco Polo's accounts suggest that there was curiosity about foreign lands, but this didn't translate into a policy of exploration.

### **Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)**

- **The Zheng He Expeditions**: Perhaps the most famous example of Chinese exploration occurred during the early Ming Dynasty under Emperor Yongle with Admiral Zheng He's voyages (1405-1433). These expeditions were extraordinary, reaching as far as East Africa, but they were:

  - **Diplomatic and Trade Missions**: Aimed at establishing Chinese influence, showcasing the empire's might, collecting tribute, and establishing trade routes rather than colonization or pure exploration.  

  - **End of Exploration**: After these voyages, there was a significant shift. The Ming court turned inward due to various reasons including cost, political infighting, and a shift in policy towards isolationism, particularly after the mid-15th century. The Haijin (sea ban) policies were enacted to prevent maritime activities, which effectively ended state-sponsored overseas exploration.

### **Qing Dynasty (1644-1912)**

- **Isolationism**: The Qing initially continued the Ming's isolationist policies. They were more focused on land-based expansion within Asia. However, towards the later parts:

  - **Limited Engagement**: There was some engagement with the outside world through trade, especially at designated ports like Canton (Guangzhou), but this was heavily regulated.

- **Self-Strengthening Movement**: In the late 19th century, after suffering defeats in the Opium Wars, there was an attempt to adopt Western technology and knowledge, but this was more about modernization than exploration.

### **Modern China**

- **20th Century Onwards**: After the fall of the Qing and through the turbulent periods of the Republic of China, followed by the People's Republic of China (PRC), there was little policy emphasis on exploration in the classical sense. However:

  - **Space Exploration**: Modern China has shown significant interest in space exploration with programs like the Chang'e lunar missions and the Tianwen-1 Mars mission, marking a new era of exploration.

  - **Maritime Interests**: Contemporary China has also shown interest in maritime exploration and influence, particularly through its Belt and Road Initiative, though this is more about economic and geopolitical strategy than pure exploration.

In summary, China's historical policy on exploration was largely driven by trade, diplomacy, and the projection of power, rather than exploration for the sake of discovery. Periods of openness to the outside world were often followed by phases of isolationism, influenced by internal politics, economic considerations, and the strategic need to consolidate power or protect cultural integrity.

37:00  Everyone is the centre of their own universe.

38:00  Faustian spirit

39:00  The Middle East was closed to China so China had to explore new markets in the other direction.

40:00  Europe was a crowded country full of fiercely competitive and rapacious Europeans.

41:00  Chinese attitudes towards the Japanese

Japan was overshadowed by China. 

Japanese industry was assisted by US loans. 

Germany got a better loan deal than the British?

44:00  Goodwill to all nations

46:00  American mistakes

46:00  US foreign policy and US vassal states

48:00  American Revolutionary Wars

49:00  White people are a very divided people.

50:00  Sibling rivalry

Status is identity.

51:00  Feminism is an unacknowledged sacred cow.

Communism is an atheist religion and so is liberalism. 

51:00  Will Australia remain under the British Crown?

52:00  Europe ceased to be Christian since the Age of Monarchy came and went. The unofficial religion of the West is liberalism after it defeated Nationalism and Communism but its supremacy and acceptance is now in doubt. This explains the desperate acts of censorship by governments of the liberal order caught between the two stools of on the one hand pretending that liberty is what Westerners are privileged to enjoy while on the other hand thinking of new ways to censor speech and beliefs while imprisoning Westerners for the heresy of hate speech for saying things non-Western countries are free to say.

As Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." 

53:00  Britain doesn't want Australia, Canada or New Zealand to become an independent republic and neither does the American Empire that wants to make use of the resources of these territories. 

54:00  George III

55:00  Moghul emperors and the Qing Dynasty had harems.

56:00  Secular Koranism with British Characteristics

57:00  Doctrine of the Parliamentary Supremacy is the antithesis of a theocracy.

58:00  Dugin's Fourth Political Theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fourth_Political_Theory

59:00  A People's Democratic Dictatorship

1:01:00  Western governments don't support marriage and family values.

1:02:00  Christianity

The New Testament < The Torah < The Koran

1:03:00  The English Reformation

1:04:00  If Henry VIII had been Muslim

1:05:00  Sola scriptura

1:06:00  1918 was a very year for monarchy in Europe.

1:07:00  Cuius regio, eius religio

Cuius regio, eius religio is a Latin phrase that translates to "whose realm, their religion". It was a legal principle that established the idea that the religion of the ruler should dictate the religion of the ruled.

The principle was agreed upon by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, and the rulers of the German-speaking states in the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. This treaty ended the armed conflict between the Catholic and Protestant forces in the Holy Roman Empire. The principle only allowed two religions within the Empire, Catholicism and Lutheranism, and any other practice of worship was considered a heresy. 

1:08:00  The last man in Britain to be executed for heresy - 1697

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Aikenhead

1:10:00  Holocaust Denial

1:12:00  Mistakes under Mao

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