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Sometimes. Sui, Tang, Qin, and Zhou fit that pattern. But the Ming, Tang, Song, and Han all started when someone led a successful rebellion or otherwise conqu
by Symmetry 12y ago
Sometimes. Sui, Tang, Qin, and Zhou fit that pattern. But the Ming, Tang, Song, and Han all started when someone led a successful rebellion or otherwise conquered China from within.
As far as I can tell the Great Wall was more about stopping raids than invasions.
- kyllo 12y agoSui, Tang, Qin, and Zhou fit that pattern. Can't forget the Jin, Liao, Xia, and Yuan. Also, another geographic factor I forgot to mention was the fact that much of China's land is just unsuitable for the kind of modern farming technology that was developed in the west. (Try running a harvesting combine over this: http://www.jacobsexposure.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MJP_5596.jpg http://www.jacobsexposure.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MJP... or, for another matter, this: http://i.imwx.com/web/multimedia/images/content/China_drought.jpg http://i.imwx.com/web/multimedia/images/content/China_drough... ) South China is too hilly and has too much water, meanwhile North China has never had enough water. The relatively poor rice/grain farming productivity in China was a pretty major obstacle to technological progress. Too much of the population had to rely on subsistence farming, and famine was a constant threat from time immemorial up until about the 1980s.