10-30-2009, 04:06 AM
It's all the rage these days to say that China invented these things. I'm not all that impressed, and I'm fairly familiar with Chinese history. I suspect it has more to do with Chinese money in modern Hollywood, frankly.
China "ruled the seas" in 1432. Well--perhaps, but Vasco de Gama did it for real
China "invented gunpowder." Perhaps, but the harnessing of gunpowder as an efficient weapon?
Dismissing Byzantium is an old and time-honored game in the west, perfected by Gibbon--either the Byzantines are "decadent Romans" preserving a Classical heritage that they cannot better, or their eastern diffusers, good only for passing on the inventions of the Islamic and Chinese worlds.
I did my degree in Byzantium. They get my vote any day.
China "ruled the seas" in 1432. Well--perhaps, but Vasco de Gama did it for real
China "invented gunpowder." Perhaps, but the harnessing of gunpowder as an efficient weapon?
Dismissing Byzantium is an old and time-honored game in the west, perfected by Gibbon--either the Byzantines are "decadent Romans" preserving a Classical heritage that they cannot better, or their eastern diffusers, good only for passing on the inventions of the Islamic and Chinese worlds.
I did my degree in Byzantium. They get my vote any day.
Qui plus fait, miex vault.
