The Chinese Hitler: Yellow Tiger Zhang Xianzhong

Today we talk about Zhang Xianzhong, who called himself many names: the Yellow Tiger, the Great King of the West, and Laozi ("old master"). People remember him as "the butcher of Sichuan".

Heaven and Earth are not kind.
They regard all things as straw dogs.
The sage is not kind.
He regards people as straw dogs.

-- Laozi, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 5

A quick YouTube search shows the usual genocides (here, I include massive man-made death-events) being covered: Hitler's genocide, Khmer Rouge genocide, Armenian genocide, Rwandan genocide, the Soviet famines, the Great Leap Forward famines... but nobody, I repeat, nobody has done a video on Zhang Xianzhong, the genocidal dictator of Sichuan in the 1640s. Indeed, the English information on Zhang Xianzhong is extremely scanty.

Well, not anymore. I will make a video all about Zhang Xianzhong. This post is my scrape-book as I do the research.

The chaos of Ming-Qing transition

The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.

---- First line of the Chinese epic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 

A lot of the Western conceptions of the "old and sickly China", with mandarins, long braids, opium-smoking, and ling-chi, those are from the Qing dynasty (1644 -- 1911). Before that, there was the Ming dynasty (1368 -- 1644).

China was extremely powerful during the Ming dynasty, and the seven massive voyages of Zheng He took place from 1405 to 1433, asserting dominance for the Chinese emperor all over the coast of Indian Ocean.

Source: Wikipedia

Widespread brother-sister incest in Roman Egypt and Zoroastrianism

The incest taboo is strong among humans, but in two cases, it has been overcome, or so it seems. The first case is in Roman Egypt, where for over 250 years, there was a tradition of full brother-sister marriages. The second case is in Zoroastrianism, where brother-sister (and other close-relative) marriages are considered a sacred duty called Xwedodah.

Roman Egypt needs no introduction, though Zoroastrianism might need some, so here's my summary:

1. There are two cosmic principles: good and evil, light and dark. They are equally powerful.
2. Ahura Mazda is the one true God that is all good. There are smaller gods, some working for Mazda and some against him.
3. Originally, the world was all good, as Mazda intended. But then evil appeared and since then has been a battle of good and evil.
4. Ahuras are good gods, and Daevas are evil gods.
5. Humans should choose to side with the good and reject the evil.
6. The Avesta are the sacred texts of Zoroastrianism.
7. Eventually evil will be eliminated and the world will be as good as Ahura Mazda intended. Evil creatures will either be destroyed or be purified (depending on who you ask).

Menstruation taboo in Rome, Judaism, and China

Ancient Rome

Menstruation taboo is popularly held throughout history. Here's a selection of quotes.

Pliny the Elder, the most famous naturalist of ancient Rome, stated that:

Contact with [menstrual blood] turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafts die, seed in gardens are dried up, the fruit of trees fall off, the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory are dulled, hives of bees die, even bronze and iron are at once seized by rust, and a horrible smell fills the air; to taste it drives dogs mad and infects their bites with an incurable poison.

-- Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 7, Chapter 13

Basically, menstruation blood causes rabies in dogs. Not to worry though, later in Book 28, Chapter 28, Pliny stated that a strip of cloth dipped in menstrual blood can cure rabies in humans... because homeopathy! In the same chapter, he also quoted (without agreeing) other magical beliefs about menstruation:

hailstorms, they say, whirlwinds, and lightning even, will be scared away by a woman uncovering her body while her monthly courses are upon her. The same, too, with all other kinds of tempestuous weather; and out at sea, a storm may be lulled by a woman uncovering her body merely, even though not menstruating at the time... If the menstrual discharge coincides with an eclipse of the moon or sun, the evils resulting from it are irremediable... if a woman strips herself naked while she is menstruating, and walks round a field of wheat, the caterpillars, worms, beetles, and other vermin, will fall from off the ears of corn... this is not done at sun-rise, for if so, the crop will wither and dry up. Young vines, too, it is said, are injured irremediably by the touch of a woman in this state; and both rue and ivy, plants possessed of highly medicinal virtues, will die instantly upon being touched by her.

Genocide in Xinjiang, old and new

What is Xinjiang, and what is Dzungaria?

Xinjiang, a border province of China, is in the news since 2005, as the Chinese government enforces stricter control over its Muslim Uyghur population. This has been heavily reported and I won't repeat. However these reports miss a historical precedent: the 18th century genocide of Dzungaria by the Qing dynasty.

Map of China with Xinjiang. Source: Wikipedia

That's Xinjiang today. Before that, Xinjiang was controlled by Qing dynasty as its west-most province. And before that, it was an independent Mongol khanate, called the Dzungar Khanate.

"Dzungar" is the name of a group of Mongols that ruled the land called Dzungaria. Dzungaria still exists as the name of a geographical area within Xinjiang, but the Dzungars are gone, thanks to the Dzungar genocide.

Map of Dzungaria around 1700s. Source: Wikipedia

To say that Dzungaria is obscure is an understatement. Even I have not given this place a second thought despite living in China for many years, and reading about the Uyghur situation in Xinjiang. I hope that this post will make their history more known, and give better context for the current Uyghur situation.

The imperialistic conquests of Qing

Before Qing dynasty got imperialism-ed by the West, Qing was busy imperialism-ing the west, and north, and even south. Comparing the map of Ming and Qing and you'd notice several big additions: Taiwan, Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Imperialism!

Ming and its neighbors, 1409. Source: Wikipedia

Qing map, circa 1820. Source: Wikipedia

(I am not saying that Qing got what's coming for them, since there is no justice in history: the British Empire never got imperialism-ed.)

The Wuxuan cannibalism frenzy, China 1966

In 1968, during the cultural revolution in Wuxuan of Guangxi, a case of widespread cultured cannibalism occurred. This is a quick post compiling the best quotes from Consuming Counterrevolution: The Ritual and Culture of Cannibalism in Wuxuan, Guangxi, China, May to July 1968 (1995). This paper is itself heavily based on the book Scarlet Memorial: Tales of Cannibalism in Modern China (1993).

Wuxuan in 1966 was a fairly remote county reporting a population of 221,786.

From May to July, struggles were held in all or the great majority of the 114 brigades (villages and streets [jie]), and no fewer than 90 had one or more struggle meetings that terminated with on-the-spot execution. Of a total of 524 executed, 64 (later amended to 75 or 76) were eaten throughout the county's municipality and nine communes, according to the official investigation (Zheng 1993:58, 96). 

His second chapter is closely based on the official report of what happened, dated May 1987, and a separate list of 64 victims, dated July 4, 1983. Fifty-six had their heart and liver cut out; 18 were completely consumed (down to the soles of their feet), 13 had their genitals eaten, one was decapitated after being eaten, and 7 were actually cut up while they were still alive (Zheng 1993:96).

Only 15 were punished by jail sentences, for only up to 14 years.

Dark side of Buddhism

Overview of Buddhism

Let's analyze Buddhism, in the style of Stephen Prothero in his God is not One (2011)! According to Prothero, every religion has a problem, a solution, a list of techniques for solution, and a list of role models.

1. Problem: life is full of suffering (dukkha). There are four great life events, and every one creates great suffering: birth, old age, sickness, and death. Further, the suffering doesn't stop at just one life, because souls are reincarnated endlessly.
2. Solution: achieve nirvana, which is freedom from life, time, and the cycle of rebirth, by becoming absolutely nonexistent. The word "nirvana" literally means "blown out", and a person achieving nirvana is like an oil lamp blown out. They aren't gone to a heaven, but completely nonexistent. No thought, no nature, no self, absolutely nothing.
3. Techniques: varied, but the most famous ones are in the The Noble Eightfold Path, a list of eight practices that allows one to see through the illusion of existence, realize that everything is fundamentally empty, and achieve nirvana.
4. Role models: all the famous Buddhists and their stories. One example is, of course, Gautama Buddha himself. Another is a certain god called the Medicine King, which would be a role model for many Buddhist self-immolators, as discussed later.

If Buddhism is a video game, there would be many, many levels. Every time you die, you are respawn at a certain location with a certain level. Where and how you get respawn depends on your karma-meter, and you gain or lose karma depending on your actions and experiences. You gain karma by doing moral things or suffering. You lose karma by doing immoral things or enjoying nice things.

You can play six kinds of character, each having a different play-area.

1. Gods: the world of gods is full of pleasures and powers.
2. Humans: the world we know, full of pleasures and pain.
3. Titans: titans are kind of like gods, but they are angrier and often fight with gods. They are too occupied with war-making to think about nirvana. This level is controversial and many Buddhists think they don't exist.
4. Animals: the world we know, but as a non-human animal!
5. Hungry ghosts: they live in our world, but we can't see them. They are constantly hungry and thirsty.
6. Hell-beings: hell, basically. There are many sub-levels of hell, too [click for a post all about them]! From painful to extremely painful.

Forcing the hand of God(s)

There are many ways to deal with God(s). You can pray to Them, make friends with them, ignore them, or perhaps... threaten them. It can get quite brutal, really.

Make it rain

Humans, ever since they started farming, became terribly dependent on rain. Whereas hunter-gatherers could follow the rain, and generally have a wide selection of backup foods to eat during extended droughts. Farmers cannot follow the rain, and farming communities are so populous as to make it impossible to have backup foods for everyone.

As such, ever since farming started, rainmaking rituals also started.

Let's start by a curious article from Weather Making, Ancient and Modern (MW Harrington, 1894), published in April 25, 1894, volume VI, page 42 of National Geographics:

I present a clipping from the New York Tribune to which my attention was called by Dr T. C. Mendenhall. Se non e vero e hen trovato [Even if it's not true, it's a good story.]. The extract runs as follows:

In the department of Castañas there had been no rain for nearly a year, and the people were brought to such a pass that they were actually dying of thirst, to say nothing of the total destruction of all crops and other agricultural industries. 

"El Pueblo Católico [The Catholic People]," of New San Salvador, prints a number of resolutions promulgated by the principal alcalde of the town and department of Castañas. They are as follows:

"Considering that the Supreme Creator has not behaved well in this province, as in the whole of last year only one shower of rain fell ; that in this summer, notwithstanding all the processions, prayers and praises, it has not rained at all, and consequently the crops of Castañas, on which depend the prosperity of the whole department, are entirely ruined, it is decreed:

"Article 1. If within the peremptory period of eight days from the date of this decree rain does not fall abundantly, no one will go to mass or say prayers.

"Article 2. If the drought continues eight days more, the churches and chapels shall be burned, and missals, rosaries, and other objects of devotion will be destroyed.

"Article 3. If, finally, in a third period of eight days it shall not rain, all the priests, friars, nuns, and saints, male and female, will be beheaded. And for the present permission is given for the commission of all sorts of sin, in order that the Supreme Creator may understand with whom he has to deal."

The most remarkable feature of this affair is the fact that four days after these resolutions were passed the heaviest rainfall known for years was precipitated on the burning community.

Side note: blowing up a tornado

I just noticed this funny tidbit in the same article. Turns out that nuking a tornado isn't a new idea. Back in 1887, someone applied for a patent for it!

I will consider the first, that of Mr J. B. Atwater, of Chicago (number 370,845, 1887). A strong box with a double bottom is firmly supported on a pole erected at a suitable point, probably a mile or so southwest of the village to be protected. The upper bottom is fixed and the space above it is filled with an explosive and firmly closed. In holes in the upper bottom are inserted fulminating caps and these project below its lower surface. The lower bottom slides up and down. Then, if a high wind drives the lower bottom against the upper with such force as to flash the caps, the explosion follows, and the tornado (if present) suffers the effects which a tornado will suffer when a powerful explosion occurs in its immediate vicinity.

Would it work?

Perhaps it will be effective ; we can be more positive when it has been tried.  

Well, modern science concludes that it will not work.

What should work, though, is setting fire to a grassfield when the day is already humid. This imitates the natural rainmaking process.

Rainmaking in China

There are many rituals for rainmaking in China, from the tamest to the most violent. This section is sourced on two papers:

• Cohen, Alvin P., ‘Coercing the Rain Deities in Ancient China’, History of Religions, 17.3/4 (1978), 244–65 <https://doi.org/10/bstb39>
• Schafer, Edward H., ‘Ritual Exposure in Ancient China’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 14.1/2 (1951), 130–184 <https://doi.org/10/b573kw>

Method one: put someone out there in the sun, optionally naked, as a symbol of all people that suffers in the drought. If the rain gods are sympathetic, they would bring rain.

Method two: put someone that the rain gods would care about. Perhaps find someone that is a child of raingod, perhaps some witch who is familiar with the rain gods, or perhaps an earthen model of the rain gods (often in the shape of a dragon), and make them suffer great heat. They might stay in the sun, or be put into rings of fire and dance to make them sweat profusely.

Method three: if all else fails, someone can be burnt on a pyre. This someone could be a witch, an official, a Buddhist, or an earthen model of the rain gods. Less harshly,, the model of the rain gods could be whipped, or seriously criticize for their abandonment of duty.

The ritual abuse of the rain gods is basically threatening the gods, which is what this post is about.

One interesting illustration is this oracle script for "暴" ("to expose")

It depicts a person lying under the sun, with two more person looking over a pyre. An explicit depiction of a rainmaking ritual.

Attack of the ball-snatchers in 1950s China!

The event

The following is translated from 1950年代：谣言席卷千万国人 by 李若建 in 《先锋国家历史》2008年2月刊. That is, The 1950s: Rumors swept through millions of Chinese, by Li Ruojian, published in Pioneer National History, 2008 February, issue 10.

Notes on Falun Gong

What is Falun Gong, and why do they believe "Trump was sent by heaven to destroy the communist party."?

This post collects a list of facts about Falun Gong, a new religious movement from 1992, China. Since 1999, the Chinese government has heavily suppressed it, and it has since then engaged in a fierce propaganda war with the Chinese government.

The Chinese government calls it an evil cult that caused many deaths of its members, and the Falun Gong (FG) members claim the government, as well as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is evil and will be destroyed in a coming apocalypse (more on the theology of FG later).

Disclaimer: This would read a lot like anti-Falun Gong propaganda that the Chinese government spins. That's a bit unfortunate, but I only quote from primary sources, academic secondary sources, and a few reputable news journals, like The Guardian and The New York Times. This post also overlaps with the RationalWiki's page on Falun Gong, which is more entertaining to read, but I think my post is better, because I keep my sources authoritative.

My attitude is that the nice, boring bits of Falun Gong (truth, kindness, tolerance) are good, the Chinese suppression is bad, and the religious doctrines and propaganda tactics of Falun Gong are bad. This post is purely on its bad religious doctrines and propaganda tactics.

China Uncensored - Disillusioned

Recently I had a great disillusionment with China Uncensored, a YouTube Channel that gives consistent criticism of the Chinese government. Since February 2020, it had started talking about some coronavirus conspiracy theories (Coronavirus Began in Chinese Lab? US Investigates), in a way that strongly suggests they are true without actually claiming they are true. It is a very devious technique, the one-sided reporting of third-party sources without directly supporting it.

More troublingly, it calls the coronavirus the "CCP Virus",

because it's the CCP's coverup that is what allowed it to spread back in December and January.

That is utter nonsense. Even if the Chinese government was fully transparent about the virus, it would still spread throughout the world, because of how infectious it is. A much more reasonable argument could be made, that the coverup delayed in understanding the virus's infectiousness by about 2 weeks, which contributed to slower responses by some foreign governments. However, America also has itself to blame, considering how its institutions managed to do precious little throughout February, despite being fully warned about this global health emergency by the WHO on January 31.

Let's read: Dead Men's Dialogue

In this post we read through Borges's story Dead Men's Dialogue, which, other than the usual kind of maddening riddles that writers play, where they only say half of what is said, and I have to fill in the other half, is extra hard to read for me because it is full of references to South American history that I don't know.

So I'll fill in all the blanks here.

Dead Men’s Dialogue

Jorge Luis Borges

Cancer Atavism: a bizarre but cool theory of cancer

Old longings nomadic leap,

Chafing at custom's chain; 

Again from its brumal sleep

Wakens the ferine strain.

Atavism

Atavism: a return to the ancient past, in behavior, appearance, or genes. From Wikipedia:

Evolutionarily traits that have disappeared phenotypically do not necessarily disappear from an organism's DNA. The gene sequence often remains, but is inactive. Such an unused gene may remain in the genome for many generations. As long as the gene remains intact, a fault in the genetic control suppressing the gene can lead to it being expressed again. Sometimes, the expression of dormant genes can be induced by artificial stimulation.

That sounds like computer code with a long legacy where an ancient feature pops up for no apparent reason.

Atavisms have been observed in humans, such as with infants born with vestigial tails. Atavism can also be seen in humans who possess large teeth, like those of other primates. In addition, a case of "snake heart", the presence of "coronary circulation and myocardial architecture [which resemble] those of the reptilian heart", has also been reported in medical literature.

I've heard of people with tails before, but snake heart?? That's new!

An Off-by-one Error in the Tet Offensive (1968)

North Vietnam used UTC+07:00 since 1968-01-01.

South Vietnam used UTC+08:00 since 1960-01-01.

The relevant new moon was on 1968-01-29, 16:31 UTC,
in North Vietnam time, 1968-01-29, 23:31.
In South Vietnam time, 1968-01-30, 00:31.

In Chinese and Vietnamese calendars, months begin on the day of the new moon. Years begin on the second or third new moon after the winter solstice.

Tet was on 1968-01-29 in North Vietnam.
Tet was on 1968-01-30 in South Vietnam.

Death Poems from Samurais

I played the game Seppuku Jisei. Slashing enemies was meditative. I aimed for the zen of one slash, one death, to lose myself in the flow of the kill. I stood in the middle of a mound of blood and limbs.

After the game, I saw some death poems here, and decided to investigate them. Thanks to my passable Japanese skills, I found their originals, and their contexts.

Death kept her distance.

But I reached for her hoof 

Just one touch...

I shivered from her love.

Energy, the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and of the modern society.

The collapse of Western Roman Empire is a very classic topic among scholars of history, politics, economy, etc. Joseph Tainter had a theory, based on complexity and energy management. 

If you have time, you can watch this lecture by Joseph, it's a fun and somber talk about the collapse of Western Roman Empire from his perspective. I also read the book The Collapse of Complex Societies, which elaborates his theory of social collapse with more examples than just the Western Roman Empire, including the Mayan Empire and Chacoan civilization.

The Collapse of Western Roman Empire

In the early days of Western Roman Empire/Roman Republic, it conquered a lot of new lands. Each conquest was easy, and brought great loots. The Romans used the loot to increase their wealth and power and social complexity. 

Some complexities were voluntary: they wanted to enjoy life. Some complexities were forced on them: they needed it to keep their growing republic/empire in order. These complexities were mostly in the forms of bureaucracies and law codes.

Eventually, the conquests ground to a halt: its borders reached the Germanic, Persian, Briton, and so on, countries that were either too powerful to conquer or too poor and distant to worth conquering. Rome went from conquest mode to farming mode. This placed a great burden on the empire: the economy and culture used to run on conquests, but now it has to run on farming.

Let's read: $C^*$-algebra, quantum mechanics, Pascual Jordan

A modern mathematical proof is not very different from a modern machine, or a modern test setup: the simple fundamental principles are hidden and almost invisible under a mass of technical details. ---- Hermann Weyl

After 3 courses in analysis I have finally reached Banach algebras, I feel exhausted by the climb and yet there's more theory ahead until the true pinnacle: the theory of $C^*$-algebra, for quantum mechanics!

Let's read, what is being promised?

$C^*$-algebras were first considered in quantum mechanics to model algebras of physical observables... began with Heisenberg's matrix mechanics and in a more mathematically developed form with Pascual Jordan around 1933. Subsequently, John von Neumann attempted to establish a general framework for these algebras which culminated in a series of papers on rings of operators. These papers considered a special class of $C^*$-algebras which are now known as von Neumann algebras.

So experiments in quantum mechanics → weird behavior of observables in quantum mechanics → Heisenberg matrix mechanics → Jordan purified it into Jordan algebra → von Neumann generalized to rings of operators → von Neumann algebra generalized to $C^*$-algebras.