The Chinese Legation to the Paris Commune

In 1870, the government of China had to send an emergency legation to Paris in response to an incident in a Chinese port. It was an unusual circumstance; this was only the third formal diplomatic mission sent by the Qing dynasty to the Western world. A translator with the 1870 mission, Zhang Deyi, had served […]

Families Turned Detective in Edo Japan

Societies have handled the enforcement of laws a lot of different ways in different places and times; the ubiquity of police in the 21st century can make it hard to imagine what other systems might even look like. The way the authorities tracked down suspects in Edo-era Japan (1603-1867) is particularly interesting. The system was […]

Kunming Stone Forest

Once a month here on the Molten Sulfur Blog, I run content taken from our book Archive: Historical People, Places, and Events for RPGs. This post is one of eighty entries in Archive, each more gameable than the last! This post is brought to you by beloved Patreon backer Robert Nichols. Thanks for helping keep […]

Bandits, Agricultural College, and the Century of Humiliation

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Xuanzang and the Five Border Towers

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Shanty Hunters: Ports

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Hiroo Onoda

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The Confucian Village of Misfortune

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The Secret History of the Mountain Folk

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Weird Japanese Monsters

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Shen Fu’s Complicated Family

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Zhang Xi and the Plot That Wasn’t

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Ching Shih

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The Wokou Raiders

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The Wonders of Sir John Mandeville (Asia)

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