Seeing the Enemy with Shang Oracle Bones
China’s Shang dynasty ruled a Bronze Age proto-state that used a lot of divination to inform the king’s decisions. The pyromancy that Shang officials wielded to understand their world left a rich trove of documentary evidence: oracle bones covered in burns and writing. They’re a great fit for RPG campaigns, even ones that don’t have […]
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
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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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