The Great Wall

by John Man | History |
ISBN: 9780593055748 Global Overview for this book
Registered by MastaBaba of Delft, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on 1/21/2009
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by MastaBaba from Delft, Zuid-Holland Netherlands on Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I love John Man's style and subjects, heavy on Central and East Asia, with a clear preference for all things Mongolian and, to an extent, Chinese.

After writing his The Terracotta Army, he progressed, naturally, I suppose, to this history of the great wall. Although, particularly towards the end of the book, Man too often goes into too much factual detail on the current state of affairs of parts of the wall he visits, making his story into something of a travelogue. Not uninteresting, but also not unique.

- Chinggis' great grandfather was called Kabul. Any connection to the city?
- The Han Emperor Wu, who roughly lived in the first century BC, sent one of his generals up north with the objective to make friends with old enemies of the Xiongnu, who might have turned themselves in the Huns when crashing into Europe. The general did not succeed but, after living with the Xiongnu for some ten years before 'escaping', ended up in present day central Asia, where he found the Ferghana valley's 'blood sweating horses' (so called as a result of the valley's stinging insects), which were deemed perfect additions to the emperors imperial armies. The result of this being the start of the later Silk Road(s), with trade going in two directions.
- Zhu Di, successor to the first Ming emperor who kicked out the Mongols from China in 1368, re-conquered Yunnan in 1382. Here, all adult Mongols were killed and boys castrated. One of these boys was a little fellow called Zheng He.
- The Chinese call the wall the long city. At a certain time, walls were synonyms with cities.
- After the Mongols conquered the Ossetians, in the Caucasus, they brought back a contingent of them to Mongolia. Even today, a clan, the "Asud", is still living in eastern Inner Mongolia (in China).
- I know three Mongolian words which made into the international vocabulary: 'Horde', from 'Ordon', the plural of 'tent'; 'Hurray', from the Mongolian for 'forward'; 'Dalai', the Mongolian for 'ocean'. And indeed, it was a 16th century Mongol khan who gave some Tibetan lama the title 'Dalai' to boost his own connection with Buddhism and increase his stature with his subjects.

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