Drew Gibson
@drewgibson.bsky.social
Independent Scholar: Chinese Dynastic Histories, Zizhi Tongjian, Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Vengeance swift she makes her story
Both chaste and cunning to her name
Where others choose from life or glory
None cannot match that Southland dame
才節雙全世所無
姦回一旦受摧鋤
庸臣從賊忠臣死
不及東吳女丈夫
(Trying my hand at some RTK poetry translation)
Both chaste and cunning to her name
Where others choose from life or glory
None cannot match that Southland dame
才節雙全世所無
姦回一旦受摧鋤
庸臣從賊忠臣死
不及東吳女丈夫
(Trying my hand at some RTK poetry translation)
October 9, 2026 at 5:46 AM
Vengeance swift she makes her story
Both chaste and cunning to her name
Where others choose from life or glory
None cannot match that Southland dame
才節雙全世所無
姦回一旦受摧鋤
庸臣從賊忠臣死
不及東吳女丈夫
(Trying my hand at some RTK poetry translation)
Both chaste and cunning to her name
Where others choose from life or glory
None cannot match that Southland dame
才節雙全世所無
姦回一旦受摧鋤
庸臣從賊忠臣死
不及東吳女丈夫
(Trying my hand at some RTK poetry translation)
Empires, long united, must divide.
Wrong answers only. My bet:
thanks for all the fish.
thanks for all the fish.
October 7, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Empires, long united, must divide.
I am actually curious here whether "recite" here is "quote from memory" or "read aloud".
October 7, 2026 at 5:42 PM
I am actually curious here whether "recite" here is "quote from memory" or "read aloud".
Would the Analects even be the best text if we get one Confucius text? Could make a strong argument for Book of Poetry or Spring and Autumn Annals.
Time for more spurious attributions!
Confucius now officially authored all 13 Classics, including the Mencius.
Can we put the Buddha on this list? Then we could add several hundred sutras.
Hold on, just discovering part 2 of Aristotle’s Poetics in a storage unit in Akron…
Confucius now officially authored all 13 Classics, including the Mencius.
Can we put the Buddha on this list? Then we could add several hundred sutras.
Hold on, just discovering part 2 of Aristotle’s Poetics in a storage unit in Akron…
The UT-Austin Core Curriculum Task Force is requiring that Gen Ed courses draw 50% of their readings from this list of 50.
Unfortunately, it seems to think that the “Great Questions of Human Life” can only be explored through the canon of Western civ (token exception: Confucius).
Unfortunately, it seems to think that the “Great Questions of Human Life” can only be explored through the canon of Western civ (token exception: Confucius).
October 5, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Would the Analects even be the best text if we get one Confucius text? Could make a strong argument for Book of Poetry or Spring and Autumn Annals.
Imagine being a British conservative and not using good old Wade-Giles spellings.
To the degree Cho Chang is bad I would submit the point that it's not an obviously whimsical name like most of the names in the story are. Kingsley Shacklebolt, for all its other flaws, is at least an attempt at that
To the degree Cho Chang is bad I would submit the point that it's not an obviously whimsical name like most of the names in the story are. Kingsley Shacklebolt, for all its other flaws, is at least an attempt at that
I've got no particular interest in defending JKR who is a horrible person, but as a linguistic matter, I think Cho Chang is fairly justifiable as a somewhat irregular romanization (and note that lots of name romanizations of diaspora Chinese are irregular!) of a name like Zhang Zhou/Zhao/Qiu
Famously, Great Britain had no exposure to China or Chinese people prior to the 1990s.
September 21, 2026 at 4:41 PM
Imagine being a British conservative and not using good old Wade-Giles spellings.
To the degree Cho Chang is bad I would submit the point that it's not an obviously whimsical name like most of the names in the story are. Kingsley Shacklebolt, for all its other flaws, is at least an attempt at that
To the degree Cho Chang is bad I would submit the point that it's not an obviously whimsical name like most of the names in the story are. Kingsley Shacklebolt, for all its other flaws, is at least an attempt at that
I'm going to show my ignorance here but I am willing to bet there have in fact been studies comparing the Imperial Japan colonial period across different countries to the early years of Qing occupation of China, especially southern China. Could even throw in a cross-comparison for Taiwan.
This entire argument is about my specific assertion that the broad historical consensus is that Qing imperialism was less brutal to subjugated populations than European empires or the post-Meiji Japanese empire. This is objectively true. james is trying to deny it but won’t say it outright
September 18, 2026 at 3:31 AM
I'm going to show my ignorance here but I am willing to bet there have in fact been studies comparing the Imperial Japan colonial period across different countries to the early years of Qing occupation of China, especially southern China. Could even throw in a cross-comparison for Taiwan.
"A clever and conniving man is Cao Mengde," said Xu You with a grin. "Just like they all say."
"Yet is any one of them ignorant," replied Cao Cao as he too broke into a smile, "that in war all things are fair?"
"Yet is any one of them ignorant," replied Cao Cao as he too broke into a smile, "that in war all things are fair?"
August 9, 2026 at 7:18 PM
"A clever and conniving man is Cao Mengde," said Xu You with a grin. "Just like they all say."
"Yet is any one of them ignorant," replied Cao Cao as he too broke into a smile, "that in war all things are fair?"
"Yet is any one of them ignorant," replied Cao Cao as he too broke into a smile, "that in war all things are fair?"
Yan Shibo was such a consumate flatterer that no other courtier could compare. Once he was playing a game of Yahtzee with the Emperor. The Emperor having just rolled a straight, he was sure that he was going to win.
July 3, 2026 at 5:04 AM
Yan Shibo was such a consumate flatterer that no other courtier could compare. Once he was playing a game of Yahtzee with the Emperor. The Emperor having just rolled a straight, he was sure that he was going to win.
A couple of letters here by one Chinese head of state to another, threatening bad things happening if the latter launched planned invasions:
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
April 6, 2026 at 1:33 AM
A couple of letters here by one Chinese head of state to another, threatening bad things happening if the latter launched planned invasions:
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
I have a Cao Cao joke, but let me hear yours first. Ah, just as I was thinking!
My Chinese history jokes, long fallen apart, will definitely reunite, always been this way
I have a great pre-20th century version of a Chinese literature joke based on a 17th century commentary on a Chinese literature joke about a 13th century Chinese literature joke updated from a 12th century Chinese literature joke about a 9th century Chinese literature joke
March 19, 2026 at 2:03 PM
I have a Cao Cao joke, but let me hear yours first. Ah, just as I was thinking!
I expect GOP in NC will be hammering this ridiculous point against Cooper again and again between now and November. As Brockman's former campaign manager and legislative aide I can tell you (as can anyone who knows NC pol) that the idea they are close is absurd. #ncpol
www.nrsc.org/press-releas...
www.nrsc.org/press-releas...
Reminder: Roy Cooper threw a birthday bash for child sex offender Cecil Brockman – NRSC
www.nrsc.org
March 18, 2026 at 9:08 PM
I expect GOP in NC will be hammering this ridiculous point against Cooper again and again between now and November. As Brockman's former campaign manager and legislative aide I can tell you (as can anyone who knows NC pol) that the idea they are close is absurd. #ncpol
www.nrsc.org/press-releas...
www.nrsc.org/press-releas...
Seeing this slide reminds me of one of those weird translation mishaps that keep happening for whatever reason: straightforwardly adapting "the X day of the Y month" as though they were 1-to-1 with the relevant western calendar. Not sure why people do this. Almost as bad as the 10k/1k misalignment.
battles well known outside of Japan, due somewhat to its (mis)use as a non-Western example to support the Military Revolution Theory by Geoffrey Parker. I won't go into that too much today, but maybe another time. Anyway, I wanted to know more about it, and being at UH was a perfect opportunity. 4/
![Intro slide to a presentation I gave at the 2013 Chinese Military History Society's conference (at SMH), with Parker's quote on Nagashino.
“but everyone admits that the most spectacular demonstration of the power of Japanese musketry occurred on 21 May 1575* at the battle of Nagashino. [Oda] Nobunaga deployed 3,000 musketeers in three ranks in this action, having trained them to fire in volleys so as to maintain a constant barrage. The opposing Takeda cavalry was annihilated. The battle-scene in Kurosawa’s film Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior) offers a credible reconstruction, for the action is intended to represent Nagashino.” (Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution, 1988, p. 140)
*21st day of the 5th month, actually corresponding to June 29th, 1575](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7wyymajb25e6oasujni4gwgj/bafkreig75gvaaroty6z72l3nlztukmcpz722s774ik7x3hsmrn6qfttfc4)
March 17, 2026 at 12:39 AM
Seeing this slide reminds me of one of those weird translation mishaps that keep happening for whatever reason: straightforwardly adapting "the X day of the Y month" as though they were 1-to-1 with the relevant western calendar. Not sure why people do this. Almost as bad as the 10k/1k misalignment.
One of the greatest curiosities for me of late is the fact both that there is a current trend of arguing that Qin conquered the rest of China by going against the principles of Sunzi and that pictures for Sunzi almost inevitably are accompanied by pictures of one of Qin's terracotta soldiers.
Especially there is a common argument recently that the Art of War is only imagined as applying to armies that are roughly the same sort and has no purpose against, say, steppe nomads or other radically different enemies. That Mao found it useful in his own time I think is a good counterexample.
March 16, 2026 at 5:31 PM
One of the greatest curiosities for me of late is the fact both that there is a current trend of arguing that Qin conquered the rest of China by going against the principles of Sunzi and that pictures for Sunzi almost inevitably are accompanied by pictures of one of Qin's terracotta soldiers.
Bret is apparently using Giles for this line, and I have to disagree with the translation: closer to "those who do not know the designs of the (rival) lords cannot engage them" as part of the greater point on maneuvering.
(I checked a copy of Griffith but found this line curiously omitted.)
(I checked a copy of Griffith but found this line curiously omitted.)
Naturally, because Sunzi's The Art of War is a guidebook for how to teach the failsons of princes to fail less, there is a piece of advice for this: "We cannot enter into alliances unless we are acquainted with the designs of our neighbors."
March 16, 2026 at 2:45 PM
Bret is apparently using Giles for this line, and I have to disagree with the translation: closer to "those who do not know the designs of the (rival) lords cannot engage them" as part of the greater point on maneuvering.
(I checked a copy of Griffith but found this line curiously omitted.)
(I checked a copy of Griffith but found this line curiously omitted.)
A 春望 draft
Regal wreck as natures flow
Zombie town where spring things grow
Grief! each tear some petal's pool
Spite! but birds bid heartbeats cruel
"Danger!" blooms three months each day
Yet words from home no purse can pay
At least my hair has nearly died
They couldn't raise it if they tried
Regal wreck as natures flow
Zombie town where spring things grow
Grief! each tear some petal's pool
Spite! but birds bid heartbeats cruel
"Danger!" blooms three months each day
Yet words from home no purse can pay
At least my hair has nearly died
They couldn't raise it if they tried
February 25, 2026 at 12:29 PM
A 春望 draft
Regal wreck as natures flow
Zombie town where spring things grow
Grief! each tear some petal's pool
Spite! but birds bid heartbeats cruel
"Danger!" blooms three months each day
Yet words from home no purse can pay
At least my hair has nearly died
They couldn't raise it if they tried
Regal wreck as natures flow
Zombie town where spring things grow
Grief! each tear some petal's pool
Spite! but birds bid heartbeats cruel
"Danger!" blooms three months each day
Yet words from home no purse can pay
At least my hair has nearly died
They couldn't raise it if they tried
Thinking through a Qiu Jin poem, stage 1
Just content here
I won't say a woman can't be bold
"Cresting the waves and riding the winds" as she sets off towards the east on her own
In poems focused upon a sail, between sea and sky
In dreams haunting the Three Islands (of Japan), by moonlit gleam
Just content here
I won't say a woman can't be bold
"Cresting the waves and riding the winds" as she sets off towards the east on her own
In poems focused upon a sail, between sea and sky
In dreams haunting the Three Islands (of Japan), by moonlit gleam
January 10, 2026 at 3:27 PM
Thinking through a Qiu Jin poem, stage 1
Just content here
I won't say a woman can't be bold
"Cresting the waves and riding the winds" as she sets off towards the east on her own
In poems focused upon a sail, between sea and sky
In dreams haunting the Three Islands (of Japan), by moonlit gleam
Just content here
I won't say a woman can't be bold
"Cresting the waves and riding the winds" as she sets off towards the east on her own
In poems focused upon a sail, between sea and sky
In dreams haunting the Three Islands (of Japan), by moonlit gleam
Lessons of Chinese history: If you're in Chang'an, stay in Chang'an.
December 20, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Lessons of Chinese history: If you're in Chang'an, stay in Chang'an.
I am reading a 1700s-era book on Chinese history which repeatedly describes the Prime Minister of Chinese states using the term "Colao", no characters provided. Is this actually some kind of Portuguese loan word, or something else? Anyone know this one?
November 20, 2025 at 8:30 AM
I am reading a 1700s-era book on Chinese history which repeatedly describes the Prime Minister of Chinese states using the term "Colao", no characters provided. Is this actually some kind of Portuguese loan word, or something else? Anyone know this one?
Slightly diminish a book
The Meh Earth
The Meh Earth
Slightly diminishing a book
Journey to the Store
Journey to the Store
Slightly diminish a book
The Faux Pearl
The Faux Pearl
September 8, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Slightly diminish a book
The Meh Earth
The Meh Earth
"In any given farming family of five people, no fewer than two of them will be liable to be called away to perform military service or corvee labor, and the family will be able to farm no more than a hundred mu of land, the yield of which will not exceed a hundred bushels.
That dumb myth is what inspired me to write the current peasant series and we'll get to tearing it down in part 4
July 20, 2025 at 12:52 AM
"In any given farming family of five people, no fewer than two of them will be liable to be called away to perform military service or corvee labor, and the family will be able to farm no more than a hundred mu of land, the yield of which will not exceed a hundred bushels.
What a wreck this life!
At forty years no codger
Yet overnight thrust into chaos
And tomorrow no longer certain
The capital snatched by brutes
The palace overrun with weeds
Heart-breaking the sacred tombs
And sightless the royal roads
At forty years no codger
Yet overnight thrust into chaos
And tomorrow no longer certain
The capital snatched by brutes
The palace overrun with weeds
Heart-breaking the sacred tombs
And sightless the royal roads
…the latter of which is what the line means in the Cen Ci poem it comes from: zh.m.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E8%...
行軍詩 (早知逢世亂) - 維基文庫，自由的圖書館
https://zh.m.wikisource.org/zh-hant/行軍詩_(早知逢世亂)
July 13, 2025 at 8:56 PM
What a wreck this life!
At forty years no codger
Yet overnight thrust into chaos
And tomorrow no longer certain
The capital snatched by brutes
The palace overrun with weeds
Heart-breaking the sacred tombs
And sightless the royal roads
At forty years no codger
Yet overnight thrust into chaos
And tomorrow no longer certain
The capital snatched by brutes
The palace overrun with weeds
Heart-breaking the sacred tombs
And sightless the royal roads
What's the policy on swear word usage in academic translations? Asking for a peer.
June 28, 2025 at 8:54 AM
What's the policy on swear word usage in academic translations? Asking for a peer.
A bit of slapstick in the Hojo Tokimune show when Tokimune and the other shogunate regents fear that the box containing Kublai's letter might be booby-trapped and they toss it to the ground and cringe as they open it.
June 14, 2025 at 4:27 AM
A bit of slapstick in the Hojo Tokimune show when Tokimune and the other shogunate regents fear that the box containing Kublai's letter might be booby-trapped and they toss it to the ground and cringe as they open it.
Watching more of the Hojo Tokimune series. A Chinese character makes the comment that "[China] has 1,500 years of history". Seems like a curious remark for a setting of ~1260 AD.
June 11, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Watching more of the Hojo Tokimune series. A Chinese character makes the comment that "[China] has 1,500 years of history". Seems like a curious remark for a setting of ~1260 AD.
Watching the 2001 taiga drama "Hojo Tokimune" and enjoying how every episode seems to end with a countdown of "Days Until The Mongols Arrive". Feel like more shows should use this as a cliffhanger.
June 10, 2025 at 12:30 AM
Watching the 2001 taiga drama "Hojo Tokimune" and enjoying how every episode seems to end with a countdown of "Days Until The Mongols Arrive". Feel like more shows should use this as a cliffhanger.