For the audiences in Han and Tang era Chang'an, this chart could be said to depict the grandest possible panorama using the most concise strokes.
To observe two thousand years of change in Huaxia, a single chart was enough.
Moreover, the audiences in both Chang'ans faintly realized something. The entire chart relied purely on numbers. There was not a single summarizing sentence, yet the meaning it sought to convey was still expressed with absolute clarity.
This seemed to be yet another application of mathematics.
The people in both places quietly stored this thought away, planning to discuss it later.
At this moment, several lines of text slowly drifted across the light screen.
[Server Chat Log]
Bloodhelm: Hey, if you bring up the three great cases of the late Ming, I am instantly wide awake.
Oathbound: The uploader already said this episode mainly reviews Han and Tang from a climate perspective. The three great cases probably will not be served up.
Shieldbane: Indeed. The causes, suspicions, and aftermath of the Red Pill Case are not something that can be explained in a few sentences.
Zhu Changluo was just incredibly unlucky. Of the three great cases of the late Ming, he experienced two of them, and was even the main character in one. He ultimately earned titles like Aphrodisiac Emperor and One Month Son of Heaven. That is rare even in history.
Just one red pill dragged out so many palace secrets of the Ming. Because of harvesting young girls' menstrual blood as medicine, palace maids even plotted rebellion. Unfortunately, their methods were still too gentle. The Renyin Palace Incident failed to actually strangle that old man Jiajing. Otherwise, the history of the Ming would have been even more exciting.
Zhao Guangyi: This chart contains an overwhelming amount of content. Is there a core takeaway?
Inside the warm chamber of Bianjing, the previously cheerful atmosphere had completely vanished.
Zhao Guangyi fled in panic while shouting his defense, with Zhao Kuangyin behind him, jade axe in hand and fury blazing.
"Elder brother, though your younger brother is skilled in calligraphy, I am completely ignorant of fine brushwork. If I were forced to copy it, would that not be like trying to paint a tiger and ending up with a dog instead?"
Seeing that his elder brother remained silent, Zhao Guangyi grew even more anxious and continued.
"Does elder brother not wish to hear the governing insights of those like Tang Taizong and Marquis Zhuge? Gaining even one or two points could allow our Song to have a ruler who can preserve the realm, rather than become like that…"
With a loud bang, the small jade axe in Zhao Kuangyin's hand flew out and struck Zhao Guangyi on the shoulder, knocking him into a stagger. The sound that followed was the axe hitting the ground.
Zhao Guangyi's words immediately turned into pleas for mercy.
None of this affected Zhao Pu in the slightest.
He acted as though he had seen nothing and heard nothing, stretching his head forward as if he wanted to plunge directly into the light screen.
As one of Zhao Kuangyin's most trusted aides, and also one of the principal planners of the Chenqiao Mutiny, Zhao Pu possessed an extremely agile mind. The moment he personally witnessed the light screen, he understood that the greatest variable since the age of regional military governors had finally arrived.
Seeing the contents of the chart now only strengthened this conviction. Relying purely on memory, he forcefully imprinted the few simple lines and numbers related to the Song dynasty into his mind.
It was a pity that the chart was displayed for too short a time, preventing him from recording more.
But now, watching the text drift across the light screen, the content concerning the Ming dynasty alone was enough to make Zhao Pu's eyes widen.
…
"Jiajing…"
Liu Bei looked up and thought for a moment. The name felt familiar, but he could not recall it clearly, so he immediately turned his gaze to Kongming.
"He was a ruler who believed deeply in Daoism, opening the trend of Ming dynasty reverence for the Yellow Emperor and mystical Dao."
After hesitating, Kongming continued.
"This Jiajing seems to be that Longevity Emperor who ascended the throne after the death of Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao, the one associated with the Leopard Room."
It seemed that having instant recall of everything was not entirely beneficial. Kongming silently warned himself.
The later generations spoke only briefly about the Ming, but what was known now was already enough for Kongming to form a conjecture.
Fond of esoteric arts, seeking immortality, indulging freely in alchemical chambers. These traits alone were enough for Kongming to connect Jiajing with the so called Longevity Emperor.
Now, learning of his madness in harvesting medicinal substances leading to palace maids attempting regicide, an image that was far from flattering had already taken shape.
The words were brief, yet everyone listened with keen interest.
After all, many aspects of the Tang were extremely similar to the Han. Only when the discussion reached the Ming and Song did it feel fresh to everyone.
And from the bottom of their hearts, they could not help but sigh.
Quite the players.
"Divine Physician Zhang, um… do those things actually have medicinal effects?"
Zhang Fei could not help but ask Zhang Zhongjing out of mild curiosity, only to receive a blunt reply from the elderly physician.
"Utter nonsense."
And in his heart, Zhang Zhongjing drew a clear and unmistakable boundary between medicine and Daoist practices.
Do not come anywhere near me.
[Lightscreen]
[Let us set aside the chaotic matters of the Ming for now and continue discussing one of today's main subjects.
The rise and fall of the Tang dynasty is inseparable from climate change. But if one were to carefully inventory the details, the internal factors are extremely complex.
Overall, however, Tang's decline is difficult to separate from its reckless destruction of the environment.
As mentioned earlier when discussing changes in coal usage, everyone already knows that the large scale adoption of coal during the Song was essentially due to a shortage of charcoal. In order to keep warm, coal had to be developed.
As the saying goes, predecessors cut down the trees, and descendants suffer the consequences. This blame must naturally be borne by the Tang.
Forests were a crucial environmental asset for ancient dynasties. They provided hunting and foraging grounds for the people, and supplied fuel necessary for cooking, heating, and iron smelting.
According to incomplete statistics, during the Tang's peak, aided by increased rainfall brought by rising temperatures, forest coverage in the middle and lower Yellow River region reached an unprecedented thirty five percent.
By the time of the Song, this figure had dropped to under nine percent. In other words, over roughly two hundred years, the Tang completely destroyed seventy percent of the existing forests in the middle and lower Yellow River region.
The soil erosion, land degradation, frequent droughts and floods caused by large scale destruction of forest vegetation are well understood and need no elaboration.
This is also one of the reasons why the Song's repeated efforts to manage the Yellow River addressed symptoms but not the root cause.
Now let us look back. The Tang benefited from rising temperatures and a pleasant climate. But just how good was this climate?
Based on incomplete historical records, over the Tang's three hundred years, there were nineteen years in the Guanzhong region when winter had no snowfall, the highest among all Chinese dynasties.
The warm climate caused the snow line to shift northward. The most notable impacts were twofold.
First, the pleasant climate reduced survival pressure on nomadic peoples, gradually stabilizing and unifying them internally. This allowed the Tang to defeat and manage nomadic regions at relatively low cost.
Second, the northward shift of the snow line caused an unprecedented expansion of agricultural zones. Troops could be stationed and farmland cultivated even in the Western Regions. In the northwest Longyou area, households were said to face each other, mulberry and hemp covered the fields, and under heaven none could rival Longyou in prosperity. The scale of northern agriculture was something the Ming would find extremely difficult to imagine.
But the Tang was not done yet.
According to currently verified data, the regions where rice could be cultivated during the Tang extended west to the Hexi Corridor, north to the Hetao and southern foothills of the Yan Mountains near present day Baoding in Hebei, east to the Bohai Sea.
This is something all other dynasties would find unimaginable.]