Why the West Rules—for Now

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Why the West Rules—for Now Page 71

by Morris, Ian;


  73 “Suddenly … I made out”: Herbert Kühn’s 1923 interview with Maria Sanz de Sautuola, in Kühn 1955, pp. 45–46.

  74 “so enthusiastic”: ibid., p. 46.

  2. THE WEST TAKES THE LEAD

  85 “cognitive arms race”: Pinker 1997, p. 193 (Pinker himself does not subscribe to this theory).

  91 “cultivated”: Fuller 2007.

  93 “You can’t step”: None of the original works of Heraclitus (flourished c. 500 BCE) survive; Plato quoted this passage in Cratylus 402A in the early fourth century BCE.

  106 “a small university city”: Sahlins 2005, p. 209.

  106 “Open the gates,” “Thanks to teachers,” and “Be a realist”: quoted in Quattrocchi and Nairn 1968, pp. 17, 30.

  106 “erected a shrine” and “The world’s most primitive”: Marshall Sahlins, “The Original Affluent Society,” first published in French in 1968. The quotations come from an English version published in Sahlins 1972, pp. 39 and 37 and reprinted in Sahlins 2005, pp. 134 and 133.

  107 “in different ways”: Barker 2006, p. 414.

  113 “Free will is for history”: Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (1869), Epilogue, part II, chapter 11. Translation modified slightly from http://www.gutenberg.org.

  3. TAKING THE MEASURE OF THE PAST

  135 “From the remotest past”: Spencer 1857, p. 465.

  137 “the vanity”: Max Weber, cited in Gerth and Mills 1946, p. 66, note.

  139 “exist[ing] in a”: Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle (1882), chapter 10.

  139 agreement among indices: Carneiro 2003, pp. 167–68.

  140 “sympathy and even admiration”: Sahlins 2005, pp. 22–23.

  141 “Evolutionary theories”: Shanks and Tilley 1987, p. 164.

  141 “We no longer”: Ortner 1984, p. 126.

  143 “The ships”: Lord Robert Jocelyn, cited from Waley 1958, p. 109.

  143 “as if the subjects”: Armine Mountain, cited from Fay 1997, p. 222.

  145 “in science”: people regularly attribute these or similar words to Einstein, but no one has been able to trace them back to a source. The strongest claim I have seen is on the One Degree website (http://www.onedegree.ca/2005/04/08/making-einstein-simple), suggesting that the phrase actually comes from a Reader’s Digest summary of the general theory of relativity. Perhaps it was the most important thing Einstein never said (but should have).

  145 “I’m just wondering”: Arthur Eddington, quoted in Isaacson 2007, p. 262.

  146 Norway and Sierra Leone scores: United Nations Development Programme 2009, Table H, pp. 171, 174 (available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/).

  148 E x T → C: L. White 1949, p. 368.

  149 “Every Communist”: taken from Mao Zedong’s essay “On Protracted War,” written in May 1937, quoted in Short 1999, p. 368.

  151 “because no”: Naroll 1956, p. 691.

  157 “conjectures and refutations”: Popper 1963, p. 43.

  157 “There could be”: Albert Einstein, quoted in ibid., p. 42.

  163 “There are three”: attributed to Benjamin Disraeli by Mark Twain (Twain 1924, p. 246).

  170 “Are these” etc.: Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol in Prose (1843), stave 4.

  4. THE EAST CATCHES UP

  186 “How can a man”: Plutarch, Life of Alexander 64.

  191 “And they gained”: Genesis 47.27, as translated in The New Oxford Annotated Bible (1994), p. 63 OT.

  193 “Who then”: Sumerian King List, translated in Kramer 1963, p. 330.

  194 “Hunger filled”: The Lamentation over Ur, lines 390–94, translated in Michalowski 1989.

  197 “the kings who”: treaty between the Hittites and Amurru, late thirteenth century BCE, translated in Beckman 1999, p. 107.

  199 “His Majesty [Ramses] slew”: Ramses II’s victory inscription, translated in Lichtheim 1973–80, vol. II, p. 62.

  204 “The Way”: Lü Buwei, Springs and Autumns of Mr. Lü 3.5, translated in de Bary and Bloom 1999, p. 239.

  205 “But for Yu”: Zuozhuan Commentary, Duke Zhao Year 1, translated in Legge 1872, p. 578.

  205 “the Age of Jade”: Chang 1989, p. 42.

  206 “During the reign”: Lü Buwei, Springs and Autumns of Mr. Lü, p. 239.

  210 “They tilted”: Classic of Odes, translated in Waley 1937, no. 240.

  213 “Crackmaking”: Jiaguwen heji 6,664 front, translated in de Bary and Bloom 1999, p. 12.

  216 “the watchers”: Pylos tablet An 657, translated in Chadwick 1987, pp. 40–42.

  216 “it is a matter” and “the enemy’s ships”: Ugarit tablets RS 20.212 and 18.147, translated in Astour 1965, p. 255.

  216 “The foreign countries” etc.: Ramses III, Medinet Habu inscription, translated in Pritchard 1969, pp. 262–63.

  217 “The Land”: Mursili II, Prayer to the Sun Goddess (CTH 376), translated in Pritchard 1969, p. 396.

  218 “wasted, bare”: Merneptah, Poetical Stela, translated in Lichtheim 1973–80, vol. II, p. 77.

  219 “In those days”: Judges 21.25, translated in New Oxford Annotated Bible, p. 331 OT.

  222 “The war chariots”: “Great brightness,” Classic of Odes, translated in Waley 1937, no. 246.

  222 “Children of the Sun”: G. E. Smith 1915.

  5. NECK AND NECK

  231 “I come”: Mencius 7B/4, translated in Lau 2003, p. 158.

  232 “In the evening”: Mai zun inscription, translated in Shaughnessy 1991, p. 207.

  232 “The heavens”: Bamboo Annals 4.4.5, translated in Legge 1865, Prolegomena p. 149.

  233 “Cheap iron”: Childe 1942, p. 183.

  235 “I brought back”: Ashur-dan II, translated in Grayson 1991, pp. 134–35.

  237 “I built a tower”: Ashurnasirpal II, translated in Luckenbill 1926, paragraphs 433, 445, 455, 472.

  238 “If such a disruption”: Bradley 1999, p. 15.

  239 “Phoenician men”: Homer, Odyssey 15.415–16.

  243 “King You”: Sima Qian, Basic Annals 4.148, from the translation in Nienhauser 1994, p. 74.

  246 like a wolf: paraphrased from Lord Byron, “The Destruction of Sennacherib” (1815), stanza 1.

  249 “my shepherd”: Isaiah 44.28–45.1, translated in New Oxford Annotated Bible, p. 927 OT.

  250 “the Persians”: Herodotus 3.89.

  252 “Duke Ling”: Zuozhuan, Duke Xuan 2nd year, translated in Watson 1989, p. 76.

  254 “Would that I”: Hesiod, Works and Days, lines 174–76, 197–201.

  255 “Man, as we”: Jaspers 1953, p. 1.

  255 “The more … in speaking”: Confucius, Analects 9.11 and 12.3, translated in R. Dawson 1993, pp. 32, 44.

  255 “it’s beyond me”: Plato, Republic 506e.

  255 “The Way”: Laozi, Daodejing 1, translated in de Bary and Bloom 1999, pp. 79–80.

  257 “I transmit” and “To subdue oneself”: Confucius, Analects 7.1, 12.1, 7.30, translated in R. Dawson 1993, pp. 24, 44, 26.

  257 “act like beggars” and “Regard another’s state”: Mozi 39.2 and 15.11–15, translated in Bloodworth and Bloodworth 2004, p. 31.

  258 “For three years,” “You can’t bear,” and “one of the good” etc.: Zhuangzi 7, 26, 33, translated in Palmer et al. 2006, pp. 63–64, 239, 299–300.

  259 “the enrichment,” “If in enterprises,” and “A state”: Book of Lord Shang 8.8 and 20, translated in Duyvendak 1928.

  263 “Qin has the same” and “It has the heart”: Stratagems of the Warring States (Zhanguoce) chapter 24, p. 869, translated in M. Lewis 2007, p. 40.

  263 “Who can be”: Polybius 1.1.

  265 “[Lord Shang] commanded”: Sima Qian, Shi ji 68, p. 2230, translated in M. Lewis 2007, p. 30.

  266 “To jaw-jaw”: Winston Churchill, speech at the White House, June 26, 1954, published in New York Times, June 27, 1954, p. 1.

  266 “Qin is the”: Stratagems of the Warring States (Zhanguoce), chapter 24, p. 869, translated in M. Lewis 2007, p. 40.

  267 “We
are the”: cited from Paludan 1998, p. 17.

  269 “Remember, you are a mortal”: Tertullian, Apology 33; Jerome, Letters 39.2.8 (with discussion in Beard 2007, pp. 85–92).

  270 “The Roman custom”: Polybius 10.15.

  273 “dispatched his adjutant”: Fan Ye, History of the Later Han, cited from Leslie and Gardiner 1996, p. 43.

  274 “In a workshop,” “An inner room,” and “I casually produced”: Wheeler 1955, pp. 170–73.

  276 “They have squat bodies”: Ammianus Marcellinus, Histories 31.2.

  277 “violence and neglect”: Herodotus 1.106.

  278 “Glutton as you are”: Herodotus 1.212.

  6. DECLINE AND FALL

  280 “All is for”: Voltaire, Candide (1759), chapter 1 and passim.

  280 “When the emperor”: Han dynasty poet, cited from Lovell 2006, p. 83.

  280 “For the eternal”: Aelius Aristides, To Rome 29, 109.

  282 “As things stand”: Sima Qian, Shi ji 48, translated in Watson 1993, pp. 2–3.

  284 “All happy families”: Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1875), part I, chapter 1, translation from http://www.gutenberg.org.

  286 “I think”: Suetonius, Life of Vespasian 23.

  286 “All right then”: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979).

  293 stone chambers, etc.: Chuci, cited from Paludan 1998, p. 49.

  295 “Columbian Exchange”: Crosby 1972.

  295 “It appears”: cited in Crosby 2004, p. 215.

  297 “Recently there have been”: He Gong, cited from McNeill 1976, p. 118.

  300 “If you lose”: Wang Fu, Discourses of a Hidden Man, p. 258, translated in M. Lewis 2007, p. 259.

  302 “When a new”: Fan Ye, History of the Later Han 71, p. 2299, cited from Twitchett and Loewe 1986, p. 338.

  302 “The Han”: Fan Ye, History of the Later Han 72, p. 2322, cited from M. Lewis 2007, p. 262.

  303 “My armor”: Cao Cao, cited from M. Lewis 2007, p. 28.

  306 “The dead”: History of the Jin Dynasty, chapter 107, pp. 2791–92, translated in Graff 2002, p. 63.

  307 “awful revolution”: Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 3 (1781), subchapter “General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West.”

  307 “which will ever be”: Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. 1 (1776), chapter 1.

  307 “Now was revealed”: Tacitus, Histories 1.4.

  314 “Why ask for a song”: Sidonius Apollinaris, Poems 12.

  314 “All Gaul”: Orientus, Commonitorium 2.184.

  320 “Snapped rooftrees”: The Ruin (anon.), cited from Dixon 1992, p. 146.

  320 coins that float: cited from Dien 2007, p. 217.

  320 “Surely you do not” and “Have you ever”: Ruan Ji, “Biography of Mr. Greatman,” translated in Balazs 1964, p. 238.

  323 “Today there is no”: History of Wei 114.3,045, translated in Gernet 1995, p. 7.

  325 “He neither bathed”: Athanasius, Life of Saint Antony 27.

  326 “We may hear” and “The clergy”: Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 3 (1781), subchapter “General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West.”

  7. THE EASTERN AGE

  337 “By cutting through”: Pi Rixiu, Quan Tang wen 797.8363b, translated in Xiong 2006, p. 93.

  337 “Hundreds of houses”: Bai Juyi, translated in Waley 1961, p. 161. The poem dates to 827.

  339 “A bride serves”: Family Instructions of the Grandfather, translated in Ebrey 1996, p. 127.

  342 “If they do not die”: Zhu Yu, Conversations in Pingzhou 1,119, translated in Duyvendak 1949, p. 24.

  345 “Everyone born”: Procopius, History of the Wars 1.24. The gossip about Justinian’s demons and Theodora’s orifices comes from the same author’s Secret History 12.20 and 9.18.

  346 “nobody would go”: John of Ephesus, quoted in Pseudo-Dionysus, Chronicle of Zuqnin 5, translated in Witakowski 1996, p. 93.

  348 “Immense joy”: Anonymous treatise, “Return of the Relics of the Holy Martyr Anastasius the Persian from Persia to His Monastery” 1.99, translated in Kaegi 2003, p. 206.

  348 “Let us all”: Sebeos of Armenia, History 36, translated in Thomson 1999, p. 73.

  350 “Recite!”: Koran 96.1–5. A minority of scholars believes that the first recitation was actually verse 74.

  351 “My heart”: ’Umar, cited in Ibn Ishaq, Sira 228, translated in Guillaume 1971, p. 158.

  351 “Fight for the sake”: Koran 2.190.

  351 “Be peaceful”: Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots,” November 1963, cited from DeGroot 2008, p. 117.

  351, 352 “Who but” and “Our God”: Koran 2.130 and 29.46.

  353 “A victorious line”: Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 5 (1788), chapter 52.

  355 “craving beauty,” “Flowery hairpins,” and “Our souls”: Bai Juyi, Everlasting Wrong, translated by Witter Bynner in Birch 1965, pp. 266, 269.

  362 “a Rome”: Anon., Karolus Magnus et Leo Papa, line 97, translated in Godman 1985, p. 202.

  367 “Give these monks”: Gerald of Wales, cited from Fagan 2008, p. 36.

  367 “pagans are the worst”: Anonymous document, cited in Bartlett 1993, pp. 136–37.

  369 “now not pope”: Henry IV, letter to Gregory VII, January 24, 1076. Translated in Mommsen and Morrison 1962, pp. 151–52.

  370 “the formation”: R. Moore 1987.

  370 “age of cathedrals”: Duby 1981.

  370 “One night”: Peter Abelard, Story of My Misfortunes, translated in Muckle 1964, p. 38.

  372 “a savage”: William of Apulia, La geste de Robert Guiscard II.427–28, translated in Bartlett 1993, p. 86.

  372 “Whenever battle”: Anna Comnena, Alexiad 11.6.3, translated in Bartlett 1993, p. 86.

  373 “dissolved the militarists’ power”: Bi Yuan, Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government (1797), year 2, translated in Mote 1999, p. 103.

  375 “Buddhism is no more”: Han Yu, “Memorial on the Bone of the Buddha” (819), translated in de Bary and Bloom 1999, pp. 583–84.

  376 “The true scholar”: Fan Zhongyan, On Yueyang Tower, translated in Hucker 1975, p. 364.

  377 “The rivers and lakes”: Ye Shi, translated in Shiba and Elvin 1970, p. 76.

  378 “The morning sun”: Daoqian, “On the Way to Guizong Monastery,” translated in Shiba and Elvin 1970, p. 357.

  379 “several times cheaper”: Wang Zhen, Treatise on Agriculture 19.13a, 22.4a, translated in Elvin 1973, pp. 195, 198.

  379, 380 “the resemblance” and “but if the line”: Elvin 1973, p. 198.

  381 “Didn’t you see her”: Su Shi, “Stone Coal” (c. 1080), translated in Wagner 2001b, pp. 51–52. I would like to thank Professor Wagner and Professor Nathan Sivin for discussing this text with me.

  8. GOING GLOBAL

  384 “I can tell you”: Marco Polo, The Travels, translated in Latham 1958, p. 223. On palaces, see pp. 125–26; riches, p. 149; the Yangzi, p. 209; bridges, p. 163; food, p. 215; young ladies, p. 196; wives, p. 217; courtesans, p. 216; pears, p. 215; black stone, p. 156; fat fish, p, 215; porcelain, p. 238.

  389 “as lines of writing”: Yaqut al-Hamawi, translated in Browne 1902, vol. 2, p. 437.

  391 “Never has there been” “an immense horde” and “followed after strange gods”: Matthew Paris, English History, translated in Giles 1852, vol. 1, p. 314.

  392 “That sunny dome!”: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan (1797), line 47.

  393 “would sit”: Rashid al-Din, Assembly of Histories, translated in Boyle 1971, p. 84.

  393 “Just as God”: Mongke Khan, audience with William of Rübruck (1254), translated in C. Dawson 1955, p. 195.

  396 “Civilization”: Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, vol. 1, page 64, cited from Dols 1976, p. 67.

  397 “Swellings appeared”: Jean de Venette, Chronicle, 1348, translated in Kirchner and Morrison 1986, p. 455.

 

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