Schoppa, Chapters 2 & 3
- The Mongols invaded. Things were not good. People of Xiang Lake prayed that Li Di would protect them again. He did not.
- "Wei's treatment of human activity is remarkable: the world of nature is for human use and profit- a contrast to earlier (and later) descrptions that render humanity inconsequential amid the awesome power of nature." (Schoppa 41)
- "Finally, during Wei's retirement, the situation had reached the point where area elders petitioned the county seat to clear away households that had reclaimed the lake and to figure an appropriate fine of grain per mu of reclaimed land to be placed into an official fund for relief purposes" (Schoppa, 43)
- Of course, with the construction going on around Xiang Lake at this time, flooding became even more of a problem than it had been before. "The irony of the situation is readily apparent: Xiang Lake could have a distinguished array of upholders of the lake- Yang, Zhao, Gu, Guo, Zhang, Wei- whose energy and diligence preserved the lake as a reservoir. But government decisions to resolve another water control problem, seeming perhaps as arbitrary to the Xiang Lake community as nature's might itself, placed the effective long-term functioning of the lake in jeopardy and cut off all access to the lake water for some." (Shoppa, 44)
- "Increasingly serious for the viability of the lake as a reservoir was the level of encroachment reached around the lake by the 1460s. In most cases, encroachers simply planted rice or lotuses in a small area near the shore that had grown shallow over time. In some cases sheep were pastured or willows planted on dikes. Both practices eroded the dikes, making leakage or outright breaks more likely... taken together, the amount of the lake destroyed by encroachment was 7,318 mu (over 1,100 acres), almost 20 percent of the original size of the lake" (Schoppa, 46). Alright, time for a small rant... How hard of a concept is this? Yes, we have a whole pie sitting in front of us. Yes, everyone wants some. But I'm just gonna take a small nibble, nobody will notice. Then the next person does that, and the next, and so on until you have nothing left and everyone is screwed. I mean, really? It's not that difficult of a concept. Mess with your neighbors and you mess with yourself. Destroying the lake destroys your own livelihood. Geez.
- We then move on to talk about the Sun tyranny and other such issues. While interesting, they're not terribly important. Well, they are, but not for what I'm focusing on. It would be easier to focus on something, of course, if I had pondered it, but I didn't. So I'm going to arbitrarily claim that I'm not focusing on the Sun's tyrannical control of the lake. Nope. Not I.
Moving right along, we're onto Chapter 3. Wohoo! Of course, saying the Sun lineage is not my focus was not my most brilliant plan, considering Chapter 3 could be retitled "The years in which the Sun lineage were masters of the lake"...
- "The historical record indicates that in 1551 plum trees in Xiaoshan county bore oranges. It was a bad portent: an agricultural handbook explained that when "trees produce strange fruit, there would in reality come a great calamity." More specifically, it warned: "When trees produce what is inappropriate, the farmers and all the people will be robbed."(Schoppa, 64)... and so on. Obviously they'll be robbed of the fruit they expected. If you have plum trees and you're expecting a plum crop, but you get stuck with a load of oranges, you're robbed of profits. Though if oranges are more valuable than plums, and you don't mention the oranges are from plum trees, you might get to rob others, though the "portent" still holds true in this case. Someone gets robbed.
- The Emperor's New School just started on TV. This doesn't relate in the slightest to China, but it means that it's friggin late. I'm not going to be very awake in class at this rate. Oh well.
- "Proper timing for encroachment was of the essence. Petty encroachers dug illegal drainage holes in the dikes at night. For more widespread intrusions into the lake, choosing a time when official attention was diverted to other problems allowed encroachers to present those around the lake with various faits accomplis."(Schoppa, 70) I had no idea what that word meant, so I had to look it up...
- Then the Sun bastards build that stupid bridge because things are starting to fall apart, and it signals the beginning of the end for Xiang Lake.... okay, not quite, but still. That stupid bridge does mess things up.
- "Wei's treatment of human activity is remarkable: the world of nature is for human use and profit- a contrast to earlier (and later) descrptions that render humanity inconsequential amid the awesome power of nature." (Schoppa 41)
- "Finally, during Wei's retirement, the situation had reached the point where area elders petitioned the county seat to clear away households that had reclaimed the lake and to figure an appropriate fine of grain per mu of reclaimed land to be placed into an official fund for relief purposes" (Schoppa, 43)
- Of course, with the construction going on around Xiang Lake at this time, flooding became even more of a problem than it had been before. "The irony of the situation is readily apparent: Xiang Lake could have a distinguished array of upholders of the lake- Yang, Zhao, Gu, Guo, Zhang, Wei- whose energy and diligence preserved the lake as a reservoir. But government decisions to resolve another water control problem, seeming perhaps as arbitrary to the Xiang Lake community as nature's might itself, placed the effective long-term functioning of the lake in jeopardy and cut off all access to the lake water for some." (Shoppa, 44)
- "Increasingly serious for the viability of the lake as a reservoir was the level of encroachment reached around the lake by the 1460s. In most cases, encroachers simply planted rice or lotuses in a small area near the shore that had grown shallow over time. In some cases sheep were pastured or willows planted on dikes. Both practices eroded the dikes, making leakage or outright breaks more likely... taken together, the amount of the lake destroyed by encroachment was 7,318 mu (over 1,100 acres), almost 20 percent of the original size of the lake" (Schoppa, 46). Alright, time for a small rant... How hard of a concept is this? Yes, we have a whole pie sitting in front of us. Yes, everyone wants some. But I'm just gonna take a small nibble, nobody will notice. Then the next person does that, and the next, and so on until you have nothing left and everyone is screwed. I mean, really? It's not that difficult of a concept. Mess with your neighbors and you mess with yourself. Destroying the lake destroys your own livelihood. Geez.
- We then move on to talk about the Sun tyranny and other such issues. While interesting, they're not terribly important. Well, they are, but not for what I'm focusing on. It would be easier to focus on something, of course, if I had pondered it, but I didn't. So I'm going to arbitrarily claim that I'm not focusing on the Sun's tyrannical control of the lake. Nope. Not I.
Moving right along, we're onto Chapter 3. Wohoo! Of course, saying the Sun lineage is not my focus was not my most brilliant plan, considering Chapter 3 could be retitled "The years in which the Sun lineage were masters of the lake"...
- "The historical record indicates that in 1551 plum trees in Xiaoshan county bore oranges. It was a bad portent: an agricultural handbook explained that when "trees produce strange fruit, there would in reality come a great calamity." More specifically, it warned: "When trees produce what is inappropriate, the farmers and all the people will be robbed."(Schoppa, 64)... and so on. Obviously they'll be robbed of the fruit they expected. If you have plum trees and you're expecting a plum crop, but you get stuck with a load of oranges, you're robbed of profits. Though if oranges are more valuable than plums, and you don't mention the oranges are from plum trees, you might get to rob others, though the "portent" still holds true in this case. Someone gets robbed.
- The Emperor's New School just started on TV. This doesn't relate in the slightest to China, but it means that it's friggin late. I'm not going to be very awake in class at this rate. Oh well.
- "Proper timing for encroachment was of the essence. Petty encroachers dug illegal drainage holes in the dikes at night. For more widespread intrusions into the lake, choosing a time when official attention was diverted to other problems allowed encroachers to present those around the lake with various faits accomplis."(Schoppa, 70) I had no idea what that word meant, so I had to look it up...
- Then the Sun bastards build that stupid bridge because things are starting to fall apart, and it signals the beginning of the end for Xiang Lake.... okay, not quite, but still. That stupid bridge does mess things up.
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