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Nov 8·edited Nov 8Liked by YesXorNo

It will take a very long time for the world to be deprogrammed from the "western" exceptionalism in every field and that project in itself needs a massive revision of every science, but first and foremost of the heavily redacted and rewritten history of humanity.

Case in point 1 - the reference of Ptolemy as "Greek/Egyptian", when in fact he was of Macedonian origin and descent (see Demosthenes' speeches known as "Philippics": https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:tlg,0014,009:31)

Case in point 2 - the reference of the language in which the ancient European texts are written as "Greek", which couldn't be further from the truth. In scientific circles, this language is called "koine" and has but vague similarities with both ancient and (moreso) modern Greek languages. Koine was simply put an esperanto language created in the time of Alexander of Macedon's world-stretching empire, as lingua franca, a means of communication between the various peoples which inhabited the wide-stretching Macedonian project of "uniting the known world" (even Shitipedia says so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koine_Greek).

The "grecification" of Koine is another European (German) project of rewriting history to better suit the "western" needs. If you want to go deeper in that rabbithole, I suggest you do your research on the "romantic" historian Johann Gustav Droysen and his school of "Historism"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gustav_Droysen). Droysen was financed, propelled and used by European (German/ "Holy Roman") monarchies to widely falsify history in their own political ends of "uniting the European/Western world" through attibuting a common "hellenistic" (itself being a false attibute portending to "greek") roots. (Also see: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281905680_What_is_History_for_Johann_Gustav_Droysen_and_the_Functions_of_Historiography)

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I first read about Joseph Needham in the Whole Earth Catalogue. Then ran into him later in life in Simon Winchester's " The Man Who Loved China. " A great read.

Tne Needham Institute in Cambridge UK is on my bucket list.

https://www.nri.cam.ac.uk/index.html

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Zong He and the fabled treasure ship voyages as far as East Africa capture my imagination as do the accounts of the Taiping Rebellion, started by a failed Imperial Civil Service candidate who , given biblical tracts by American missionaries, reinterpreted Christian scripture, as one does , to believe himself to be Jesus's younger brother.

This West - East contact led to the greatest bloodbath of the 19th Century.....arms being sold to each faction by various Western powers....as in present day Libya.

Plus ca change , etc.

The start of the Century of Humiliation, perhaps.

Carl Zha is my go to YouTuber for things China....Bald and Bankrupt for up to date, man in the world street reports.

His Buran episode was epic

Keep up the good work oxo!

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And then there's the early c15 Chinese visit to Mecca, which was at that time part of Egypt, by a Muslim admiral, China being far in advance of Europe at the time.

.Of course, the Muslim world extended to China...

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