原文2 To manage this heteroclite empire, the dynasties invented the Imperial Examination System (Keju). This was a mechanism of total cognitive standardization. For over 1,000 years, to obtain any power or wealth anywhere in the empire, one had to memorize the exact same Confucian classics. This ensured that a magistrate in the tropical, rice-growing South and a governor in the arid, wheat-growing North shared the exact same moral and administrative operating system. This prevented the emergence of regional aristocracies with distinct ideologies. The state didn't just control the borders; through the exams, it controlled the mind of every member of the elite, turning potential regional warlords into interchangeable cogs of the Imperial center.
The most audacious trick was the invention of the "Han" ethnicity itself. The "Han" are not a monolithic genetic block; they are a cultural sponge. As the empire expanded from the Yellow River basin into the Yangtze and the South, it didn't just conquer; it absorbed. Through a process of aggressive acculturation, distinct ethnic groups were swallowed into the "Han" label. If you adopted the script, the rituals, and the tax codes, you ceased to be a "barbarian" and became Han. This allowed the empire to transform from a conqueror of foreign peoples into a "nation" of one people. Even when China was conquered by outsiders (the Mongols or the Manchus), the Chinese elite's cultural gravity was so dense that the conquerors eventually became Chinese, adopting the bureaucracy and culture they had defeated.

原文4 Why conquer the "barbarians" when you can simply demand they acknowledge your superiority? This is the Tribute System. For millennia, China didn't want to occupy Vietnam or Korea; they wanted a kowtow and a gift. This was an economic and military masterstroke: it secured the borders and fed the imperial ego without the crushing administrative cost of colonial occupation. The Chinese elite understood that occupying foreign lands leads to "imperial overstretch," a trap that doomed Rome and the British Empire.
This wisdom is evident in the contrast between the European Age of Discovery and the voyages of Admiral Zheng He in the 15th century. Zheng He possessed a fleet that dwarfed anything Europe could produce for centuries. He sailed to Africa and the Middle East, yet he conquered nothing. He did not set up colonies; he did not enslave populations. He showed the flag, collected tribute, and went home. The Chinese logic was simple: We have everything we need right here. To expand is to dilute.

6.1 始终发不出来，这里是英文原文The primary task of the Chinese state, therefore, has never been external expansion, but internal consolidation, engaging in a perpetual act of internal colonization rather than external adventure.

秦皇的恩情还不完

看到郑和就知道是国人写的了，只要国人才会揪着郑和不放，都是大航海的错

必须加精，我早就说过了方言的重要性

方言当中的骂人和说教都是思想精华

欧洲人有点逗，自己的历史总共就没几百年，控噶尔还被灭了。真正传承的是家族的联盟，普通人不过是原住民和别处抓来的奴隶的混血，供养这些8贪得无厌的巨兽

。

1是什么

从没啥必然因果 所以老毛还是有历史的伟大贡献

个人认为，周王朝分封制具有相当大意义，当时除了周王朝统治的核心区域以外，周边仍然有很多的蛮族，例如现在的山东，长江流域，汉中盆地，在当时都是被视为蛮荒地带，分布许多的蛮人，而分封制极大地扩张汉族的活动区域，提前灭杀了有可能形成国家的蛮族，建立了初步的文明认同，周王朝衰落以后秦朝建立通过种种措施进一步强化了文明认同，确立了统治的核心区域，汉朝进一步扩张，西通西域，与西藏地区建立初步联系，大一统观念深入人心，最终唐朝达到极盛，可惜宋朝资本主义萌芽时被元朝暴力掐灭，走回了封建

很简单，和黄帝族群敌对的，基本上消灭了，然后再招降，比如匈奴，消灭大部分敌对匈奴，然后归顺一部分，自从黄帝一直以来都干这种事，直到新中国成立百分之99汉族，同一族群，没有外部势力干涉，统一容易