A scene from Game of Thrones.
Source:
https://scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2104227/game-thrones-plot-reflected-chinese-history Short Reads
Game of Thrones plot reflected in Chinese history
Three millennia of recorded history documents proclivities and perversions that wouldn’t look out of place in Westeros
Three millennia of recorded history documents proclivities and perversions that wouldn’t look out of place in Westeros
I don’t watch much television, but Game of Thrones is a firm favourite, perhaps because it is so familiar. The story of warring dynasts, vacillating alliances, palace intrigues and unusual sexual proclivities will not be unfamiliar to anyone with some knowledge of Chinese history.
One dynasty could be replaced by the next through usurpations, civil wars or foreign conquests, or the unitary state could disintegrate into multiple warring regions, a recurrent theme that found expression as recently as the early 20th century.
A Han dynasty general and his army attack the Huns in 99BC. Picture: Alamy
China’s past offers an endless fount of stories that thrill and fascinate, but while great men and a handful of great women embarked on heroic enterprises that made history, it has always been the little people who suffer in “interesting times”.