So I'm half way through F.W. Mote's 1999 book Imperial China 900-1800 and I find this nugget, a mid-14th Century Chinese poet essentially bitching about Mongol gun-control:
Last year the edict forbidding us to ride horseback;
This year another edict saying we cannot carry a bow.
Yet we still hear about all those robbers who by the light of day
Ride their horses and shoot people on the empire's highway.
The footnote lists: Ne & Gaohua 1985, vol. 1 pp. 192-196
...which is apparently: Yang Ne and Chen Gaohua, Yuandai
nongmin zhanzheng shiliao huibian (Beijing,
1985) 4 vols.
I'm assuming Volume 1 would have the poem in the original Chinese (which would be freaking awesome).
posted by Chris | 1/12/2013 08:29:00 PM | 3 comments