Han Sen is well versed in the ancient history of China, and she was exposed to the history of China when she was in high school. At that time, in order to remember the pinyin of Hong Xiuquan's name in Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, she took out a piece of paper from time to time. In Han Sen's book, we can find that traditional China is not as isolated and rigid as we thought before, but open and full of vitality.
The interesting narrative in the book is that Jin, who coexisted with the Song Dynasty, has a short history, but their achievements are of vital significance in the history of China. Although Jin Shizong banned the Han surname Hanfu and took various measures to maintain the Nuzhen culture, the number of Han soldiers in the Nuzhen army even exceeded that of the Nuzhen. When the generals in the Southern Song Dynasty hoped that the Han people in the Central Plains would fight against the Jin Dynasty 1206, the Han scholar-officials went to teach Jurchen how to rule by Chinese law.
What is the significance of Zheng He's voyage to the West? Han Sen found that China people carried a 6.3-meter-long nautical chart with Africa and India on it, and used a compass pointer to indicate the navigation direction between the two destinations. Some place names marked on those maps are "Malindi", which is now Malindi. Therefore, Ms. Han Sen thinks that Zheng He's fleet obviously sailed along the route pioneered by early explorers in China.
Rui Lewei Han Sen told the world that after 1600, the economy of China was more developed than that of Europe. Only from the year 1600, the development of China began to decline, and the national strength of China began to weaken. The book Open Empire came to an abrupt end. Perhaps for westerners, the golden age of China also ended at that moment.