History Was Never a Game

Civilization. Wen means patterns: the veins and lines running through all things under heaven. Ming means the sun and moon: the light that reveals all things and all lands. To trace a pattern to its beginning, know where it ends, understand its faults, name its virtues, unite its laws, and uphold its true institutions, passing them down through one unbroken line: this is civilization. Civilization has endured from beginning to end, lasting through the ages. Its pulse is found in history, its patterns in principle. Watch seas turn to fields, stars shift in their courses, dragons and serpents rise, humanity rise and fall, and dynasties replace one another. Only civilization spans past and present, stretches across heaven and earth, and remains undying. As the saying goes: “Beginning with Yao and Shun, passing through the Five Emperors, spanning the Five Barbarians and the ruins of the Three Kingdoms.” “The foundations of Qin Shi Huang, the Han dynasty, and the Empress; the lands of Hongwu and the late Ming, where the pagodas float.” “The sages of Tang Taizong and Song Taizu find no answer from the gods; the Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern dynasties are out of joint.” “How many deeds have the sages of old accomplished? Seven Killings and Wenqu shine upon the Celestial Pivot.” “Heaven’s way shows no favoritism, yet it always stands with the good. Across three thousand years of glory, only the virtuous prevail across the nine lands.”