1587, A Year of No Significance

Every chapter is a thread, each with a bead of person, e.g. Li Zhi the bead on the thread of mindset and Qi Jiguang - military system. Those threads were intertwined with each other and became an unsolvable Chinese Gordian knot that strangled their throat. 08-03

万历十五年，这个貌似无足轻重的年份，标志了明王朝能够触及的上限，不管皇帝是励精图治还是不理朝政，不管首辅是锐意进取还是循规蹈矩，不管将军是足智多谋还是平庸无能，不管文官是清正廉明还是贪污腐败，不管哲人是激进极端还是保守中庸，最终一切都徒劳无功。04-23

Thought provoking. It portraits great men in the light of comprehensiveness. They were all just human after all.09-26

a great book01-25

削足适履，周而复始，一个组织的衰落始于废实就虚之时08-30

最近重读了这本书，就像回到了中学时代。不知道为什么总想起很久以前看的《黑炮事件》——黄仁宇就像是赵书信。他只是想做好自己的事情——无形中却不得不面对整个（学术）权力体制。01-18

To buy list01-31

reacting to the past 必读书目……10-26

英文版读起来更觉得语言生动，也可以想见当时的轰动性。09-30

《万历十五年》的英文版，建议看这篇review：http://book.douban.com/review/3733806/05-26