What would a space opera empire based on Imperial China be like?

Short-lived

ant people

Which Imperial China?

>>53281453
Beset by a succession of ever more horrifying genocidal warlords in the regions along the frontiers.

>The events surrounding Zhang Xianzhong's rule and afterwards devastated Sichuan, where he was said to have "engaged in one of the most hair-raising genocides in imperial history". Lurid stories of his killings and flayings were given in various accounts. According to Shu Bi, an 18th-century account of the massacre, after every slaughter, the heads were collected and placed in several big piles, while the hands were placed in other big piles, and the ears and noses in more piles, so that Zhang Xianzhong could keep count of his killings. In one incident, he is said to have organized an imperial examination ostensibly to recruit scholars for his administration, only to have all the candidates, which numbered many thousands, killed. In another, to give thanks for his recovery after an illness, he was said to have cut off the feet of many women. The severed feet were heaped in two piles with those of his favorite concubine, whose feet were unusually small, placed on top. These two piles of feet were then doused in oil and set alight to become what he called "heavenly candles."

>He was also reported to have ordered further massacres before he abandoned Chengdu in advance of the invading Manchus. The massacres, a subsequent famine and epidemic, attacks by tigers, as well as people fleeing from the turmoil and the invasion of the Manchus, resulted in a large-scale depopulation of Sichuan.

>A popular account of his life has it that he erected in Chengdu a stele, which came to be known as the Seven Kill Stele, with the following inscription:

>Heaven brings forth innumerable things to nurture man.
Man has nothing good with which to recompense Heaven.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

If you're at any step above the lowest space-peasant, incredibly legalistic and fond of executing your family line for perceived injustices.

>>53281555
>you will never massacre your population and then run away while tigers eat the survivors
Why even live?

>>53281555
literally never happened

File: You have a point there.gif (291KB, 127x108px) Image search: [Google]

291KB, 127x108px

>>53281453

Northern Dynasty, dare I say it, a best. A Wei-Jin is fine too.

>>53281453
>What would a space opera empire based on Imperial China be like?

Ancient, incredibly powerful and surrounded by tributary empires that pay homage to the Celestial Empire.

The Emperor is immortal and infallible - except when he's not, a sign that he has lost the Mandate of Heaven, and must be removed to make way for a new Emperor.

The Empire is divided into states ruled by governors and warlords who are in many ways similar to Feudalism, but built more on legal right and obligation than hereditary whims.

BUREAUCRACY. Tons and tons and tons of Bureaucracy, much of it managed by Eunuchs, who in a Space Opera can be described as Cyborgs.

>>53281656
Just like the Holocaust, right?

Did anyone save the lore that one anon wrote the last time we had this thread?

Like Dune with opium

>>53281555
>footfriend

my kinda guy

>>53281555
>The actual number of people killed by Zhang is not known and is disputed. Official Ming Dynasty history Ming Shi recorded a figure of 600 million deaths due to Zhang's activities, an obvious exaggeration, since the total population of China at that time was less than 150 million, perhaps much lower.[30][31]

good ol chinks

>>53282095
It's easy to accidentally count the same corpse a few times when they all look alike.

>>53281692
Well that also didn't happen.

>>53282136
heh

File: politics of men's hair in china.jpg (133KB, 800x618px) Image search: [Google]

133KB, 800x618px

>>53281453
This:
>>53281529
Qin China may be the start of the Imperial period, and much of the Han governmental structure took after it, but from what we know of cultural affirmations during the the turn of the Common Era is quite different from later periods. At that point, not only are things like chairs still not yet imported into the Empire, but things like the wheelbarrow hadn't been invented yet (or at least there's no evidence of it, and historical accounts of wheelbarrows date to later periods). People didn't sit at a table together for meals; nobility would each get their own little knee-high tables.

So you have to define what Imperial China you refer to? The archaic empire of the Qin and Han? The wide-ranging cultural power of the Tang and Song? The uneasy peace kept by the dynasties of foreign horsemen, as in Dali, Liao, or Jin (the latter Jin, that is)? The age of chariots and rhinoceros-skin armored warriors in the Spring and Autumn? The periods of Chaos in between great Dynasties when the Mandate of Heaven was lost? Or that shitty time when everyone was on opium and China signed a 100 year treaty with the British to allow them to invest in a place that they'd have to give back later?

>>53282095
remember the 600 million!

>>53282138
You never happened

>>53281663

This. Legalistic and ritualistic to the point of autism. Only the most rigid of said texts that supply this worldview matter even if said texts say to use it only as a guideline. Looking at you Confucianism.

>>53281663
>>53282867
So what your saying is basically 40k, but with 100% less gothic artstyle, and the religious aspect is now replaced with LAW/DUTY?

Wouldn't there be a lot of engineered animal people? Bolted on tiger claws and gene-edited dragon scales seems like something that would be in vogue

你他妈的黑鬼, 这是我的惑星

File: impressive-very-nice.gif (7MB, 477x255px) Image search: [Google]

7MB, 477x255px

>>53282136

Evil cyborg/AI eunuchs manipulating a distant Emperor

>>53281529
Romance of the Three Space Kingdoms.

>>53281453
The govt from firefly with an emphasis on protectionism and beauracracy.

Why do you keep asking this, with the same pic each time

>>53283742
Dragons would be natural forces and keepers of law and order, if you want to get intimate with the folklore you'd make them out of an uplifted species of salmon.

>>53285404
This would actually be pretty baller though.

>>53285404
But would Liu Bei still spike his baby like a football, or would he launch it down to a planet as a KKV?

>>53281453
You are getting boring, OP. Same shit, at least once per month.

>>53281453
Sleeve flicking in SPAAAACEEE!

File: chinaboo.jpg (1MB, 1874x5092px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1874x5092px

>>53281453
I'm like 95% sure this screencap came from the last time you made this thread.
It doesn't so much describe Imperial China as it does WuXia, but they have a lot of overlap.

For a better picture, look up Confucian morality.

>>53281529
They're culturally identical

The Sky Is High and the Emperor is Far Away...

The Sky Is High and the Emperor is Far Away...

The Sky Is High and the Emperor is Far Away...

The Sky Is High and the Emperor is Far Away...

>>53281453
>Shang "We aren't venerating trees in these generation ships of ours any longer! CIVILIZATION ATTAINED!"
>Zhou "We actually are slowly getting a grip on how2govern space Empires and we're building more and more permanent habitas in space and on various planets"
>Qin "I conquered you all, I killed your scientists, I have you killed for walking the wrong way all day ery day, time to become IMMORTAL"
>Han "We will countinue killing you for walking the wrong way, but we offer you free markets and shit, meaning we're the GOOD GUYS"
>Tang *intensively pretending that we aren't being ruled by aliens who do alien stuff 24/7*
>Yuan "KILL OUR ALIEN OVERLORDS"

This is just a selection.

>>53290165
...Continue?

What about the Ming and Qing dynasties?

>>53285818
He wants people to write this up I guess.

>>53289049
>They're culturally identical
Yes anon, there is no cultural difference between Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties. Three of which weren't even Confucian. There is also no difference between those four and everything that went all the way to Sui (which means the only bit of China your sorry ass is probably familiar with, the Three Kingdoms, but also a fuckload of in-fighting, barbarian rulers and what not), which introduced Buddhism. There is also no difference between all the dynasties up to Yuan, who were, you know, Mongolians ruling all of what was China. And obviously, there was no difference between all of that, Yuan, Ming (aka post-apo Chinese culture) AND Qing, who were Manchurians, aka again foreigner barbarians rulling the country and trampling its culture to the ground, turning it basically into a live museum for shit and giggles and also because they were utterly incompetent bunch of idiots.
All of it is just an unified, standarised Chinese culture that obviously saw no difference over 4 thousands of years, because hey, it's identical.

tl;dr - you've just claimed there is no difference culturally between 2000 BC Celts in Bordeaux region and modern day French living there. Feel like an idiot already or should I go into more detail why you are offensively retarded in your stupidity?

But then again, it's yet another "Imperial China IN SPACE!!!" thread, so I guess idiocy is the whole point here.

>>53293931
>who were, you know, Mongolians
So... Chinese.

>>53287236
>salmon.
Did you mean salamanders?

Or is it salmon cops?

>>53281453

Well, no more feudal future for starters. Which oddly enough might justify tech stasis pretty nicely. If your mandarin is gonna be governor of an AGRICOLTURAL planet, he better stick to the plan.Or anyway develp shit fully approved by the Forbidden Planet City.
Industrializing a planet might be a seriously treasonous idea, not because they want their subjects to be hungry peasants, but because it would mine the local balance of the Empire. in real China they weren't commies back then, but having an industrial complex is already almost having a military-industrial complex, as I envision space opera.
I would think the more central planets might well be the most developed ones, because they're more controlled.

On this subject, I would say this would mean decently fast and cheap communications (physical or not) to work. Culture might well be relatively standardized, or at least hav a side of "universal" higher culture vs local culture, while travel would more restricted than in your average SO.

>>53294974
There's a belief that carp can transform into dragons if they can leap over an immeasurably tall dragon gate.

File: 317.png (90KB, 500x501px) Image search: [Google]

90KB, 500x501px

>>53294858