A History Teacher Reacts | Oversimplified - Three Kingdoms

hey YouTube mr. Terry back once again to check out another history video today we're watching oversimplified Three Kingdoms I haven't seen this just came out just a few days ago I believe probably gonna be talking about ancient China which is great because I love learning about ancient China and there's a lot of interesting mystery and a lot of conflict especially in the early years before really the China that we know it really came to be and I'm sure they'll go in they'll get into that alright I'll make sure to put a link to the original video so that if you like it you can go over to them if you have not given them just to like subscribe but even just the view is always great to make sure that they get credit for that because these people do such good work so let's go ahead and get started with the video right now this video was made possible by Total War three kingdoms the brand new strategy game from the multi-award winning total except I teamed up to port my channel but you for coming video game make sense right the game make an historical video game you but a popular in the store including a mystery you character video where history company makes videos to ancient China team up the sun is shining the birds are singing the children are playing in the village square what a wonderful time to be alive hey the Yellow River flooded again destroyed all your crops and also we're being raided by nomadic tribes no that's basically Chinese history summed up right there history may be entirely mythical meaning you may not even exist well that would certainly explain the laser on Chinese civilization began around the year 2000 BC when the possibly mythical Schad dynasty have formed throughout Chinese history dynasties would usually talk about in my classes the the SHA dynasty wheat China's big part of the history classes that I teach and what gets assessed and one of the things they we try to get is to know the dynasties and we always ever debate about the shock because it's kind of like it may or may not have existed think what we know about them mostly comes from the Shang who took them over and that can always be a touchy part of history and all you have is from people commenting on later especially if they're the ones that took them over so they'll probably what you see at that time in those scenarios often histories they'll talk very poorly about the people that Concord because it makes you look better and that's a big part of the Chinese dynastic cycle which we'll see if they go into is a way to justify overthrowing the previous people you got to make them look bad and then it makes you look good by default so it looks like they're you start off that with that very very quickly here in China with the earliest of the dynasties rise up with a powerful leader who worked for the good of the people but over time the leaders would become more corrupt and self-serving someone would inevitably build a lake of alcohol and the angry populace would overthrow them giving way for a new dynasty to rise following this pattern the shadow era common story of shine so she like bronze and writing but then the leaders got corrupt and we're replaced by the joke who liked the iron in Fela I think it's so cool let me get a pause you like bronze and writing right there okay so the writing in early Chinese history they would write on the writing that we have that we call them or oracle bones sorry oracle bones and the earliest writing in china are these things where they would write probably like their shaman type people would write on bones turtle no turtle shells other types of bones and they would write something on them and oftentimes what they do is like a almost like a question or something something that you want to know and you put it on the bone an interesting thing that they would do is they would get these bones and then they'd put them in a fire now the heat causes the bones to expand and they start to crack and the way that it cracks I don't exactly know how they they read it but in the way it cracks gives a certain response to that question so it's an interesting that some of the earliest writing we have is is done on that now if they wrote on paper and things you know they are on other types of biodegradable things it's very well you know that that was possible however those things don't store over time very well and something like a bone preserves way better and why we probably find these not that the only writing they ever did was on these bones but it's the stuff that has preserved most well and the stuff we find the most of so interesting a little thing there about some of the early writing you can see they're kind of bring it up and they don't really talk about it but I think such a neat part of history but then the leaders got corrupt and were replaced by the joke who liked the iron and philosophy but that one sort of just fell apart and was replaced by the chin who liked building walls and people made out of rubber first they were pretty tyrannical from the start and we're quickly replaced by the hem who liked creating new trade routes and getting in touch with their mentioned Chinese in line with this pattern google has a strong and popular leadership under the Emperor Gao su the dynasty ruling on a firmly in place for over four centuries and was considered a golden age in Chinese history developing new forms of art political thinking's over technology Oh looks like all the leaders got corrupt see probably the biggest problem in ancient China's political system that'll add so much corruption to come about all the time was a little something called cordon culture let me explain imagine for me if you will that you are the son of the Chinese emperor hooray now apart from how weird it is that you have a ton of stepmoms and many of them would like to kill you and also all of your friends are middle-aged dudes with no dongs life's pretty low right mix one day your father says always get asked by students all of your friends are middle e eunuchs why do they do this a eunuch is a male that had been castrated and they are very very prominent in Chinese history they take a lot of powerful positions and the question comes up in classroom why why would you do this to these people well if you have been a person that is castrated there are obviously things you are not gonna be able to do in your life and one of those courses have children so this eliminates a reason of why someone might overthrow somebody else because they're not gonna be able to start their own dynasty because they're not gonna have any children so it was like eunuchs are people that could be trusted and they would be again be put in high positions of government probably for that reason so interesting how it makes sense in a way interesting again that that was actually a long kind of like thing that happened for for a long time is the use of eunuchs in positions of power so not sure if that was something you were thinking you were going to learn about today but uh there you go age due to history this life's pretty alright one day your father says son I know our relationship hasn't been the best and I've never said this before but I just want to let you know that I love you oh no I'm having a heart attack oh yeah you look at you now you're the Ambler but you're too young so proud of you but wait you are but a child and have no idea how to rule over a massive Empire fret not because just about everyone in your court wants to help you out with that hey man remember me I'm your mom's bro anyway I heard you needed someone to rule over China for you I mean to help you real China until hey I hope we can get along no way man we've been your friends and your personal caretakers your whole life and even though we may have no dongs I think you should give us all the power to rule China I mean help you rule China so who will you be influenced by your scheming uncle or your loyal eunuchs and towards the end of the Han Dynasty a string of child Emperor's allowed more and more power to fall into the hands of the eunuchs Oh No now they're scheming to they began handing out government jobs for bribes heavily taxing the poor for their own wealth and while you're sitting there eating your popsicle if everyone in your court is literally murdering each other then try and consolidate more power and riches for themselves while all the peasants are outside like hey did you guys know there's been a drought out here for two years no one's paying attention to the problems obviously the people weren't too happy that while they were struggling to survive they're also being heavily taxed so that the unit's action could all have Rock and mansions complete with swimming pools and eleven taxes for wineries life when a self-proclaimed taoist wizard came along and was like you know whose fault it is that we're all out here starving it's the emperor and his posse they've lost their mandate from heaven and the imperial family must be destroyed with an unrelenting furious wrath well so check this out huh I can't tell what it is yet tada it's a little kitty cat okay they did not discuss like what the mandate is that we're all out here starving it's the Emperor and his posse Nepal they've lost their net here okay so Chinese China's history is often seen as cyclical in a way you have these it's called the dynastic cycle rule for most of Chinese history has been in dynasties right these families that they're they'll rule for hundreds of years but there's this kind of thing and it goes way back to at least the Jo dynasty which was the second or third depending on how you want to order it but they I believe were the ones that kind of invented the idea which was this it's like the ruler of China the emperor has a divine right to rule right a mandate like the right or like the permission I shouldn't say name even right but like the permission to rule and that it comes from kind of a higher source and but that permission the rule is something that you can lose okay one of the comparator contrasts that I do in my class is with ancient Egypt right comparison being that you have this kind of divine right to rule and that is very powerful because if you believe somebody has a divine right to rule like an Egypt that they're kind of blessed by the gods or even a God themselves that that kind of justifies your power and if you can get I guess people to believe that you have some kind of divine inspiration to rule you'll probably have a stronger rule because you're probably less likely to overthrow or something a person that you believe is kind of ordained by the gods or something like that but one of the differences though in in in in Egypt you can't you don't lose that right you're basically a God the Chinese never really felt their Emperor was a deity okay an actual sort of God but had sort of a divine right to rule but you could lose that right to rule now how do you lose it you don't act properly and again this goes back to the Zhuo dynasty who overthrew the Shang before them and talked about how the the corruption and there's all kinds of crazy stories about like potential cannibalism or something that the Shang were up to and it we like and and because of that you lose the right to to to rule you lose that the Mandate of Heaven now how do you know somebody has lost the Mandate of Heaven it's not like some letter is sent down to the people saying the emperor has lost the right to rule no this is where they actually interesting well interestingly we'll tie a lot of natural disasters and things like that to this so if your ruler is being corrupt they are being neglectful immoral something like that you are they believe natural disasters are going to be one of the signs potentially of that earthquakes the flooding of the river like they started at the very beginning the Yellow River and other rivers of China that are prone to very nasty floods and so they saw those almost as signs that they had you had lost the Mandate of Heaven there are other forces too it wasn't just like physical disasters if the area starts to see more crime bandits are running across the trade routes or foreigners and the nomads right from the north are coming in these are all signs that you've lost the maintain of Evan when that happens it's like somebody can come to claim it now how do you claim that you have to act like the benevolent benevolent person that that is is justified in having the Mandate of Heaven if this makes sense so I believe it's the show that kind of invented it for a way to justify their overthrow the Shang and then that just kept kept happening that that dynasty would lose their power and then somebody else would come to claim it and would feel justified in doing that so important concept that drove in a way the dynastic cycle which has been the the kind of like governing force in a way or describing the governing force for China for millennia actually so anyway they only went over that but that's a huge part of Chinese history that everyone needs to know and date from heaven and the imperial family must be destroyed with an unrelenting furious wrath well so check this out all right can you tell what it is yet tada it's a little kitty cat look at her little ears the people loved his political philosophy he promised them land reforms and his followers grew in number they began arming themselves and wearing yellow turbans and they also developed a really good journalism in the year 184 the Yellow Turban rebellion broke out across China with millions rising up against a han dynasty and the imperial government in the capital city freaked out with all their internal bickering they were completely unprepared and unable to deal with such a huge rebellion so they were forced to call her from across the Empire to help them deal with this situation some big names took part in the fighting I'm talking the likes of the great south-south the tyrannical dong zhuo Leo bei sin Jin and many many other Chinese names I'm durang operon at one strand of the Warlord's crushed the rebellion in their own respective regions and with casualties in the millions the Han Dynasty breathed a huge sigh of relief but what they didn't realize is that by relying on all the Warlord's and their armies they had essentially diminished their own central control extreme ko and many of the Warlord's now held the power to act almost completely independently and rule over their own local regions themselves back in the capital the Emperor and his son were having a little chat listen I know we've had her ups and downs and I spend all of my time with your many many smoking-hot stepmoms instead of you but what say you and I finally go on a little fishing trip together this weekend oh no I'm having a stroke and yet another child Emperor was on the if somebody gets assassinated in the ad here [Music] the throne this is the holder instead of the eunuch faction gaining even more power this child emperor's uncle became his Regent who also just so happened to be the head of the Imperial Army huijun man I hate those sneaky lying cheating eunuchs hey warlord you and chow what should we do kill them all well right on right you can't kill the eunuchs they're a vital part of this Empire's governance dowager's are a big part of history again where you have the child who is too young to rule is Tecton technically the Emperor and the mother would kind of be in control in a way and basically take care of his affairs supposedly until the son becomes of what they believed was a mature an of age to actually rule so yeah these powerful mothers rule China for parts of history come on No so Hajin and you enshou decided the Empress may need more convincing and so they called in an infamous feared tyrannical overweight warlord from the Northwest to help convince her that man was dong zhuo and he set up for the capital city with his army hey guys I heard a rumor that Hood Jim was planning on killing us then why don't we kill him first and so it was they lured him to the palace with a forged letter from his sister well let's let's go and read the note kill him first and so it was they lured him to the hey huh I need your help with something unspecified and not at all suspicious this letter isn't a forgery from your sis the empress dowager palace with a forged letter from his sister and when he got there they loved off his head kill them all imperial forces stormed the palace and the eunuchs were all massacred the peasants who were still suffering from drought and starvation saw what was going on and began to riot the Emperor and his brother were forced to flee the city which was now in flames and the feared nasty tyrannical bloated dong zhuo had just arrived he found the Emperor and his brother wandering the hills outside of the city and was understandably confused so he scooped up the Emperor went to the capital was like hey guys what's up I see the capital is on fire also I'm here with my army and I have the Emperor with me wait a minute the capital is on fire I'm here with my army and I have the Emperor screw you guys I'm in charge yes and out dump everything in the Han Dynasty as the Emperor's region his first act was to say to the Emperor hey man no hard feelings but I like your little brother better so I'm actually making him Emperor instead of you so you're free to go do whatever you want actually no yeah yeah that feels better dong zhuo ruled with an iron fist and he did whatever the flip he wanted he made absolute decisions himself showing no regard for the monarchy he had his opponents or those who disagreed with him killed he broke protocol doing things like keeping his sword when approaching the Emperor wearing shoes the course of dishonor o Emperor's bed and worst of all he would walk in the presence of the Emperor you were meant to trot the other warlords around the Empire hated him and so they said something needs to be done about this guy what say we form a coalition and oust him and it was agreed warlords from across China their armies amounting to a hundred thousand men allied together against the tyranny of dong zhuo un Chas Coalition consisted of some of the nation's most capable leaders including his half-brother un shu the great SATs out in soon GN but dong Zhuo had an ace up his sleeve his protege an adopted son one of the most skilled and feared warriors in all of China it's Lu boo this guy was a beast of a man he never lost a duel and no other warlord dared challenge him to one he was also famous for betraying just about every warlord he ever fought for something that dong Zhuo didn't seem too concerned about the coalition attacked dong Zhuo in Lu yang and in particular sangeun's forces inflicted a heavy defeat against him and he was forced to flee to the city of Chang'an after this initial success however the war entered into a stalemate the warlords in the coalition realized it was going nowhere and also they all secretly hated each other so they all went home dong Zhuo was safe until legend has it that a government official in Chang'an had a daughter who was hot super hot he invited lubu to his home and promised lubu that someday he could marry his daughter then he invited dong Zhuo to his house and did the exact same thing dong Zhuo was so smitten that he insisted on taking her as his concubine immediately and when lubu heard the news he was pretty unhappy Susan came in aren't you worried that you stole new booze girl and betrayal is like his personal hobby lubu betray me no way men never gonna happen yeah you may have Nam ran that lubu along with other government officials assassinated the tyrannical dong zhuo then they left his body burning in the streets some sources say he was so fat and oily he kept on burning for days clay was that of marshmallow nice some sources say he was so fat oily he kept on burning for days nice so with dong zhuo dead and the power of the hand government essentially decimated China was left with a huge power gap and a ton of warlords who also soundly at night dreaming of being the one to fill it here we enter into a crazy and chaotic period of civil war all across China with so many people so much portrayal so much intricacy it makes Game of Thrones look like a dr. Seuss publication but just to give you an idea of how crazy and chaotic it was see if you're able to keep up with this are you ready all right here we go here's a rough map of the Warlord's throughout the Han Dynasty at the time half-brothers you and Xiao and you and Shu we're both in a power struggle for who had become the figurehead of their family you and Shu made alliances with warlords in the north along with Sun Jian the guy who defeated dong Zhuo you enshou also made alliances with Leo beyond the south and south south who was an amazing strategist in general all of these warlords began fighting each other SATs how began building his own strength by subjugating nearby remnants of the Yellow Turban rebellion into his own forces down south things weren't going so well for sin jian as he was killed in an ambush so since on sinsa took over then you and chu got pushed back to the river why so he ordered Sansa to take the territory of warlord Liu Kang Benson so went off to capture dinner in history for himself as such his family lived in this province over here for one day so they were murdered Oh No SATs ow help some zombie hard to governor his motivation and so he launched a cruel invasion in which he pillaged cities and murdered over a hundred thousand civilians the governor sent out a call for help and a very popular likeable warlord by the name of Leo Baeck came to his aid however well Tata was away fighting a rebellion was staged against him in his home province by none other than its lubu sad sound rushed home and defeated lubu who fled to the east which by now had been inherited by Leo Bey been lubu surprise surprise launched a rebellion against Leo Bay who fled did satsang yes only obey would go on to invade and defeat Liu Bei equisetum joints out south and sets out considered the offer but his advisors were like no way man this guy's betrayed literally everyone he ever worked for and so boohoo lubu was executed next sat so convinced the Emperor to move in with him now he's in control the hem government something that made his allies bear jealous UN Chu out of nowhere decides to declare himself emperor of the new Zhang dynasty nobody like that his allies cut ties with him the imperial government ordered everyone to kill him he tried to flee to his brother Ewan Chou but died of illness on the way since uh took over his territory and then got assassinated so his brother soon Chen took over Leo Baeck turned on salsa but got obliterated and was forced to flee South you enshou finally defeated the warlord to his north and could now focus south he declared war as a lights-out sow who was defeated at the battle of Guan do sad sow has now United the north and he turned his attention to the South in particular lioba's province was becoming a powerful threat sotatsu attacked him buteo bay was now fighting for Leo BL and he held Santa off for a while but then Leo ba died and his son took over and immediately surrendered its out south Liu Bei was horrified and he fled southward to try and maintain control of the province south south was on an absolute roll and it looked like he would be the one to take control of China he began making plans to attack both Leo Bey and soon Jin and the two of them seeing where things were headed met up and decided to form an alliance now I know that was a lot to take in but all you really need to know what at this point is that this guy's on his way to taking over everything and he's about to throw his full weight at the southern warlords these two have one chance one battle to prevent him from invading the south and that battle was the famous battle of red cliffs to take the south south side we need to control and cross the mighty Yangtze River he had over 200,000 men to face against Leo Bay and Sun shins combined force of 50,000 how would they stand a chance when they were sitting on the left legend says most of some Chin's advisors pleaded with him to surrender but then he smashed up a table and they all backed down luckily sat sized forces were ravaged by disease and exhaustion and his northern soldiers weren't too comfortable on ships so when Tata sailed down the river and the two sides met for an initial skirmish at Wu Lin SATs I was unable to inflict a defeat against the Allies then one of sin shins men came up with a very sneaky plan he sent out so a letter pretending that he and others wanted to defect to his side and offered to bring him some of Leo Bay and CIN Chan's finest ships little did sot sound know however that those ships were full of flammable reeds as they approached his fleet they were set alight and destroy trypsin camp seeing the situation is hopeless SATs out ordered a difficult retreat through the rain and marshland perjuring was more of his men to illness and disease the underdogs had won and SATs I would never again have another chance to take the South following that the three warlords took some time to finish off some smaller competitors in their own regions and by the year two fourteen China looked a little bit like this SATs out continued to try to penetrate the southern regions but had no success and even lost a hands on region to Leo Bay in 217 the former allies eventually fell out over who should own this territory here was sunshine coming out on top in 220 shouts out died of a head disease and was replaced by cited sappy South peak convinced the Emperor of hunt to abdicate and then proclaimed himself the Emperor of the new state of Wei Li obey followed suit declaring himself the true Emperor of Shu Han and a few years later sincheon joined in the fun and declared himself emperor of Wu and so now you have a number of kingdoms in China how many count them one two three three kingdoms except actually they weren't King pretty balanced dynasties and when the three kingdom is finally formed not a whole lot of semantics for the next three decades they continue to engage in combat but it almost always ended in stalemate and nobody really got anywhere so how did it all end did sets as descendants eventually realize his dream of unifying China not quite instead the three kingdoms became victims of the usual problems that plagued Chinese dynasties in Wu sin Chen's descendent became a tyrant who is more interested in spending time with his concubines than governing in Xu Han a powerful story RuPt eunuch faction rose up and by now we all notice off the eunuchs and in way a string of young emperor saloons powerful family the Simha clan to take control of the dynasties government this SEMA clamp recognized the weak states shoot and wu had been reduced to and so they began making plans i've just received this letter that says wei is planning to attack us should we make preparations for war yeah it's probably nothing to worry about let's do absolutely nothing Oh sounds good to me Wei launched a full-scale invasion into shoe which melon didn't shoe then Simeon forced the way Emperor to abdicate and proclaimed himself emperor of the new Jin dynasty in the year 279 Jin launched an invasion of Wu and finally unified China in the year 280 the pattern of rising and falling dynasties division and reunification would continue in China for centuries right now you may be asking yourself but wait a minute what would have happened if Tata had his way in unified China or what if lubu never assassinated dong zhuo then he countless will deliver the Han Dynasty what about if one of these smaller warlords had risen to the top what if I want to be a warlord during the downfall of the Han Dynasty whoa partner calm down because now you can this video was brought to you later in the day when three kingdoms a brand new strategy game that combines a gripping turn-based campaign of empire building where's mechanics in the total encounter play time with stunning real-time battles choose from a cast of legendary warlords and your Kong civilization unite China under you're like those games or to the next great dynasty and build a legacy that will last through the ages recruiters can tell me comments caused or the total grams be played on military technological political and economic fronts will you build powerful frames licenses and earn the respect of your many folks like that or would you rather commit acts of researching and like heart rate acknowledged I'll use some kind of grown ass civilization I bet you would your legend is yet to be written by more watching yes sir though glorious conquest awaits buy the game on Steam using my link in the description down below it would also support my channel and my work mention to that be sure to support them thank you get a deal maybe or wherever alright great video great video such I mean that was hard to keep up with with so many of those those different things I know when the the han fell that was one of the most violent times like in world history and now they show a little bit detail why because there's so much power grabbing going on and you see just that common thing of history about warlords coming to power when a large entity like the Han Dynasty Falls you know it creates a power vacuum right and people since I don't have like a national entity if you want to look at it that way if someone to protect you and create stability you tend to find yourself looking for someone locally that can do those things reminds me a little bit of like the fall the Roman Empire that and to when Rome fell you became somebody that was it was necessarily more important to get somebody locally and you are loyal to them because they can protect you and in a time of violence like the fall of Rome or the fall of the Han Dynasty you need that otherwise you're not going to survive you're not going to be able to protect yourself unless you have somebody that can sort of do that so you create that relationship of loyalty to that Lord warlord whatever it is they want to call themselves and it's a symbiotic relationship that way and that's basically what feudalism is you know and it happens all over the world and it's not just ancient either even have anymore more common times just who can protect you right and if you can protect someone then they're going to be loyal to you so you have that relationship there you could see that happening but it's not the last time it's gonna happen in Chinese history this fall of dynasties like we we talked about with our little talk there on the dynastic cycles gonna be a major feature of Chinese history for all of China so anyways look into that more definitely if you're into more of the Chinese history and looking into some of these dynasties a lot of them will bring in some kind of new technology or new kind of advancement but you will see in China one thing we talked about in my classes is how things stay the same or they change right we call it continuity and change over time and it's I get a lot of that a things that stayed the same like a lot of these times you get like Confucianism which will permeate throughout dynasties but then you'll get some that like will go back on that and not want to follow those ways that Confucian teachings and things like that so interesting thing in history always it's good to understand that is understand how things change and how things stay the same and that's a good critical thinking skill especially when you're looking at history so well that was great a lot of stuff I learned there have a little bit more of the intricate details and things like that it's amazing that there is a history as detailed as I'm assuming they were able to go into there but that's great so all right once again give them a view I'll leave a link to the oversimplified video the original one so you can check that out make sure that you give them support if you have video suggestions leave them on getting them a lot more and more as the channel seems to be getting popular and I really really just thank everybody that's given comments and has subscribed and give the likes this is this channel is growing way more than I I thought I didn't know there would be such a good market or guess out there for hopefully hearing not just a react video because there's so many react videos but hopefully you know you get an extra little dose from the historical perspective from a history teacher so I just really appreciate all of you that have done that and have continued on and given giving me such a nice feedback and if you have any feedback that's great love to hear but I'm having a lot of fun doing these I definitely want to do more and thanks to oversimplified which has been the video source for so many of my videos here and I've done want to branch out more and do other content creators for sure but it's the Internet and it's just full of an infinite amount of just amazing things to to talk about so once again thank you for checking out my video mr. Terry I hope to see you back for future videos have a great day

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 536,900

Rating: 4.9226403 out of 5

Keywords: history, react, china, three kingdoms, dynastic cycle, mandate of heaven

Id: crOF-K8hioE

Length: 31min 50sec (1910 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 01 2019