{"id":288,"date":"2004-04-12T07:27:10","date_gmt":"2004-04-12T13:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/?p=288"},"modified":"2005-01-07T05:35:46","modified_gmt":"2005-01-07T11:35:46","slug":"review-a-target_blank-hrefhttpwwwamazoncomexecobidosasin1853752924fantasistnetthe-genius-of-chinaa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/index.php\/2004\/04\/12\/review-a-target_blank-hrefhttpwwwamazoncomexecobidosasin1853752924fantasistnetthe-genius-of-chinaa\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Genius of China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I finished <a target=\"_blank\" HREF=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1853752924\/fantasistnet\">The Genius of China<\/a> this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Wow.  This is an incredible book!  Like many readers of popular modern science, I constantly underestimate the inventiveness and technology of ancient man.  This book really highlights that.  Also, it&#8217;s an amazing inventory of creativity and inventiveness that the current China seems to be regaining.  Imagine very modern inventions like glow-in-the-dark paint and natural gas mining being invented before the First Century AD!<br \/>\nI read this as a way to get familiar with the technology of one of the most inventive people and times in history so that I could use it in conworld creation.  I was <i>NOT<\/i> disappointed!  The idea that they had movable type and spill-proof lanterns were revelations to me.  Not to mention the quality of their ceramics and lacquer.<br \/>\nHowever, you&#8217;ve really got to want this information to read this book.  I found the author&#8217;s style to be quite dry and academic.  In some cases, it even seemed rather biased in favor of the Chinese, but, as my wife pointed out, that&#8217;s to be expected considering the subject matter.<br \/>\nAll in all, though, the author&#8217;s writing skills are not enough to keep me from heartily recommending this book to anyone interested in the technology of the ancient world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I finished The Genius of China this weekend. Wow. This is an incredible book! Like many readers of popular modern science, I constantly underestimate the inventiveness and technology of ancient man. This book really highlights that. Also, it&#8217;s an amazing inventory of creativity and inventiveness that the current China seems to be regaining. Imagine very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18,23,28],"tags":[434,435,436],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criticism-marginalia-and-notes","category-invented-worlds","category-review","category-science-and-technology","tag-glow-in-the-dark-paint","tag-natural-gas-mining","tag-technology-of-ancient-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fantasist.net\/scroll\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}