What the Chinese Didn't Need to Conquer the World

China's religion reflected that. They had this central imperial authority, but then at the folk level, you have basically a totally different set of beliefs. It's like it's very easy to see how the samurai were broken in Japan because how could anybody believe in the old gods of favor when these fucking gringos are showing up? The Chinese system didn't need to because it was a lightly to felt hand basically at every point. And I think those things go together like in the west, those military states coming out of the collapsing Roman Empire require a social dimension of coercion.