I just stumbled upon The Yan Xishan blog, named for famous Shanxi warlord (whose name is rendered in Wade-Giles as, Yen Hsi-shan)  of the early twentieth century.  The author writes in Yan’s voice – it”s great fun! He’s got some great posts up.  The top ten dynasties – at present he only has number 10 (Sui) and number 9 (Shang) posted (I hope he doesn’t make Qin the number one…).   I think I would put Tang up top of that list.

      Even more fun for me is the top ten Chinese thinkers.  I will, of course, take exception to his list.  Being a megalomaniacal warlord he naturally puts himself down as the number one Chinese thinker – sorry Yan, but that is just not going to get the job done.  But he shows much more wisdom in his second place choice: Chuang Tzu (who would be number one in my book).  I am also not nearly as big a fan of Han Fei Tzu as is Yan, (but, then again, Yan is a warlord…) and I would also question his placing the infamous Yuan Shikai in a fourth place tie with…Confucius!  Did Yuan ever really think?  Not so much. 

      But, to give him his due, even a warlord should be able to join the great trans-historical discussion of Chinese thought.