User talk:PericlesofAthens

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Battle of Normandy, June of '44, quite possibly my favorite pic on Wiki.

Animated naval gun turret, this pic has to be my favorite animated illustration on wiki.

Pangea breaking up into the continents we know today. Amazing.

Hey guys, and welcome to my user talk page. Feel free to ask anything on your mind, or any general help with articles. If you would like to look over old talk page discussions, simply view the archive links in the box to the right. -->

If you are looking for my image gallery page, click here.

If you are looking for my minor edits and DYK page, click here.

For the freewebs.com website I maintain that is dedicated to the history of science and technology in China, visit this link here.

Contents 1 New Project 2 The Chinese Sailing Carriage 3 Would that I could be more helpful 4 Tibet during the Ming Dynasty 5 Tibet 6 RE:Tibet during the Ming Dynasty 7 JSTOR 8 Trade ports in Song China 9 Bayan of the Baarin 10 Thank you! 11 Congratulations 12 Congratulations 13 Foreign tributes to the Song 14 Dali Kingdom 15 Pagoda of Tianning Temple (Changzhou) 16 Sockpuppets on articles related to Tibet 17 Culture of the Song Dynasty 18 Photos 19 Monkey 20 Image size 21 Phagspa and other schools of Tibetan Buddhism 22 stamp photo 23 Zhang Heng. 24 Zhang Heng request 25 Gore Vidal

[edit] New Project

Myself and several other editors have been compiling a list of very active editors who would likely be available to help new editors in the event they have questions or concerns. As the list grew and the table became more detailed, it was determined that the best way to complete the table was to ask each potential candidate to fill in their own information, if they so desire. This list is sorted geographically in order to provide a better estimate as to whether the listed editor is likely to be active.

If you consider yourself a very active Wikipedian who is willing to help newcomers, please either complete your information in the table or add your entry. If you do not want to be on the list, either remove your name or just disregard this message and your entry will be removed within 48 hours. The table can be found at User:Useight/Highly Active, as it has yet to have been moved into the Wikipedia namespace. Thank you for your help. Useight (talk) 05:56, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

I find myself spending too much time on Wikipedia editing articles as it is; guiding newcomers would not be helpful for my busy schedule. It's a miracle that I somehow find the time to include Wiki in my life.--Pericles of Athens^Talk 23:34, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Chinese Sailing Carriage

Regarding your repeated tinkering with image size, I don't much mind, but I understand it is Wikipedia policy to leave thumb size unspecified so that users can set their own size in user preferences.--Charles (talk) 21:08, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Would that I could be more helpful

Hello there, Peric. We did indeed do some work together in the past; I recall having a go at Society of the Song Dynasty and I guess it's a good sign that you haven't put me on a "Never ask this person for help ever again" list. =) Tibet during the Ming Dynasty sounds like a very worthwhile project, and something I'd enjoy working on – but alas, I am currently totally swamped with work in real life and elsewhere. The best I can do is offer some time in about a month. I know it's probably not much help, but if you still want another set of eyes come June, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Sorry I can't offer more. Good luck with the article, and let me know if you think I'll be any use later on. Cheers! – Scartol • Tok 04:14, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Tibet during the Ming Dynasty

These are the ones appearing to be unsourced. Only two, but ya know :)

• Mongol Empire - final sentence "Kublai Khan did not conquer the Song Dynasty of China until 1279, so Tibet was a component of the early Mongol Empire before it was combined into a larger empire with the whole of China—the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368)."
• Overthrow of the Sakya and Yuan - "In 1368, a Han Chinese revolt known as the Red Turban Rebellion toppled the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China. Zhu Yuanzhang then established the Ming Dynasty, ruling as the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368–1398)."

Collectonian (talk) 17:41, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

What? Are you pulling a fast one on me buddy?! If so I think it's kind of funny. But seriously dude, that's like asking for a citation that George Washington became president of the USA in 1789, or asking for a citation that Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC. These are well known, common sense historical events. Not only that, I provided a citation from Rossabi about the Mongol conquest of Tibet in the 1240s, long before the Song Dynasty was conquered in 1279. Not only that, I provided a link to the article History of the Song Dynasty, which is well-sourced and goes into great detail about the conquest of the Song Dynasty. Not only that, if you doubt the existence of the Red Turban Rebellion or the Hongwu Emperor, that's like asking me if King Henry VIII existed, and asking for a citation. Unless there is some crazy historical revisionist out there like Anatoly Fomenko who wishes to challenge these events by explaining that aliens ruled the earth before 1400 AD, then WP:CITE wouldn't suggest that I provide citations for these, unless some publication comes forth to challenge them.--Pericles of Athens^Talk 17:52, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Hello Eric! How are you? I supported the FA nomination of Tibet during the Ming Dynasty. It is a very good article. You created the article, you expanded it, you did everything for the article!! That's remarkable! Regards, Masterpiece2000 (talk) 12:28, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Tibet

That wasn't very friendly. Blofeld has put a lot of time into editing that article today. We're all here for the purpose of building the encyclopedia :). Seraphim♥Whipp 20:02, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

PLease remain patient and please don't insult me in edit summaries. The article was a shambles and had been the subject of severe over editing and traffic and I was in the middle of trying to make it a little more adequate. I was in the middle of sorting out images but if I lost any references or links it was unintentional. I find your insult about a "skilled editor" amusing. People who know me would agree that I am one of the most capable editors on wikipedia and so I should be after 151,000 edits. Ask John Hill or anybody and given the decent work I've put into setting up Wikiroject Tibet and Tibetan articles during my time on wikipedia ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 20:03, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

The irony is, that I was just off to tell you, Blofeld, what a good job you're doing. Seraphim♥Whipp 20:06, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Well, sorry if I took my anger out on you, it was only after I've cleaned up a dozen different articles where people do not know how to align images correctly, and it either leaves gigantic gaps in the text or scrunches them together. I guess seeing your edit was my boiling point after fixing other articles with the same problem over and over, and since I've never seen your edits before I simply assumed you were an amateur like the rest. Good work on the article otherwise.--Pericles of Athens^Talk 20:07, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

OK apology accepted but I have been a little side tracked from editing Tibetan articles over the last few months and in looking at the main article today I was shocked by it. The intro for starters mentioned nothing about about the Dalia Lamas, Buddhism or Lhasa. and had been cut almost to a two sentences. The history yes it needed major condensing but not removed to the extent that it is three elines long. Naturally all of the details should be in the history articles but you still need a fiarly informative summarized history of which I've tried to cut to the main points but needs a SERIOUS copyedit and write. I'm sure you agree the article is a nightmare to maintain and protect. I've rmeoved any obvious POV I've seen and tried to merge the evlauation section which had been rmeoved entirely into a Tibet under CHina section which should be balanced and informative. If I;ve removed any vlauable sentences or references I depely apologise to those editors who added them. It is now part of a working process and I hope you can work with me professionally and try to improve it to a better standard without eroding valuable content within it ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 20:15, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

These days given the huge amount missing geographically from parts of Africa and Asia I spend most of my time creating new articles and trying to address systematic bias by filling in gapsSee here. It would be good to develop some core Tibetan articles some time though. That article needs to be watched like a hawk! ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 20:21, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

That sounds great. I've always wished I had the books that User:John Hill has on Tibet as I am fascinated by its past, geography, culture and religion but admittedly the Tibet-Chinese conflict does my nut in. Personally I think Tibet had a distinct cultural difference and heritage to the Chinese that would qualify it as an independent nation but this should certainly not affect the wriiting of a neutral encyclopedia article. So many think it is a forum for politics. Good luck with the editing, I am slightly concerned that some other editor is going to completely pbjects to the changes but I will be watching the article very closely from now on!!! ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 20:28, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes I started all of the districts in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and as you can imagine some of the districts of kazakhstan are the size of some countries in area. Yet they wer emissing entirely and are still stubs!!! The uneveness in parts of africa and asia on here is a severe problem which takes up most of my editing time these days ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 20:31, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Hopefully some day I can get back to adding an working on some of the monastery articles again. The History of European exploration in Tibet one is mine, I thought it would be useful to look at it from a European persepective independently in addition to the general history. Could use a lot more citations though ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 20:39, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Well as for filling in gaps thats what wikipedia is all about isn't spreading knowledge and covering topics on here that have never been seen before in a compendium of this magitude. Hopefully I can get the appropriately named User:BaldBot programmed to create 10 articles a minute in grossly underdeveloped parts of the project. Unfortunately given the openess of wikipedia it has its pitfalls at times with vandalism and editors who try to use it for their POV. I try to avoid edit wars and conflict over articles as much as possible ans I'm sure you agree things can get very tense on here at times. Regards ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 20:49, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Up for FA isn't it? You;ve done brilliantly developing that one I see. If I have some time tomorrow I'll be sure to review and post any possible flaws or areas for improvement with it. I'm sure it will be a very interesting read. Tgis is the sort of thing we need now, specialized articles on various periods in its history will take the project to the next level (only if we can beat out the vandals though). Keep up the good work also ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 20:52, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Well your're fullly welcome to put your name down at Wikipedia:WikiProject Tibet, evne if you can't commit to much to it is to give some indication of editors who are interested in its articles. ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 21:03, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Welcome!!! Admittedly I haven't been to active with it in the past few months because of my commitments all across the project but clearly some articles have developed anyway. Just glancing at that article it looks awesome and a wonderful asset for the encyclopedia but I'll give it a full read tomorrow. I won't change the Tibet article too much more tonight, but just added the lakes as it is didn't even mention Manosovar Lake or anything in the geography. Finally got around to mergin those ugly lists that were there before too. Needs some geo facts too which I'll try to find a few references for. Basically a decent editor needs to sit down a just write the article properly and professionally and block out those amateur POV pushers and IP addresses from degrading it ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 21:30, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] RE:Tibet during the Ming Dynasty

Hello Eric. Thank you for your comment. Regards, Masterpiece2000 (talk) 05:20, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] JSTOR

Hey Eric, I gather you did a lot of your research for TdtMD via Google searches to JSTOR documents. I've done a bit of that, but balked at shelling out $19 to see the full text of an article. Is that what you've been doing, paying JSTOR piecemeal per article? Bertport (talk) 15:33, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Trade ports in Song China

I was reading over the Society of Song Dynasty and I saw how the Tang port of Guangzhou was eclipsed in popularity by those of Quanzhou and Fuzhou. When exactly did this take place? Was Guangzhou still popular around 1100? --Ghostexorcist (talk) 06:39, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Congrats on the forthcoming main page appearance of Society of the Song Dynasty! --Ghostexorcist (talk) 18:26, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

No problem. The new material looks good. McKnight's book Law and Order in Sung China mentions an ethnic group that caused the Chinese authorities many problems. I believe these people were called the "Min", but I can't seem to find the book at the moment. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 21:51, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Correction, it was the "Man" people. I was able to find a scan on Amazon from the book here (see page 79) --Ghostexorcist (talk) 22:05, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure where I would add it in the minority section. You can add a sentence or two at your leisure. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 22:19, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

I see you have a handle on it. Since they were from Hainan island, I'm sure we can find a good page on the internet to link the "Man" name to. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 22:22, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Bayan of the Baarin

Hi,

some while ago you added some stuff about Bayan's ethnicity ("Turk, not Mongol !") to the article, based on a work of Rossabi. I don't know what points Rossabi is making, but there were actually two generals called Bayan in the Yuan dynasty: Bayan of the Baarin a.k.a. Bayan zhengsan (or so) a.k.a. Bayan hundred eyes (d. 1295), and Bayan of the Merkid (d.1340). The Baarin are usually considered a very Mongol tribe, already mentioned in the first pages of the Secret History, descendants of Alan Γoa etc., while the Merkit are quite often said to be Turks (although one might wonder whether this wouldn't be academical by the 1300s). My question is: Could this "Turk, not Mongol !" - stuff be a confusion between the two Bayans?

Regards,

Yaan (talk) 16:14, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you!

		The Buddha Barnstar
		For creating Wikiproject Tibet's first featured article, I award you this Buddha Barnstar. Gimme danger (talk) 16:33, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Congratulations

		The Tibetan Award of Excellence and Compassion
		For your outstanding work at writing a brilliant article to FA standard and giving us the gift of the first Tibetan FA on wikipedia.. Hereby I present you this coveted award. The Bald One is proud of you, Much deserved. ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ $1,000,000? 20:35, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Personally I am highly impressed by your work and I can say that I rarely give compliments like that as there are few editors who are at this level. It is also extremely rare to meet somebody on here who seems very much like myself; who is intelligent and scholarly but a cool guy at the same time and into cool music and an avid guitarist. The two rarely go hand in hand and I must say I have only encountered one or two others like this ever since my time on wikipedia. Keep up the great work! ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 20:38, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Sounds great, the Mandarin language has always intrigued me and how their system works. Must me very difficult to learn, but they say that english is very difficult to learn for foreigners too don't they. How long have you been playing guitar for? I've been playing since I was 7 when I picked up the classical guitar. 18 years later and we have about 20 guitars in my house!, including several ukeleles, a banjo, and a sitar. I;d love to get hold of some of those more obscure traditional asian stringed instruments too! ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 21:15, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

If you are still interested in developing some Tibetan articles I've always wished to see an FA class article on the Dalai Lama lineage. I don't know what resources you have on it, but anything you could do to improve it at least beyond a GA status would be much appreciated. I haven't edited it much in the past although I did add the gallery of the dalai lamas ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 21:31, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Hiah just woken up after a heavy night lol?. Yes naturally the dalai lama article is an extremely important one and ties a lot of important historical events and articles together. The article at present is a major let down. It isn't even B class yet. Even the history isn't even covered properly. For Tibet on wikipedia a great article on His Holiness would be awesome. I would imagine you could throw in a lot of information also on the early relationships with the Mongols etc and how it developed and perhaps a section examining possible political power that the lineage held etc weighing up the arguments for and against (this is intimately tied of course to the Tibetan sovereignty debate between Tibet and China). Potentially I'm certain there is a wealth of info that could be written about it if you able to obtain the books and turn it into an extremely interesting article. ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 17:58, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

I know the library in my area hasn't been open for two years and I have been dying to get hold of some books on it myself (If it was open I could start looking and researching!!!). I did try to buy one of Tenzin's books a while back from Amazon but it was like $100 +. John Hill also suggested some books I could try and they were very expensive too. Perhaps I could nab one off ebay, but I doubt they are going to have the scholarly sort of books which would be needed. ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 18:45, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Congratulations

Another day, another front page story. Congratulations, and keep up the good work. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 10:28, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Foreign tributes to the Song

I just recently learned of a book called Tribute Missions to China, 960–1126 by Prof. Robert M. Hartwell. It covers all of the tribute envoys sent to Song China from Korea to Africa and everything in between (in that order). I was able to find a pdf version of this book, but it is slow to load since it is an entire book. You might fined it useful. The author stated in the preface that he would write an even larger book including envoys from Japan and smaller envoys from other countries not mentioned, but I cannot seem to find that book anywhere. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 18:05, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

No problem. It's just a giant list. Each list is composed of the year, The names of the men in the envoy (if recorded), and the reason for their arrival. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 18:17, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

The book mentions that a Persian tribute traveled through the Western Xia territory in 1023. An unspecified person complained and a decree was enacted in 1024 that forced all future "Ta-shih" (arab/persian) tributes to sail into the port at Guangzhou. A similar tribute arrived in 1096, but they were turned away because they arrived at Hsi-chou (Xizhou, wherever that is). I think this is worth noting in the minorities section right after the mention of the tributes from Egypt, Yemen, India, and Korea. I would add it myself, but there is already a Hartwell book and I'm not sure how to format the new one (Hartwell, Tribute Missions to China, 960-1126, pg 71?) 71 is the book page, but it's pg. 78 in the pdf file. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 10:08, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Fair enough. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 18:11, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

I'm not upset or anything. I understand your concerns. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 19:05, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Dali Kingdom

Hi. Any luck on the Dalia Lama books? I noticed also that the Kingdom of Dali is still a stub. Could you expand it? ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 11:59, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pagoda of Tianning Temple (Changzhou)

On 26 May 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Pagoda of Tianning Temple (Changzhou), which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--BorgQueen (talk) 13:00, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sockpuppets on articles related to Tibet

Hi, I noticed you were recently involved in a mediation case concerning the history of the Ming Dynasty in Tibet. Joining as a party to that suit was User:Bertport, who recently had a new comment from User:Centrallib left on his talk page. Centrallib is a sockpuppet of User:Foxhunt99 and it makes me very suspicious that he would know who Bertport was and was familiar with his involvement in Tibet-related articles. Scrutinize the contributions of User:LaGrandefr and see if they match the same broken english as Foxhunt99 and his socks. Also check if their POVs align and, if this is the case, I will assist in opening a second sockpuppet and checkuser case to finally flush out all the socks. Thanks, Cumulus Clouds (talk) 20:36, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

• Their POVs seem to be aligned and their editing times don't seem to have any overlap. User:Chenyangw also appears to be pushing the same nationalist POV and arrives around the same time as Foxhunt99's socks, though again without any overlap. Let me know what you find. Cumulus Clouds (talk) 20:44, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Culture of the Song Dynasty

Thank you for your message. The Opera Project doesn't deal with 'theatrical drama' only the western opera tradition. My understanding is that 'Chinese opera' comes directly under performing arts in the scheme of things agreed by the Arts Project. You could add a Theatre Project banner if you like, as that nominally does cover Chinese theatre. Is that OK now? --Kleinzach 07:34, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

I see. I wasn't aware that it focused exclusively on Western opera. I would add a different banner in its place, but there is no WikiProject for Chinese opera, as evident by Talk:Chinese opera. In the meantime, WikiProject Opera will have to do.--Pericles of Athens^Talk 07:37, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Wei? Sorry, but I don't understand. 'Opera' is an Italian word for a 'work'. It's been gradually adopted for a particular art form that has nothing to do with 戏曲 or 京剧 or any other kind of Chinese theatre, or for that matter kabuki, nō, bunraku or Indonesian wayang kulit. It just happens to be a word used by westerners when they were looking for a suitable name. Why not be sensible and take my advice and use the Theatre banner, OK? Though I can't really see why a banner is needed here. --Kleinzach 07:52, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Photos

Do you need any China photos for any of your articles? I am currently in China and have loads of photos that have already been taken as well as more travelling to do in the future. I would be happy to fulfill any request you might have. Zeus1234 (talk) 12:47, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

I might be able to get a picture of that pagoda for you. It's about an hour away by train (I am in Beijing). Here's a list of the places I've been already. If there's anything nearby that you need I can see if I have a photo of it. Henan: Luoyang and Songshan. Shaanxi: Xian and Huashan. Shanxi: Pingyao. I've also been to various areas around Beijing. Next weekend I am going to Shanhaiguan and the coast of Hebei (and possibly Liaoning). I am planning to do another big trip in a couple of weeks to Wutaishan. I might be able to stop in a few places in northern and central Shanxi or Hebei as well though. So apart from the Liaodi pagoda, are there any other requests? You really should take a trip to China, it's awesome. Zeus1234 (talk) 13:19, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

I uploaded one new picture of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda (sorry it's not great, the park was closed when we got there), and three more of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. You cna find them in the relevant categories on the commons. Those are all I have for now from the list you presented. If there's anything else, please don't hesitate to ask. Zeus1234 (talk) 02:18, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

I went to the Tianning Pagoda today and took lots of pictures. They are all in the category Tianning Pagoda on the commons. Enjoy! Zeus1234 (talk) 10:24, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Unfortunately the trip to Henan was a bit rushed and there was not enough time to see everything. The Pagoda forest was the only set of pagodas I saw there. Zeus1234 (talk) 00:57, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Most of the photo requests are going to have to wait until the fall (apart from Wutaishan photos, where I am going on Saturday), because it is nearly the end of the semester and I am leaving China for the summer. But, I do have major plans to go traveling in the fall to some of the areas that photos are needed from. Zeus1234 (talk) 22:50, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Monkey

He has more pics that aren't on display! Blnguyen (bananabucket) 07:41, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

		The Epic Barnstar
		Awarded to Pericles for his superb work on olde Chinese history....Blnguyen (bananabucket) 07:41, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

you're filling in a big hole there. Olde Asian history is so weakly covered on Wikipedia. Blnguyen (bananabucket) 07:41, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image size

I have reverted your edit which gives Titus a much greater size than is appropriate on Pliny the Elder. Any objections? Peterlewis (talk) 20:44, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Phagspa and other schools of Tibetan Buddhism

In a discussion on the merits of Parenti when it comes to the discussion of Tibetan history on some talk page you said that Phagspa was only head of the Saskya school. Dieter Schuh somewhere in his essay about Tibet under the Mongols in "Die Mongolen, Beiträge zu ihrer Geschichte und Kultur", Darmstadt 1986, makes Phagspa the head of all [emphasis mine] Buddhist [not even "Tibetan Buddhist, Y.] monks in the Yuan empire. I can give you page number and a German quote with translation next week, but it may be a thing to look into anyway. I agree that Parenti is unreliable, however, even if not for the reason John Hill gave. Yaan (talk) 00:14, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Schuh does not discuss this conclusion, though, so I'm not really convinced it is true (might be simple oversight) ... only convinced there is a source that says so. Just wanted to let you know. Yaan (talk) 00:39, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] stamp photo

Maybe it's mistagged, but there is no indication on the image page that there is a fifty-year limit for postage stamps in China. Where do you get that from? Mangostar (talk) 16:43, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Actually now I've investigated more, and it looks like it may be PD. China's copyright law limits corporate copyrights to 50 years. I don't know if that includes postage stamps or not, but I would guess it does. In this case, the PD-China template should be changed to reflect that. Mangostar (talk) 16:53, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that's it. It will really come down to whether the creator of the stamp continues to hold the copyright (maybe they were commissioned to create it and aren't employees, as in the United States) or whether the government holds the copyright (this was the case in the United States until sometime in the 1970s I think). Mangostar (talk) 17:14, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Zhang Heng.

Ah yes, the writer of Technology of the Song Dynasty. :) I enjoyed that article. I'd be glad to copyedit your article, you'll just have to give me a little while, as I have a few older requests. · AndonicO ^Engage. 21:35, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Ah right, "of," not "in." I've fixed the unaesthetic red link. · AndonicO ^Engage. 22:10, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Zhang Heng request

So, Pericles, we meet again! It's been a month since I asked for a month more before I could help you out; alas, I'm in the final throes of the school year, so I can't help with Zhang Heng just yet. If you can give me until Monday, I'll be more than happy to give it a thorough proofread. Otherwise, I must wish you good luck once again and apologize anew. Cheers.. – Scartol • Tok 18:57, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

I have a horrible feeling you're going to read this and think: "Oh, he doesn't have time to copyedit my article, but he has time to read my userpage? WTF?" But anyway.. You like George Carlin and Jim Gaffigan. You support universal health care. You like the Dead Kennedys. How can you not be a fan of Bill Hicks? If you have not heard him, I order you to go right now and purchase his album Relentless. I seriously doubt you'll regret it. (Also check out Mitch Hedberg.) I have some recommendations on hip-hop, too, but those can wait. – Scartol • Tok 19:08, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

Okay, so long as you're bathed in their brilliance. I agree with you that they deserve a spot on yer page. Cheers! – Scartol • Tok 11:33, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Gore Vidal

Have you read Gore Vidal's Creation? [1]? Given your interest in history, I presume you have. I read it many years ago and found the concept interesting. I didn't like the execution because Gore Vidal is so obviously much more at home with Western culture than with Indian or Chinese, but the idea of setting these three civilisations side by side at such a fortuitous and important juncture in their histories is a fascinating one.

Bathrobe (talk) 02:19, 13 June 2008 (UTC)