Blog Entry #4

New ideas emerge from political, social, or economic stress because of the need for change. When something goes wrong, it means there is some sort of idea that is failing. The emperors went a bit too far at one point and tried to have the eunuchs check the power of their wives' families. A struggle developed between the scholar-gentry, the eunuchs, and the wives' families. It eventually lead to their downfall, but also introduced new ideas. After 400 years of warring states, the Sui dynasty rose to power, some of the most creative and influential people of all human history. If not for the political and social stress in China, the Sui dynasty might never have rose to power. Also, after farming became harder and harder, making more people poor, the Han dynasty created watermills and wheelbarrows. Because of stress like these, many new ideas are forced to be formed, many times creating a better solution than what was previously done.