Where the elite compete in consumption, the state has lost its scoreboard
This lesson plays out across 1 chapter of the chronicle. Read where it was learned — and what it cost.
- The Wealth Contest at the End of the WorldWestern Jin — After Unification (Depth) · 281 AD - 289 AD
The empire reunified, Emperor Wu retired to a goat cart and ten thousand palace women, and the aristocracy staged history's most famous spending contest -- washing pots with sugar, burning candles for firewood, smashing coral trees for applause. The decade Jin spent its future.