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Comment by peteretep | Hacker News Reader

> It’s amusing to suggest there is “historic stuff” in SF, as there is in China

It’s amusing to suggest there’s historic stuff in China, as there is in Europe. I saw a “historic” building in China. It was constructed in 1600s! Like, 400 years after the bar I used to work in started.

It’s amusing to suggest there’s historic stuff in Europe, as there is in Egypt. I saw a “historic” building in the UK. It was constructed in the 900s! Like, 4,000 years after the pyramids were built!

etc etc etc

That there’s older shit elsewhere doesn’t remove the historicity of anywhere else

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Before the revolution, Chinese used to count years in eras. Very few Chinese indeed knew how old the country was, except on a level like "Yellow emperor and co." lived a horrificly long time ago.

To most, that was making the impression that "time is not actually going," and that people lived exactly like it was today for millennia. There was little regard for "historical things" outside of microscopically small class of educated elites.

This is a good point, because time is perceived to be not moving, nothing is actually historical.

The preservation impulse perks up with change.

They still do that kind of thing in Japan. Indeed, the Japanese "era" is due to switch over when the reigning emperor's abdication becomes effective in May 2019.

It's different today though. While the historically famous Edo period lasted 265 years, today the periods just end when an emperors reign ends. They are also counting years (today, not sure if they did earlier). E.g. 2018 is 平成30年 (Heisei year 30).

You're mixing up eras and reigns. The "Edo period" refers to the years when the shogunate ruled from Edo (today's Tokyo), during which there were over a dozen (notionally) reigning emperors:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Timeline_of_Japanese_...

Thank you. Didn't know that :) I misinterpreted stuff there

It doesn't affect your daily life much any more though. Those eras used to change when super significant events happened but now they are simply tied to emperors. The same system still applies in the UK where laws are numbered by the year of the reign of the then-current monarch, but I doubt anyone outside the parliament and law profession pays any attention.

China lacks many old buildings because historically things were built from wood, not stone, and wood burns.

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