The Rise of Qing-era racism

Yanlin always listened to Yumin's terrible stories with a shudder to the very soul. And the saddest thing about it was that every word was the purest truth. He was so terrified that he promised his friend that when he took his father's place, he would never start such wars and treat people with a different appearance badly. Everyone will have the right to study spiritual skills, all kinds of battles and have a career growth, even from a dishwasher to a cook. "When I grow up and become emperor, you will be the only one I will trust. We're going to be best friends, aren't we? "Unless your father blows my head off or you don't want to do it later." Yanlin snorted resentfully. — I'm not like my father! — But your people think like him! — I will fix it, because after we became friends with you, they stopped at least beating you to bruises. Yumin rolled his eyes, and remembered that the guard was not averse to hitting him on the head with a bamboo stick at every opportunity. Yanlin completely boiled and screamed. — Yes, I'll go and break this stick for him. — Your father will give him a new one. Yanlin sat down resentfully again. He did not understand why there was such injustice in this world that even his own father was ready to kill his friend, just for green eyes and blond locks. Yumin seemed to be someone extraordinarily handsome and intelligent, even if he was moved only by anger and revenge, but his eyes burned like a fresh meadow under a vigorous shock of blond hair, strands of which seemed to fall on the whole body of the young man. Yanlin always wondered why Yumin had the longest hair of all, even he himself had not had time to grow so long. Hair length was considered a sign of dignity at that time. The fact that the emperor's son has shorter hair than some European, was a pretty strong reason to cut off the hair of the "guilty" or even shave it bald as a sign of shame. But Yanlin would never have ordered such a thing to be done. Fighting with loose hair is a rather complicated art, if a person could present himself in battle and not lose a single hair, it was considered the highest skill. But it is also a very vulnerable place, because the enemy could easily grab hold of long, unkempt strands. Sword fighting with a minimum use of spiritual powers was considered a very difficult art. The Songlin clan was not famous for swordsmen, only archers, it is not surprising that the emperor's son initially went to study the art of archery, and swords were a lesson for slaves, they were not even counted on in war, so it was only meat. Which was used exclusively for entertainment purposes. *** Spiritual power gives easy movement in the air with a small fraction of flight, summoning the memories of the dead, adding to the force of impact, and other minor functions. The remaining properties were not explored in the Qing era. So people, even with spiritual strength, were almost no different from ordinary people in the war. This was not practiced in Europe, so it was easy for Ancient China to capture large enough territories. Their arrows flew far and accurately at the target.