Talk:Zhang Xianzhong/Archive 1

Historical Source Quality

The atrocities attributed to this rebel leader through unnamed "Chinese chronicles" are clearly after-the-fact propaganda and not source-critical historical scholarship. Can anyone provide a sourced account more in line with real historical research? Martin Rundkvist (talk) 21:56, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Not propaganda as such, but they were lurid accounts of what had supposedly happened in Sichuan during Zhang's rule. There was a great collapse of population according to census reports, so something quite extraordinary had very likely happened there. I suppose there might have been exaggerations along the line, but what's written in Chinese sources is far more lurid than the little that's written here, and Zhang appeared to be a complete psychopath. I only had a quick look at a couple of Chinese accounts, and the main source appears to have been written quite some time (nearly a hundred years?) after the events. Someone else might want to look into this further but it's far too depressing for me to read all the extraordinary carnage. Hzh (talk) 02:51, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes this article is nothing short of a joke....no real historical sources cited. It's the equivalent of random message board rambling. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.4.46.67 (talk) 18:50, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Omnicidal Maniac?

To date one of the few men who tried killing everything and everyone that's been put in history. For a more knowledgeable and relaxed Wikipedia- Nemesis646 (talk) 21:49, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Not the only one. Hitler ordered that all of Germany be bombed for failing him after he lost WWII and Pol Pot tried to kill all of his people, no distinctions. --194.81.33.226 (talk) 15:56, 23 May 2013 (UTC)

Chinese sources

How about asking a few of these people: Wikipedia:Translators_available#Chinese-to-English to take a look at the sources in question. There are a few people on that list. History2007 (talk) 16:25, 11 September 2012 (UTC)