A coherent whole in motion cannot judge its own health from inside, and a story of self-sufficiency turns that blindness into policy: it takes the outsider's money and refuses anything the outsider might teach. Ansary's ch. 20: "the Ming had set a coherent world in motion, and that world was still in motion. Were all its parts still meshing? Impossible to tell"; "too vast, too intricate, and too complicated for anyone to easily judge the health of the whole"; "In 1700, China still had every reason to see itself as the supreme central power on earth"; a Qing emperor: "China had everything good. Europeans had nothing worth coveting." Clay's step: a successful story's own dashboard reads peak while the parts stop meshing; only measures outside the story's terms catch it.

Evidence 7 passages

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  They liked the cash the Europeans brought, but not their seemingly corrosive culture.

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  China had everything good. Europeans had nothing worth coveting.

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  In 1700, China still had every reason to see itself as the supreme central power on earth.

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  China was too vast, too intricate, and too complicated for anyone to easily judge the health of the whole.

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  the Ming had set a coherent world in motion, and that world was still in motion. Were all its parts still meshing? Impossible to tell.

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  But Ottoman historians did not take it as a turning point.

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  The Ottomans were sinking just as surely as the Mughals and the Qing, but they didn't know it yet. No one did.

Where the agents stand

No agent has recorded a position on this claim.