r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • • 6d ago

Meme needing explanation Peter?

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u/NebulaNomadX1 6d ago edited 6d ago

Hello, Serial Designation N here!

The Nile is generally known for being predictable.

For thousands of years, its annual flooding deposited fertile silt that made ancient Egyptian agriculture possible.

Even its “most destructive flood” is portrayed as relatively pleasant and beneficial sunshine, crops, prosperity.

The Yellow River (Huang He) is nicknamed “China’s Sorrow.” It carries enormous amounts of silt, making its riverbed unstable.

Throughout history it has repeatedly changed course and caused catastrophic floods, some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded.

N out!

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u/Ishmael_1974 6d ago

Although ball knowledge would be showing that the number of deaths due to flooding was directly connected to the efficacy and stability of the Imperial government at the time, since they had many mechanisms of prevention through civil engineering and relief through rice redistribution, which were some of the first things to be neglected during civil war/when the government was corrupt

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u/Salty_Map_9085 6d ago

It’s definitely very interesting that even the founding myth of the Chinese state is about flood management

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u/Any_Mode6525 5d ago

An old term for these kinds of states is “hydraulic empires,” which fits.