(1) October 10th remains the national day in the Republic of China (Taiwan), but is replaced by October 1st in the People’s Republic
(2) The phrase comes from the Analects, the entire sentence goes “Confuscius says that a Junzi (gentleman or nobleman or prince) is cordial instead of confrontational, and sociable but has no party” (子曰:君子矜而不争,群而不党). Here, the character for party (党) suggests cliques and group conflict. It is not a character with much positive associations in classical Chinese. The extension of the character to mean modern political parties is also no accident, though we believe these parties to be a necessary part of politics today.
(3) Chinese drinking culture is all about Ganbei (干杯, same as Japanese Kampai), where draining the cup is considered a sign of respect. Even today, from personal experience, people do come to you and drain their cup first, and will be insulted if you do not follow suit. All in all a pretty toxic way to socialize. Of course, in this scene, all this can be considered mere pretext for Zhang Xun to stir up trouble.
(4) Back in Episode 23 I had mentioned that the term used for this transitional period of the Republic of China was 训政, the same term used by Empress Dowager Cixi for her regency after taking power back from Emperor Guangxu. It means literally “to instruct in the matter of politics.”
(5) According to Records of the Grand Historian, Tai Jia was a king of the Shang dynasty. Due to his poor rulership, he was stripped of power by his own minister Yi Yin, who allowed him back only after he repented. The historicity of this story, which would have taken place over 3600 years ago, is unverifiable.
(6) The story from Romance of the Three Kingdoms has Zhou Yu corporally punish Huang Gai, in order to better sell Huang Gai’s feigned defection to Cao Cao, which ultimately led to victory in the Battle of Red Cliffs.
(7) It’s true the United League or Tongmenghui had equal land rights as one of its four core tenets. Considering the other three were “drive out the barbarians (Manchu), restore China, establish the republic,” it’s clear that land use was a fundamentally important issue to this revolution, much as it is for all peasant revolutions when China is such a profoundly agrarian state.
However, frequently, when revolutions succeed, such creeds become “take all the land and give it to me,” as was for example the case with the Taiping Rebellion, where Hong Xiuquan‘s redistribution of land, called the Land System of the Heavenly Dynasty, benefited no one except the new elites. My perception is that such promises were generally made by revolutions to entice peasants to participate with some promise of reward.
Of course, Sun Wen is honored as a founding father on both sides of the strait, and communist China did eventually succeed by mobilizing the peasantry to a never-before-seen extent. However, Sun Wen’s exactly phrasing of “those who work the land should own it” (耕者有其田) is actually a policy that was implemented in Taiwan after the defeat and retreat of the Kuomintang, and it was frankly a way for the newly arrived refugees to establish themselves by taking over the possessions of Taiwanese natives.