[quote=@duck55223]
You know, it's starting to seem a bit like China grew really powerful out of nowhere.
[/quote]

Sort of like what happened IRL.

The sprawling Chinese Empire has needed since its earliest days a means to support it's immensity. They have five-thousand years of history worth of fielding armies that could swallow Europe, and as such a economic and structural demand to match that with super-projects to match: massive irrigation networks and canals, semi-industrialized metal working since well before Europe could do it (they invented the blast furnace after all). And its key features since day 1: an incredibly effective, intense, and ancient system of meritocratic governance.

Because Confucius said "Fuck you, get diploma noob scrublord."