I never claimed that the Realm's system was like the Chinese, I claimed that they weren't a
warrior-aristocracy, which you uh, seem to be agreeing with?
That is, indeed a nice argument against something I never said! I argued against the position that the Realm was a warrior-aristocracy, since we both seem to agree that they are, in fact not a warrior-aristocracy, I think we can leave this matter as settled for now?
Here, I'll give my complete agreement; the Realm should promote cooperation and obedience over personal glory. Personal glory is something your Exalted commander achieves when he wrestles the great behemoth to submission along with his Sworn Brotherhood, and even he is doing it not for his own glory, but for that of House, Brotherhood and Empress. Personal glory should very much not be a promoted virtue within the legions, instead they should encourage the virtues of acting within a greater system and being the strongest link in the chain of warfare.
I am, in fact capable of reading, but it was very nice of you to check whether I still had basic command of the English language.
I stand by what I said, because the only out of four secondary schools that focuses on actual warfare, and when the other one is The Spiral Academy, which is "where ministers and bureaucrats are born. An academic sweatshop par excellence, finance oration, calligraphy and all the other arts necessary to survive in the Imperial Bureaucracy. Poetry appreciation is taught here, the better for a student to be able to quote appropriate phrases in debate, but swordplay is not much favoured." (Exalted: The Dragon-Blooded page 136). This is a school for the
elite, like all the secondary schools are (page 133, Ex:tDB), where you get ministers and lawyers and scholars and bureaucrats, and all the other people which are necessary for the
continued running of the actual Realm. Like, of course the Realm has a trace of military
arete, it is am imperialist, expansionist empire after all, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest and disingenuous, but the bureaucracy of the Realm is just as important as it's armies and it's generals and warrior-heritage. Like, it's said that "enough of the great and powerful of the Realm passed through the Academy's doors to make a continued support for it, even in these times, forgone conclusion." (page 137, Ex:tDB), wheras no such note is left at the House of Bells, which tells me that the Realm
does in fact value buraucrats and ministers over warriors and generals, because one allows you to annex kingdoms and the other allows you to actually keep everything running.