'He was lying,' Deng replied

Deng found himself sitting next to Shirley MacLaine ... She was fulsome in praise for some of the benefits of Mao's policies, and told Deng of a story she had heard about a Chinese intellectual who was actually grateful for the Cultural Revolution. Sent into the countryside to grow tomatoes, she said, the man said he had experienced a wonderful object lesson in realism in realism and human life.

'He was lying,' Deng replied. 

J. Clements, The Emperor's feast (2021), 186

There is no subjunctive perfect in Chinese

There was something of a tussle within the family over who would translate Dr Chao's prose into English. Her daughter did much of the work, only for Chao's linguist husband to step in and pepper the account with hectoring qualifications - 'There is no subjunctive perfect in Chinese,' he harrumphs, in an entirely unnecessary footnote to a paragraph about what to say when someone serves you Shark's Fin Soup. But at the end of the family feuding a firm text remained, often in quaintly off-kilter English, and with a few translation decisions that would endure.

J. Clements, The Emperor's feast (2021), 162

Louis II ‘the German’ hanged so many criminals that the archbishop of Mainz was forced to institute special measures to stop the corpses becoming a health hazard

Death sentences were passed far more frequently than they were implemented, because medieval kings could gain prestige from commuting them as an act of clemency, though this became less common under the Salians and Staufers. Lesser lords and commoners were always treated less favourably. Louis II ‘the German’ hanged so many criminals that the archbishop of Mainz was forced to institute special measures to stop the corpses becoming a health hazard

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016), 615

Codification and other efforts at standardization proceeded quite slowly

Codification and other efforts at standardization proceeded quite slowly. It took 52 years to dismantle the tariff barriers between Austrian provinces after 1775, while even after the impact of Napoleon, Baden still used 112 different measurements of length, 92 measurements for square measures, 65 for dry goods, 163 for fruit, 123 for liquids, 65 for alcohol, and 80 separate definitions of a pound weight.

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016), 540

All other German towns [controlled] only 100 square kilometres or less

Italy, where around 25 cities each controlled at least 1,000 square kilometres, with Florence possessing 12,000 square kilometres by 1400, while Venice amassed nearly three times that across 1339-1428. By contrast, only Nuremberg came close, with 1,650 square kilometres, while Ulm had 930 square kilometres and all other German towns only 100 square kilometres or less.

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016),  518

The Empire is a multicoloured patchwork of dynastic territories compared to the solid blocks of colour used for other, supposedly, more centralised states

Nothing underscores the nineteenth-century interpretation more clearly: the Empire is a multicoloured patchwork of dynastic territories compared to the solid blocks of colour used for other, supposedly, more centralised states. Yet most maps produced prior to 1806 showed the Empire with clear outer boundaries divided into the Kreise, its official regional subdivisions. Territories were often named and sometimes marked, but did not dominate.

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016),  253-4

Soybeans have higher nutrient values than millet, but a lower rate of digestion

The Zhou people's tendency to boil everything would not be all that helpful with soybeans, and would lead to tasteless sludge. Soybeans have higher nutrient values than millet, but a lower rate of digestion, at 22 per cent if they are merely boiled, but rising to 65 per cent with fermentation. In other words, they can only come into their own with the introduction of more advanced technology for cooking and preparation. When they do, they offer the best yield per acre of protein, compared to the same land used for rearing milk, eggs, or meat.    

J. Clements, The Emperor's feast (2021), 28

She had no hesitation in reporting them to her father

[Isabella] was a woman of conscience; when she found that two of her sisters-in-law were guilty of adultery with two French knights, she had no hesitation in reporting them to her father. It is not difficult to find instances of her clemency: ....

I. Mortimer, The perfect king: the life of Edward III (2006), 25

This feels like weak evidence for her conscious and especially her clemency. The knights in question were executed and Isabella's motives are ambiguous.

Saxony, birthplace of Protestantism, was now under Catholic rule

Competition for imperial favour encouraged 31 leading princes to convert to Catholicism between 1651 and 1769, including Elector Friedrich August ‘the Strong’ of Saxony in 1697, followed by his son in 1712. Saxony, birthplace of Protestantism, was now under Catholic rule.

P.H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire (2016), 129