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- 162 - The Prince of Lu of MingThu, 09 May 2024
- 161 - Liu Zhiyuan of the Latter HanThu, 02 May 2024
- 160 - King Zhuanxu and Ancient ShamanismThu, 25 Apr 2024
- 159 - Shi Jingtang, the Man Who Gave Away the Great WallThu, 18 Apr 2024
- 158 - "Troubled Empire": A Book ReviewThu, 11 Apr 2024
- 157 - Investiture of the GodsThu, 04 Apr 2024
- 156 - The Bamboo AnnalsThu, 28 Mar 2024
- 155 - Li SiyuanThu, 21 Mar 2024
- 154 - Hao BocunThu, 14 Mar 2024
- 153 - Li Keyong and Li CunxuThu, 07 Mar 2024
- 152 - Zhu WenThu, 29 Feb 2024
- 151 - Zhou Dunyi, Lawyer and PhilosopherThu, 22 Feb 2024
- 150 - Yan Jiagan, Father of the New Taiwan Dollar
Yan Jiagan is the forgotten president of the Republic of China or Taiwan. He served between 1975 and 1978 but was largely considered a transitional figure.
However, before he was president, in 1949, he first rescued Taiwan from economic catastrophe, paving the way for all future developments. For that reason alone, the man deserves to be remembered.Thu, 15 Feb 2024 - 149 - The Man from Qi Worries About the Sky
"The man from Qi worries about the sky" is a Chinese idiom meaning to worry unnecessarily about things that won't happen. It comes from a story found in Liezi, an ancient tract of philosophy.
But what was this place called Qi? What does the original fable say? Have we misunderstood it this whole time?Thu, 08 Feb 2024 - 148 - Eastern Bureau and Eastern ForestThu, 01 Feb 2024
- 147 - Gu YanwuThu, 25 Jan 2024
- 146 - DujiangyanThu, 18 Jan 2024
- 145 - Sima Guang and the General Mirror on Good GovernanceThu, 11 Jan 2024
- 144 - Borges and "Extensive Records of the Taiping Era"
Taiping Guangji or "Extensive Records of the Taiping Era" is an anthology of stories compiled during the early Song Dynasty. Its editors chose to collect the stories under a series of clearly unworkable categories. In so doing, they made Taiping Guangji a perfect illustration of the point made in an essay by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.
Thu, 04 Jan 2024 - 143 - Policy Digests of the Zhen'guan EraThu, 28 Dec 2023
- 142 - Journey to the WestThu, 21 Dec 2023
- 141 - The TochariansThu, 14 Dec 2023
- 140 - Door GodsThu, 07 Dec 2023
- 139 - Chunyu Kun, BroThu, 30 Nov 2023
- 138 - Iasyr Shivaza and the Dungan
A fascinating minority group in the former USSR, chiefly Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, is the people known as the Dungan. Originally Hui Muslims from northwestern China, they migrated into Central Asia in the 19th century. This story is about them, their Chinese-derived language, and one of their most significant cultural figures, Iasyr Shivaza.
Thu, 23 Nov 2023 - 137 - Zengzi and Great LearningThu, 16 Nov 2023
- 136 - King Goujian of Yue, Avenger
Even as I want to finish telling you the story of Wu Zixu, the fact is that his life so intersected with the lives and careers of other major figures that in this second part of his story I must shift the spotlight onto someone else. King Goujian of Yue, initially defeated and kept by his enemy as a hostage, would rise to the status of a hegemon of the Spring and Autumn period. During his career he would duel against his nemesis, King Fuchai of Wu. And his triumph would also be the time for Wu Zixu's downfall. Other major figures like Xishi the beauty and none other than Confucius himself would also play their respective roles.
Thu, 09 Nov 2023 - 135 - Wu Zixu, Tragic Hero
One of the most famous personalities from the late-Spring and Autumn period, Wu Zixu was someone I grew up learning about as a commendable character. But, upon revisiting his story, I find him closer to being the hero of a Greek tragedy than a role model. Here we tell the first half of his story and how his life intersected with other major figures like King Helü of Wu and Sunzi, the author of "The Art of War."
Thu, 02 Nov 2023 - 134 - Yan Ying: the Short KingThu, 26 Oct 2023
- 133 - The Historian's Conscience
"History is written by the victors," so goes the common saying. But Chinese court historians actually usually provided us with honest accounts of events, even if they made the rulers of their times look bad. Why? Why gave them the right, as well as the sense of responsibility, to speak truth to power?
Thu, 19 Oct 2023 - 132 - Yangtze River No. 1Thu, 12 Oct 2023
- 131 - Duke Wen of Jin, the ExileThu, 05 Oct 2023
- 130 - Duke Xiang of Song, MoralistThu, 28 Sep 2023
- 129 - Duke Huan of Qi and the United States
Duke Huan of Qi dominated the politics of Spring and Autumn China from the 680s B.C. until the 640s under the slogan of "respecting the king and suppressing the barbarians." Here is why the role he played was similar to that being played by the United States in the modern international state system.
Thu, 21 Sep 2023 - 128 - Helian Bobo and the Capital in the Middle of NowhereThu, 14 Sep 2023
- 127 - The Priest of Forever SpringThu, 07 Sep 2023
- 126 - The Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms
"The Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms," written in the Ming Dynasty, recounts the history of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States eras. It is considered a novel but is basically nonfiction, so closely as it hews to actual historical records. We discuss the novel, the nature of what a novel is in Chinese tradition, and a key work of history that formed the basis of the "Chronicles": "The Commentary of Zuo."
Thu, 31 Aug 2023 - 125 - The UyghursThu, 24 Aug 2023
- 124 - Frontiers Poetry
Western writers like Kipling produced literature depicting imperial peripheries during the height of the British Empire. Similarly, Chinese poets during the height of the Tang Empire wrote many poems about life and scenery and war on the frontiers. These form a genre in its own right in Chinese literature known as "frontiers poetry." And, as so often happens with imperial writings, they by turns celebrate the glories of empire and question its morality and costs.
Thu, 17 Aug 2023 - 123 - The Revolt of the Palace Girls of 1542
On November 27, 1542, shortly after 5 in the morning, a group of palace girls in the Forbidden City gathered at the bedroom of their would-be victim: Emperor Jiajing of Ming China. At a sign, they jumped on him, ready to strangle the life out of him.
What transpired was one of the oddest and most notable episodes in history of Chinese imperial harems.Thu, 10 Aug 2023 - 122 - On FriendshipThu, 03 Aug 2023
- 121 - The Nine Cauldrons and the Jade SealThu, 27 Jul 2023
- 120 - Xie AnThu, 20 Jul 2023
- 119 - Hua Tuo vs. GalenThu, 13 Jul 2023
- 118 - Emperor Wendi of SuiThu, 06 Jul 2023
- 117 - King Jie of Xia, King Zhou of Shang, and Queen DajiThu, 29 Jun 2023
- 116 - Huo Qubing or Why Nepotism's Not All Bad
Hu Qubing was one of the most remarkable and meteoric military figures in Han Dynasty China during the second century B.C. Meteoric because he rose fast (thanks to nepotism), burned bright, and died young. A kind of soldierly James Dean. But in his brief but brilliant career, he left an indelible mark on Chinese and world history.
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 - 115 - The Mother Goddess of the West, King Mu of Zhou, and AI
Xiwangmu or the Mother Goddess of the West is one of the most important and familiar deities in the Daoist pantheon. "The Biography of King Mu of Zhou," dug up in 281 A.D. from a royal tomb, gives a euhemerist account of her as the queen or princess of a distant nation, and tells of how King Mu of Zhou visited her in the 10th century B.C.
Much more besides, including King Mu's appearance in what amounts to an ancient work of science fiction...Thu, 15 Jun 2023 - 114 - The Green Gang and the Emperor of ShanghaiThu, 08 Jun 2023
- 113 - The Heaven and Earth SocietyThu, 01 Jun 2023
- 112 - Wang MangThu, 25 May 2023
- 111 - "Do Not Forget You're in Ju"Thu, 18 May 2023
- 110 - Huang Chao, the Cannibal RebelThu, 11 May 2023
- 109 - Taiwan(?) in Ancient Sources
It is often said that Taiwan came into the Chinese orbit as far back as the 3rd century. Is that true? How? The story of the Three Kingdoms era exploration of (maybe) Taiwan.
Fast forward a few hundred years to the early 7th century, and records show that the Sui Dynasty fought a war against an indigenous kingdom that the chroniclers called "Liuqiu." Today, that name refers to Ryukyu, also known as Okinawa. But could it have meant Taiwan at the time?Thu, 04 May 2023 - 108 - Kangxi's Conquest of TaiwanThu, 27 Apr 2023
- 107 - Jin Shengtan, Literary Critic
The late-Ming and early-Qing literary critic Jin Shengtan was quite a character. He never advanced beyond the rank of xiucai, the lowest-level degree in the imperial civil service exam system, but his legacy became far greater than most men who achieved more conventional success.
That legacy was in teaching the Chinese how to read and why, in showing them why the great works of Chinese fiction and drama were great. His influence continues to this day.Thu, 20 Apr 2023 - 106 - The Democracy of Mencius
Chinese culture is stereotypically perceived as authoritarian. Although there is obviously a lot of truth to the cliche, it is by no means the full picture. Indeed, ancient Chinese philosophy already introduced certain ideas that might been called democratic, through the figure of Mencius, the second most important personality in Confucianism...
Thu, 13 Apr 2023 - 105 - Historic Usages of "Zhongguo"
It's come to my attention in recent years that a certain portion of Westerners, including people who ought to know better such as academics, believe that the concept of "China" is a modern invention dating only to the early 20th century. Their argument is that the Chinese historically never referred to their country by its modern name, "Zhongguo," in ancient times.
For avoidance of doubt, here's an episode setting forth the voluminous evidence as to why they're wrong: the Chinese have been using the term "Zhongguo" since at least around 1,000 B.C.Thu, 06 Apr 2023 - 104 - Cangjie, (Alleged) Father of Chinese Writing
By tradition, a man named Cangjie invented the Chinese system of writing that is the bane of so many foreign students trying to acquire the language.
Trouble is, Cangjie is supposed to have lived some 26 centuries ago, in the time of the Yellow Emperor, but the earliest texts attesting to his creation of Chinese writing date to the Warring States period over 2,000 years later...Thu, 30 Mar 2023 - 103 - The Chinese Labour Corps
Though largely forgotten in the West, during the First World War, some 140,000 Chinese went to the Western Front to support Britain, France, and the United States. They were not meant to play a combat role but instead to help with logistics and support so that the Allies could free up more soldiers for fighting. Nonetheless, some 2,000 of them ended up buried in northern France and Belgium.
This is the story of how they went and why, and how their story and its aftermath indirectly but crucially shaped the course of modern Chinese history.Thu, 23 Mar 2023 - 102 - Famous HorsesThu, 16 Mar 2023
- 101 - The Humanism of Liu YuxiThu, 09 Mar 2023
- 100 - Yuan Chonghuan
A few weeks ago, then out-going Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang (or Su Zhenchang in standard Pinyin) said something that caused quite a stir:
"Had Yuan Chonghuan not died, how could the Manchu army have breached the Great Wall?"
To understand why this rather curious rhetorical question caused the controversy it did, you obviously have to know who Yuan Chonghuan was.
Here, then, is the story of the Cantonese man who, in the waning years of the Ming Dynasty, did perhaps more than anyone else to defend his country against northern invaders.Thu, 02 Mar 2023 - 99 - The Kingdom of Dali
Completing our series on the other, lesser-known regimes that coexisted with the Song Dynasty, we look at the Kingdom of Dali located in picturesque Yunnan in China's southwest.
Led by the Duan family for most of its history, Dali was a minor player in East Asian international relations at the time, and the Song was happy to have a harmless and peaceful kingdom to its rear so that it could focus on threats coming from the north.
In the Chinese imagination, though, and for a literary reason, the Duan family of Dali looms larger than you'd expect.Thu, 23 Feb 2023 - 98 - The Tangut Kingdom of Xixia
Continuing our series on the lesser known regimes contemporaneous with the Song Dynasty, today we look at the Kingdom of Xixia, or "Western Xia," founded and run by the Tangut people.
Smaller than the Liao and the Jin Empires discussed in our recent episodes as well as the Han Chinese regime of the Song, the Xia was nonetheless at one point a true power to be reckoned with.
But, sadly, history destined the Xixia to obscurity. In the wake of 20th century excavations and the rediscovery of the Tangut language, scholars have regained a measure of understanding, but even now this fascinating civilization remains largely cloaked in mystery.Thu, 16 Feb 2023 - 97 - The Jin Empire
Continuing our series on the "other" dynasties and kingdoms and co-existed with the Song Dynasty, which we typically think of as the mainline Chinese regime of this period, we look at the Jin Empire.
The Jurchen people rose up against the Khitan Liao Empire in the early 12th century and established their own empire and called it the Jin. But, at every turn, they seemed destined (doomed?) to repeat the drama that the Liao already played out.
And yet another nomadic people waited in the wings, almost ready for their moment in the sun...Thu, 09 Feb 2023 - 96 - The Liao Empire
The period in Chinese history we typically think of as the Song Dynasty was much more complicated than that single dynastic name makes it sound. Multiple regimes co-existed and came upon the stage and exited, fighting each other repeatedly but also engaging in diplomacy and cultural exchanges.
Today, we look at one of them: the Liao or Khitan Empire, which gave the Russian language its word for "China"...Thu, 02 Feb 2023 - 95 - 13 Warriors Return to the Jade Gate
Some time in 76 A.D., a band of Chinese soldiers, the last survivors of a garrison, their clothes torn to ribbons and their bodies emaciated so that they barely seemed like living men, stumbled into Yumen Guan or "the Jade Gate Pass," the western terminus of the Han Dynasty Great Wall.
We may consider their story in light of episodes from the same period in Roman history. And we may ask: what can it teach us about contemporary Chinese nationalism? What does it mean that many modern Chinese call this story "the ancient Chinese version of 'Saving Private Ryan'"?Thu, 26 Jan 2023 - 94 - Fusang
In 499 A.D., a Buddhist monk named Hui Shen walked into the city of Jingzhou and regaled the people there with tales from his recent adventure to a distant country called Fusang.
Fusang, according to a number of scholars, was in modern-day Mexico.
Was it? What does "The Book of Liang," the original Chinese source for this account, really say about it? Why did some scholars come to this seemingly outlandish conclusion?Thu, 19 Jan 2023 - 93 - The Speech of Soong Mei-ling
A nation under attack by a superior foe. A desperate people suffering through a long season of privation, a time that tries men’s souls, and yet they remain resilient and determined. In their struggle for survival, they rely on that so-called “Arsenal of Democracy,” the United States of America. And, at a critical juncture in the war, a leader of their nation travels to Washington to address a joint session of Congress...
I am, of course, talking about the visit by Madame Chiang Kai-shek (better known to the Chinese by her own name, Soong Mei-ling) to Capitol Hill in February 1943.Thu, 12 Jan 2023 - 92 - Zhang Juzheng, the Nine-Headed BirdThu, 05 Jan 2023
- 91 - Wu Peifu
A century ago, in December 1922, a New York Times front page article confidently predicted that the next leader of China would be a military officer named Wu Peifu. The Times was wrong about this: General Wu turned out to be little more than a footnote in the great trends of modern Chinese history.
But who was he? And how did he get into a position where such a prediction might have seemed plausible in the 1920s?Thu, 29 Dec 2022 - 90 - Uncle v. Nephew: Emperor Chengzu of the Ming
It was the Mongols who chose Beijing as the Chinese capital. After the Ming Dynasty overthrow the Mongols, though, the Chinese relocated their capital south to Nanjing. And yet just a few decades later, they moved it back to Beijing. Why?
This is a "Game of Thrones" kind of story about fathers and sons and uncles and nephews, in particular the Jianwen Emperor, the nephew, and his uncle the Chengzu Emperor.Thu, 22 Dec 2022 - 89 - Have Bears, Will GovernThu, 15 Dec 2022
- 88 - Regarding Mandarin
In 1728, Emperor Yongzheng complained that he couldn't understand officials hailing from the provinces of Guangdong and Fujian, where they spoke, respectively, Cantonese and Hokkien.
Three hundred years later, we continue to struggle with the question of how dominant the lingua franca of Mandarin should be over more local languages. In the PRC, the current conflict is between Mandarin and Cantonese, and in Taiwan, Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien are spoken side by side.
So what is Mandarin? How did it come about? How much does it actually resemble the language of ancient China? To what extent was the modern standardization process artificial? Would it matter if it was?
And, finally, can the southern dialects actually claim greater antiquity and prestige?Thu, 08 Dec 2022 - 87 - Sun Yunxuan
How did Taiwan, a small island off the Chinese coast, become by far the most dominant player in the global semiconductor industry? How did a place that as of the mid-20th century was emphatically an economic backwater gain such a position?
Much has been written about Morris Chang, the founder of TSMC, the largest of Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturers. But Chang had moved from China to the US in 1949 and enjoyed a life as a high-flying American businessman. How was it that he was persuaded to go to Taiwan to set up TSMC? And who convinced him?
The answer is Sun Yunxuan, one of the key architects of Taiwan's economic miracle. This is his story.Thu, 01 Dec 2022 - 86 - Deterrence Through Cleverness
Deterrence theory is well known in political science and particularly popular during the Cold War.
In the annals of Chinese history, we find examples of a specific type of deterrence: making your enemy refrain from attacking by being clever and displaying your intellect for your enemy to see.
Let's look at the famous cases of the Su Brothers, Li Bai, and Lin Xiangru.Thu, 24 Nov 2022 - 85 - The Philosopher, the Carpenter, and Wargames
During the Warring States era, when the genius inventor Lu Ban designs a new siege weapon for the Kingdom of Chu, the king decides to attack the much weaker Kingdom of Song. Hearing this, the pacifist philosopher Mozi rushes to the scene to try to persuade the king otherwise. What follows is possibly the earliest recorded table-top wargame in history...
Thu, 17 Nov 2022 - 84 - The Seven Military ClassicsThu, 10 Nov 2022
- 83 - Lin Yutang
In the middle of the 20th century, one Chinese writer began publishing books in English.
It was a truly unusual thing, given that proportionally a lot fewer Chinese at the time even could speak English with much competence. But Lin Yutang was no ordinary man. Through his bestselling books that often sought to explain Chinese history and culture to Westerners, in many ways he became the voice of all that was Chinese in the Western world.Thu, 03 Nov 2022 - 82 - Ban Chao
Ban Chao, "the Marquis Who Pacified Faraway Lands," remains a household name today among the Chinese. And he endowed the Chinese language with more than one common expression.
What made him into a legend was his military and diplomatic career in the late-first century A.D. dealing with the many states of the "Western Lands" (modern Xinjiang) and the fearsome Xiongnu or Hun people behind them.Thu, 27 Oct 2022 - 81 - Battle of TalasThu, 20 Oct 2022
- 80 - Yung Wing
The first Chinese national to graduate from a U.S. university lived a life that was full of disappointments. At the time, Yung Wing was perhaps simply too much of a rarity. As the Chinese proverb says: "It is difficult to clap with only one palm."
But he was a kind of Forrest Gump of Chinese history, turning up at many of the key moments in the second half of the 19th century and into the first years of the 20th.Thu, 13 Oct 2022 - 79 - The Thousand-Character EssayThu, 06 Oct 2022
- 78 - Constitutional Monarchy
The recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom brings to mind a fascinating moment in Chinese history.
In the early-20th century, during the final years of empire, the Qing Dynasty attempted to transform itself into a constitutional monarchy not unlike the model in the UK, in Japan, and in a number of other countries. With the advantage of hindsight, we know that the effort was doomed to fail, and maybe it never had much chance of success. But what might have been...Thu, 29 Sep 2022 - 77 - Zhang Xueliang and the Xi'an Incident
Zhang Xueliang, known as "the Young Marshal," lived one of the most interesting lives of 20th century China.
After inheriting Manchuria from his father in his 20s, the young warlord went on to play in a pivotal role in the Xi'an Incident of December 1936. The event, for better or worse, would forever alter the course of Chinese and hence world history. And Zhang would pay for it with the next half century of his life...Thu, 22 Sep 2022 - 76 - 536 A.D.
Historian Michael McCormick has nominated 536 A.D. as the worst year in history to be alive. It was a "year without a summer," and around the globe strange weather phenomena led to crop failures and famines.
Around the globe, including in China. What do the Chinese records from the time say about the strange and terrible events that, modern science has shown, were the results of volcanic activities?Thu, 15 Sep 2022 - 75 - Plagues in Ancient Rome and the Han Dynasty
In the previous episode we looked at how climate change in the Roman Empire paralleled climate change in Han Dynasty China and contributed to the rise and fall of both empires.
Today, let's examine how pandemic diseases in both ends of Eurasia also coincided to help to bring down both empires. In Rome, the Antonine Plague came in the second century, the Plague of Cyprian in the third, and Plague of Justinian in the sixth. Meanwhile in China, the late-second century pandemic coinciding with the Antonine Plague gave rise to the Yellow Turban Rebellion, which kicked off the age of chaos known as Three Kingdoms...Thu, 08 Sep 2022 - 74 - Climate in Ancient Rome and the Han Dynasty
In his book, "The Fate of Rome," Prof. Kyle Harper argues that much of the history of the Roman Empire can be attributed to climate: the period known as the "Roman Climate Optimum," around 200 B.C. to 150 A.D., neatly encapsulates the rise of the Roman Republic through its transition into Empire until the beginning of its decline during the age of the Antonines.
The Han Dynasty in China follows almost exactly the same timeline from its founding in 202 B.C. to its final collapse in 220 A.D. If climate was a leading cause of Rome's rise to imperium as well as its eventually humbling, and if many of the causal factors of climate change are global, then can it be that similar patterns of climate change led to the rise and fall of the Han Dynasty?
To answer this question, we turn to Prof. Zhu Kezhen and his seminal 1972 paper...Thu, 01 Sep 2022 - 73 - Vasily Chuikov
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, Marshal of the Soviet Union, is chiefly remembered in Russia as the iron-willed commander who successfully defended Stalingrad against Nazi assault during WWII.
What has been largely forgotten is that Chuikov learned to speak Chinese and spent years in China. Before Stalingrad, he served as a military advisor to none other than Chiang Kai-shek...Thu, 25 Aug 2022 - 72 - Lu Yu, the God of Tea
The tea plant, Camellia sinensis, originated in borderlands of southwestern China and what is now Burma. For many centuries, though, people didn't consume tea the way we do it today.
Drawing on work by Prof. Miranda Brown, this is the story of Lu Yu, the Tang Dynasty comic actor and author who taught the Chinese literati, and later the whole world, how to drink tea.Thu, 18 Aug 2022 - 71 - Ni Kuang: Hong Kong Master of Sci-Fi
Ni Kuang, the hyper-prolific leading light of Hong Kong science fiction, died in early July.
This is his improbable legend, from his beginnings as a boy communist in Mainland China to his days as a refugee smuggling himself across the border to his ultimate success and achievements in Hong Kong.
It's almost as improbable as the adventures he invented for his protagonists.Thu, 11 Aug 2022 - 70 - Cernuschi Museum, ParisThu, 04 Aug 2022
- 69 - The Mogao Caves of Dunhuang Part 2: Foreign Devils on the Silk Road
As discussed in the previous episode, the rediscovery of the Mogao Caves at the beginning of the 20th century has immeasurably enriched our understanding of Silk Road history.
The story of that discovery itself is full of drama and involves some incredibly fascinating scholar-explorers. Sven Hedin, Aurel Stein, Paul Pelliot, Langdon Warner, Kozui Otani, and Sergey Oldenburg all helped to bring the treasures of Dunhuang to global attention.
But at the same time, what they did--buying priceless artifacts from men who didn't understand their value and carting them off mostly to Europe and America--was controversial even then and certainly can seem problematic today. Many Chinese believe their actions were little better than theft. And yet...Thu, 28 Jul 2022 - 68 - The Mogao Caves of Dunhuang
If you ever get a chance, make sure to visit the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang.
In today's Gansu Province, the town of Dunhuang, situated on the historic Silk Road, witnessed a thousand years' worth of travelers: merchants and pilgrims, holy men and knaves, and not only Chinese but members of many races speaking many languages. And, starting in 366 A.D., they began to leave in these caves spectacular murals and statues as well as priceless documents. The rediscovery of the Mogao Caves in the early 20th century has since then reshaped and immeasurably enriched our understanding of the past.Thu, 21 Jul 2022 - 67 - Li Qingzhao, Poetess
Quite likely the greatest female poet in Chinese history, Li Qingzhao might be deemed a Sappho of the East or the Emily Dickinson of China.
Living during the Song Dynasty, Li Qingzhao came from an extraordinary family background and received the best possible education in imperial China. As a teenager, she already wrote better verses than most of the men who attained the jinshi degree in the civil service examination: the highest level of distinction. She then had the good fortune of a loving marriage.
But then tragedies both national and personal struck. The Jurchen invasion in 1127 forced millions of refugees to move from northern China to the south, including Li and her husband. Shortly afterward, he died.
In spite of her personal tribulations, or because of them, Li Qingzhao left us with a unique body of work, poems with a distinctly feminine voice that soars above a literary pantheon otherwise full of men.Thu, 14 Jul 2022 - 66 - The Authoritarianism of Emperor Yongzheng
Two of the longest-reigning emperors in Chinese history ruled during the Qing Dynasty: Kangxi, who sat on the throne from 1662 until 1722, and his grandson Qianlong, who ruled from 1735 until 1799.
The figure sandwiched between them was Emperor Yongzheng. Son of Kangxi and father of Qianlong and to some extent eclipsed by both, Yongzheng was in fact an important and highly competent ruler.
His competence, though, was substantially dedicated to centralizing imperial authority around his own person. And the Yongzheng era came to be strongly associated with "wenziyu" or "language prison": the practice of imprisoning or executing individuals for writings that angered the emperor. The notorious "Lü Liuliang Case" was particularly egregious.
In time, a number of myths grew up around Yongzheng reflecting popular discomfort with his role as the competent totalitarian.Thu, 07 Jul 2022 - 65 - The Beauty of Xishi
A handful of women are remembered in Chinese history and popular imagination as the epitome of feminine beauty. One of them is Xishi.
Living in the 5th century B.C., Xishi played a key role in the longstanding rivalry between the Kingdoms of Wu and Yue. In the centuries since, though, she has endowed the Chinese language with a number of expressions that we cannot do without.Thu, 30 Jun 2022 - 64 - Three Kingdoms, Three Friends
Sure, we've already done an episode on Three Kingdoms. But so many interesting characters and gripping tales come from that era, both as history and in fictionalized form from "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms," that we can easily do a dozen episodes or more.
This time, let's focus on the trio of men whose friendship opens the novel and serves as the through line for much of the rest of the book: Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei.
Not only that, but the relationship among these three goes on to help define Chinese civilization, its values and its foibles. The peach garden in which the three swear allegiance to one another remains today a symbol of undying friendship.
Not to mention their respective individual impacts on Chinese culture: Guan Yu, for one, comes to be deified as the god of war.Thu, 23 Jun 2022 - 63 - Mr. Eastern Slope
Certain literary figures loom so large in Chinese culture that they substantial define the nature of that culture for all posterity, not to mention live in eternal acclaim.
One such figure is Su Shi, also know by his nom de plume Su Dongpo, "Dongpo" meaning "Eastern Slope."
Su Shi lived during the Northern Song Dynasty in the 11th century. Though he came from arguably the most distinguished literary family of his time, he suffered disappointment after disappointment in his career as a mandarin.
And, in the end, he earned immortality not through his political career but through literature and art, as a poet and an essayist, and (maybe) even through contributions to Chinese cuisine.Thu, 16 Jun 2022
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