POPULARITY
10 episodes with zhou dynasty
2 episodes with zhou dynasty
2 episodes with zhou dynasty
2 episodes with zhou dynasty
2 episodes with zhou dynasty
2 episodes with zhou dynasty
2 episodes with zhou dynasty
2 episodes with zhou dynasty
2 episodes with zhou dynasty
神明 shénmíng - deity, god土地公 tǔdìgōng - Earth God, a local deity in Taiwanese folk religion福德正神 fúdé zhèngshén - the formal title of the Earth God (Tudigong)民間信仰 mínjiān xìnyǎng - folk belief, popular religion基層 jīcéng - grassroots, basic level保佑 bǎoyòu - to bless, to protect村里 cūnlǐ - villages and neighborhoods百姓 bǎixìng - common people, citizens無所不在 wúsuǒ búzài - to be everywhere, omnipresent財運 cáiyùn - financial luck, wealth fortune事業 shìyè - career, business學業 xuéyè - academic studies, education日常 rìcháng - daily, everyday life生意興隆 shēngyì xīnglóng - prosperous business祭祀 jìsì - to worship, to offer sacrifices恩惠 ēnhuì - favor, grace, blessing職責 zhízé - duty, responsibility廣 guǎng - broad, extensive農作豐收 nóngzuò fēngshōu - good harvest, abundant crops六畜興旺 liùchù xīngwàng - prosperous livestock, thriving farm animals聚落安定 jùluò āndìng - stable communities家庭和樂 jiātíng hélè - harmonious families百業興盛 bǎiyè xīngshèng - prosperity in all industries村長 cūnzhǎng - village chief里長 lǐzhǎng - neighborhood head概念 gàiniàn - concept, idea守護 shǒuhù - to guard, to protect大小事 dàxiǎoshì - all matters, big and small傳說 chuánshuō - legend, folklore周朝 zhōucháo - Zhou Dynasty官吏 guānlì - government official張福德 zhāng fúdé - the historical figure associated with Tudigong公正 gōngzhèng - fair, just深受 shēnshòu - to be deeply (loved, trusted, etc.)愛戴 àidài - to love and respect, to admire官員 guānyuán - government official貪污腐敗 tānwū fǔbài - corruption, bribery懷念 huáiniàn - to cherish the memory of, to miss祭拜 jìbài - to worship, to make offerings和藹可親 hé'ǎi kěqīn - kind and amiable陰間管理 yīnjiān guǎnlǐ - management of the underworldIf your goal in 2025 is to improve your Chinese, make more Taiwanese friends, and talk about topics like politics, culture, and news, let's make it happen!
A look at the real historical figures of the Zhou Dynasty's father-and-son founding duo.
This episode of History 102 delves deeply into the ancient history of China, from its foundation around 2000 BC to the fall of the Han Dynasty around 200 AD. WhatifAltHist creator Rudyard Lynch and Erik Torenberg also explore the rise and fall of the Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties, uncovering the political and social forces that shaped ancient Chinese history. Discover how ancient China evolved in isolation, developing its own unique civilization, institutions, and beliefs, with surprising parallels to other world powers. -- SPONSORS: BEEHIIV Head to Beehiiv, the newsletter platform built for growth, to power your own. Connect with premium brands, scale your audience, and deliver a beautiful UX that stands out in an inbox.
This time we move beyond Confucius to look at some of the other schools of thought that contended with each other during the Spring and Autumn Period of the Zhou Dynasty. This included the School of Names and the Sophists, featuring an amusing story about Deng Xi. We also see how the Confucian classics became a pathway to a career in the government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This time we move beyond Confucius to look at some of the other schools of thought that contended with each other during the Spring and Autumn Period of the Zhou Dynasty. This included the School of Names and the Sophists, featuring an amusing story about Deng Xi. We also see how the Confucian classics became a pathway to a career in the government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This time we move beyond Confucius to look at some of the other schools of thought that contended with each other during the Spring and Autumn Period of the Zhou Dynasty. This included the School of Names and the Sophists, featuring an amusing story about Deng Xi. We also see how the Confucian classics became a pathway to a career in the government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This time we move beyond Confucius to look at some of the other schools of thought that contended with each other during the Spring and Autumn Period of the Zhou Dynasty. This included the School of Names and the Sophists, featuring an amusing story about Deng Xi. We also see how the Confucian classics became a pathway to a career in the government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This time we will look at some pre-Confucian philosophy during the Zhou Dynasty. Philosophers such as the little-known Yuzi 鬻子 will be introduced. Then we will look at Guan Zhong 管仲 and the concept of the Chinese Gentleman, or Junzi 君子. The rise of the Knights Errant 武侠 and their association with the Ru School 儒家 will also be presented. Then we will look at Duke Huan of Qi and his role as the first great benefactor to scholars and his sponsorship of the Jixia Academy. Transcripts to all eighteen episodes are available on Amazon, Barnes-Noble, and Earnshaw Books. Below are links if you're interested. Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/ahw3oWq Earnshaw Books Link: https://earnshawbooks.com/product/the-history-of-chinese-philosophy-book-1/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This time we will look at some pre-Confucian philosophy during the Zhou Dynasty. Philosophers such as the little-known Yuzi 鬻子 will be introduced. Then we will look at Guan Zhong 管仲 and the concept of the Chinese Gentleman, or Junzi 君子. The rise of the Knights Errant 武侠 and their association with the Ru School 儒家 will also be presented. Then we will look at Duke Huan of Qi and his role as the first great benefactor to scholars and his sponsorship of the Jixia Academy. Transcripts to all eighteen episodes are available on Amazon, Barnes-Noble, and Earnshaw Books. Below are links if you're interested. Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/ahw3oWq Earnshaw Books Link: https://earnshawbooks.com/product/the-history-of-chinese-philosophy-book-1/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This time we will look at some pre-Confucian philosophy during the Zhou Dynasty. Philosophers such as the little-known Yuzi 鬻子 will be introduced. Then we will look at Guan Zhong 管仲 and the concept of the Chinese Gentleman, or Junzi 君子. The rise of the Knights Errant 武侠 and their association with the Ru School 儒家 will also be presented. Then we will look at Duke Huan of Qi and his role as the first great benefactor to scholars and his sponsorship of the Jixia Academy. Transcripts to all eighteen episodes are available on Amazon, Barnes-Noble, and Earnshaw Books. Below are links if you're interested. Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/ahw3oWq Earnshaw Books Link: https://earnshawbooks.com/product/the-history-of-chinese-philosophy-book-1/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This time we will look at some pre-Confucian philosophy during the Zhou Dynasty. Philosophers such as the little-known Yuzi 鬻子 will be introduced. Then we will look at Guan Zhong 管仲 and the concept of the Chinese Gentleman, or Junzi 君子. The rise of the Knights Errant 武侠 and their association with the Ru School 儒家 will also be presented. Then we will look at Duke Huan of Qi and his role as the first great benefactor to scholars and his sponsorship of the Jixia Academy. Transcripts to all eighteen episodes are available on Amazon, Barnes-Noble, and Earnshaw Books. Below are links if you're interested. Amazon Link: https://a.co/d/ahw3oWq Earnshaw Books Link: https://earnshawbooks.com/product/the-history-of-chinese-philosophy-book-1/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Spring and Autumn period, lasting from 771 to 481 BC, marked the high point of aristocratic power in ancient China. This was an age of nobility and political fragmentation, as the Zhou Dynasty's power dwindled away and small states fought one another in endless cycles of violence. Rulers fell prey to plots and assassinations, and new families rose to power, upending the established order.Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness! It's all about “Dad Culture,” and Patrick will interview some fascinating guests about everything from tall wooden ships to smoked meats to comfortable sneakers to history, sports, culture, and politics. https://bit.ly/PWtPoDListen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistorySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Is this the final episode of ‘We Appreciate Manga'? I guess we will have to see… Either way James has an announcement to make but first we give a quick review of Godzilla minus one and talk about side chapters of Petshop of Horrors. Skip chapter summaries @ 15:01 Intro music courtesy of Liam Bradbury Outro music courtesy of Rifti Beats - Youtube Email: WeAppreciateManga@Gmail.com 136: Petshop of Horrors: Flowers and Detective By Akino Matsuri Translation by Tomoharu Iwo and James Lucas Jones Lettering by Nunu Ngien In the additional chapters, young Chris Orcot treks out into the labyrinthine back rooms of the petshop to find out Q-Chan's human form. Unlike the rest of the Pets in Count D's shop, who appear as human to Chris, Q-Chan only appears as a Wolperdinger, a horned rabbit like creature with wings. As Chris explores the hidden rooms, he meets a grim looking figure who obliges him but unfortunately for Chris, the remedy he acquires has no such desired effect on Q-Chan. Another chapter shows a Totetsu (a mixed goat and tiger creature) by the name of T-Chan. T-Chan is looking down in the dumps before Leon finds out that it is because he is in love with one of D's new pets. Leon and the gang help him pluck up the courage but because of T-Chan's proclivity to eat the one he loves it results in T-Chan being rejected. It becomes a bonding experience for both Leon and T-chan. The Flowers and detective chapters feature the police detective Leon Orcot, D does not trust Leon enough to take care of pets so he gifts him a gatolatto plant. The plant grows well thanks to Leon's appreciation and care but eventually Leon is wounded from a gunshot and is hospitalized. On his miraculous recovery he asks D to water his plant for him, only to be told that the flower has already bloomed and withered to death in his place. Was it really the plant that saved Leon? D has given people stranger things. Part two, has D playing matchmaker only for Leon to interfere and end up winning the affection of beautiful creatures. What Leon does not realise is that he is being used to pollinate women. Like a honey bee! Part three includes a strange kimono arriving at the pet shop. With the Kimono's colour representing Sakura (cherry blossom) but being made from the blood of insects. And in the last chapter that we speak of today, we see Chris sent on an errand but D and Leon spy on him using cameras and disguises, very much like the Reality TV show ‘Old Enough!' (a.k.a. its literal translation ‘My First Errand') Afterwards they spend the night gazing at the full moon and D tells Chris of the rabbit in the moon, and the princess whose kingdom has become extinct. Chris tells D that maybe the rabbit princess is still on the moon and is just hiding. Topics: · Thoughts on Godzilla Minus One and Hollywood. · Pareidolia, do you see a rabbit, a woman, or a man when you look at the moon? · The future of the We Appreciate Manga Podcast. Historical, scientific, and cultural references: · The cherry blossom looking dye in one story is often used as a food colouring can trigger allergies, look for anything labelled carminic acid, carmine or cochineal on red coloured foods. · Unlike the west Chinese and Asians countries tend to say there is a rabbit in the moon, not a man in the moon. Some when they look at a full moon, say the image is a silhouette of a rabbit hunched over and is mixing herbs, creating an elixir for immortality. (Personally, I like to think that its churning butter but some Japanese may say it is pounding rice cake mixture - J) Depending on the sun's position and your position on the earth if you were to Look at the dark spots of the moon you will find that the sea of fertility and the sea of nectar are the tips of its ears. Osamu Tezuka retells the origin story in the first volume of his 1972-1983 manga ‘Buddha' where an old man asks three animals to help him find food. One of the three animals then dives into fire and gives its life so that the old man does not starve. Because of its sacrifice it is then honoured by the God Indra and immortalised by having its image drawn on the moon. · Chang'e the Chinese moon goddess is a figure that dates to Zhou Dynasty, and having had poems written about her during the Tang Dynasty. · The rabbit princess or moon princess also has similarities to princess Kaguya, the main character who appears in ‘The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter' a late 9th of 10 century story with no attributed author. Sailor Moon is also based on this character and because of the tale's use of space travel, it is considered an early form of science fiction. · The story of the shamanistic princess Himeko is not necessarily pre-historic as Will states but certainly an ancient Japanese one, having dated back to years between 220 and 270 (Yayoi period). As a legendary figure Himeko appears in the first volume of Osamu Tezuka's ‘Phoenix' and the Yoshiki Okamoto (Buroson) manga ‘Lord'. · Utsuro – Bune (Hollow Boat) is a legendary account of an unidentified object arriving on the shores of the Hitachi province of Japan in 1803. Facebook Instagram X Official Website Email To see “Jim make a manga” follow the Mastodon or you can try… …Instagram (Jim_makes_a_manga) …Bluesky …And Twitter / X (@RealJamesFitton)
Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts Kojiki and Nihon shoki, changed in meaning and significance between 800 and 1800 CE. Generations of Japanese scholars and students have turned to these two texts and their creation myths to understand what it means to be Japanese and where Japan fits into the world order. As the shape and scale of the world explained by these myths changed, these myths evolved in turn. Over the course of the millennium covered in this study, Japan transforms from the center of a proud empire to a millet seed at the edge of the Buddhist world, from the last vestige of China's glorious Zhou Dynasty to an archipelago on a spherical globe. Analyzing historical records, poetry, fiction, religious writings, military epics, political treatises, and textual commentary, Matthieu Felt identifies the geographical, cosmological, epistemological, and semiotic changes that led to new adaptations of Japanese myths. Felt demonstrates that the meanings of Japanese antiquity and of Japan's most ancient texts were—and are—a work in progress, a collective effort of writers and thinkers over the past 1,300 years. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts Kojiki and Nihon shoki, changed in meaning and significance between 800 and 1800 CE. Generations of Japanese scholars and students have turned to these two texts and their creation myths to understand what it means to be Japanese and where Japan fits into the world order. As the shape and scale of the world explained by these myths changed, these myths evolved in turn. Over the course of the millennium covered in this study, Japan transforms from the center of a proud empire to a millet seed at the edge of the Buddhist world, from the last vestige of China's glorious Zhou Dynasty to an archipelago on a spherical globe. Analyzing historical records, poetry, fiction, religious writings, military epics, political treatises, and textual commentary, Matthieu Felt identifies the geographical, cosmological, epistemological, and semiotic changes that led to new adaptations of Japanese myths. Felt demonstrates that the meanings of Japanese antiquity and of Japan's most ancient texts were—and are—a work in progress, a collective effort of writers and thinkers over the past 1,300 years. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies
Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts Kojiki and Nihon shoki, changed in meaning and significance between 800 and 1800 CE. Generations of Japanese scholars and students have turned to these two texts and their creation myths to understand what it means to be Japanese and where Japan fits into the world order. As the shape and scale of the world explained by these myths changed, these myths evolved in turn. Over the course of the millennium covered in this study, Japan transforms from the center of a proud empire to a millet seed at the edge of the Buddhist world, from the last vestige of China's glorious Zhou Dynasty to an archipelago on a spherical globe. Analyzing historical records, poetry, fiction, religious writings, military epics, political treatises, and textual commentary, Matthieu Felt identifies the geographical, cosmological, epistemological, and semiotic changes that led to new adaptations of Japanese myths. Felt demonstrates that the meanings of Japanese antiquity and of Japan's most ancient texts were—and are—a work in progress, a collective effort of writers and thinkers over the past 1,300 years. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/folkore
Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts Kojiki and Nihon shoki, changed in meaning and significance between 800 and 1800 CE. Generations of Japanese scholars and students have turned to these two texts and their creation myths to understand what it means to be Japanese and where Japan fits into the world order. As the shape and scale of the world explained by these myths changed, these myths evolved in turn. Over the course of the millennium covered in this study, Japan transforms from the center of a proud empire to a millet seed at the edge of the Buddhist world, from the last vestige of China's glorious Zhou Dynasty to an archipelago on a spherical globe. Analyzing historical records, poetry, fiction, religious writings, military epics, political treatises, and textual commentary, Matthieu Felt identifies the geographical, cosmological, epistemological, and semiotic changes that led to new adaptations of Japanese myths. Felt demonstrates that the meanings of Japanese antiquity and of Japan's most ancient texts were—and are—a work in progress, a collective effort of writers and thinkers over the past 1,300 years. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history
Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts Kojiki and Nihon shoki, changed in meaning and significance between 800 and 1800 CE. Generations of Japanese scholars and students have turned to these two texts and their creation myths to understand what it means to be Japanese and where Japan fits into the world order. As the shape and scale of the world explained by these myths changed, these myths evolved in turn. Over the course of the millennium covered in this study, Japan transforms from the center of a proud empire to a millet seed at the edge of the Buddhist world, from the last vestige of China's glorious Zhou Dynasty to an archipelago on a spherical globe. Analyzing historical records, poetry, fiction, religious writings, military epics, political treatises, and textual commentary, Matthieu Felt identifies the geographical, cosmological, epistemological, and semiotic changes that led to new adaptations of Japanese myths. Felt demonstrates that the meanings of Japanese antiquity and of Japan's most ancient texts were—and are—a work in progress, a collective effort of writers and thinkers over the past 1,300 years. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts Kojiki and Nihon shoki, changed in meaning and significance between 800 and 1800 CE. Generations of Japanese scholars and students have turned to these two texts and their creation myths to understand what it means to be Japanese and where Japan fits into the world order. As the shape and scale of the world explained by these myths changed, these myths evolved in turn. Over the course of the millennium covered in this study, Japan transforms from the center of a proud empire to a millet seed at the edge of the Buddhist world, from the last vestige of China's glorious Zhou Dynasty to an archipelago on a spherical globe. Analyzing historical records, poetry, fiction, religious writings, military epics, political treatises, and textual commentary, Matthieu Felt identifies the geographical, cosmological, epistemological, and semiotic changes that led to new adaptations of Japanese myths. Felt demonstrates that the meanings of Japanese antiquity and of Japan's most ancient texts were—and are—a work in progress, a collective effort of writers and thinkers over the past 1,300 years. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion
Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts Kojiki and Nihon shoki, changed in meaning and significance between 800 and 1800 CE. Generations of Japanese scholars and students have turned to these two texts and their creation myths to understand what it means to be Japanese and where Japan fits into the world order. As the shape and scale of the world explained by these myths changed, these myths evolved in turn. Over the course of the millennium covered in this study, Japan transforms from the center of a proud empire to a millet seed at the edge of the Buddhist world, from the last vestige of China's glorious Zhou Dynasty to an archipelago on a spherical globe. Analyzing historical records, poetry, fiction, religious writings, military epics, political treatises, and textual commentary, Matthieu Felt identifies the geographical, cosmological, epistemological, and semiotic changes that led to new adaptations of Japanese myths. Felt demonstrates that the meanings of Japanese antiquity and of Japan's most ancient texts were—and are—a work in progress, a collective effort of writers and thinkers over the past 1,300 years. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Meanings of Antiquity: Myth Interpretation in Premodern Japan (Harvard UP, 2023) is the first dedicated study of how the oldest Japanese myths, recorded in the eighth-century texts Kojiki and Nihon shoki, changed in meaning and significance between 800 and 1800 CE. Generations of Japanese scholars and students have turned to these two texts and their creation myths to understand what it means to be Japanese and where Japan fits into the world order. As the shape and scale of the world explained by these myths changed, these myths evolved in turn. Over the course of the millennium covered in this study, Japan transforms from the center of a proud empire to a millet seed at the edge of the Buddhist world, from the last vestige of China's glorious Zhou Dynasty to an archipelago on a spherical globe. Analyzing historical records, poetry, fiction, religious writings, military epics, political treatises, and textual commentary, Matthieu Felt identifies the geographical, cosmological, epistemological, and semiotic changes that led to new adaptations of Japanese myths. Felt demonstrates that the meanings of Japanese antiquity and of Japan's most ancient texts were—and are—a work in progress, a collective effort of writers and thinkers over the past 1,300 years. Jingyi Li is a PhD Candidate in Japanese History at the University of Arizona. She researches about early modern Japan, literati, and commercial publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/japanese-studies
The Zhou Dynasty ruled for longer than any other in Chinese history. Much of the cultural foundation of China was laid down during that age, from Confucius to Sun Tzu. While a powerful state at its inception, centralized power only functioned for a century at most during the Zhou; afterward, the ruling dynasty became increasingly irrelevant as a political force, and regional lords rose to rule independent states.Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness! It's all about “Dad Culture,” and Patrick will interview some fascinating guests about everything from tall wooden ships to smoked meats to comfortable sneakers to history, sports, culture, and politics. https://bit.ly/PWtPoDListen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistorySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
News items read by Laura Kennedy include: Chinese tomb inscription confirms Zhou Dynasty's lethal power struggles (details) Analysis of Texas mummy reveals painful death, and diet of grasshoppers (details) New tablet from Hittite Empire capital records previously unknown early language (details) Arrow found under melting glacier in Norway still has arrowhead and feathers intact (details)
Episode: 2800 Two information revolutions: 2800 years ago, and surrounding the 2800th Episode. Today, 2800 years ago.
With a cast of characters like the Dukes of Jin and Chu and everyone's favorite exile Chong Er, you're guaranteed a treat. This is the story behind the chengyu: 退避三舍 Tuì Bì Sān Shè. The story of Chong Er, his escape from persecution by his father Duke Xian of Jin, and his triumphant return to Jin in 636 BC is one of the countless unforgettable stories from ancient Chinese history. Before Chong Er became Duke Wen of Jin, he experienced a nineteen-year odyssey that took him throughout the states of the Zhou Dynasty. This story concerns a visit to Chu. Sometimes you gotta know when to make a strategic retreat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With a cast of characters like the Dukes of Jin and Chu and everyone's favorite exile Chong Er, you're guaranteed a treat. This is the story behind the chengyu: 退避三舍 Tuì Bì Sān Shè. The story of Chong Er, his escape from persecution by his father Duke Xian of Jin, and his triumphant return to Jin in 636 BC is one of the countless unforgettable stories from ancient Chinese history. Before Chong Er became Duke Wen of Jin, he experienced a nineteen-year odyssey that took him throughout the states of the Zhou Dynasty. This story concerns a visit to Chu. Sometimes you gotta know when to make a strategic retreat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With a cast of characters like the Dukes of Jin and Chu and everyone's favorite exile Chong Er, you're guaranteed a treat. This is the story behind the chengyu: 退避三舍 Tuì Bì Sān Shè. The story of Chong Er, his escape from persecution by his father Duke Xian of Jin, and his triumphant return to Jin in 636 BC is one of the countless unforgettable stories from ancient Chinese history. Before Chong Er became Duke Wen of Jin, he experienced a nineteen-year odyssey that took him throughout the states of the Zhou Dynasty. This story concerns a visit to Chu. Sometimes you gotta know when to make a strategic retreat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With a cast of characters like the Dukes of Jin and Chu and everyone's favorite exile Chong Er, you're guaranteed a treat. This is the story behind the chengyu: 退避三舍 Tuì Bì Sān Shè. The story of Chong Er, his escape from persecution by his father Duke Xian of Jin, and his triumphant return to Jin in 636 BC is one of the countless unforgettable stories from ancient Chinese history. Before Chong Er became Duke Wen of Jin, he experienced a nineteen-year odyssey that took him throughout the states of the Zhou Dynasty. This story concerns a visit to Chu. Sometimes you gotta know when to make a strategic retreat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With a cast of characters like the Dukes of Jin and Chu and everyone's favorite exile Chong Er, you're guaranteed a treat. This is the story behind the chengyu: 退避三舍 Tuì Bì Sān Shè. The story of Chong Er, his escape from persecution by his father Duke Xian of Jin, and his triumphant return to Jin in 636 BC is one of the countless unforgettable stories from ancient Chinese history. Before Chong Er became Duke Wen of Jin, he experienced a nineteen-year odyssey that took him throughout the states of the Zhou Dynasty. This story concerns a visit to Chu. Sometimes you gotta know when to make a strategic retreat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With a cast of characters like the Dukes of Jin and Chu and everyone's favorite exile Chong Er, you're guaranteed a treat. This is the story behind the chengyu: 退避三舍 Tuì Bì Sān Shè. The story of Chong Er, his escape from persecution by his father Duke Xian of Jin, and his triumphant return to Jin in 636 BC is one of the countless unforgettable stories from ancient Chinese history. Before Chong Er became Duke Wen of Jin, he experienced a nineteen-year odyssey that took him throughout the states of the Zhou Dynasty. This story concerns a visit to Chu. Sometimes you gotta know when to make a strategic retreat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With a cast of characters like the Dukes of Jin and Chu and everyone's favorite exile Chong Er, you're guaranteed a treat. This is the story behind the chengyu: 退避三舍 Tuì Bì Sān Shè. The story of Chong Er, his escape from persecution by his father Duke Xian of Jin, and his triumphant return to Jin in 636 BC is one of the countless unforgettable stories from ancient Chinese history. Before Chong Er became Duke Wen of Jin, he experienced a nineteen-year odyssey that took him throughout the states of the Zhou Dynasty. This story concerns a visit to Chu. Sometimes you gotta know when to make a strategic retreat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With a cast of characters like the Dukes of Jin and Chu and everyone's favorite exile Chong Er, you're guaranteed a treat. This is the story behind the chengyu: 退避三舍 Tuì Bì Sān Shè. The story of Chong Er, his escape from persecution by his father Duke Xian of Jin, and his triumphant return to Jin in 636 BC is one of the countless unforgettable stories from ancient Chinese history. Before Chong Er became Duke Wen of Jin, he experienced a nineteen-year odyssey that took him throughout the states of the Zhou Dynasty. This story concerns a visit to Chu. Sometimes you gotta know when to make a strategic retreat. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this first episode of a multi-part series, we'll look at Yunnan's ancient beginnings during the Zhou Dynasty and take things up to the end of the Nanzhao Kingdom in the 10th century. The Dian Kingdom, the Cuanman, the beginnings of Nanzhao, and the rocky relationship between Tang Dynasty China, Tibet and Nanzhao. All of that will be looked at in this episode. Then next time in Part 2 we'll begin the Dali Kingdom. Thanks for listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this first episode of a multi-part series, we'll look at Yunnan's ancient beginnings during the Zhou Dynasty and take things up to the end of the Nanzhao Kingdom in the 10th century. The Dian Kingdom, the Cuanman, the beginnings of Nanzhao, and the rocky relationship between Tang Dynasty China, Tibet and Nanzhao. All of that will be looked at in this episode. Then next time in Part 2 we'll begin the Dali Kingdom. Thanks for listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this first episode of a multi-part series, we'll look at Yunnan's ancient beginnings during the Zhou Dynasty and take things up to the end of the Nanzhao Kingdom in the 10th century. The Dian Kingdom, the Cuanman, the beginnings of Nanzhao, and the rocky relationship between Tang Dynasty China, Tibet and Nanzhao. All of that will be looked at in this episode. Then next time in Part 2 we'll begin the Dali Kingdom. Thanks for listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this first episode of a multi-part series, we'll look at Yunnan's ancient beginnings during the Zhou Dynasty and take things up to the end of the Nanzhao Kingdom in the 10th century. The Dian Kingdom, the Cuanman, the beginnings of Nanzhao, and the rocky relationship between Tang Dynasty China, Tibet and Nanzhao. All of that will be looked at in this episode. Then next time in Part 2 we'll begin the Dali Kingdom. Thanks for listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Dragon boat festival holds a significant place in the hearts of the Chinese people, tracing its roots back thousands of years. But why do we have the Dragon Boat Festival? Let's travel back in time to the Zhou Dynasty, an era when China was divided into seven warring states. Access the transcript of this episode by becoming our patron. R&S ************************************************************ Brilliant Idea #1 If you need something rock solid in your life and someone shared this podcast with you, or you think you already subscribed on Apple Podcast/Spotify, support us by becoming a patron. And be sure to share with a friend or colleague if you enjoy the podcast because: 2023 marks 8th year of LCTS We want to hear your feedback It will motivate us to continue crafting more stories ************************************************************ Brilliant Idea #2 You're obviously full of wisdom and fluent in Chinese if you are listening to LCTS . We appreciate every feedback we receive, and it helps us craft the following week's Podcast. Leaving us a review on iTunes ! ************************************************************ If you are not in China, but want to get busy learning/speaking Chinese with a native speaker, you definitely want to check out iTalki and book a free lesson: https://www.italki.com/affshare?ref=af17633341 Chinese for Superior- LCTS Chinese for Advanced-Playlist Chinese for Intermediate High-LCTS Chinese for Intermediate-Playlist Chinese for Beginners-Playlist ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Follow and subscribe for free Get the next episode as soon as it is available by following/subscribing it for free at Apple Podcast Google Podcast Spotify
Celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, Dragon boat festival holds a significant place in the hearts of the Chinese people, tracing its roots back thousands of years. But why do we have the Dragon Boat Festival? Let's travel back in time to the Zhou Dynasty, an era when China was divided into seven warring states. ************************************************************ Brilliant Idea #1 If you need something rock solid in your life and someone shared this podcast with you, or you think you already subscribed on Apple Podcast/Spotify, support us by becoming a patron. And be sure to share with a friend or colleague if you enjoy the podcast because: 2023 marks 8th year of LCTS We want to hear your feedback It will motivate us to continue crafting more stories ************************************************************ Brilliant Idea #2 You're obviously full of wisdom and fluent in Chinese if you are listening to LCTS . We appreciate every feedback we receive, and it helps us craft the following week's Podcast. Leaving us a review on iTunes ! ************************************************************ If you are not in China, but want to get busy learning/speaking Chinese with a native speaker, you definitely want to check out iTalki and book a free lesson: https://www.italki.com/affshare?ref=af17633341 Chinese for Superior- LCTS Chinese for Advanced-Playlist Chinese for Intermediate High-LCTS Chinese for Intermediate-Playlist Chinese for Beginners-Playlist ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Follow and subscribe for free Get the next episode as soon as it is available by following/subscribing it for free at Apple Podcast Google Podcast Spotify
不论是海外求学，国际旅行，接待外宾还是跨境业务洽谈中，你是否满腹干货，想做中华文化使者，但又苦于无法用英文表达？语言，不仅能让你看到更广阔的世界也能让你在更大的舞台发出自己的声音。酒馆特别板块： China Story【用英语，说中国】，双语播出，适合不同段位的你。让我们一起，讲述有趣有料的中国故事。+luluxjg 或者关注工号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】领取精美文稿。Chinese regional cuisines are amongst the many different cuisines found in different provinces of China as well as from larger overseas Chinese communities.These styles are distinctive from one another due to the factors such as availability of resources, climate, geography, history, cooking techniques and lifestyle. One style may favor the generous use of garlic and spring onions over chilli and spices, while another may favour preparing seafood over other meats.一个菜系的形成和它的悠久历史与独到的烹饪特色分不开的。同时也受到这个地区的自然地理、气候条件、资源特产、饮食习惯等影响。HistoryAs early as the Shang Dynasty (17th century BC - 1046 BC) and Zhou Dynasty (1046 - 256 BC), China's dietary culture has taken shape. 商周时期，中国的饮食文化开始初具雏形。In the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 AD) , the northern and southern food already had their own characteristics. The interesting fact is, back then, it was the North that favored sweet flavors while the South went for more savory options. 早在宋代的时候，中国各地的饮食已经有了区别。《梦溪笔谈》（The Dream Pool Essays）卷二四中记录到：“大底南人嗜咸，北人嗜甘。鱼蟹加糖蜜，盖便于北俗也。”在当时，中国的口味主要有两种，北方人喜欢吃甜的，南方人喜欢吃咸的。By the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), Chinese cuisine started to divide into three distinctive styles based on cuisines of Beijing, Suzhou and Guangdong. 南宋时候，北方人大量南迁。逐渐地，北方的饮食文化影响了南方。在南方地区形成了自己的派系。到了明代末期，中国饮食分为京式、苏式和广式。京式偏咸，苏式、广式偏甜。Historically, the Four Great Traditions(四大菜系) of Chinese cuisine are Chuan, Lu, Yue and Su, representing West, North, South and East China cuisine correspondingly. However, in modern times the list is often expanded to the Eight Great Traditions (Chinese: 八大菜系)By the early Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 AD), four most influential cuisines prevailed. What are the four main styles of Chinese cuisine at that time? They are cuisines of Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong and Jiangsu respectively. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the four new cuisines - Zhejiang cuisine, Fujian cuisine, Hunan cuisine, and Anhui cuisine appeared; together with former four cuisines, they were listed as “8 Chinese Cuisines”.到了清代的时候，徐珂所辑的《清稗类钞》中记载：“肴馔之各有特色者，如京师、山东、四川、广东、福建、江宁、苏州、扬州、镇江、淮安。”后来概括为鲁、川、粤、苏四大菜系。清末民初开始，闽、浙、湘、徽等地方菜也逐渐出名，就形成了中国的“八大菜系”。后来形成最有影响和代表性的也为社***公认的有：鲁、川、粤、苏、闽、浙、湘、徽等菜系，即被人们常说的中国“八大菜系”。
Did you know that Chinese comedy has a long history that dates back to the Zhou Dynasty (1100 BC to 221 BC) when the aristocracy kept jesters in their homes? Shafi and Dan discuss the history of Comedy in the West and the East. They explore the evolution of comedy and share their personal stand-up stories. Leave a review on itunes and follow on spotify. @cultureclashcomedypod on insta/tiktok
Last night I finished reading the biography ‘The Chronicles of Tao' by author Deng Ming-Dao. Whom, some of you on the spiritual Taoist path, would already be familiar with. This book is supposed to be a loose biography of his spiritual teacher Kwan Saihung. As a lesson in Taoist spirituality and in what the followers of the Huashan sect did to attain immortality, I enjoyed it thoroughly. And it was for me a kind of revision of my own journey: How far I have come and how far I still have to go. As a book on martial arts, basically chronicles how much martial arts in general has changed with the modern times. What we are learning now sometimes feels like we are all just a bunch of overweight middle-aged men with delusions of by-gone grandeur. And for those of you wondering where the baguazhang fits into this book? It only really appears as a brief style of fighting Kwan Saihung's own spiritual teacher uses to defeat a Xingyiquan master. This book is not really a book about martial arts and most people will find it either boring or implausible. But that line of thought is for the skeptics. For someone like me, however, I got to cross-check events in the book with my own weird shit! And if you are a person who is keen to walk the path of an immortal, you are just going to have to accept that there are somethings in this world that do not and will never fit into the current version of reality that modern civilisation holds so dear. While at the same time to be fair on ourselves, from a western background, some ideas in the book are not really Taoist, but are coming from a typical Chinese mindset of what Taoism is without really knowing the full scope of Chinese civilisational history. For example, if you go back to the Zhou Dynasty, there was essentially no such thing as Taoism as we know it because “all” the Chinese schools of thought were natively Taoist. Lao Tzu 老子 and Chuang Tzu 莊子 only professed one particular version of it. The main difference between Lao Tzu and Confucius, was that Confucius tried to bring order out of perceived chaos while Lao Tzu accepted that chaos was already a form of order in itself. Most of the other ancient sages tended to specialise their Taoist ways towards the particular field of study that they were expert in. Since then Taoism had been shaped and reshaped many times by outside influences. Internal Alchemy or Neidan 內丹術 developed during the late Han Dynasty with the arrival of Buddhism. Meditation, reincarnation and karma are all Buddhist ideas. Before Buddhism, Taoism was (and still us based upon) a mix of shamanism, animism and Chinese folk beliefs. And then during the Tang Dynasty – Christianity arrived in China. Called the religion of Light 景教, it is the reason why in Taoism there is now a Chinese hell presided over by the Ox headed devil. And that the Goddess of Mercy is the Virgin Mary with Chinese characteristics. The Three Pure ones are a reworked version of the Holy Trinity. And that the last supper with the holy grail is essentially the Elixir of Immortality, that if one is holy enough, the Jade Emperor can bestow on them. But I don't bring all this history up to shock anybody. Rather it is to enlighten the baguazhang practitioner that baguazhang is not just a martial art, but a form of being in church and being in communion with the Divine. I give this book 5 stars out of 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. CHRONICLES OF TAO - The secret life of a Taoist Master By Deng Ming-Dao, author of ‘365 Tao' HarperOne ISBN: 978-0-06-250219-3
Last time we spoke, Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo and Emperor Yongli formed a sort of trinity that was chipping away at the Qing dynasty. Each man had his talents and combined they proved a formidable foe, but divided would they fall. Sun Kewang's jealousy led him to butt heads with Li Dingguo undermining all the success they had made. When Sun Kewang was defeated a part of the trinity was gone and the forces of Li Dingguo and Emperor Yongli could not hope to stand against the Qing invaders as they marched into Yunnan. Emperor Yongli took flight to Burma forcing Li Dingguo to spend years trying to rescue him from the Burmese while fighting off the looming Qing menace. In the end even Li Dingguo could not stop the inevitable as he and Emperor Yongli fell. Now the Qing can face their last looming menace, the King of Taiwan, Koxinga. This episode is Koxinga & the revolt of the three feudatories Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on the history of asia and much more so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. I have repeatedly said his name, in the west we know him as Koxinga, his actual name being Zheng Chenggong. It would be his marine forces that would fight the Qing Dynasty until the bitter end. He was born with the name Zheng Sen in 1624, in Hirado Japan, to Zheng Zhilong a chinese merchant and a Japanese woman named Tagawa Matsu. When Zheng was 7 years old, his father had business interests in Quanzhou and the family moved to Fujian province. His father would end up becoming one of the richest men in China and an Admiral under the Ming Dynasty. Zheng Zhilong operated a pirate fleet of over 800 ships along the coast from Japan to Vietnam. The Ming appointed him “admiral of the coastal seas” and he basically was tasked with repeling other pirates and the Dutch East Indies Company. The fruits of his labor wound him up grabbing over 60% of Fujian province land. Zheng Sen would pass the imperial examination at the age of 14 in 1638 becoming one of 12 Linshansheng of Nan'an. Linshansheng basically means the best of the best as students go. In Nan'an, Zheng married the niece of a Ming official named Dong Yangxian who was a Jinshi, meaning he held the highest imperial exam degree, so basically Zheng was brushing shoulders with giants so to say. In 1644 he studied at the imperial Nanking University. When the Qing captured Beijing, Zheng's father, Zheng Zhilong continued to serve the Ming moving to Nanjing, then after the capture of Nanjing in 1645 accepted an offer to serve as commander in chief of the Ming forces working under the Prince of Tang in Fuzhou. It seems the war of resistance had gone to terribly for Zheng Zhilong because he became a turncoat in 1646, intentionally leaving the Zhejiang pass unguarded and allowed the Qing to capture Fuzhou. Zheng Zhilong defected to the Qing, but the Zheng army's control lay firmly in his brothers and sons hands. That son, Zheng Sen refused to defect to the Qing and would take most of the Zheng army with him, causing problems. As for his wife Tagawa Matsu, it is alleged the Qing went to Anhai where she was residing in a castle, which I found particularly interesting since this is during the Sakoku period and it was illegal for Japanese to leave the country. Anyways its alleged the Qing marched upon the castle where she was and raped and or killed her. Other stories state she committed suicide while resisting the Qing. Regardless of the implications of her death, the Qing knew they could not trust Zheng Zhilong and would have him put under house arrest for many years until they executed him in 1661. It is said in 1646, while Zheng Sen was busy fighting off the Qing he managed to return to Quanzhou where he discovered his mother had been murdered or committed suicide because of the Qing and thus rebellion was firmly placed in his heart. I cant really get into it but there is an entire mythos around lady Tagawa and multiple perceptions on her and her legacy. When the Qing took Beijing and gave their head shaving proclamation, Zheng Sen refused and it is said his will was “as strong and firm as a mountain”. As I had said the Zheng army did not all follow Zheng Zhilong and defect with the Qing, many would follow Zheng Sen. Soon Zheng Sen recruited more followers and organized allied armies in Nan'an Guangdong. When Emperor Hongguang took the mantle, Zheng Sen flocked over to him in Nanking. When Emperor Hongguang was defeated and executed, Emperor Longwu rose up with support from Zheng's father. Emperor Longwu established himself in Fuzhou and the natural defenses of Fujian allowed him to remain safe for some time. Emperor Longwu granted Zheng Sen the name Chenggong and the title of Koxinga “lord of the Imperial Surname”. In 1646 Koxinga led the Ming armies to resist the Qing, much to his fathers displeasure who wished for a more defensive stance. When the Qing finally broke into Fujian, as I mentioned Zheng Zhilong literally opened the door to them, leaving Emperor Longwu isolated agaisnt the Qing. After the Emperor Longwu was defeated and executed, the Qing approached Zheng Zhilong and got him to defect and secretly appointed him governor of Fujian and Guangdong. Despite the betrayal of his father, Koxinga chose to fight on and led Zheng Zhilong's marine forces to attack Tong'an, Haicheng, Zhangfu and captured Quanzhou and Minan. Because the Qing never placed much emphasis on naval matters, Koxinga's naval forces basically could pick and choose at will where to do amphibious assaults providing him with many successful raids. Zheng Zhilong would send letters to his son asking him to defect to the Qing like he did, but they were to no avail and Koxinga pledged his allegiance to the only remaining claimant to the throne the Emperor of flight Yongli. Before Koxinga could get to Emperor Yongli he as you guessed it began the process of fleeing and this basically resulted in Koxinga never being able to link up with him. As a result Koxinga chose to concentrate on the southeast coast of China where he could safely move via his naval forces. Koxinga's army soon established its base of operations in Kinmen and Xiamen. Using his base of Kinmen and Xiamen, Koxinga established a marine trade network and the anti-Qing forces grew quickly. By 1652 Koxinga led a force of 100,000 to attack Haicheng, Changtai, Zhangzhou, Zhangfu amongst other places. He also greatly benefitted by working alongside the Daxi army. In 1653 Koxinga tried to coordinate with Li Dingguo's army in Guangxi and deployed his navy southwards towards Chaozhou. The following year Li and Koxinga agreed to meet in Guangdong and attack Xinhui together, but this plan never came to fruition. Koxinga's forces simply took too long to get there and Li Dingguo's army was defeated and he had to retreat to Guangxi. In 1655, Koxinga attacked the coastal area of Fujian defeating several Qing armies. Koxinga and Li then planned a northern campaign where they would coordinate rear and frontal attacks upon the Qing. In may of 1656, the Qing sent Prince Jidu to attack Koxinga's territory. Jidu's forces attacked Kinmen island, Koxinga's main base for training his troops. However a storm at sea battered the Qing ships and as a result they lost the battle against the Kinmen island. This also weakened Qing naval forces in the Fujian coastal area, opening many places for attacks by Koxinga. Then in 1658 the Qing armies carried large offensives against Li Dingguo in the southwestern area, prompting Koxinga to strike at the coastal areas in Zhejiang to try and relieve Li Dingguo's forces. However Koxinga's navy was hit by a hurricane at sea and they were forced to withdraw. This did not stop Koxinga from sending a large army to Zhoushan however, where he sought a base of operations to stage a siege of Nanjing. Koxinga however was quite eager and publicly proclaimed his intent to siege Nanjing, giving the Qing ample time and reason to prepare stronger defenses there. In 1659 Koxinga marched north alongside his colleague Zhang Huangyan capturing Guazhou and Zhenjing before they would besiege Nanjing. They sprang through the Yangtze River with their navy igniting resistance everywhere they went against the Qing. Koxinga's naval operations in the Yangtze River would hinder Qing supply routes and effectively were starving Beijing out, stressing the hell out of the Qing court. If it is to be believed, an account by a French missionary in Beijing reported they court considered packing up and going back to Manchuria because of what was essential a naval blockade of Beijing. Things got so bad in Beijing the French missionary states the populace of Beijing was waiting to see who would win the siege of Nanjing and were looking to join that said winner. The Qing were reportedly terrified of Koxinga's “iron troops” who were rumored to be invincible. The siege of Nanjing shocked the Qing, but Koxinga became cocky and in his arrogance he took his enemy lightly. He publicly announced to the populace all they had to do was to join his cause and that he would occupy Nanjing in short time. Koxinga believed that by taking Nanjing he could firmly blockade the grand canal and starve out Beijing forcing them to pack up and run back to Manchuria, if the sources I talked about before are to be believed, it looks like his plan was working. Lang Tingzuo the governor trapped in Nanjing began to negotiate with Koxinga and Zhang, but in truth he was biding time for the Qing forces to come to the rescue. Despite Koxinga's best efforts besieging Nanjing, the city was never completely encircled and thus able to obtain supplies and reinforcements in the form of the Qing General Liang Huafeng. After 3 weeks of the siege, suddenly General Liang and his army burst out the gates of Nanjing in a cavalry charge as the Ming forces were busy partying and they were smashed. The entire Ming army fell into disarray and began to retreat back to their ships and Koxinga was forced to withdraw back to Xiamen. Meanwhile his colleague Zhang had taken a ton of their forces to hit Anhui and was now left high and dry. Zhang's army was eventually and completely collapsed, but the commander was able to escape to Tiantai where he tried to form another resistance in the mountain range. He would fail to produce anything and by 1664 was captured and executed by the Qing. Koxinga had lost half his land army, his colleague and many other officers because of his arrogant attack on Nanjing. It seems Koxinga suffered tremendous psychological damage from the major defeat and the loss of so many members of his family. He was known to be quite mentally unstable and had a horrible temper and tendency to order executions at a whim. A Dutch doctor named Christian Beyer who treated him believed he may have been suffering from Syphilis, some other contemporaries believed his mentality was the result of his Japanese upbringing in the form of “samurai ideals on bravery” like laughing to showcase his anger and being prone to quick violence. According to Dr Li Yengyue, he stated Koxinga most likely suffered from depressive insanity. At this time Li Dingguo's forces were being pushed further southwest and quite simply, the situation did not look good to say the least. This led Koxinga to gather all his officials in secret and tell them he now intended to occupy Taiwan and establish a base there from which they could all settle with their families in safety. He said that perhaps there they could unite all those who were loyal to the Ming and one day they would launch an attack on the Qing and fight the enemy without having to worry about the lives of their families. Thus when the Qing marched upon his stronghold of Xiamen in 1660, Koxinga instead of offering battle sailed off with over 400 war junks and 25,000 troops to Taiwan. Before the departure Koxinga had received a map of Taiwan from a Chinese merchant named He Bin who worked for the Dutch East India company. It was also during this time when Koxinga had the family of one of his admirals named Shi Lang killed because the admiral allegedly was planning to defect to the Qing, though some sources say he simply had disobeyed an order, sheesh. Regardless after the murder of his family admiral Shi Lang promptly sailed off to defect to the Qing. The Qing were very happy to receive Shi Lang as he held extensive naval experience and had a network of contacts in major trading ports all over east asia. He would become absolutely instrumental to the Qing naval buildup and would emerge late into this story and he held a blood feud with the Zheng family henceforth. Now the Chinese merchant who gave Koxinga the map, guided the Koxinga's naval force to land on Wei Island and Haliao Island, thereby avoiding the artillery placements within the channel of Taiwan. Koxinga's forces managed to land at Pengdu Taiwan in 1661 and Koxinga soon led his forces to attack Dutch colonists proclaiming to them "Hitherto this island had always belonged to China, and the Dutch had doubtless been permitted to live there, seeing that the Chinese did not require it for themselves; but requiring it now, it was only fair that Dutch strangers, who came from far regions, should give way to the masters of the island.". They marched to Leurmeng where they fought small groups of Taiwanese aborigines and Dutch resistance. In the bay of Lakjemuyse 3 Dutch ships attacked and destroyed several of Koxinga's junks, but then one of his junks got a lucky shot off exploding a gunpowder supply aboard the Dutch flagship Hector sinking her. The 2 other Dutch warships, were not enough to fight off the large force of junks and had to flee. Here is an abridged account given by Frederick Coyett, the colonial governor of Dutch held Taiwan about Koxinga's landing. The forces of Koxinga showed up armed with bows and arrows, others had shields and swords. Everyone was wearing coats of iron scales (by the way there is an artist rendition of the soldiers by a contemporary named Georg Franz Muller, worth checking out it looks awesome). The armor allowed for complete protection from a rifle bullet and allowed the wearer great mobility. Their archers were their best troops and their skill was so great it nearly eclipsed that of riflemen. They used shield men to form human walls and Koxinga had 2 companies of “black boys”, many of whom were former Dutch slaves that knew how to use rifles and muskets. They proved quite effective marksmen and caused a lot of harm to the Dutch in Taiwan. As Koxinga's force charged in rows of 12 men and when they were near enough sent 3 volleys of fire uniformly. The storm of arrows that came forth upon the dutch seemed to darken the sky (a herodotus moment). The Dutch expected their return fire to send the enemy fleeing, but they did not, in fact the Chinese held firm against them and in short time the Dutch realized to their horror that Koxinga sent a squadron behind them and they attacked from the rear. While the Dutch proved courageous at the beginning of the battle, now they were stricken with fear and many Dutch riflemen tossed their rifles without even firing them and began to run. As they faltered and fled, the Chinese saw the disorder and pressed their attack more vigorously. The Chinese force charged and cut down the Dutch and the battle raged on until the Dutch captain Thomas Bedell and 180 of his men were slain. After defeating the Dutch force when they landed, Koxinga laid siege to the main fortress, Fort Zeelandia using some of his 100 cannons on hand. They outnumbered the garrison there 20 to 1 and the bombardment demolished the roof of the Dutch governors residence. The Dutch return fired from bastion forts killing hundreds of Koxinga's men. Koxinga's cannons proved ineffective against the walls, the Dutch governor wrote that after viewing the alignment of the Chinese cannons, he noticed they were placed quite badly, were unprotected and easy to hit with their own cannons. In the end the Chinese cannons only did some light damage to a few houses. Koxinga was shocked and enraged by the lack of damage to the fortresses walls and decided to give up the bombardment and simply to being starving the Dutch out. On April 4th Koxinga sent his army to besiege the smaller fortress of Fort Provintia, catching its commander Jacob Valentyn and his 140 men, completely off guard. Valentyn had to surrender without putting up much of a fight. By late May, news of the Siege of Fort Zeelandia reached Jakarta and the Dutch East India Company dispatched 12 ships with 700 soldiers to relieve the fort. The relief force ran into Koxinga's naval blockade and they engaged in battle. However Koxinga had hundreds of war junks and as the Dutch ships tried to fire upon them their aim ended up being too high. Basically of the height difference between the Chinese war junks and Dutch ships, this made aiming the cannons difficult as they cant pivot downwards, so you have to rely upon distance calculations and that in turn is not easy when the enemy knows to just close in on you and are firing upon you. Some of the smaller Dutch ships tried to lure some of the Chinese war junks into a narrow strait with a feigned withdrawal. But as they were doing so, the wind suddenly seized on them, and with only paddles available the Chinese caught up to them and massacred their crews with pikes. It is also alleged the Chinese caught many Dutch lobed grenades using nets and tossed them right back at them, that sounds like a nasty game of hot potato. The Dutch flagship Koukercken was hit by a Chinese cannon after running around and quickly sunk. Another Dutch ship hit ashore and the crew had to run for their lives for Fort Zeelandia. The remaining Dutch fleet eventually scattered and withdrew, all in all they took 130 casualties. By December Koxinga was given reports that the garrison of Fort Zeelandia was losing morale and thus he decided to launch another large offensive, but was repelled again by superior Dutch cannons. By January 12th of 1662, Koxingas fleet began to help bombard the fort as his ground forces assaulted. With supplies running out and no sign of reinforcements, Governor Coyett hoisted the white flag and began to negotiate terms of surrender, finalizing them by february 1st. By February the 9th the Dutch left Taiwan and were allowed to take their personal belongings and provisions. Now this siege was honestly a pretty horrible affair aside from the normal war actions. Prisoners on both sides were subjected to some rather gruesome torture. A Dutch physician allegedly carried out a vivisection on a Chinese prisoner and there were reports that the Chinese amputated noses, ears, limbs and genitals of Dutch prisoners. Apparently the Chinese would stuff their mouths with amputated genitals and send the corpses back to Fort Zeelandia, some really messed up stuff. One Dutch prisoner, a missionary named Antonius Hambroek was sent as an envoy to Fort Zeelandia to ask for their surrender, if he failed he was to be killed. Hambroek went to the Fort where 2 of his daughters were residing and urged everyone to surrender, but they did not and thus he came back to Koxinga's camp and was promptly beheaded. Another one of Hambroeks daughters had been captured prior to the siege and Koxinga made her a concubine. Other Dutch women and children that were captured prior to the siege were enslaved and sold to Chinese soldiers. 38 years of Dutch rule over Taiwan had ended and Koxinga would use Taiwan as a military base for Ming loyalists. The Taiwanese aboriginals played both sides during the conflict. For example when Koxinga's men landed in Taiwan one tribal alliance known as the Kingdom of Middag invited Koxingas subordinate Chen Ze and his men to eat and rest with them only to kill them all in their sleep, allegedly 1500 soldiers. This was followed up by an ambush attack that would cost Koxinga the lives of 700 soldiers. More and more tribal attacks mounted and the brutality pushed Koxinga to offer the aboriginals amnesty and to help get rid of the Dutch. Many of the aboriginals were delighted by the chance to rid themselves of the Dutch and began to hunt Dutch colonists down, helped execute Dutch prisoners and burnt Dutch books used to educate them. Koxinga then rewarded the aboriginals with Ming clothes, made feasts for them, gave them countless gifts such as tobacco, farming tools and oxen and taught them new farming techniques. Koxinga had a large problem after his major victory, Taiwan's population was estimated to be no greater than 100,000, yet he brought with him almost 30,000 soldiers and their families, so food was going to run out and very quick. Thus Koxinga set to institute a tuntian policy, that being that soldiers would serve a dual role, that of warrior and farmer. All the rich and fertile lands the Dutch held were immediately cut up and distrubed to his higher ranking officers. Much of the aboriginal held territory on the eastern half of Taiwan would also be distributed to Koxinga's men and I would imagine that was a bloody ordeal taking the land. Then Koxinga set his eyes on piracy performing raids against several locations near Taiwan such as the Philippines and even demanded the Spanish colonial government pay him tribute, threatening to attack Manila if they did not comply. The Spanish refused to pay any tribute and instead prepared the defenses of Manila. Koxinga's naval force raided several coastal towns in the Philippines but before he could perform any real sort of invasion, in June of 1662 Koxinga suddenly died of malaria. Koxinga's son Zheng Jing succeeded his father and became King of Tungning. Zheng wanted to continue his fathers planned invasion of the Philippines, but it turns out his fathers little war against the Dutch did not go unnoticed by the Qing. Back on the mainland, after Koxinga left and sailed for Taiwan, the Qing began to reimplemented the Haijin “sea ban” in 1647. The Haijin had been used in the past mostly to target Japanese piracy. Basically it was an attempt to force all sea trade coming in to be under strict regulation handled by Ming officials. The limited sea trade was to be “tributary missions” between the Ming dynasty and their vassals, such as Korea. Any private foreign trade was punishable by death and as you can imagine all this led up to was an increase in piracy and the formation of many smugglers along the eastern coast of china. The entire idea was to starve out Taiwan by denying them trade with the eastern coast of China. But when the Haijin was reimplemented it led to entire communities along the eatern Chinese coast to be uprooted from their native place and they were being deprived of their means of livelihood. So many communities simply had to get up and settle somewhere else where they could. This sent many coastal areas into chaos. This ironically led countless amounts of refugees from the eastern chinese coast to flee to Taiwan. Then in 1663 the Qing formed an alliance with the Dutch East India Company against the Ming loyalists in Fujian and Taiwan. The Dutch for their part sought the alliance simply to recapture Taiwan. In October of 1663 a combined fleet of Qing and Dutch attacked and captured Xiamen and Kinmen from the Ming loyalists. Then in 1664 the combined fleet attacked Zheng Jing's navy but ended up losing because it was simply to immense. One of the Qing admirals, a certain Shi Lang, remember that guy, yeah he like I said held a blood grudge against Zheng's family, well he advised the Qing that the Dutch were only aiding them so they could recapture Taiwan. He said that they did not really require the Dutch naval aid and that he could lead the Qing navy to take Taiwan back on his own. Thus the alliance fell apart. The Dutch who were probably very pissed off now then began raiding the Zhoushan Islands where they looted relics and killed Monks at a buddhist complex at Putuoshan in 1665, pretty mean thing to do. Zheng Jing's navy attacked them for this, capturing and executing 34 Dutch sailors. In 1672 Zheng Jing would attack the Dutch again, managing to ambush the Dutch ship Cuylenburg in 1672 off the coast of northeastern Taiwan. So a bit of a long lasting war between the Dutch and Ming loyalists remains in the background. Now from the offset of his enthronement, Zheng Jing actually attempted to reconcile with the Qing, he sought to make Taiwan an autonomous state. Yet he refused their demands that he shave his head in the Manchu fashion nor would he pay tribute to the Qing dynasty. The Qing's response initially as I had mentioned was a policy of trying to starve Taiwan out using the Haijin. This sent the populace of the southeastern coast into chaos and Zheng Jing continued to raid as the Qing really could not stop his larger navy. The Haijin like I said earlier had a disastrous and ironic effect. Soon there was a giant influx of the populace fleeing for Taiwan. Seeing the opportunity, Zheng promoted the immigration heavily and began proclaiming tons of promises and major opportunities for anyone who wished to immigrate to his kingdom. The enticement of land ownership and cultivation in exchange for military service suited many of the immigrant peasants quite fine, I mean for most there was simply no choice. And it was not just peasants who came, a ton of Ming loyalists used the opportunity to flee the mainland from persecution as well. All of this led to quite an enormous boom for Taiwan. A ton of reforms came into effect to meet the needs of the growing populace, agricultural, education, trade, industry and so on. Zheng's main advisor, Chen Yonghua also helped introduce the deliberate cultivation of sugar cane and other cash crops which was further traded with Europeans who helped bring over machinery for mass sugar refining. The sugar economy allowed Taiwan to become economically self-sufficient and a booming relationship sprang with the British. Its funny how the British swoop in and steal all former Dutch things isnt it haha? The Qing tried to thwart all of this with the more intensive Haijin edict, but it only made the situation worse. It was not just Taiwan that was a thorn in their side, the head shaving order had caused a great influx of the populace to emigrate to other places than Taiwan, such as Jakarta and the Philippines. The Haijin and brief Qing-Dutch naval alliance had caused Zheng Jing to intensively exploit the lands of Taiwan and as you might guess this meant running into conflict with the aboriginals. The brutality grew gradually and Zheng's kingdom would put down many aboriginal rebellions against his land grabbing and taxes. A series of conflicts with the Saisiyat people in particular left them absolutely decimated and they lost most of their land to Zheng's kingdom. Zheng Jing's kingdom enjoyed a maritime trade network with the european colonies in the Pacific, Japan and SouthEast Asia. Now for over 19 years, Zheng tried to negotiate a peace with the now Kangxi emperor, as Emperor Shunzhi died of smallpox in 1661. Despite the peace talks, Zheng never gave up the cause of restoring the Ming Dynasty and one last hooray would occur. Going back to the mainland, when the Qing finally broke the last leaders of the South Ming regime, Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang and Emperor Yongli, they had managed to do this using a lot of Han chinese. It was only logical that they would install more and more Han Chinese to govern the territories that they conquered. Yet by installing certain Han and defected former Ming loyalists in parts of the realm with varying levels of authority led to a few warlords emerging. One was Shang Kexi, a former Ming general who defected very early on in 1634 and one of the most powerful generals to do so. He was given the title “pingnan wang” “prince who pacifies the south” and helped conquer the southern province of Guangdong. When the task was finished he was made governor of Guangdong holding full civil and military authority. By 1673, Shang Kexi was very old and asked permission from Emperor Kangxi to retire and go back to his homeland of Liaodong. Permission was granted and his son Shang Zhixin would take up the mantle of Prince of Pingnan. However, Shang Zhixin and his father would soon be embroiled into a revolt by the actions of others as we will soon see. Geng Zhongming was a Ming general who served under the Ming warlord Mao Wenlong “the sea king” if you listened to some earlier episodes. Well Geng Zhongming alongside Kong Youde ended up defecting to the Qing and aided in their conquest of the south. Geng Zhongming eventually died and his son Geng Jimao inherited his title of Jingnan Prince (which also means prince of pacifying the south just like pingnang wang) and aided in hunting down Li Dingguo and pacifying the southeast of China. Geng Jimao managed to get both his sons Geng Jingzhong and Zhaozhong to become court attendants under the Qing emperor Shunzhi and married Aisin Gioro women. His son Geng Jingzhong would inherit his fathers titles including the governorship of Fujian province and would become a warlord in Fujian which held a strong naval force. Wu Sangui who we know quite well was the Ming General who literally opened the door for the Qing to help destroy the forces of Li Zicheng, but this also led to the Qing taking Beijing. Now Wu's career was a lengthy one, he helped defeat Li Zicheng who executed over 38 members of Wu's family, so a large grudge there. For his service against Li, Wu was given the “Qin wang” Prince of Blood title and helped fight the Daxi army in the south alongside Shang Kexi. Wu had the absolutely horrifying job of pacifying Sichuan against the hordes of differing bandit armies and South Ming loyalists. Then Wu became instrumental in the fight against Sun, Li and Yongli eventually defeating them and bringing the far reaches of Yunnan under the Qing yolk. Now the Qing were uncomfortable placing Manchu bannermen so far away in Yunnan or Guizhou and thus the job was given to Wu. He was given the title of Pingxi Wang “Prince who pacifies the West” and control over Yunnan and Guizhou. Wu was granted permission by Emperor Shunzhi to appoint and promote his own officials as well as being given the rare privilege to have first dibs on warhorses before other Qing armies. By that point because of the war against Li Dingguo, Wu already had a large army at his control, around 60,000 men. The Qing were very wary of Wu, but his rule of Yunnan had thus far caused no headaches. Wu inevitably became a semi-independent warlord because of the great distance. All the money he received from taxation within Yunnan and that funds he received from Beijing were spent to expand his military primarily, guess why? So lets just summarize all of this. As a result of their great aid to the Qing defeating the South Ming regime, basically most of south China was handed over to 3 defected Ming generals. Basically they were awarded large fiefdoms within the Qing dynasty. Wu Sangui was granted governorship of Yunnan and Guizhou. Shang Kexi got Guangdong and Geng Zhongming got Fujian. Each man had their own military force and control over the taxation and other civil administration of their respective fiefs. In the 1660's each man began to ask for Qing government subsidies to keep them loyal, averaging around 10 million taels of silver annually. Wu spent several million taels of silver building up his military, up to an estimated third of the Qing governments revenue from taxes. Geng Zhongming was quite a tyrant in his fiefdom and extorted the populace quite harshly before dying upon which his fiefdom fell to his son Geng Jimao and then to his son Geng Jingzhong as I mentioned. Shang Kexi ran a similar tyranny to Geng Zhongming in Guangdong and the combined 3 fiefs emptied the Qing treasury quite quickly. Another large issue was each man simply assumed and expected his feudaltory would be handed down to his offspring, but that was to be decided by the Qing Emperor not them.When Emperor Kangxi took the throne the 3 fief provinces had become financial burdens on the Qing government and their growing autonomous control of each province were becoming a major threat to the Qing dynasty. In 1673, Shang Kexi sent a memorial to Emperor Kangxi stating “I am already 70 years old and have become weak. I hope I can be allowed to go back to Liaodong, my home place, to spend my old age. In the past I was granted land and houses in Liaodong. I hope that your Majesty will grant the land and houses to me again. I will take some officers and soldiers and old people who have been under me, 4394 households all together, to go back with me. There are 24,375 men and women in all. I hope the department concerned will provide food for all these people on their way to Liaodong”. Emperor Kangxi replied “Since you sailed from the island to submit to our dynasty, you have worked very hard and established great contributions. You have garrisoned in Guangdong Province for many years. I know from your memorial that you are already 70 years old. You want to go back to Liaodong. You are very sincere in your memorial. From this I can see that you are respectful and submissive and have the overall interest at heart. I am very pleased about that. Now Guangdong Province has been pacified. I will order the Kings in charge of government affairs, court officials and the officials of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Defense to discuss how to arrange the migration and settlement of the officers and men under you. I will let you know when they have made a decision.”. Oh but there will of course be a catch, for 2 weeks later Emperor Kangxi received another letter ““In the memorial presented by Shang KeXi to Your Majesty he says that he is already old and ill. He asked Your Majesty's permission to let his son Shang Zhi Xin to succeed his title of King of Pingnan. But now Shang KeXi is still alive. There is no precedent that the son can succeed his father's title when his father is still alive. So it is not necessary to consider whether or not to allow his son to succeed his title.”. Emperor Kangxi agreed to this with some stipulations about numbers of military personnel and such. Then in July of 1673, Wu Sangui asked to be permitted to retire just like Shang Kexi and to be able to “settle down in some place”, the Emperor said he would speak to the court to arrange the migration. Then a week later, Geng Jingzhong asked the exact same thing and the Emperor said he would speak to the court. The court was divided on the issue, and against the majority in the court Emperor Kangxi decided to allow each man to have their wish. Wu Sangui was going to be given land in Guizhou, but he frantically sent word to Emperor Kangxi that he required a larger land because his officers families were many. It was a bit audacious and curious that Wu Sangui began with “settle down in some place” and turned it into “oh but I really need a much bigger place than that”, it was like he was asking for something he knew he could not have. It turns out, Wu Sangui had assumed when he asked permission to retire that the Qing court would instead try everything they could to persuade him not to retire and to stay in Yunnan. That way they might give him even more autonomy and money thus enabling him to continue building his autonomous state even more. When the emperor said yes to his request it must have been a real shock and to make matters worse for Wu, the emperor immediately began the process of migrating him and his men so he freaked out. So in 1673, Wu Sangui cut off his provinces connections to the Qing dynasty and began a rebellion under the banner of “Fǎn qīng fùmíng” “oppose the qing and restore the ming”. He was supported by his son Wu Shifan and other Ming loyalists in Yunnan, soon they all cut off their Manchu queues and he sent loyal commanders to garrison strategic passes into Yunnan. The provincial governor of Yunnan Zhu Guo Zhi refused to join him and so Wu had him assassinated. By 1678 Wu would declare a new dynasty, here we go again meme, giving himself the title King of Zhou and Great Marshal of the Expedition Army. And thus the Zhou dynasty was born. Wu Sangui ordered all of his followers to cut their Manchu queues and for all the banners to be white, and issued white military uniforms. The next order of business was sending word to Shang Kexi the Prince of Pingnan and Geng Jingzhong the Prince of Jingnan asking them to join the rebellion. Wu Sangui sent his loyal general Ma Bao to command a vanguard and march on Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou. All of Guizhou surrendered without a fight. Soon word got out of the rebellion and the colossal failure of Guizhou to defend itself. Emperor Kangxi immediately ordered the migration of Shang Kexi and Geng Jingzhong to be stopped and began to rally his army to meet the new threat. Generals from multiple provinces were assembled and estimates range quite a lot. Some say 500,000 some say up to a million troops, with the majority being Han Chinese of the Green Standard army were mustered. Emperor Kangxi promised any general who brought him Wu Sangui's head would receive all the titles which Wu had held and any general that brought the heads of Wu's generals would receive whatever titles those generals held, pretty big incentive. Emperor Kangxi also arrested and executed one of Wu Sangui's sons who unfortunately was still in Beijing at the time named Wu Yingxiong. Wu Sangui's army set out of Guizhou and attacked Yuanzhou of Hunan province. Next Chenzhou, then his army split up taking Hengzhou, Lizhou, Yuezhou and Changsha. Most of the governors simply fled for their lives. Then Wu's army marched into Hubei province attacking Yichang, Xiangyang, Yunyang where he defeated multiple armies. Emperor Kangxi furiously ordered some of his generals to rush to Wuchang as it was strategically important and had to be defended. The southern Qing forces had not been prepared to face the well trained army of Wu Sangui and were falling like dominoes. To make matters worse many rallied to Wu Sangui's cause, such as Sun Yanling, a general in Guangxi. Soon Wu's army was in Sichuan causing havoc, everywhere Wu's army went there were either military defeats for the Qing, retreats or defections. Then in March of 1674 Geng Jingzhong began a rebellion in Fujian declaring himself Grand General of All the Armies. Soon his forces took Yanping, Shaowu, Funing, Jianning and Tingzhou. Then Geng Jingzhong and Wu Sangui managed to form an agreement that they should combine forces and hit Jiangxi province together. At the same time Geng Jingzhong sent an envoy to our old friend Zheng Jing the king of Taiwan to come join the party by attacking prefectures and counties across the coast. Soon Geng Jingzhongs forces took Jiangshan, Pingyang, Wenzhou, Yueqing, Tiantai, Xianju and Chengxian. He defeated countless armies, rallied many to his cause and earned many defectors amassing an army of 100,000. Then he set out to attack Shaoxing, Ningpo, Huangyan, Jinhua before marching into Jiangxi province. From there Geng and wu took Guangxin, Jianchang, Raozhou, Kaihua, Shouchang, Chun'an, Huizhou, Wuyuan and Qimen. Thus his forces had hit the provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Anhui. The Southeast of China was in utter chaos. Meanwhile Shang Kexi notified Emperor Kangxi of Geng Jingzhong's rebellion early. Shang Kexi was loosely related to Geng Jingzhong, his son Shang Zhixin's wife was Geng's younger sister. Now that Geng Jingzhong was rebelling, he knew people would suspect he was going to rebel, but he did not want to. I mean hell the guy is 70 years old, he just wanted to retire. So he asked Emperor Kangxi if he could prove his loyalty by protecting Guangdong Province from the rebels and give his life in doing so. The Emperor was moved by this and ordered more units and money be made available to Shang Kexi for the task. Now remember, Shang Kexi was also the guy who got the confirmation that his son Shang Zhixin would inherit all he had, titles and all. When Wu Sangui began the rebellion, Emperor Kangxi was 20 years old and Wu assumed he was a “green horn” IE: a incompetant young man with no real experience and thus a push over. But very soon Wu Sangui would be facing the full might of the entire Qing Dynasty and he certainly began to regret his decision to rebel. When his army reached Lizhou he got word that the Emperor had executed his son Wu Yingxiong and his grandson. Allegedly he was eating a meal when a messenger told him this and he exclaimed “The young emperor is so capable! I am doomed to fail”. An odd quote to say the least given the circumstances, but thats how one of my sources put it….I'd rather think he'd shout in grief or something. Emperor Kangxi dispatched many Generals to help Shang Kexi attack the rebels occupying Yuezhou as Wu Sangui set up defenses there and sent expeditionary forces to march into Jiangxi province. The expeditionary forces took Nankang, Duchang and then Wu Sangui sent more expeditionary forces out of Changsha to hit Pingxiang, Anfu, Shanggao and Xinchang. Emperor Kangxi responded by throwing titles out to countless officials ordering them to suppress all the rebel forces spreading like wildfire, honestly I can't list the mount of Princes that spring up. Countless Qing generals and governors fought and died to the rebel armies. By january of 1675 Emperor Kangxi ordered Grand General Yuele positioned in Yuanzhou to recapture Changsha. Yuele led his forces to take Nanchang, Shanggao, Xinchang, Donxiang, Wannian, Anren and Xincheng defeating countless rebels. When his force made it to Pingxiang they were repelled. At this point Wu Sangui ordered his men to build wooden fortresses to defend cities without natural defenses and to build log barriers to thwart cavalry, log obstacles in the rivers to thwart naval forces and traps everywhere. Then Wu Sangui told his troops he was going to cross the Yangtze River and break the dike near Jingzhou to immerse the city in water. While this was to occur he ordered some subordinates to attack Yunyang, Junzhou and Nanzhang. In 1676 Wu Sangui's forces approached Guangdong and Shang Kexi was seriously ill leaving his son Shang Zhixin in charge of the defense. Many forces defected to Wu Sangui and allegedly in an effort to save his father, Shang Zhixin defected and became a grand general in Wu's army. Ironically and rather tragically it seems the surrender broke Shang Kexi's heart and he died. In December Shang Zhixin regretted his defection so much he sent a secret envoy to Emperor Kangxi begging to be allowed to defect back over to the Qing and Emperor Kangxi accepted him with open arms right back. Quite a few rebel generals began to defect back to the Qing and the Emperor kept a policy of extreme leniency hoping to win many over without bloodshed. These were after all his subjects and the emperor understood the need to avoid bloodshed whenever possible. Wu Sangui sent forces to attack Ji'an while Yuele made a second attempt attacking Pingxiang. Yuele's forces had destroyed 12 enemy fortresses and killed more than 10,000 rebels before the rebel commander of Pingxiang fled. After taking Pingxiang, Yuele marched on Liling and Liuyang before finally attacking his tasked objective Changsha. Meanwhile Emperor Kangxi also dispatched forces into Zhejiang Province to attack Geng Jingzhong. In 1676 they attacked Wenzhou fighting fiercely and taking multiple fortresses. Despite a fierce month long siege, Wenzhou withstood the Qing and thus they bypassed it to march into Fujian province taking Jiangshan first. Meanwhile Zheng Jing's force arrived at Xinghua Bay to attack Fuzhou, but Geng Jingzhong was at the end of his resources and ended up asking permission to defect to Emperor Kangxi. He asked Emperor Kangxi permission to show his newfound loyalty by attacking Zheng Jing's invading force at Fuzhou. Emperor Kangxi accepted the offer and said he could resume his title of King of Jingnan if he was successful. The forces of Geng Jingzhong, heavily supported by the Qing army sent initially to defeat him mind you, easily defeated Zheng Jing's force sending him packing back to Taiwan. A real game of thrones. By 1677 Wu Sangui's army were facing stalemates all over the place and Yuele successfully captured Changsha. Then Ji'an fell as many of Wu's men simply retreated. By 1678 Yuele recovered Pinjiang and Xiangyin defeating countless rebels and accepting many surrenders. Then Wu Sangui sent one of his most formidable generals Ma Bao to attack Yongxing and he died in battle failing to take the city. Wu Sangui was 67 years old, 6 years had passed since he began the rebellion. The vast territory he had taken in its peak was declining rapidly. His army was greatly weakened, but despite all of this many of his officials pleaded to him that he should officially declare himself emperor. So he proclaimed his reign title as Zhaowu meaning “demonstrating great military power” of the Zhou Dynasty in march, I guess go big or go home right. He made Hengzhou of Hunan Province the new capital and like all the rest before him began issuing titles and so forth. Then in august he was stricken with dysentery and was so ill he apparently could barely speak. He ordered his son Wu Shifan to come to Hengzhou, and by September 11th he was dead. Wu Shifan decided to take the mantle and chose the title reign of Honghua. When Emperor Kangxi got news of Wu Sangui's death it was like a shark smelling blood in the water and he sent all his armies to crash upon Hunan, apparently the Emperor even considered leading the army he was that eager. Wu Shifan's forces fled for their lives when the Qing armies marched into Hubei, disarray was soon rampant. Soon Yuele's troops marched into Hunan and attacked Wugang which had a fairly stout defense of 20,000 troops. The battle was bloody, Wugangs commander was killed, his troops soon routed and the city fell. The rebel army's morale was low, the Qing took Yuezhou, Changde, Hangzhou. It got to a point where the Qing faced more issues with logistics than they did in the actual fighting of the enemy. By 1680 the provinces of Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Sichuan fell back to the Qing and Wu Shifan fled to Kunming. Once Wu Shifan was pressed into a corner in Yunnan province the Qing General Zhao Liangdong formed a 3 pronged attack strategy to hit Yunnan. The attack would be performed by Cai Yurong, Zhang Tai and Laita Giyesu. They each marched through Hunan, Guangxi and Sichuan respectfully taking territory as they did. Wu Shifan had no reinforcements and was greatly outnumbered. The Qing generals entered Yunnan and Kunming was besieged for months, but it still held firm. General Zhao Liang proposed they cut Wu Shifans supply route on Kunming lake and this provided quick results. The generals then led a fierce attack upon the city. But before they could capture Wu Shifan he had committed suicide. They decapitated his corpse and sent it back to Beijing. There lies just one more small story to end the tale. All the way back in 1674 Geng Jingzhong as we know sent an envoy to Taiwan to ask the help of Zheng Jing. Zheng Jing sailed to Siming, the south part of Xiamen in southeast Fujian province. His army then captured Tong'an and marched north to attack Quanzhou which was defended by Geng Jingzhongs army. Geng Jingzhongs men fled the scene after a quick battle and Zheng captured Quanzhou. From there he took Chaozhou, defeating more of Geng Jingzhong's troops, making an enemy out of him. Then in 1675 Geng Jingzhong made peace with Zheng Jing, it seems it was all a misunderstanding and they began to collude. But in 1676 Geng Jingzhong surrendered to the Qing and personally asked to be tasked with defeating Zheng Jing, so perhaps there was something more personal going on between the 2. Well Zheng Jing began the new found war between them by besieging Quanzhou again. The siege lasted 2 months but he was unable to take it. Zheng Jing lifted the siege and instead attacked Fuzhou, but by now Qing forces were crashing into Fujian province. The forces fought for various cities such as Quanzhou, Tingzhou and Zhangzhou. In 1677 Zheng Jing laid siege again for a 3rd time to Quanzhou, but the Qing in the meantime had taken 10 counties back and were overwhelming Zheng Jings armies. He lifted the siege yet again and fled back to Siming, and by 1678 a Qing envoy showed up demanding his surrender. Emperor Kangxi followed this up by sending naval forces to Fujian to attack Kinmen island. Enroute a Qing naval force led by Wan Zhengse attacked Haitan island. During the ensuing battle 16 of Zheng Jing's ships were destroyed with more than 3000 soldiers drowned. Zheng Jing's admiral at the scene, Zhu Tiangui had to flee and Wan Zhengse pursued them. Soon Meizhou island, Nanri island, Pinghai county and Chongwu county were seized by the Qing naval forces. Then land forces and Wan Zhengse consolidated and attacked Zheng Jings forces in Xiamen. They smashed his army there, Zheng Jing tried to flee to Kinmen, but the Qing attacked it simultaneously forcing him to sail all the way back to Taiwan. In 1781 shortly after arriving in Tainan, Zheng Jing died of dissipation on march 17th. Zheng Jing's eldest and illegitimate son Zheng Kezang was appointed as Supervisor of the state. Now Zheng Kezang was the next in line to take the throne, but this is where that “illegitimate” part comes up. Two political hungry officials hated Zheng Kezang, Feng Xifan the head of the bodyguards and Liu Guoxuan a high ranking military officer. Upon Zheng Jing's death they both began to slandere Zheng Kezang as not being a biological son of Zheng Jing in front of the Queen Dowager Dong. They then launched a coup with the help of Zheng Jing's brother Zheng Cong against Zheng Kezang, killing him and installing his 12 year old little brother Zheng Keshuang on the throne. Some real game of thrones shit. Meanwhile Emperor Kangxi and the Qing court heard about the coup and that a 12 year old emperor was just placed upon the throne and he realized the time was ripe to attack the politically divided and certainly weak island of Taiwan. Then a Qing court official recommended our old friend Shi Lang, the man who had a blood feud with Zheng's family, to command the entire Qing navy against Taiwan. Thus Shi Lang was made commander in chief of the naval force and ordered to take the Pengdu Islands and then Taiwan. Shi Lang rallied 20,000 crack troops and 300 warships for an invasion of Pengdu. Shi Lang also took the time to purchase a number of Dutch made cannons for his bigger ships. Liu Guoxuan of Taiwan knew the Qing would attack Pengdu first and sent a large force there to prepare it's defenses. In june of 1683 Shi Lang's navy sailed out of Tongshan and captured a few small islands along the way to Pengdu. Now Shi Lang divided his force into smaller fleets before engaging the enemy. He sent one detachment to slip around the planned naval battle and land covertly near Liu Guoxuan's base on Pengdu. Liu Guoxuan was no fool however and placed numerous cannons and troops along the beaches to thwart such attacks. On June 16th the battle of Pengdu commenced and many of Liu Guoxuan's larger ships targeted the smaller fleets of Shi Lang encircled them. Seeing this unfold Shi Lang took his flagship personally in to break up the encirclements. As the battle raged, a stray arrow hit Shi Lang in the eye spraying blood everywhere, but Shi Lang fought on. Shi Lang managed to break an encirclement killing 3000 enemy soldiers and by June 18th captured Hujing island, just southwest of Pendu island proper and Tongpanyu island to its southwest. On June 22nd, Shi Lang organized multiple simultaneous attacks to throw the enemy off balance. He sent 50 warships to hit Jilongyu and Sijiaoshan situated on the west of Pengdu island. Another 50 warships to hit Niuxinwan Bay to attract the enemy's attention as he sailed off personally with 56 warships right through the center to hit Pengdu island proper. The enemy sent all their warships out to meet his separate forces and from 7am to 5pm they fought. The Qing managed to outflank and break the enemies formation, but they fought on tenaciously. In the end the Qing won a battle of attrition as they had significantly more ammunition than the rebel navy whom was forced to resort to boarding ships and melee fighting. Many rebel leaders chose not to surrender and went down fighting to the end in a blaze of gunfire and glory. Over 194 enemy warships were destroyed, more than 12,000 enemy soldiers were killed. Seeing he was going to lose the battle, Liu Guoxuan took his fastest ship and fled back to Taiwan. Shi Lang's detachment that slipped past the battle landed ashore and were met with an onslaught of cannons and arrows from the beaches. However the Qing warships began to tip the scale in firepower breaking open pockets for amphibious assaults and soon the Qing soldiers were breaking through towards Liu Guoxuans base. The Qing defeated the garrison at the base and raised the Qing banner triumphantly. On july 15th, Zheng Keshuang sent envoys to Pengdu island to offer terms of surrender to Shi Lang. By August Shi Lang accepted their surrender in Taiwan and on August 18th, Zheng Keshuang and all his officers and officials shaved their heads in the Manchu style. They all then positioned themselves to face the direction of Beijing and bowed, Taiwan was now part of the Qing empire. Shi Lang was granted by Emperor Kangxi the title of General of Jinghai, Jinghai meaning “pacifying the sea”. Zheng Keshuang and his highest officials were escorted to Beijing and Zheng Keshuang was granted the title duke of Haicheng I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Qing war for unification was over, of course there would be countless rebellions during the reign of the Qing dynasty, but as for the threat of a Ming takeover that was not a thing of the past. A brand new world was emerging however, as the 19th century was soon rolling in and with it much much more devious trouble. For the century of humiliation was mere decades from commencing its ugly start. 9500
Let's explore the idea of De 德, or Virtue. What purpose does virtue serve in society and who is it for? How do we cultivate virtue once we have a better understanding of what it is? We also examine our current society and whether or not our leaders have virtue.
Ancient Chinese Philosophy written byJoshua J. Mark and narrated by Jennifer Sabir: https://www.worldhistory.org/Chinese_Philosophy/ The term Ancient Chinese Philosophy refers to the belief systems developed by various philosophers during the era known as the Hundred Schools of Thought when these thinkers formed their own schools during the Spring and Autumn Period (c. 772-476 BCE) and the Warring States Period (c. 481-221 BCE) after the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE) had begun to decline. If you like our audio articles, please support us by becoming a member or donating to our non-profit company: - www.worldhistory.org/membership/ - www.worldhistory.org/donate/ - www.worldhistory.org/patreon/ - www.worldhistory.store/ MUSIC USED Lotus Blossom
Hallo, this is Dr. Bin Song in the course of “Ru and Confucianism” at Washington College.In this unit, we will discuss Xunzi, the last major Ru philosopher in the pre-Qin period of the tradition.As indicated by my teaching experience, beginning readers of the Ru tradition in the west normally find Xunzi (circa. 310-235 B.C.E)'s thought quite congenial. This is mainly because in a way blatantly contrary to Mencius, Xunzi thinks human nature is bad, and hence, the process of education and self-cultivation should not be envisioned as a course of re-discovering and nurturing something that is already within us. Rather, for Xunzi, to be a fully human is to find a teacher of authority to inculcate rituals and rules from without, so as to transform one's uncultivated inborn dispositions to something different. While presenting his moral philosophy, Mencius likes to use metaphors from the industry of farming to describe that moral development is like the process to prepare soil, sow seeds, grow sprouts and therefore, after all human efforts are duly executed, it would be up to the nature to take care of everything else. However, in a very contrastive way, Xunzi thinks the process of being humanized is like one to straighten a piece of shapeless wood using knife and file or to temper a chunk of metal stone using fire and water. In these cases, the craftsmen have to input their blueprints into raw materials so as to transform them into something with form and order. Emphatically, the power of transformation by no means belongs to those raw materials themselves.Since Mencius thinks education is to rediscover and enlarge something that is innate to each human individual, the role of teachers, books, and all other pedagogical measures is best to be thought of as being facilitative and heuristic, rather than being deterministic. Therefore, regarding the Classic of Documents which was looked at highly by the Ru school, Mencius said that “I would rather have no such a book called ‘documents' if I have to believe everything in it.” (Mencius 7B) Similarly, the most honored teachers in the Ru traditions are called “sages” or “sage-kings”; however, since the role of teachers for one's education was thought of by Mencius as being facilitative and heuristic, he did not believe sages were flawless, perfect and semi-divine beings. Instead, he commented that sages actually share the same innately good part of human nature with every other human being, and the excellence of sages consists in their persistent will to perfect themselves once they make mistakes. (Mencius 2B). Most importantly, since he thinks the nature plays a significant role in the process of one's humanization, Mencius is pious towards the all-encompassing “heaven” (天, cosmos), and describes the process of education as one of “preserving one's heartmind, nourishing one's human nature, and ultimately, serving heaven.” (Mencius 7 A)Because Xunzi holds a fundamentally different view from Mencius on the point of human nature, he disagrees with Mencius on all the points mentioned in last paragraph as well. Firstly, since the process of humanization does not involve the facilitating role of the nature, the Ruist term, Tian (天), lost its religious connotation in Xunzi's thought. Instead, Tian was understood by Xunzi as a purely natural process of life-generating; it provides the raw materials for human civilization to thrive. However, whether humans can manage and utilize these materials for their own purposes entirely depend upon human efforts. Xunzi claims that “Rather than following heaven and praising it, why not manage the mandate of heaven, and then, utilize it!” (Xunzi, chapter 17) Secondly, in Xunzi's pedagogical and political visions, it is up to the teacher with an absolute authority who relies upon their extraordinary intelligence to perceive principles which harmonize the relationships among human and comic being. Therefore, it is also these teachers who design civilizing rituals and rules to transform ordinary human beings' under-human, inborn dispositions. Accordingly, Xunzi thinks sage-kings, as the most honorable teachers in the Ru tradition, are impeccable, semi-divine figures, and people should never challenge their authority. For instance, when explaining why Yao and Shun did not need to abdicate their thrones, Xunzi denies that these sage-kings could be too old to retain their strength fit for a ruler. He says that:“As for the Son of Heaven (such as Yao or Shun), his power has the utmost weight, and his body has the utmost ease. His heart has the utmost happiness, and nowhere his intentions suffer being turned back. …. Thus, when he inhabits the palace, he is like a supreme spirit, and when on the move, he is like a heavenly deity … And so I say: there is such things as old age for the feudal lords, but there is no such things as old age for the Son of Heaven.” (Xunzi, Chapter 18, translation adapted from Eric L. Hutton.)In other words, since the entire country provides the best for their supreme leaders to preserve their life and execute their heavenly intelligence, none of them needs to relinquish their political power to others, and the country would be always governed in a superb way under their leadership.After I sketch the differences between Mencius and Xunzi as such, I believe you would understand better why, at the beginning of my lecture, I reported that starting readers of the Ru tradition in the west normally feel congenial to Xunzi's thought. This is because Xunzi's conception of bad human nature and his related thought on human transformation and government are not only similar to the Christian narrative of human fate as deriving from original sins, but also to the fundamental tenet of liberal philosophy that the state of nature of human beings always involves problems, and thus, it needs a contractual process of sociality and governance to rectify them. Nevertheless, seen from the emic perspective of the Ru tradition, Xunzi's view that rituals derive from the source of a super-human intelligence alien to ordinary human beings' inborn dispositions is a significant deviation from his Ruist predecessors. Although it is a good philosophical question to ask which of the contrasting views of Mencius's and Xunzi's is the right one from a non-temporal perspective, we still need to contextualize Xunzi's thought in its historical situation, and thus, ask ourselves: how did this deviation of Xunzi's thought come about at the first hand?In order to answer this question, it is helpful for us to recall all the major figures that our course has focused upon so far in the timeline since the beginning of the Ru tradition. They are the sage-kings Yao and Shun, the Duke of Zhou, the philosophers Kongzi (Confucius), Mengzi (Mencius), and Xunzi. From an institutional perspective, there were three different kinds of political regimes each of these figures lived in, and thus, the difference surely influenced how these Ru masters envisioned and articulated their Ruist ideals of human society.In the time of Yao and Shun, the political institution is called the one of abdication, by which a supreme leader, while taking into consideration recommendations made by an assembly of tribal leaders, relinquished their power to a worthy human who normally did not share the same family name with them. The principle of Ru philosophy to embody in this institution is particularly “to treat worthies as worthy” (贤贤), or “to respect worthies” （尊贤）.However, the institution of abdication cannot be sustained for long since if one tribe becomes much more powerful than others, it may just refuse to abdicate their political powers and instead, take on patrilineal inheritance as the new standard of power transition. This was exactly what happened after the time of Yao and Shun, and Duke of Zhou had furnished the best philosophical articulation of this new feudal system. In the ritual system designed by Duke of Zhou to fit the feudal society, members in the same royal family are enfeoffed; as local leaders, they need to pay regular tributes to the king, and in the time of war and other national businesses, they must follow their king as a supreme leader as well. However, on issues pertaining to the organization of their own states such as economy, taxation, hiring officials, policing, etc., these enfeoffed lords enjoyed a great degree of sovereignty and autonomy. As analyzed in the section on Duke of Zhou, two principles of Ru philosophy were represented in this feudal system: “to treat family as family” (亲亲) and “to treat worthies as worthy.” The implication of the latter principle in the feudal system is easy to understand since local lords and the king need to employ able men to staff their courts; however, the principle of “treating family as family” is particularly important since the power was distributed according to the order of seniority in varying familial lineages, and thus, it would be crucial for maintaining a peaceful political order of a feudal system to abide by a strict family ethic.The elaborate ritual system designed by Duke of Zhou sustained Zhou Dynasty for quite a while. However, after several hundreds of years, the system was collapsing due to the same reason which once lead to the end of the institution of abdication, viz., in a feudal system, if local lords became too powerful, the king just could not control them. The time of Kongzi and Mengzi was such a period of war when those local lords once enfeoffed by the Zhou kings constantly fought each other. In face of the rampant social and political disintegration, the ideal of Kongzi, as it was followed by Mengzi, was to recover the original ritual system designed by Duke of Zhou. More distinctively, while transmitting ancient cultures, Kongzi and Mengzi distilled a philosophical kernel, viz., the transcendent virtue of Humaneness, from the Zhou ritual system, and hence, created new possibilities for the future development of the Ru thought.Nevertheless, in the late stage of the so-called Warring State period when Xunzi lived his life, there was a new political institution created by the belligerent states located in the northwestern periphery of the Zhou dynasty. In order to understand the deviation of Xunzi from his Ruist predecessors, the impact of this new institution upon Xunzi's thought cannot be underestimated. This is the institution of prefecture, by which the administrative power of a state is divided vertically, and the supreme leader retains their ultimate power to appoint officials in varying governmental tiers and to prescribe laws to manage varying offices. The system was designed solely for the purpose of centralizing authority, which turned out to be very effective to militarize a society so as to combat its external enemies.In a strict sense, this system needs neither to “treat family as family” nor to “respect worthies,” since its political power is distributed among governmental tiers according to neither the pedigree nor the virtue of a governmental official. Rather, as indicated by the most powerful state structured by this institution of prefecture, viz. the state of Qin, which also became the first unified imperial dynasty after the collapse of Zhou, commoners were either rewarded or punished by a set of laws designed for the singular purpose of assisting the central authority to build the domestic order, provide supplies, and win battles against other states in the field. In the intellectual history of ancient China, the philosophy to articulate the rationale of this new system of prefecture is called “legalism,” and it became one most important trend of political thought contemporaneous to Xunzi's Ruism.When Xunzi visited the state of Qin, he was impressed by the order of its society and the effectivity of its government. He praised it as “to be at ease, yet bring about order; to act with restraint, yet take care of all details; to be free of worry, yet achieve meritorious accomplishment – such is the ultimate in good government!” (Xunzi, chapter 16). However, being aware of that such an effective governmental system of Qin was based upon an overtly military state ideology, and thus, lacked a moral foundation advocated by the Ru tradition, Xunzi also predicted Qin's eventual perish.Therefore, the overall intention of Xunzi's thought becomes clearer to us after its historical situation gets clarified: in a time of unstoppable political crisis and social disintegration, Xunzi could by no means hold on to the original feudal system which once flourished in the time of Duke of Zhou. In this regard, he welcomed the creation of the system of centralized authority in the institution of prefecture with his full-heart, and saw it as a hopeful means to regain the unity and peace of civilization. However, while judging the prefecture system to have lacked a moral foundation, Xunzi tried to infuse the moral teaching of Ruism with the system so as to create a new type of institution to embody Ruism. While doing so, Xunzi modified the traditional Ruist conception of “rituals” according to the legalist standard of laws, and advocated that it is entirely up to the process of ritualization to transform the innately bad human nature. In other words, what Xunzi intended was to create a state ideology of Ruism to sustain the legalist institution of prefecture.Since Xunzi's thought can be understood as such, it will be of no surprise for us to re-read those deified depictions of Ruist sage-kings by Xunzi. Yes, in this Ruist system of prefecture, the central authority can only be envisioned as a supremely intelligent and virtuous human being who design the best rituals and laws to make the entire system revolve around their flawless political gravitas and moral charisma.However, one final question we ask to Xunzi would be similar to how we would respond to Plato's idea of philosopher king: is it ever realistic to expect that such a political and moral superhuman can ever be born throughout the entire history of humanity?
We have spent the previous units to talk about the name, the entering text, and several pre-Confucian exemplary figures of the Ru tradition. Now, we finally get to Confucius, which the English name of the Ru tradition, Confucianism, refers to.It was the Jesuits who gave us this name “Confucius” in around the 16th century. When they did so, they tried to pronounce how Confucius was honored by Chinese people at that time. Kong is the surname, and Fuzi, means “honored master”; so Confucius sounds like Kong Fuzi, and it was not the original name of Confucius. The original name of Confucius is Kong Qiu, and he has a style name called Zhong Ni. Qiu means a hill, referring to what the forehead of Confucius looked like; Zhong means that Kong Qiu is the second son in the family, and Ni refers to the place where Confucius was born, a hill called Ni in the state of Lu, the state that we have discussed as the place where the offspring of the Duke of Zhou were enfeoffed, and thus, it preserved many ancient rituals and cultures of Zhou Dynasty.I get into these fair details of Confucius's birthplace and his name because I want to express my general feeling towards Confucius's life: Confucius is such a real figure that his down-to-earth humanity stands very prominently among the leaders or founders of major world philosophies and religions. Firstly, this very human profile of Confucius is different from founding figures in the Abrahamic religious traditions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam. From varying scriptures, we read a number of miraculous, nearly or fully divine deeds of these religious founding figures such as Jesus, Moses and Muhammad, which we barely find any resemblance in the case of Confucius. Secondly, the number of historical evidences we can gather about Confucius's life and thought surpasses other legendary thinkers, the reality of whose life we can normally just guess and speculate. For instance, many scholars doubt whether we can know anything sure about the life of the Gautama Buddha, or the life of Laozi, the founder of philosophical Daoism.However, this down-to-earth human face of Confucius does not mean that his life is merely human, secular, and thus deficient of all transcendent or spiritual commitment. As I will analyze in more details, the concept of “mandate of heaven” (天命) plays a significant role in Confucius's life, and he indeed tried to live a meaningful and powerful human life with a cosmic consciousness towards what humans can and should do within the entire universe. In this sense, the person of Confucius indicates a lifestyle which we can name as “this worldly spirituality,” and for me, because the lifestyle seems naturally fit into many aspects of human consciousness in modern society, I find it very appealing.The significance of Confucius to the Ru tradition is that he established the first private school in ancient China, and started to systematically study, teach and propagate ancient wisdom with an ultimate purpose of improving the society where he lived in. In other words, before Confucius, although legendary sages such as Yao, Shun and Duke of Zhou had furnished great wisdom for later generations to follow, all educational resources were monopolized by the government, and therefore, no commoner, which referred to people with no noble pedigree, could become an educated person. However, in the time of Confucius, the central authority of Zhou Dynasty was collapsing, and the official school system was crumbling. This situation furnished a historic opportunity for such a highly intelligent and dedicated human being, Confucius, to democratize the educational enterprise so that he could help his society through making education more accessible. This was unprecedented in ancient China, and in this regard, we can compare Confucius to Plato and Aristotle who opened the earliest schools of liberal arts in ancient Greece. This is also the reason why, comparatively speaking, we can have more historical evidences of Confucius's sayings and deeds, since he had a large group of students and followers, and his main social activities took place within or in connection to his school. Because of the huge impact of Confucius upon the Ru tradition which he helped to continue and incubate, he was almost universally respected by whomsoever pursued their education in any school system in the context of ancient China. So, without any surprise, Protestant missionaries named the Ru tradition as “Confucianism” in the 19th century partly because of the universal respect to Confucius that these missionaries have witnessed among ancient Chinese people, although as I explained before, the name “Confucianism” is a misnomer.Since the last topic to avoid in a course about “Confucianism” is Confucius, we will use two units to talk about Confucius. One is about his life and another is on his thought.There is no better way to decipher Confucius's life than his own autobiography. My teacher back at Boston, Prof. John H. Berthrong, once told me that this is perhaps the shortest, and also the most famous autobiography ever written by a human being, and it reads like this:The Master said, “At fifteen, I set my mind upon learning (or, establish my will on learning); at thirty, I took my stand in society; at forty, I became free of doubts; at fifty, I understood the Mandate of Heaven; at sixty, my ears were attuned to it [or, I obeyed it (the Mandate of Heaven) ]; and at seventy, I could follow my heart's desires without overstepping the bounds of propriety (or, without overstepping the due measures).” (Analects 2.4 – Translation based on Slingerland.)Here, I will try my best to explain what Confucius looked like at each of these self-described stages of life. But I also highly recommend you to do the required reading, and watch the required video, so that you can get more details about how scholars have tried to confirm the details of Confucius's life. So, let's do it one stage after another:Stage One: “At fifteen, I set my mind upon learning (or, establish my will on learning).”Many books on self-care or success share a truism about human life: unless you want to be successful, you cannot be a successful person. The same goes to Confucius's life. He said he established his will on learning, and after 60 years of ceaseless learning (Confucius died at the age of 73, the year of 479 B.C.E), Confucius became the most learned person in his time.There are several factors to stimulate Confucius's will of learning.Firstly, he was born in a declined noble family, and as the youngest son of a concubine to his father, he definitely harbored a will to recover his family's honor. This will was best represented by one story in his earlier life. It was told by Si Maqian that when Confucius was a teenager, he tried to approach the noble family of Ji Sun, a man that held a great power in the state of Lu, to find needed connections to strengthen Confucius's own career. However, because Confucius was merely a son of a concubine, and hence, not noble enough, he was rejected. To his great dismay, Confucius realized that he could not rely upon his pedigree to get a stand in the society, and thus, he set his mind upon learning so that he can become a successful man through his own endeavor and hard-working.Secondly, the city where Confucius was raised in was the capital of the state of Lu, where many ancient rituals and cultures were preserved since the offspring of the Duke of Zhou were all enfeoffed in the state. However, Confucius was not allowed into official schools which at that time admitted students exclusively from noble families. Scholars guessed that Confucius's single-mother, the great woman of Yan Zhengzai, must have played a great role to nurture Confucius's interest in ancient culture. However, we do know that Confucius was mostly self-taught, and he just sought and tried to grasp any opportunity that he could learn from somebody or somewhere certain knowledge of the past of his country and culture. During the process, he also earned his livelihood while doing ordinary jobs such as being a bookkeeper of a granary and a shepherd.Stage Two: “at thirty, I took my stand in society.”Confucius once described part of the curriculum of his teaching as “Be inspired by poetry, stand on the rituals, and be consummate in music.” (Analects 8.8). Hence, when Confucius said he could stand in society when he was around his thirties, it means he commanded a sufficient amount of knowledge on the ritual system of the time so that he can earn his livelihood, raise his family, and thus, find a position in the society.In a more concrete term, this means that after at least 15 years of self-learning, Confucius was learned enough to open his school. He taught ancient classics, and six arts (ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy and arithmetic) to people from all backgrounds, and thus, prepared them to get hired by varying governments and noble families. During the process, Confucius could definitely charge his tuition, and became economically independent. To be a teacher, an independent thinker and scholar, and to be economically independent because of teaching and thinking, these were all entirely new phenomena in ancient Chinese history, and the accomplishment of Confucius in this regard cannot be underestimated.Because Confucius took education as his major job, there were many verses in the Analects to indicate his wisdom on education. For instance, the following three principles of Confucius's philosophy of education are my favorite. First, “learning without a constant teacher” (學無常師), which means you cannot blindly follow any teacher, but instead, you need to learn from anyone who may benefit your learning. Second, “teaching without discrimination,” (有教無類), which means education should be universally accessible to people of all backgrounds. It is said that a bunch of dry meat can be taken by Confucius as the tuition to accept one student willing to learn; but Confucius also had some extremely rich students such as Zi Gong, a merchant coming from the state of Wei. This speaks to the fact that the admission policy of Confucius's school was flexible, and as the first school builder in ancient China, Confucius was indeed dedicated to broadening the accessibility of education. Third, “A noble-minded person cannot be like a utensil” (君子不器), which means everyone needs to learn broadly to be a good human being at first, and then, to be good at a specific career to serve a specific aspect of human society. This is very congenial to the western tradition of liberal arts, and probably a major reason why I choose to teach at a very historical liberal arts college in the U.S.Stage Three: “at forty, I became free of doubts.”At the age around 40, Confucius gathered much reputation because of his teaching and knowledge. He also started to seek opportunities of serving in government in his home state of Lu and its adjacent state of Qi. One event that marked the maturity of Confucius's knowledge is that the ruler of Qi once asked him about how to govern, and Confucius answered the question in a very concise way: “let the lord be a true lord, the ministers true ministers, the fathers true fathers, and the sons true sons.” (Analects 12.11) Since we already studied the Duke of Zhou, we find that Confucius's saying is a concise re-statement of Duke of Zhou's role ethics which was taken to be the key to all good human life and government: every human needs to shoulder their duty to fulfill their role in varying human relationships.In a word, in the age around forty, Confucius mastered his comprehensive and principled knowledge on human affairs, and started to apply the knowledge to realms of practical human life. In this sense, he described himself as being “free of doubts.”Stage Four: “at fifty, I understood the Mandate of Heaven.”At the age around 50, there is a major upgrade of intensity and change during Confucius's life.Firstly, he got to work in the highest level of the state government of Lu, and broadly engaged himself in economical, diplomatic, and military matters. Because he was so successful as a statesman and increased the interstate influence of Lu, the adjacent state Qi tried to find all means to undermine Confucius's position and the power of Lu. A cohort of courtesans were sent by Qi to the duke of Lu with a result that the duke indulged himself days and nights to totally abandon his state responsibility. This made Confucius realized that he had no more room to employ his political talents. He decided to leave his home state, and plunged into a journey of self-exile and wandering among states for another 14 years, with a hope that he might find an enlightened ruler to realize his political and social ambition.Secondly, another decisive event for Confucius's life around the age of 50 was that he started to systematically learn the Zhou Book of Change, 周易. This is originally a book of divination, but because it contains ancient wisdom of human life in a very condensed and comprehensive way, Confucius treated it mainly as a wisdom book to help him understand the position of human beings in changing societies and in the entire universe. If Confucius's knowledge before he learned the Zhou Book of Change was comprehensive in the practical sense that the knowledge could serve concrete teaching and governmental jobs, his understanding of human conditions after he learned the Book of Change was upgraded into an all-encompassing cosmic consciousness.Therefore, this is my understanding about why Confucius said that in his fifty, he could understand the “Mandate of Heaven.” Firstly, he knew his “talent,” viz., what he was good at and what he could contribute to society while establishing his own life in the society. Secondly, he knew his “limit”, viz., the practical obstacles that existed in his life to preclude his full flourishing. The dire political situation that his home state was trapped into definitely referred to this limit which urged Confucius's departure. Finally, he eventually comprehended the “mission” of his life, so that he would fearlessly exile himself in varying foreign states so as to try his best to fulfill the ultimate meaning of his life. In a word, under a cosmic consciousness, Confucius was crystal-clear of his own talent, would like to try his best to both acknowledge and overcome the limit of objective conditions, and finally, to fight his best to continually fulfill the ultimate mission of his life. Compared to the trope of this term “Mandate of Heaven” in early Zhou dynasty which was mainly used to legitimize a political regime, Confucius's understanding of the term is definitely more individualistic, more spiritual, and because of this, more relatable to contemporary readers.Stage Five: “at sixty, my ears were attuned to it [or, I obeyed it (the Mandate of Heaven) ].”The life of self-exile in order to find supportive and enlightened rulers is not easy. Confucius's life was under serious threat in several occasions. However, at the age around sixty, all these difficulties strengthened Confucius's cosmic consciousness on his “mandate of heaven” to a further phase, and the strengthened consciousness made him accept whatever may befall him with a total equanimity. For instance, when Huan Tui intended to kill Confucius, Confucius said: “it is Tian (heaven) itself that has endowed me with virtue. What need I fear from the likes of Huan Tui?” (Analects 7.23)More importantly, regardless of those difficulties that either put Confucius in a life/death situation or drove him to seek tirelessly enlightened rulers, eventually of no avail, Confucius was firm on his mission and would like to do whatsoever ought to be done regardless of consequences. For instance, when a hermit mocked him to say: “The whole world is as if engulfed in a great flood, and who can change it? … Wouldn't it be better to follow men like us, who avoid the world entirely?” Confucius's answer was that “A person cannot flock together with the birds and beasts. If I do not associate the followers of men, then with whom I associate? If the Way were realized in the world, then I would not need to change anything.” (18.6). Similarly, he also forcefully encouraged his sometimes quite frustrated students in this way: “it is humans who can enlarge the Way, not the Way that can enlarge humans.” (15.29)Therefore, with a firm belief in his Mandate of Heaven, Confucius accepted whatever may befall him in the evolving difficult situations of the 14-year self-exile with a total equanimity. In this sense, he can totally attune himself to the Mandate of Heaven without any doubt or complaint.Final stage: “at seventy, I could follow my heart's desires without overstepping the bounds of propriety (or, without overstepping the due measures).”Confucius came back to his home state when he was 68. He was dedicated to studying ancient classics and teaching, and meanwhile, he was consulted on state affairs by the state while not pursuing any formal role in office. After decades of learning and practicing, Confucius was able to feel completely at ease with himself while still diligently pursuing those noble ideals of his life. So, in the age of fifty, he understood his mandate of heaven; at sixty, he obeyed his mandate of heaven; at seventy, he was his mandate of heaven, united himself completely with his mandate of heaven, without any second of his life to depart from the mandate.However, this completely free and easy-going way of life is not without stress and grief. Several of Confucius's best students died before him, his son also died earlier than him, and most importantly, until the end of his life, Confucius still didn't find any enlightened ruler to help him to realize his political ideal. In many of these occasions, Confucius overwhelmed himself with the feeling of sorrow and grief to the effect that even his students were doubting whether his emotions were appropriate. (Analects 11.9). However, Confucius would say: when you need to grieve, grieve in the best and right way! That's why he could follow his heart without overstepping the appropriate measure!This is exactly the Confucius whom we were familiar with: a down-to-earth ordinary human with an extraordinary level of cosmic consciousness while never giving up his dream to make the world be better!
Today's Chinese Saying, Bān Mén Nòng Fǔ 班门弄斧 comes to us courtesy of the Tang and Song Dynasty luminaries Liu Zongyuan and Ouyang Xiu who teach us about the Zhou Dynasty hero Lu Ban. He knew how to use an axe to build stuff like no one else. You don't want to stand outside his doorway and brag about your axe-wielding skills. This is a good one to use when you see people talking up their skillset in front of a true master.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-chinese-sayings-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Today's Chinese Saying, Bān Mén Nòng Fǔ 班门弄斧 comes to us courtesy of the Tang and Song Dynasty luminaries Liu Zongyuan and Ouyang Xiu who teach us about the Zhou Dynasty hero Lu Ban. He knew how to use an ax to build stuff like no one else. You don't want to stand outside his doorway and brag about your ax-wielding skills. This is a good one to use when you see people talking up their skillset in front of a true master. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Hi Everyone, along with Avid.fm I'm once again pleased to present to you a set of lectures that present an Introduction to the History of Chinese Philosophy. In Part I of a two-part series of lectures I will trace the main events in Chinese Philosophy going back to pre-Confucian times in the early Zhou Dynasty all the way up to the Han Dynasty when Confucianism was adopted by the government as a kind of “state religion”. Other Confucian scholar-philosophers of the “Ru School” will also be discussed. These Ru Philosophers, of which Confucius was the most famous, included Mèngzǐ, Xúnzǐ, and Mòzǐ. Part II will introduce you to the wonders of the Yì Jīng Ching or Book of Changes as well as Daoism and Neo Confucianism. Even today in the 21st-century Confucian thought still has relevance and applications to how we can live our lives. Many people have hesitated to explore the thought of China's ancient philosophers, considering it too deep and too intimidating to take on. Allow me to show you how easy it can be to learn about these ancient thinkers and how they believed people should act and carry on their lives, and how governments should rule and behave. China's philosophers of the Ru School were always stressing how to maintain peace and harmony in their society. We'll look at the men and the renowned philosophical works they left behind, pointing out where they agreed and disagreed. As we trace the timeline of history we will look at all the greatest philosophers of China and show how their thought evolved, always remaining relevant to the people. And the history itself from the Bronze Age Zhou Dynasty to the more complicated and sophisticated times of the Ming Dynasty will also be introduced, giving you not only a survey of Chinese philosophy but Chinese history as well. In Part II of the course, we explore Taoism and the Yì Jīng, which are known throughout the world and millions of practitioners outside China have embraced these millennia-old aspects of Chinese culture. The Yì Jīng and Taoism have grown in popularity in our modern times. People have explored the wisdom of the Tao and how to apply this to their own lives. This course will teach you a solid foundation to understand what Taoism is about and who its most important teachers were. You will also get a good understanding of the Yì Jīng and how not only ancient peoples but yourself as well can gain fulfillment and happiness in your life exploring what this most ancient text has to teach. Aside from the Bible and Koran, the Book of Changes is among the most widely published books in the world. We'll also see how, as the centuries and dynasties passed, how people became more sophisticated and the world they lived in more complicated. And to reckon with this and adapt, philosophers adjusted their thought to make it more relevant to people's everyday lives. This is essentially what was behind the Neo Confucianism that arose during the Song and Ming Dynasties. Don't be intimidated by this vast subject and its thousands of years of history. Contained within these courses will be lectures that will break it all down for you and teach in an enjoyable style what it's all about. From this solid foundation, you will be able to go on and explore more deeply the philosophic thought of China's greatest and most respected teachers. Remember, satisfaction is assured and there's a 100% money-back guarantee from the good folks at avid.fm. Go to avid dot fm slash Laszlo. That's avid dot fm slash Laszlo. Avid is A-V-I-D and Laszlo is L-A-S-Z-L-O Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy the course.
In this episode, we discuss human history from around the 13th century BCE the emergence of Hebrew identity (the Israelites) to 605BCE the Neo-Assyrian Empire. We explore how human cultures borrow from others cultures to build ideas and identity.
The saga continues. More poking around Henan in Part 2. We'll look at the Zhou Dynasty era states that made up the province in ancient times. We'll also focus on Luoyang, Kaifeng and Anyang. If the multitude of Chinese names starts to overwhelm, go to the website at Teacup.Media and download a nice cheat sheet I put together especially for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The saga continues. More poking around Henan in Part 2. We'll look at the Zhou Dynasty era states that made up the province in ancient times. We'll also focus on Luoyang, Kaifeng and Anyang. If the multitude of Chinese names starts to overwhelm, go to the website at Teacup.Media and download a nice cheat sheet I put together especially for you.
1046 - 256 BCE - The longest of all dynasties in Chinese history but certainly not the strongest. This episode covers the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period with special reference to Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism.
This episode describes the Zhou dynasty, between the years 1046BC to 771BC.This part of the Zhou dynasty was a hell of a lot more peaceful than the Eastern Zhou that's for sure... But that's for next week
Science in antiquity was at times devised to be useful and at other times to prove to the people that the gods looked favorably on the ruling class. Greek philosophers tell us a lot about how the ancient world developed. Or at least, they tell us a Western history of antiquity. Humanity began working with bronze some 7,000 years ago and the Bronze Age came in force in the centuries leading up to 3,000 BCE. By then there were city-states and empires. The Mesopotamians brought us the wheel in around 3500 BCE, and the chariot by 3200 BCE. Writing formed in Sumeria, a city state of Mesopotamia, in 3000 BCE. Urbanization required larger cities and walls to keep out invaders. King Gilgamesh built huge walls. They used a base 60 system to track time, giving us the 60 seconds and 60 minutes to get to an hour. That sexagesimal system also gave us the 360 degrees in a circle. They plowed fields and sailed. And sailing led to maps, which they had by 2300 BCE. And they gave us the Epic, with the Epic of Gilgamesh which could be old as 2100 BCE. At this point, the Egyptian empire had grown to 150,000 square kilometers and the Sumerians controlled around 20,000 square kilometers. Throughout, they grew a great trading empire. They traded with China, India and Egypt with some routes dating back to the fourth millennia BCE. And commerce and trade means the spread of not only goods but also ideas and knowledge. The earliest known writing of complete sentences in Egypt came to Egypt a few hundred years after it did in Mesopotamia, as the Early Dynastic period ended and the Old Kingdom, or the Age of the Pyramids. Perhaps over a trade route. The ancient Egyptians used numerals, multiplications, fractions, geometry, architecture, algebra, and even quadratic equations. Even having a documented base 10 numbering system on a tomb from 3200 BCE. We also have the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus, which includes geometry problems, the Egyptian Mathematical Leather Roll, which covers how to add fractions, the Berlin Papyrus with geometry, the Lahun Papyri with arithmetical progressions to calculate the volume of granaries, the Akhmim tablets, the Reisner Papyrus, and the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, which covers algebra and geometry. And there's the Cairo Calendar, an ancient Egyptian papyrus from around 1200 BCE with detailed astronomical observations. Because the Nile flooded, bringing critical crops to Egypt. The Mesopotamians traded with China as well. As the Shang dynasty from the 16th to 11th centuries BCE gave way to the Zhou Dynasty, which went from the 11th to 3rd centuries BCE and the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age, science was spreading throughout the world. The I Ching is one of the oldest Chinese works showing math, dating back to the Zhou Dynasty, possibly as old as 1000 BCE. This was also when the Hundred Schools of Thought began, which Conscious inherited around the 5th century BCE. Along the way the Chinese gave us the sundial, abacus, and crossbow. And again, the Bronze Age signaled trade empires that were spreading ideas and texts from the Near East to Asia to Europe and Africa and back again. For a couple thousand years the transfer of spices, textiles and precious metals fueled the Bronze Age empires. Along the way the Minoan civilization in modern Greece had been slowly rising out of the Cycladic culture. Minoan artifacts have been found in Canaanite palaces and as they grew they colonized and traded. They began a decline around 1500 BCE, likely due to a combination of raiders and volcanic eruptions. The crash of the Minoan civilization gave way to the Myceneaen civilization of early Greece. Competition for resources and land in these growing empires helped to trigger wars. Those in turn caused violence over those resources. Around 1250 BCE, Thebes burned and attacks against city states cities increased, sometimes by emerging empires of previously disassociated tribes (as would happen later with the Vikings) and sometimes by other city-states. This triggered the collapse of Mycenaen Greece, the splintering of the Hittites, the fall of Troy, the absorption of the Sumerian culture into Babylon, and attacks that weakened the Egyptian New Kingdom. Weakened and disintegrating empires leave room for new players. The Iranian tribes emerged to form the Median empire in today's Iran. The Assyrians and Scythians rose to power and the world moved into the Iron age. And the Greeks fell into the Greek Dark Ages until they slowly clawed their way out of it in the 8th century BCE. Around this time Babylonian astronomers, in the capital of Mesopomania, were making astronomical diaries, some of which are now stored in the British Museum. Greek and Mesopotamian societies weren't the only ones flourishing. The Indus Valley Civilization had blossomed from 2500 to 1800 BCE only to go into a dark age of its own. Boasting 5 million people across 1,500 cities, with some of the larger cities reaching 40,000 people - about the same size as Mesopotamian cities. About two thirds are in modern day India and a third in modern Pakistan, an empire that stretched across 120,000 square kilometers. As the Babylonian control of the Mesopotamian city states broke up, the Assyrians began their own campaigns and conquered Persia, parts of Ancient Greece, down to Ethiopia, Israel, the Ethiopia, and Babylon. As their empire grew, they followed into the Indus Valley, which Mesopotamians had been trading with for centuries. What we think of as modern Pakistan and India is where Medhatithi Gautama founded the anviksiki school of logic in the 6th century BCE. And so the modern sciences of philosophy and logic were born. As mentioned, we'd had math in the Bronze Age. The Egyptians couldn't have built pyramids and mapped the stars without it. Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar couldn't have built the Mesopotamian cities and walls and laws without it. But something new was coming as the Bronze Age began to give way to the Iron Age. The Indians brought us the first origin of logic, which would morph into an almost Boolean logic as Pāṇini codified Sanskrit grammar linguistics and syntax. Almost like a nearly 4,000 verse manual on programming languages. Panini even mentions Greeks in his writings. Because they apparently had contact going back to the sixth century BCE, when Greek philosophy was about to get started. The Neo-Assyrian empire grew to 1.4 million square kilometers of control and the Achaeminid empire grew to control nearly 5 million square miles. The Phoenicians arose out of the crash of the Late Bronze Age, becoming important traders between the former Mesopotamian city states and Egyptians. As her people settled lands and Greek city states colonized lands, one became the Greek philosopher Thales, who documented the use of loadstones going back to 600 BCE when they were able to use magnetite which gets its name from the Magnesia region of Thessaly, Greece. He is known as the first philosopher and in the time of Socrates even had become one of the Seven Sages which included according to Socrates. “Thales of Miletus, and Pittacus of Mytilene, and Bias of Priene, and our own Solon, and Cleobulus of Lindus, and Myson of Chenae, and the seventh of them was said to be Chilon of Sparta.” Many of the fifth and sixth century Greek philosophers were actually born in colonies on the western coast of what is now Turkey. Thales's theorum is said to have originated in India or Babylon. But as we see a lot in the times that followed, it is credited to Thales. Given the trading empires they were all a part of though, they certainly could have brought these ideas back from previous generations of unnamed thinkers. I like to think of him as the synthesizers that Daniel Pink refers to so often in his book A Whole New Mind. Thales studied in Babylon and Egypt, bringing thoughts, ideas, and perhaps intermingled them with those coming in from other areas as the Greeks settled colonies in other lands. Given how critical astrology was to the agricultural societies, this meant bringing astronomy, math to help with the architecture of the Pharoes, new ways to use calendars, likely adopted through the Sumerians, coinage through trade with the Lydians and then Persians when they conquered the Lydians, Babylon, and the Median. So Thales taught Anaximander who taught Pythagoras of Samos, born a few decades later in 570 BCE. He studied in Egypt as well. Most of us would know the Pythagorean theorem which he's credited for, although there is evidence that predated him from Egypt. Whether new to the emerging Greek world or new to the world writ large, his contributions were far beyond that, though. They included a new student oriented way of life, numerology, the idea that the world is round, numerology, applying math to music and applying music to lifestyle, and an entire school of philosophers emerged from his teachings to spread Pythagoreanism. And the generations of philosophers that followed devised both important philosophical contributions and practical applications of new ideas in engineering. The ensuing schools of philosophy that rose out of those early Greeks spread. By 508 BCE, the Greeks gave us Democracy. And oligarchy, defined as a government where a small group of people have control over a country. Many of these words, in fact, come from Greek forms. As does the month of May, names for symbols and theories in much of the math we use, and many a constellation. That tradition began with the sages but grew, being spread by trade, by need, and by religious houses seeking to use engineering as a form of subjugation. Philosophy wasn't exclusive to the Greeks or Indians, or to Assyria and then Persia through conquering the lands and establishing trade. Buddha came out of modern India in the 5th to 4th century BCE around the same time Confucianism was born from Confucious in China. And Mohism from Mo Di. Again, trade and the spread of ideas. However, there's no indication that they knew of each other or that Confucious could have competed with the other 100 schools of thought alive and thriving in China. Nor that Buddhism would begin spreading out of the region for awhile. But some cultures were spreading rapidly. The spread of Greek philosophy reached a zenith in Athens. Thales' pupil Anaximander also taught Anaximenes, the third philosopher of the Milesian school which is often included with the Ionians. The thing I love about those three, beginning with Thales is that they were able to evolve the school of thought without rejecting the philosophies before them. Because ultimately they knew they were simply devising theories as yet to be proven. Another Ionian was Anaxagoras, who after serving in the Persian army, which ultimately conquered Ionia in 547 BCE. As a Greek citizen living in what was then Persia, Anaxagoras moved to Athens in 480 BCE, teaching Archelaus and either directly or indirectly through him Socrates. This provides a link, albeit not a direct link, from the philosophy and science of the Phoenicians, Babylonians, and Egyptians through Thales and others, to Socrates. Socrates was born in 470 BCE and mentions several influences including Anaxagoras. Socrates spawned a level of intellectualism that would go on to have as large an impact on what we now call Western philosophy as anyone in the world ever has. And given that we have no writings from him, we have to take the word of his students to know his works. He gave us the Socratic method and his own spin on satire, which ultimately got him executed for effectively being critical of the ruling elite in Athens and for calling democracy into question, corrupting young Athenian students in the process. You see, in his life, the Athenians lost the Peloponnesian War to Sparta - and as societies often do when they hit a speed bump, they started to listen to those who call intellectuals or scientists into question. That would be Socrates for questioning Democracy, and many an Athenian for using Socrates as a scape goat. One student of Socrates, Critias, would go on to lead a group called the Thirty Tyrants, who would terrorize Athenians and take over the government for awhile. They would establish an oligarchy and appoint their own ruling class. As with many coups against democracy over the millennia they were ultimately found corrupt and removed from power. But the end of that democratic experiment in Greece was coming. Socrates also taught other great philosophers, including Xenophon, Antisthenes, Aristippus, and Alcibiades. But the greatest of his pupils was Plato. Plato was as much a scientist as a philosopher. He had works of Pythagoras, studied the Libyan Theodorus. He codified a theory of Ideas, in Forms. He used as examples, the Pythagorean theorem and geometry. He wrote a lot of the dialogues with Socrates and codified ethics, and wrote of a working, protective, and governing class, looking to produce philosopher kings. He wrote about the dialectic, using questions, reasoning and intuition. He wrote of art and poetry and epistemology. His impact was vast. He would teach mathemetics to Eudoxus, who in turn taught Euclid. But one of his greatest contributions the evolution of philosophy, science, and technology was in teaching Aristotle. Aristotle was born in 384 BCE and founded a school of philosophy called the Lyceum. He wrote about rhetoric, music, poetry, and theater - as one would expect given the connection to Socrates, but also expanded far past Plato, getting into physics, biology, and metaphysics. But he had a direct impact on the world at the time with his writings on economics politics, He inherited a confluence of great achievements, describing motion, defining the five elements, writing about a camera obscure and researching optics. He wrote about astronomy and geology, observing both theory and fact, such as ways to predict volcanic eruptions. He made observations that would be proven (or sometimes disproven) such as with modern genomics. He began a classification of living things. His work “On the Soul” is one of the earliest looks at psychology. His study of ethics wasn't as theoretical as Socrates' but practical, teaching virtue and how that leads to wisdom to become a greater thinker. He wrote of economics. He writes of taxes, managing cities, and property. And this is where he's speaking almost directly to one of his most impressive students, Alexander the Great. Philip the second of Macedon hired Plato to tutor Alexander starting in 343. Nine years later, when Alexander inherited his throne, he was armed with arguably the best education in the world combined with one of the best trained armies in history. This allowed him to defeat Darius in 334 BCE, the first of 10 years worth of campaigns that finally gave him control in 323 BCE. In that time, he conquered Egypt, which had been under Persian rule on and off and founded Alexandria. And so what the Egyptians had given to Greece had come home. Alexander died in 323 BCE. He followed the path set out by philosophers before him. Like Thales, he visited Babylon and Egypt. But he went a step further and conquered them. This gave the Greeks more ancient texts to learn from but also more people who could become philosophers and more people with time to think through problems. By the time he was done, the Greeks controlled nearly 5 million square miles of territory. This would be the largest empire until after the Romans. But Alexander never truly ruled. He conquered. Some of his generals and other Greek aristocrats, now referred to as the Diadochi, split up the young, new empire. You see, while teaching Alexander, Aristotle had taught two other future kings : Ptolemy I Soter and Cassander. Cassander would rule Macedonia and Ptolemy ruled Egypt from Alexandria, who with other Greek philosophers founded the Library of Alexandria. Ptolemy and his son amassed 100s of thousands of scrolls in the Library from 331 BC and on. The Library was part of a great campus of the Musaeum where they also supported great minds starting with Ptolemy I's patronage of Euclid, the father of geometry, and later including Archimedes, the father of engineering, Hipparchus, the founder of trigonometry, Her, the father of math, and Herophilus, who codified the scientific method and countless other great hellenistic thinkers. The Roman Empire had begin in the 6th century BCE. By the third century BCE they were expanding out of the Italian peninsula. This was the end of Greek expansion and as Rome conquered the Greek colonies signified the waning of Greek philosophy. Philosophy that helped build Rome both from a period of colonization and then spreading Democracy to the young republic with the kings, or rex, being elected by the senate and by 509 BCE the rise of the consuls. After studying at the Library of Alexandria, Archimedes returned home to start his great works, full of ideas having been exposed to so many works. He did rudimentary calculus, proved geometrical theories, approximated pi, explained levers, founded statics and hydrostatics. And his work extended into the practical. He built machines, pulleys, the infamous Archimedes' screw pump, and supposedly even a deathly heat ray of lenses that could burn ships in seconds. He was sadly killed by Roman soldiers when Syracuse was taken. But, and this is indicative of how Romans pulled in Greek know-how, the Roman general Marcus Claudius Marcellus was angry that he lost an asset, who could have benefited his war campaigns. In fact, Cicero, who was born in the first century BCE mentioned Archimedes built mechanical devices that could show the motions of the planetary bodies. He claimed Thales had designed these and that Marcellus had taken one as his only personal loot from Syracuse and donated it to the Temple of Virtue in Rome. The math, astronomy, and physics that go into building a machine like that was the culmination of hundreds, if not thousands of years of building knowledge of the Cosmos, machinery, mathematics, and philosophy. Machines like that would have been the first known computers. Machines like the first or second century Antikythera mechanism, discovered in 1902 in a shipwreck in Greece. Initially thought to be a one-off, the device is more likely to represent the culmination of generations of great thinkers and doers. Generations that came to look to the Library of Alexandria as almost a Mecca. Until they didn't. The splintering of the lands Alexander conquered, the cost of the campaigns, the attacks from other empires, and the rise of the Roman Empire ended the age of Greek Enlightenment. As is often the case when there is political turmoil and those seeking power hate being challenged by the intellectuals, as had happened with Socrates and philosophers in Athens at the time, Ptolemy VIII caused The Library of Alexandria to enter into a slow decline that began with the expulsion of intellectuals from Alexandria in 145BC. This began a slow decline of the library until it burned, first with a small fire accidentally set by Caesar in 48 BCE and then for good in the 270s. But before the great library was gone for good, it would produce even more great engineers. Heron of Alexandria is one of the greatest. He created vending machines that would dispense holy water when you dropped a coin in it. He made small mechanical archers, models of dancers, and even a statue of a horse that could supposedly drink water. He gave us early steam engines two thousand years before the industrial revolution and ran experiments in optics. He gave us Heron's forumula and an entire book on mechanics, codifying the known works on automation at the time. In fact, he designed a programmable cart using strings wrapped around an axle, powered by falling weights. Claudius Ptolemy came to the empire from their holdings in Egypt, living in the first century. He wrote about harmonics, math, astronomy, computed the distance of the sun to the earth and also computed positions of the planets and eclipses, summarizing them into more simplistic tables. He revolutionized map making and the properties of light. By then, Romans had emerged as the first true world power and so the Classical Age. To research this section, I read and took copious notes from the following and apologize that each passage is not credited specifically but it would just look like a regular expressions if I tried: The Evolution of Technology by George Basalla. Civilizations by Filipe Fernández-Armesto, A Short History of Technology: From The Earliest Times to AD 1900 from TK Derry and Trevor I Williams, Communication in History Technology, Culture, Leonardo da vinci by Walter Isaacson, Society from David Crowley and Paul Heyer, Timelines in Science, by the Smithsonian, Wheels, Clocks, and Rockets: A History of Technology by Donald Cardwell, a few PhD dissertations and post-doctoral studies from journals, and then I got to the point where I wanted the information from as close to the sources as I could get so I went through Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences from Galileo Galilei, Mediations from Marcus Aurelius, Pneumatics from Philo of Byzantium, The Laws of Thought by George Boole, Natural History from Pliny The Elder, Cassius Dio's Roman History, Annals from Tacitus, Orations by Cicero, Ethics, Rhetoric, Metaphysics, and Politics by Aristotle, Plato's Symposium and The Trial & Execution of Socrates.
(Chinese) Highlights: Liang Yuan was the wild animal trainer for King Xuan of Zhou Dynasty. He was well-known for keeping and training wild animals; even the fierce ones like tigers, lions and snakes would be tamed under his management. Those wild animals were very cooperative when Liang Yuan fed them and never hurt him. They generated a peaceful atmosphere, and loved their keeper very much. So the reproductions were on time and the herd kept growing. Supreme Master Qing Hai reminded us through the story of Liang ...
The great rivals of the Israelites - the Philistines. Who were they? Where did they come from? Today we discuss some world history of around the time of 1000 BC: ranging from China to India and through to the bronze age collapse for the many kingdoms of Mesopotamia and the ancient Mediterranean. We speak about how this collapse an the invasion of the sea people pushing through Egypt and across the sea effected the Israelites - as it brought about one of the most well known people in all of history... Goliath! We speak about the man who faced up to him, David, and how he come to kingship. Sources https://www.ancient.eu/King_David/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Israel_(united_monarchy) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2017&version=ESV History of the Ancient World, Susan Wise Bauer. Stay safe everyone! If you would like to contact us then please do here; Hasitcrossedyourmind@gmail.com Or on our social media; Social media https://www.instagram.com/hasitcrossedyourmind https://www.instagram.com/jerome747 https://www.instagram.com/lukeholehouse Acknowledgements Special thanks to Laura Sewall for providing our art, if you want to get in contact with her; Her website is laurasewall.com Her instagram it's @laurasewall96 And her email for enquiries is laura.sewall@live.co.uk See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this 258th CHP episode, Laszlo brings you an overview of this hero and strategist from ancient Chinese history. Jiang Ziya's story takes place during the waning years of the Shang and the founding of the Zhou Dynasty. Consider supporting your humble narrator at https://www.patreon.com/ChinaHistoryPodcast One time PayPal Donation: https://PayPal.Me/ChinaHistoryPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this 258th CHP episode, just in time for the guaranteed blockbuster animated movie “Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification” Laszlo brings you an overview of this hero and strategist from ancient Chinese history. Jiang Ziya’s story takes place during the waning years of the Shang and the founding of the Zhou Dynasty. For non-Chinese speakers, try not to get tripped up with King Zhòu Xīn of the Shang and the Kings Wen, Wu and Duke of the House of Zhōu. Consider supporting your humble narrator at https://www.patreon.com/ChinaHistoryPodcast One time PayPal Donation: https://PayPal.Me/ChinaHistoryPodcast
Confucius advocated the ritualized social order developed by the Zhou Dynasty. This episode explores how that system worked and makes the connection to Benevolence and ranked systems of status in contemporary American social life.
War rages across Zhou Dynasty as the former states become kingdoms and set their eyes toward national domination. Ultimately the kingdom of Qin would claim the throne for themselves, thanks in part to the reforms of legalist scholar Shang Yang. After the Qin's collapse, the Han Dynasty would rise from their ashes and rule China for four hundred years.Don't forget to check out the supplemental post for maps, artwork, and a very interesting re-creation of the pigments that originally adorned the terracotta army!Merch Store open now: https://ahistoryofjapan.threadless.com/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/AHistoryOfJapan)
In this episode, the Shang Dynasty falls and the Zhou Dynasty rises to take its place. But being the faction at the top is harder than it looks, and over time the Zhou suffer a gradual decline. However, the political and philosophical ideas which they nurtured continue to influence East Asian thought today.Check out the supplemental post to see the maps. Who doesn't love maps?Merch Store open now: https://ahistoryofjapan.threadless.com/Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/AHistoryOfJapan)
Taiwan Accent - Chinese Classical Literature▪台灣腔 中國古典文學 ▪ 台湾腔 中国古典文学
湯伐夏，國號商。六百載，至紂亡。 周武王，始誅紂。八百載，最長久。 周轍東，王綱墜。逞干戈，尚遊說。 始春秋，終戰國。五霸強，七雄出。 汤伐夏，国号商。六百载，至纣亡。 周武王，始诛纣。八百载，最长久。 周辙东，王纲坠。逞干戈，尚游说。 始春秋，终战国。五霸强，七雄出。 Tāng fā xià, guó hào shāng. Liùbǎi zǎi, zhì zhòu wáng. Zhōu wǔwáng, shǐ zhū zhòu. Bābǎi zǎi, zuì chángjiǔ. Zhōu chè dōng, wáng gāng zhuì. Chěng gāngē, shàng yóushuì. Shǐ chūnqiū, zhōng zhànguó. Wǔ bà qiáng, qīxióng chū. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ＜ English Translation＞ The last ruler of the Xia Dynasty, Jie, was a cruel tyrant. King Tang defeated him and founded the nation with the dynastic title Shang. The dynasty lasted for six hundred years until the last ruler King Zhou, notorious as a dissipated and unprincipled tyrant, was defeated by King Wu who later founded the Zhou Dynasty. This is the well-known historical event of King Wu on a punitive expedition against the despotic King Zhou. The Zhou Dynasty lasted for eight hundred years, the longest one of all the dynasties in ancient China. The capital of Zhou was later moved eastwards to Luoyang City, and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty began. The political power then started to deteriorate, the laws were violated and the continuing wars among major powers pushed the nation to the verge of collapse. Many peripatetic politicians traveled around to sell their propositions to princes and lords. The Eastern Zhou Dynasty began with the Spring and Autumn Period and ended with the Warring States Period. In the Spring and Autumn Period, there were "Five Chieftains", and in the Warring States Period, there were "Seven Martial States". ＜ Explanation in simplified＞ 夏朝的最后一位君王桀暴虐无道，于是汤起而讨伐，建立了商朝，延续了六百多年。后来，周武王联合诸侯讨伐荒淫无道的纣王，建立了周朝，周朝历时八百多年，是我国历史上最长久的王朝。周朝东迁洛阳之后，法度不振，政纲纪律废弛，诸侯混战不断，于是有很多善籍善谋的人纷纷游说诸侯, 宣扬各种主张。东周始于春秋，终于战国，「春秋 五霸」是春秋时期五个霸主，「战国七雄」则是指战国时期国力最强的七个诸侯国。 ＜ Explanation in traditional＞ 夏朝的最後一位君王桀暴虐無道，於是湯起而討伐，建立了商朝，延續了六百多年。後來，周武王聯合諸侯討伐荒淫無道的紂王，建立了周朝，周朝歷時八百多年，是我國歷史上最長久的王朝。周朝東遷洛陽之後，法度不振，政綱紀律廢弛，諸侯混戰不斷，於是有很多善籍善謀的人紛紛遊說諸侯, 宣揚各種主張。東周始於春秋，終於戰國，「春秋 五霸」是春秋時期五個霸主，「戰國七雄」則是指戰國時期國力最強的七個諸侯國。 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to leave a message, thought, suggestion, feedback to me. 如果你对内容有任何问题，想法，建议，都可以留言给我 https://open.firstory.me/story/ck9v7bjsoqivi0873td4ux1gc?m=comment It would be a big help if you kindly support my channel with a cup of coffee 欢迎买杯咖杯赞助我的频道，你的小小支持是我的大大帮助 ☕ https://pay.firstory.me/user/taiwanaccent Powered by Firstory Hosting
Taiwan Accent - Chinese Classical Literature▪台灣腔 中國古典文學 ▪ 台湾腔 中国古典文学
有連山，有歸藏，有周易，三易詳。 有典謨，有訓誥，有誓命，書之奧。 我周公，作周禮，著六官，存治體。 大小戴，注《禮記》，述聖言，禮樂備。 有连山，有归藏，有周易，三易详。 有典谟，有训诰，有誓命，书之奥。 我周公，作周礼，着六官，存治体。 大小戴，注《礼记》，述圣言，礼乐备。 Yǒu lián shān, yǒu guī cáng, yǒu zhōuyì, sān yì xiáng. Yǒu diǎn mó, yǒu xùn gào, yǒu shì mìng, shū zhī ào. Wǒ zhōugōng, zuò zhōu lǐ,zù liù guān, cún zhì tǐ. Dàxiǎo dài, zhù “lǐ jì”, shù shèng yán, lǐ yuè bèi. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ＜ English Translation＞ Elucidating the changes of the universe in detail, Yi Jing, or Classic of Change includes three books, the Lian Shan System, the Gui Cang System, and Zhou Yi, but the first two have been lost. Shu Jing (Classic of History), also called Shang Shu (Esteemed Documents), is the first collection of ancient events in China, and the oldest Chinese historical source. The Regulation, the Counsels, the Instructions, the Announcements, the Oaths and the Charges are the profundity of the book. The text of Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou) is traditionally ascribed to the Duke of Zhou, and it is a collection the official system the Zhou Dynasty and national institutions of various states of the Warring States Period The Book set forth the duties of the six classes of officials, providing a blueprint for ruling a unified country. Scholars Dai De and Dai Sheng (nephew of Dai De) in the Western Han Dynasty sorted out and provided commentaries for Li Ji Classic of Rites), which mainly records and explains the etiquette code of the Pre-Qin Period. It takes etiquette and music as the core and involves many aspects, such as politics, philosophy, history, and so on. ＜ Explanation in simplified＞ 古时《连山易》《归藏 》 和 《周易》合称为《易经》，《易 经》说明了宇宙间事物循环变化的道理。 《连山易》和《归藏易》已失传。 《书经》又称《尚书》，是我国第一部上古历史文件的汇编，「典」「讲」「训」 「诰」「誓」 「命」等篇章是其中的精华。周公制定《周礼》， 根据当时情况将官制分为「六官」。 「六官」各司其职管理国 家大事，为后世保存了良好的政治典范。汉代经学家戴德和他的侄子戴圣整理并注释的《礼记》，记录了古代圣贤的言论和礼乐制度。 ＜ Explanation in traditional＞ 古時《連山易》《歸藏 》 和 《周易》合稱為《易經》，《易 經》說明了宇宙間事物循環變化的道理。《連山易》和《歸藏易》已失傳。《書經》又稱《尚書》，是我國第一部上古歷史文件的彙編，「典」「講」「訓」 「誥」「誓」 「命」等篇章是其中的精華。周公制定《周禮》， 根據當時情況將官制分為「六官」。「六官」各司其職管理國 家大事，為後世保存了良好的政治典範。漢代經學家戴德和他的侄子戴聖整理並注釋的《禮記》，記錄了古代聖賢的言論和禮樂制度。 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to leave a message, thought, suggestion, feedback to me. 如果你对内容有任何问题，想法，建议，都可以留言给我 https://open.firstory.me/story/ck9v7bjsoqivi0873td4ux1gc?m=comment It would be a big help if you kindly support my channel with a cup of coffee 欢迎买杯咖杯赞助我的频道，你的小小支持是我的大大帮助 ☕ https://pay.firstory.me/user/taiwanaccent Powered by Firstory Hosting
The Zhou Dynasty begins....then immediately faces its demise just three years into it all. But the Duke of Zhou comes to the rescue
In 230 BC, the armies of the powerful Qin Shi Huang looked set to conquer all before them. But one neighboring kingdom, Yan, had other ideas and hatched a devious plan to assassinate him. The latest in science, culture, and history from Smithsonian Channel.
In this second helping of Laszlo's overview of the history of Chinese philosophy, the Great Sage himself is the center of focus. Arguably China's most famous citizen of all time, Confucius (and his disciples) created an ideology and political system that had incredible lasting power. Part two examines the stories surrounding Confucius's life growing up and operating in the State of Lu during the last decades of the Spring and Autumn period of the Zhou Dynasty. In addition to the trials and tribulations faced by Master Kong in his day, the basic tenets of Confucianism are introduced.
更多内容请关注今天的微信：搜索英语环球 NEWSPlusDo you know how old Beijing is?"Er, I watched it from TV. But I can't remember…""Since 18th Century?""Three hundred years?"Today&`&s Beijing is busy and bustling with 30 million residents. But it seems few of them are aware that the origin of this dazzling civilization was located in a small town in southwest Beijing. And it can be traced back to more than 3,000 years ago.75-year-old Tian Jingdong is an archeologist. Graduating from Peking University&`&s history department, he spent half of his life in a small town called "Glaze River" or "Liu Li He" in southwest Beijing. There he participated in the excavation of a 3,000-year-old ancient kingdom called "Yan."Tian explains."There are a lot of different theories about the time of Yan&`&s founding, or say conferment. But the most acceptable one is the year of 1045 B.C. This was calculated based on official astronomy records, which says Halley&`&s Comet visited the earth that year. Therefore we say Beijing has a history of more than 3,000 years."Geographically, the "Yan" kingdom was near the northern border of the territory of the then Zhou Dynasty, faraway from its mother country which was located near today&`&s Xi&`&an City. But politically and militarily, it was very important, with the brave and battlewise nomad people sitting in the north. So the then Emperor conferred his nephew "Ke" to be the king of "Yan," and made him a bronze kettle and a bronze jar to commemorate this conferment. Currently, these two national treasuries are both displayed in the Capital Museum with other 40 plus archaic items.Surprisingly, Tian Jingdong says this 3,000-year-old kettle was even multi-functioned."Usually this kettle is used to hold water. But it&`&s also used to hold wine. It has four legs, so that people can burn something underneath to heat up the wine. People in ancient times prefer warm wine to drink."The exhibit that you mustn&`&t miss also includes the biggest and heavies bronze tripod found in China, which was made to reward a marquis&`& care and love for his father; and a congee boiler of fine artistry, decorated with seven tri-dimensional bronze cow heads of different shapes and sizes, to remark the contribution of a diplomat. All the stories of these items were engraved under the lid.Visitors are impressed by these items."I learned a lot, especially about the bronze boiler with delicate decoration. It&`&s made to reward great contribution to work and home. I really admire it.""I&`&m impressed by the tripod. It shed so much influence on the Chinese culture, that when we say someone is responsible, we still say someone&`&s words are worth nine tripods, just as a king of the ancient times."What&`&s more, there were even sewage networks 3,000 years ago. And they were not just ditches, but pottery pipes.Hu Bin, an expert with the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, introduces a piece of pottery pipe to the visitors."We can see these well-made pipes, with a wide end and a narrow end, so that they can be easily connected to build longer pipes. The surface of the pipe is full of cord marks. They are not just for aesthetics, but also to increase friction force, so that they can be easier to use."This exhibition is open to public for free until July 19th. If visitors are interested in knowing more, they are also offered the opportunity to visit the ancient relics in southwest Beijing. There more antiques made of bronze, jade, and wood, lacquered wares, pottery, even architectural foundations 3,000 years old with more stories underneath are waiting to be shared.
The Fan of History and Kevin walks you through the nations and powers of the world of 1000 BC: This is a Dark Age of the Mediterranean world but a golden age for the Zhou Dynasty in China and the Olmecs who think they are the only nation state in the world. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
With the Dragon Boat festival approaching on Monday, people around this country have begun gathering the ingredients needed to make the traditional "zongzi" rice dumplings. CRI's Sam Duckett has ventured out to sample the snacks ahead of the festival. The Dragon Boat Festival, or "Duan Wu Jie" occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of Chinese Lunar calendar. The festival commemorates the death of the poet and minister, Qu Yuan. The story of Qu Yuan occurred during the Warring States period and the Zhou Dynasty. Qu Yuan was a poet and a minister for Chu during the warring states period. He was banished for apposing the alliance between the King of Chu and the state of Qin. During his banishment Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry. After the sate of Qin took the capital of Chu, Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River. It is said that the local people that admired Qu Yuan raced out on boats to try and save him or at least retrieve his body. This story gave birth to the tradition of holding dragon boat races during dragon boat festival. Another tradition that is held during the dragon boat festival is the practice of eating zongzi. Zongzi is a Chinese food stuff made of glutinous rice, stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo reed. They are also known as rice dumplings or sticky rice dumplings. I have decided to go to Guo Hui supermarket and try this sticky delicious Chinese treat. Before departing on my quest for zongzi I decided to have a chat with Jinjiang hotel chef Li Peng Yu to find out a bit more about what I would be eating. "Most Sticky rice dumplings are filled with sweet potato's or bean paste. In Sichuan we like to eat sticky rice dumplings with spicy meet in the middle. In Guangzhou they often eat them with Cantonese BBQ pork in the middle. Sweet Sticky rice dumplings and preferred in Northern Chinese and salty ones are preferred by southerners. In south China they are also a lot smaller and in the shape of a cone. In northern china they are more of triangular shape." Wrapping a zongzi neatly is a skill that is passed down through families, as are the recipes. Making zongzi is traditionally a family event of which everyone helps out. Now let's see if I can order a zongzi. "We have ready made and freshly made zongzi. We have meat, vegetarian, sweet potato and red bean paste zongzi. Try a red bean paste one; I am sure you will like it. When you get home you may want to re-heat it, you can do this by either putting it in the microwave or boiling it" I have just ordered a red bean paste zongzi, I need to wait a couple of minutes for it be heated up. Ok so my Zongzi is ready to eat. Mmmmm it tastes delicious. The smooth sticky tecture complements the sweet taste so well. I thoroughly enjoyed my sticky rice dumplings and understanding the story behind them made the Dragon Boat Festivalmuch more pleasing. Wishing everyone a happy Dragon Boat Festival or "Duan Wu Jie Kuai Le".
In this first of two part exploring the end of the Warring States Period, Qin continues its campaign again the six other fractious kingdoms, decimating Zhao and Yan before putting the Zhou Dynasty itself to rest forever. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The self-proclaimed Kung Wu of Zhou stands triumphant amid the smoking ruins of the Shang Dynasty... but though the war is over, victory is far from assured. With his premature death, his unready heir will prompt rebellion against the fledgling Zhou Dynasty - not only by the Shang remnant, but also his own uncles! To cement their hold on power, the Zhou will be forced to construct a new standard of legitimacy: The Mandate of Heaven. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
This week we look at the immortal Zhou Gong, the Duke of Zhou. If he isn't the most revered person from Chinese history, he's certainly in the top three. He guided the earliest years of the Zhou Dynasty through treacherous times. Zhou Gong was responsible for building a great amount of the foundation from continue reading >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week we look at the immortal Zhou Gong, the Duke of Zhou. If he isn’t the most revered person from Chinese history, he’s certainly in the top three. He guided the earliest years of the Zhou Dynasty through treacherous times.
In this episode we look at the second phase of the Zhou Dynasty. This period was known as the Eastern Zhou. The Eastern Zhou was broken down between the Spring & Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It lasted from 770 to 221BC. From this chaotic period sprang the great works that defined Chinese continue reading >> Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, we look at the second phase of the Zhou Dynasty. This period was known as the Eastern Zhou. The Eastern Zhou was broken down between the Spring & Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which lasted from 770 to 221BC.
Jeffrey Riegel, UC Berkeley
Jeffrey Riegel, UC Berkeley
© 2020-2025 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
