The History of China

The God-Worshippers of Thistle Mountain managed to survive their first test — but now the world itself seems dead-set on finishing the job. When unprecedented rains lead to flooding, famine, and pestilence across southern China, the last institutions holding things together collapse, leaving those on the margins to their own survival. Until, that is, the divine summons of the Second Son of God cal...

The God-Worshippers of Thistle Mountain, under the dual leadership of Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan, had gone from being a quirky, backwater oddity... to, by 1847, a real local headache. When they get bold enough to deface a local temple, the law finally takes action to end their machinations. Yet they emerge from this early crucible unbroken... harder, better, faster, stronger... and even weirder...

Amidst the ashes of the Opium War, a new flame is beginning to kindle – not in the halls of power, but in the distant, forgotten hills and mountains. While the would-be prophet Hong Xiuquan returns home, his closest friend vanishes into the wilds of Guangxi – a world of ethnic tensions, criminal brotherhoods, pirates-turned-river-bandits… and a government far too distant and preoccupied to care. W...

Even in the fallout of the Opium War, dreams endure—but what happens to a dream deferred? In Canton, one young man’s starry-eyed visions of success run headlong into the brutal wall of the Imperial Examination system. And when that dream finally shatters, it neither dries up, nor festers.... it explodes into prophetic visions so awesome and so terrible that they will shake the very foundations of...

TheKangxi Emperor’s Obsessive Pursuit ofGaldan Khanto the Endsof the EarthPresented: 02/28/2026audio-only cut (this is from my mic pick-up, so the host's audio is low... apologies... I'll replace it with a better final version once it's released!)~20:00 - presentation ~20:00 - audience Q&A Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The war is over. The treaty is signed, sealed, & delivered. Yet though the smoke has cleared, the haze of uncertainty over what - exactly - just happened... lingers on. And that misunderstanding will echo for the next century. While Qiying writes love letters to Pottinger and the opium clippers resume business at anchorages just outside the new treaty ports, the machine set in motion by the Treaty...

The new envoy from London arrives at Qing's doorstep in August 1842 with a simple mandate: stop allowing Britain to be "humbugged" & finish the war Elliot started. What follows is the British Empire at its most efficient & brutal... and a treaty that, somehow, doesn't mention opium once...Time Period Covered:Aug. 1841–Aug. 1842 Major Historical Figures:The Qing Empire:The Daoguang Emperor (Aisin-G...

The Ransom of Canton. The lame-duck Superintendent watches helplessly as a triumvirate of Qing officials arrives to reverse every compromise his predecessor had wrought... & promptly launches the most ambitious Chinese military operation of the entire war. In the midst of that rain-soaked battlefield, a brief skirmish between British soldiers and peasant militiamen plants the seed of a legend that...

Britain carries the Opium War to Beijing's unready doorstep with steam and iron, moving the crisis from the border frontiers to the heart of the imperial court itself. As imperial defenses strain and diplomacy replaces defiance, the two empires probe each other’s resolve – and discover that both of their understandings of the other have been built on little more than smoke. Time Period Covered:Jul...

It's been 12 years since this initially was 'casted out - which means that the Year of the Horse is back, baby! Now it's the Fire Horse, but Happy Happy to Everyone! 马年快乐! 🔥🐎🧧 This Episode, we take a time-out from the historical flow to take advantage of the upcoming Chinese New Year festivities. We explore the history, legends, customs, and meaning behind this ancient and storied period of...

Britain and China both saw the opium crisis clearly enough to know it would end in disaster. Each believed it understood the situation, and the other, well enough to keep events from spinning out of control. And yet... it happened anyway. Time Period Covered:Late 1839 – April 1840 Major Historical Figures: The Qing Empire:The Daoguang Emperor (Aisin-Gioro Minning) [r. 1820–1850]Lin Zexu, Imperial...

Lin Zexu believed moral clarity and the largest drug bust in history could end the opium crisis and avert war. Yet, as his solution drained into Humen Bay, so too did the last hope of peace between China and Britain. Time Period Covered:1836–June 1839 Major Historical Figures: The Qing Empire:The Daoguang Emperor (Aisin-Gioro Minning) [r. 1820–1850]Lin Zexu, Imperial Commissioner and Governor-Gene...

Letter to the queen of England, from the high Imperial Commissioner Lin, and his colleagues. From the Canton press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1834, Britain sent a man to China almost perfectly unsuited to the job... only to forbid him from actually doing it. William John Napier, naval officer, socialite, & dilettante with no experience in diplomacy, trade, or China, arrived at Canton convinced he was destined to break open the Qing Empire by force of his will alone. But he would not get quite the war he wanted. Nor the recognition he...

In this empire business, you gotta make the opium first. Then when you get the opium, you get the silver. Then when you get the silver, then you get the tea. Time Period Covered:ca. 1760-1839 CEMajor Historical Figures:Qing Empire:The Daoguang Emperor (Minning) [r. 1820–1850]Governor-General of Liangguang, Ruan Yuan [1764–1849]"The Hoppo" (Imperial Superintendent of Maritime Customs), The emperor’...

Great Qing begins to buckle under early 19th c. internal pressures. Unrest first erupts not at the imperial core but along its social and geographic margins. This time, we look at three of the early warning shocks: the Miao frontier rebellions, the rise of Triad networks across the southern coastal cities, & the formation of the apocalyptic White Lotus uprising. Time Period Covered:~1790s-1840s CE...

The Qing Empire did not collapse because it stopped working. It collapsed because it kept working — just barely — under pressures that compounded faster than reform could relieve them... Time Period Covered: ~1790s-1840s CE Major Works Cited: Jones, Susan Mann and Philip A. Kuhn. “Dynastic Decline and the Roots of Rebellion.” The Cambridge History of China, vol. 10: Late Ch’ing, 1800–1911, Part I...

From the koan chants of monasteries tucked between Himalayan peaks, to wending caravan paths stretching endlessly across the arid expanses of the Taklamakan & trackless steppes of Dzungaria, we finish out our look at the four primary frontier regions of the Qing Empire as of 1800, where they'd come from, how they were operated, & the imperial tonnage of headaches for Beijing that came with both. T...

The world is coming to Qing's doorstep, but it has a whole other set of problems along its own frontiers... Less chronologically tied-down than most of our episodes, today we look at two of the Qing Empire's four major "inner frontier zones" and how they - in spite of often getting upstaged by the "flashier" elements of the 1800s & Qings clashes with the wider world, many have played an even large...

The 19th Century is going to be exceedingly rough on Qing China. So, before we venture down into the chasm that is the "Chinese Century of Humuliation's" opening salvos, let's assess where we - and the Empire - sit as of 1810... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back with pt. 2 of autumnal fictions of the spine-tingling variety. This time largely from (where else) Pu Songling, as well as several shorter entries from the Zibuyu.00:01:15 - Friendship Beyond the Grave00:10:25 - Karmic Debts00:12:30 - Spiritual Man Luo Catches the Wrong Demon00:16:39 - The Human Prawn00:18:37 - The Hairy People of Qin00:21:01 - The Magic Sword Learn more about your ad choices...

00:02:09 - "The Scholar & the Headless Ghost" True music fans come in all types. 00:05:37 - "Magical Arts" Let the buyer beware... but sometimes the non-buyer, too! 00:12:37 - "Ruby Jade" Nobody knows you when you're down & out... 00:27:00 - "Examination for the Post of Guardian Angel" The job offer of a lifetime! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pirate Queen’s Red Flag Fleet reigns supreme, but a three-way battle at Tiger’s Mouth tests even her grip on the seas. Time Period Covered: 1807-1844 CE Major Historical Figures: Red Flag Fleet: Zheng Yi Sao (AKA Ching Shih, née Shi Yang), Co-Commander of the Red Flag Confederation [1775-1844] Zhang Baozai, Co-Commander of the Red Flag Fleet, later Qing Navy colonel [1783-1822] Guo Podai, Comm...

A brief history of Mid-Autumn Festival, and the tale of Hou Yi the Archer & the Ten Suns, and Chang’e & the Moon In other words, please be trueIn other words, I love you. Sources:Barlett, Scarlett. The Mythology Bible: The Definitive Guide to Legendary Tales. Masaka, Mori. “Restoring the ‘Epic of Hou Yi’” in Asian Folklore Studies, vol. 52, no. 5.Yang, Lihui, Demin An, and Jessica Anderson Turner....

Richard Glasspoole thought he was going to have enough of an adventure sailing to the South Pacific. He didn't expect quite so much excitement as spending 3 months of 1809 as the compulsory "guest" of the Red Flag Fleet until the Company coughed up his ransom... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices