The History of China Podcast

The Tang will achieve hegemony over the entirety of China’s heartlands, both North and South. But with external foes subdued, simmering tensions within the royal household will begin bubbling to the surface, culminating in a showdown that will decide the future of the Dynasty. Time Period Covered: 618-626 CE Major Historical Figures: Tang Dynasty: Li Yuan (Emperor Gaozu) Crowned Prince Li Jianchen...

The Duke of Tang had taken control of China’s primary capital at Chang’an, and is now in position to seize the throne for himself. But even that momentous shift will only mark the beginning of the struggle to reclaim imperial authority and unite China under his single banner. For there are other claimants to the throne, and powerful warlords who have their own designs for China. But it will be in...

With its push against Goguryeo rather catastrophically stalled out, the whole enterprise begins to unravel with spectacular speed for the Sui Dynasty. All the while, its Emperor Yang will maintain a disturbingly unaffected demeanor for the suffering his edicts are creating across the countryside - in large part because his lackeys have created a "reality-distortion filter" around him they'll liter...

Emperor Yang of Sui has ventured forth to the far northeastern border of China in an attempt to rescue his honor from the clutches of the impudent King of Goguryeo, Yeongyang. Little does King Yeongyang know that the Sui Empire has secretly begun construction on a new waterway even more navigable that the first dreaded Grand Canal. When completed, this ultimate weapon will spell certain doom for t...

The second emperor of the Sui Dynasty gets bad rap - his postmortem regnal name means "the Slothful" and he's commonly lumped together with the rest of the "bad-last emperors" as being hedonistic, wasteful, and just generally monstrous. But is this really the case, or was Emperor Yang the victim of a historical hatchet job? Today we look at the upbringing and early life of Prince Yang Guang, his u...

Today we finish out out look into the reign of the Sui Dynasty’s founding emperor, Wen. We begin first with the military roferms he imposed on his newly reunited state, mirroring those he made to the civil government. Once completed, Sui China will find itself on a footing it hasn’t reliably been for centuries: outward-facing and expansionist. The repercussions of this epochal change in circumstan...

Emperor Wen of Sui is potentially the most important monarch you've never heard of. For him, militarily reuniting China wasn't his legacy - it was his prelude. Both pre- and post-reunification, we explore the internal facets of his truly impressive reign today: his origins, personality, outlook, confidantes, the existential problems he inherited from the Period of Disunion, and the novel, world-ch...

So what does it all mean? Before stepping boldly into the Sui Dynasty, we take this episode to pan out to low-Earth orbit and watch the macro-developments of the past 300-plus years of Disunity, reviewing the dramatic sweep of a period of time often left out of many Western historical understandings of Chinese history due to is sheer complexity and confusing nature. Time Period Covered: 220-589 CE

Northern Zhou seems to have plotted a course for ultimate victory in the contest between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, having already annexed Northern Qi and turned its sights on Chen to the south. But it’s amazing how quickly dynastic fortunes can reverse themselves, and the Yuwen Clan’s line of emperors find itself stopped short, destroyed not by external threat but from an enemy within:...

In the Northeast of China, Northern Qi just can’t catch a break. First it was Emperor Wenxuan’s murderous paranoia, and now it will be subjected to Wucheng’s indolent hedonism, “immoral games,” and general excesses… and then the penultimate Qi emperor, Houzhi, will decide that the state treasury is his own personal piggy-bank and startin singing “Hakuna Matata” while the state burns. Meanwhile to...

Today’s episode takes us through the turmoil within northern China and beyond over the 550s. We begin looking outside of China proper as the rulers of the Rouran Steppe Confederacy are overthrown and replaced by the vassal-turned-enemy the Göktürks, and briefly touch on the Khitan Tribe of Manchuria. We then go through the reign of Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi, who will initially lead his newfou...

In the post-557 world, the three new major powers of China must confront the wide ranges of changes and struggles they must each face now that the political order of the entire empire has been turned on its head. This time, we look at the situation in the south as Northern Zhou and Chen vie for control over the central reaches of the Yangtze River. Dates Covered: 557-568 Important Figures: Norther...

This short episode covers the life of one of the great mathematicians, astronomers, and engineers of ancient China: Zu Chongzhi. In his life from 429-500 CE, he will re-create an ancient precursor to the compass that had been lost for centuries, calculate the motions of the celestial objects with a degree of accuracy in excess of 99.9%, design a comprehensive new calendar system, and derive the va...

“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades take place.” It’s an out and out brawl as everything comes to a head at once in the 550s, all across China. In the south, the Liang princes struggle against both the rebel general Hou Jing who holds the capital and the emperor, but also among themselves. In the north, Eastern and Western Wei similarly are undergoing their o...

The end of Emperor Wu’s 5-decade-long rule over the Liang Empire is jam-packed with action. Following the split between Eastern and Western Wei in the North, it seems like there’s might be peace and quiet in the South for once. But this will prove short-lived, indeed. First, Vietnam will rise up in it first major rebellion in centuries against Chinese hegemony, and then a general from the far nort...

Buddhism has taken Southern China by storm, but few more than its emperor, Wu of Liang. He’ll try to talk a monk out of setting himself on fire, have an awkward chat with the founder of Zen Buddhism, and even enter a monastery and refuse to leave, prompting his whole court to “ransom” him back by bribing the monks to kick him out. All of this while civil war ripples through Northern Wei. Time Peri...

Going back about 50 years to the beginning of the 6th century, we move South once more to visit the new Dynasty that has destroyed the Qi: Liang, and it’s founding Emperor Wu. In this first half of Wu of Liang’s reign, wars will be fought, religions will be adopted, and a massive dam will be constructed as a siege weapon. Time Period Covered: 464-517 Major Figures: Emperor Wu of Liang (née Xiao Ya...

Though Northern Wei has been a beacon of steadiness amid the ephemeral Southern Dynasties, its time has come to an end. Wracked by ineptitude and betrayal, weighed down by jealous Empress dowagers, ambitious generals, and infant emperors, and with a society split between traditional customs and the new normal, it will devolve into civil war, mass purges, and – ultimately – a permanent split betwee...

Please check out Stephen Guerra's The History of the Papacy Podcast at http://www.atozhistorypage.com We continue our look at Northern Wei at the dawn of the 6th century. The imperial bookends will be Xiaowen - the chief proponent of sinicization among the Tuoba Xianbei - and his son Xuanwu, a placeholder in just about every sense of the term. The real drama will unfold around two of Xuanwu's wive...

While the South of China self-destructs time and again, the North is undergoing its own revolutionary shift - not of dynastic head, but something even more fundamental: total social re-organization - from Asian Steppe Society, to one trying to out-play the Chinese at their own game by switching social structure, language, dress, and even taking the ancient Chinese capital as their own in the latte...

The successor state to Liu Song will start off strong, but it will soon hit the rocks of instability, rebellion, and overthrow all in just a little more than 2 decades. At the dawn of the 6th century, its end will largely parallel its beginning. Time Frame: 479-502 CE Major Participants: Xiao Daocheng (Emperor Gao of Southern Qi) r. 479-482 Xiao Ze (Emperor Wu of Southern Qi) r. 482-493 Xiao Zhaoy...

The fates have not been kind to the Liu Song Dynasty. It keeps rolling the monarchy dice, and they keep coming up crazy-eyes. Emperor Ming will start strong, but descend into cruelty and paranoia. His successor seems to have just been born bad, and the final monarch of the dynasty won’t have enough time fall one direction or the other before a rising star will unseat him, and Liu Song altogether,...

In the mid-5th century, Southern China is at a boiling point. Between the decade reign of Emperor Xiaowu, and the 1-year abomination of his son Liu Ziye, there will be rebellion, murder, torture, and incest... so, so much incest. All of leading toward a terminal decline for the Liu Song Dynasty. Period Covered: 453-465 CE Important Figures: Emperor Xiaowu (Liu Jun)r. 453-464 Prince Liu Yigong Prin...

Emperor Taiwu has been described as "Northern Wei's Teddy Roosevelt", and overshadows many of the Tuoba emperors to follow his reign of conquest and war. But the most forgotten of those successors, his grandson Emperor Wencheng, may have actually been far more responsible for the longterm success and stability of Wei than most realize. Though Taiwu gets all the glory for conquering the North, poor...

The decade long détente between the South and North will be shattered in 449 by a series of tit-for-tat campaigns by both sides, resulting in the destruction of much of the lands south of the Yellow River. But it will be assassins, not soldiers, who will most drastically shape the fates of both Northern Wei and Liu Song, one right after the other. [WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?] Dates: 446-453 Cast...