The Master of Demon Gorge: A Chinese History Podcast

In the previous episode we looked at how climate change in the Roman Empire paralleled climate change in Han Dynasty China and contributed to the rise and fall of both empires. Today, let's examine how pandemic diseases in both ends of Eurasia also coincided to help to bring down both empires. In Rome, the Antonine Plague came in the second century, the Plague of Cyprian in the third, and Pla...

In his book, "The Fate of Rome," Prof. Kyle Harper argues that much of the history of the Roman Empire can be attributed to climate: the period known as the "Roman Climate Optimum," around 200 B.C. to 150 A.D., neatly encapsulates the rise of the Roman Republic through its transition into Empire until the beginning of its decline during the age of the Antonines. The Han Dynasty...

Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov, Marshal of the Soviet Union, is chiefly remembered in Russia as the iron-willed commander who successfully defended Stalingrad against Nazi assault during WWII. What has been largely forgotten is that Chuikov learned to speak Chinese and spent years in China. Before Stalingrad, he served as a military advisor to none other than Chiang Kai-shek... Support the show

The tea plant, Camellia sinensis, originated in borderlands of southwestern China and what is now Burma. For many centuries, though, people didn't consume tea the way we do it today. Drawing on work by Prof. Miranda Brown, this is the story of Lu Yu, the Tang Dynasty comic actor and author who taught the Chinese literati, and later the whole world, how to drink tea. Support the show

Ni Kuang, the hyper-prolific leading light of Hong Kong science fiction, died in early July. This is his improbable legend, from his beginnings as a boy communist in Mainland China to his days as a refugee smuggling himself across the border to his ultimate success and achievements in Hong Kong. It's almost as improbable as the adventures he invented for his protagonists. Support the show

Henri Cernuschi, an Italian revolutionary who became a French banker, came to collect East Asian and particularly Chinese artifacts later in life. Today, a walk through the Cernuschi Museum in Paris is amounts to a stroll through Chinese history. Support the show

As discussed in the previous episode, the rediscovery of the Mogao Caves at the beginning of the 20th century has immeasurably enriched our understanding of Silk Road history. The story of that discovery itself is full of drama and involves some incredibly fascinating scholar-explorers. Sven Hedin, Aurel Stein, Paul Pelliot, Langdon Warner, Kozui Otani, and Sergey Oldenburg all helped to bring the...

If you ever get a chance, make sure to visit the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang. In today's Gansu Province, the town of Dunhuang, situated on the historic Silk Road, witnessed a thousand years' worth of travelers: merchants and pilgrims, holy men and knaves, and not only Chinese but members of many races speaking many languages. And, starting in 366 A.D., they began to leave in these caves spec...

Quite likely the greatest female poet in Chinese history, Li Qingzhao might be deemed a Sappho of the East or the Emily Dickinson of China. Living during the Song Dynasty, Li Qingzhao came from an extraordinary family background and received the best possible education in imperial China. As a teenager, she already wrote better verses than most of the men who attained the jinshi degree in the civil...

Two of the longest-reigning emperors in Chinese history ruled during the Qing Dynasty: Kangxi, who sat on the throne from 1662 until 1722, and his grandson Qianlong, who ruled from 1735 until 1799. The figure sandwiched between them was Emperor Yongzheng. Son of Kangxi and father of Qianlong and to some extent eclipsed by both, Yongzheng was in fact an important and highly competent ruler. His com...

A handful of women are remembered in Chinese history and popular imagination as the epitome of feminine beauty. One of them is Xishi. Living in the 5th century B.C., Xishi played a key role in the longstanding rivalry between the Kingdoms of Wu and Yue. In the centuries since, though, she has endowed the Chinese language with a number of expressions that we cannot do without. Support the show

Sure, we've already done an episode on Three Kingdoms. But so many interesting characters and gripping tales come from that era, both as history and in fictionalized form from "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms," that we can easily do a dozen episodes or more. This time, let's focus on the trio of men whose friendship opens the novel and serves as the through line for much of t...

Certain literary figures loom so large in Chinese culture that they substantial define the nature of that culture for all posterity, not to mention live in eternal acclaim. One such figure is Su Shi, also know by his nom de plume Su Dongpo, "Dongpo" meaning "Eastern Slope." Su Shi lived during the Northern Song Dynasty in the 11th century. Though he came from arguably the most...

He's known by several different titles: the Marquis of Haihun, the Prince of Changyi, and Emperor Feidi of the Han Dynasty. Sadly for him, "Feidi" means "the abolished emperor." This is the story of the man who sat on the throne for all of 27 days before getting fired. But it's also the story of the famous minister, Huo Guang, who held such sway at court that he could...

The time: May, 1645.  The place: the city of Yangzhou, not far northeast of the capital of the surviving Southern Ming government, Nanjing.  A year earlier, Manchu cavalry had swept south from Manchuria to take Beijing. As far as history books are concerned, the Qing Dynasty already replaced the Ming. But Ming loyalists still gathered in the south, determined to resist the "barbarians."...

One man spearheaded the effort in the early 20th century to modernize the Chinese language. One man revolutionized the study of Chinese literature and philosophy. One man served as the Chinese ambassador to Washington during the pivotal days before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The same man. His name was Hu Shih. Support the show

With each example being over 3,000 years old, it's the oldest form of Chinese writing yet discovered. But the "oracle bones" bearing this script went unrecognized through the centuries. It was not until the end of the 19th century when an imperial mandarin finally understood their significance and, in so doing, expanded our understanding of Chinese history. Support the show

Country. State. Nation. English has three different words for three closely related but distinct concepts. Chinese makes do with a single character, 國, pronounced "guo." And historically "guo" has been applied to very different entities: The various Warring States were called "guo," as were fiefdoms and duchies contained within the empire, as were distant foreign cou...

The Parisian life of the man who taught Europeans how to speak Chinese... and inspired Montesquieu.  Support the show

Unfortunately for learners of Chinese as a foreign language, it is quite difficult. One major reason for its difficulty is that the language is packed with allusions to the ancient past. These may be in fixed forms as "chengyu" or as quotations or stories from history that one is simply expected to know. Here are a few illustrative examples that I recently encountered. Support the show

News coming out of Mariupol in Ukraine reminds me of an episode from the Second Sino-Japanese War, what eventually became a part of WWII. As the Chinese military was forced to withdraw from Shanghai in the face of a superior Japanese army in October 1937, one regiment stayed behind to guard a strategically located warehouse to cover the retreat. Soon, "the Eight Hundred Brave Warriors" b...

“A man loses his horses, and yet who is to say whether it is benefit or bane?” It's a common Chinese proverb, and it refers to a fable contained in  Huai Nan Zi , a Han Dynasty book of Daoist thought written by a prince of the imperial family and his group of friends. The fable has had a long and varied life. It has been quoted, or misquoted, in texts and media from the book "The Biggest...

This past Tuesday was the Qing Ming or Tomb-Sweeping Festival, one of the major holidays of Chinese tradition. What is it? When? And Why? Support the show

Outside of East Asia, the impression many have of Chinese culture is that Confucianism is its dominant school of thought and essential organizing principle. But, in truth, Confucianism was only one school among many in its time, and even today it remains only one of several major philosophical traditions that shape the Chinese soul. Daoism, or Taoism, for one, has been at least equally influential...

Everyone knows his name by now. The law graduate who became a comic actor, the actor who became president, the president who became a wartime commander-in-chief. What has been relatively unremarked upon is Zelenskyy's apparent appreciation for history, particularly ancient history. And he seems to understand history in a way that makes the antique past a source of strength for him. He seems t...