The China History Podcast

Once dubbed "the richest man in the world" back in his day, the first half of the 19th century, Wu Bingjian 伍秉鉴 was a leading figure in the pre-Opium War world of foreign trade. He's best known as someone who epitomized the "bad old days" of The Canton System. He's a well-known name from this period in Chinese history. but like many prominent names, little is known about his life story. He was quite a fascinating character in his day.

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It must have been three or four years ago that I started bouncing this idea off Janie about a discussion regarding historical fiction rooted in Chinese history. Janie, being a successful writer of this genre, was perfect to have this discussion. Today the historical fiction genre is quite substantial and new authors are publishing new content online and in print every day. Many of these novels are set against the backdrop of Chinese history (in China or Overseas). The way historical novelists present this history to life can be very engaging and relatable. I hope you enjoy this CHP Special episode as much as I did. This is such a huge topic to discuss

Janie's list of books & Buy links at her website: https://janiechang.com/books/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JanieChangWriter | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janiechang33/

TIME Magazine article: The Risky Journey That Saved One of China’s Greatest Literary Treasures: https://time.com/5852229/saving-chinese-encyclopedia/

RACE THE RISING SUN: A CHINESE UNIVERSITY’S EXODUS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR by Chiao-Min Hsieh and Jean Kan Hsieh https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/race-the-rising-sun-chiao-min-hsieh/1123966361 or https://www.amazon.com/Race-Rising-Sun-Chinese-Universitys/dp/0761841482

TEACHING IN WARTIME CHINA: A PHOTO MEMOIR 1937 – 1939 by Edward Gulick: https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Wartime-China-Photo-Memoir-1937-1939/dp/0870239120

Amitav Ghosh – Opium War Trilogy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibis_trilogy  https://amitavghosh.com/

Lisa See Author Page -- https://lisasee.com/

Yangsze Choo -- https://yschoo.com/about/

Weina Dai Randel -- https://weinarandel.com/

Barry Hughart series -- https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/barry-hughart/

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With the 18-part History of Chinese Philosophy series finally out of the way, we're back with all new CHP content. Here's one that introduces the life of one of my favorite Hollywood legends, Mr. James Hong. He's someone with a great Hollywood story who thrived as an actor, despite all the well-known challenges faced by Asian American artists throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood. This episode looks at his life and work. To call him a prolific actor and voiceover artist is quite an understatement. James Hong, 壽比南山！

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Firstly, hats off to Emma and her 团队 at the CYZ for all their hard work, all season-long. We close out the season 9 with an amusing story from a source, as yet never featured on this long-running educational program, called the Guòtínglù 过庭录. The author was Song literary figure Fàn Gōngchēng 范公偁 who had the misfortune to be born during the exact time when the Northern Song ended and the Southern Song began. In this tale, our young hero Sūn Shān 孙山 heads off to the capital to take the imperial exam. Another villager tagged along who also registered to take the test. One passed the test and the other was Míng Luò Sūn Shān 名落孙山. It's a nice little story infused with some of the best of Chinese culture and a dollop of human decency. That's it for Season 9. I may post a few director's cuts of previous CSP episodes during the off-season. All these CSP episodes will soon be published in the Summer catalog of Earnshaw Books. There will be vocabulary lists, tone marks, and characters. Just sayin. Thanks, everyone and drink plenty of water this summer. Keep yourself hydrated!

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For this 18th and final episode in the series, we'll focus on the rival philosophies of Lu Xiangshan 陆象山 and Zhu Xi 朱熹。 We'll also look at more of the philosophy of Wang Yangming. Then we'll end it with a few loose ends and mentions of The Five Elements and Zou Yan’s 邹衍 Alchemy. I'll also recommend a book called “The Path.”

My deepest thanks to all of you who endured all 18 episodes. I hope you found that it was useful and beneficial for your own further study of Chinese Philosophy. Onward to all new material next time.

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We're almost at the end. We continue on in Part 17 with Zhu Xi and his philosophy. There will be more discussion about Qi, Han Studies (Han Xue) and the pushback against Neo Confucianism. We begin looking at the final philosopher in this series, Wang Shouren (a.k.a. Wang Yangming). Then we look at the primary difference between the Cheng-Zhu School vs. the Lu-Wang School.

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Season 9 is starting to wind down. For the ninth chengyu of the season, we take Sima Qian's "Record of the Grand Historian" and open to the chapter on Xiang Yu. This time we look at the story of Xiān Fā Zhì Rén 先发制人. In this well-known story from the fall of the Qin Dynasty, we see Xiang Yu and his uncle Xiang Liang seizing the day and the hour to attack Qin forces and bring the dynasty to an end. But before they do that, they first weigh their options by talking with the governor of a local commandery. After one short meeting with this guy, Xiang Liang decides not to wait to see what happens next. He realized 先发制人.

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We'll finish off the Five Founders of Neo Confucianism with the last two, the Cheng Brothers: Cheng Hao 程颢 and Cheng Yi 程颐. Then we'll explore Neo Confucianism through the life of Lu Jiuyuan 陆九渊, also known as Lu Xiangshan 陆象山. and Xin Xue 心学, the School of the Mind. Neo Confucianism also gets a new name: Song Xue 宋学 o Song Studies. We'll also introduce Lu Xiangshan's biggest rival in his day and one of the giants of Confucian philosophy, Zhu Xi 朱熹. In the next episode, we'll examine the life and thought of Zhu Xi.

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In this episode we begin our look at Neo Confucianism. In English, we called it that. But in Chinese it was referred to in other ways, most commonly as Sòngxué 宋学 (Song Studies) since the foundation was poured during this dynasty. The concept of Qi 气 will also be discussed. Then we'll head straight to The Five Founders of Neo Confucianism: Zhou Dunyi 周敦颐, Zhou Dunyi’s Taiji Tu 太极图 Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate, Shao Yong 邵雍 and Zhang Zai, Cheng Yi 程颐, Cheng Hao 程颢, 张载, Yin and Yang, the Five Elements and the Five Constant Virtues. A lot to cover. Enjoy!

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For the third time on the CHP, I'm featuring another episode from Empires-An Asian Business Podcast, this time featuring India's watch and jewelry giant, Titan. Empires, from Singapore's 1UpMedia is one of the top shows in that region that explores some of the biggest business empires in Asia and the founders who built them. This time Empires features the story of Xerxes Desai and the Titan Company Ltd. They manufacture fashion accessories like jewelry, watches, eyecare, fragrances, fashion accessories, and Indian dress wear. The Jewelry division is the largest contributor to the group, making up nearly 80% of the business, followed by Watches and Wearables at 8-9%. Titan's products are sold through a combination of direct sales and franchising, with nearly 3,000 stores across over 400 towns in India, covering a retail space equivalent to about 60 football fields.

Check out Empires on your favorite podcast app. There are so many great podcast shows coming out of Asia. And this is one of them. Enjoy!

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/titan-in-about-time-1-5/id1674467595?i=1000657648597

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5RFFgeGbcpMjWdjNAzhT0l?si=fb96ba282b964a4f

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