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The History of China Podcast
The History of China Podcast episodes
- Uncovering Yinxu: How Oracle Bones Revealed the Shang Dynasty
Explore how the 20‑plus‑thousand oracle bone inscriptions and bronze workshops unearthed at Anyang transformed myth into tangible evidence of China’s first state, exposing early writing, metallurgy, and social organization that shaped centuries to come.
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18 min - Haijin Unveiled: How Ming’s Sea Ban Sparked a Shadow Trade Revolution
In 1371, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang’s haijin policy aimed to crush pirates and control silver flow. The ban instead ignited an underground maritime economy that reshaped coastal commerce, fueled smuggling networks, and laid groundwork for China’s later commercial boom.
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18 min - Dadu Rising: Kublai Khan’s Yuan Capital That Shaped Beijing
This episode traces how the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan founded Dadu, modern‑day Beijing, as a strategic capital that linked the northern steppes with southern grain provinces. We explore the city’s Chinese‑style urban axis, massive infrastructure projects like the Grand Canal, and its lasting influence on Chinese political geography and cultural fusion.
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14 min - The Boxer Protocol: China's Humiliation That Forced Qing Reform
In 1900 the Eight‑Nation Alliance’s siege of Beijing forced the Qing dynasty to sign the Boxer Protocol, a punitive treaty that imposed huge indemnities and foreign troops in the capital. The agreement ignited the New Policies of 1901 and set China on a reluctant path toward legal, military, and industrial reform.
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17 min - From Bone Needles to Silk Roads: Tracing China’s First Symbols
Explore how the Upper Cave people of Zhoukoudian forged early symbols—bone needles, shell beads, and bone ornaments—that hint at identity, status, and ritual in 19,000‑year‑old burials. Follow their legacy through the rise of silk trade and the Mogao Caves, a living archive that records how those symbols evolved into grand cultural exchanges across Eurasia.
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20 min - Decoding the Liangzhu Cong: Jade, Ritual, and Royal Power
Explore how Bronze Age jade congs from the Liangzhu civilization reveal elite status, ritual symbolism, and early Chinese concepts of authority—unpacking the mystery behind those carved faces that once marked the graves of Yangtze Delta aristocracy.
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18 min - The Red Turban Rebellion: From Floods to Empire
Explore how devastating floods, economic hardship, and millenarian zeal sparked the Red Turban uprising that toppled the Yuan dynasty and birthed the Ming. The episode traces the movement’s religious networks, military strategy, and its lasting impact on Chinese governance.
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19 min - From Failed Exams to Empire‑Shattering Visions: Hong Xiuquan and the Taiping Rebellion
This episode traces how Hong Xiuquan, a Hakka scholar who failed the imperial exams fifteen times, turned Christian visions into a massive revolt that challenged Qing rule. We explore the cultural, religious, and political forces that fueled his movement—and why the Taiping Rebellion remains a pivotal moment in Chinese history.
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18 min - Song Dynasty's Commercial Revolution: From State‑Led Growth to Global Trade
Explore how 11th‑century Song China sparked a commercial boom—rice yields, paper money, movable‑type printing, and global trade networks—shaping the world’s first sophisticated market economy.
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17 min - When Daoism Embraces Buddhism: A Secret Handshake that Shaped Chinese Spirituality
Explore how Daoist masters borrowed Buddhist monastic models, rituals, and institutional frameworks to forge a distinct spiritual tradition. From the Celestial Masters to Quanzhen, see how this cross‑fertilization reshaped religious life and state politics across centuries.
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19 min
About The History of China Podcast
From the publisher's feed
Explore thousands of years of Chinese history, from the earliest dynasties and ancient kingdoms to imperial expansion, revolution, modernization, and the development of contemporary China. The History of China Podcast examines the rulers, philosophers, generals, inventions, wars, political movements, religions, and cultural traditions that shaped one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations.
Episodes journey through the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the rise of Confucianism and Daoism, the Qin unification, the Han Empire, the Three Kingdoms, the Tang and Song golden ages, Mongol rule, the Ming and Qing dynasties, foreign intervention, the fall of the imperial system, the Republican era, civil war, and the major transformations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The show also explores the Silk Road, Chinese technology and science, art and literature, military strategy, trade, regional cultures, everyday life, and China’s relationships with neighboring civilizations and the wider world.
Whether you are fascinated by ancient empires, famous battles, philosophy, political history, or the long-term forces that shaped modern China, the podcast provides detailed stories and historical context across centuries of change. The History of China Podcast is hosted by Josh Linsk.