The Master of Demon Gorge: A Chinese History Podcast

Regarding the major Qing Dynasty historian Zhang Xuecheng (1738-1801).

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A chapter in the Daoist text Zhuangzi that launches a sustained attack on Confucianism, through the mouth of a notorious criminal.

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One of the most influential thinkers -- and his most influential work -- in the history of Chinese democratic thought.

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Until the advent of modern scholarship, the earliest definitive date in the chronology of Chinese history was 841 B.C. What happened that year that so marked the calendar?

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Regarding the Han Dynasty physician Zhang Zhongjing.

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Regarding the Song Dynasty architect and scholar of architecture.

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Everyone knows that Shang Yang reformed the laws and institutions of the State of Qin, setting it up for superpower status and paving the way to the Qin Dynasty. But a number of earlier reformers prefigured Shang Yang. Here are two of them.

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The story of the deeply influential Ming Dynasty philosopher.

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The 6th century B.C. statesman of the State of Zheng promulgated the first published criminal code in Chinese history. Moreover, it is through him that we know how the ancient Chinese understood the nature of the soul.

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The hedonist tradition in Chinese philosophy.

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