Posts Categorized: Ancient

Elon Musk’s Chinese Poem – On Beans and Brothers

It has happened again. For the second time this year, a billionaire has used a Chinese poem on social media in a newsworthy way. And you know we had to deal with it! This week, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, tweeted a Chinese poem about fraternal problems. The poem, which he titled “Humankind” (in […]

China’s First Poem – Guan, Guan Goes the Osprey

This week, Rob and Lee go back to the very first poem in all of Chinese literature. The first poem in the Classic of Poetry, “Guan, Guan Goes the Osprey” has been interpreted and reinterpreted so much that it has become a staple of the canon. Rob and Lee discuss this, though, of course, this […]

Nie Zheng, Assassin

Today, we dig back into a podcast recorded several years before but never before aired. The topic is Nie Zheng (聂政), a story in the biography of the assassins, in Sima Qian’s Shiji. The story may be one of the early predecessors to Kung Fu film and literature.

Chloe Zhao and the Three Character Classic

Today, we are rebroadcasting an episode that we did on the Three-Character Classic in honor of Chloe Zhao’s quoting of the text during the Oscars. The audio quality is a little…well, you’ll hear. We apologize. Just think, it has only been a year since we recorded this and already we are this much better. 

Supplement #3: A Little Primer of Tu-Fu, by David Hawkes

This slim little volume has a whole lot packed into it. Not only does it give the reader a concise history of a crucial moment in Chinese history, but it also beautifully explains to a non-Chinese audience just why Du Fu was so brilliant. 

Pu Songling, Part 3: Painted Skin

Pu Songling knew quirky and charming, but he also knew scary, too. Take a listen to Lee and Rob discuss what is arguably the most famous story in Strange Tales from Liao Studio: a macabre exploration of monsters, Daoist magic, and a wife so dedicated that she’ll do…well, pretty much anything to save her husband.

Pu Songling, Part 2: The Painted Wall

Hogwarts before there was Hogwarts. Heck, Dorian Gray before there was Dorian Gray! Pu Songling was there first. Take a listen as Lee and Rob discuss the story of two men, a priest, and a painting that gets a little too lifelike.

Three Character Classic – 三字經

The 三字經, usually translated as the Three Character Classic, is a fascinating text because it functions like a “my first Confucian text.” Children were given this text when they were quite young and asked to memorize the book, teaching them moral lessons that would prepare them to master the real Confucian classics later in life. […]

Laozi

This work of Daoism is one of the most translated books in the world. But what is it really about? Rob and Lee explore the Laozi (he probably was not a real person, so we call him the Laozi or the Lao tze) and a passage from his Dao De Jing.