Jin Yong – Sword of the Yue Maiden

Last episode, we talked about Jin Yong’s background. This episode, we dive into a relatively short text by Jin Yong, one of the last he wrote, “The Sword of the Yue Maiden.” This is the story of a King made a slave by a neighboring king, and his quest for vengeance. In it, he comes […]

Jin Yong – Part 1

This podcast, we take a look at the life and times of Jin Yong, along with the genre he came to define, modern kung fu literature. We explore Jin Yong’s path to becoming China’s best selling writer, putting out more books than JK Rowling. We also look at the January 17th, 1954 kung fu match […]

Sima Qian – Letter to Ren An

This week is the last in our Sima Qian series, but it is also definitely the best. We look at how Sima Qian lost his testicles while sticking to his principles. We consider the conflict between him and Emperor Wu that percipitated his castration. I also make a big announcement.  Here is the Transcript:  My […]

Sima Qian – Biography of the Capitalists

Today, we take a look at Sima Qian’s Biography of the Capitalists, chapter 129 in the Records of the Historian. This chapter is Sima Qian’s two-millennia old defense of free market capitalism. The chapter is one of the most interesting his oeuvre because Sima Qian was condemned for it by later historians. 

Sima Qian – Southern Yue People

Today, in the second podcast in the Sima Qian series, we take a look at some of the first literary evidence we have for the Nan Yue, the People of the Southern Yue, the ancestors to modern-day the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi in China and the people of Vietnam. Sima Qian describes the Han […]

Sima Qian – Series Introduction

Sima Qian is not only the first historian in Chinese history, he is also one of the greatest writers that China has ever produced. Today, writers of Kung Fu novels point to Sima Qian’s stories on fighters and assassins as the origins of the Kung Fu genre. Chinese business people point to his “Biography of […]

Children’s Book – Peek in the Farm

Today, we do something different. We take a look at a children’s book that was originally written in English, and then translated into Chinese. Strangely, the translation into Chinese was done in a way that took the English and translated it into classical poetic forms that hark back to the Tang Dynasty. Journey with me […]

Huang Zunxian Goes to Hong Kong

Huang Zunxian, a diplomat and revolutionary of poetry in the late Qing Dynasty, visited Hong Kong when he was only twenty-two. His experience in the British colony was his first real encounter with foriegners, and it sparked an abiding interest in issues outside of China. In this episode, we take a look at two of […]

New Year Podcast

Rob and I did a New Year Podcast, and I wanted to keep up that tradition. In this podcast, I talk about teaching and update yall on a few things.

Su Dongpo Goes to Trial for Poetry

Today, in our last episode of the year, we look at 1079 when Su Dongpo was tried for a poem. Bitter partisan fighting, liberals versus conservatives…except for the great poetry, this Song Dynasty fight might remind you of something closer to home.  Economist Article Mentioned in the Episode https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/12/07/giving-the-poor-a-wodge-of-cash-is-better-than-dripping-it-out My Translation Carrying [the government money] […]

A Man and His Rock

Political allegory? Straight-ahead love story? Supernatural adventure? All of the above? Lee and Rob discuss the story “Rare Stone from Heaven” (tr. Hu Shiguang) from the renowned collection Strange Tales from Liao Zhai (《聊斋志异》), and debate just how literally you can read a story about a man’s love affair with a rock.       […]

Moonstruck: Wandering the Galaxy with Li Bai

When people in China think of poetry, two names come immediately to mind: the Tang Dynasty (618-907 B.C.E.) poets Du Fu and Li Bai. In part two of our discussion of these greats, we take a look at one of Li Bai’s most famous works, and discuss why he’s our go-to Tang literary figure to […]

Grief in a Fallen City: Du Fu’s Ever-Present Histories

When people in China think of poetry, two names spring to mind: the Tang Dynasty (618-907 B.C.E.) poets Du Fu and Li Bai. In this first of a pair of podcasts on their works, we examine a well-known poem by Du Fu and discuss why the poet was both the greatest master of Chinese poetic form, […]

High Plains Drifter: Li Shangyin

Though not as famous as his predecessors, Li Shangyin, the premier poet from the Late Tang, is an amazing poet. Furthermore, his adoration for Du Fu and other Tang poets helped create the cult of the Tang that is still going on in China. In today’s podcast, Rob and Lee take a look at a […]

Revolution or Reform: A Discussion of the May 4th Movement

Talk to anyone in China, and they will telly you that May 4th, 1919 is the day that modern China began. Everything before that is feudal, everything after that progress. But is it really that black and white? Rob and Lee take a look at the May 4th Movement, both a political and literary event, and try to […]

A Male Mencius’ Mother

On today’s podcast, Rob and Lee discuss a story that is relevant to today’s America as much as it is to  China: Male Mencius’ Mother, a sort of medieval Chinese version My Two Dads. In the story of A Male Mencius’ Mother, we find ourselves in Fujian, on the edge of Chinese civilization, purportedly an […]

‘Cause I’m the Taxman: The Voyages of Yu Gong

The Tribute of Yu (禹貢) is one of the oldest mythological texts related to Chinese statehood. Yu was a semi-mythical god-king who traveled around the nine states noting what each of these states had that was worth giving as tribute to the emperor. The text is almost certainly not as old as it purports to […]

Emperor Shen’s New Groove: Song Dynasty Exam Reform

Have you ever heard about China’s intense exam culture? Much like its East Asian counterparts, China both loves and loves to hates its exam system. The most infamous, the Gaokao, determines the testtaker’s college choice, and even major in some cases. What if we told you that this exam culture had more than a thousand […]

How to Be A/Political: The Seven Books of the Sun

Dead just months before the June 4th massacre in Tiananmen Square, Hai Zi is held up as the great “pure” poet of contemporary China, unconcerned with politics. But how true is that? We discuss his epic work, The Seven Books of the Sun, by way of grappling with the question.           […]

Narration and Revolution: The True Story of Ah Q

How does a low-life moron become one of the great tragic figures in modern Chinese culture? Lu Xun’s 1921 novella The True Story of Ah Q, a masterpiece of the May 4th Movement, presents just such a situation. We discuss the story’s unique narrative choices, and Lu Xun’s varying reception in Taiwan and mainland China.     […]