The Master of Demon Gorge: A Chinese History Podcast

The third-longest reigning emperor in Chinese history, Wudi (meaning "the Martial Emperor") of the Han Dynasty (r. 141-87 B.C.) sent legendary generals sallying forth from the Chinese heartland for the sake of conquest. Their campaigns and his heavy-handed imperialist policies vastly expanded China's territories. But the wars were terribly costly in both human and economic terms. And although some conquered territories became inseparable parts of China, many other victories proved ephemeral.Wudi's influential reign, then, raises an Eastern version of that fraught and complicated question: Imperialism--what's it good for?Support the show

What does the First Opium War in China have to do with the First Anglo-Afghan War and the disastrous British retreat from Kabul? Everything. Here is a story about the scarlet thread that runs through history.Support the show

When you've been to a place personally, then that place is no longer theoretical, no longer just an abstract idea that you may hear people mention on the news. Travel has a way of making the world both real and personal.In 2015, I traveled through Afghanistan, visiting Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul, and Herat. Recent news about its now all-but-certain fall to the Taliban makes me reminisce about that beautiful country and to reflect upon the course of history.A "special episode."Support the show

Troubling news on the climate front keeps on coming, which makes me think of the Anshi Rebellion. Begun in 755 A.D., the uprising led by An Lushan and Shi Siming, two Sogdian (modern Afghan) men in the service of the Tang Empire, brought an end to China's golden age. Emperor Xuanzong himself became a refugee. And according to census data from the period, the war killed two-thirds of the Chinese population. Steven Pinker at Harvard deemed the Rebellion the greatest atrocity in human history.But, nearly 13 centuries on, is it with a measure of optimism that I note that my ancestors survived this event? And so did their culture?Support the show

Thanks to Hollywood, many of us around the world grew up with the tale of Mulan, and recently a new version by Disney has introduced it to a new generation. Everyone knows the basic plot: When war comes, and the emperor orders every family to provide one man to serve in the army, Mulan, a young woman, disguises herself as a man and enters the service instead of her aging father, ultimately rising to be a great hero.But what was the original legend? The literary source is "The Ballad of Mulan," most likely written in the 5th century A.D. during the North and South Dynasties. This was a period of disunion in China and saw the mass migration into the country of many ethnic groups at the time considered "barbarians." Mulan belonged to one such ethnic group, the Xianbei. Indeed, the "Ballad" tells us as much: in it, it is not the "Emperor" who decrees that every family should supply one man; it is the "Khan." The war in question was most likely the one began in 429 A.D. between the Xianbei kingdom called Northern Wei and the race known as the Rouran. And by the end of Mulan's adventures, the Khan offers her the position of a cabinet minister. She turns him down and asks simply to go home.So in her own time, Mulan might well not have been considered "Chinese." But, 16 centuries on, the Mulan legend is indisputably a part of Chinese tradition. Who decides which story is "ours" to tell and which isn't? Does Disney have just as much right to take liberties with it as the many Chinese authors who have done so over the centuries?Support the show

The Chinese never called it "great" and still don't. In large part, it was the foreigners who taught the Chinese to elevate the Wall to a national symbol and object of pride. But should it be? Throughout Chinese history, since the First Emperor ordered the construction of what we now see as the first iteration of it, the Wall has been a Janus-like symbol representing both strength and tyranny. Perhaps that is simply the nature of walls: a contraption that keeps outsiders out must in some ways also constrain those within, whether physically or spiritually and intellectually, so that nowadays we speak of the "Great Firewall" of China.Support the show

"Even if only three households remain in the Kingdom of Chu, the Chu will still prove to be the death of the Qin." This was the prophecy circulating around China during the last years of the Qin Dynasty. A brilliant cast of characters were about to put that prophecy to the test: Xiang Yu, the dashing young hero and greatest warrior of his generation; Lady Yu, his faithful wife and the most beautiful woman in China; Liu Bang, the middle-aged small-time crook who seemingly had done little with his life and yet possessed the gift of leadership; Han Xin, the impoverished young man desperate to prove that he could be somebody; Zhang Liang, the son of displaced aristocrats whom others often mistook for a woman but who might have been the wisest of them all...This episode immediately follows the previous one on the end of Qin Shi Huang. And it is the story of how one of the most important dynasties in Chinese history came to be.Support the show

Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor, did a lot of stuff. He burned books he didn't like and buried their authors alive. He ordered the construction of the Great Wall. He standardized the Chinese language. And he sought the elixir of immortality, believing that his dynasty ought to last for a thousand years.But in the end, death comes for us all, even emperors and empires...Support the show

As the soon-to-be Qin Shi Huang or First Emperor stood on the verge of total conquest of the Six Kingdoms, the crown prince of the Kingdom of Yan made a last ditch effort to stop him. He recruited a most unusual man and entrusted him with the mission of assassinating the would-be ruler of all that was under heaven. In the over 2,200 years since this most celebrated of assassination attempts, Jing Ke has become legend: one man with a dagger standing against the might of an empire. In the Chinese imagination, Jing Ke represents freedom from tyranny, even if tyranny ultimately won...Support the show

Today the Chinese Communist Party celebrated the centennial of its own founding. The CCP nowadays often identifies itself with Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor, for his record of reunifying China after a prolonged period of division. Never mind that his dynasty lasted all of 15 years; never mind that he is mostly remembered as a brutal tyrant.Moreover, although everyone knows that Qin Shi Huang reunified China in 221 B.C., no one is certain whether he was even his own father's son. And that was just one of the many scandals and palace intrigues of the Qin court during this period...Support the show