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Cover of Messages from Ancient China: Eight Pre-Qin Classics
Messages from Ancient China: Eight Pre-Qin Classics
Reading Chinese Classics, Season 1—from the Book of Documents to Xunzi
Completed · 137 episodes
Buy for ¥198.00
Audio in Chinese
Yang Zhao: Why Spend Ten Years Discussing the Chinese Classics? Xu Zidong: Chinese Classics of World-Historical Importance Tang Nuo: We All Try to Explain Difficult Things in Easier Language Liang Wendao: There Are Many Ways to “Be Chinese” Yang Zhao: Challenge What You Take for Granted About “China” 1.1 Back to the Western Zhou: Your First Step into the Book of Documents 1.2 The Tragic Fate of the Book of Documents 1.3 Two Versions of the Book of Documents—which Is Reliable? 1.4 The Deeper Reasons Behind “Pirated” Ancient Chinese Books 1.5 How and in What Order to Read the Book of Documents 1.6 China’s First Prohibition Order 1.7 What Worried Governments Three Thousand Years Ago? 1.8 The Documents of Shang: Finding Wisdom in a Confused Account 1.9 How Did Early Leaders Exercise Political Power? 1.10 Rethinking the Formation of Chinese History Through the Book of Documents 2.1 Did Writing Have a Sound from the Beginning? 2.2 The Songbook That Changed History 2.3 The Self-Cultivation of an Ancient Aristocrat Bonus | Did the Classic of Music Really Exist? 2.4 Set Interpretation Aside: The Best Way to Read the Book of Songs 2.5 “Guan Ju”: A Simple Little Love Song 2.6 A Model Narrative Love Poem 2.7 “The Peach Tree” and “Gathering Plantain”: Did the Zhou Have Hip-Hop? 2.8 “Gathering Duckweed”: Why Was Collecting Water Plants So Particular? 2.9 How Did the Book of Songs Become a Language of Diplomacy? 2.10 The Book of Songs Is Not Fundamentally About Hidden Grand Meanings 2.11 “Plums Are Falling”: A Zhou Woman Eager to Marry 2.12 “Cypress Boat”: The Same Loneliness Across Millennia 2.13 “The Gourd Has Bitter Leaves”: A Poem That Defies Explanation 2.14 “The Gentle Wind”: Can You Bring Warmth to Your Mother? 2.15 “Valley Wind”: An Angry, Grieving Divorced Woman 2.16 “The Faithless Man”: Marry Me When the Leaves Turn Yellow 2.17 Poetry as an Outlet for Emotion 2.18 “The Quiet Girl”: A Boy Ecstatic with Love 2.19 War Orphans and Romantic Desire 2.20 Songs We Have Sung for Three Thousand Years 3.1 Why Does the Zuo Commentary Add Thirteen Years to the Spring and Autumn Annals? 3.2 The Spring and Autumn Annals Is Not the History Book You Imagine 3.3 Was “Rulers Rule, Ministers Minister, Fathers Father, Sons Son” Confucius’s Obsession? 3.4 Why the “Spring and Autumn Style” Arose and What It Changed 3.5 What the Zuo Commentary Does: Beginning with an Incestuous Story 3.6 How Do You Record an Age of Moral Collapse? 3.7 Dynastic Twilight: An Emperor Left Unburied for Six Years 3.8 The Feudal Order Was a Paper-Thin Barrier 3.9 The Uncle Remained an Uncle, but the Nephew Was No Longer a Nephew 3.10 The Coming “Darkest Hour” 3.11 “Little People” Recorded in History Q&A | Two Interpretations of “Zhu’er” 3.12 Rival Powers Rise: Heroes Need No Pedigree 3.13 How to Understand the Language of War in Classical Chinese 3.14 The Flirtation That Destroyed a State 3.15 Behind Endless War: China’s First Great Flowering of Political Philosophy 3.16 The Mockery That Led to Regicide 3.17 The Spring and Autumn Hegemon: Demanding Both Appearance and Substance 3.18 “Any Man Could Be Her Husband”: A Phrase Only Zuo Commentary Readers Understand 3.19 The Loyalty Debate: Loyal to the State or the Ruler? 3.20 How the Spring and Autumn Hegemons Arose and Ruled 4.1 Three Mysteries of the Analects 4.2 The Significance of History’s First Teacher 4.3 Was Confucius the First Human-Resources Expert? 4.4 Teachers and Students Besieged by Their Age 4.5 Confucius’s Fierce Oath and His Joy 4.6 How Did Confucius Choose a Son-in-Law? 4.7 Confucius’s Teaching Methods and Ideas 4.8 Confucius Without Ritual Propriety 4.9 The Analects Is a Book of Warm, Living Stories 4.10 The True Meaning of “Do Not Look Unless It Is Proper” 4.11 How Did Confucius Talk Back to His Disciples? 4.12 The Heart of Ritual Is Genuine Feeling 4.13 Why Mourn a Parent for Three Years? 4.14 Confucius Did Not Teach Large Lectures 4.15 Can You Appreciate Confucius’s Humor? 4.16 Confucius Tailored His Teaching to the Person 4.17 Why Did Confucius Give a Different Answer Each Time? 4.18 The Best Way of Life in the Analects 4.19 How Can We Find Heartfelt Joy? 4.20 Confucius’s Tragic Heroism: Acting Though He Knew It Could Not Be Done 5.1 Why Is the Book of Changes So Fascinating? 5.2 Heaven, Earth, and Nature Are All Trigrams 5.3 Great Possession: The Mystery of an Auspicious Hexagram 5.4 Are Allusions to the Book of Changes Everywhere Around Us? 5.5 Tracing the Book of Changes: Chiang Kai-shek and the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms 5.6 Reading a Philosophy of Life from Hexagrams 5.7 Steps for Escaping Difficulty 5.8 A Survival Guide in the Book of Changes 5.9 Things Are Not as Bad as They Seem 5.10 The Central Idea of the Book of Changes 6.1 Mozi, Master of Both Civil and Military Arts 6.2 A Man Without a State Who Fought for Common People 6.3 The Mohists’ Ten Core Beliefs 6.4 Was Mozi the First to Call for Universal Love? 6.5 Debate: A Commoner’s Way of Reasoning 6.6 Practical Ways to Promote Inclusive Care 6.7 Has Anyone in History Loved Others as Themselves? 6.8 Is Universal Love Too Idealistic? 6.9 Everything Begins with Treating Others Well 6.10 Hardcore Mohists: Thinkers and People of Action 7.1 A Live Broadcast of Warring States Debate 7.2 Promoting Benevolence and Righteousness Through “Self-Interest” 7.3 The Deeper Meaning of “The Pot Calling the Kettle Black” 7.4 Will the First Maker of Burial Figurines Die Childless? 7.5 Are the Benevolent Truly Invincible? 7.6 A Confucian Forced to Debate 7.7 Mencius’s Standards: Beneath Him to Discuss Hegemony 7.8 Why Must a Gentleman “Keep Away from the Kitchen”? 7.9 Why Shared Moral Unease Matters 7.10 How Do You Convince a Ruler Completely? 7.11 Mencius’s Confidence and Tragedy 7.12 What Is the Gravest Form of Giving Up on Oneself? 7.13 The Agriculturalists: A Forgotten Warring States School 7.14 Politics as a Profession 7.15 Only Valuable Ideas Deserve to Last a Thousand Years 7.16 Debate as a Dynamic Search for the Best Answer 7.17 Good Teaching Must Begin with Real Human Nature 7.18 Mencius’s Philosophy of Mind: Understanding Human Nature 7.19 Is Goodness Innate? 7.20 A Philosopher Who Left the Study 8.1 Xunzi, the Confucian “Heretic,” Appears 8.2 Two Confucian Schools: The Distance Between Us and the Sages 8.3 Xunzi, the Warring States Contrarian 8.4 Changing Ideas Reveal a Changing Age 8.5 Distinguishing the Gentleman from the Hypocrite 8.6 Confucianism Transformed: Xunzi 8.7 What Use Is Confucianism? 8.8 Were They Almost Perfect Ministers? 8.9 Building the Confucian “Brand” 8.10 Can Human Beings Be Changed? Bonus | The Original Sin of the Book of Documents as the Oldest Political Record Bonus | The Book of Songs Helps Us Return to First Feelings Bonus | The Zuo Commentary, a History of All-Under-Heaven in Decline Bonus | Analects: Confucius Does Not Need Me to Defend Him Bonus | Book of Changes: Yang Zhao’s Limited-Time Divination Column Bonus | Mozi: Repetition Is an Important Style Bonus | Mencius: What Was Mencius’s Zodiac Sign? Bonus | Xunzi: I Dislike Him, but He Is Too Important Yang Zhao: Return to China’s Axial Age Special | The Making of a Taiwanese Teenager