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Cover of A New Imperial Age: Nine Classics of the Tang
A New Imperial Age: Nine Classics of the Tang
Reading the Chinese Classics, Season 7
Completed · 128 episodes
Buy for ¥198.00
Audio in Chinese
Yang Zhao: Why Spend Ten Years Teaching the Chinese Classics? A Golden Age and Tang Poetry Are Not the Whole Story of the Tang 1.1 How Did Conservative Antiquity Produce an Anthology of Love Poems by Men and Women? 1.2 Was “Palace-Style Poetry” Simply Poetry about Debauchery in the Palace? 1.3 Yu Xin: What Is a Typical Palace-Style Poem? 1.4 Shen Yue: How Do Women Differ through the Eyes of Men, Women, and Shoes? 1.5 Xie Tiao: What Was His Secret Technique for Writing “Amorous Poetry”? 1.6 Xie Tiao and Bao Zhao: How Do Men and Women Differ When Separated from Their Partners? 1.7 The Devoted Bao Zhao: Can a Thousand-Year Promise Withstand the Pain of Parting? 1.8 Xiao Zixian: Why Do People with Lovers Suffer More? 1.9 Yu Xin: Can Lovers Overcome the Barriers of Time and Space? 1.10 Systematic Rhyme Change: Who Represents New Songs from a Jade Terrace? Why I Won't Watch the Japanese Drama First Love Three Times | Year-End Review 2.1 The Popularity of Tang Poetry: Literary Inevitability or Political Design? 2.2 From Emperor to Commoner, What Special Skill Did Everyone in Tang Love? 2.3 Variants by Wang Bo and Lu Zhaolin: Do Eight Five-Character Lines Make Regulated Verse? 2.4 Luo Binwang, “King of Allusion”: What Magical Power Does Friendship Hold? | A Summer Visit to Dezhou for Gao 1 2.5 What Kind of Person Could Profoundly Influence Luo Binwang? | A Summer Visit to Dezhou for Gao 2 2.6 Technique and Deep Feeling: Why Luo Binwang Merits the “Four Masters” Title | A Summer Visit to Dezhou for Gao 3 2.7 Yang Jiong: How Can Hope Be Found in Sorrow? 2.8 Luo Binwang: Which Is More Convincing, “Joy of Joining the Army” or “Hard Is the Road”? 2.9 How Did Wang Bo Expand the Form and Realm of Parallel Prose? | Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng 1 2.10 With “Four Beauties” and “Two Difficulties,” Why Does Joy Still Turn to Sorrow? | Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng 2 Yang Zhao: How I Watch Films and Make Programs | Bonus 3.1 “Following the Zhenguan Precedent”: Remembering a Golden Age amid Chaos 3.2 Confucian Statecraft for Emperors: How Do You Make an Emperor Less Imperial? 3.3 Self-Restraint, Broad Listening, and Reconciliation: Cultivating an Enlightened Ruler | The Way of the Ruler 1 3.4 History as Mirror: How Can a Throne Be Passed Down for Generations? | The Way of the Ruler 2 3.5 To Govern, Must One Restrain the Urge to “Act”? | The Way of the Ruler 3 3.6 Even Tiny Policy Errors Can Harm People and Society | Political Institutions 1 3.7 Emperor Taizong on Emperor Wen of Sui: Diligence Cannot Cure Autocracy and Suspicion | Political Institutions 2 3.8 Wang Gui's Rhetoric: How to Praise Others while Elevating Yourself | Appointing the Worthy 1 3.9 Was Wei Zheng Forced to Be Emperor Taizong's “Mirror”? | Appointing the Worthy 2 3.10 Why Could Imperial Palace Construction Trigger Rebellion? | Accepting Remonstrance 1 3.11 Must a Ruler Accept Others Pointing Out His Faults? | Accepting Remonstrance 2 3.12 How Magnanimous Was Taizong When Ministers Remonstrated? | Accepting Remonstrance 3 3.13 Criticizing Gaozu and Disparaging Taizong: How Bold Was Wei Zheng? | Accepting Remonstrance 4 3.14 What Kind of Government Keeps Faith and Principles? | Accepting Remonstrance 5 3.15 The Danger of Absolute Power: Behind Taizong's Openness Was His Habit of Error | Conquest; Penal Law 4.1 Why Did the Historical Tripitaka Master of Tang Travel West Alone? 4.2 Buddhism's Scale: Even the Great Tang Was Only a Small Part of the World | Author's Preface 1 4.3 Lands beyond Tang: India, the Western Regions, and Nomadic Peoples | Author's Preface 2 4.4 Foreign Ideas: Is Studying Buddhist Doctrine Alone Enough to Seek Buddha? | General Account of India 1 4.5 What “Peculiar Habits” Did Indians Have? | General Account of India 2 4.6 How Did Xuanzang Systematically Describe His “Impressions of India”? | General Account of India 3 4.7 Were Indians More Benevolent and Sincere than Chinese People? | General Account of India 4 4.8 A Divine Wedding and Demonic Hell: Fantastic Legends of Magadha | Magadha 1 4.9 Building Stupas and Stone Chambers: Emperor Ashoka Becomes a Devout Disciple | Magadha 2 4.10 What Happens as Life Ends and the Dharma Declines? | Magadha 3 5.1 How Was an Enlightened Monk Replaced by an Indian Monkey? 5.2 Why Is Journey to the West Not a Simple Buddhist Story? 5.3 Worldliness and Human Feeling: How Well Could Wu Cheng'en Write Foolish People? 5.4 Repetitive Verse and a Narrow Worldview: Is Journey to the West Not a Good Work? 5.5 Ignorance and Emptiness: Why Does Nothing Change after Ten Years Westward? 5.6 Is Xuanzang's Caricature Linked to a Closing of the Chinese Mind? 5.7 Supreme Imperial Power and a Distorted Public Mind: Why Must Tang Monk Fetch the Scriptures? 5.8 Is Journey to the West “Profound Nonsense” or a Religious Allegory? 5.9 No Doctrine, No Ethics? Wu Cheng'en and the Early Modern Chinese “Unity of Three Teachings” 5.10 Ambiguity between Good and Evil: Is Sun Wukong Right to Slay Demons? 5.11 Are Family Affection and Human Relations the Best Standard for Right and Wrong? 5.12 Monsters Obsessed with Ethics: The Ideology of Early Modern Fiction 5.13 Human or Monster? Restoring the Blurred Face of Sha Wujing 5.14 Is Zhu Bajie's Incorrigible Nature Due to “Not Being Clever Enough”? 5.15 Appearing as a Woman, Can Guanyin Escape Gender Discrimination? 6.1 Why Han Yu Ranks First among the “Eight Masters of Tang and Song” | Reply to Li Yi 1 6.2 To Write Well, Must One First Learn to Be a Good Person? | Reply to Li Yi 2 6.3 Trade Writing for Fame and Profit, Lose Freedom | Reply to Li Yi 3 6.4 Is an Absolute Principle Worth Dying For? | Eulogy to Bo Yi 6.5 Why Can Someone Full of Learning Still Fail at Life? | Discourse on Advancing in Learning 1 6.6 If Fortune Fails You, What Is Learning For? | Discourse on Advancing in Learning 2 6.7 Should Choosing a Teacher Have Nothing to Do with Age or Rank? | Discourse on Teachers 1 6.8 Seek a Teacher's Answers for Lifelong Growth | Discourse on Teachers 2 6.9 What If the Demon of Poverty Won't Leave You Alone? | Farewell to Poverty 1 6.10 Speaking of “Poverty”: Cruel Fate or Superhuman Will? | Farewell to Poverty 2 6.11 Can Even Crocodiles Be Cowed by an Imperial Official's Authority? | Sacrifice to the Crocodiles 6.12 Was Han Yu Too Naive to Ignore Struggles for Power? | Memorial on the Buddha's Bone 1 6.13 How Did Han Yu Rebut Religious Fervor? | Memorial on the Buddha's Bone 2 6.14 Mountain Temple at Dusk: Seeking a Simple, Untroubled Spirit | Mountain Rocks 6.15 Han Yu “Sought Antiquity,” Yet Even Criticized Confucius? | Song of the Stone Drums 7.1 Born to an Aristocratic Clan, Did Liu Zongyuan Still Need the Civil-Service Exam? 7.2 How Unlucky Could a Son of a Declining Aristocratic Family Be? 7.3 Institutional Evolution: A Shattering Political Challenge | Discourse on Feudalism 1 7.4 The Birth of Empire: Why Did Feudalism Leave the Historical Stage? | Discourse on Feudalism 2 7.5 Is Centralized Power a Necessary Institution? | Discourse on Feudalism 3 7.6 Reversing the Verdict with Reason: No Excuses for Harmful Government | Discourse on Feudalism 4 7.7 How Much Turmoil Can Two Letters between Great Writers Cause? | Letter to Han Yu on the Office of Historian 1 7.8 Han Yu Did Not Want to Be Historian—Why Did Liu Zongyuan Object So Strongly? | Letter to Han Yu on the Office of Historian 2 7.9 Without an Official Historian's Post, How Did Liu Zongyuan Record History? | Discourse on Heaven; Anecdotes of Governor Duan 7.10 How Can Writing Spur an Old Friend Who Has Slacked Off? | Anecdotes of Governor Duan 2 7.11 The Art of Leadership: Can Someone Unable to Fix a Bed Leg Be a Master Builder? | Biography of the Carpenter 1 7.12 Can an Official Be Free to Resist Imperial Authority? | Biography of the Carpenter 2; First Banquet at West Mountain 7.13 Landscape and Local Custom: Beginning a Free and Leisurely Journey | Journey to Yellow Creek 7.14 A Fool of His Time: A Dream Conversation with the Spirit of a Stream | Dialogue at Fool's Creek 7.15 The Tragedy of the Donkey of Guizhou: A Masterpiece of Three Animal Fables | Three Admonitions 8.1 Tang Tales: Recording Strange Human Affairs without Having to “Convey the Way” 8.2 How Did a General's Daughter Become an Elite Assassin? | Nie Yinniang 1 8.3 Human Limitations Revealed in a Thrilling Assassination Tale | Nie Yinniang 2 Extra | When Poetry Rises to the Surface: From Nie Yinniang to The Assassin Extra | Hou Hsiao-hsien Is Nie Yinniang, and Nie Yinniang Is Hou Hsiao-hsien Extra | If The Assassin Is Hard to Understand, Is the Director Really to Blame? Extra | From Nie Yinniang to Nie Yao: A Film about Assassination—and Renouncing It 8.4 Did Murakami's Invisible Man Originate in a Tang Tale? | The Disembodied Soul 8.5 Crossing into Another Realm and Marrying a Princess: A Wine-Loving Knight's Drunken Adventure | The Governor of Nanke 1 8.6 How Did a Wandering Knight Become Governor of Nanke? | The Governor of Nanke 2 8.7 Even the Most Beautiful Dream of Wealth and Rank Must End | The Governor of Nanke 3 8.8 On Reflection, Perhaps We Are Not So Different from Ants | The Governor of Nanke 4 8.9 Why Does a Mysterious Old Man Give a Profligate Three Great Fortunes? | Du Zichun 1 8.10 Is the Most Painful Torment in an Illusion Being Reborn as a Woman? | Du Zichun 2 8.11 Indeed, Love Is the Greatest Obstacle on the Path to Immortality | Du Zichun 3 8.12 Extraordinary People and Powers: Hidden Figures Living among Ordinary Families | The Kunlun Slave 8.13 How Did Zhang, Who Kept His Distance from Women, Fall Lovesick? | The Story of Yingying 1 8.14 The Tale's Silences: Why Does Cui Yingying Keep Changing Her Attitude toward Zhang? | The Story of Yingying 2 8.15 Cherish the One before You: How Often Can Old Love Truly Be Renewed? | The Story of Yingying 3 9.1 How Did China's Golden Age of Historical Writing Fall into Decline? 9.2 Is a Powerful Court the Greatest Obstacle to Historiography? 9.3 How Far Can Curiosity and Passion Carry a Person? | Autobiographical Postface to Generalities on History 1 9.4 Holding the Historian's Brush but Unable to Write the History You Envisioned | Autobiographical Postface to Generalities on History 2 9.5 A Book for Posterity: A Historian's Pain and Sincerity | Autobiographical Postface to Generalities on History 3 9.6 How Can One Uphold Historical Principles in the Wrong Age? | Autobiographical Postface 4; Against the Times 9.7 Book of Documents: The Source of History—and the Beginning of Political Texts | Six Schools 1 9.8 Spring and Autumn Annals: How Does Chronological History Conceal Subtle Judgments? | Six Schools 2 9.9 Discourses of the States: How Did State-by-State History Disappear from Chinese Historical Writing? | Six Schools 3 9.10 Records of the Grand Historian: Why Is Writing a Comprehensive History Such a Thankless Task? | Six Schools 4 9.11 Did Liu Zhiji Criticize Records of the Grand Historian Because He Failed to Understand Sima Qian? | Two Forms 1 9.12 Are the Classics Really Superior to Historical Works? | Two Forms 2 and Narrative 1 9.13 Is the Absence of Good Histories Really Only the Historian's Fault? | Narrative 2 9.14 Why Is Writing History Concisely Harder than It Seems? | Narrative 3 9.15 Finale: A Method for Concise Narrative—Four Approaches and Two Techniques | Narrative 4