This isn't really the official start of
class, but I just thought I wanted to
start with this new like big game that
just dropped and it's like making waves
I guess in video game communities across
the world. And this game for the if you
haven't heard of it, that's totally
fine. The main character is Sumuku Kong
and the the game is based loosely on
this great Chinese novel of the 16th
century Journey to the West Cog. Yeah.
And the thing is uh so have you heard of
the Monkey King or Sumukong? Some of you
have heard of him. Some of you may have
not have heard of him. That's okay. He's
like a real iconic figure in Chinese
culture. You could say literature.
uh he's not a historical character
although the journey to the west is a
historical journey uh taken during the
Tong dynasty to India to retrieve
Buddhist sutras and all of that um but
starting in like the southern song
dynasty don't worry you'll know all of
these dynasties pretty soon we cover all
of them this semester starting in about
like I'd say the 11th century this
figure of a monkey uh as kind of the the
the sort of accompany the the the
accompany of this main t uh you know
monk character came to the foreground
and his character evolved over the
centuries and I think one of the reasons
why he's so beloved in China is he's
like this fearless person right he's he
laughs in the face of danger because
he's like a monkey right so it makes him
very beloved and makes him like sort of
very interesting um he's also kind of a
force of chaos in a sense uh is that he
literally makes a mess of heaven even uh
he gets in trouble with the Jade Emperor
all of these really great stories, but
in that sort of his sort of causing
chaos where he goes, he forces truth to
come to the surface. He's got the power
to see evil where evil is sort of
latently present. Uh so you can see
here, I just thought I'd say a few words
about him. There's a there's a big
debate in Chinese history about where
monkey comes from. where the character
of Sumukong comes from. Hooser, the
great early 20th century intellectual.
You don't have to know him exactly, but
he's a big name. He actually envisioned
that monkey may have come from the
Ramayana, from the character of Hanuman,
the sort of protector of King Rama. Uh,
and there are there is a serious theory
that that is actually the origin of his
character. Lucin disagreed with that
theory. Actually the other big 20th
century great writer of Chinese history
had another theory. You can see over the
centuries this is from a very early
edition of the novel. This is from the
uh summer palace in Beijing. Right? So
the literally depictions from the novel
like sused you know uh big you know
artistic uh scenes in late imperial
China. Uh this is from a temple in
Vietnam and you can see here this is
monkey and shrines right. So he enters
religion, popular religion and of course
big opera, right? Opera for performances
of Journey of the West, the character of
Monkey and all of that. So I thought
that I would just say just really if
you've been thinking about this video
game or you want to go check out this
video game at the beginning here, he's
been beloved across generations. Every
era sort of reinvisions him. You know,
this is Princess Iron Fan. This is a
story from Journey of the West.
Incredible. This is China's first
animated film, 1941, made in Shanghai
during World War II. And it's kind of
like Monkey at that time. You think
about the War of Resistance against
Japan, right? All of the symbolism with
that. Somebody mentioned that they saw
the 1986. Oh, where's my 1986? There's
my 1986. Journey to the West. This a big
TV series. You can get it all on YouTube
for free. Really fun. This actor who
plays Monkey is really incredible. Like
he's comes from like an oporatic
tradition. He really carries that forth.
Late editions of Monkey, recent editions
of Monkey have kind of shown him to be
like hyper masculine and muscular and
everything like that. It's actually not
necessarily how he's been portrayed
historically, but again, it tells us
something about how his character
evolves over time. All right, that is
the sort of prelude. Now, let's actually
get into dynastic China. This is
probably how you thought I would begin
the class, which makes total sense,
right? Forbidden City. Some of you went
to Beijing this summer. Some of you have
been to Beijing, I'm sure. This is like,
you know, the tragedy with the Forbidden
City is once you see this palace, you
can't go visit any other palace. They
all just look so silly in comparison to
this Versailles. I mean, forget about
it. It looks like a house. [music] I
mean, seriously, this I mean, it's the
largest palace structure in the world.
It's I've been I've visited probably
five times over my lifetime, and every
time it's different.
When you go in the summer, there's not a
lot of shade. You get killed by the sun
in the crowds. I went on an academic
sort of with an academic delegation this
summer. So, we went to all these like
secret places and that was really,
really fun. But this is a place you
absolutely have to visit. There's so
much of Chinese history [music] in this
palace in the center of Beijing. And
I'll just say actually one funny thing
about it is this palace was so nice that
when the Mans [music] invaded China in
the 17th century, they said, "We'll keep
the palace." They moved right in. How
often does that happen when somebody
invades say we'll keep the White House?
No, no, I we could do better than the
White House. They kept this one. Okay.
Okay. So, this is actually a Ming
Dynasty palace that was used right up
until the early 20th [music] century.
Today, a museum. Okay. All right. I
thought I was thinking about like how do
you even introduce this subject? Right.
This is like it's I love this subject.
I'm sure you got that from my email.
Okay. Uh I I I'm so excited to share
about this subject with you. And I
realize there's never a good way to get
into this subject because it's so big.
It's so much to cover. But I'll just
say, let's look at a map right here.
Okay, this is, as you could imagine,
Beijing, right? This is the Forbidden
City. This is the palace. I think this
map is from about the 1950s or something
like that. And there's these three quote
unquote high to the to the left, right,
to the to the western side of the
Forbidden City, right? Anybody know what
those three high are? with those three
lakes. Anybody have you anybody visited?
Have you been to Bay High Park? It's
okay. It's okay. Let me just tell you
there are three lakes there. Okay. The
top lake is the northern lake. Okay.
That was an imperial garden and that is
today a public park. You can access that
one. The second one and the last one are
the middle lake in the southern lake.
That's Jong Nan High. Have you Have you
ever heard of Jong Nan High? That's
where the head of the communist party
is. That's basically where the nominally
the Cinping lives and everything like
it's kind of like the White House and
the Kremlin together. Okay. Very very
big place. Those two lakes are not open
to the public. That area is like the
compound of the I think you know the
center of the party's power structure
basically. So there's so much right just
in this little how many kilometers of
space. Okay. China history from th
hundreds of years ago all the way up to
history going on today. Right? So the
thing I love about this term is that the
word high means sea, ocean or lake. In
Mongol actually this distinction you can
imagine why is not really made between
ocean and a big body of water. And sort
of some Chinese dialects over the
centuries adopted that or also had that.
So you can kind of see here I I think
and I know this might be sort of a
little corny to say but I want to just
say it here at the very beginning and
I'll just say it once. It's like Chinese
history is like a sea or an ocean. Okay.
That's it's big. It's how do I say it?
It's vast. It's beautiful and it's
difficult. It can be dangerous. Right?
Of course I'll talk about how history
can be dangerous in just a second but
it's not like perhaps other kinds of
history you've studied thus far. Um,
I'll just say that, you know, I started
studying it however many like almost 20
years ago. I will be a student of it for
the rest of my life. I'll never be able
to master this, right? It's not
something you master. It's just too much
stuff. Okay? But that's the thing. This
class, what I can do is I'll take you to
the ocean and I'll say in that first
time you see the ocean, right? Think
about that. Think about where you were,
especially if you didn't grow up near
the sea, right? The first time you saw
the ocean, you say, "Wow, that's a
beautiful site." Or, "Wow, that's so
interesting. Look at the waves.
Whatever. Whatever. Whatever. That's
what this class can do. It's like we're
I'm going to show you across time, okay?
From the Joe dynasty, from the origins
of writing in China, which is Chong
Dynasty, but whatever. Han dynasty, the
medieval period, all the way up to the
early modern era. I'll show you
something about every era that I think
is interesting, okay? That I think
you'll appreciate. And then it's up to
you to go from there, okay? So, so I'll
take you to the sea. You can swim
however you want to you however far you
want to swim. I'm still swimming. Okay.
So that's what we're going to do. This
is okay. Dynastic China 2024. Okay. So
let me say something at the outset here.
What I'll do today is I'll introduce
Chinese history in the broadest possible
terms. How do we think about it? Some
key terms. We'll go over the syllabus,
the requirements for the class, and then
I'll talk we'll I'll give you a
geographical tour of China, which is
really fun. Actually, it's really fun
just to go talk about food and here's
this province and here's this province.
The rest of the class won't be like
that, but you do need to know the
geography of China. There will be a quiz
in a couple of weeks. Okay, this is the
forbidden city that we were just talking
about. And you can see here, this is
this is I think the largest single hall
within the palace complex. This Taiuen,
the hall of supreme harmony. Okay, this
a Ming dynasty structure. That's don't
get overwhelmed. Uh that's like let's
say a 15th century structure. Okay. Uh,
and this is basically where the emperor
had major audiences. Weddings were held
here. Enthronements were held here. And
you can see it's right here. It's right,
it's kind of like in the almost looks
like the center. It's like right in that
central access. Okay, that's where it
is. There's another place and it's not
like a famous place. The place of
everlasting spring. This chun.
Okay, it's in the back. It's right over
there. I highlighted it right there. I
bring out these two sort of parts of the
palace to you because in a way they kind
of represent two tides of Chinese
history or two ways of thinking about
Chinese history. Okay, there's junction,
right? Official history. What is
official history? Now, when you think
about history in China, don't just
think, oh, I'm sitting down. I'm
thinking about history. Oh, that's so
fun. No sh refers to a k a kind of
writing. It's a genre of writing. There
are officially 24 official histories
across China, Chinese history. The
dynasty that follows the previous
dynasty writes the official history of
its predecessor. Okay. Ironically, we do
not yet have an official history of
theQing dynasty, the last dynasty.
That's an ongoing big football project
of of a game of, you know, tension
within China today. Okay. How to write
that history of the last dynasty. but
quoteunquote we have 24 um that's this
official history you know emperors
dynasties battles natural disasters
recorded by state authorities okay but
then there's something else okay that's
not all we look at that's not all we
talk about there's also this kind of
idea in Chinese of yes wild history
that's outside things that happened in
the past that are not in those official
histories but are still worthy of
talking about that are still worthy of
remembering. Okay. And that's like
folklore, families, women, popular tales
not recorded by state authorities. And
you know, so you one way you can think
about Chinese history is that it's the
tension between these two things. Okay?
It's like also going back to the sea
metaphor, high tide and low tide,
whatever you want to say. Okay? There's
the stuff that's officially recorded. On
this day, the emperor said this, but
then there's all this unofficial stuff
that we piece together and say what was
really going on. Okay, this what is so
great about Chinese history is that you
actually don't need a textbook. There
are so many sources. There's art,
there's so much writing, there's private
writing, there's writing by scholars,
there's debates, there's so much you can
look into. But take a look at again that
sort of palace. What I said is that
looking at itself at the palace, it kind
of tells you a story about Chinese
history. This is that sort of like
juncture type of place. The things that
happened in the hall of supreme harmony
are recorded in official type of
histories. But the stuff that happens in
the rear of the palace, this is the
hogong. That's where the imperial family
lived. Okay? That's actually where they
lived. They didn't live in the front of
the palace. This is a that's an
expression in Chinese. Hogong, the back
of the palace. That's the imperial
family. That's where they actually
lived. And that's where all of By the
way, if you watch Chinese dramas, family
dramas, they're all about that. Okay?
Nobody really cares about this, but
they're all about that, right? What's
going on? the the romance, right? All
this stuff, you know? Yeah, sure. Wild
history has a lot more to it than just
that, okay? I'm not endorsing any drama,
by the way. Uh but but but it's a way to
think about it. This is an incredible
hall. We will return to it in the last
class of the semester because in this
palace of everlasting spring and the
rear of the palace, on its walls are
depicted murals of the probably the
greatest novel of Chinese history, Hong
Mong, A Dream of the Red Chamber. images
from that novel uh were painted on the
walls of this kind of residential
complex for the imperial family uh you
know one of the consorts in the 19th
century that sort of uh p that that
those scenes or that novel is all about
a family in decline right so it's
actually I've always thought it's
extremely moving and thoughtprovoking to
think that the emperor that the imperial
family has these images on that wall
okay all right So let's talk about why
would you even take this class? Okay,
why talk about dynastic history? Why get
into it? Well, the the answer could be
because like China's a really important
place today, right? I think it's going
to have the largest economy in the
world, whatever. It has the second
largest population. It's an important
place. There's a lot of interesting
technological developments going on with
that, you know, all of that stuff. My
favorite of which are these like robots
that I'm sure if you've been to China
recently, I'm sure you've encountered
these. If you stay in a hotel and you
get takeout,
somebody brings it to the hotel front
desk and then this this Gichi red this
robot sends it to your room so you don't
have to actually talk to any human
beings. Okay, this was a this was a
thing that came in during COVID, I
think, and now it's just like standard
across the country. So, I mean, you
could set you get medicine, you get all
this stuff like that, but it was like my
first night in China this summer. I was
I arrived at like 1:00 a.m. for a
conference and then this like I got a
phone call and this it was like a
robotic voice and it said, "I'm here."
And I'm like, "What's going on?" And
then, "Please open the door." And I open
the door. It's one of these. And they
go, "Please press this button." And I
press the button and then it's like and
then there was this like rice and like
all this food, right? And it's like
they're walking all over these hotels,
right? And they even say like, "Please
excuse me. I need to get to the
elevator." So, it's I don't know why we
don't have them yet, right? And and and
and if any budding anthropologists in
the room, there's so much to study about
these these robots, right? About how
humans interact with them and such like
that. But yes. Okay. So, I understand
the current scene of China is worth
paying attention to is is is relevant,
is important. Okay. But then we get back
to this question, why study dynastic
China? One reason, okay, is that if you
spend time in China and you talk to
people in China, people in China talk
about their history all the time. Okay,
from from the top leadership all the way
down to everyday people, people driving
cabs that you'll meet, you know, just in
day-to-day life. Okay, history really
matters in this place. Okay, it's the
way that people talk about issues in the
present. Um, it also is really
contentious, right? I just mentioned to
you this kind of like question of the
official Ching history. There's been an
ongoing project to write the official
Ching history in theory since the days
of like Mao and Joe and Lie. It started
and then it stopped because of the
cultural revolution and then it got
started again in recent years and now
it's kind of again controversial. How do
you officially record that history? That
should tell you something. There's all
of these debates. There's all these
tensions that go on within China about
how to understand what happened in
dynastic China. Okay, we don't pay
attention to Well, the Wall Street
Journal did a cover of it. Okay, but
that kind of signals its importance,
right? So, I do not think in any way
that this class, Dynastic China, is less
relevant or less practical than modern
China. I'd say if you had to pick, take
this one. Forget about modern China.
Okay. the 20th century. It's a tough
century. This we cover a lot more
centuries here. Okay. So, you get more
bang for your buck. Okay. But they're
both good. I mean, they're, you know,
take it take it in 2026. Yeah. Okay. Um,
so now let me tell you another reason
kind of building on what I was just
talking about is that people in China
like to talk about their history. They
have a long there's a long recorded
history in China. So, that means there's
a lot to talk about. There's a lot to
debate and there's a lot to analyze. I'm
sure many of you may be familiar with
this opening sentence. Has anybody read
Sanguani, Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
I think m Professor Dung has a class on
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Some of
you might be taking it or want to take
it. You should you should take it. It's
an interesting This is another one of
those two those great novels. Okay, we
talked about Journey to the West a
little bit earlier. This is Romance of
the Three Kingdoms and there's a this
opening lines of it right this
writes there's a saying there's a saying
in our country that
you know long divided it must unite long
united it must divide think about that
for just a second and then let me show
you this quote okay by Mark Elvin 1973
the Chinese empire is the major
exception in the preodern world to what
would appear to be the rule that units
of territorial and demographic extent
comparable to China are not stable
entities over long periods of time. So
one of the things where you say why look
at it, why study it? Why think about it
is because actually this kind of does
seem to happen, okay, that there are
periods of division where everything
falls apart, okay, and it looks like,
okay, this is going to be Italy and this
is going to be France and this is going
to be Switzerland and then all of a
sudden it comes back. Rome comes back.
Okay, Rome comes back and it keeps
coming back and you're like, why? Right?
What's going on? Right? And people, you
know, across the centuries noticed this,
right? It was like a thing they they
noticed and talked about it or even
anticipated. That's not to overstate
continuity in Chinese history. I don't
want you to think, oh yeah, 20,000 years
ago that was China and China today it's
like the it's not the same. It's very
different. Tons of things happen. Tons
of things change. But this conversation
that we're talking about right here is
very old, right? So I think Chinese
history is good for training your mind
about how to think about big difficult
questions. You have a ton of data. You
have a ton of information. You can think
on different scales. When people do
climate history, what's the first place
they look to? They look to China, right?
Because China wrote about its climate
for people in China wrote about climate
for like thousand at least 2,000 plus
years, right? All all sort of
meteorological phenomenon, comets, etc.
All of these records are in those
histories that I was talking about, you
know? So, it's really, really great to
think about history, right? If you
haven't taken another history course
here before, this is a great
introduction. Even if you don't want to
continue with China, right? You want to
go and do England, take this class and
then go think about England, take this
class and then go think about India.
Okay? You can you can do all of that
stuff. Okay? History is ancient, but
it's an ongoing conversation and really
uh filled with nearly endless
perspectives. And here's the key point.
this class about eavesdropping into that
conversation. This goes back to that
image that I was given to you. I take
you to the ocean, you swim. Okay, you
eavesdrop into the conversation. This is
a huge conversation. Lots of people are
going to say stuff. Lots of You're going
to have dowists. You're going to have
Buddhists. You're going to have
Confucians. You're going to have
Confucians who hate other Confucians. Uh
you're going to have terrible emperors.
You're gonna have some decent emperors,
but really bad emperors, too, right? You
know, you'd have everything, right? And
the it all comes together as people over
the centuries try to make sense of it
right and that's that ongoing
conversation that conversation continues
in China to today. So you get a little
in this class you get to eaves drop on
it right think about it a little bit
okay so here are the class goals and
aspirations okay first of all let me
tell you what the game plan is and it's
like a really intimidating slide so just
buckle up okay there you go so so
basically that's the game plan okay not
this part okay so not this this part's
modern China okay so that's the thing I
take two classes one does this and then
one does this okay so so uh look what I
can tell you is I'm a historian
primarily of this era, right? The Ming
andQing dynasties, the last two imperial
dynasties. That's my specialty. That's
what I love. But the thing is is that
because this is the class you're taking
at MIT that is dynastic Chinese history.
I feel I I have to give every era its
due. So, I really try I really go out of
my way even though I'm not like the
biggest fan of the Han dynasty, you
know, like I'm I don't I I love the Tong
Dynasty as a sort of like a historian
who works on another period, but I will
give you what I think is the essentials
to know about that era. Every period
that we cover, I try to get you, you
know, that those kernels, right, that
say, "Oh, wow, that's really
interesting. I didn't know that before."
So that when you look at this by the end
of the semester, you'll say, "I know
what happened pretty much across this
whole time span, right? I know
something. I can say something about
it." Okay? And then that way you go off
in your winter holiday and you can have
great conversations with your parents,
right? Or friends or you can travel and
you can visit places and say, "I know
what that is. I know when that was
built. I know what I know what's going
on here." Okay. All right. So class,
goals and aspirations,
learn something about China. 20% of
humanity. This is a good aspiration. We
should learn something about China,
right? Especially in the United States,
right? I mean, it's credible. I have to
say it. Okay. Learn something about
history. Okay. So there's two things
here. This is a class about China. It's
also a class about history. Okay? Of
course, these things can overlap, right?
But history is a discipline. It's a way
of thinking. Okay? We have certain ideas
in history. primary sources. Secondary
sources. Okay, this is a secondary
source. This is a secondary source.
These are not primary sources. Primary
sources referring to the original
sources that were written in the
original language by people at the time.
Okay? Those are the premiums in history.
Okay? But of course, we as historians,
we write textbooks. We write books,
right? So just realize history is not in
a textbook. Okay? Textbooks are like the
least. We historians look down on
textbooks, okay? We we don't like
textbooks, right? Because with
textbooks, you have to edit, you have to
take out, you have to do that. Go back
to the originals. Make your own
textbook, right? That's what we're going
to do in this class. Okay? So, that's
that's what I want you to think about
history. I don't want to turn you into a
walk encyclopedia. Sort of I do
actually. Uh that would be nice, but to
equip you to approach related issues.
One of the things I say, and I'll just
tell you right up here, yeah, it's a
it's a contentheavy class, right?
Because I sort of I don't know if it's
oldfashioned or what, but like I think
you just need to know it, right? I think
you need to know it. You need to leave
this class in command of knowledge.
Okay? And one of the things that you
will realize, you might think, oh, this
is a lot. I, you know, why do we have to
know all this stuff? When you go to
China, you will realize that people that
you encounter in everyday life know so
much about history. Okay? They blow they
will blow away the average American
about what they can say about history
that happened 2,000 years ago. Even if
it's wrong, even if it's wrong, okay?
Even if it's just like kind of like
romanticized or whatever, but they talk
about it. They know it. So, you got to
know it. Okay? That's the That's the
thing, okay? And it's not, and let me
just emphasize here why you should take
it, why I think you should take this
class, why I think maybe this weekend
you should convince your friends to take
this class, okay? Is that it's not
something you can just pick up like with
a book. Like so many people think with
history, oh yeah, I'll I'll over the
summer I'll read a book and catch up.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You
don't. With computer science, with
physics, you don't just read a book over
the weekend and become an expert. Okay,
Chinese history is one of those fields
where you got to take a class in it. You
actually you got to drill it. You got to
know it. You got to think about it from
all these different angles and then you
can say you know something about it.
Okay, it's not actually something that
you just pick up with osmosis. Okay. Or
what you can pick up by osmosis by
reading Wikipedia and sort of bad
history, right? But that's what we're
going to try. We're going to try to do
something better than that in this
class. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And this
knowledge will stay with you. I always I
always say that. I always say that,
right? 50 years from now, let's say 30,
you graduate from MIT, you're talking to
your relatives or your children or
whatever it is. What are you going to
talk to them about? You're going to talk
to them about this class. You're going
to say, "Hey, you know, the three
kingdoms, I know something about that
because this is the type of thing that
people want to talk about, not whatever
Python or whatever, right? Like, you
know, it's like it's not it's not a
table of conversation, right? This is
this is I guarantee you I guarantee you
a holiday break of great conversations
after this class." a minimum. Okay. So,
why do I like Chinese history? Oh, wow.
Where to begin? Okay. Well, I went to
China for the first time in like right
around the right before the Beijing
Olympics. And that was me many years
ago. You can say I changed a little bit,
maybe a little bit. That's me in Taiwan.
I think I'm in a Yonga Dawang, which is
like a breakfast place. And I love it.
Right. I go like you get the you get the
dojang, the the the soy, it's soy beans,
sort of a milk substance with yo, this
fried doughnut. It's like heaven. You
know what I mean? It costs like $2,
right? And it's just like it's
incredible. Huge lines, right? Um, so
that was me. And then, okay, food. So,
it's not just about the food, but we but
we can talk about food. I don't think I
have to convince most of you. China's
got really good food, right? It's got a
ton of different types of food. Okay.
Uh, the US Chinese food has gotten
better in my lifetime, but it's still
it's that's right. It's was starting at
zero. So I mean so so the thing is is
that it is better but it good Chinese
food in the US tends to be expensive in
China you just get so much right you
have so many options everything like
that we can talk about food I have
another class called nature and
environment in China we do a whole week
on food so if you really want to talk
about food maybe consider that class but
we'll do a little bit of food here okay
uh and then this is me playing ma jang
right so what I'm trying to say what I'm
trying to say is that you get in right
when you go to a place and Maybe it
won't be China for you. It could be
Japan or it could be Mongolia. It could
be Russia. It could be
Italy. You know, something's going to
grab you. It might not be the coliseum.
It might be just like everyday life, you
know, drinking espresso, you know, in a
Florentine afternoon. And you go, I just
love this. I really love this. And then
you go, I want to learn the language,
and I I want to I want to understand
what happened here. And I want to
understand what happened here in the
19th century. I want to understand what
happened here 2,000 years ago. Okay, I
want this to happen to you. It doesn't
have to be China. It can be, right? It
could be Mexico. It could be any place,
but someplace that you weren't born in
and then you go there and you go, "Wow,
I really want to understand this place."
That's a wonderful part of the human
experience. I hope you all have it.
Okay? But that kind of happened to me in
China. Okay? And it wasn't one moment,
right? It was many meals. It was many
gambling sessions. It was it was it was
it was this is me on the many years ago
probably going to Tibet. I can't
remember, but it was on one of those
sleeper trains, you know, back in the
day. I have to say I have become like a
middle-aged Chinese person in the sense
of because I've been in China now for
the like the past 20 years and I've seen
all this change. So, I remember like,
oh, the green trains that went super
slow and like you had to stay on them
for like overnight. Like the train I
took the train from Beijing to Shanghai.
The first time I took it, it was like I
was standing. It was I was eating
instant noodles praying that they
wouldn't like tip over in a very crowded
car because we didn't even have there
weren't even tickets left for a bed,
right? I mean, and now it's like, oh,
it's it's business class highspeed rail
all the way, right? I mean, it takes
four what five hours? Five hours, right?
Five hours now, right? It's totally
changed, right? But there were a lot of
fun experiences on Chinese trains back
in the day. you talk to Chinese parents
or you talk to people of a certain
generation, they will have stories for
you about taking long, long train rides
in China. Uh, and the whole generation
who grew up in the culture revolution
have these especially. Yeah. Uh, and
then I've gone back. Oh yeah, I wrote a
book. I was there this summer talking
about my book. Right. And then, oh yeah,
the last thing I want to say. So, I got
into it. I continue to go back. I can't
tell you the number of times I've been
there. I probably live there, you know,
for a few years overall, but it's like
more every year I go for a few months.
This summer I went for, you know, a
month and a half or something like that.
The one thing that I say that really
really has struck me in terms of changes
when I first went to China, hey, how you
doing? When I first went to China, you
know, the coffee was terrible. Uh, and
it and for somebody addicted to
caffeine,
uh, it was brutal. And I had to drink a
ton of tea to make up for it, right? And
it's just like too much tea. You know
what I'm saying? Uh, but I love tea,
don't get me wrong. Coffee is now way
better. Okay, coffee I and I actually
tweeted about this like when I got back.
Coffee in China is now better than
coffee in the United States. I come back
here and I'm like, this I'm just so
disappointed. The thing is is that what
China has actually accidentally
perfected and I say is in you can also
find this in Thailand. You also find
this now in Korean cafes is nondairy
espresso drinks. And it's just it it's a
world that like Starbucks is just out to
lunch. They're not getting this. You
take espresso, you create an Americano
with sparkling water and you add lemon.
Incredible. Grapefruit. Incredible. Liy,
whatever. like all of these they call
Chongi Cafe, right? trying me cafe like
creative Americanos and I and I say like
why don't you take this global you know
this is this is the next thing I mean
this is the next bubble tea for sure but
it's like I I think that there's an
interesting thing of like they feel like
oh but maybe it's we're not doing it
right like the Italians enough with the
Italians enough with the cappuccinos we
got to go to the next phase it's all
these milky drinks it tires you out
right this is like the absolute pickup
low calorie too. Love it. So, check out
coffee in China next time you're there.
Okay, that's been an interesting change.
All right, let's talk about syllabus.
All right, so I just have like a bunch
of I usually I used to do a printout
syllabus, but then MIT students told me
that like nobody does that anymore. So,
then I felt like a historian, but in a
bad way. So, I said like, okay, let's
just put it all online, right? So, uh no
prerequisites. You're all welcome to
enroll. You can bring guests. Just let
me know. You can bring your parents.
Some people bring their parents, right?
If they're visiting, right? They want
to, you know, again, what are you going
to bring your computer science classes?
Come on. Right? You want to bring them
here, right? Okay, that's fine. Just let
me know that they're coming. Okay? Uh
it's Chinese. Chinese is not a
prerequisite. Some of you are doing a
Chinese minor. Okay? That's fine. And
for all of the primary sources that I
give you this semester, I'll try to give
you the Chinese original if you want to
look at it. If you're learning Chinese,
take challenge yourself. Take a look at
it. Right? You don't have to look at it,
but you can. So that's an option. If you
want to do the minor for this class, you
should be looking at those. Okay. Um, so
that looks good. Study guides. Okay. So
the thing is is that when I first taught
this class, it was like essays and then
I was like, I'm done with essays. I had
a I had a historical evolution at MIT
and I realized if you teach the class on
Chinese history, you got to offer an
exam. For those of you who know about
Chinese history, you know how important
exams are in Chinese history. you'll
realize, yeah, you you need an exam. So,
I just do midterm. We're going to have a
final. Don't worry. The average of the
midterm last year, it about every year
tends to be about a 90. Most of the
students who take the class, let's just
be frank here, modern China, we get 40
or 50 maybe. Mo many many people get
A's, A minuses, A pluses, whatever. Uh
some people will get B's, the occasional
C. If you get below a B, you're trying.
Okay. uh you if you get in the B range
uh it's it's you know what I mean to say
here is if you put the work in you put
the effort in there shouldn't be a huge
issue okay with getting the grade that
you want okay uh it is a challenge you
do have to study all right you do have
to study and some people will bomb the
midterm some people and everything like
that and that's that's okay it's not the
end of the world we'll figure it out
I'll show you the group here's the
grading rubric we'll talk about this
okay so first things attendance let's
say let to say something about
attendance right up at the front. There
are two excused absences over the course
of the semester. You come in, you scan
the QR code. That's how we know that
you're in class. Okay? You have two
excused absences. Just let us know.
Okay? I realize some of you want to take
this class and you have a conflict with
another class. That's a partial
conflict. Not a complete conflict, but a
partial conflict. If you have a partial
conflict and you can come to 50% of
these classes, then the Linda, the TA
and I will make an an arrangement for
you. You can come. We will not take you
down if you have a class conflict that
you show us your schedule and you show
us I have this conflict at this time and
we'll give you two extra writing
assignments over the course of the
semester. And that way we just take the
question off the off the table. So you
can but if you want that arrangement,
you got to let us know in the next week
or so, okay? Because we need to know
that. All right. So, we're happy if to
accommodate, but otherwise we're really
hoping everybody will be here, you know,
most of the time. Okay. Um, so there's
so in terms of writing, the major
writing that you will do over the course
of the semester is your discussion
responses. I'll tell you about what I
expect from those discussion responses
in just a second. There are 10 of them.
Each of them is worth two points. If you
do a decent job on them that you get the
two points, right? That's as simple as
that. You can do it late. It's worth one
point if it's late. Okay, that's just
it's just we every time like in every
semester somebody comes and says I'm I'm
didn't do any of them. I didn't know
that, you know, they were required or
something like that. Okay, just letting
you know we will accept it late. That's
what it's worth if it's late. Okay,
there's a geography quiz. All of the
quizzes and the tests with the exception
of the final, okay, there will be a
retake and it's open to everybody. Okay.
So, what that means is you come in, you
do the geography quiz. If it didn't go
well, you can take it again and I'll
just take the highest score. If you
can't make it the day of the geography
quiz because you have to take an absence
or you have one of those conflicts that
I just mentioned, that's fine. There
will be one retake. Okay? Same with the
classical text quiz, right? Where I quiz
you on with Confucious and the Dowist
and all that. One retake offered
midterm. We do one retake offer for the
midterm, too. Okay? And it's like a
totally it's a new exam. Some people
like literally take everything twice
because they just like the challenge.
I've had that. MIT students are
incredible. Okay. It's like you took
this midterm, you got a 95. I want to
take it again. All right. We're going
for that five points, right? I get I got
it. Okay. All right. Uh so there is a
timeline uh project. It's not It's not
bad. You just propose a topic. This is
where you can kind of follow your own
interests. If you want to do the history
of a certain type of fashion in China,
Chinese certain type of Chinese food,
you can follow that over time. You just
create a timeline. I give you all the
sort of way. How do you create the
timeline? That's it's not bad. And the
final exam and then that's the final
grade. One thing that we do, and I just
want to say we're really uh excited this
semester, we have a TA from the HAS
program, Linda Rinsswan, uh who's
wonderful to join us. Anthrop anth
historian his history a historian of
nuclear energy. So really really excited
to have Linda and Linda does had does
does know Chinese history fairly well.
So definitely co correspond with me,
correspond with Linda during the
semester as as I try to do in all my
classes. We'll do one sort of it's like
a required office hour mid semester. So
you come to my office, Linda and I will
greet you and we talk for 10 minutes
about whatever you want to talk about
typically about what what confuses you
in Chinese history or questions about
the midterm or questions about whatever.
Right? So everybody does that and that's
also part of the grade. Okay? So you you
you do have to do that once you're happy
to answer questions at any time. Okay?
But that's that's uh that's what we do
expect. Okay. All right. So let me just
say something final point about the
discussion posts. Okay. So, discussion
posts. Um, yes, I'll do I I've changed
this. I'll do Wednesday. I'll give it to
you Wednesday before 3:30. I'll give you
a little bit extra time than Tuesday.
So, get them in before that time, the
Wednesday class. Okay? Basically, what
you have to do is you have to look at
the readings uh and you have to answer a
question. I'll give you an example uh
for next week's discussion post just a
second. You write two paragraphs. Okay?
Uh and the the the two paragraphs,
right? I'll tell you exactly how we want
the structure of these paragraphs to
look like. You have some agency and
creativity in it. Don't worry. But I'll
tell you about what we're looking for.
Okay. Um so the thing I want to just
remind you all the facts, inferences,
uh judgments and opinions, right? How
you sort of separate out those things,
right? facts, things that we know to be
true based on evidence. Bees make honey.
Inferences, statements of the unknown,
based on the known, derived from reason,
right? Judgments, and then all the way
to opinions, like I like whatever ice
cream. Okay? When you write a post, I
don't want just opinion, right? I hate
Confucious, so congratulations. Okay?
But that's not a post. Okay? I I we want
a combo, right? You can give me the
opinion at the end in the second
paragraph. The first paragraph, we want
you to focus on facts and inferences
based on the primary sources of that
week's reading. So you look at the
question, you try to answer based on the
primary sources, and then in the second
paragraph, you can expand into judgments
and opinion. Okay? So that way you know
what we expect. You know how to do it.
All right? So laid it out, I think
really just clearly and nicely for you
there. Let's take a look at what we're
doing next week. I have to tell you this
is just give you an example for next
week. So next week on Monday you come in
I'm going to like rush you through the
rise of agriculture the origins of state
formation in China and we end up on next
Monday with I think one of my favorite
lectures of the whole semester the rise
of writing in China and writing is super
fascinating is it's a technology and
China was a very early place to have it
so what is writing what counts as
writing right one of the questions I
think we have are emojis writing right
what counts as it you can answer that
question if you'd like next week. Right?
So, this is what we're kind of doing,
right? So, you look at it, you'll notice
up here every week, you'll see, wow, it
looks like there's a lot of reading.
There's not that much reading. You just
have to break it down. The primary
sources are what you really need to
focus on. That is the original, right?
Translation of oracle bone inscriptions,
something like that. Translations of Joe
Bronzes, right? You'll see those are
primary sources. That's what you focus
on. But if you're like, I don't really
understand what this is, then you go to
secondary source, which for the
beginning part of this class will be
Leong's Early China. Very nice book.
I've given you sort of selections from
it. I've uploaded them. Right. This is
like a pretty like sophisticated book of
early Chinese history, right? It's it's
like really good. It's it's fairly
comprehensive. Yeah. And then if you're
like, I took a look at this and I still
don't know what's going on. We have the
textbook big picture. Okay, so this is
the optional textbook. Okay, I provide
you with three different ways to break
down sort of an era's writing or an
era's sources. The primary sources,
secondary sources, and a textbook. The
secondary sources in the textbook are
optional for you. Okay? If you want to
read it, you can read it. If you feel
you need it, some some errors you might
feel, I know three kingdoms, I don't
need it. Right? I know Tong Dynasty, I
don't need it this week. I'll just do
primary. But some errors you might be
like, oh, you know, North South
Division, I want to read the textbook.
Right? So, it's there if you need it.
Right? So, it's not as much as it looks.
Okay? And I got the uh dynasty China
geography quiz study guide. I put up all
the study guides. Don't worry. Okay.
Questions?
How's it sound?
Interesting. Yeah. How do you compare to
your other classes? Yeah. Pretty good,
right? Yeah. Like, let me know. Let me
know. You know what I mean? You know,
like, all right. So,
let's talk about how we talk about
Chinese history. Periodization.
All right. There are ways. This is just
getting you into like foot in the door.
Foot in the door. Remember that long
sort of like list, that chronology I
gave you of all those reigns, dynasties,
whatever. Here's how we break it down.
First, preodern China. Preodern China.
This is like it's a loaded word. When
does modernity begin? It's like it's
kind of a useless phrase, okay? Because
like 50 years from now, it's like
they'll be like, "Was the 20th century
modern? It looks pretty old to us,
right?" But for the sake of
conversation, for the sake of dialogue,
you should know that in China officially
in Chinese textbooks in China today,
modernity begins with a very actually
western centric notion of the opium
wars. Okay? Middle of the 19th century.
Okay. Basically, so you have like modern
history, preodern history
coming back.
Ah, good. Thank you. Okay. I said to the
computer, thank you. Okay. So, so, so
preodern. Sometimes we could also say
traditional. Okay. Uh, so this is just
like I'm not endorsing these terms. I'm
just letting you know these are the
terms you may encounter. Okay. Uh, so
when we say imperial China, imperial
China, that has a very very fixed
beginning and end date. That is not like
open to interpretation. Imperial China
begins in 221 B.CEE or or or BC,
whatever have you. Okay, it begins when
Chin Shaong proclaims himself to be the
first emperor. He was the first person
to do it. Realize writing was invented
in China approximately in 1200 BC.
China's got a thousand years of recorded
history before there were any emperors.
Before there were any. So this is the
amazing thing about thinking about scale
in terms of Chinese history. When when
Confucious was alive, he was already
thinking about the deep past in
antiquity. We think of Confucious and we
go, "Wow, that guy lived a long time
ago." He was thinking of other people
thinking living a long time ago, 600
years ago, right? So this is just
imperial China begins with the
proclamation of the first emperor, which
was a new form of sort of royal
kingship. you know that sort of like
superseded everything that came before
it. That imperial system remains
basically the primary form of governance
in China until 1912. Well, this is
another thing of like when does it end?
1911. The Shinhai Revolution, many of
you been familiar with it, might have
heard of it, broke out in 1911. The
emperor abdicated in early 1912. So, as
a historian of late imperial China, I
insist on 1912. Okay? But you will
sometimes see 1911. It's not okay. What
are we talking? We're talking about a
couple months here. Okay? It's I won't
mock you down if you say 1911. Okay? Uh
it's it's when China had an emperor.
Okay? That's what we're talking about.
All right? We also sort of have a few
periods periodizations that we can say.
Now, think about sort of like history
that you might have encountered in AP
world. I haven't taken AP World in like
a million years. So I don't know like
and I heard now it's starting like 1500.
Is that right?
>> 1300.
>> 1300. Still way way too late. What a
tragedy. Okay. But it's a it's it's it's
it whatever it is. So you basically
start in like the late medieval period
or medieval. Okay. We have early China.
Okay. This is again really good book on
early China. What is early China? Early
China basically means the origin of
whatever we can talk about when it
happened to basically
the end of the Han dynasty about 200
common era 200 AD okay approximately
like that okay appro roughly then we
enter we can talk about another era
called the middle period or medieval
China and that's from that end of the
Han that's a a great way I know
everybody will here. Well, this is a
better way to think about it. The three
kingdoms period, right? Okay. The three
kingdoms period is like the end of early
China. You can think about we're
entering a new era at that point. Okay.
So, you can say that's approximately
medieval China, which you go when does
quote unquote medieval or middle period
China end?
I mean, you some people say, do you put
it before the Mongols? Do you put it
after the Mongols? Is it about a
thousand? Okay. I'm just doing really
really traditional rain dates here. I
founding of the Ming dynasty. You don't
have to it's approximate. Okay. And then
the last two dynasties are something
like late imperial China. Sometimes
you'll also hear this like early modern
China. It all depends on what type of
historian you're talking to. If you're
talking to a European historian, you
might say early modern because that's
how they talk. Okay. Late imperial China
is how like if we if the Chinese
historians are together in in a in a in
a bus that's how we go oh late imperial
right because we all know what that
means okay so either one is fine okay
but just realize this is how you break
it down this very long periods yeah of
history all right usually
should we look at this I don't know
the computer answered the question well
uh I always I mean let's let's just well
take a peek Okay. This is like this
really like Let's see. Is it going to
go? Okay. H this like very forboding
music. Oh, no. It then it then it just
like it just All right. Let me try one
more time. Let me try one more time.
Okay. If it goes This is like a kind of
fun sort of like
It's going to go.
Okay. I'm losing patience with it. Okay.
Let's So basically that was a sort of
like it's like a looking at the borders
of Chinese uh reigns over time, right? I
can show it to you. I'll put a link
online. Okay. So we're going to get now
maybe for the last half hour of class.
I'm going to talk about sort of like a
few more like big questions, big ways to
think about Chinese history. And then
we'll do a tour of China, which is like
always again really fun. Uh so let's
talk about a Chinese history hack. North
and south, east and west, right? Okay,
these are just cardinal directions,
right? So, we have a western Joe and we
have an eastern Joe, right? We have a
western Han and we have an eastern Han.
That basically means in the early period
of China, in early China, basically we
have Western capitals and eastern
capitals. Okay. Yeah. As time goes on,
this changes. This shifts. Okay. the
Tong dynasty in middle in medieval China
7th century 8th century 9th century
approximately around here there's a
still a western capital and still an
eastern capital of Chongan Xian and
Lyang but once you get to about the year
1000 this shifts and now we don't have
western eastern capitals we have
northern and southern capitals and
that's that Beijing and Nanjing right
you know Beijing northern capital
Nanjing southern capital so what's going
on well what you have to realize is that
over a very very long period of time the
Chinese people migrated south okay there
was a major migration of people okay
from from the north China plane okay to
the south as the south is basically
filled in with rice agriculture okay the
south that area south of the Yangzi
river don't worry I'll show you where
the river is in just a second it was
really swamp and marshland okay it
population as early as the Han dynasty
as early as around the year zero there
were people moving down there. Okay,
that picked up over the first thousand
years of this era, right? So from the
year zero to about the year 1000, the
population moves south. And then by the
time you get to that medieval era,
sometime in the medieval era, most of
the people, most of the population of
China lives in the south. Okay? And the
south actually ends up becoming
rather wealthy, right? Because they they
grow rice, they have surpluses, they pay
taxes. Okay? Where do they pay taxes to
the north? Okay, so this is a very
interesting dynamic, right? So
basically, let me just phrase it to you
this way. You look at over here that's
that's Diana, big goose pagod. You'll
recognize that in a few weeks from now.
That's Shi, the capital of Shanchi
province. This a very very historic
city. It's basically like a a great
number of the early imperial capitals
are located there. Okay, this is uh this
is kind of what you might think of South
China looking like, right? mountainous,
green, uh, uh, water, humid, and rice.
Okay. So, that's that's what that's
South China in a nutshell. Okay. All
right. So, then we go back to that's our
map. Okay. Here's this is the Mongol
Empire. Okay. Mongol Empire. The Mongols
create once the sort of their capital
their their reign in China is
established they start they move their
capital to Dad the great capital which
is Beijing they they are kind of the
ones who actually move it to Beijing
right so the Beijing actually gets its
start not as a Han Chinese capital okay
it was actually the northern the
northern peoples right non-han peoples
who started it so after the Mongol
period you get that Nanjing in Beijing
mix. That's in the late the last two
dynasties, southern capital and northern
capital. And what you can kind of say
even to this day is that the economic
heart of the country, the most basically
profitable part of the country, highest
incomes are in that greater Shanghai
area also in Guangdong, Pearl River
Delta area. Okay, those southern hubs,
okay? Those are the economic engines of
the country. The political center of the
country is in the north. Okay. And
that's basically a bit been that way for
a few centuries actually go a number of
centuries, right? And that's what the
the southern southerners end up paying
for defense, right? The northerners
handle frontier defense, right? When you
see where Beijing is on a map and you
see where historical Mongolia was,
Beijing is almost not in China, right?
That's why it has all those sandstorms.
It's almost in what is it, the Gobi
Desert or whatever it is. It's re it's
really far up north actually. Um, so
that's a sort of Chinese history hack.
Think of north, south, east, west,
right? That tells you a lot about what
era you're in. Tells you a lot about the
sort of geography and the in the sort of
geography of power of the era. Okay,
talk about north and south. Okay, some
of you will, if you taken a class with
me before, you might have seen this
slide before. Let's talk about north and
south. Okay, what is north China? What
is South China? Okay, well, let me just
pause here for a minute. What what is
the northern United States like? Is is
Maryland north?
Is it south?
It's north. Why do you say it's north?
>> Okay. Right. So, you've answered this
question by referring to like a
historical political geography. That's
great because there is no real objective
answer to this question, right? Aside
from doing that, the same is true in
China. Basically, in the 20th century,
there was a line drawn and it was like,
"Okay, this is this is the Chinland
Mountains over here in the Hawaii, the
Hawaii River. Draw a line. If you're to
the north, that's the north. If you're
to the south, that's the south." And
that the joke I've always made, right,
is that in the I think 1950s, I think we
went over this 1950s, Joan lie, uh,
basically made it so that if you're
above that line, you got free subsidized
or free central heating from the state.
And if you're below that line, you
froze. uh because the south was
generally warmer. But you know, this is
the whole thing. It's one of those
things where it's like, how do I
describe it? I once did a new year f uh
Chinese New Year spring festival in
Guangyen, which is in the northern part
of Sichuan province. You could imagine
how frozen I was. That's pretty far
north, but staying south, right? That's
one of those border places, you know. I
went to bed at night with like eight
blankets over me. I shared a bed with
like a 60- year old man and and and for
days and I and there were so many
blankets over me I couldn't move. So
when I woke up I was just like I'm up
and then somebody came and took off the
blank. I mean, it was just incredible
that it was I don't want to say that's
there are many warm parts of the south.
Don't get me wrong. If you're in
Guangdong or Hong Kong, that's warm. You
know, that's a nice place to be in the
winter, but just to know this is this is
a very large area with a very diverse
climate. Okay. So, that can be really
cold. So, this is a Mason Dixon line.
Okay. This is kind of like this kind of
idea. Yeah. Uh but there are cultural,
you know, traits that we associate with
northerners. There are cultural traits
we associate with southerners. Again,
nothing is ever absolute, but we can
talk about that when we get into more
specific geographies. Okay, let's say
political jurisdictions of the PRC
today. I, you know, I realize this is a
dynastic Chinese history class. Um, so
you might be kind of like, why do we
need to know this? And I think the
reason you have to know this is because
well you you do need to know the
geography of China today to appreciate
where things are happening right to be
able to have a conversation about it
just realize there are 20 34 total units
23 provinces there also these autonomous
regions Tibet is today recognized
autonomous region Jang in Mongolia Ning
Sha the Hoy autonomous region and
Guangshi Dwang autonomous region so
there's all the also special zones right
Shanghai Chongqing and so forth Um, so
you know, just you know, we can talk
more about I have the whole geography
quiz for you. Uh, and I have the study
guide to tell you what exactly you need
to know. Okay. One other sort of like
way to think about Chinese geography is
this line. This is called the Hu Tong
Chong line. And it was so interesting
this summer. I finally got a chance to
visit Tong Chong. And you see, you might
not find that impressive, but like
actually Tong Chong is not a
particularly famous place. The only
reason why Chinese people across the
country know about it is because of this
line. But it's actually a great place.
Uh, and it's it's a really fun part.
It's in Yunan Province. I have some
photos when we go through the when we go
through the tour here. Right. But the
key is is that basically this is 64%
of the area of the country and in 1934
it had 4% of the population. Okay? And
this is in 2015 it had 6% of the
population. Okay? So this is actually
something that hasn't changed all that
much, right? Most Chinese people live in
the red zone, right? They live in this
this area, right? This very high dense
area like you know the big cities, you
know, city with two million people
doesn't count as anything in China,
right? This is all that over here,
Tibet, Sing Jang, lots of land, not so
many people. Okay, so that's like a sort
of big way to do it. All right, so I was
going to do let me just say
pronunciation. Should I say this? Let me
do it really really quickly so that you
know I know many of you probably know
Chinese. Uh many of you speak Chinese.
Uh you know Chinese is tonal. That means
that it's very hard to be a beginner in
this language right because you're
constantly asking for like you're
constantly saying you know horse I miss
you but it's really your mom right? You
know, there's a there's all the it's
it's tricky when you're when you're
getting into it, right? Because uh
because the tone makes the difference,
right? Just realize that uh ju maybe
just going through a few things here.
The Z in the Z, right? It's like Z is
like a a hard. Okay. But these are words
that like I sort of encounter in the in
in in research, right? So, you know, oh,
okay. X, right? You see X, okay? It's
like uh it's like an sh, right? So,
right something like this. Okay. So,
just know like this is how this is how
the pronunciation works. Okay. All
right. What do I got? All right. Let's
start uh let's start talking about
China's geography. We got like 20
minutes left. Cover the country. Okay.
I'm going to start purely for no
apparent reason in Sichuan province.
Okay. It's just because this is what my
PowerPoint told me to do. I I opened it
up. I was like, "All right, let's we got
to start somewhere. Let's start over
there." Okay. You have probably
encountered Sichuan province before
because it's actually a pretty famous
province. It's got like compared to
other Chinese provinces, it's got a lot
of international cache in part because
look at all the Sichuan restaurants all
over the Cambridge Boston area, right?
When Chinese food traveled, right?
Sichuan high was a sort of kind of
cuisine that just traveled. A lot of
times the restaurants are not owned or
operated by people from Sichuan, but
they just created Sichuan restaurant. I
don't know why, but it was like there it
is. You will also sometimes see Sichuan.
All right, that's again that older
transliteration system. Same thing. It
refers to that province. Okay, there it
is. In western China, Sichuan is famous
for spicy food. Okay, a lot of parts of
China today have spicy food to be frank.
It's also famous for hot pot, right?
Sichuan is like where hot or chongqing.
Now I again I'm sort of like biased here
because I'm a historian of the imperial
period. I sort of take Chongqing and
Sichuan together. Culturally they are
together. They all speak a very similar
kind of Mandarin dialect. Okay. But
Chongqing was se was siphoned off from
Sichuan in the late in the 1990s. Okay.
And it's now it's sort of its own sort
of it's a separate political entity
today. But you can see Chongqing and
Sichuan culturally they're kind of in
this. This is Chongqing right here.
Okay. Right there. Okay. Uh it's also
home to Oh, let me just say one thing
about hot pot. The the problem I feel
about talking about Chinese food today
is that now China has beencome so
flattened and in a sense it's a good
thing. It's it's part of the progress of
the country. It's part of the wealth of
the country. But now every place has hot
pot, right? It's not like, you know,
you're going to go and you, oh, I got to
go to Sichuan. I got to go try the hot
pot. It's like, you're going to get hot
pot in Kuning and Yunan. You're going to
get, you're going to get hot pot in
Beijing, whatever. They have I realize
they have a Beijing hot pot. It's
different. I get it. But the point is
nowadays, if you're in a provincial
capital, you can pretty much get the
food of all the other parts of China. It
might not be good, but they will have
it. Okay? So, it's like it's like it's
kind of like Mexican in the US, right?
Massachusetts has it, right? Like, if
you want to eat it, they they have it,
right? Is it as good as Arizona? I don't
know. But like, you get what I'm saying.
All right. So, uh it's also home. The
panda, right? Sichuan's most famous
export besides the peppercorns. Okay. Uh
right. And and and the panda, right? We
talk a lot about the panda. The Just
realize something about the panda. Just
realize it is not important in Chinese
history. Okay? I don't I'm not I'm not
breaking any hearts here. It's a very
very lovable vegetarian bear. It fits so
well with so many of the aesthetics of
modernity in so many ways, right? Like
it is sort of friendly vegetarian and a
bear. How how do you get that
combination, right? I mean, it's like
evolution, right? I mean, okay, it is
actually a bear. Okay, so it is like
related to like the Russian brown bear
and all of that stuff. How did this
happen? Well,
I don't know how many years ago a bear
moved to Sichuan and said, "I like it."
And then just said, "I'm just going to
eat bamboo all the time." Right? And so,
like, so basically, you ended up with
that. Okay. uh the the panda became a
symbol in actually really the communist
era because the panda was not associated
with imperial symbols, right? The dragon
is an imperial symbol. The tiger is a
very ancient symbol. The elephant even
is an ancient symbol. All of these
things like are fair game. You can see
them in imperial history. You can see
them in ancient history. The nobody
talked about the panda. Nobody was
impressed by the panda. Okay. But then
that's why perfect. We're having a
communist revolution. We're throwing out
all the old. We got a new animal right
here. It's the panda. And it worked. You
just got to say it worked. It was
incredible marketing. And now it it's
it's on the World Wildlife Foundations.
Like it's their emblem, you know? I
mean, this is like it's the most famous
bear in the world. Let's face it. Um,
and then the other thing is with
Sichuan, you get this great culture of
tea houses that go back to the 20th
century. Sichuan also had a great number
of mafias. It's like we could talk about
mafias in China. The south was loaded
with them and they would hang out in the
tea houses and there was so many
interesting things that happened there.
It's got a great lifestyle. The way that
people talk about life in Sichuan, they
say it's right. It's like easygoing,
easy life. There's even this expression
when you're young, don't go to Sichuan.
When you're old, don't leave it. Okay?
There's there's expressions in China for
like everything that kind of give you
advice. And this is one of those
advices, right? So I I didn't listen to
this expression. I went and you know you
can see what am I doing now right? So uh
so it continued. Um one interesting
thing about Sichuan is that it is a
basin. It is a geological basin. What
that means is that it is surrounded on
basically all mo all sides. To get into
Sichuan is difficult. To get out, there
is one really easy way to get out, which
is through the Yangzi River, but it only
flows in one direction. So is you can
send rice out of Sichuan. You can send
people out of Sichuan, but getting into
Sichuan is rather difficult. That is
actually why across Chinese history,
it's been a place to flee to. So during
the Tong Dynasty, we're going to have a
really, really big rebellion called the
Anlan Rebellion. It's one of the most
famous devastating civil wars,
rebellions of Chinese history. The
emperor will go from Xian, he will go
from Chan. Don't worry, you you will
memorize all these places. You will know
what I'm talking about. And he will flee
into Sichuan. And actually, this
actually happened in the 20th century as
well. Some of you will know this, right?
Jang Kaishek's government, Jangu's
government when Japan invaded from the
east, right? in Nanjing fell the
government basically had to move to the
west and it moved to Chongqing which is
again basically the Sichuan region okay
so that's where they held out for the
war more or less so just realize this is
a big part of the sort of geography uh
of Sichuan that gives it its interesting
flavor there's another expression that I
love here when China has yet to fall
into chaos Sichuan is the first to fall
when China has yet to been pacified
Sichuan has yet to been pacified again
because it's hard to get too, right? So,
that gives it a unique culture in a way,
you know, really interesting. Okay, now
we continue on with our tour and let's
go. We're going to go from Sichuan. You
can see where Sichuan is right here.
Okay, that's Chongqing. Now, we're going
to go to the northeast. We're going to
go to Shyenshi province. Okay, now Shy
Province is if you love history and you
take this class, this is the province
you really got to go to. It's loaded
with history. You basically cross the
Chin Mountains down here in the southern
part of the province and you get right
up here. the it's called the Guanjong
region. Don't worry about it. But Xian,
right, Western Peace, literally or Chong
An was its older medieval name. That's
the capital of the province. That tower
that you see right there, that was built
a very long time ago. That was built in
the medieval period. It is not very
common across China to see towers that
are that old. It's an incredibly
impressive piece of architecture. You
probably know this place because, of
course, the Terracotta Warriors are
here. All right. more or less there.
This is where you would go if you're
going to go see them and that's
certainly something to go see. We of
course will cover them in probably a few
weeks. Okay, so we will cover all of
this. Let's talk a little bit about
local food, right? Again, the caveat
being nowadays in Xian you can get
whatever fish you want. You can get hot
pot, whatever. So again, you know, it's
all flattened, but there are still local
tastes and there are still local
specialties. Northerners in general eat
wheat. They eat uh you know not not as
riceheavy. So that it's a noodle eating
culture. Okay. Most of North China eats
noodles. And she is famous for it all
different types of noodles and noodle
type dishes. This is a salamian a
chishan salamyan. Right. So salamian is
it's from a county. It's like a sort of
it's a very nice it's got like a vinegar
taste. It's a little spicy. It's a
noodle dish. This is Does anybody know
what this is?
Yeah. Palo Yro palmo, right? This is a
lamb sort of. You take a like it looks
like a naan bread and you you you you
you destroy your hands by cutting it up
into a million little pieces and then
they pour like a soup in it with lamb.
It's delicious. It's super heavy. So
like when you eat this like you don't
eat anything else for the rest of the
day. Okay. Uh so it's it's it's fun.
It's it's it's it's really good. Now,
let me just tell you, when you're
learning Chinese history for the first
time, you're learning Chinese geography
for this first time, you will say, "How
is this true? This is totally not fair."
The province right next to Shanshi
Province is called Shansi Province.
Are you kidding me? Right? Like you say,
couldn't they couldn't they put it in
another place? Yeah. Listen, you just
got to learn it. You just got to learn
it. In English, this will be
transliterated. Okay? the one that I was
talking about, the ancient capital with
the terracotta warriors and all that
stuff. Two A's. Okay, there will always
be two A's. Shi, it's in the third tone.
Okay, it's another tone. If you come
over to this one, you go east, it's the
first tone, one A, right? Shi. Okay, so
for a Chinese person, these don't sound
alike. But when you're when you're in
the US and you're like, okay, what's
going on? You're like, seriously, I have
to learn this. Yes, you have to learn
it. So not the same. Okay, it actually
will make it easy for the geography quiz
because you'll know that approximately
in this area there's a place and you
it's approximately spelled the same way.
Okay, Shaji province really great place.
Lots of interesting stuff, lots of great
dowist temples, old temples to visit.
Also noodles, right? Dawian I believe is
from here. This is like a knife cut
noodle is famous from this region, you
know, hanging the hanging temples over
there. This really fun. Okay, continue
on.
Let's go. I think our next one. Let's
go. It's coming. Okay, Beijing. Okay,
the imperial capital Beijing. So, if you
look over here, we went from Sichuan and
we're going to the northeast. Okay, we
went through Shanshi. We went through
Shanchi. I sort of cut through HB. Okay,
and then now we're here in Beijing. How
many of you have been to Beijing? You've
been there. You've been there. You've
been there. How was it? What do you
remember? It was kind of smoggy.
>> It was kind of smoggy.
>> Okay. What do you remember?
>> Yeah, the palace is incredible. Yeah.
What else do I remember? The weather is
terrible. Look, you just got to you just
got to say the [snorts] weather. It's
like hot and then all of a sudden it
rains and it's like it's not a nice
rain. It's like a killer rain and it's
like I don't have an umbrella big enough
to handle this. And then there's tons of
traffic. I realized just being there
this summer, even though like all the
cars, many cars are now electric and
there's great public transit everywhere,
the traffic in Beijing is still really
bad. So, it's like whenever we were
like, "Oh, I'll be there in a half
hour." It's like, "No, just say an
hour." Okay. It was It's It's really But
it's loaded with historical sites. It's
an incredible place. I've been there,
you know, probably a dozen times in my
life, you know, over the years. And I've
You don't see everything, right? You
could always go back and see something
new there. So, it's it's really really
fun. Of course, many people who go to
see the Great Wall will go to Beijing to
see it. You actually don't need to be in
Beijing to see it. There's Great Wall in
Gansu Province out west. There's Great
Wall in other provinces, but Beijing has
the most famous ones. Like the panda,
just realized that this quote unquote
Great Wall was oftentimes not very
important. It was a little bit more
important than the panda. Okay, it was
mainly it was important in certain
periods of time in history and other
periods of time just nobody cared. Okay,
it just depended who was like
controlling Beijing at the time. Okay,
we'll get into all of this. Okay, but
just realize I I'll say one thing here.
I was going to say I have a little video
here I'll show you about Dongbe. Has
anybody ever been to Dongbe? You've been
to Dongay? Why did you go to Dongbe?
This is northeast China, Manuria. Where
did you go? Because I I was born there.
>> Oh, no way. You were born in Gil
Province. Fantastic. Fantastic. Where
else you went there?
>> Uh skiing.
>> You went skiing? Oh, nice. Okay. Yeah,
you went to like Halongja.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Nice. I I was in Leoning this summer. I
had a very nice time. Great historical
place. Uh I was going to say so Dong is
definitely unique. Uh it's unique in a
number of ways. So you will see if you
go up to uh Haleyongjang, one of the
provinces, you go to Harbin, it's like
almost in Russia and it does have some
old sort of Russian architecture that's
around. It's very interesting to kind of
see. Uh Manuria is very important in the
20th century. You realize that like
during World War II, it's a big sight of
contention. Japan sort of sets up a
puppet government in Manuria. I guess I
would say what would I say about it?
Just realize that first of all and I
this is again one of those things I
notice over the years that people in
China today associate people with from
Dongbe with being very funny with being
humorous. Okay. And there's all of these
folks I'll just see if see if my video
plays. You could you can watch these
shows on Chinese TV. It's like a
humorous talk show.
So, so she's like from Dongbe. She's got
a Dombbe accent
>> and and and there's this like there's
like this kind of humor and I don't know
exactly how to describe it, but it's
like people just think Dome people are
funny. I don't I I I I don't know what
is there a scientific basis of this. I
don't know, but just realize that like
that's what people will say. Okay. So,
do you think it's true?
>> Yeah.
>> You think it's true? You think it's
true? They're a little bit funnier.
Like, you know, I don't know. Like, are
there parts of America where you'd say
like, "Okay, people from that state are
just funny." Do we have that?
>> Where are people funny? I don't think
Massachusetts people are that funny. I'm
going to be honest with you. I'm from
here. Where where are people funny?
>> I feel like it's more that we know where
people are. Excuse like jerks.
>> Okay. See, I see. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We know where people
have attitude. Yeah. Yeah. Attitude for
sure. Yeah. Uh Yeah. you know, you know,
humor. It's kind of an interesting
question, right? Like like who's funny,
who's not, right? But like this is one
thing just to kind of throw in there,
right? All right. So, continuing on, we
don't have a ton of time left. I want to
take if you go south from Dong Bay, from
northeastern China in that area all
around Beijing, basically the south of
Beijing ma mainly, you get to this north
China plane and it's flat. This is a
very very old area. Okay, what I mean by
that is people have been farming here
for thousands of years. Very very early
Chinese history starts, you know, is
around here in a big big way. And this
is a fascinating place because on the
one hand, it's so important. It's near
at least the capital in the later eras.
It's also where the Yellow River sort of
it gets to the North China plane. And
this is where the Yellow River gets
really violent because the North China
plane is flat. So the Yellow River every
few hundred years changes course across
the North China plane and you can it's
devastating floods, crop failures and
there's chaos. That's in a way one of
the things you could say this is again a
generalization. Northerners have a sort
of like let's say the state has been
more interventionist in the north,
right? The state kind of originates in
the north, right? around in some ways
the control of the yellow river because
you have to control it is the south very
far far away right it's less control
more lass fair more like oh you know
tanga right heaven's high the emperor is
far away right it's a different
relationship you know that's what's this
it's sort of this is one of the ways
that you could think a little bit about
south north yeah uh confucious is from
the north China plane right he's from
Shandong province we'll encounter him in
a bit a number of the big early
confusion philosophers ers are from this
area. Okay. So, it's got like an
association, you could say, with um with
with Confucianism and with ancient
learning and with, you know, again, the
area around the late imperial capitals
as I mentioned, but it's also a place
you could say of in sometimes like
lawlessness, okay, in rebellions, right,
that threaten the state. One of those
big Chinese novels, right? Water margin.
This is the we've already went over. My
god, just one class. We went over three
of the big novels today. Yeah. Uh, this
takes place, you could say, in this
area. It's like outlaws, right? So,
there's it's a very interesting
location. It's a very interesting place.
All right, two minutes left. I use it.
By the way, I always use like all of
class time. Okay. I just like I just
keep talking. You know what I mean?
Like, I just can't shut up about this
stuff. I apologize, but like I just love
it. Okay. One really, really, really,
really, really fascinating thing that's
important in dynastic Chinese history is
this thing. North to south the Grand
Canal. This was like the superighway of
dynastic China. It is constructed,
believe it or not, you won't believe
this, but it's like when I tell you
this, it's like, well, where is it? Go
back. Go back, please. Here we go.
Where's my date? No, it doesn't. There.
Okay, whatever. I'll just tell you. The
origins of the Grand Canal go back to
the seventh century. Okay, so you got
me. This is one of those things in China
where you're like, "What? Really? What
do you mean? You mean like a canal was
constructed in the seventh century and
then remained being used until like a
100 years ago? Yes. Basically, yes. Uh
it doesn't it didn't flow in exactly the
same area. The origins of the Grand
Canal were actually this southern this
this one that you see here. It connected
the Tong Dynasty capital of Lyang with
the south. Okay. Then in later years it
got expanded and eventually in the late
in the later period it basically
connects Beijing and the South. that
goes all the way down. You could say
like to Nanjing, Hjo, that area all the
way from north. It's like you get on
there and you and you can go north
south. It's like you can transport
grain. The emperor can travel it if he's
going to the south, right? It's a super
important way that the empire was
connected. Today there's highspeed rail.
At that time there was the Grand Canal.
Okay, I realize we're out of time. So go
home, tell your friends. Tell your
friends, enjoy the weekend. I'll see you
on Monday. We'll finish up our tour of
China and continue onward.