Chinese History & Mythology

The Han Dynasty, we’re now stepping into a brand-new era starting this month: the Three Kingdoms period, from 220 to 280 AD.
After the middle period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, political power kept shifting between the emperor’s relatives and court eunuchs. The government became more and more corrupt. Powerful families seized more land, ordinary people suffered, and life became increasingly difficult.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, along with Water Margin, Dream of the Red Chamber, and the famous Journey to the West, is widely recognized as one of China’s Four Great Classical Novels.

A name called “Becoming Chinese” started trending on TikTok, and along with it, a wellness drink became very popular.Apples are usually eaten fresh, so why would anyone boil them into a tea? And why did so many people suddenly start making boiled apple tea? What is so special about it that even foreign friends who are used to drinking ice water have started trying it?

Before dragons became famous worldwide, ancient China had its own monster universe. Creatures with nine heads, human faces, giant wings—and gods that controlled the sun itself. And they were all written down thousands of years ago in one of China’s strangest books: The Classic of Mountains and Seas.

It has been a while since we last sat down and talked about mythological stories together. In the past few episodes, we have mainly focused on stories about historical development. The reason we have not talked much about myths is that, in the period of history we have been covering, there really were not many highly representative mythological stories. It is also because these dynasties existed for a relatively short time in Chinese history, so they left behind very little literary material.
So does that mean no mythological stories were passed down during this period?

The social turmoil at the end of the Qin dynasty began with uprisings from the common people. Chen Sheng and Wu Guang raised the banner of rebellion in Dazexiang. Although their rebel army was ultimately defeated, they lit the flames of resistance across the land. In this process, the noble descendants of the old six states responded one after another, hoping to restore their former glory. It was in this background that Xiang Yu stepped onto the front stage of history. He was the grandson of Xiang Yan, a famous general of Chu, and he came from a traditional military aristocratic family.

More than two thousand years ago, Qin Shi Huang brought a long age of war to an end and united scattered lands into one vast empire. This ruler was called the First Emperor, and his name left a deep mark on the long course of history. However, when it comes to the end of his life, the historical record contains many unclear and uncertain parts. The turning point in history came when he suddenly died during one of his imperial inspection tours. After that, later generations created countless stories about his death, his tomb, and his search for eternal life. These stories are not just stories. They reflect how people of that age understood life, death, and even the universe itself. For people who are not familiar with the historical background of East Asia, understanding these mysteries requires stepping into the cultural world of that time. People in that age believed that there was a connection between heaven and earth, and that the health of the ruler was closely tied to the fate of the state.

Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of Interesting Chinese Culture.
The fact that Chinese people love drinking tea is something almost everyone in the world already knows. As the generations have changed, tea culture in China has also developed in many different ways, and one of the most popular forms today is milk tea, which young people are especially enthusiastic about. So why does tea culture have such a huge influence in China? And how did tea develop throughout Chinese history?

In the history of the Qin dynasty, Qin Shi Huang, Ying Zheng, left behind achievements that could never be erased. But the way such a huge empire rose so quickly in only fifteen years, and then collapsed in an extremely short time, is not something often seen in the long course of human history. The founding of the Qin dynasty marked the formal establishment of the first centralized imperial system in Chinese history, and that system shaped the political order of the next two thousand years. When we look back on this period, we often focus our attention on Qin Shi Huang, Ying Zheng, and think that the direction of the empire was decided entirely by his personal will. But in reality, the operation of an empire depends on a vast bureaucratic system, and the choices made by the few people at the top of that system can often determine the fate of the whole state. In the final years of the Qin dynasty, there were two figures who played a decisive role in the destruction of the dynasty. They were the Chancellor Li Si and the Palace Commandant Zhao Gao.

Although the Qin dynasty existed for only fifteen years in Chinese history, it made an enormous contribution to the history of China as a whole. Even today, Qin Shi Huang still attracts scholars around the world who are interested in studying his historical background. And once we start talking about the Qin dynasty, there is one place that we absolutely have to mention, and that is the Terracotta Army.

If you have listened to some of the earlier episodes, you probably remember that we once mentioned that Chinese history stretches back about five thousand years. Across those five thousand years, many objects and daily habits have been preserved and passed down. So today, we are going to talk about one of them: chopsticks.