The History of China Podcast

16/09/2025

We Pardon. All. The Pirates. And. Make. Them. Naval Officers.

And you’ve got nothing to fear,
Piracy Amnesty is a good idear

(Where you goin? Hear us out! Hear us out! Don’t leave! Hear us out! Where you goin? Don’t leave!)

15/09/2025

#306 - Qing 41: Dead Men Tell No Tales

0:00-16:25: Prelude to Piracy - a highlight reel of piracy on the Chinese coasts from Ming to early Qing (1400~1680)

16:25-1:00:00: Corsairs of the Qing Coast - The Jiaqing Emperor must confront the insane power of the pirates

08/09/2025

#305- Qing 40: Heshen Must Die!

The Jiaqing Emperor takes the helm and... course-corrects...

31/08/2025

#304 - Qing 39: Twilight of the Dragon

Qianlong's reign was China at the height of its power and glory, but as that era draws to its close, the winds of change are blowing ever stronger...

28/08/2025

The Qianlong Emperor [r. 1735-1799] enshrined his conquests as the "Ten Complete Victories" - he even had a nickname: 十全老人: "The Old Man of the Ten Victories"

He went so far as to have it carved onto his own white-jade imperial seal.

But your "World's Best Dad" mug is cool, too, I guess...

23/08/2025

From the shores of the Thames, to the hongs of Canton & even to the Dragon Throne itself, nothing can keep an Ambassador Extraordinaire from his task... except perhaps the kowtow...

#303 - Qing 38: The Macartney Expedition' by The History of China

22/08/2025

A letter to my supporters/subscribers/patrons...

There's been a goof 'em up...

Long story short, I got massively short-shrifted this last month. So here's how I'm planning to get it back, while not totally screwing you over in turn:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/137122166?pr=true&cr=true

16/08/2025

15/08/2025

#302 - Qing 37: Palace of Mirrors

Emperors in glass houses should be careful about throwing stones

31/07/2025

The Gangnido World Map, Korea, 1402
largely compiled from earlier Chinese maps

Though visually quite different from modern maps, it doesn't look so "weird" because people couldn't drawn correctly back then. It's like that for a good reason...

This - like most pre-20th c. maps - was for nautical navigation. 15th c. nav was almost solely line-of-sight

Consistent dist. between locations was not important. Rather, harbor/inlet shape & importance to trade define what is detailed vs. what is kept vague.
Chinese markets loom large.

You might also note subtle (& not-so-subtle) differences between 2 maps.

The one without the English meme text overwriting is, in fact, a copy. It is called the Honkoji Copy and was made during the Edo Period of Japan (hence the correction to Japan's shape/orientation/size comp. to the Korean ver)

31/07/2025

#301 - Qing 36: And I Think It's Gonna Be a Qianlong Time

Burnin' out his fuse up here alone

30/07/2025

Thus has it ever been for thousands of years....