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The 三字經, usually translated as the Three Character Classic, is a fascinating text because it functions like a "my first Confucian text." Children were given this text when they were quite young and asked to memorize the book, teaching them moral lessons that would prepare them to master the real Confucian classics later in life. In this episode, Rob and Lee debate the first few lines of the poem.

Just a note: we recorded this in 2018, and then we added a prologue to the front end of the podcast.

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Listed in: Culture

COVID19 San Zi Jing

Published: April 17, 2020, 4:53 p.m.
Duration: 20 minutes 3 seconds

Listed in: Culture

Professor Van Norden's Classical Chinese for Everyone

Published: Jan. 5, 2020, 9:58 p.m.
Duration: 28 minutes 54 seconds

Today, Rob is off doing research in China, so Lee interviews Professor Van Norden. Professor Van Norden is a philosophy professor at Vassar, and he works on early Chinese philosophical texts.

He recently published a textbook for learning Classical Chinese (文言文). The book is the outgrowth of Professor Van Norden's teaching, and he seeks to make Classical Chinese more approachable than do other textbooks on the language. Professor Van Norden and Lee discuss his book and wider issues related to early Chinese texts.

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Yu Dafu - Sinking

Published: Dec. 11, 2019, 6:25 p.m.
Duration: 17 minutes 19 seconds

Listed in: Culture

Ren the Filial Son

Published: Nov. 11, 2019, 4:30 a.m.
Duration: 19 minutes 59 seconds

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Jin Ping Mei - Plum in the Golden Vase

Published: Sept. 12, 2019, 12:04 a.m.
Duration: 22 minutes 4 seconds

Listed in: Culture

Water Margin - 水浒传 (Shui Hu Zhuan)

Published: Aug. 9, 2019, 2:11 a.m.
Duration: 22 minutes 40 seconds

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Ancient Chinese Porn Literature

Published: July 8, 2019, 10:49 p.m.
Duration: 22 minutes 49 seconds

Listed in: Culture

The Tiananmen Square Massacre and Chinese Rock

Published: June 3, 2019, 6:16 a.m.
Duration: 23 minutes 29 seconds

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The May 4th Movement

Published: May 3, 2019, 4 p.m.
Duration: 19 minutes 41 seconds

Modern Chinese Literature begins with the May 4th Movement. Well, that's according to the orthodox understanding of Chinese literature promoted by the CCP in China. Either way, May 4th, 1919 was a turning point both in Chinese society and in Chinese literature.

It was during and after this date that Lu Xun wrote some of his most important pieces of fiction. Those works came together in a book Warcry (呐喊) which is one of the monumental works in Chinese literature. The preface to that book, our subject today, is the most talked about part of that work. Today, on the 100th anniversary of the May 4th movement, we think about Lu Xun, his preface to Outcry and how we still hear echos of the work today.

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Laozi

Published: April 10, 2019, 4 p.m.
Duration: 17 minutes 19 seconds

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Huainanzi

Published: March 14, 2019, 4 p.m.
Duration: 17 minutes 47 seconds

This podcast we take a look at a story from a strange Daoist classic, the Huainanzi 淮南子. The tale is called Old Man on the Border Loses his Horse 塞翁失馬. The story title is, itself a chengyu, that means something like you never know if something that seems unfortunate is actually fortunate.

Here is the original Chinese from the Huainanzi:

夫禍福之轉而相生，其變難見也。近塞上之人有善術者，馬無故亡而入胡。人皆吊之。其父曰：「此何遽不為福乎？」居數月，其馬將胡駿馬而歸。人皆賀之。其父曰：「此何遽不能為禍乎？」家富良馬，其子好騎，墮而折其髀。人皆吊之。其父曰：「此何遽不為福乎？」居一年，胡人大入塞，丁壯者引弦而戰，近塞之人，死者十九，此獨以跛之故，父子相保。故福之為禍，禍之為福，化不可極，深不可測也。

Lee's Translation:

Oh, the vicissitudes of fortune and misfortune, the two are born together, and it is hard to distinguish between the two. There was a man who was a good fortune teller who lived near the border. His horse ran into the barbarian's territory. Everybody said that this was unfortunate, but the man said, "Not so fast. Maybe this is fortunate." They waited several months and the horse returned, bringing with them a barbarian horse. Everybody said, this was fortunate. The man said, "Not so fast. Maybe this is misfortune." Their family was rich, they had good horses, their son rode well, but then he fell off the horse and broke his thigh. Everybody said that this was unfortunate, but the man said, "Not so fast. Mabye this is fortunate." After a year, a great barbarian army crossed the border, and all able-bodied men were given arms and sent to war. Those in the border region, nine out of ten died, it was only because of the son's broken leg that the family was spared this fate.

Thus, fortune becomes misfortune, misfortune becomes fortune. Change continues without end, these depths cannot be measured...

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Listed in: Culture

Poems from the Tiananmen Square Incident 1976

Published: March 6, 2019, 5 p.m.
Duration: 15 minutes 22 seconds

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Dumptruck Poetry - Lei Feng

Published: Feb. 11, 2019, 5 p.m.
Duration: 25 minutes 1 second

Today, we look at one of the most popular writers during socialist China (1949-1976). His name is Lei Feng. He wrote poetry about dump trucks, but he was killed when a dump truck backed up into a telephone pole which came crashing down on him. As they were cleaning up the deceased earthly possessions, they found a diary that showed such dedication to the party and to Chairman Mao that they decided to use Lei Feng as a model for the ideal party member.

Some say it is all made up, that the communists invented Lei Feng out of thin air as a work of propaganda (but only capitalists and their running dogs believe that). Whatever you believe, take a journey with us as we read Lei Feng's Ode to a Dumptruck.

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