The Context

Today, we’ll talk about Yuelu Academy, a historic center of learning in central China whose 1,050-year legacy offers a window into the country’s intellectual traditions, educational transformation and resilience through times of war and change.

Today, we’ll talk about how an important transport artery from Yunnan Province to Xizang Autonomous Region, following old trade routes, relieved social and economic isolation in one of the most scenic but impoverished parts of Southwest China.

Today, we’ll talk about Zhang Boju, the legendary art collector who sacrificed his fortune, endured kidnapping, and ultimately preserved some of China’s greatest artistic treasures for future generations.

Today, we’ll talk about the Taibao Ding, a remarkable bronze vessel from the early Zhou dynasty whose story reveals the origins of the ancient state of Yan, the struggles of a frontier kingdom that survived for more than eight centuries, and the early historical roots of the city that would eventually become modern Beijing.

Today, we’ll talk about how a sacred tree in ancient China was deliberately destroyed by its own worshippers, thus marking the end of divine kingship and the rise of secular rule, and contrast that with the ancient history of American theocracies whose world trees fell instead to foreign conquest.