Dynastic Chinese History Lecture: Continuity, Geography, Overview

Name: Lecture 1: Introduction to China's History
Uploaded: 2026-04-07T19:37:32.905654+00:00
Duration: 1 h 20 min 20 s
Channel: MIT OpenCourseWare
Description: Summary and key takeaways on Lecture 1: Introduction to China's History: Summary & Key Takeaways, covering to Chinese History History in China resembles a
MIT OpenCourseWare
Apr 07, 2026
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History in China resembles a sea—vast, ongoing, and impossible to master completely. The official state record (Zhengshi) coexists with “wild history” (Yeshi), the collection of folklore, family stories, and private accounts. The Forbidden City embodies this tension: its front hall displays the power of the state, while the rear palace (hougong) shelters the private lives of the imperial family. The conversation of centuries continues to shape the thoughts of contemporary citizens.
Pedagogical Approach

The course privileges primary sources over textbook summaries, encouraging students to “eavesdrop” on historical debates recorded in original documents. Assessment blends knowledge and spatial awareness: a geography quiz tests familiarity with regional dynamics, a midterm and final evaluate analytical skills, and a timeline project visualizes the flow of dynastic events. Although fluency in classical Chinese is not required, engaging with sources in the original language deepens insight.
Geographical Tour

Sichuan: A basin famed for hot pot that historically offered refuge for displaced elites.
Shaanxi/Shanxi: The cradle of ancient capitals, where noodle culture reflects long‑standing agricultural abundance.
Beijing: The imperial capital, now challenged by environmental and traffic pressures that echo its historic role as the political heart.
Dongbei (Northeast): Former Manchuria displays Russian architectural influence and a distinctive regional humor.
The Grand Canal: The dynastic “superhighway” that linked the grain‑rich South with the political North, enabling sustained imperial control.
The Nature of Chinese History

Chinese history persists as a contested conversation rather than a static curriculum. Scholars regard textbooks as the least reliable source; historians look down on them in favor of original documents. This view reinforces the idea that history remains a living dialogue, constantly reinterpreted by each generation.
Geography and Power

The Heihe‑Tengchong Line draws a stark demographic divide: 64 % of China’s land lies west of the line yet holds only 4 % of the population. Historically, the North served as the political nucleus, while the South functioned as the economic engine. The Grand Canal’s role as a grain‑transport artery exemplified how geography underpinned imperial stability.
Course Logistics

The syllabus spans the entire sweep of dynastic China, with particular focus on the Ming and Qing periods. Students complete a geography quiz, a midterm, a final exam, and a timeline project that maps major events across centuries. Teaching Assistant Linda Ridzuan, an expert on the history of nuclear energy, supports the class.
Hard Facts & Numbers

The Journey to the West (16th c.) features Sun Wukong, the Monkey King.
The Forbidden City is the world’s largest palace complex, serving the Ming dynasty until the early 20th c.
Official histories number 24 dynastic chronicles.
Imperial China lasted from 221 BCE (Qin Shi Huang) to 1912 CE.
Chinese writing emerged around 1200 BCE.
Zhongnanhai, adjacent to the Forbidden City, houses the Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
Takeaways

Chinese history balances official state records (*Zhengshi*) with unofficial, popular narratives (*Yeshi*), creating a continuous, contested conversation.
The North‑South divide, highlighted by the Heihe‑Tengchong Line, shaped political authority in the North and economic vitality in the South.
The Grand Canal functioned as a dynastic superhighway, linking grain‑rich southern regions with the northern political center.
The course emphasizes primary sources and spatial awareness, using quizzes, exams, and a timeline project to deepen engagement with dynastic history.
Key historical facts include 24 official dynastic histories, a 221 BCE to 1912 CE imperial span, and the Forbidden City’s status as the world’s largest palace complex.
Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Heihe‑Tengchong Line and why is it important for Chinese historical power dynamics?

The Heihe‑Tengchong Line marks a demographic split where 64 % of China’s land holds only 4 % of its population. This geographic reality reinforced a historical pattern: the densely populated South supplied economic resources, while the sparsely populated North housed political power, a dynamic that sustained imperial stability.
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Helpful resources related to this video

If you want to practice or explore the concepts discussed in the video, these commonly used tools may help.
Large Detailed Wall Map Of China Recommended
Provides a visual reference for the Heihe-Tengchong Line and the geographical regions discussed in the course.
Amazon →
Journey To The West Classic Novel
A primary literary source mentioned in the brief that is essential for understanding Chinese cultural history.
Amazon →
Historical Atlas Of Imperial China
Offers cartographic context for the shifting borders and capitals of the various dynasties mentioned.
Amazon →
Hardcover Notebook For Historical Research
Useful for students to document their timeline projects and take notes on primary source readings.
Amazon →
Links may be affiliate links. We only include resources that are genuinely relevant to the topic.
Summarize another video
Full Transcript YouTube

[SQUEAKING]
[RUSTLING]
[CLICKING]
TRISTAN BROWN: This isn't really
the official start of class,
but I just thought I wanted to
start with this new big game
that just dropped.
And it's making waves, I guess,
in video game communities
across the world.
And this game-- if you
haven't heard of it,
that's totally fine.
The main character
is Sun Wukong.
And the game is based loosely
on this great Chinese novel
of the 16th century,
Journey to the West, COG.
And the thing is--
so have you heard of the
Monkey King or Sun Wukong?
Some of you have heard of him.
Some of you may have
not have heard of him.
That's OK.
He's a real iconic figure
in Chinese culture,
you could say literature.
He's not a historical character,
although the Journey to the West
is a historical journey taken
during the Tang dynasty,
to India, to retrieve Buddhist
sutras and all of that.
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, I'd
say, the 11th century,
this figure of a monkey, as kind
of the company of this main 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 this fearless person.
He laughs in the face of
danger because he's a monkey.
So it makes him very beloved
and makes him very interesting.
He's also kind of a force
of chaos in a sense,
is that he literally makes
a mess of heaven, even.
He gets in trouble with
the Jade Emperor, all
of these really great stories.
But in his causing
chaos where he goes,
he forces truth to
come to the surface.
He's got the power to see evil
where evil is latently present.
So you can see here--
I just thought I'd say
a few words about him.
There's a big debate in
Chinese history about where
Monkey comes from, so where
the character of Sun Wukong
comes from.
Hu Shih, 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 protector of King Rama.
And there is a serious
theory that that is actually
the origin of his character.
Lu Xun 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 Summer
Palace in Beijing,
so literally depictions
from the novel, suffused,
big artistic scenes in
late imperial China.
This is from a
temple in Vietnam.
And you can see here,
this is Monkey in shrines.
So he enters religion,
popular religion,
and of course, big
opera, opera performances
of Journey to 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 re-envisions him.
This is Princess Iron Fan.
This is a story from Journey
to 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, 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 is a big TV series.
You can get it all on
YouTube for free, really fun.
This actor who plays monkey
is really incredible.
He comes from an
operatic tradition.
He really carries that forth.
Late editions of monkey,
recent editions of monkey,
have shown him to be 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.
That is the prelude.
Now, let's actually get
into dynastic China.
This is probably
how you thought I
would begin the class, which
makes total sense, Forbidden
City.
Some of you went to
Beijing this summer.
Some of you have been
to Beijing, I'm sure.
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-- forget about it.
It looks like a house.
I mean, seriously.
It's the largest palace
structure in the world.
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 and the crowds.
I went with an academic
delegation this summer,
so we went to all
these secret places.
And that was really, really fun.
This is a place you
absolutely have to visit.
There's so much of Chinese
history 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 Manchus 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, we can do better
than the White House.
They kept this one.
So this is actually a Ming
dynasty palace that was used
right up until the early 20th
century, today, a museum.
I was thinking about how do you
even introduce this subject?
I love this subject.
I'm sure you got
that from my email.
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.
This is, as you could
imagine, Beijing.
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, "hai" to the left,
to the western side
of the Forbidden City.
Anybody know what those three
"hai" are, those three lakes?
Anybody visited?
Have you been to Beihai Park?
It's OK.
It's OK.
Let me just tell you, there
are three lakes there.
The top lake is
the northern lake.
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
and the southern lake.
That's Zhongnanhai.
Have you.
Have you ever heard
of Zhongnanhai?
That's where the head of
the Communist Party is.
That's basically where the
nominally, the Xi Jinping
lives and everything like that.
It's kind of like the
White House and the Kremlin
together, very, very big place.
Those two lakes are
not open to the public.
That area is like the
compound of, I think,
the center of the party's
power structure, basically.
So there's so much, just in this
little-- how many kilometers
of space?
History from hundreds of years
ago, all the way up to history
going on today.
So the thing I love
about this term
is that the word 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 some Chinese dialects
over the centuries
adopted that or also had that.
So you can see here,
I think-- and I
know this might be a
little corny to say,
but I want to just say it
here at the very beginning,
and I'll just say it once.
Chinese history is
like a sea or an ocean.
It's big.
It's-- how do I say it?
It's vast.
It's beautiful.
And it's difficult. It can
be dangerous, 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.
I'll just say that I started
studying 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.
It's not something you master.
It's just too much stuff.
But that's the thing.
This class, what I can do is
I'll take you to the ocean.
And I'll say, and that first
time you see the ocean,
think about that.
Think about where you were,
especially if you didn't grow up
near the sea.
The first time
you saw the ocean,
you said, wow, that's
a beautiful sight
or wow, that's so interesting.
Look at the waves, whatever,
whatever, whatever.
That's what this class can do.
It's like I'm going to show
you across time, from the Zhou
dynasty, from the origins of
writing in China, which is Shang
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
that I think you'll appreciate.
And then it's up to
you to go from there.
So I'll take you to the sea.
You can swim however
you want to-- however
far you want to swim.
I'm still swimming.
So that's what
we're going to do.
This is Dynastic China, 2024.
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 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.
This is the Forbidden City that
we were just talking about.
And you can see here,
this is, I think,
the largest single hall
within the palace complex,
this Tai He Dian, the
Hall of Supreme Harmony.
This is a Ming
dynasty structure.
Don't get overwhelmed.
That's, let's say, a
15th century structure.
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 kind of like in the
almost looks like the center.
It's like right in
that central axis.
That's where it is.
There's another place.
And it's not a famous place,
the place of everlasting spring,
this Changchungong.
It's in the back.
It's right over there.
I highlighted it right there.
I bring out these two
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.
There's Zhengshi,
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.
"Shi" refers to a
kind of writing.
It's a genre of writing.
There are officially
24 official histories
that were written across
China, Chinese history.
The dynasty that follows
the previous dynasty
writes the official
history of its predecessor.
Ironically, we do not yet have
an official history of the Qing
dynasty, the last dynasty.
That's an ongoing
big football project,
a game of tension
within China today,
how to write that history
of the last dynasty.
But, quote, unquote,
"We have 24."
That's this official history,
emperors, dynasties, battles,
natural disasters, recorded
by state authorities.
But then there's something else.
That's not all we look at.
That's not all we talk about.
There's also this kind of
idea in Chinese of Yeshi,
wild history, 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.
And that's like folklore,
families, women,
popular tales not recorded
by state authorities.
And so one way you can
think about Chinese history
is that it's the tension
between these two things.
It's like also going back to
the sea metaphor, high tide
and low tide, whatever
you want to say.
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 pieced together and
say what was really going on.
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 palace.
What I said is that looking
at itself, at the palace,
it tells you a story
about Chinese history.
This is that Zhengshi
type of place.
The things that happened in
the Hall of Supreme Harmony
are recorded in
official type histories.
But the stuff that happens
in the rear of the palace,
this is the hougong.
That's where the
imperial family lived.
That's actually
where they lived.
They didn't live in the
front of the palace.
That's an expression in Chinese,
hougong, the back of the palace.
That's the imperial family.
That's where they
actually lived.
And that's where all--
by the way, if you
watch Chinese dramas, family
dramas, they're all about that.
Nobody really cares about this.
But they're all about that.
What's going on
with the romance?
All this stuff.
Yeshi, wild history, has a
lot more to it than just that.
I'm not endorsing any
drama, by the way.
But it's a way to
think about it.
This is an incredible hall.
We will return to it in the
last class of this semester,
because in this palace
of everlasting spring
and the rear of the
palace, on its walls
are depicted murals of
probably the greatest
novel of Chinese
history, Honglou Meng,
A Dream of the Red Chamber.
Images from that novel were
painted on the walls of this
kind of residential complex
for the imperial family,
one of the consorts,
in the 19th century.
Those scenes or that novel is
all about a family in decline.
So it's actually,
I've always thought
it's extremely moving
and thought-provoking
to think that the emperor,
that the imperial family,
has these images on that wall.
So let's talk about, why would
you even take this class?
Why talk about dynastic history?
Why get into it?
Well, the answer could
be because China's
a really important place today.
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, all of that
stuff, my favorite of which
are these 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 jiqiren, this
robot, sends it to your room
so you don't have to actually
talk to any human beings.
This was a thing that came
in during COVID, I think.
And now, it's just standard
across the country.
So you could get medicine, you
get all this stuff like that.
But it was like my first
night in China, this summer,
I arrived at 1:00
AM for a conference.
And then I got a phone call.
And it was a robotic voice.
And it said, I'm here.
And I'm like, what's going on?
And then it said,
please open the door.
And I opened the door.
It's one of these.
And they go, please
press this button.
And I pressed the button.
And then it's like--
and then there was
this rice and all this food.
And it's like they're walking
all over these hotels.
And they even say,
please excuse me.
I need to get to the elevator.
So I don't know why we
don't have them yet.
And if any budding
anthropologist's in the room,
there's so much to study
about these robots,
about how humans interact
with them and such like that,
but yes.
So I understand the
current scene of China
is worth paying attention to.
It's relevance is important.
But then we get back
to this question,
why study dynastic China?
One reason 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,
from the top leadership all the
way down to everyday people,
people driving cabs that you'll
meet just in day-to-day life.
History really
matters in this place.
It's the way that people talk
about issues in the present.
It also is really contentious.
I just mentioned
to you this kind
of question of the
official Qing history.
There's been an ongoing project
to write the official Qing
history, in theory, since the
days of like Mao and Zhou Enlai.
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.
We don't pay attention to what.
Well, The Wall Street
Journal did a cover of it.
But that kind of
signals its importance.
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.
The 20th century,
it's a tough century.
We cover a lot more
centuries here.
So you get more
bang for your buck.
But they're both good.
Take it.
Take it in 2026.
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.
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 Sanguo Yanyi,
Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
I think Professor Teng has a
class on Romance of the Three
Kingdoms.
Some of you might be taking
it or want to take it.
You should take it.
It's an interesting--
this is another one
of those great novels.
We talked about Journey to
the West a little bit earlier.
This is Romance of
the Three Kingdoms.
And the opening lines of it,
this "[Chinese] hua shuo tian
xia da shi, fen jiu
bi he, he jiu bi fen."
--writes, "There's a
saying in our country,
long divided must unite,
long united, it must divide."
Think about that
for just a second.
And then let me show you this
quote by Mark Elvin in 1973.
"The Chinese Empire is the major
exception in the pre-modern
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,
that there are
periods of division
where everything falls apart.
And it looks like 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.
Rome comes back.
And it keeps coming back.
And you're like, why?
Why?
What's going on?
And people across the
centuries notice this.
It was like a thing 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, 2,000 years ago,
that was China and China today.
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.
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?
Do they look to China?
Because China wrote
about its climate--
people in China wrote about
climate for at least 2,000 plus
years.
All meteorological
phenomenon, comets, et center,
all of these records
are in those histories
that I was talking about.
So it's really, really great
to think about history.
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,
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.
You can do all of that stuff.
History is ancient, but
it's an ongoing conversation
and really filled with
nearly endless perspectives.
And here's the key point.
This class is
about eavesdropping
into that conversation.
This goes back to that image
that I was giving to you.
I take you to the
ocean, you swim.
You eavesdrop into
the conversation.
This is a huge conversation.
Lots of people are
going to say stuff.
You're going to have Taoists.
You're going to Buddhists.
You're going to have Confucians.
You're going to have Confucians
who hate other Confucians.
You're going to have
terrible emperors.
You're going to have some
decent emperors, but really bad
emperors too.
You have everything.
And it all comes together
as people over the centuries
try to make sense of it.
And that's that
ongoing conversation.
That conversation continues
in China to today.
So you get a little
in this class.
You get to eavesdrop on it.
Think about it a little bit.
So here are the class
goals and aspirations.
First of all, let me tell
you what the game plan is.
And it's a really intimidating
slide, so just buckle up.
There you go.
So basically, that's the
game plan, not this part,
so this part is modern China.
So that's the thing.
I take two classes.
One does this, and
then one does this.
So look, what I
can tell you is I'm
a historian primarily of
this era, the Ming and Qing
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 have to give
every era its due.
So I really try.
I really go out of my way,
even though I'm not the biggest
fan of the Han dynasty.
I love the Tang
dynasty as 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 those
kernels 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.
I know something.
I can say something about it.
And then that way, you go
off on your winter holiday,
and you can have great
conversations with your parents
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.
So class goals and aspirations--
learn something about
China, 20% of humanity.
This is a good aspiration.
We should learn something
about China, especially
in the United States.
It's incredible.
I have to say it.
Learn something about history--
so there's two things here.
This is a class about China.
It's also a class about history.
Of course, these
things can overlap.
But history is a discipline.
It's a way of thinking.
We have certain ideas in
history, primary sources,
secondary sources.
This is a secondary source.
This is a secondary source.
These are not primary sources.
Primary source is referring
to the original sources
that were written in
the original language
by people at the time.
Those are the
premiums in history.
But of course, we, as
historians, we write textbooks.
We write books.
So just realize history
is not in a textbook.
Textbooks are the least--
historians look
down on textbooks.
We don't like textbooks
because with textbooks, you
have to edit.
You have to take out.
You have to-- go back
to the originals.
Make your own textbook.
That's what we're going
to do in this class.
So that's what I want you
to think about history.
I don't want it to turn you
into a walking encyclopedia--
sort of I do, actually.
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
content-heavy class because I
don't know if it's
old-fashioned or what,
but I think you just
need to know it.
I think you need to know it.
You need to leave this class
in command of knowledge.
And one of the things
that you will realize, you
might think, oh, this is a lot.
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.
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,
even if it's just kind of
romanticized or whatever.
But they talk about it.
They know it.
So you got to know it.
That's the thing.
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, is that it's not
something you can just pick up,
like with a book, like so many
people think with history.
Oh, yeah, over the summer,
I'll read a book and catch up.
No.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
With computer
science, with physics,
you don't just read a
book over the weekend
and become an expert.
Chinese history is one
of those fields where
you got to take a class in it.
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.
It's not actually something that
you just pick up with osmosis
or what you can
pick up by osmosis
by reading Wikipedia
and bad history.
But that's what
we're going to try--
we're going to try to
do something better
than that in this class.
And this knowledge
will stay with you.
I always say that.
I always say that.
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, 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.
It's not a table conversation.
This is.
This is.
I guarantee you a holiday
break of great conversations
after this class, at minimum.
So why do I like
Chinese history?
Oh, wow, where to begin?
Well, I went to China for
the first time in right
before the Beijing Olympics.
And that was me many years ago.
I changed a little bit,
maybe a little bit.
That's me, maybe in Taiwan.
I think I'm in a "[CHINESE]
yong he da wang,"
which is like a breakfast place.
And I love it.
You get the doujiang.
It's soybean, sort
of a milk substance,
with youtiao, this fried donut.
It's like heaven,
you know what I mean?
It costs like $2.
And it's incredible, huge lines.
So that was me and food.
So it's not just about the food.
But we can talk about food.
I don't think I have to
convince most of you,
China's got really good food.
It's got a ton of
different types of food.
US Chinese food has gotten
better in my lifetime.
But it's starting at zero.
So the thing is, is
that it is better,
but good Chinese food in the
US tends to be expensive.
In China, you just get so much.
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.
And then this is
me playing mahjong.
So what I'm trying to say,
what I'm trying to say,
is that you get in.
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.
Something's going to grab you.
It might not be the Colosseum.
It might be just everyday
life, drinking espresso
on 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 want to understand
what happened here.
And I want to understand what
happened in the 19th century.
I to understand what happened
here 2,000 years ago.
I want this to happen to you.
It doesn't have to be China.
It can be.
It could be Mexico.
It could be any place, but some
place 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.
But that kind of
happened to me in China.
And it wasn't one moment.
It was many meals.
It was many gambling sessions.
This is me the many years
ago, probably going to Tibet.
I can't remember.
But it was on one of those
sleeper trains, back in the day.
I have to say, I have become
a middle-aged Chinese person,
in the sense of-- because
I've been in China now
for the past 20 years.
And I've seen all this change.
So I remember the green
trains that went super slow,
and you had to stay
on them for overnight.
I took the train from
Beijing to Shanghai.
The first time I took
it, I was standing.
It was I was eating
instant noodles,
praying that they wouldn't
tip over in a very crowded car
because we didn't even
have-- there weren't even
tickets left for a bed.
And now, it's like, oh,
it's business class,
high-speed rail all the way.
It takes, what, five hours?
Five hours, five hours now.
It's totally changed.
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.
And the whole
generation who grew up
in the Cultural Revolution
have these especially.
And then I've gone back.
Oh, yeah, I wrote a book.
I was there this summer,
talking about my book.
And then, oh, yeah, the
last thing I want to say--
so I got into it.
I continued to go back.
I can't tell you the number
of times I've been there.
I probably lived there
for a few years overall.
But it's like more every year.
I go for a few months.
This summer I went for 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 are you doing?
When I first went to China,
the coffee was terrible.
And for somebody addicted
to caffeine, it was brutal.
And I had to drink a ton
of tea to make up for it.
And it's just too much tea,
you know what I'm saying?
But I love tea,
don't get me wrong.
Coffee is now way better.
Coffee-- and I actually tweeted
about this when I got back.
Coffee in China is
now better than coffee
than the United States.
I come back here, and I'm
like, I'm just so disappointed.
The thing is that what
China has actually
accidentally perfected-- and you
can also find this in Thailand.
You also find this
now in Korean cafes--
is non-dairy espresso drinks.
And it's a world that
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, lychee,
whatever.
All of these, like, tangli
kafei, tangli meishi kafei,
like creative Americanos--
and I say, why don't
you take this global?
This is the next thing.
This is the next
bubble tea, for sure.
I think that there's an
interesting thing of they
feel like, oh, but maybe
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.
This is the absolute pickup,
low-calorie too, love it.
So check out coffee in China
next time you're there.
That's been an
interesting change.
Let's talk about syllabus.
So I just have a bunch of--
I used to do a
printout syllabus.
But then MIT students told me
that nobody does that anymore.
So then I felt like a
historian, but in a bad way.
So I said, let's just
put it all online.
So 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, if they're visiting.
They want to-- again, what are
you going to bring them to,
your computer science classes?
Come on.
You want to bring them here.
That's fine.
Just let me know
that they're coming.
Chinese is not a prerequisite.
Some of you are doing
a Chinese minor.
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,
challenge yourself.
Take a look at it.
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.
So that looks good.
Study guides-- so
the thing is, is
that when I first taught
this class, it was essays.
And then I was like,
I'm done with essays.
I had a historical
evolution at MIT.
And I realized if you teach
a class on Chinese history,
you got to offer an exam.
And for those of you who
know about Chinese history,
you know how important exams
are in Chinese history,
you realize, yeah,
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, 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.
Many, many people get A's, A
minuses, A pluses, whatever.
Some people will get
B's, the occasional C.
If you get below a
B, you're trying.
If you get in the B range--
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 with getting
the grade that you want.
It is a challenge.
You do have to study.
You do have to study.
And some people will bomb
the midterms, some people
and everything like that.
And that's OK.
It's not the end of the world.
We'll figure it out.
I'll show you-- here's
the grading rubric.
We'll talk about this.
So first things,
attendance-- let
me 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.
You have two excused absences.
Just let us know.
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 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 table.
So you can.
But if you want
that arrangement,
you got to let us in
the next week or so
because we need to know that.
So we're happy to accommodate.
But otherwise, we're really
hoping everybody will be here
most of the time.
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 2 points.
If you do a decent job on
them, you get the 2 points.
That's as simple as that.
You can do it late.
It's worth 1 point if it's late.
It's just every time,
every semester, somebody
comes and says, I
didn't do any of them.
I didn't know that they were
required or something like that.
Just letting you know,
we will accept it late.
That's what it's
worth if it's late.
There's a geography quiz.
All of the quizzes
and the tests,
with the exception of the
final, there will be a retake.
And it's open to everybody.
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.
Same with the
classical text quiz,
where I quiz you
on what Confucius
and the Taoists and all that,
one retake offered, a midterm.
We do a one retake offer
for the midterm too.
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.
It's like you took this
midterm, you got a 95.
I want to take it again.
All right.
We're going for that 5 points.
I got it.
So there is a timeline project.
It's not bad.
You just propose a topic.
This is where you can
follow your own interests.
If you want to do the history
of a certain type of fashion
in China, a certain
type of Chinese food,
you can follow that over time.
You just create a timeline.
I give you all the-- how
do you create the timeline?
It's not bad.
And then the final exam, and
then that's the final grade.
One thing that we do-- and
I just want to say we're
really excited this semester.
We have a TA from
the HASTS program,
Linda Ridzuan, who's
wonderful, to join us.
Anthro-- historian, history,
a historian of nuclear energy,
so really, really
excited to have Linda.
And Linda does know Chinese
history fairly well, so
definitely correspond with me.
Correspond with Linda.
During the semester, as I
try to do in all my classes,
we'll do one--
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 confuses you
in Chinese history or
questions about the midterm
or questions about whatever.
So everybody does that.
And that's also
part of the grade.
So you do have to do that once.
Happy to answer
questions at any time.
But that's what we do expect.
So let me just say
something, final point
about the discussion posts.
So discussion posts-- yes.
I 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.
Basically what you
have to do is you
have to look at the
readings, and you
have to answer a question.
I'll give you an example
for next week's discussion
post in just a second.
You write two paragraphs.
And the two paragraphs,
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.
So the thing I
want to just remind
you all, facts, inferences,
judgments, and opinions,
how you separate
out those things.
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,
judgments, and then all the way
to opinions, like I
like whatever ice cream.
When you write a post, I
don't want just opinion.
I hate Confucius.
So congratulations.
But that's not a post.
We want a combo.
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.
So that way, you
know what we expect.
You know how to do it.
So I 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
to give you an
example for next week.
So next week on
Monday, you come in.
I'm going to 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.
This is a technology.
And China was a very
early place to have it.
So what is writing?
What counts as writing?
One of the questions I think we
have are, are emojis writing?
What counts as it?
You can answer that question
if you'd like next week.
So this is what
we're kind of doing.
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 Zhou bronzes.
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 Li Feng's Early
China, very nice book.
I've given you
selections from it.
I've uploaded them.
This is a pretty sophisticated
book of early Chinese history.
It's really good.
It's fairly comprehensive.
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.
So this is the
optional textbook.
I provide you with
three different ways
to break down eras
writing or eras
sources, the primary
sources, secondary sources,
and a textbook.
The secondary sources and the
textbook are optional for you.
If you want to read
it, you can read it.
If you feel you need it--
some ears you might feel,
I know three kingdoms.
I don't need it.
I know Tang dynasty.
I don't need it this week.
I'll just do primary.
But some eras, you might be
like oh, North-South division,
I want to read the textbook.
So it's there if you need it.
So it's not as much as it looks.
And then I got the dynastic
China geography quiz study
guide.
I put up all the study guides.
Don't worry.
questions?
How's it sound?
Interesting, compared
to your other classes?
Yeah, pretty good.
Yeah.
Let me know.
Let me know.
You know what I mean?
So let's talk about how we
talk about Chinese history,
periodization.
There are ways-- this is
just getting you into foot
in the door, foot in the door.
Remember that long
list, that chronology I
gave you of all those
reigns, dynasties, whatever?
Here's how we break it down.
First, pre-modern
China-- pre-modern China,
it's a loaded word.
When does modernity begin?
It's kind of a useless phrase
because 50 years from now,
it's like they'll be like,
was the 20th century modern?
It looks pretty old to us.
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 the very
actually Western-centric notion
of the opium wars, middle of
the 19th century, basically.
So you have modern history,
pre-modern history--
coming back.
Good.
Thank you.
I said to the
computer, thank you.
So pre-modern, sometimes we
could also say traditional.
So this is just like I'm
not endorsing these terms.
I'm just letting you know these
the terms you may encounter.
So when we say Imperial
China, Imperial China,
that has a very, very fixed
beginning and end date.
That is not open
to interpretation.
Imperial China begins in 221
BCE, or BC, whatever have you.
It begins when Qin Shi
Huang 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 has got 1,000 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 Confucius was
alive, he was already
thinking about the
deep past in antiquity.
We think of Confucius,
and we go, wow,
that guy lived a long time ago.
He was thinking of other
people thinking of living
a long time ago, 600 years ago.
So this is just
Imperial China begins
with the proclamation of
the first emperor, which
was a new form of royal kingship
that 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, when does it end?
1911.
The Xinhai revolution-- many of
you have 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.
But you will sometimes see 1911.
It's not-- what are we talking?
We're talking about a
couple of months here.
I won't mark you
down if you say 1911.
It's when China had an emperor.
That's what we're talking about.
We also have a few
periods, periodizations,
that we can say, now,
think about 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--
I heard now, it's
starting in like 1500.
Is that right?
AUDIENCE: 1300.
TRISTAN BROWN: 1300 is
still way, way too late.
What a tragedy.
But whatever it is,
so you basically
start in the late medieval
period or medieval.
We have early China.
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, approximately
like that, 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 great way--
I know everybody
here will-- this
is a better way to think about
it, the Three Kingdoms period.
The Three Kingdoms period is
like the end of early China,
you can think about.
We're entering a new
era at that point.
So you can say, that's
approximately medieval China,
which, you go, when does,
quote, unquote, "medieval"
or middle period China end?
Some people say, do you
put it before the Mongols?
Do you put it after the Mongols?
Is it about a 1000?
I'm just doing really,
really traditional rain reign
dates here, founding
of the Ming dynasty.
You don't have to--
it's approximate.
And then the last two dynasties
are something like Late Imperial
China.
Sometimes you'll also hear
this 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.
Late Imperial China is how
if the Chinese historians are
together in a bus, that's how we
go, oh, Late Imperial because we
all know what that means.
So either one is fine.
But just realize,
this is how you
break it down, this very
long periods of history.
Usually-- should
we look at this?
I don't know.
Nah.
Yeah?
No.
The computer answered
the question.
Well, we'll take a peek.
This is like, there's
really like-- huh?
Let's see.
Is it going to go?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This very foreboding
music-- oh, no.
Then it just-- let me
try it one more time.
Let me try it one
more time, if it goes.
This is a kind of fun--
is it going to go?
I'm losing patience with it.
So basically, that
was the-- it's
like looking at the borders
of Chinese reigns over time.
I can show it to you.
I'll put a link online.
So we're going to get now, maybe
for the last half hour of class,
I'm going to talk about
a few more big questions,
big ways to think
about Chinese history.
And then we'll do a tour of
China, which is always, again,
really fun.
So let's talk about
Chinese history hack.
North and south,
east and west, These
are just cardinal directions.
So we have a Western Zhou,
and we have an Eastern Zhou.
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.
As time goes on, this changes.
This shifts.
The Tang dynasty in medieval
China, seventh century,
eighth century, ninth century,
approximately around here,
there's still a western capital
and still an eastern capital
at Xi'an and Luoyang.
But once you get to about
the year 1000, this shifts.
And now, we don't have
western and eastern capitals.
We have northern and
southern capitals.
And that's Beijing and Nanjing,
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.
There was a major migration
of people from the North China
Plain to the south, as the
south is basically filled
in with rice agriculture.
The south, that area South of
the Yangtze River-- don't worry.
I'll show you where the Yangtze
River is in just a second-- it
was really swamp and marshland.
The population-- as
early as the Han dynasty,
as early as around the year 0,
there were people moving down
there that picked up over the
first 1,000 years of this era.
So from the year 0 to
about the year 1,000,
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.
And the south actually ends
up becoming rather wealthy
because they grow rice.
They have surpluses.
They pay taxes.
Where do they pay taxes to?
The North.
So this is a very
interesting dynamic.
So basically, let me just
read it to you this way.
You look at it over here.
That's Dayan Ta,
Big Goose Pagoda.
You'll recognize that
in a few weeks from now.
That's Xi'an, the capital
of Shaanxi Province.
It's a very, very historic city.
It's basically a great number
of the early imperial capitals
are located there.
This is kind of
what you might think
of South China looking like,
mountainous, green, water,
humid, and rice.
So that's South
China in a nutshell.
So then we go back
to-- that's our map.
This is the Mongol
Empire, Mongol Empire.
The Mongols create, once their
reign in China is established,
they start they move
their capital to Dadu,
the great capital,
which is Beijing.
They are kind of the ones who
actually move it to Beijing.
So Beijing actually
gets its start, not as
a Han Chinese capital.
It was actually the
northern peoples,
non-Han peoples who started it.
So after the Mongol
period, you get
that Nanjing and Beijing mix.
That's in the last two
dynasties, southern capital
and northern capital.
And what you can 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, those southern hubs.
Those are the economic
engines of the country.
The political center of the
country is in the North.
And that's basically
been that way
for a few centuries, actually,
quite a number of centuries.
And that's the southern--
The southerners end
up paying for defense.
The northerners handle
frontier defense.
When you see where
Beijing is on a map,
and you see where
historical Mongolia was,
Beijing is almost not in China.
That's why it has
all those sandstorms.
It's almost in-- what
is it, the Gobi Desert?
Or whatever it is.
It's really far up
north, actually.
So that's a Chinese
history hack.
Think of north,
south, east, west.
That tells you a lot
about what era you're in.
It tells you a lot
about the geography
and the geography
of power of the era.
Talk about North and South.
Some of you will-- if
you've taken a class with me
before, you might have
seen this slide before.
Let's talk about
north and south.
What is north China?
What is south China?
Well, let me just pause
here for a minute.
What is the northern
United States?
Is Maryland north?
Is it south?
It's north.
Why do you say it's north?
AUDIENCE: Political geography.
TRISTAN BROWN: Right.
So you've answered this
question by referring
to a historical
political geography.
And that's great because
there is no real objective
answer to this question,
aside from doing that.
The same is true in China.
Basically, in the 20th century,
there was a line drawn,
and it was like, this is the
Qinling Mountains over here
in the Huaihe, the Huai 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 the joke I've always made
is that in the, I think, 1950s--
I think we went over
this 1950s, Zhou Enlai,
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 because the South
was generally warmer.
But this is the whole thing.
It's one of those things where
it's like, how do I describe it?
I once did a Chinese
New Year Spring Festival
in Guangyuan, which is in
the northern part of Sichuan
Province.
You could imagine
how frozen I was.
That's pretty far north,
but staying South.
That's one of those
border places.
I went to bed at night with
eight blankets over me.
I shared a bed with a
60-year-old man for days.
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 blankets.
It was just incredible.
I don't want to say
that-- there are
many warm parts of the
South, don't get me wrong.
If you're in Guangdong or
Hong Kong, that's warm.
That's a nice place
to be in the winter.
But just to know, this
is a very large area
with a very diverse climate.
So that can be really cold.
So this is a Mason-Dixon line.
This is kind of like
this kind of idea.
But there are cultural
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.
Political jurisdictions
of the PRC today--
I realize this is a dynastic
Chinese history class.
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 do need
to know the geography of China
today to appreciate where things
are happening, to be able to
have a conversation about it.
Just realize there are 34
total units, 23 provinces.
There are also these
autonomous regions.
Tibet is today recognized as
an autonomous region, Xinjiang,
Inner Mongolia, Ningxia Hui
Autonomous Region, and Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region.
So there's also special
zones, Shanghai, Chongqing,
and so forth.
So we can talk more about--
I have the whole
geography quiz for you.
And I have the study
guide to tell you
what exactly you need to know.
One other way to think about
Chinese geography is this line.
This is called the
Heihe-Tengchong Line.
And it was so interesting.
This summer, I finally got
a chance to visit Tengchong.
And you see, you might
not find that impressive.
But actually, Tengchong 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.
And it's a really fun part.
It's in Yunnan province.
I have some photos when we
go through the tour here.
But the key is that,
basically, this is
64% of the area of the country.
And in 1934, it had
4% of the population.
And this is, in 2015, it
had 6% of the population.
So this is actually
something that
hasn't changed all that much.
Most Chinese people
live in the red zone.
They live in this area,
this very high density
area, the big cities.
A city with 2 million
people doesn't
count as anything in China.
This is all that.
Over here, Tibet, Xinjiang, lots
of land, not so many people.
So that's a big way to do it.
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.
Many of you speak Chinese.
You know Chinese is tonal.
That means that
it's very hard to be
a beginner in this language
because you're constantly
asking for--
you're constantly saying,
horse, I miss you,
but it's really your mom.
There's all these--
it's tricky when
you're getting into it because
the tone makes the difference.
Just realize that, maybe just
going through a few things here,
the Z and the Z-H,
Z-H is like a hard--
but these are words that
I encounter in research.
Xia-- X, you see X. It's like
an S-H, xia, bixia, something
like this.
So just know, this is how
the pronunciation works.
What do I got?
Let's start talking
about China's geography.
We got 20 minutes left.
Cover the country.
I'm going to start purely,
for no apparent reason,
in Sichuan province.
It's just because this is what
my PowerPoint told me to do.
I opened it up, and I was like,
we got to start somewhere.
Let's start over there.
You have probably encountered
Sichuan province before.
It's actually a pretty
famous province.
Compared to other
Chinese provinces,
it's got a lot of
international cachet, in part
because look at all the
Sichuan restaurants all
over the Cambridge Boston area.
When Chinese food
traveled, Sichuan, Shanghai
was a 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 also sometimes see Szechuan.
That's, again, that older
transliteration system.
Same thing, it refers
to that province.
There it is in Western China.
Sichuan is famous
for spicy food.
A lot of parts of China today
have spicy food, to be frank.
It's also famous for hot pot.
Sichuan is where
hot pot, Chongqing.
Now, again, I'm
sort of biased here.
Because I'm a historian
of the Imperial period,
I take Chongqing and
Sichuan together.
Culturally, they are together.
They all speak a very similar
kind of Mandarin dialect.
But Chongqing was siphoned
off from Sichuan in the 1990s.
And now, it's its own--
it's a separate
political entity today.
But you can see Chongqing and
Sichuan, culturally, they're--
this is Chongqing right
here, right there.
It's also home to--
let me just say one
thing about hot pot.
The problem, I feel, about
talking about Chinese food today
is that now, China has
become so flattened.
And in a sense,
it's a good thing.
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.
It's not like
you're going to go,
and oh, I got to go to Sichuan.
I got to go try the hotpot.
It's like you're going to get
hot pot in Kunming and Yunnan.
You're going to get hot
pot in Beijing, whatever.
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.
So it's kind of like
Mexican in the US.
Massachusetts has it.
If you want to eat
it, they have it.
Is it as good as Arizona?
I don't know.
But you get what I'm saying.
So it's also home the panda,
Sichuan's most famous export,
besides the peppercorns.
And the panda, we talk
a lot about the panda.
Just realize something
about the panda.
Just realize it is not
important in Chinese history.
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.
It is sort of friendly,
vegetarian, and a bear.
How do you get that combination?
It's like evolution.
It is actually a bear.
So it is related to
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.
And so basically, you
ended up with that.
The panda became a symbol
in, actually, really,
the Communist era because
the panda was not associated
with imperial symbols.
The dragon is an
Imperial symbol.
The tiger is a very
ancient symbol.
The elephant even is
an ancient symbol.
All of these things
are fair game.
You can see them in
Imperial history.
You can see them
in ancient history.
But nobody talked
about the panda.
Nobody was impressed
by the panda.
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's on
the World Wildlife
Foundation's--
it's their emblem.
It's the most famous bear
in the world, let's face it.
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.
We could talk about
mafias in China.
The South was loaded with them.
And they would hang
out in the tea houses.
And there were 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
"[CHINESE] hen an yi."
It's easygoing, an easy life.
There's even this expression.
"When you're young,
don't go to Sichuan.
When you're old,
don't leave it."
There's expressions in China for
everything that give you advice.
And this is one
of those advices.
So I didn't listen
to this expression.
I went.
And you can see,
what am I doing now?
So it continued.
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 sides.
To get into Sichuan is
difficult. To get out,
there is one really easy
way to get out, which
is through the Yangtze River.
But it only flows
in one direction.
So 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 Tang
dynasty, we're
going to have a really, really
big rebellion, called the An
Lushan Rebellion.
It's one of the most famous,
devastating civil wars,
rebellions, of Chinese history.
The emperor will go from Xi'an.
He will go from Chang'an.
Don't worry.
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.
Chiang Kai-Shek's government,
Jiang Jieshi's government, when
Japan invaded from the
east, and Nanjing fell,
the government basically
had to move to the West,
and it moved to Chongqing,
which is, again,
basically the Sichuan region.
So that's where they held out
for the war, more or less.
So just realize this is a big
part of the geography of Sichuan
that gives it its
interesting flavor.
This is 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 to.
So that gives it a
unique culture in a way,
really interesting.
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.
That's Chongqing.
Now, we're going to
go to the Northeast.
We're going to go
to Shaanxi province.
Now Shaanxi province
is, if you love history,
you take this class,
this is the province
you really got to go to.
It's loaded with history.
You basically cross
the Qinling Mountains
down here in the Southern
part of the province.
You get right up here.
It's called the
Guanzhong Region.
Don't worry about it, but Xi'an,
Western Peace, literally--
or Chang'an was it's
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, more or less.
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.
So we will cover all of this.
Let's talk a little bit about
local food, again, the caveat
being, nowadays in Xi'an, you
can get whatever fish you want.
You can get hot pot, whatever.
So again, it's all flattened.
But there are
still local tastes.
And there are still
local specialties.
Northerners, in
general, eat wheat.
They eat not as rice heavy.
So that's a
noodle-eating culture.
Most of North
China eats noodles.
And Xi'an is famous for its
all different types of noodles
and noodle type dishes.
This is a saozi mian,
a Qishan saozi mian.
So saozi mian is from a county.
It's very nice.
It's got a vinegar taste.
It's a little spicy.
It's a noodle dish.
This is-- does anybody
know what this?
Yeah, paomo, yangrou paomo.
This is a lamb.
It looks like a naan bread.
And you destroy your
hands by cutting it up
into a million little pieces.
And then they pour a
soup in it with lamb.
It's delicious.
It's super heavy.
So when you eat this, you
don't eat anything else
for the rest of the day.
So it's fun.
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 the first time, you
will say, how is this true?
This is totally not fair.
The province right next
to Shaanxi province
is called Shanxi province.
Are you kidding me?
You say, 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.
The one that I
was talking about,
the ancient capital with the
Terracotta Warriors and all that
stuff, two A's.
There will always
be two A's, Shaanxi.
It's in the third tone.
It's another tone.
If you come over to
this one, you go east,
it's the first
tone, one A, Shanxi.
So for a Chinese person,
these don't sound alike.
But when you're in the US, and
you're like, what's going on?
You're like, seriously?
I have to learn this.
Yes, you have to learn it.
So not the same.
It actually will make it
easy for the geography quiz
because you'll know that
approximately in this area,
there's a place and it's
approximately spelled
the same way.
Shanxi Province,
really great place,
lots of interesting stuff,
lots of great Taoist temples,
old temples to
visit, also noodles.
Dao xiao mian I
believe is from here.
This is a knife-cut noodle.
It's famous from this region.
The hanging temple's over there.
That's really fun.
Continue on-- let's go.
I think our next one--
let's go.
That's coming.
Beijing, the Imperial
capital, Beijing-- so
if you look over here,
we went from Sichuan,
and we're going
to the Northeast,
we went through Shaanxi.
We went through Shanxi.
I cut through Heibei.
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?
AUDIENCE: It was kind of smoggy.
TRISTAN BROWN: It
was kind of smoggy.
What do you remember?
AUDIENCE: The palace.
TRISTAN BROWN: Yeah, the
palace is incredible.
Yeah.
What else do I remember?
The weather is terrible.
Look, you just gotta say,
the weather, it's hot.
And then all of a
sudden, it rains.
And it's not a nice rain.
It's 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 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, I'll
be there in a half hour, it's
like, no, just say an hour.
But it's loaded with
historical sites.
It's an incredible place.
I've been there probably
a dozen times in my life,
over the years.
And you don't see everything.
You can always go back and
see something new there.
So 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, I just realized
that this quote, unquote,
"Great Wall" was oftentimes
not very important.
It was a little bit more
important than the panda.
It was important in certain
periods of time in history.
And other periods of
time, just nobody cared.
It just depended who was
controlling Beijing at the time.
We'll get into all of this.
But just realize.
I will say one thing here.
I was going to say, I
have a little video here
I'll show you about Dongbei.
Has anybody ever
been to Dongbei?
You've been to Dongbei?
Why did you go to Dongbei?
This is Northeast
China, Manchuria.
Where did you go?
AUDIENCE: I was born there.
TRISTAN BROWN: Oh, no way.
You were born in Jilin province.
Fantastic.
Fantastic.
Where else?
You went there?
AUDIENCE: I went skiing.
TRISTAN BROWN: You went skiing?
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
You went to Heilongjiang?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
TRISTAN BROWN: Nice.
I was in Liaoning this summer.
I had a very nice time,
great historical place.
I was going to say, so
Dongbei is definitely unique.
It's unique in a number of ways.
So you will see, if you
go up to Heilongjiang,
one of the provinces, you go to
Harbin, it's almost in Russia.
And it does have some
old Russian architecture
that's around.
It's very interesting to see.
Manchuria is very important
in the 20th century.
You realize that
during World War II,
it's a big site of contention.
Japan sets up a puppet
government in Manchuria.
I guess I would say--
what would I say about it?
Just realize that,
first of all--
and this is, again,
one of those things--
I notice over the years
that people in China
today associate people from
Dongbei with being very funny,
with being humorous.
And there's all of these folks.
I'll just see if my video plays.
You can watch these
shows on Chinese TV.
It's a humorous talk show.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
- [SPEAKING CHINESE]
TRISTAN BROWN: So
she's from Dongbei.
She's got Dongbei accent.
- [SPEAKING CHINESE]
[END PLAYBACK]
TRISTAN BROWN: And there's
this kind of humor.
And I don't know exactly
how to describe it,
but it's like people just
think Dongbei people are funny.
I don't know what-- is there
a scientific basis of this?
I don't know.
But just realize that
that's what people will say.
Do you think it's true?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
TRISTAN BROWN: You
think it's true?
You think it's true?
They're a little bit funnier.
I don't know.
Are there parts of
America where you'd say,
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 people are funny?
AUDIENCE: I feel like
it's more that we
know where people are jerks.
TRISTAN BROWN: I see.
Yeah, yeah, OK.
Yeah, yeah.
We know where people have
attitude, yeah, yeah,
attitude for sure, yeah.
Yeah, humor, it's kind of
an interesting question.
Who's funny?
Who's not?
But this is one they
just to throw in there.
So continuing on, we don't
have a ton of time left.
If you go south from Dongbei
from Northeastern China,
in that area all around Beijing,
basically the south of Beijing,
mainly, you get to
this North China Plain.
And it's flat.
This is a very, very old area.
What I mean by that is,
people have been farming here
for thousands of years.
Very, very early Chinese
history 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, it
gets to the North China Plain.
And this is where the Yellow
River gets really violent
because the North
China Plain is flat.
So the Yellow River,
every few hundred years,
changes course across
the North China Plain.
And 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--
let's say, the state
has been more
interventionist in the North.
The state kind of
originates in the North,
around, in some ways, the
control of the Yellow River
because you have to control it.
In the South, very far, far
away, it's less control,
more laissez faire, more like
"[CHINESE] tian gao huang di
yuan."
Heaven's high.
The emperor is far away.
It's a different relationship.
This is one of the ways that
you can think a little bit
about South-North.
Confucius is from the
North China Plain.
He's from Shandong province.
We'll encounter him in a bit.
A number of the big early
Confucian philosophers
are from this area.
So it's got an
association, you could
say, with Confucianism and
with ancient learning and with,
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, in rebellions,
that threaten the state.
It's one of those
big Chinese novels,
Shui Hu Zhuan, Water Margin.
We've already went over,
my god, just one class,
we went over three of
the big novels today.
This takes place, you
could say, in this area.
It's like outlaws.
So it's a very
interesting location.
It's a very interesting place.
Two minutes left--
By the way, I always
use all of class time.
I just keep talking,
you know what I mean?
I just can't shut
up about this stuff.
I apologize, but I just love it.
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 superhighway
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--
where is it?
Oh, go back.
Go back, please.
Here we go.
Where's my date?
No, It doesn't there.
Whatever.
I'll just tell you.
The origins of the Grand Canal
go back to the seventh century.
This is one of those things in
China where you're like, what?
Really?
What do you mean?
A canal was constructed
in the seventh century
and then remained being
used until 100 years ago?
Yes, basically.
Yes.
It didn't flow in
exactly the same area.
The origins of the Grand
Canal were actually this one
that you see here.
It connected the Tang
dynasty capital of Luoyang
with the South.
Then in later years,
it got expanded.
And eventually, in
the later period,
it basically connects
Beijing in the South.
That goes all the
way down, you could
say, to Nanjing, Hangzhou, that
area, all the way from north.
It's like you get on there,
and you can go north-south.
You can transport grain.
The emperor can travel it,
if he's going to the South.
It's a super important way
that the empire was connected.
Today, there's high-speed rail.
At that time, there
was the Grand Canal.
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.
Pedagogical Approach

Geographical Tour

The Nature of Chinese History

Geography and Power

Course Logistics

Hard Facts & Numbers

Takeaways

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