Sima Qian is not only the first historian in Chinese history, he is also one of the greatest writers that China has ever produced. Today, writers of Kung Fu novels point to Sima Qian's stories on fighters and assassins as the origins of the Kung Fu genre. Chinese business people point to his "Biography of the Capitalists" as the reason why Chinese people today are so good at business. He documents the Chinese colonization of the Yue, who once were an independent nation that straddled the border from Guangzhou to Hanoi.
Today is the start of a series on Sima Qian. The podcast will take a look at Sima Qian the man and the broader context of China's early historiography.
Ian Johnson Interview
Jin Yong - Sword of the Yue Maiden
Jin Yong - Part 1
Sima Qian - Letter to Ren An
Sima Qian - Biography of the Capitalists
Sima Qian - Southern Yue People
Children's Book Peek in the Farm
Huang Zunxian in Hong Kong
New Year
Su Dongpo Goes to Trial for Poetry
Qiu Fengjia - Taiwanese or Chinese Nationalist?
Qiang Flute - Interview with Zhang Yanshuo
Wang Anyi - I Love Bill - Interveiw with Todd Foley, the Translator
Book of Poetry - Spanking the Pan
She Bore the Folk
Cao Xue's The Hut on the Mountain - Nobel Rerun?
The Book of Poems - Those Tender Peaches
Book of Poetry - The Big Rat
A Weibo Joke - What What What
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