The world is coming to Qing's doorstep, but it has a whole other set of problems along its own frontiers...
Less chronologically tied-down than most of our episodes, today we look at two of the Qing Empire's four major "inner frontier zones" and how they - in spite of often getting upstaged by the "flashier" elements of the 1800s & Qings clashes with the ... Show More
Dec 2025
#313 - Qing 44: Frontiers, Pt. 2: The Vastness Devours Us - Mountain Monasteries & Money Pits
From the koan chants of monasteries tucked between Himalayan peaks, to wending caravan paths stretching endlessly across the arid expanses of the Taklamakan & trackless steppes of Dzungaria, we finish out our look at the four primary frontier regions of the Qing Empire as of 1800 ... Show More
57m 42s
Dec 2025
#315 - Qing 46: Tripping Toward Taiping - Tribes, Triads, & Theology
Great Qing begins to buckle under early 19th c. internal pressures. Unrest first erupts not at the imperial core but along its social and geographic margins. This time, we look at three of the early warning shocks: the Miao frontier rebellions, the rise of Triad networks across t ... Show More
40m 47s
Feb 2020
10. China's Han Dynasty - The First Empire in Flames
A city in ruins. A dynasty in tatters. An empire in ashes...This episode, we look at the remarkable story of the first empire of ancient China, the Han dynasty. With ancient Chinese poetry, songs and folk music, we look back at the first empire's rise, its remarkable technologica ... Show More
2h 53m