10. The Han Dynasty - The First Empire in Flames
Added 2020-11-27 15:18:47 +0000 UTCThanks to everyone who's been patient waiting for this, and for the new audio episodes. New lockdowns in the UK have once again made my life very difficult with regards to recording, but the final stages of Episode 12 are finally coming together, and I hope to release before Christmas. I hope this video for Episode 10 makes up for the wait. It's been a real joy to put this one together, and I really hope you enjoy it.
Paul
Comments
Honk! Honk! A typo, incorrect capitalisation and punctuation in the human-edited transcript: 1:58:06 “the ancient legendary sword Known as the sword that slew the snake which had belonged to the first emperor _honk out soon_” I turned on the CC to read the emperor's name. Poor Honk Out Soon's snake... :)
Cy 'kkm' K'Nelson
2022-09-21 22:43:00 +0000 UTCI think you've gotten better about this since this episode, but i would really love track titles in credits. I actually subscribed for three reasons: the lovely music from Aruna Sairam, the general wonderfulness of these podcasts deserving what support i can give, and the music from this episode, hoping to find the wonderful, ominous music played at 2 hours in in this episode, as well as other places. I've been unable to find it based on the credits, so if anyone does happen to know it, i would be grateful. Anyway! Great series, while i'm here. Well done indeed. Well-written, well-performed, well-researched (where i know enough to judge).
A Fox
2022-02-21 09:23:10 +0000 UTCFantastic work Paul. On a Sunday where I spent the morning arguing with some loved ones, you picked up my spirits in the afternoon, such that I can reassess. I've become a Patreon contributor as a result. Keep up the great work :)
Kartik Krishnan
2021-11-21 17:36:52 +0000 UTCMore burning books. All of the ancient knowledge lost here and in other episodes just breaks my heart. All of these crazy people wanting power and destruction. People are so destructive. Thank you for all of your eposodes. You are totally amazing, because you are not only a wonderful historian, you are able to explain it to us in such a educational manner. I respect you very much!
You too can be a nice person
2021-07-04 03:00:26 +0000 UTCThe poetry you read at the end is so powerful, I had to look it up and save it for future reference. There's something so humbling about the very humanity in those words, and how they echo down to us, person to person across the long expanse of history.
Josh Smith
2021-06-22 21:40:31 +0000 UTCPerhaps the most complete & richly illustrated history of ancient China I have ever seen. I remember taking World History in high school in the mid-70s & I have NO recollection of China being included in the curriculum at my Midwest U.S. suburban high school. Once again, BRILL!
J.J. Tindall
2021-02-10 18:17:06 +0000 UTCI watch your show while doing nighttime feeds for my newborn. I started genuinely crying during the part where you described the coronation of the newborn emperor. How could they be so cruel to an innocent little baby? Babies? I just felt a primal urge to gather that little boy up and hold him tight and protect him from the scary crowd, even if he was a whole world and 2 millenia away.
Jessica Jeffery
2021-01-15 14:12:10 +0000 UTCAmazing episode, as always! It's been clear for a while now from the show notes that the restrictions in the U.K. have made the production of FoC much more difficult, but quality hasn't suffered in the least — quite the contrary. I love the story of Gan Ying possibly reaching the Mediterranean, and him being told by (trolling?) sailors that this inner sea is so massive that it'll take him years to explore it (regardless of which sea this actually was, it does sound like an exaggeration). One has to wonder what could have happened if this emissary's visit had led to the two empires interacting more directly, either by commerce and diplomacy of even by war. Would one have had the audacity to try to conquer the other? This seems unlikely considering how their location itself was so central to their identity, for both of them. So would they have prospered and benefited from direct links, creating the first global economic zone? From what I've read, their contacts stayed mostly indirect and their awareness of each other were pretty limited. It seems like the physical distance was just too great in these times regardless of anyone's ambitions, and that strong ties would have been difficult to establish even with eager participants. Also: fun moment at 1:46:58 when Paul quotes Gan Ying as saying "The [leader] who has been dismissed quietly accepts his demotion, and is not angry." — with an accompanying drawing of the assassination of Julius Caesar :D
Desmond Hawkins
2020-12-30 06:28:28 +0000 UTCI enjoyed this video on Han Dynasty China and something that I still find very interesting is how Inventive certain periods of Chinese history can be. Some historians will debate that Song Dynasty China even had a small Industrial revolution and an urbanization rate of 30 per cent of China's Population . On Han era technologies I was most impressed with the agricultural technologies although the Han Chinese did have less crop diversity than people had later in Chinese history. Lastly the documentary had some impressive video shoots of the Chinese Countryside and Scenery. Thanks for the Video.
David O Rourke
2020-12-21 21:00:12 +0000 UTCIt was while watching Fall of Civilizations Ep 10 that I decided to support Paul. This is truly the best story telling of history I have ever heard. Thank You to everyone that has made this possible.
David ONeal
2020-12-14 20:20:24 +0000 UTC
