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From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History
In a world growing increasingly smaller, China still seems a faraway and exotic land, with secrets and mysteries of ages past, its history and intentions veiled from most Westerners. Yet behind that veil lies one of the most amazing civilizations the world has ever known. For most of its 5,000-year existence, China has been the largest, most populous, wealthiest, and mightiest nation on Earth. And for us as Westerners, it is essential to understand where China has been in order to anticipate its future. This course answers this need by delivering a comprehensive political and historical overview of one of the most fascinating and complex countries in world history.
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First published January 1, 2004
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Kenneth J. Hammond
11?books21?followersKenneth James Hammond, professor New Mexico State University
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
December 19, 2013
I thought it would be handy to know about China for when the Chinese take over the world and the rest of us must all bow to them. I might learn Mandarin, too. I figure that way I¡¯d stand a better chance of getting a job as an eunuch. Also, my brother is over there now teaching kids how to speak English and I figure I might go visit him someday soon, so it would be nice to know a few things about the place.
From Yao to Mao is a tough one to rate. On the one hand, for a beginner just learning about Chinese history, you can¡¯t ask for much more. The information was presented in a logical timeline. Certainly in a single, 18-hour course, one can only hope to obtain a mere summation of a 5000 year period. However, the major milestones were touched upon and explained satisfactorily. I would¡¯ve liked more of a foray into the thinkers and artists of which China¡¯s past overflows, but those are subjects for another lecture and information I¡¯ll definitely be pursuing elsewhere.
On the other hand, the professor teaching this course was a terrible speaker. Harvard-educated, Dr. Kenneth J. Hammond, Professor of History at New Mexico State University (and interestingly one of the ¡°Kent 25¡± from the Kent State shootings of 1970), may have his shit down when it comes to Chinese history, but he was not the best choice speaking-wise. His delivery was low-key. He often strained to back-up a point he just made perfectly well by saying it again but differently, which would throw him into a stalling-tactic stutter (¡°¡uh, uh, uh¡¡±) until the words came to him. And then there were the occasional sighs. As I write this review I¡¯m currently reading a book on storytelling and so I know that this sighing may not be a sign of boredom, but rather a speaking technique to relax his vocal cords. Even if it is, it made him sound bored and that does not help long lectures.
All in all, this was well worth my time. There was a lot of information to absorb and I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve already forgotten most of it, but it¡¯s a great starting point!
Footnoted! This is not a book. It is a recording by The Teaching Company of a professor teaching a lesson. I include it in my reviews because Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ has it listed¡Why does Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ have it listed?
From Yao to Mao is a tough one to rate. On the one hand, for a beginner just learning about Chinese history, you can¡¯t ask for much more. The information was presented in a logical timeline. Certainly in a single, 18-hour course, one can only hope to obtain a mere summation of a 5000 year period. However, the major milestones were touched upon and explained satisfactorily. I would¡¯ve liked more of a foray into the thinkers and artists of which China¡¯s past overflows, but those are subjects for another lecture and information I¡¯ll definitely be pursuing elsewhere.
On the other hand, the professor teaching this course was a terrible speaker. Harvard-educated, Dr. Kenneth J. Hammond, Professor of History at New Mexico State University (and interestingly one of the ¡°Kent 25¡± from the Kent State shootings of 1970), may have his shit down when it comes to Chinese history, but he was not the best choice speaking-wise. His delivery was low-key. He often strained to back-up a point he just made perfectly well by saying it again but differently, which would throw him into a stalling-tactic stutter (¡°¡uh, uh, uh¡¡±) until the words came to him. And then there were the occasional sighs. As I write this review I¡¯m currently reading a book on storytelling and so I know that this sighing may not be a sign of boredom, but rather a speaking technique to relax his vocal cords. Even if it is, it made him sound bored and that does not help long lectures.
All in all, this was well worth my time. There was a lot of information to absorb and I¡¯m sure I¡¯ve already forgotten most of it, but it¡¯s a great starting point!
Footnoted! This is not a book. It is a recording by The Teaching Company of a professor teaching a lesson. I include it in my reviews because Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ has it listed¡Why does Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ have it listed?
April 17, 2022
Now this is what I was hoping to get in : a comprehensive history of peoples of China throughout the ages, from its earliest times all the way up to modern times. Now, this is only a 18 hour lecture series. It's one of the longest ones I've listened to, but even with that run time, this is still very much an overview. But Prof. Hammond uses his time effectively to highlight the majority dynasties and the philosophies that inspired them without skipping over huge chunks of time, which I appreciated. This focuses largely on the political and philosophical facets of the realm, though, and doesn't delve much into anything else.
The supplemental PDF is uninspired, with very few visuals. And the professor's delivery wasn't as smooth as it could have been. And I do wish he'd at least attempted to pronounce the names correctly.
The supplemental PDF is uninspired, with very few visuals. And the professor's delivery wasn't as smooth as it could have been. And I do wish he'd at least attempted to pronounce the names correctly.
December 12, 2012
I love these types of lecture series. It's too bad you can't earn college credit just by listening to them, or I could have another degree by now. As usual, this lecture did not disappoint. Prof. Hammond delivered an excellent overview of 5,000 years of Chinese history, giving enough detail to whet the appetite while also effectively giving us a high-level look at the events that made China what it is today. Do I feel like I'm an expert on China after listening to this lecture series? No. But do I feel like I have a broad understanding of China, its people, and its culture, and that now I can start filling in the details without feeling lost? Yes. For someone interested in China, I'd recommend this lecture series as a great first step.
March 2, 2021
I did not hate this, but I did not find it as enjoyable and engaging as other Great Courses lectures I have listened to.
Everything was centered around the Great Men and the succession of emperors and men in power through the titular 5000 years of chinese history. I wanted a deeper understanding of all levels of food, dress, literary culture, art, religion, architecture, technology, trade, and other such areas and that was not what I got.
Did we talk about horses or polo? no. did we talk about spices? no. did we talk about sericulture? no. we barely talked about pottery!! How many named women were in this entire lecture? Three that I recall. Wu Zetian, Cixi, and Mao ZeDong's wife. It was like women didn't even EXIST.
I do now have a timeline of the major dynasties living rent free in my head and I do appreciate that knowledge, but I think I learned more of the kind of thing I wanted to learn about china from my "barbarian empires of the steppes" course which was not, strictly speaking, About China.
Everything was centered around the Great Men and the succession of emperors and men in power through the titular 5000 years of chinese history. I wanted a deeper understanding of all levels of food, dress, literary culture, art, religion, architecture, technology, trade, and other such areas and that was not what I got.
Did we talk about horses or polo? no. did we talk about spices? no. did we talk about sericulture? no. we barely talked about pottery!! How many named women were in this entire lecture? Three that I recall. Wu Zetian, Cixi, and Mao ZeDong's wife. It was like women didn't even EXIST.
I do now have a timeline of the major dynasties living rent free in my head and I do appreciate that knowledge, but I think I learned more of the kind of thing I wanted to learn about china from my "barbarian empires of the steppes" course which was not, strictly speaking, About China.
May 3, 2020
Chinese history is really deep and complicated, so I did not expect a lecture totalling just 18+hrs to be able to cover the topic in depth. Nonetheless, this was a good attempt to do so in spite of some watering down of certain uncomfortable issues in the long and brutal history of China.
Unfortunately, I was aggravated with the lecturer's delivery. This was the first time I've had to speed up the narration of a Great Course lecture because I couldn't bear to listen to it at normal speed. The lecturer's poor cadence and innumerable stuttering (uh uh uh) made it pretty tough to focus on a topic as convoluted as Chinese history.
Unfortunately, I was aggravated with the lecturer's delivery. This was the first time I've had to speed up the narration of a Great Course lecture because I couldn't bear to listen to it at normal speed. The lecturer's poor cadence and innumerable stuttering (uh uh uh) made it pretty tough to focus on a topic as convoluted as Chinese history.
November 30, 2014
A lot of great information delivered in lackluster fashion. Professor Hammond covers the highlights of 4000 years of Chinese history, a whole lot of material to condense and make digestible for those of us with little background in the subject. He does this well, but his speaking style leaves something to be desired. This makes getting through the course a bit of a chore, but the information is well organized. It might have been easier to simply read the lectures rather than listen to them.
May 2, 2022
The book is just a set of lecture note outlines, but it's excellent as an overview of 3500 years of history.
April 11, 2014
Overall, this eighteen hour series (roughly 600 novel-length pages) was worth listening to. I had listened to a multi-hour dynastic history of China via Laszlo Montgomery's China History Podcast ( to "The Qing dynasty part 7", an amateur production, in the old sense of "amateur" meaning doing it for fun instead of putting food on the table), and I've read novels set in and historical books about various spatiotemporal nodes in Chinese history before I started on this. I got this by accident: my spouse asked for an introductory Chinese history resource to help better place works of Chinese literature like and (and their reverberations through today's pop culture). (While we're talking about it, can someone get John Minford to translate Water Margin please?)
Historians seem to come in two kinds: research and teaching. Most of my own experience with historians (problems and celebrations) has been when they were wearing their research hat, but this is certainly a work of an educator. In his preface to , Mero says (I can't resist quoting him in full) that his "book is in the form of an essay. It is intended to be read rather than studied. Therefore I did not stick to the fundamental rules of textbook writing namely that the material be east to learn, easy to teach, and easy to examine on --- usually at the expense of being slightly boring. Rather my aim was to meet the demands of the reader seeking mental adventure." I personally fully believe Nassim Taleb's aphorism, "Education is to learning what prostitution is to love" but Hammond's education-al production, like most such things, is nonetheless a monumental human achievement and labor of love, and therefore couldn't prevent itself from being worth it.
(Some other reviewers seem to have disliked Hammond's verbal delivery. They may be fools in real life. I had no problems with his professorial speaking habits or cadence.)
It's all here folks. From a whole lecture on the geography of China (thank you), from the Longshan and contemporary cultures, and the antics of Zhuge Liang, through the preface to the Orchid Pavilion poems of Wang Xizhi of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, the golden ages of the Tang, the Song, and the Qing (different golden ages for each), a whole lecture on Temujin and the broader Pax-Mongolica (thank you!), the time of troubles starting in the 1850s with the West's opium-drenched hypocrisy, through the socialist years under Mao and the pragmatist years under and following Deng, and the return of problems in healthcare, education, and women's rights, which all had improved in the socialist era.
I frequently felt stabs of pain as I turned a phrase and realized another one of my favorite episodes/characters/ideas was left on the cutting room floor. That's ok, there were others which I didn't know about and that I enjoyed hearing about. The course comes with three booklets ("course guidebooks", search for them online, I believe The Teaching Company itself provides these online for free) with an entirely inadequate bibliography (which nonetheless contained some surprises for me), but which helped me quickly review the lectures and find those tidbits. Of course I also listened to this with an audiobook app which allows me to quickly jump back (by physically shaking my player) and make bookmarks that I later revisit and write about (I used for iOS).
I am very critical about the way Hammond hypersummarizes with cliches anything related to military, administrative/fiscal, trade, agriculture, really anything technical, and then actually builds the narrative using these cliches. It is not clear to me whether this gross oversimplification of anything not purely historical is a personal characteristic or if it's just a result of the "education::prostitution" problem I alluded to earlier. I might have to pick up one of Hammond's research books and see if he's one of those purely institutional history types. (An example: Han Wudi (one of the all-star emperors, whose fifty-fourth and last reigning year coincided with Sulla invading Rome) placed monopolies on salt, iron, alcohol, said to be commodities that were produced only in certain places but needed everywhere---how exactly did such monopolies improve things? I can't accept at face value this notion that erecting state monopolies on critical commodities was one of the things that made Han Wudi's legacy good.)
However, Hammond is enthusiastic about art, literature, religion, philosophy. These get lectures of their own. Also, the Mongols get a lecture of their own too, independent of the Yuan dynasty (of Kubilai fame). Lucky us!
And the course did make occasional allusions to people, ideas, and events that have significance in modern Chinese political and social discourse, and not just post-1800s things. I scoffed when a close Chinese friend explained his uninterest in reading Chinese history with "There's too much of it." While I continue to consider him lazy and unlearned, I better appreciate how multi-millennia of "continuous" history, compounded by an ever-present and active historiographical tradition which compounds this history with writings about history, and writings about writings about history, can be both a great asset and an intimidating inheritance. This was illuminated by a delightful juxtaposition Hammond sets up: the disintegration of the Han dynasty (yes, that Han Wudi's Han) parallels the disintegration of the Roman republic-empire, and while like in China the elites living in the post-Roman era dreamt of reunification, it actually happened in China. Over and over again in between each dynasty/ruling party. For some reason (I don't really care why, I'm always satisfied with the random-contingency explanation of "just because"), each big crunch was followed by a new big bang. Today we think of the Roman era as a chapter in a history textbook---a world we are told we have an inheritance from, but the tenuous threads of that legacy through the yawning chasm of centuries we are comfortable ignoring in daily life. I can only imagine what it is like to have a perception of a "continuous" rope shining bright in the mind's eye tying our modern era with that of Kangxi, with Wu Zetian, with Yao and Shun---continuous in quotes because while there are caveats, to a first order approximation, it is continuity and legitimacy following legitimacy that have perceptual primacy, which the caveats about interregna and mere decades of chaos (yes, Hammond notes that the Five Dynasties "period of confusion" between the collapse of the Tang and the rise of the Song was "short", at five decades, relative to previous interregna, e.g., Spring and Autumn and Warring States) merely modulate.
Historians seem to come in two kinds: research and teaching. Most of my own experience with historians (problems and celebrations) has been when they were wearing their research hat, but this is certainly a work of an educator. In his preface to , Mero says (I can't resist quoting him in full) that his "book is in the form of an essay. It is intended to be read rather than studied. Therefore I did not stick to the fundamental rules of textbook writing namely that the material be east to learn, easy to teach, and easy to examine on --- usually at the expense of being slightly boring. Rather my aim was to meet the demands of the reader seeking mental adventure." I personally fully believe Nassim Taleb's aphorism, "Education is to learning what prostitution is to love" but Hammond's education-al production, like most such things, is nonetheless a monumental human achievement and labor of love, and therefore couldn't prevent itself from being worth it.
(Some other reviewers seem to have disliked Hammond's verbal delivery. They may be fools in real life. I had no problems with his professorial speaking habits or cadence.)
It's all here folks. From a whole lecture on the geography of China (thank you), from the Longshan and contemporary cultures, and the antics of Zhuge Liang, through the preface to the Orchid Pavilion poems of Wang Xizhi of the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, the golden ages of the Tang, the Song, and the Qing (different golden ages for each), a whole lecture on Temujin and the broader Pax-Mongolica (thank you!), the time of troubles starting in the 1850s with the West's opium-drenched hypocrisy, through the socialist years under Mao and the pragmatist years under and following Deng, and the return of problems in healthcare, education, and women's rights, which all had improved in the socialist era.
I frequently felt stabs of pain as I turned a phrase and realized another one of my favorite episodes/characters/ideas was left on the cutting room floor. That's ok, there were others which I didn't know about and that I enjoyed hearing about. The course comes with three booklets ("course guidebooks", search for them online, I believe The Teaching Company itself provides these online for free) with an entirely inadequate bibliography (which nonetheless contained some surprises for me), but which helped me quickly review the lectures and find those tidbits. Of course I also listened to this with an audiobook app which allows me to quickly jump back (by physically shaking my player) and make bookmarks that I later revisit and write about (I used for iOS).
I am very critical about the way Hammond hypersummarizes with cliches anything related to military, administrative/fiscal, trade, agriculture, really anything technical, and then actually builds the narrative using these cliches. It is not clear to me whether this gross oversimplification of anything not purely historical is a personal characteristic or if it's just a result of the "education::prostitution" problem I alluded to earlier. I might have to pick up one of Hammond's research books and see if he's one of those purely institutional history types. (An example: Han Wudi (one of the all-star emperors, whose fifty-fourth and last reigning year coincided with Sulla invading Rome) placed monopolies on salt, iron, alcohol, said to be commodities that were produced only in certain places but needed everywhere---how exactly did such monopolies improve things? I can't accept at face value this notion that erecting state monopolies on critical commodities was one of the things that made Han Wudi's legacy good.)
However, Hammond is enthusiastic about art, literature, religion, philosophy. These get lectures of their own. Also, the Mongols get a lecture of their own too, independent of the Yuan dynasty (of Kubilai fame). Lucky us!
And the course did make occasional allusions to people, ideas, and events that have significance in modern Chinese political and social discourse, and not just post-1800s things. I scoffed when a close Chinese friend explained his uninterest in reading Chinese history with "There's too much of it." While I continue to consider him lazy and unlearned, I better appreciate how multi-millennia of "continuous" history, compounded by an ever-present and active historiographical tradition which compounds this history with writings about history, and writings about writings about history, can be both a great asset and an intimidating inheritance. This was illuminated by a delightful juxtaposition Hammond sets up: the disintegration of the Han dynasty (yes, that Han Wudi's Han) parallels the disintegration of the Roman republic-empire, and while like in China the elites living in the post-Roman era dreamt of reunification, it actually happened in China. Over and over again in between each dynasty/ruling party. For some reason (I don't really care why, I'm always satisfied with the random-contingency explanation of "just because"), each big crunch was followed by a new big bang. Today we think of the Roman era as a chapter in a history textbook---a world we are told we have an inheritance from, but the tenuous threads of that legacy through the yawning chasm of centuries we are comfortable ignoring in daily life. I can only imagine what it is like to have a perception of a "continuous" rope shining bright in the mind's eye tying our modern era with that of Kangxi, with Wu Zetian, with Yao and Shun---continuous in quotes because while there are caveats, to a first order approximation, it is continuity and legitimacy following legitimacy that have perceptual primacy, which the caveats about interregna and mere decades of chaos (yes, Hammond notes that the Five Dynasties "period of confusion" between the collapse of the Tang and the rise of the Song was "short", at five decades, relative to previous interregna, e.g., Spring and Autumn and Warring States) merely modulate.
February 19, 2022
Five stars for feeling like I have a much better starting point to explore various aspects of Chinese history/culture/language in more depth, thanks to this sweeping recap of 5,000 YEARS in 18 hours, which I finished in 9 days. This is no audiobook to listen on 1.5 or 2x the speed, which I would never do again except for Zoom meeting recordings. I had to rewind 30 seconds frequently to catch a quick but major transition and would occasionally pause to review the 154-page accompanying PDF for the summary of the lecture and especially the spelling of names to visualize what Kenneth Hammond means when he refers to the "Joe Dynasty" (Zhou Dynasty).
Three stars for "getting the job done"¡ªwasn't spectacular, wasn't awful, but I was more engaged than I expected to be. It was fascinating, tragic, bleak, petty, humorous, so I didn't entirely mind how monotone and "neutral" the narration tried to be. I also appreciated the classroom lecture style, which was more conversational and easier to follow than reading aloud from a book. Near the end, you could hear a random student coughing, so this must have been an actual course, lol. I did wonder what these lectures would have been like if had written them instead.
Table of Contents + notes-to-myself
1. Geography and Archaeology - starting off with the landscape of what is China
2. The First Dynasties - the Xia doing rituals, becoming leaders by claiming this role/connection to ancestors and higher power
3. The Zhou Conquest - wondering if I should truly try to recap what I learned. It would help me
4. Fragmentation and Social Change - remember, but what if I remember wrong, and retain
5. Confucianism and Daoism - really inaccurate information. Hmm. Nevermind.
6. The Hundred Schools
7. The Early Han Dynasty
8. Later Han and the Three Kingdoms
9. Buddhism
10. Northern and Southern Dynasties
11. Sui Reunification and the Rise of the Tang
12. The Early Tang Dynasty
13. Han Yu and the Late Tang
14. Five Dynasties and the Song Founding
15. Intellectual Ferment in the 11th Century
16. Art and the Way
17. Conquest States in the North
18. Economy and Society in Southern Song
19. Zhu Xi and Neo-Confucianism
20. The Rise of the Mongols
21. The Yuan Dynasty
22. The Rise of the Ming
23. The Ming Golden Age
24. Gridlock and Crisis
25. The Rise of the Manchus
26. Kangxi to Qianlong
27. The Coming of the West
28. Threats from Within and Without
29. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
30. Efforts at Reform
31. The Fall of the Empire
32. The New Culture Movement and May 4th
33. The Chinese Communists, 19211937
34. War and Revolution
35. China Under Mao
36. China and the World in a New Century
Three stars for "getting the job done"¡ªwasn't spectacular, wasn't awful, but I was more engaged than I expected to be. It was fascinating, tragic, bleak, petty, humorous, so I didn't entirely mind how monotone and "neutral" the narration tried to be. I also appreciated the classroom lecture style, which was more conversational and easier to follow than reading aloud from a book. Near the end, you could hear a random student coughing, so this must have been an actual course, lol. I did wonder what these lectures would have been like if had written them instead.
Table of Contents + notes-to-myself
1. Geography and Archaeology - starting off with the landscape of what is China
2. The First Dynasties - the Xia doing rituals, becoming leaders by claiming this role/connection to ancestors and higher power
3. The Zhou Conquest - wondering if I should truly try to recap what I learned. It would help me
4. Fragmentation and Social Change - remember, but what if I remember wrong, and retain
5. Confucianism and Daoism - really inaccurate information. Hmm. Nevermind.
6. The Hundred Schools
7. The Early Han Dynasty
8. Later Han and the Three Kingdoms
9. Buddhism
10. Northern and Southern Dynasties
11. Sui Reunification and the Rise of the Tang
12. The Early Tang Dynasty
13. Han Yu and the Late Tang
14. Five Dynasties and the Song Founding
15. Intellectual Ferment in the 11th Century
16. Art and the Way
17. Conquest States in the North
18. Economy and Society in Southern Song
19. Zhu Xi and Neo-Confucianism
20. The Rise of the Mongols
21. The Yuan Dynasty
22. The Rise of the Ming
23. The Ming Golden Age
24. Gridlock and Crisis
25. The Rise of the Manchus
26. Kangxi to Qianlong
27. The Coming of the West
28. Threats from Within and Without
29. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
30. Efforts at Reform
31. The Fall of the Empire
32. The New Culture Movement and May 4th
33. The Chinese Communists, 19211937
34. War and Revolution
35. China Under Mao
36. China and the World in a New Century
August 1, 2019
From my fairly uneducated perspective, Dr. Kenneth J. Hammond's lecture series on Chinese history is an excellent overview of the Middle Kingdom.
Long has China had a tangible presence on the world stage, with peaks and valleys to be sure, and it doesn't look like it will be leaving the world stage anytime soon. So many other nations, empires, peoples have come and gone, but China and the Chinese remain, which suggests to me that it should be the duty of anyone who wants to be informed about the world to get to know China and the Chinese culture.
From Yao to Mao is an excellent place to start, and it has already pointed out new trails for me to explore in depth.
Hammond has one of those lecturing voices that somehow manages to be compelling despite a penchant for monotonous delivery. It feels more like his approach is a deliberate neutrality than that it is unconsciously boring. I am curious what other listeners think about his delivery.
Anyway, if you are interested in China and you're just starting out, this is as good a place as any to get your start.
Long has China had a tangible presence on the world stage, with peaks and valleys to be sure, and it doesn't look like it will be leaving the world stage anytime soon. So many other nations, empires, peoples have come and gone, but China and the Chinese remain, which suggests to me that it should be the duty of anyone who wants to be informed about the world to get to know China and the Chinese culture.
From Yao to Mao is an excellent place to start, and it has already pointed out new trails for me to explore in depth.
Hammond has one of those lecturing voices that somehow manages to be compelling despite a penchant for monotonous delivery. It feels more like his approach is a deliberate neutrality than that it is unconsciously boring. I am curious what other listeners think about his delivery.
Anyway, if you are interested in China and you're just starting out, this is as good a place as any to get your start.
April 28, 2021
A really comprehensive guide to the history of the Chinese civilisation from 5000 years ago to Deng Xiaoping era. There is not much political or moral judgement cast on anyone. Only downside being, at times it makes it sounds like Mao or Deng, elected leaders of the people's republic is just another hereditary emperor; which is obviously untrue.
April 8, 2019
A lovely overview: the lecturer starts from ground zero and covers a huge span of time by discussing major events peppered with fun historical trivia tidbits. Highly recommend.
May 3, 2023
From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History (16/45)
A reading slump so powerful I am listening to a course on Chinese history. I actually really enjoyed my time listening, China and its many historical fragments is an extremely interesting topic for history, sociology, culture blah blah blah. This feels like a great outline of the history of China, and I will probably jump into books the dive into certain topics in the future.
A reading slump so powerful I am listening to a course on Chinese history. I actually really enjoyed my time listening, China and its many historical fragments is an extremely interesting topic for history, sociology, culture blah blah blah. This feels like a great outline of the history of China, and I will probably jump into books the dive into certain topics in the future.
Read
July 10, 2024I will write a small review later, but it was an enjoyable time, though deniably overwhelming.
March 11, 2025
Chinese history is so long that it¡¯s impossible to go into depth when trying to cover it start to finish. Overall, Hammond did a good job of tracing the patterns of Chinese history through the years. I found it interesting how policies enacted by emperors a centuries ago would still be considered progressive today.
March 12, 2025
Extremely well researched and succinct summary of Chinese history which is certainly no easy task
September 15, 2017
For the majority of the lectures, I endeavored to be mildly interested, but--understandably, given the immense time period it covered--it ended up being more a list of dates/politicians than a real feel for the events and general everyday life of the people, which mostly bored me.
After hearing the lectures on the 20th century, however, I had to question everything I had heard about any previous century. His glossing over/covering of modern events was ludicrous and his benign comments about Mao's reign and lack of acknowledgment of the suffering and atrocities throughout baffled me.
When I read Pilgrim's review (quoted below), it all became clearer. I certainly wish I had known of his current involvement in the Party. I understand that every historian brings their own bias with them on a project, but the whitewashing of the 20th century was simply ridiculous and I now feel like the entire credit/hours of my life spent listening was an entire waste.
From Audible listener Pilgrim's review (4-13-15)
"Mr Hammond actually works for the current Beijing communist party as their controversial "Confucius Institute" director. I wish this information was disclosed by Audible or Great Courses, if someone works under Hitler, I would had not buy that person's book on "Jewish History." I find this to be very crucial. I did not know this until AFTER I finished listening to his propaganda, I mean, lecture. Everything toward the end sounded more and more like a communist propaganda. I want to divide my review in 2 parts: the lecture on modern history of China, and the lecture in general. In the modern Chinese history section of the lecture, Mr Hammond basically glossed all over the atrocities and extremely brutal history of Mao and Chinese Communist Party. For example, policies where all the private property and wealth of the Chinese people were taken at the barrel of the gun, he called it "reform" and "important."Movements where millions of urban Chinese were forced to live in the country side, and forever had their status changed to "farmer," which made them illegal immigrants in modern China cities, Mr Hammond called it useful and important reforms for modern China.In the Great Leap Forward where millions of people were starved to death under collectivism, he called it simply an issue of error in reports of food production. Cultural Revolution, a movement that span over 10 years where teachers were paraded as traitors, mocked, attacked and many cases killed by communists, monks and priests were paraded as criminals, where endless cultural buildings, relics, art works, monuments, including the graves of Yue Fei and Confucius, were dug up and destroyed, Mr Hammond simply called it a conflict between Gang of 4 with those who opposed Mao. See, the reason Mao killed endless millions was because people are so mean to him.Right after he talked about how the misreporting of the Great Leap Forward, where officials offered unrealistic production number, was the cause of millions of deaths, he immediately praised the great "7% GDP growth" a few decades later given from the same officials. All the issues with Mao, according to Mr Hammond, was because people didn't follow his violent and brutal communism. All the issue with modern China, according to him, guess what: is because of capitalism!Yup.Those who do not learn from history will repeat it. Those who intentionally lie about history, then work for the communist party, however, are the much more vicious. His glossy account of the modern Chinese history is almost lifted right after a communist pamphlet, it almost reminds me of my childhood living under the same communist party.Maybe that is why the communist would hire him to be the director of the Confucius Institute, an organization's goal is to export communist propaganda to the USA.The other lectures on older history were very superficial for the most part. People who have some understanding of Chinese history might find it useful to chart up particular areas for further study, but many important events and characters were simply ignored. Of course, the amount of time given to 5,000 years, it is impossible to go deep into many issues.But I would not buy from Great Courses again until I careful research the presenter in the future."
After hearing the lectures on the 20th century, however, I had to question everything I had heard about any previous century. His glossing over/covering of modern events was ludicrous and his benign comments about Mao's reign and lack of acknowledgment of the suffering and atrocities throughout baffled me.
When I read Pilgrim's review (quoted below), it all became clearer. I certainly wish I had known of his current involvement in the Party. I understand that every historian brings their own bias with them on a project, but the whitewashing of the 20th century was simply ridiculous and I now feel like the entire credit/hours of my life spent listening was an entire waste.
From Audible listener Pilgrim's review (4-13-15)
"Mr Hammond actually works for the current Beijing communist party as their controversial "Confucius Institute" director. I wish this information was disclosed by Audible or Great Courses, if someone works under Hitler, I would had not buy that person's book on "Jewish History." I find this to be very crucial. I did not know this until AFTER I finished listening to his propaganda, I mean, lecture. Everything toward the end sounded more and more like a communist propaganda. I want to divide my review in 2 parts: the lecture on modern history of China, and the lecture in general. In the modern Chinese history section of the lecture, Mr Hammond basically glossed all over the atrocities and extremely brutal history of Mao and Chinese Communist Party. For example, policies where all the private property and wealth of the Chinese people were taken at the barrel of the gun, he called it "reform" and "important."Movements where millions of urban Chinese were forced to live in the country side, and forever had their status changed to "farmer," which made them illegal immigrants in modern China cities, Mr Hammond called it useful and important reforms for modern China.In the Great Leap Forward where millions of people were starved to death under collectivism, he called it simply an issue of error in reports of food production. Cultural Revolution, a movement that span over 10 years where teachers were paraded as traitors, mocked, attacked and many cases killed by communists, monks and priests were paraded as criminals, where endless cultural buildings, relics, art works, monuments, including the graves of Yue Fei and Confucius, were dug up and destroyed, Mr Hammond simply called it a conflict between Gang of 4 with those who opposed Mao. See, the reason Mao killed endless millions was because people are so mean to him.Right after he talked about how the misreporting of the Great Leap Forward, where officials offered unrealistic production number, was the cause of millions of deaths, he immediately praised the great "7% GDP growth" a few decades later given from the same officials. All the issues with Mao, according to Mr Hammond, was because people didn't follow his violent and brutal communism. All the issue with modern China, according to him, guess what: is because of capitalism!Yup.Those who do not learn from history will repeat it. Those who intentionally lie about history, then work for the communist party, however, are the much more vicious. His glossy account of the modern Chinese history is almost lifted right after a communist pamphlet, it almost reminds me of my childhood living under the same communist party.Maybe that is why the communist would hire him to be the director of the Confucius Institute, an organization's goal is to export communist propaganda to the USA.The other lectures on older history were very superficial for the most part. People who have some understanding of Chinese history might find it useful to chart up particular areas for further study, but many important events and characters were simply ignored. Of course, the amount of time given to 5,000 years, it is impossible to go deep into many issues.But I would not buy from Great Courses again until I careful research the presenter in the future."
April 4, 2022
In short, 1-star for: **See section below for reasons and supports **
- lecture 3 - 2 inaccuracies (yes! I can¡¯t believe it) plus 1 missed opportunity to point out very important Chinese cultural note. 1 false dichotomy in argument.
- lecture 4 - 2 inaccuracies (again!), 1 inappropriate omission (like saying Dakota instead of North Dakota and South Dakota), plus another missed opportunity on an important cultural element.
I stopped at lecture 4 as I realized that I was spending more time double checking my facts and writing unhappy commentary in my notebook, versus listening to the audiobook. Life is too short for bad (and with inaccurate historical facts) book.
////
Note 1: Most info I checked on both Wikipedia and Baidu Baike (Chinese online encyclopedia). Given Chinese government¡¯s grip on information and focus on what the next generation is learning, I fully expect the information on their popular online encyclopedia to be accurate, especially on topics of Chinese history.
Note 2: To search on Baidu Baike, for example, google ¡°±P¹Å baike¡±.
Lecture 3 ¨C
#3.1 Incorrect statement ¨C Professor said, ¡°They don¡¯t have creation myth like western traditions do. Instead their traditions begin with sage kings or sage emperors. Figures of high antiquity, posited to be long before emergence of Xia. Most notable of which were Yao and Shun.¡±
-- Big fat ¡°NO¡± to no creation myth!
-- Pangu was ¡°a primordial being and creation figure in Chinese mythology who separated heaven and earth and became geographic features such as mountains and rivers.¡± (Wikipedia, ¡°Pangu¡±, 3/31/22) (More info also see Baidu Baike, ¡°±P¹Å¡±)
-- Nuwa was ¡°the mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven.¡± (Wikipedia,¡° N¨¹wa¡±, apparently you need the u-umlaut) (Baike ¡°Å®‹z¡±)
-- Seriously, do an online search for ¡°creation myth¡± and click on ¡°list of creation myths¡± from Wikipedia, and it¡¯s right there: Pangu.
#3.2 Missed opportunity to point out important Chinese cultural note ¨C Referring to the above quote again
-- Yes to sage kings and sage emperors, and No to most notable of which were Yao and Shun. Ok, this can be a matter of opinion, but let me explain.
-- First, every Chinese know Yao, Shun, and Yu. Definitely notable. Definitely sages of great moral quality -> Here¡¯s a thumbs up to the professor for pointing out the centrality of moral quality in these mythical leaders and later early historical leaders.
-- But if you¡¯re going to pick the ¡°most notable¡± in Chinese mythology, in terms of cultural importance, Huangdi far outweighs Yao and Shun (Wikipedia, ¡°Yellow Emperor¡±. Baike, ¡°üSµÛ¡±.)
-- Why?
(1) ¡°Ñ×üS×ÓŒO¡± (=descendants of Yan(di) and Huang(di)) is one of the ways that the Chinese people refer to themselves. I¡¯d say that makes these two pretty darn important. (Wikipedia, ¡°Yan Huang Zisun¡±. Baike, ¡°Ñ×üS×ÓŒO¡±.)
Ok, who were they?
--- Huangdi was the first mythical ruler to unite all Chinese people, in the pantheon of the mythical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and taught his people a bunch of stuff like how to grow crops. Good moral quality.
--- Yandi (¡°Yan Emperor¡± on Wikipedia) was the one of the three important leaders in the times of Huangdi and also part of the abovementioned pantheon. In my opinion, Yandi¡¯s other persona Shennong* was equally important, as Shennong tried all plants to test which are poisonous (so his people would know) and finally died from that. Again, good moral quality.
-- Huangdi¡¯s tribe defeated Yandi¡¯s tribe in a battle with a name, and thus Huangdi was the one who united all people. Why Yan Huang not Huang Yan, I don¡¯t have a clue.
-- *: whether Yandi and Shennong were the same person is/was a subject of scholarly debate, and in 2004 Chinese scholar consensus was yes.
(2) Qin Shi Huang, the (in)famous first emperor of Qin dynasty, first coined the term ¡°»ÊµÛ¡± (also pronounced ¡°huangdi¡± although the first character is different) to refer to himself as THE emperor, and that was a direct reference to the very first mythical ruler that the Chinese people had. And this appellation became how the Chinese refer to emperors for the rest of imperial China, for next few thousand years. (Wikipedia, ¡°Qin Shi Huang¡±. Baike, ¡°ÇØʼ»Ê¡±.)
And other cultural references to Huangdi that I¡¯d skip here.
In short, in terms of notable mythical sage rulers, Huangdi is of far greater consequences than Yao and Shun in Chinese culture.
#3.3 Incorrect statement ¨C Professor said, ¡°King Wu was the leader of the Zhou people at the time, but he was rather a young boy. And probably the most important individual at the time was (we only know his title as) the duke of Zhou. Duke of Zhou was the younger brother of King Wen, but unlike the Shang, the Zhou people passed the monarchy along from father to son. The Duke has always been seen as a virtuous leader, because he did not usurp the throne when he probably could have and acted as a sagely advisor to King Wu. The Duke became the prototype of a sagely advisor in Chinese political culture.¡±
-- You mixed up two people! The mentee was King Cheng, King Wu¡¯s son! King Wu and the Duke of Zhou both were sons of King Wen. And King Wu was 30 when Zhou toppled Shang rule; he wasn¡¯t a young lad. The Duke was mentor to his nephew the 13-year old King Cheng after King Wu passed away 3 years after toppling Shang! (Wikipedia, ¡°Duke of Zhou¡±. Baike, ¡°Öܹ«¡±)
-- The professor did made a good point that the Duke was one of the sage advisors archetype. Although I was disappointed that he didn¡¯t touch on the Duke¡¯s biggest legacy (and Zhou¡¯s biggest legacy), his work in ÖƶY×÷˜· (roughly translates into establish rites create music), which is a more complicated to explain but its basic goal being creating structure and harmony in society. Why is this important? Because as Zhou descended into the chaotic Spring-Autumn period, this was one of the things Confucius lamented, that the people stopped following it. And the Duke's work influenced Confucius and other Ru Classicists later on. (Baike, ¡°Öܹ«¡±)
-- By the way, unlike what professor said, King Wu¡¯s name was not really a single ¡°wu¡±. From Wikipedia, ¡°King Wu's ancestral name was Ji (¼§) and given name Fa (°l)¡±, but mostly it¡¯ll be ¡°Wu King¡± in third person (or ¡°Zhou Wu King¡± if you need specify which state or dynasty, especially since there were LOTS of Wu King/Huang/Di down the road. ¡°Wu¡± means martial prowess; that¡¯s why it¡¯s popular.). (Wikipedia, ¡°King Wu of Zhou¡±. Baike, ¡°ÖÜÎäÍõ¡±)
Ok, you might be thinking, if you know so much, why are you bothering with this?
Because I didn¡¯t/don¡¯t know so much! I only know enough to say, ¡°hmmm? Let me look that up.¡± Like I didn¡¯t know about the mix up of King Wu and King Cheng until I wondered, who was this Duke of Zhou? Ah it was that person. Wait what¡¯s that about King Cheng???
Am I getting too upset? Well, it's like if someone tells you the Ancient Greeks didn't have creation myth, or that Aristotle was teacher to Philip II not Alexander the Great, or that Hadrian started imperial Rome instead of Augustus. I would feel compelled to say, wait a minute here. And I'd want to set the record straight.
... And I've also take 3-4 courses from Great Courses, and I enjoyed them all! But now I feel like I need to wear a more critical lens to any future audiobook course I listen to.
Well, thanks to this book and online resources, I did learn quite a bit these few days.
... More on Lecture 4 later.
- lecture 3 - 2 inaccuracies (yes! I can¡¯t believe it) plus 1 missed opportunity to point out very important Chinese cultural note. 1 false dichotomy in argument.
- lecture 4 - 2 inaccuracies (again!), 1 inappropriate omission (like saying Dakota instead of North Dakota and South Dakota), plus another missed opportunity on an important cultural element.
I stopped at lecture 4 as I realized that I was spending more time double checking my facts and writing unhappy commentary in my notebook, versus listening to the audiobook. Life is too short for bad (and with inaccurate historical facts) book.
////
Note 1: Most info I checked on both Wikipedia and Baidu Baike (Chinese online encyclopedia). Given Chinese government¡¯s grip on information and focus on what the next generation is learning, I fully expect the information on their popular online encyclopedia to be accurate, especially on topics of Chinese history.
Note 2: To search on Baidu Baike, for example, google ¡°±P¹Å baike¡±.
Lecture 3 ¨C
#3.1 Incorrect statement ¨C Professor said, ¡°They don¡¯t have creation myth like western traditions do. Instead their traditions begin with sage kings or sage emperors. Figures of high antiquity, posited to be long before emergence of Xia. Most notable of which were Yao and Shun.¡±
-- Big fat ¡°NO¡± to no creation myth!
-- Pangu was ¡°a primordial being and creation figure in Chinese mythology who separated heaven and earth and became geographic features such as mountains and rivers.¡± (Wikipedia, ¡°Pangu¡±, 3/31/22) (More info also see Baidu Baike, ¡°±P¹Å¡±)
-- Nuwa was ¡°the mother goddess of Chinese mythology. She is credited with creating humanity and repairing the Pillar of Heaven.¡± (Wikipedia,¡° N¨¹wa¡±, apparently you need the u-umlaut) (Baike ¡°Å®‹z¡±)
-- Seriously, do an online search for ¡°creation myth¡± and click on ¡°list of creation myths¡± from Wikipedia, and it¡¯s right there: Pangu.
#3.2 Missed opportunity to point out important Chinese cultural note ¨C Referring to the above quote again
-- Yes to sage kings and sage emperors, and No to most notable of which were Yao and Shun. Ok, this can be a matter of opinion, but let me explain.
-- First, every Chinese know Yao, Shun, and Yu. Definitely notable. Definitely sages of great moral quality -> Here¡¯s a thumbs up to the professor for pointing out the centrality of moral quality in these mythical leaders and later early historical leaders.
-- But if you¡¯re going to pick the ¡°most notable¡± in Chinese mythology, in terms of cultural importance, Huangdi far outweighs Yao and Shun (Wikipedia, ¡°Yellow Emperor¡±. Baike, ¡°üSµÛ¡±.)
-- Why?
(1) ¡°Ñ×üS×ÓŒO¡± (=descendants of Yan(di) and Huang(di)) is one of the ways that the Chinese people refer to themselves. I¡¯d say that makes these two pretty darn important. (Wikipedia, ¡°Yan Huang Zisun¡±. Baike, ¡°Ñ×üS×ÓŒO¡±.)
Ok, who were they?
--- Huangdi was the first mythical ruler to unite all Chinese people, in the pantheon of the mythical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and taught his people a bunch of stuff like how to grow crops. Good moral quality.
--- Yandi (¡°Yan Emperor¡± on Wikipedia) was the one of the three important leaders in the times of Huangdi and also part of the abovementioned pantheon. In my opinion, Yandi¡¯s other persona Shennong* was equally important, as Shennong tried all plants to test which are poisonous (so his people would know) and finally died from that. Again, good moral quality.
-- Huangdi¡¯s tribe defeated Yandi¡¯s tribe in a battle with a name, and thus Huangdi was the one who united all people. Why Yan Huang not Huang Yan, I don¡¯t have a clue.
-- *: whether Yandi and Shennong were the same person is/was a subject of scholarly debate, and in 2004 Chinese scholar consensus was yes.
(2) Qin Shi Huang, the (in)famous first emperor of Qin dynasty, first coined the term ¡°»ÊµÛ¡± (also pronounced ¡°huangdi¡± although the first character is different) to refer to himself as THE emperor, and that was a direct reference to the very first mythical ruler that the Chinese people had. And this appellation became how the Chinese refer to emperors for the rest of imperial China, for next few thousand years. (Wikipedia, ¡°Qin Shi Huang¡±. Baike, ¡°ÇØʼ»Ê¡±.)
And other cultural references to Huangdi that I¡¯d skip here.
In short, in terms of notable mythical sage rulers, Huangdi is of far greater consequences than Yao and Shun in Chinese culture.
#3.3 Incorrect statement ¨C Professor said, ¡°King Wu was the leader of the Zhou people at the time, but he was rather a young boy. And probably the most important individual at the time was (we only know his title as) the duke of Zhou. Duke of Zhou was the younger brother of King Wen, but unlike the Shang, the Zhou people passed the monarchy along from father to son. The Duke has always been seen as a virtuous leader, because he did not usurp the throne when he probably could have and acted as a sagely advisor to King Wu. The Duke became the prototype of a sagely advisor in Chinese political culture.¡±
-- You mixed up two people! The mentee was King Cheng, King Wu¡¯s son! King Wu and the Duke of Zhou both were sons of King Wen. And King Wu was 30 when Zhou toppled Shang rule; he wasn¡¯t a young lad. The Duke was mentor to his nephew the 13-year old King Cheng after King Wu passed away 3 years after toppling Shang! (Wikipedia, ¡°Duke of Zhou¡±. Baike, ¡°Öܹ«¡±)
-- The professor did made a good point that the Duke was one of the sage advisors archetype. Although I was disappointed that he didn¡¯t touch on the Duke¡¯s biggest legacy (and Zhou¡¯s biggest legacy), his work in ÖƶY×÷˜· (roughly translates into establish rites create music), which is a more complicated to explain but its basic goal being creating structure and harmony in society. Why is this important? Because as Zhou descended into the chaotic Spring-Autumn period, this was one of the things Confucius lamented, that the people stopped following it. And the Duke's work influenced Confucius and other Ru Classicists later on. (Baike, ¡°Öܹ«¡±)
-- By the way, unlike what professor said, King Wu¡¯s name was not really a single ¡°wu¡±. From Wikipedia, ¡°King Wu's ancestral name was Ji (¼§) and given name Fa (°l)¡±, but mostly it¡¯ll be ¡°Wu King¡± in third person (or ¡°Zhou Wu King¡± if you need specify which state or dynasty, especially since there were LOTS of Wu King/Huang/Di down the road. ¡°Wu¡± means martial prowess; that¡¯s why it¡¯s popular.). (Wikipedia, ¡°King Wu of Zhou¡±. Baike, ¡°ÖÜÎäÍõ¡±)
Ok, you might be thinking, if you know so much, why are you bothering with this?
Because I didn¡¯t/don¡¯t know so much! I only know enough to say, ¡°hmmm? Let me look that up.¡± Like I didn¡¯t know about the mix up of King Wu and King Cheng until I wondered, who was this Duke of Zhou? Ah it was that person. Wait what¡¯s that about King Cheng???
Am I getting too upset? Well, it's like if someone tells you the Ancient Greeks didn't have creation myth, or that Aristotle was teacher to Philip II not Alexander the Great, or that Hadrian started imperial Rome instead of Augustus. I would feel compelled to say, wait a minute here. And I'd want to set the record straight.
... And I've also take 3-4 courses from Great Courses, and I enjoyed them all! But now I feel like I need to wear a more critical lens to any future audiobook course I listen to.
Well, thanks to this book and online resources, I did learn quite a bit these few days.
... More on Lecture 4 later.
June 11, 2022
A fascinating history that has been stifled by its format. By forcing this audio piece to conform to many 30 minute segments, it forces the speaker to talk about incredibly boring things sporadically, and for much longer than we care to see, or talk about extremely complex subjects in disconnected, and thus, boring ways. While this has single handedly given me more info about china than I've ever had before, it also gives me so much more information than im interested in. For example, the section on arts and peoples are not unnecessary, and yet, pushing these things into a 30 minute format disconnects it deeply from the main story of china, and makes me forget everything that's going on.
Regardless, for its length, it is probably the best possible history on china you could possibly get: with the caveat that you should probably skip any section thats boring you.
Regardless, for its length, it is probably the best possible history on china you could possibly get: with the caveat that you should probably skip any section thats boring you.
January 25, 2018
Yet again, a great course that made my annual town library tax worth every penny.
Learned a lot but please don't ask me to recite all the dynasties in order. My only negative comment would be of Hammond's comments about the communists. His point was they helped modernize the country. He minimized The Great Leap forward killing unknown millions. It was kind of one of the great disasters in human history. The Nationalists on Taiwan meanwhile were clearly doing a better job of modernizing their island. Surely if the communists hadn't stepped in the Korean War that war would have ended and Korea would be a unified country today. A war that Hammond completely skipped.
Hard to cover 5,000 years of history in a few hours of lectures but a valiant effort.
Learned a lot but please don't ask me to recite all the dynasties in order. My only negative comment would be of Hammond's comments about the communists. His point was they helped modernize the country. He minimized The Great Leap forward killing unknown millions. It was kind of one of the great disasters in human history. The Nationalists on Taiwan meanwhile were clearly doing a better job of modernizing their island. Surely if the communists hadn't stepped in the Korean War that war would have ended and Korea would be a unified country today. A war that Hammond completely skipped.
Hard to cover 5,000 years of history in a few hours of lectures but a valiant effort.
May 18, 2011
From Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History: 4 out 5
Wow Chinese history is indeed is full with interesting event and somehow have similarity with the Arab history. Mr. Hammond kept the content interesting and to the point and concentrated in the most interesting event in each period his fascination of the Chinese civilization and history which make you feel related to the event. His way of presenting the lecture is ok it not great and not boring as well so all in all it worth the trouble
March 6, 2019
This was a good lecture series. Chinese history is so expansive that even after listening for 18 hours there are so many things that didn¡¯t get brought up. A lot of things were glossed over and generalized, but it¡¯s a good way to get an overall idea of the history and then you can pick and choose which areas you dive deeper into. It was interesting, but there weren¡¯t as many mind blowing moments and I know there could have been. A few times some very interesting facts were brought up, but were delivered blandly and almost as afterthoughts. Overall very informative though!
August 12, 2021
Excellent overview of the topic (but glosses over the Cultural Revolution a tad too quickly.) Very good at fleshing out key details without being bogged down by minutiae. Adept at explaining the big picture and the various forces operating behind major developments. Would recommend the video version of this series since the maps are very helpful in understanding population migrations and border changes over time.
December 31, 2020
Interesting.
Though, I don't think the Great Courses format works for me in the way I want it to: I listen to it when I'm driving or have a spare moment. The general picture/survey is harder to retain. I do much better with specific events. And seeing things written out. (Genghis Khan was fascinating, as was the woman emperor, and Qin Xi Huangdi [sp]).
Though, I don't think the Great Courses format works for me in the way I want it to: I listen to it when I'm driving or have a spare moment. The general picture/survey is harder to retain. I do much better with specific events. And seeing things written out. (Genghis Khan was fascinating, as was the woman emperor, and Qin Xi Huangdi [sp]).
November 4, 2024
The positives are rather unremarkable and may be succinctly summarized: as a general history of China, it's "good enough." A solid general knowledge on a broad subject -- particularly the entire history of a continuous civilization as ancient as China -- demands the reading of numerous works on the same subject. Even the best general history of China -- particularly but not exclusively a single-volume work -- will not suffice to raise one's knowledge the subject above the superficial. As one of many histories of China to include in one's readings, including this work yields net benefits. Its audiobook format may elevate its value a little bit as a supplement, since it has allowed me to "read" it while working out and moving around town.
Now for the failings, which in isolation range from trivial to fairly pronounced in severity, and the combination of which saps any respect I have for the author --
Some of the omissions of important episodes baffle me. How do you barely mention anything at all about the Imjin Wars with Japan; the special relationship of China as a cultural force in Korea, Vietnam, etc; or the origins of the split between the Mandarin and Cantonese languages? So far, these defects might be regarded as forgivable, but the combined effect of all of them changes that.
More disconcertingly, in numerous chapters the author attributes Western imperialism in the East (China and elsewhere) to "capitalism" and "laissez-faire." Excuse me? Imperialism and colonialism are taxpayer-subsidized violations of private property propped up by governments. That is in direct contravention of laissez-faire and capitalism -- private control over economic decision-making is the linchpin of the capitalist system. The East India Companies (which the author calls "capitalist") were created by royal charters and existed entirely as a result of state interference in human social organization; they could not have and would not have arisen under conditions of laissez-faire.
(To paraphrase a remark of Hans Herman Hoppe circa 2016, "The history profession is a minefield of ridiculous interpretations over and over and over. They will generally report the facts right, but the interpretation of the facts is, well, sometimes you are rolling over in bed because you cannot stop laughing.)
The author further dishonors himself in the last chapter by proclaiming that women's rights somehow improved under Mao -- rather reprehensible given that Mao ranks as history's worst mass murderer (more than Hitler and Stalin combined) and given that mass systematic rape proliferated colossally under his yoke. Women agonized even more than men under his forced labor programs due to their physical weakness. Not to mention, Mao himself forced fourteen-year-old girls into dancing competitions, after which he would sexually abuse the victor.
Worth including in one's readings of China solely for the reasons mentioned in the first paragraph. I don't respect the author, his intelligence, or his (im)morality.
Now for the failings, which in isolation range from trivial to fairly pronounced in severity, and the combination of which saps any respect I have for the author --
Some of the omissions of important episodes baffle me. How do you barely mention anything at all about the Imjin Wars with Japan; the special relationship of China as a cultural force in Korea, Vietnam, etc; or the origins of the split between the Mandarin and Cantonese languages? So far, these defects might be regarded as forgivable, but the combined effect of all of them changes that.
More disconcertingly, in numerous chapters the author attributes Western imperialism in the East (China and elsewhere) to "capitalism" and "laissez-faire." Excuse me? Imperialism and colonialism are taxpayer-subsidized violations of private property propped up by governments. That is in direct contravention of laissez-faire and capitalism -- private control over economic decision-making is the linchpin of the capitalist system. The East India Companies (which the author calls "capitalist") were created by royal charters and existed entirely as a result of state interference in human social organization; they could not have and would not have arisen under conditions of laissez-faire.
(To paraphrase a remark of Hans Herman Hoppe circa 2016, "The history profession is a minefield of ridiculous interpretations over and over and over. They will generally report the facts right, but the interpretation of the facts is, well, sometimes you are rolling over in bed because you cannot stop laughing.)
The author further dishonors himself in the last chapter by proclaiming that women's rights somehow improved under Mao -- rather reprehensible given that Mao ranks as history's worst mass murderer (more than Hitler and Stalin combined) and given that mass systematic rape proliferated colossally under his yoke. Women agonized even more than men under his forced labor programs due to their physical weakness. Not to mention, Mao himself forced fourteen-year-old girls into dancing competitions, after which he would sexually abuse the victor.
Worth including in one's readings of China solely for the reasons mentioned in the first paragraph. I don't respect the author, his intelligence, or his (im)morality.
December 6, 2024
For those of you who might be slightly intimidated by the vastness of the title, be at ease. This lecture series is actually a great place for you to start if you're looking for a fantastic overview of the history of China. New comers to Chinese history should be able to enjoy the content and not feel overwhelmed by names or cultural concepts. Even an old hand like myself learned tons of new details and really enjoyed the personal touches that Hammond was able to add.
His lectures are beautifully planned and cover an amazing amount of content in a very short period of time somehow without over burdening the listener, or becoming distracted on tangents. Each lecture roughly follows a dynasty or period of China and starts with the rise, some good things or interesting things that happened or were started, followed by some problems which eventually lead to the decline and fall. It's fun when you start to notice patterns, but also a bit scary when you the patterns resonate a bit to closely to our own times. It's not all history either. There are some great supplemental lectures throughout, that go into things such as philosophy, religion, and art which really fit well and gave me some fantastic insights. My own interest has mainly been in ancient China and I was a bit nervous about starting the more modern lectures. To my great amazement I ended up really enjoying them and zoomed right through the content. To sum up the last 4 or so lectures in a few words, I would say that Hammond does great job of humanizing the whole topic. I so happy that I decided to finally do this series and I would do more by the same presenter without a second thought.
For those of you worried about Hammond's voice he's very chill and clear, so for those of you who like to boost your listening speed he is still very understandable even at 1.5 or above!
His lectures are beautifully planned and cover an amazing amount of content in a very short period of time somehow without over burdening the listener, or becoming distracted on tangents. Each lecture roughly follows a dynasty or period of China and starts with the rise, some good things or interesting things that happened or were started, followed by some problems which eventually lead to the decline and fall. It's fun when you start to notice patterns, but also a bit scary when you the patterns resonate a bit to closely to our own times. It's not all history either. There are some great supplemental lectures throughout, that go into things such as philosophy, religion, and art which really fit well and gave me some fantastic insights. My own interest has mainly been in ancient China and I was a bit nervous about starting the more modern lectures. To my great amazement I ended up really enjoying them and zoomed right through the content. To sum up the last 4 or so lectures in a few words, I would say that Hammond does great job of humanizing the whole topic. I so happy that I decided to finally do this series and I would do more by the same presenter without a second thought.
For those of you worried about Hammond's voice he's very chill and clear, so for those of you who like to boost your listening speed he is still very understandable even at 1.5 or above!
November 27, 2021
Mr Hammond¡¯s course on Chinese history from its earliest stages up to the 1980¡¯s is a strong book. For me, in many places I could contrast this work with ¡®The Story of China¡¯ which I read a short time ago, noting the differences between the authors and stories. In general, however, this is a good overview with plenty of information and a relatively even balance across the ages¡ªthough some aspects, especially the arts, are left unmentioned except a few exceptions.
This is primarily a political overview. This is not only attested by the majority of the arts not coming into this narrative, with ¡®The Romance of the Three Kingdoms¡¯ being the exception, but also by the author¡¯s emphasis on introducing political players and describing emperors based on their competency to govern as well as what they achieved in power. The intermediate phases are generally given short shrift, even when these lasted for prolonged periods, and the emphasis is on dynastic government and the (gradual) improvements each of these dynasties was able to make.
In comparison to Mr Wood¡¯s ¡®The Story of China¡¯, this is a much more academic overview. Mr Wood often used literature of the time to describe its events and, in general, brought up many more arts-related events than Mr Hammond¡¯s version. Yet, ¡®The Story of China¡¯ lacked the same focus on politics and in some cases, connections between events were not as clear as they are in this book. This is especially true for the 20th century, where the warlords period and Japanese invasion of China are covered much more thoroughly than in ¡®The Story of China¡¯.
Mr Hammond also focusses on understanding social classes more than ¡®The Story of China¡¯. This helps put certain actions into good context, especially where the ideal of the Chinese gentleman is a difficult one to understand. In addition, the author also brings out how this ideal met the groups¡¯ collective interests in power and what these conundrums meant for the country (in short: nothing good).
However, what made me lower my rating for this book was that Chinese history has often been linked to natural events: earthquakes and floods. While a few (I think two) post-Ming natural events are mentioned here, the numerous floods of the 11th and 12th century that weakened the Song are not¡ªthough Mr Wood¡¯s book covers these with only a few sentences, it is much better than nothing.
Overall, this is a very good overview of the Chinese history¡ªthough perhaps the last chapters dealing with post-Mao governments should be taken with a grain of salt.
This is primarily a political overview. This is not only attested by the majority of the arts not coming into this narrative, with ¡®The Romance of the Three Kingdoms¡¯ being the exception, but also by the author¡¯s emphasis on introducing political players and describing emperors based on their competency to govern as well as what they achieved in power. The intermediate phases are generally given short shrift, even when these lasted for prolonged periods, and the emphasis is on dynastic government and the (gradual) improvements each of these dynasties was able to make.
In comparison to Mr Wood¡¯s ¡®The Story of China¡¯, this is a much more academic overview. Mr Wood often used literature of the time to describe its events and, in general, brought up many more arts-related events than Mr Hammond¡¯s version. Yet, ¡®The Story of China¡¯ lacked the same focus on politics and in some cases, connections between events were not as clear as they are in this book. This is especially true for the 20th century, where the warlords period and Japanese invasion of China are covered much more thoroughly than in ¡®The Story of China¡¯.
Mr Hammond also focusses on understanding social classes more than ¡®The Story of China¡¯. This helps put certain actions into good context, especially where the ideal of the Chinese gentleman is a difficult one to understand. In addition, the author also brings out how this ideal met the groups¡¯ collective interests in power and what these conundrums meant for the country (in short: nothing good).
However, what made me lower my rating for this book was that Chinese history has often been linked to natural events: earthquakes and floods. While a few (I think two) post-Ming natural events are mentioned here, the numerous floods of the 11th and 12th century that weakened the Song are not¡ªthough Mr Wood¡¯s book covers these with only a few sentences, it is much better than nothing.
Overall, this is a very good overview of the Chinese history¡ªthough perhaps the last chapters dealing with post-Mao governments should be taken with a grain of salt.
January 26, 2023
2.5 stars
t was very interesting and it's a lot to unpack and summarise when you are talking about one of the greatest civilizations in the world. Though this was a thought-provoking overview of such a culture that is so massive and diverse like china, I felt like it fell short in many ways to highlight the greater events of note that Chinese history is known for. It felt like a very swift overview and this subject needs more study to get a firm grasp of what it means to be Chinese in a historical context.
What I did like is that it rapidly goes over and mentions important people that set the stage for reformation and great change intellectually, politically, and governmentally. Also, it was great learning about the great dynasties that kept competing and the politics that went into them struggling against one another.
I felt that it is very softhanded and lenient towards the unbelievable suffering and atrocities the Chinese communist party and Mao, in particular, has caused to millions upon millions of its unfortunate citizens. In this lecture, it's waved away with non-consequence and nonchalantly which is quite jarring and aggravating.
It enriched me in the areas that I didn't know but seriously downplayed the areas that most are familiar with and this to me puts into question the agenda of the instructor and the bias that he has towards Chinese communism and his sympathies to it. and for that, I knock off at least a whole star.
t was very interesting and it's a lot to unpack and summarise when you are talking about one of the greatest civilizations in the world. Though this was a thought-provoking overview of such a culture that is so massive and diverse like china, I felt like it fell short in many ways to highlight the greater events of note that Chinese history is known for. It felt like a very swift overview and this subject needs more study to get a firm grasp of what it means to be Chinese in a historical context.
What I did like is that it rapidly goes over and mentions important people that set the stage for reformation and great change intellectually, politically, and governmentally. Also, it was great learning about the great dynasties that kept competing and the politics that went into them struggling against one another.
I felt that it is very softhanded and lenient towards the unbelievable suffering and atrocities the Chinese communist party and Mao, in particular, has caused to millions upon millions of its unfortunate citizens. In this lecture, it's waved away with non-consequence and nonchalantly which is quite jarring and aggravating.
It enriched me in the areas that I didn't know but seriously downplayed the areas that most are familiar with and this to me puts into question the agenda of the instructor and the bias that he has towards Chinese communism and his sympathies to it. and for that, I knock off at least a whole star.
September 14, 2017
This course did a good job of filling in the broad strokes of Chinese history up through the death of Mao, which was very helpful. Although I frequently found myself frustrated that he went into insufficient detail concerns areas that particularly interested me, I do realize that to get through 5000 years of history requires a very zoomed out view and would have been made far too cumbersome by zooming in. This course gave me a much better understanding than I had, and will, hopefully, serve as a framework upon which to put more specific understanding.
A few of things that stood out to me through the course were the historic strength of China, they had, pretty much forever, been a world super power and only recently had they come into lowlier times, and have by now, reachieved their status. The Chinese resistance to industrialization was fascinating and something I plan to look further into. The British drug dealing government's takeover of China through the use of opium is despicable; I wish I had more trouble believing it...
A few of things that stood out to me through the course were the historic strength of China, they had, pretty much forever, been a world super power and only recently had they come into lowlier times, and have by now, reachieved their status. The Chinese resistance to industrialization was fascinating and something I plan to look further into. The British drug dealing government's takeover of China through the use of opium is despicable; I wish I had more trouble believing it...
August 1, 2023
i can¡¯t believe 20 hours ago i thought i knew even a little bit about china. i¡¯m cancelling myself for such insolence and asking my ancestors to forgive me (they won¡¯t). china did it on em by nicki manage before anyone else in practically everything. the rest of us may get some bogus chinese on our sleeves but we are just wanna be wu zhaos (624-705 a lowly consort to the previous king but succeeded that king¡¯s son as the only female emperor for 15 years ?). this tiny foray was an instant exp boost for all the rad chinese literature i¡¯ve read up till now.
luv mao luv his work, waiting on mao II to crush the scene waving my little red book.
gonna hit the gas and extend a meaning full look of loving and care to the dude giving these lectures. he gets to work early in the morning to give his lectures sounding a bit tired and exasperated, devastated by the prospect of waking up and having to do shit, but by the end ohhhh boy he in the groove str8 up a part of the turning wheels of history itself. so cute ?.
i ?? ??
luv mao luv his work, waiting on mao II to crush the scene waving my little red book.
gonna hit the gas and extend a meaning full look of loving and care to the dude giving these lectures. he gets to work early in the morning to give his lectures sounding a bit tired and exasperated, devastated by the prospect of waking up and having to do shit, but by the end ohhhh boy he in the groove str8 up a part of the turning wheels of history itself. so cute ?.
i ?? ??
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