Understanding Imperial China: Dynasties, Life, and Culture

Journey through 3,000 years of Chinese civilization as seen through the eyes of emperors, scholars, peasants, and merchants in this 24-lecture exploration.

Course Overview (No. 3822)

This immersive series reveals daily life across China’s imperial dynasties – from Qin terra-cotta warriors to Qing court banquets – through artifacts, poetry, and firsthand accounts that bring this extraordinary civilization to life.

Video Lectures

1. Opium, Trade, and War in Imperial China (31 min)
   How opium culture intertwined with economics and led to conflict with the West.
2. The First Emperor’s Terra-cotta Warriors (31 min)
   Qin Dynasty bureaucracy and the technocratic regime behind China’s iconic clay army.
3. China’s Early Golden Age: The Han Dynasty (30 min)
   Tomb artifacts reveal aristocratic lifestyles during China’s classical era.
4. Amazing Ban Clan: Historian, Soldier, Woman (31 min)
   Three extraordinary siblings who shaped Han-era scholarship and military conquests.
5. China’s Buddhist Monks and Daoist Recluses (32 min)
   Spiritual traditions from monk Faxian’s travels to poet Tao Yuanming’s rustic retreats.
6. Cosmopolitan Chang’an: Tang Dynasty Capital (30 min)
   Walking the grand boulevards of the medieval world’s most magnificent city.
7. China’s Grand Canal: Lifeline of an Empire (31 min)
   Engineering marvel that fed imperial politics and culture for centuries.
8. Triumph and Tragedy in Tang Poetry (30 min)
   How Li Bai and Du Fu’s verses captured the soul of Chinese aristocracy.
9. Life and Times of Song Dynasty Literati (31 min)
   Contrasting lives of poet-official Su Shi and philosopher Zhu Xi.
10. A Day’s Journey Along the Qingming Scroll (30 min)
    Reading a 17-foot painted masterpiece of Song Dynasty daily life.
11. Peasant Life on the Yellow River (31 min)
    Farming communities’ dwellings, diets, and struggles with nature and taxes.
12. Rice, Silk, and Tea: South China’s Peasants (30 min)
    Women’s roles in cultivating China’s most famous exports.
13. Genghis Khan and the Rise of the Mongols (32 min)
    How steppe nomads conquered China and established Yuan Dynasty rule.
14. The Mongols and Marco Polo in Xanadu (30 min)
    Multicultural exchanges during the Pax Mongolica era.
15. Admiral Zheng He’s Treasure Fleet (31 min)
    Ming-era maritime expeditions that projected imperial power.
16. China’s Bound Feet, Brides, and Widows (32 min)
    Marriage customs, chastity ideals, and the courtesan counterculture.
17. Ming Dynasty Trade and Spanish Silver (34 min)
    How New World wealth transformed 16th-century Chinese lifestyles.
18. The Great Wall and Military Life in China (32 min)
    Evolution of Ming warfare from Zhu Yuanzhang to frontier fortifications.
19. Qing Dynasty: Soul Stealers and Sedition (31 min)
    Mass hysteria over sorcery reveals imperial justice systems.
20. Emperor Qianlong Hosts a British Ambassador (31 min)
    Diplomatic banquets and the staggering scale of imperial kitchens.
21. The Taiping Rebellion and Its Cult Leader (32 min)
    History’s bloodiest civil war sparked by religious fanaticism.
22. China’s Treaty Ports (31 min)
    Hybrid Euro-Asian cities born from foreign domination.
23. Experiencing China’s Civil Service Exams (31 min)
    Grueling tests that shaped imperial bureaucracy for centuries.
24. China’s Last Dynasty: Fall of the Manchus (37 min)
    How military decline and lost loyalty doomed imperial rule.