The History of China

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been proclaimed — but proclamations don't feed armies. As such, its Divine Host will enjoy all of 11 days before sheer arithmetic forces them back onto the road. What ...

8 Touko 53min

The God-Worshippers of Thistle Mountain managed to survive their first test — but now the world itself seems dead-set on finishing the job. When unprecedented rains lead to flooding, famine, and pesti...

28 Huhti 40min

The God-Worshippers of Thistle Mountain, under the dual leadership of Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan, had gone from being a quirky, backwater oddity... to, by 1847, a real local headache. When they get...

21 Huhti 35min

Amidst the ashes of the Opium War, a new flame is beginning to kindle – not in the halls of power, but in the distant, forgotten hills and mountains. While the would-be prophet Hong Xiuquan returns ho...

15 Huhti 43min

Even in the fallout of the Opium War, dreams endure—but what happens to a dream deferred? In Canton, one young man’s starry-eyed visions of success run headlong into the brutal wall of the Imperial E...

7 Huhti 39min

TheKangxi Emperor’s Obsessive Pursuit ofGaldan Khanto the Endsof the EarthPresented: 02/28/2026audio-only cut (this is from my mic pick-up, so the host's audio is low... apologies... I'll replace it w...

31 Maalis 40min

The war is over. The treaty is signed, sealed, & delivered. Yet though the smoke has cleared, the haze of uncertainty over what - exactly - just happened... lingers on. And that misunderstanding will ...

27 Maalis 43min

The new envoy from London arrives at Qing's doorstep in August 1842 with a simple mandate: stop allowing Britain to be "humbugged" & finish the war Elliot started. What follows is the British Empire a...

19 Maalis 47min