Ep. 221 | The History of Tang Poetry (Part 4)

The China History Podcast

Laszlo Montgomery

Places & Travel, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2019

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Li Bai is showcased in this fourth installment of Laszlo's not very deep dive into the history of Tang poetry. We're still in the High Tang period of Chinese poetry. This episode will focus more on Li Bai's story (and legend) rather than an in-depth analysis of his poetry. He, along with several other poets from this time are cultural icons and treasures of the Chinese people. Check the links and resources for other scholarly and biographical info on Li Bai, Du Fu and other great Tang poets. This episode is especially geared towards those CHP listeners who may have never heard these names before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Pepsi Max. Christmas is great, but there's loads of ways to make it better.
0:08.0	Like sneaking some chili into the gravy for some extra oint, or building a playlist that will even get your
0:14.8	none up on the table or just cracking open an ice cold Pepsi Max.
0:20.1	Christmas. Better with Pepsi Max.
0:27.0	Welcome back again everyone.
0:28.0	Lhasa Montgomery here, China History Podcast episode 221. Part 4, this little overview covering the history of tongue poetry.
0:38.0	I'm sure you're all relieved that finally, last episode, we got to the Tong poetry portion of the series.
0:45.0	Well, it's all Tong Dynasty from here on out,
0:49.0	and this is the episode where we will dive a little deeper into that part of the Tang Dynasty that stood
0:56.0	head and shoulders above the rest.
0:58.0	Not since Taizong and Gao Zhong at the start of the dynasty
1:02.0	did China have it so good? Once again, the Middle
1:06.2	Kingdom and the two splendid capitals of Chang' Ann and Loyang were arguably the most amazing places on the planet.
1:17.0	Elsewhere, contemporaneous with these high-tong times, you had the Umayyad Empire at its peak the start of the Abbasid Caliphate, the Nara period in Japan,
1:28.0	Charles Martel and his progeny in Europe, the Mayans and Honduras and Guatemala, 8th century, a lot happening in the world.
1:38.0	Emperor Shenzhen and his reign from 712 to 756, China had one of its many finest hours during all those millennia of history.
1:49.5	An Emperor Shenzhen, like the musical king, Joseph II would during the second half of the 18th century in Europe,
1:57.0	held court to all the most talented writers and artists and all of China, and who came to China as well. He was at the center of it all and fat with all the riches
2:09.3	flowing back and forth along the silk roads and from up and down the Grand Canal.
2:15.0	Tang Shenzon was extravagant in his generosity as a benefactor to all men and women of talent and all the arts. And as much as tongue poetry was concerned,
2:27.0	this was the age that produced the greatest and most revered and beloved poets in Chinese history.
2:33.4	I thought between now and the final buzzer we could survey some of these greats and
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Laszlo Montgomery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Laszlo Montgomery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.