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Story of Ancient China

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I'm Andy, I am a Chinese and I love our culture and history. I would like to share our interesting ancient stories with you, so you could have a better understanding of China.

12/20/2023

Laozi, etiquette caused disaster

hi I'm Andy Today we'll learn Laozi's thinking together the good virtue is not showing off his virtue that is considered being with virtue the bad virtue is showing off his virtue that is considered being without virtue the good virtue do not need to prove his virtue so he seemed to do nothing the bad virtues always try to prove his virtue so he is busy doing everything the behavior of benovalence is come out from heart but not in the name of virtue the behavior of morality is made in the name of virtue if the behavior of an etiquette is not response by other people they would roll up the sleeves and the force you carried it out so when people lost the Dao they would hold the virtue when they lost the virtue they would hold the benovance when lost benevolence they would hold morality after lost morality they would hold the etiquette the etiquette is a lack of loyalty and belief that is the cause of chaos those things we know previously is the superficial vanity of Dao that is the beginning of the foolishness so the true gentleman should hold the sincerity but not the surface hold honesty but not vanity so we should get rid of a superficial vanity and hold sincere honesty okay good virtue don't show off is virtue do you think a real wealthy man should show off his wealth Bill Gates or Elon Musk they need to show off his wealth his money to people to prove he is wealthy it's not necessary so the poor people they would show off they have money so the real one don't need to prove Donald Trump said make America great again that means America is not great right now in China we used to say that we want to build a harmonious society that means the society now is not harmonious so the Dao belongs to heaven but benevolence morality etiquette those belong to people human being why the world the society is deteriorating because we lost the Dao, the Great Dao it reminds me in the Bible when Adam and Eva sinned they were driven out from the Garden of Eden human beings sinned they lost the Dao Confucius is always emphasized on rite etiquette and music but why Laozi said it (rite) is the cause of chaos he said the etiquette, the ceremony, the rite if they will not respond and people will roll up sleeves and force you carried it out then I will tell you a real story in 1793 the King of England sent George Macartney as envoy to celebrate the Emperor Qianlong's birthday in china so he traveled all the way and brought a lot of precious gifts those gifts were the latest technology of the Industrial Revolution but they got an issue before the emperor received George Mckinney because the Emperor of China is the Son of Heaven so everybody should kneeled down and kowtow to the Emperor but in the West they only kneel down with one knee we don't know the truth if Macartney really kneeled down kowtow to the Emperor or he used the western courtesy but one thing is for sure both the Emperor of China and George Macartney were not happy so when the etiquette was not respond other people almost force him to carry out the kowtow in China that is what exactly Laozi said in 2,500 years ago in China so since that time China was declining in 1860 the Opium War broke out that was the beginning of chaos that's the reason why we should give up the superficial vanity and hold the sincere honesty okay see you next time bye bye

4 min
12/16/2023

Laozi, Dao guide virtue

hi I'm Andy Today we'll learn Laozi's thinking together today I will use the traditional Chinese tune to read English it's maybe a little bit weird such a thing as Dao is a trance and blur trance and blur there's an image blur as trance there's an object deep and dark there is an spirit the spirit is real there is a belief since ancient until today his name never gone he observe all the creatures how could I know the status of all the creatures it's depend on the Dao okay the virtue is decided by Dao Dao is higher than virtue Dao is like the soul and virtue is like the body if the virtue follows the Dao completely 100% that virtue is up virtue if only partial follow the Dao that's called down virtue but still virtue it's like in school exams you got a 100 score that's perfect but if you get 70 60 that's okay or maybe even got 10 15 that's still okay because you try your best the Dao is a chance and blur but it seemed there's an image and there's object great Dao is imageless but it raise all the creatures when Laozi practiced the Dao or seeking the Dao and he said there's a spirit in a Dao and that is real and you can believe it so that means if you followed him practice the Dao and you will find the truth and you will believe it so that was 2,500 years ago but later in China about 1,800 years ago people make the Dao thinking as a religion the Daoism so when they practiced the Dao they entered a bottleneck and they can't go further and they will find something else to help like the Daoist priest use incense burner they will make the pills to help them they use chemicals minerals such like lead mercury or charcoal sulfur so Chinese people invented gunpowder I'm serious the gunpowder was invented by Daoist priest they want to use the pills to help them get over the bottleneck in the whole history of China we have many emperors they died of addicted to the pills because the pills are poisonous okay see you next time bye bye

3 min
12/15/2023

Laozi, Dao is father, Virtue is mother

hi i'm Andy today we'll learn Laozi's philosophy together Dao give birth to all the creatures and virtue breed all the creatures all the creatures present various forms the environment makes all the creatures grow up so all the creatures no one doesn't respect Dao and value the virtue the reason why Dao was respected and the virtue was valued is because the Dao didn't interfere the growth of the all the creatures and let them follow the nature so Dao give birth to all the creatures and virtue breeding all creatures they make all creatures grow and make all creatures mature and bare fruit they raise up all the creatures and give them protection Dao produced all the creatures but don't claim the possession of them Dao raise all the creatures but don't boast his achievements Dao guide all the creatures but don't be their master this is the mysterious and profound virtue okay all the creatures could grow up and develop is because they follow the natural rules that is Laozi's the Great Dao after the birth of all thecreatures who would breed them that's virtue so in China virtue is 德 so 道德 Dao and virtue it means moral so Dao give us life and virtue raise us they're just like our father and mother how could we do not respect our father and mother so respect down the value the virtue is nature it's a human nature in Chinese the word of virtue 德 originally means "gain, get" later it means "virtual, quality" the Dao give birth to all the creatures but do not possess them he breed all the creatures but do not boast his achievements he just guide all the creatures but do not interfere them he do not boast to be the master of all the creatures he was so unselfish but our human being everything we do we want a reward or result like i'm being Youtuber I want more people to see my video and to understand the Chinese culture and I get monetized but if you make a great effort you cannot achieve it and you feel very frustrated and you will hated the algorithm that's my desire cause I have sIIo many desire those desire become the burden I have to carry them but it's really hard to get rid of the desire for a human being so I have to follow the Dao see you next time bye bye

3 min
12/14/2023

Laozi, Dao is beyond my understanding

hi I'm Andy Today we'll learn Laozi's thinking together the up man heard the Dao he followed the Dao diligently the middle man heard the Dao he's half believed the Dao the down man heard the Dao he laughed at the Dao if the Dao was not laughed it's not enough to become Dao so the ancient saying said the Dao is bright but it seemed dim the Dao is a forward but it seemed backward the Dao is flat but it seemed bumpy the noble virtue seemed hollow the vast virtue seemed insufficient the strong virtue seemed lazy the pure virtue seemed stained the most white thing seemed black the most square thing seemed no corners the greatest vassal seemed unfinished the greatest sound seemed soundless the greatest image seemed imageless Dao is hiding and without a name but the Dao supplied all the creatures and give them a good beginning and good end so the Dao is so great it's beyond my understanding so I hope you can understand see you next time bye bye

1 min
12/13/2023

Laozi, Dao knows to stop

hi I'm Andy Today we'll learn Laozi's thinking together Dao is always a no name even it's simple it seemed small but Dao didn't yield to anything in the world if the king the Prince could hold the Dao and everything was subject to them the heaven and earth worked together to fall the sweet dew the people didn't ask for it but it fall down evenly since we gave Dao a name Dao got a name but Dao know to stop knowing stop would never feel tired just like the Dao running the world just like the river across the valley and stopped at the sea the air in the heaven and earth made the rain and rain fall on the ground evenly that reminds me of in the Bible he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous and the Dao he know to stop but it doesn't mean the Dao has a limitation he know what he liked to do and what he did not like to do the water running all the way across the valley to the sea before he reached the sea it's called river after the water reached the sea it's called sea the same water but we give them different name so the water stopped at the Gulf and he know the water know where to stop so the river would never feel tired it keep running as a human being we don't know our limitation we want to explore the whole universe we send people to the moon and we want to send people to the Mars you won't know the secret of the universe people also built the Tower of Babel because people have desire they don't know stop like being a Youtuber you want everybody see a video and that means you don't know your limit you don't know stop so you will feel tired okay I'm Andy see you next time bye bye

2 min
12/12/2023

Laozi, Dao suppress desire

hi i'm Andy today we'll learn Laozi's thinking together Dao is always doing nothin but there isn't anything he didn't do if the king and princes they could hold the Dao and all the creatures will evolve by themselves during their involvement they will have a desire I will suppress them with undefined simple rules after suppressed by the undefined simple rules all the creatures will become no desire without desire they will be quiet the whole world will be stable okay it seemed the human being we domained this world Dao didn't do anything but actually everything we did is the result of a Dao it doesn't mean we follow the Dao sometimes we did things against the Dao but the Dao allowed it happen if every king of a country president or a ceo of a company could hold the Dao and everybody will find its own place they will evolve by their own and they will do the right thing however during the involvement everybody will have a desire every country have their own interest so they will be unstable but you can suppress the desire with undefined simple rules in English there's words "you name it" so the Dao is you can't name it so it's undefined simple rules without desire there will be universal peace but is it desire is the motivate of development China is an ancient country we created splendid civilization in the world but since the Opium War China lose the war the western civilization beat our ancient oriental civilization because in ancient China the agricultural country man is farming in the fields women's weaving fabric at home that's we called男耕女织 that's the ideal society in ancient China so we keep it for thousands years because no desire even we have some achievements in science and technology but the whole China was runned in the feudal system it doesn't matter if it's Mongolian or Manchurian or Han people rule China is all the same system in China we followed no desire but when we have conflict with the west we lose the war so people will reconsider our culture if that's the problem in Laozi's thinking it will be universal peace if there's no desire but how could a human being don't have a desire this is against human nature so personally i think if you can control your desire you are a gentleman you are a good guy see you next time bye bye

3 min
12/11/2023

Laozi, Gun shoot the leading bird

hi i'm Andy today we'll learn Laozi's thinking together in his book it's written all the people under heaven said that the Dao I mentioned is big, enormous it doesn't look like anything it's just because it's enormous so it doesn't look like anything if the Dao looks exactly like something it would not matters long ago I possessed three treasures which had been treasured for a long time the first one is called mercy the second one is called thrifty the third one is called do not there be the first one because of mercy so I could be brave because thrifty so I can be abundant because I do not dare to become the first one under heaven so I could be the leader of all the creatures under heaven people today abandoned mercy and seek for bravery they abandoned thrifty and seeking for abandance they abandoned last and seeking for first they are going to doom in this paragraph I just want to mention one point in our Chinese culture in China we have saying 枪打出头鸟 the gun shoot the leading bird and another saying the rafter beyond the roof would be rotten first so being first is very risky this is like a research and development you put a huge amount of money for research maybe the product will be successful or maybe maybe it's a failure you waste a lot of money so i think Laozi's philosophy really influenced the Chinese people and Chinese culture so even today you see China they copy a lot of the technology and product from the West because the ancient Chinese civilization is based on agriculture so Chinese people settle down farming this is quite different with the marine civilization so Chinese people are not very aggressive they don't want to be the first they want to follow other people and learn from them it written that mercy if you use the mercy to fight and you will win if you use the mercy to guard you could guard steadily if the heaven want to save a country all the people have used mercy to cooperate with the heaven to protect the country this words emphasize the importance of mercy so be mercy you could have a virtue the virtue is the key for ruling because in ancient China every dynasty collapse it doesn't matter it's peasant uprising or defeated by nomadics it's all because they lose their virtues the God of Heaven want to get rid of them replace them with a new ruler who have virtues and show their benevolence and mercy to the people okay see you next time bye bye

3 min
12/10/2023

Laozi, Why Dao is so precious

hi I'm Andy Today we'll learn Laozi's thinking together Dao is the mystery of all the creatures Dao is the treasure of the good people and Dao is also the shelter of the bad people okay treasure for good people we can understand but why is that Dao is a shelter for the bad people it reminds me of the Bible there's a city of refuge so the Dao is also a Protection for people and it continued the good words could be sold for a good price good deed could add the value of a person that teachers speak good words and do good things be a good person it continued the bad things of people how could we abandon it okay this is a really hard to understand if a person is bad why didn't we abandon him we should abandon him because he is bad is evil but if we looking back the Dao is a shelter of the bad guys if you follow the Dao we should not abandon the bad people so set up the king the princes the dukes and also with the round Jade plate and many horses and chariots cannot compare with the Dao which I kneeled down to present so that means it doesn't matter how high is your social statue or how rich you are can not compare with the Dao Dao is so precious and it continued why the Dao is so precious valuable since ancient times it's not because you can achieve your goal with the Dao if you follow the Dao and you sinned you would be spared that's why the Dao is so valuable and precious in the world okay if you follow the Dao we can achieve our goals and if we did something wrong we will be forgiven so personally I think the Dao is the salvation okay see you next time bye bye

2 min

TRAILER

Man from Ear

In ancient China,one scholar practiced Chinese Yoga and encountered a little demon who came from his ear. What happened to him?

S1, E2

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26 sec

I'm Andy, I am a Chinese and I love our culture and history. I would like to share our interesting ancient stories with you, so you could have a better understanding of China.

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Story of Ancient China
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Chinese culture explorer