WEBVTT - From the Vault: Jade Immortality 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:07.960 Hey, are you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:10.719 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:12.840 it is Saturday. Time to go into the vault for 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:14.960 a classic episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. I 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:17.439 think this is one that you and Christian did back 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:22.480 in right, Yeah, this one is about jade immortality, basically 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:27.640 about the the use of jade and beliefs about jade 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:32.960 from from Chinese history, particularly how it factors into the 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.440 jade armor that was used in some of these burial practices. 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:38.159 I believe we touched on this a little bit in 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:40.919 uh a later episode that you and I did, oh, 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:43.360 the one about the tomb of Chin Chi Huang. Yeah, 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:45.559 we at least touched on it as as part of 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.880 the history of of Chinese funeral traditions. Well, we hope 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:55.720 you enjoyed this classic episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.720 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:08.320 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.160 My name is Robert Lamb and my name is Christian Sager. 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.840 We have kind of like a unofficial series of episodes 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:17.600 that we've been doing over the course of the last 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:22.960 two years that are related to various Asian cultures and death, 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:26.960 and this is another one of those. So we've talked 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:32.720 about ghost burial before, we've talked about Chinese immortality. Uh. 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.560 And then this is also slightly connected to the episode 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.160 that we did on or maybe it was two episodes 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.360 on mummification. Yeah, I feel like we've done two, maybe more. 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:45.240 I know that we've talked about exploring more and more 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.960 of the mummification cultures throughout the world. I know what 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:53.120 it is. We we discussed Japanese custom in an episode. Yeah. Oh, 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:55.920 and then there's also the monks. They have the self 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:58.920 mummifying monks. Yes, those guys. That's the other one. So 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:01.880 this is a long those lines. Today we're gonna be 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:06.160 talking about jade burial suits. And once I got done 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:09.760 researching this, my first thought was this would be a 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.440 far cooler way to make a new Mummy franchise. They've 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.640 been showing the trailers constantly for that New Mummy movie 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:18.600 with Tom Cruise that's coming out this summer, and it 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:22.480 looks awful, and I think that this would be a 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:25.120 cool mummy like this mummy in this giant suit of 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.359 jade armor coming at you. That would be so much fun. Yeah, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.320 because you look at the images of this, and there 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:32.280 should be an image of one of these suits of 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:36.519 jade burial armor on the landing page for this episode. 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.840 It's stuffitable your mind dot com. It's uh, it looks 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.720 kind of like the villain in that first Thor movie, 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.720 you know, that big suit of animate armor that he 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.720 fought destroyer. Yeah, it looks kind of like the Destroyer. 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.000 It's it's beautiful, and indeed, I could see an Eastern 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.680 Mummy franchise really having some fun with this. Yeah. That 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:59.160 being said, I did not see the Eastern Mummy entrigue 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.359 like like the third or fourth Mummy film that came out. 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:03.440 Oh did they do something like that or did Oh? 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:05.360 I didn't know. I don't know what I having not 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:09.200 seen it, I can't speak for the mummy design. However, 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:11.320 I know there's a scene where yet he's attacks, so 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:13.720 I do kind of want to watch it for that, Huh. 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.080 I had no idea that even existed. This is like 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.920 from the nineteen nineties Mummy franchise with a Scorpion King 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:21.359 and all that. Yeah, this one was post Scorpion King 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:25.320 and that's about all I know about. Okay, Well, maybe 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.480 we'll talk about that one on trailer Talk when we 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.200 do a Facebook live about these episodes this week. So 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.839 in this episode, we're going we're going to be exploring 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.240 a practice that that is tied directly to the Western 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.800 Han dynasty, and we're gonna, I know a lot of 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:43.360 you out there are not going to have a real 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:48.040 firm handle on dynastic Chinese history. Don't worry. We're going 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:50.600 to root all that where it needs to be placed 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:55.960 in the in the timeline shortly. But these suits are 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:57.560 you know, we can call them jade suits, we can 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.560 call them jade armor. In the in manned in they're 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:04.520 sometimes referred to as you shaw, which are jade caskets, 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:09.040 or sometimes u y which are jade garments. And it 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:12.320 is essentially a stone garment if you think about that, 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.440 because because jade is a stone, and that's probably a 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.479 great place to start. Really, let's just discuss what jade 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:23.560 is before we pile on it's supernatural connotations and then 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:29.440 get into Chinese history. Alright, So jade is essentially an 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:33.520 ornamental green rock. Everyone has probably seen something that he's 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.120 either made of jade or is supposed to be made 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:40.240 of jade. But then what does that even mean, Yeah, 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:43.159 I'm thinking of like in the local mall that we 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:45.640 have here, there's like a couple like places where you 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:52.320 can buy sort of like Chinese themed aesthetic decorations for 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.040 the home, and usually there's like a piece of jade 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.359 in it somewhere, or it might be made of some 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:01.240 kind of fake jade. There's those um I forget what 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:05.120 they're called, but they have they're like red uh ribbons 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.240 or um threads and they've got a piece of jade 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.200 woven into them. Oh yeah. You often see little little 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.960 rings of jade, sometimes sometimes worn by by children in 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:19.640 China still or incorporated into some sort of direct decoration 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:25.200 or or personal adornment. And uh. The interesting thing here though, 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.640 is that whatever you're calling jade jade is the name 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:33.839 given to two distinct minerals uh neph right and jaded, 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.520 and in their purest form, either of these is white 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.400 uh in. In Chinese, it's referred to as mutton fat jade. 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.719 And you also have minerals such as iron and chromium 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.039 that give jade it's mini hughes. So there's not just 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:49.760 one color of jade. It's not like a crayola. This 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:51.920 is jade. Pulled it up to your stone and see 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.920 if it matches between white and like very green, yeah, 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.680 very in darker greens. Yeah. So let's talk about these 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:04.280 two varieties real quick. Uh. The nef right is sometimes 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.360 referred to as true jade. It's very strong, it has 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.400 a more vivid green coloration. And this is the stuff 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.599 that the Chinese worked with during the Han dynasty, which 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.240 is what we're gonna be talking about today, because jadeit 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.760 wasn't introduced to China until the late sixteen hundreds via Burma. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.880 So when we're talking about these pieces of jade armor, 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:27.719 they're made using nef right, not jadeite. Now. Jadeite, on 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:30.440 the other hand, is more fragile, and it has a 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:35.160 brilliant gleaming surface when polished. Now jade is usually found 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.640 inside pebbles or boulders, where like the rough stony exterior 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:41.680 doesn't really give a clue as to what's in there. 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.479 Jade itself, it can't be chipped or flaked, so it 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.680 has to be worn down using a rough paste and 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:53.200 a combination of rotary discs, grinders, and tools. And during 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.960 the Han dynasty this was probably made. This paste was 0:06:57.040 --> 0:07:01.200 made with water grease, and sand and then iron tools 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:05.360 had been developed specifically for the art and craft of 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.360 working with jade to develop and work it further into 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:12.000 various forms. Um So, I think this is a good 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.000 point for me to just bring up, Like I think 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:19.040 here in the West, Jade is sort of this very 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:26.800 like stereotypical attached idea to uh like the orient right, 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.760 It's very bound up in orientalism. Yeah. Like, do you 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.520 remember that video game came out gosh, must have been 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:36.360 ten fifteen years ago now, Jade Empire. I played the 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.280 hell out of that game. Oh was this that was 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:40.880 just a term based RPG. Yeah, it was made by 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.000 the same people who made the Knights of the Old 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.960 Republic games and the Dragon Age games. Very similar setup 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.640 except for this was in It had a really cool setting. 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.920 But it was like a steampunk mythological China um and 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:58.440 you know, as such used very like kind of stereotypical 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.600 pieces from that mythology. But still, I mean, I have 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:06.800 to admit, as much as I love exploring uh Asian history, 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.960 I also love fantasy inspired by Asian So yeah, uh 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:13.240 so I should I should check it out a little bit. 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:14.560 I don't know. It's one of those where the graphics 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:16.480 don't really hold up. I mean, I haven't played it 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:18.960 in so long. I think it was I played it 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.520 on the original Xbox. But it was fun. You got 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.680 like this various group of characters. You would have I 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.160 think like three characters at a time that would go 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:29.640 on these like sort of dungeon crawl missions and like 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:31.520 one would be a spell It was very D and 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.160 D but it was like we've talked about this on 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.280 the show before, the sort of like racist Oriental Adventures 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:39.959 D and D where they would like, you know, you'd 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:41.719 have a spell caster, you'd have a warrior, and you'd 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.640 have like a ninja or something like that, and they 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:45.960 would like go there. It was really just like a 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.480 fighter rogue and a magic user um and yeah, they'd 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:54.000 have these various missions. They'd fight monsters from Chinese mythology. Yeah, 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.240 it was fun aesthetically. So there was probably a little 0:08:57.280 --> 0:09:00.640 jade in there, and oh yeah, yeah, I think that 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.600 the jade was a big theme in it. Yeah, well, 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:07.839 jade is is a big theme in uh in Chinese traditions, 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:13.160 So we should probably discuss what it's supernatural powers were 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:15.960 thought to be. We've we've given a brief overview of 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.960 its physical properties. Certainly you can go in deeper if 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:22.160 you want to. We're not really a minerals podcast, but 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:24.000 there's a lot of great information out there about jade 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:29.640 if that's your thing. As as far as supernatural qualities go, yeah, 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:34.360 jade was believed to have protective and preservative qualities, warding 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:38.280 off both decay and evil spirits. I've also read that 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:43.119 some believe jade darkens as the where gets richer, likenses 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:45.720 ticket poorer. So it's kind of like a mood ring 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.839 for your you know, your your financial status. That's great. 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.000 Instead of having like an app on your phone that 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.040 tells you how your bank accounts doing, you just have 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.360 like a little piece of jade, like like on one 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.800 of those red wristbands. Yeah, you meet somebody, you want 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.440 to know where they stand, you just take a peek 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.120 of their jade. Now. It's also worth pointing out that 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.359 in terms of just how important jade is in Chinese 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:13.600 tradition and mythology, you have u d the Jade Emperor, 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.240 and he stands as the supreme god in the Chinese 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.640 mythological pantheon. And if you if you actually think back 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:23.319 to the episode on the Chinese zodiac that stuff to 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:25.600 blow your mind did a while back. Uh, there's this 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:29.240 whole parable of the swimming zodiac animals in a race, 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:33.560 and they're racing for U D. Have you seen any 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:37.559 of those who movies about Dr D. I haven't. I'm 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:39.400 familiar with him by name, but I haven't watched their 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.439 fun You should check him out now. It's also important 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:47.320 to note that Dallas alchemists as well put put an 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:51.080 emphasis on jade as part of an immortality elixir that 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:55.440 also contained gold, silver, arsenic, and other ores, and it 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:59.720 was said to provide resistance to aging and decay. In fact, 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:03.880 in the three twenty book Po Po which means the 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:09.400 Master Embracing Simplicity, author Gee Hong wrote that gold and 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:14.720 jade inserted into the nine orifices prevented corpses from decaying. Okay, 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.440 so this comes up a lot today when we're talking 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:21.160 about this jade burial armor. And I wanna establish something here. 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.160 So I read this and I went, I had to 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:27.440 count my orifices, and I was like, I kept coming 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.440 up short. I only counted seven, and then I realized 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:34.480 they were counting the eyes. Yes, And it might sound 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:36.920 kind of grotesque. To think of eye plugs, but they're 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.280 not like corks the ice, more like their little shields. 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.120 It's kind of like when cucumbers on the eye. Yeah, 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:46.040 the one I was going for was how they would 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:49.160 put coins on people's eyes that they could pay the 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:53.280 ferryman for the river Sharon. But yeah, this is obviously 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:56.560 different mythology, but it's the same principle. It's like little 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:00.040 jade shields that went over your eyes. So apparently I 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:01.760 don't know if I'm wrong or right, but I never 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:05.120 thought of my eyes as being orifice. Is well, it's 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.160 it's where the light comes in, right, true, something's going 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:13.640 in there now. It's interesting I mentioned children wearing jade 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:18.480 bengals earlier and you you still see this used in China. 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:20.720 And this is the idea here is that this protects 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:24.480 the child from harm, including soul separating fright by a demon. 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:27.480 And uh, I actually ran across the cool source for this. 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.080 So if we if we ever want to do an 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.840 episode on Chinese exorcism, uh, playing off our past episodes 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:35.560 on exorcism, this would be a good one to seek out. 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:39.400 I think that's hard, yes from me, but audience, let 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:42.960 us know if you're interested in Chinese exorcism. Now in 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.600 terms of other associations, some traditional Chinese medicine approaches call 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.720 for the use of jade massaging tools to help I 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.120 was reading about using it on wrinkles on the face. 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.240 And they are also ingredients with jade in the name 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:01.120 in Chinese traditional medicine. They're not shy jade, such as 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:05.680 a jade windscreen powder that's just a dried root of 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:07.520 of a particular plant, but it has nothing to do 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.480 with the mineral itself. So even though like we're well 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.200 past this sort of you know, myth that jade has 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.600 this ability to stave off the k it's still used 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:22.400 in a lot of those sort of I guess homeopathic methodologies. 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.200 Like I was reading about the one of the ones, uh, 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.200 the ancient Chinese jade stone being used, like I think 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.040 they would like wrap it around your neck and it 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.120 was supposed to help you with T M J H. Yeah, 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.080 I mean it's I mean ultimately comes down to the 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:40.400 idea that here is this very beautiful, cool looking stone 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.120 that came out of the ground. Surely it's worth keeping 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.200 around for something, right. Yeah, it reminds me of hematite. 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.640 There's there's similar stuff surrounding hematite. Yeah, but just I 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.280 think in different cultures, and you know a lot of 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.080 this bleeds into into other cultures outside of China. I know, 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:57.559 if you if you happen to visit a Korean sauna, 0:13:57.640 --> 0:13:59.600 and we have one of these in the Atlanta Era 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.920 and j June um and and I love going there. 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:06.480 They have these various saunas that sauna rooms that have 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:09.520 different minerals there, and they have one that has jade 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:12.040 in it. And the idea here is that quote jade 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:17.160 increases metabolism, improve circulation, and relieves arthritis pain. All right, now, 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.600 this is giving me an idea for a business, and 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:22.160 I'm not very entrepreneurial, so maybe somebody out there can 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:27.800 start this. So you combine the jade sauna idea with 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:32.440 the floatation sensory deprivation tank, and you build a sensory 0:14:32.440 --> 0:14:36.359 deprivation tank out of jade, and then you climb inside 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.560 that and you float in salinated water for an hour. 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:42.200 That would be amazing because that's what that's something that's 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:46.400 kind of lacking with with float tank scenarios is they 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.520 are very they're very secular. Yeah, they could use a 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.560 little um mystical spicing. Yeah, yeah, that would be fun. 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.560 I'd do it. Yeah, plug plug our orifices with us, 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:02.320 give me nine pieces of jade. All right, Well, before 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.640 we get those nine pieces of jade, why don't we 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:06.120 take a quick break, and when we get back, we're 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.000 gonna give you a little bit of a rundown on 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:16.440 the Western Han dynasty. Alright, we're back. So I realized 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:21.800 Chinese dynastics secession can be confusing for folks. Uh and 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.520 and certainly especially if you're just going from zero trying 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:26.680 to go to from zero to fifty on it. It's 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:28.880 it's a lot to take. I will admit. I mean, 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:32.080 as some listeners know, I spent time in China as 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:34.680 a kid. I learned Mandarin growing up, and I lived 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:39.760 in Singapore during high school, and Chinese history is completely 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.160 lost on me. It's really tough for me to keep 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.000 track of it. Yeah, I I'm constantly referring back to 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.200 the chart with the with the dynasty's. Now. I know 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.960 there's a little song I've heard people sing this where 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:55.160 it's Fred Fred Jacka, except it's it's the different dynasties. 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.840 I have not heard that, Okay, I when I say 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.280 I've heard it, I've I've seen a video with two 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:05.760 old white Chinese scholars singing it to each other as 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:07.800 an example of something you learn in school when you're 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.320 learning about Chinese sisters. All right, so it's like a 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.120 new modic device. Yeah, okay, so we're not gonna throw 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.240 it all at you. Basically, we're gonna go from the 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.400 beginning up until the Han dynasty just and throughout the years, 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:21.440 so you can place it in the general time frame. 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.640 And uh, the Han dynasty is essentially the fourth or 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.400 fifth dynasty or the second Imperial Dynasty. It ultimately depends 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.200 on what you count as a dynasty. Uh. And and 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:36.120 this has to do with sort of a legendary mythic time. 0:16:37.600 --> 0:16:39.400 So let's start from the beginning. First, up, you have 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:45.360 the Shod dynasty. This is to six b C. And 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:50.680 it's largely mythological, with some very early Bronze Age evidence. 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.760 So yeah, this is the time of gods and heroes 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.160 and so. And this is why some don't actually count 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:00.920 this in terms of historical dynasties. But then comes the 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:05.200 Shan dynasty, and this was long considered apocryphal, but his 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.440 historians now correlated with oracle Bone writings. This period takes 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:14.359 us up to roughly even twenty three b C. And 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.960 the Joe dynasty. Now this is the first millennium BC, 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:20.920 and this is a time of conflict in China. And 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.320 there are two periods here that are a particular note, 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:26.400 and that's the Spring and Autumn from seven eighty one 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:30.760 b C and the Warring States period four through to 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:33.880 b C. Okay, So what I'm seeing here so far 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:36.800 is it seems like these dynasties lasts you know, roughly 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:41.040 around five years. Yeah, yeah, so so far. Now, at 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.840 the end of the Warring States period, the Chin Dynasty begins, 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:49.320 and this is when the Chin Kingdom conquered other central 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:54.399 Chinese states and became the first truly imperial dynasty under 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:58.879 Chin cha Hung, the first Emperor of China. And it 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:02.639 was during this rule that the Northern Border Wall was implemented, 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:05.359 what we now call the Great Wall, and in the 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:10.400 first of many peasant uprisings to to echo through Chinese history, 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.560 Lubang rose up and conquered China to found finally the 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.760 Han dynasty and two oh six b c E. And 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:20.080 this was only you know, fifteen years later, Okay. So 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:22.720 this this is where we're zoning in on in terms 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:26.840 of this jade burial armor being created, right, But there's 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:30.879 obviously many dynasties afterwards. So yeah, the Han dynasty is 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.159 is big money early on like this is uh, this 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.119 is again a time of things coming together, of unity. 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.520 Certainly there's still lots of lingering problems as with any 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:44.600 imperial scenario, but but it's it's a time where, uh, 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:46.920 where there's a there's enough there are enough riches out there, 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:50.919 there's enough specialization that you can have something like a 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:55.160 fancy funeral tradition take place. Now, overall, the Han dynasty 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.359 run ran from two o two or two oh six 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:03.600 b C until two one CE, so you were talking 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.439 about a pretty long stretch here, uh, and that at 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:08.960 the end of this in to C that's when everything 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.200 splits into the three kingdoms. But we divided the Han 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:16.440 dynasty up into the first the former or Western Han dynasty, 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:20.240 and the and also the later or Eastern Han dynasty. 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:23.040 And that's because in the midst of this uh, this 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:27.280 long you know, four century stretch, you have a rebellion 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.080 take place, and so and basically what happens is Han 0:19:31.160 --> 0:19:35.800 dynasty official Wang Mang sees his power and UH and 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:40.000 and this is referred to as the Shin dynasty nine 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:44.120 through D. He does a pretty poor job. And then 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.000 the hans A reclaimed power in twenty a d after 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.119 besieging the Imperial Palace. He dies in the process. So 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.719 in other words, you have to four hundred years of 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.879 of Han rule. But there's this one little period where 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:01.760 a usurper, like a twenty period or actually less than 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.679 twenty years of this one guy ruling and they just 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:07.960 getting taken down. So again, this is an influential four 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:12.040 centuries in Chinese history saw the institution of Confucian norms, 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.880 the roots of the imperial examination system, UH, the an 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:20.520 age of great economic, technological, cultural, and social progress. Hans 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.640 still refers to the main Chinese ethnic group. And this 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:26.000 is again also the period that gives us these these 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:30.960 amazing jade burial suits. Okay, so we've teased enough. What's 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:34.679 a jade burial suit? Because I think when I first 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:36.760 heard about this, my thought was that it was like 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:40.080 Iron Man, and it was, but iron Man made of jade, 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:44.119 and that's not correct. There's thousands of little pieces and 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.360 these things. Yeah, it's between two thousand and four thousand 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.560 of these little jade pieces, all of its sewn together, 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:54.320 and it's sewn together depending on your station, it might 0:20:54.359 --> 0:21:00.000 be gold, silver, or silk. So really the suit described 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:02.800 option is probably better. This is a a suit made 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.760 for a corpse, and it's a suit made of maybe 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:10.720 you know, mostly stone, and maybe gold and silver or 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:13.040 silk as well. I can't imagine that a living person 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.960 could wear one of these and and move. It would 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:20.240 be incredibly heavy. Yeah, only a supernatural um, you know, 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:24.159 undead being in Hollywood movie could do it. Now, we 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:28.320 referred back to our episode on ghost burial earlier, and 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:30.000 and I do want to touch on on that real 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:31.960 quick because one of a couple of the ideas we 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:35.760 discussed in there are central to understanding why this much 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:39.359 care was was taken, uh, you know for a dead individual. 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:45.880 So we we discussed the importance of siao the filial 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.960 pity and Chinese tradition is rooted in Dallas to philosophy 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:54.520 Confucian family values, and it concerns the undying nature of 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:56.560 the human soul. You know, the dead live on in 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:59.200 the afterlife. Uh. And then they're also tied to this 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:03.720 Chinese no of of of structural completeness, right, that you 0:22:03.800 --> 0:22:06.600 have this this basic unity of the family and if everything, 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:09.560 if anything, is out of out of place there, it's 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:11.960 going to cause disharmony in your life and potentially in 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.560 the afterlife. Yeah, we went into far greater detail on 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:17.840 this in the Ghost Burial episode, but I wanted to 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.040 reference a USA Today article that was specifically about the 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:26.000 jade burial suits and how it referred to this to 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:30.200 for Western readers. So it claims that tombs in general 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:32.920 were thought to be portals between the living and the dead. 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:35.879 And basically the concept was, and this is similar to 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:38.800 what we went over in Ghost Burial, the soul was divided. 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:40.640 There's one part of the soul that goes to heaven, 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:42.479 the other part stays in the body, and the one 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:45.000 that's in the body had to be appeased or else 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:47.080 it would turn evil, while the one that goes to 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:51.000 heaven acted on behalf of the loved ones by offering 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:54.000 them either protection or good fortune. And this is why 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:57.200 the living tried to ensure that the deceased were well 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:01.840 provided for in death. So you get very similar death 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:06.199