On this episode of China Uncensored,
sticky rice and subverting state power in China.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored, I’m your host Chris Chappell.
As you can see,
I'm back in Cici Li’s kitchen.
And you know what that means!
Another long-winded talk about Chinese culture from me
before you get the link to delicious food.
Unless you just go ahead and click the link below,
but I know you wouldn't do that.
You won’t, because I’m about to tell you how the origins of this
—zongzi—
could undermine the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.
You know, I don’t feel China Uncensored is really that unique.
If anything, I just view myself as one in a long line
of Confucian gentleman scholars who criticize the ruling regime.
Now wait!
Isn’t Confucianism that lame old philosophy
that says you should do whatever the ruler says?
Oh ho ho, no my friend.
Confucianism actually has a long tradition
of the lonely scholar standing up to the ruler for what’s right.
Take my main man, Qū Yuán.
Qu Yuan lived in one of the bloodiest, craziest periods of Chinese history,
the Warring States period.
A bunch of feudal states, uh,
warring as they tried to conquer each other.
Qu Yuan was an advisor in the state of Chu.
Their neighbor was the state of Qín.
That’s Qin as in the one that about a hundred years later
will conquer its neighbors and set up the first dynasty to rule all of China.
Anyway, the ruler of Qin contacts the king of Chu.
He offers the king an “alliance”
that will totally not result in conquest and assassination.
Qu Yuan, who’s an adviser to the king, is all like,
“Your majesty, this alliance is a really bad idea.”
But the king is like, “You're banished.”
While in exile,
Qu Yuan learns of Qin’s sudden but predictable betrayal
and the complete destruction of Chu.
He writes one of China’s most influential and epic poetic works
called the Lí Sāo, or Encountering Sorrow.
And then he drowns himself in a river.
And though Qu Yuan was not a Confucian himself,
for thousands of years,
Confucian scholar officials looked to him as an exemplar
known for fierce loyalty to his king,
but also, paradoxically,
his individualism and absolute commitment to his values.
Interestingly, the Chinese Communist Party in its early days
promoted Qu Yuan as a model of patriotism.
They even used his whole “criticizing those in power” philosophy
to criticize the ruling Nationalist Party.
But once the CCP took over and became the ruling power themselves,
things were a little different.
Actually, Mao Zedong often talked about modeling himself
after his favorite historical emperor, Qin Shihuang.
Yes, that’s the guy who united China under the Qin Dynasty.
And Qin Shihuang famously burned books with competing ideologies,
including books from the state of Chu.
But fairly recently, ancient bamboo scrolls from the state of Chu were discovered.
And guess what?
They talk about a form of Confucianism
that believes officials should be chosen by merit.
They even suggest the ruler should be chosen based on merit
instead of the hereditary system that came to dominate China’s dynasties later on.
In other words, unlike what the Communist Party says today,
the Chinese might have been ready for an early form of democracy
or at least genuine meritocracy 2,500 years ago.
If you’d like to learn more about Qu Yuan and his impact,
I highly recommend the book “Madman of Ch'u” by Laurence A. Schneider.
Anyway, Qu Yuan has been honored for generations.
One way is the annual Dragon Boat Festival.
It’s celebrated with dragon boat racing and a steamed sticky rice dish called zongzi.
What does that have to do with Qu Yuan?
As the story goes,
after Qu Yuan threw himself into the river to commit suicide,
local villagers raced out in boats to recover his body.
When they couldn’t find it,
they began throwing zongzi into the river
so the fish would eat that instead of Qu Yuan’s body.
In other words, the Dragon Boat Festival
celebrates a man who believed that people should stand up to authority
in order to do what’s right.
And in the eyes of the current Communist Party,
isn’t that subversion of state power?
So today, I’ll be joining Cici from Food Paradise
to show you how to make zongzi!
Cici? Cici?
Yes Chris? Oh, I didn’t want to listen to your long conversation,
so I went ahead and clicked on the link.
Boy, those zongzi were tasty!
You ate them without me?
Sorry, you seemed busy.
Hey guys! Well if you want to learn to say the name zongzi in Chinese
and also the names of other Chinese snacks
and as well as general useful Chinese words and phrases,
check out my channel, Learn Chinese Now.
And if you want to see me whoop Ben and Chris’s butts making zongzi,
check out our video on Off the Great Wall.
Yeah, that’s not how it’s gonna go down.
Anyway, I’m Chris Chappell.
And I’ll see you...
in all three of those videos.