The History of China

(Pictured: A Taiping banner from Ningbo, 1862, now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.)

There is no tiger in the market. Everyone knows that. But if three men tell you there is…

In the winter of 1861, the Taiping took a treaty port, and the Loyal King came back for Hangzhou. Then, three men – an admiral, a consul and a...

In the summer of 1861, the Xianfeng emperor died at 30, in exile, beyond the Great Wall. He left behind a 5-year-old heir, 8 men to run the empire in the boy’s name… and 2 tiny, little seals out of his personal art collection that are completely unimportant to the rest of this story, so don’t even worry about them.

It was the most airtight succession the dynasty...

(Pictured: Two skeletons among rocks and bare trees, from Luo Ping’s “Ghost Amusement” scroll, Qing dynasty, 18th century. Yuan Mei, a source for several of tonight’s tales, wrote in Zibuyu of Luo Ping’s claim that he could see ghosts.)

It’s one thing to go invading the resting places of the dead and reaping the well-deserved c...

(Pictured: “Skeleton Fantasy Show,” album leaf by Li Song, Song dynasty, c. 1200: a skeleton puppeteer works a little skeleton marionette for a crawling child. Palace Museum, Beijing.)

The leaves are blood-red once again, the coffee’s back to hot, and somewhere in old China, the dead begin to stir restlessly. Grave robbers, well-diggers...