Ma Boyong

3.1530 learners

From helping his son memorize ancient Chinese texts and uncovering the tender, paternal side of Zhuge Liang, to tracing the rollercoaster career of ghost-story legend Pu Songling, to highlighting forgotten heroes like Xu Yihou—an ordinary merchant who secretly changed the course of a war—*Great and Small in History* by Ma Boyong turns dry historical facts into relatable, engaging tales. Blending personal anecdotes, on-site explorations, and deep dives into quirky historical details (think ancient book piracy, imperial abdication persuasion tactics, and even famous literati’s toothache woes), this collection proves history isn’t just about emperors and battles. It’s the small, human moments—the frustrated bricklayer’s graffiti, the nervous exam-taker’s bold essay, the homesick merchant’s secret intelligence—that truly reveal the past. Perfect for casual history buffs and anyone who loves seeing history through a modern, everyday lens.

Jonathan Spence

4.1472 learners

Jonathan Spence’s *The Death of Woman Wang* pulls back the curtain on 17th-century rural China, using the remote Shandong county of Tancheng as a raw, intimate microcosm of chaos and resilience. Set against a relentless cycle of catastrophic earthquakes, brutal famines, warlord raids, and Qing Dynasty conquests, the book weaves together official gazettes, magistrate Huang Liuhong’s memoirs, and tales from Pu Songling’s *Strange Tales* to bring ordinary people’s struggles to life. At its core is the tragic story of Woman Wang, a young wife whose desperate elopement and eventual murder expose the suffocating constraints of gender norms, poverty, and familial violence in a society shattered by decades of crisis. Spence doesn’t just recount disasters—he explores how local officials fought to restore order, how widows clung to dignity amid systemic oppression, and how marginalized people navigated a world where survival often meant making impossible choices. This vivid narrative turns dry historical documents into a compelling portrait of human endurance, offering American readers a rare, unflinching look at a forgotten corner of early modern China.