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In Our Time
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PROGRAMME INFO |
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The big ideas which form the intellectual agenda of our age are illuminated by some of the best minds. Melvyn Bragg and three guests investigate the history of ideas and debate their application in modern life. |
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PRESENTER |
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BIOGRAPHY
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| "I'm fascinated by the fact that we live in a time when so many people are doing fantastic work, and thinking in areas which it's not remotely possible for me to keep up with & and these people are prepared to talk about it. They're prepared to come on In Our Time and other programmes on Radio 4 and try and talk to the rest of us ..." |
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THE HAN SYNTHESIS
Read audience reactions to this edition of In Our Time
In The Analects the Chinese sage Confucius says of statecraft:
"He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn to it".
Confucianism had been all but outlawed under the Chin Emperor, but in 206 BC the Han dynasty came to power and held sway for over 400 years. They brought Confucian thought to the heart of government, his favourite books became set texts for the world's first civil service exam and in a grand intellectual project 'The Great Tao' was combined with 'The Five Phases' and with the Yin and the Yang.
Who were the Han? How did they bring these strands of thought together into the great founding moment of Chinese culture? And what drove them to their extraordinary intellectual task?
Contributors
Christopher Cullen, Director of the Needham Research Institute
Carol Michaelson, Assistant Keeper of Chinese Art in the Department of Asia at the British Museum
Roel Sterckx, Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge
Recommended reading:
The British Museum Book of Chinese Art (British Museum Press, 1992)
The Han Civilisation of China by Michele Pirazzoli-t'Serstevens (Phidon Oxford, 1982) - this is possibly out of print but it should be in libraries. It is a very good introduction to the subject.
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