Culture
Ep. 17： DaYu, the man who defeated the great flood.
In this episode of the Da Ha Chinese History and Culture Podcast, hosts Jiu and Caroline explore the legendary figure of Da Yu, known for his heroic efforts in managing the Great Flood in ancient Chin...
Ep. 17： DaYu, the man who defeated the great flood.
Culture •
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Interactive Transcript
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Welcome to Da Ha Chinese History and Culture Podcast.
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Here we are offering you the constructional Chinese history and what's the thoughts,
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origins and background knowledge behind the stories.
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We also provide several Chinese contemporaries related with the story to help you understand and memorize.
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Let's get started!
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Hello everyone, I'm Jiu, the co-host of the Chinese language teacher in Da Ha Chinese.
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Hi, I'm Caroline, I'm the father of Da Ha Chinese.
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Today we're going to discuss a very important figure in Chinese history, who saved countless lives.
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His name is Yui, also known as the Great Yui.
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That's right.
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He is the ancestor of the first royal family in ancient Chinese history by passing his throne
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to his son Qi established the Xia dynasty as the first dynasty.
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And why the dynasty Xia is called Xia is actually from its tribe's name.
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It is the Xia Hou Xu, so the Xia dynasty is faced on their tribe's name.
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Yes, before yu, the throne was given to the most talented individual,
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rather than the leader's own son.
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This means that Yui initiated the system of hereditary succession.
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Ji Chen, right?
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We talked about this in last episode.
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Yeah, it's the Shui Xi Ji Chen.
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Oh wow, at a very high level, yeah, sentence.
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So at this, according to the version of historical books that influenced the by Kung Fu Shanida,
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he is the first one.
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Yes, as we mentioned earlier,
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Confucius added a story to make his philosophy more widely accepted and believable.
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Yeah, actually Qi was also one of the prings that supported by many tribes.
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So he actually prioritized blood relations over the system of Shanjiang.
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However, Qi is also a very good ruler at that time.
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Yeah, I think it's just happened that the Yuzheng, Qi, is also very capable to rule the tribe.
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Yeah, okay.
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So even today, we still hear stories about yu, or the great yu, Ba-yu.
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Yes, he must have done something right to be remembered and recorded by Confucius.
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From a positive perspective.
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Those who strongly adhere to Confucianism might want to pay our podcast.
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But given that Yuzheng successfully resolved a problem,
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there is no doubt he naturally gained power over the tribes and eventually became the ruler of
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the first dynasty.
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Before we dive into today's story,
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let's introduce the three keywords in the story.
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The first one,
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means the flood.
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Ren-u means mission.
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The third one,
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the first,
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Hong Shui,
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the flood.
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The story of the name was actually really interesting.
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Let's see the word
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home on the left side.
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The redical, with three dots,
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represents the water.
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And the right part is
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Hong, which was a name of the flood that we managed to place.
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So the word home was actually means the flood in the Gong province.
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And now we call the flood in Chinese, Hong Shui.
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Yeah, the pronunciation of Gong and Hong is quite similar.
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And also the Gong means together.
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So we can also explain this as all the tribes at that time were suffered together
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Gong Tong by the Hong Shui.
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You can hear the similar pronunciation of Gong and Hong.
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Next is Ren-u mission.
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We say
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一个人物, a mission.
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I have a mission.
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Yeah, there's a movie series act by
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Palm Cruise, which is
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不可能的人物,
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we should be possible.
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Last one is
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治理,
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to manage,
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or management.
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Please take note that when using the word
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治理,
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should only be in a public and related situation.
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We could say
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宇,
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that makes the life of people
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人民,
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better.
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So we can say
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大雨治理,
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宇,
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让人民有更好的生活,
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the 大雨,
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manage the flood,
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makes people a better life.
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Okay, so we have the three words.
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The first one,
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宇,
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the flood.
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任,
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物,
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mission.
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治理,
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to manage,
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or management.
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Now, let's get into the story.
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It was around 3,000 BC
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when Great Flood
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宫水,
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pliked the China,
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with torrential rains
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of merging entire hills and valleys.
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Year after year,
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masses of people were left homeless
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and forced to flee to mountain tops.
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No one knew how to tackle with flood.
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宫水,
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and no one could handle this mission.
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Perhaps only God could manage,
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治理,
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this headache.
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After relentless urging from his advisors,
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Emperor Yao appointed a distant relative named
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滚,
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to take this mission,
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任,
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the Emperor Yao told滚,
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to manage,
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治理,
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beyond going flood.
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宫水,
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滚,
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spent nine years building dams
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and dikes to barricade the waters.
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But his efforts were to know of ale.
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The flood,
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宫水,
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continue to rise higher and higher.
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It seemed unstoppable.
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During this time,
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the aging Emperor Yao chose his successor,
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順,
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after,
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順,
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exceeded to the throne,
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he toured his kingdom and found,
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滚,
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was incapable of managing,
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治理,
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the flood.
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宫水,
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滚,
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was disposed of,
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and his son,
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大雨,
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was put in his place to continue this impossible mission.
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任務,
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任務,
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he thoroughly changed his father's methods.
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He personally traveled the entire country
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with a select group of aides to study geography,
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measure elevation,
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and mark down river channels.
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He worked with ordinary people to dredge the riverbeds,
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opening river courses,
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and allowed flood,
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宫水,
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to drain into the ocean.
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Furthermore,
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he also built a system of canals,
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so the waters could irrigate the farmer's fields.
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大雨,
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staunchly continued this mission,
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任務,
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for 13 years.
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It was said that he soaked so long in muddy waters,
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that all the hairs on his legs rubbed off.
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He worked so long under the scalding sun that his skin was
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tanned to a very dark brown.
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He shoveled so long,
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dredging riverbeds that his hands were calced beyond recognition.
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But after 13 unflagging years,
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the flood,
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宫水,
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that had troubled two generations,
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was successfully managed 汁里.
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The management 汁里,
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of the flood 洪水,
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reminds me of a famous story in the Bible,
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the flood at the Ark of Noah.
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Yeah, there are numerous ancient records that talk about the flood,
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宫水,
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and we don't know if they occurred in the same era,
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but flood 宫水,
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stories exist in ancient China,
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ancient Babylonian,
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and Christian stories.
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So, Jill, would you like to share the story of Noah with us?
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Sure, the story goes like this.
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One day,
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the God in Heaven.
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Couldn't take it anymore.
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Became angry with the people,
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because they were doing many bad things for a long time,
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like they raw,
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they fight,
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and lie to everyone.
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So, he was sad and decided to destroy the people.
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However, there was one good person,
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named Noah,
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who badly respected God,
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and obeyed his command.
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Noah and his family were chosen to be saved.
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Well, God wanted to kill people.
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Well, the concept is somewhat similar to the idea of Heaven, isn't it?
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In Chinese history,
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if an emperor was deemed unfit for his position,
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natural disaster would occur.
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See, yeah, I see.
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The mandate of Heaven,
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PM Ming, right?
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So, have people tried to find evidence of the flood Hong Shui?
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Yeah, I think in a part of the world,
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I don't really remember exactly where,
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but they discovered the art,
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and the other historical things about the flood.
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Wow, this sounds amazing!
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Similarly,
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the Yu in China,
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the Tai in China,
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some people have also tried to find evidence of the flood.
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They have prospered various explanations
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for the presence of similar flood stories,
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Hong Shui,
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in different cultures.
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For China,
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the Yellow River, Huang He,
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is considered their mother river.
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But it carries a significant amount of sediment,
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causing it to accumulate and become higher
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than the surrounding buildings.
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Wow, that's impressive.
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So you mean that there was a river higher
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than people's houses?
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Oh, yeah, it does sound dangerous.
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However, the river doesn't flow over the houses,
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otherwise everything could be the river, right?
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So the river is situated on land
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that has accumulated sediment over time,
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making it higher.
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For example, my ancestors probably didn't think
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it was higher than their house,
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but over time,
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it gradually became higher and higher.
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Eventually, it can even surpass the height of a large house.
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In fact, currently,
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it is already 10 meters higher than the city for now.
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That doesn't sound fine at all,
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and it's extremely dangerous.
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What if the ding breaks?
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People living nearby would drown.
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It's not just drawing.
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You can calculate how many floors it is higher than the city.
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On average, a floor is about three meters tall,
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so if the dam were to break,
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people below the third floor would likely die.
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I have helped many social studies teachers develop
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their Chinese culture classes,
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and there's a very specific term in the textbook
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called Chinese Sorrow,
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referring to the floods, Hengshui,
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and the Yellow River things.
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Interesting.
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Why would American textbooks
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discuss this?
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They include it when introducing the geography of China.
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I believe it's crucial for students to learn more about the world.
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If they want to explore Asia further,
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it's very important to talk about Chinese history.
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Geography is a part of what influences history.
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By understanding the geography,
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students can then understand the climate,
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environment, and the thoughts nurtured by the land,
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as well as how they spread to the world.
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We are currently developing an online course
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to assist teachers in teaching Chinese history and culture.
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If you are interested,
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please don't be hesitate to click the link below.
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Absolutely.
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It's great material and good stuff,
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so remember to click the link below
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to know all the details about the course.
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I completely agree that our history is closely intertwined
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with the geography and climate of the place we live.
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We have conducted extensive research
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on how English textbooks discuss Chinese history.
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It's interesting because it gives me a different perspective
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on our culture and history.
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However, some ideas are unfamiliar to me
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because as a Chinese person or a Taiwanese,
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I'm already immersed in the culture.
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So, when building the course,
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I am not only to add more stories to the facts mentioned
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in the textbooks,
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but also to provide reflections on present-day issues,
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including international matters.
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Apart from the course,
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I remember you also host workshops
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to help teachers prepare for their Chinese history lesson.
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You really want to talk about that?
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Yeah, so last time we covered the revisionism
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and Silk Road,
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they are both very popular topics for those teachers.
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I know there are more topics
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that teachers are eager for us to discuss.
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So, if you are interested in any particular topics,
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there's a link below as well
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about our workshop videos.
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If you're interested,
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you can also click the link below.
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That's true.
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During the previous workshops,
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I saw the participants on the screen.
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All the teachers had smiles on their face.
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That means they were truly satisfied
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and found the information
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is shared,
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available and interesting.
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It's undoubtedly helpful for their lessons.
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Yeah, I'm grateful to the active participants
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and support from the workshop attendees.
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Alright, that's all for today.
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Bye bye.