24 Hours in Ancient China

A Day in the Life of the People Who Lived There

By: Yijie Zhuang

Narrated by: Kathleen Li

Spend twenty-four hours with the ancient Chinese.

Travel back to AD 17, during the fourth year of the reign of Wang Mang of the Han dynasty, a vibrant and innovative era full of conflicts and contradictions. But as different as the Han culture might have been to other great ancient civilizations, the inhabitants of ancient China faced the same problems as people have for time immemorial: earning enough money, coping with workplace dramas, and keeping your home in order—although the equivalent in this era was more about bribing inspectors, avoiding bullying from abusive watchmen, and trying to keep your house from being looted by Huns.

In each chapter, we meet one of twenty-four citizens of this ancient culture, from the midwife to the soldier, the priest to the performer, and the blacksmith to the tomb looter, and see what an average day in ancient China was really like.

©2020 Yijie Zhuang (P)2022 Tantor

Fascinating and informative, Compelling stories, all very well written.

An excellent and important book for anyone interested in Asia or China’s past or present or even just interested in everyday life in general, during ancient times. A real page turner that reads like historic fiction but is solidly undergirded by authoritative historic facts. You will be magically transported by this Time Machine disguised as an audio book!

I was interested until we got to thoroughbreds

I was intrigued right up until the author mentioned thoroughbred horses in Han China. Thoroughbreds are a 17th century European phenomena. The only way they could be present in China is through time travel. I'm skeptical that the Han Chinese had a notion similar to what is implied in the term "breed". Certainly they had bloodlines, but using the term thoroughbred horse is about as accurate as referring to the Han Chinese Air Force.

Is this a major issue? no. But it lowers my confidence in everything else the book presents.

Each story left me wanting to hear and learn more!

I didn't expect to love this book nearly as much as I did! I'm normally not a short story anthology type person. I only listened to this because I thought it would be interesting. That said, it was absolutely fantastic! Not only was it very interesting and informative, but each story felt well developed as if it could have led into its own book. I would have loved to have read the full story for each of the characters introduced

Great reading and relatable subject

I lived learning about eastern history and how rich and full it is. This book got me interested in eastern history because I didn’t learn much from western school. I love this book so much, I’ve listened multiple times

It was really interesting

I do feel like at certain point my mind was wondering. But over all 10/10 interesting subject manager. Well written. I really enjoyed it.