Zizhi Tongjian
Eleven centuries of Chinese statecraft, assassination, loyalty, and betrayal — reimagined as an audiobook for the modern reader. Click any name to meet its bearer. Toggle between the scholar's voice and the strategist's.
118 volumes now available · 403 – 369 BC – 603 AD
All Chapters
The full chronicle, volume by volume — from the partition of Jin through the early Han. Browse every volume, with reading times and summaries.
The Players
Every marquis, minister, and assassin — with portraits, dates, and the scenes they walk through.
The Timeline
403 BC to 959 AD in a single spine. Jump to any year, any ruler, any crisis.
The Performance of the Perfect Son
The Kaihuang peace at its height, and inside it the greatest con in the chronicle: Yang Guang out-performing his brother in frugality, filial piety, and modesty -- one audience at a time -- until the empire's most suspicious couple handed their dynasty to its destroyer.
The Wealth Contest at the End of the World
The empire reunified, Emperor Wu retired to a goat cart and ten thousand palace women, and the aristocracy staged history's most famous spending contest -- washing pots with sugar, burning candles for firewood, smashing coral trees for applause. The decade Jin spent its future.
The Emperor Who Priced the Empire
Ling Di posted price lists for government office, ran a market stall in the palace for practice, and called two eunuchs his father and mother. The empire's honest men were meanwhile banned from office for life. The Yellow Turbans are the next volume; this is the invoice.