Dr. Kwan Lee’s Chinese movie recommendations: “China in the Classics”. Ten docudramas, all with English subtitles and each a little over one hour!
Cook up some popcorn and enjoy this fabulously produced series on the foundations of Chinese culture…
1- The Changes of Zhou (Zhouyi) featuring King Wen (1112-1050 BCE/ruled 1099-1050 BCE) and his son King Wu (ruled 1050-1043 BCE), the 2 kingly founding fathers of the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE)
The Zhouyi was the core text (4400 characters) of a more elaborate Classic, the I Ching (24 500 characters):
2- Dao De Jing (the Classic of the Way & of Virtue) featuring Laozi (571 BCE- ?):
3- The Analects of Confucius (551-479 BCE):
4- The Art of War by Sunzi (544 BCE- ?):
5- The Songs of Chu by Qu Yuan (339-278 BCE):
6- The Book of Documents featuring Fu Sheng (268-178 BCE):
7- The Records of the Grand Historian Sima Qian (145-86 BCE):
8- The Instructions for practical living by the Ming Dynasty philosopher Wang Yangming (1472-1529):
9- Compendium of Materia Medica by Li Shizhen (1518-1593):
10- The Travels of Xu Xiake (1587-1641):
Plus, a few extras!
These are great films but my favorite is Laozi Went Out of Hangu Pass. Laozi in this film is such an endearing harmonious fellow, who always finds a way to resolve conflict in a harmonious way. A real inspiration. We need someone like him nowadays with so many seemingly intractable conflicts.
Some say that Lao Zi and Confucius were inspired by Buddhism. Who knows?