Zhang Qian's journey provided the Chinese with valuable information about the lands and peoples of Central Asia, and his report to Emperor Wudi helped to establish trade networks between China and Central Asia.

diplomatic mission to the Yuezhi nomads in modern-day Uzbekistan, led by an official named Zhang Qian. Zhang Qian's journey was a significant one, as it marked the beginning of Chinese travel to Central Asia.

Chinese princesses were sent to marry the Xiongnu leaders as part of the treaty agreement.

Peace and Friendship" accords, established a framework for relations between the Chinese and the Xiongnu that lasted for about 150 years.

he first emperor of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang, was a former official who had once been in charge of policing a section of the imperial highway system.

imperial courier network

The construction of a network of five great tree-lined 'fast roads' that converged on his capital at Xianyang linked the city to the eastern, southern, and northern regions of the empire.

The Chinese took an important lead in promoting travel, with formal state policy involved in promoting travel

Zerzan, though, goes further; looking at how it was the abstract, intellectual basis of modernity – the human duality of body and mind – which was, and continues to be the basis for our severance from the natural world.

Massive, unfulfilling consumption, within the dictates of production and social control, reigns as the chief everyday consolation for this absence of meaning

it really all does 00:06:53 trace back to the start of our what we call civilization our civilization meaning Agriculture and then settlements and cities so prior to that we lived in approximate equilibrium with ecosystems

i'll be talking to you for four weeks 00:06:02 um about what i call losing yourself that is really understanding the idea of no self of selflessness not in the moral sense specifically though that will get there but not having a self 00:06:14 and of what it is to exist as a person uh without a self and i'll be doing this um from a variety of perspectives and one of the things that might make this 00:06:27 set of talks different from a lot of the talks that the barry center supports is that it won't be specifically or uniquely buddhist doctrine i will be relying on a lot of 00:06:40 buddhist arguments because i do that but also addressing a lot of western arguments in western literature and i won't be interested in doing a lot of textual work in fact i won't do any textual work at all even though i love doing that this will be really about the 00:06:53 idea about really how to understand the idea of not having a self and the idea and how to understand what it is to be a person so i'll draw on buddhist ideas and non-buddhist ideas on western ideas 00:07:07 but i won't be specifically giving a course in the history of buddhist thought about no-self nor will i be talking about practice this will be a very theoretical um set of lectures um but i think what i have to say will 00:07:20 be relevant um to those who are coming here in order to enrich their practice but i won't be specifically talking about that um most of what i'm doing will be based on a book that is 00:07:33 now in press called losing yourself how to be a person without a self

there 00:03:24 is something really special about going off into the natural world it is especially by oneself i think that it it can enable us to kind of open up and sort of let go of our usual utilitarian 00:03:38 way of relating to everything and and and sort of be able to learn what the trees you know what what the meadows what what the river has to offer uh and i think that's that's really 00:03:52 important

The issue of human dominance is not simply climate change (as bad as that is), it is the whole capitalist development paradigm that is at the dark heart of maldevelopment—that which undermines and destroys the very foundations of all life on earth.

the trip to korea is always a winter trip for me [music] [music] 00:13:16 if you are supposed to be on a subway platform, you immediately understand that you are in a tired society, you could say in a tired society in the final stage 00:13:30 the subways are supposed to be the same sleeping cars in which people decide whether they want to sleep after school everywhere and at different times in korea you can see people sleeping 00:13:44 people apparently people are fighting against permanent overtiredness very many people have long since succumbed to burnout and more than 100 die every year

La democracia de la sociedad del trabajo esel sistema de dominio más pérfido de la historia:un sistema de autoopresión

We also see glimpses of other actors, like Woody Harrelson's Star Wars universe debut as Tobias Beckett and Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Qi'Ra.