A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
两千三百年前的粽子，从两座楚墓里挖了出来。一批素的，一批有肉——荤素之争比屈原还老。
2,300-Year-Old Zongzi Found in Chu Tombs
About this story
2,300-Year-Old Zongzi Found in Chu Tombs. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 Chinese listening episode that runs about 2 minutes. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 6 key vocabulary words such as 吃、水、鱼 and walks through 2 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
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原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
First, a thing: zongzi.
You wrap rice up in leaves, and on one day of the year, Chinese people eat it.
That day is called Duanwu.
The story everyone grows up hearing goes like this:
A very long time ago there was a man called Qu Yuan, and he threw himself into a river.
People were afraid the fish in the water would eat him, so they threw zongzi into the water.
And so every year on that day, we eat zongzi.
A lot of people believe this story.
Every Duanwu, people eat zongzi and tell it again.
But this year, someone dug something else out of the ground.
Two very, very old tombs, with little packages inside them.
One tomb had forty packages.
The other had more than two hundred.
Open one up and look: leaves, wrapped around rice.
It is zongzi.
Zongzi from two thousand three hundred years ago.
How old are these two tombs?
Two thousand three hundred years.
Two thousand three hundred years is a very, very long time.
And the two tombs are a hundred years apart from each other.
The most interesting part is that number.
Two thousand three hundred years ago, Qu Yuan was still a child.
Which is to say: he had not yet thrown himself into the river, and zongzi already existed.
Zongzi was not made for him.
Zongzi is older than Qu Yuan.
That story came afterwards.
And there is one more thing, which is fun.
The zongzi in the first tomb had only rice inside. Vegetarian.
The zongzi in the second tomb had meat inside.
Two thousand three hundred years ago, there were already two kinds.
One vegetarian, one with meat.
And Chinese people are still arguing about it today:
Should you put meat in a zongzi or not?
This question is two thousand three hundred years old.
Two thousand three hundred years on, it is still those same two kinds.
Think about it:
Is there meat in your zongzi?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇One day a year, China eats them.
The legend has people throwing them into the 水.
To stop the 鱼 eating his body — the reason the legend gives.
Both the verb and the thing: 用叶子包米, and 四十包.
很老很老的粽子 — the episode leans on this word hard.
两种粽子 — two kinds. A measure word for varieties.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法Which is to say — restates the point more plainly.
也就是说，他还没有跳江，粽子就已经有了。 — Which is to say, zongzi already existed before he went into the river.
A 比 B 还……
A is even more … than B. Stronger than plain 比.
粽子比屈原还老。 — Zongzi is even older than Qu Yuan.
今天比昨天还热。 — Today is even hotter than yesterday.
Proper nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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