쉐도잉 연습: The Rise and Fall of Wu Zetian - 영상으로 영어 말하기 배우기

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Throughout the 3000 year long history of China, exactly 558 men rose to the title of Emperor, just to get replaced or detroned by one another.

But among those hundreds of emperors, only one woman managed to claw her way to the throne.

And clawing she did.

Historically Facts, Part 2

This is Wu Zeteng, born in the year 624 in a small city somewhere in the middle of China.

Or rather, the Tang Dynasty.

You see, as opposed to the American history, where it simply started somewhere on the east coast and slowly expanded towards the west,

then while growing, breaks somewhere in the middle and then unites once again, China's history and borders are a hot diggity mess.

But all you need to know for this video's story is that

China is now split up like this, and our spicy main character lives in the Tang Dynasty.

Wu spent her teenage life like the average Chinese teenager used to clean the house,

learn how to cook, and wait till she reached the age to become a housewife for a considerably older man.

In Chinese dynasty terms, that means around the age of 14, where she was presented as one of the candidates to become the current emperor's concubine.

And surprise surprise, she, together with a dozen others, ended up being picked by the emperor himself.

Now, to make sure we are all on the same page, being a concubine basically means being a honky bonky for the emperor.

And usually that's all they end up achieving in their lives.

But Wu was different and she had a plan to become much more than that.

And that plan started when the current emperor, Emperor Taizong, passed away because of a terrible illness.

Which in Chinese dynasty terms means he got poisoned by Buddhists.

Out of Taizong's nine sons, his youngest son, Lai Zee, ended up becoming the next emperor.

And Wu immediately took advantage of the opportunity.

However, the only way we can explain this opportunity is by taking a closer look at the newly appointed

Emperor Lai -Zi.

The first question that might have come to mind is how did the youngest son end up getting the throne?

Isn't it usually the oldest one?

Well, yes it is.

Lai -Zi's case is a bit special and we could even describe his road to the throne a bit lucky.

His father, Emperor Tai Zong, had multiple wives.

And because the Chinese like to keep things complicated, there also used to be a specific hierarchy of wives.

And the favorite and highest ranked wife of Emperor Tai Zong was Empress Zhang Sun.

And she bore three out of the nine sons.

This in Chinese dynasty terms means we can remove six of the nine boys of the potential successor list.

This leaves us with Li Chen Qian, Li Tai and Lai Zi.

If all of them behave nice and loyal, Chen Qian, being the oldest of the Wall Nine, would be the one succeeding the throne.

But Lai Tai, being conscious that being the middle oldest of the three would mean a very slim chance to succeed his father,

actively tried to win his father over to leave the throne to him instead.

Chen Qian, hearing how Tai was slowly being favored by their dad,

started to worry about the certainty of his future legacy and in fear of losing out on the throne,

set up a big and elaborate conspiracy with very powerful family members and military leaders to detrone his father.

Unfortunately for Cheng Qian, his plan never got to see the light of day, because the emperor got to hear about it first,

which meant Tai Zong was forced to exile his oldest son into the country, where he died shortly after at the age of 26.

This leaves us with Lai Tai and Lai Zi.

And Tai being the older one meant he was going to be the successor.

Now, whether you believe it or not, Lai Zi didn't actively try to hinder his older brother of becoming the next emperor.

As a matter of fact, it looks like he was kind of okay with it.

And initially, so did their father.

But after some time passed, Emperor Tai Zong started to have doubts about the sincerity of Lai Tai.

He asked himself if Tai didn't start the rivalry between his older brother Cheng Qian,

would his older son still have felt the need to conspire against him?

On top of those doubts, Emperor Tai Zong's brother -in -law started to suggest to the Emperor

that Lai Zai would be a better fit for the Emperor than Lai Tai.

This on his own turn made Lai Tai worried about his legacy

and his way of coping with his anxiety was to actively intimidate his younger brother,

threatening him that he would lie to his father that Zai was also a part of their deceased brother's conspiracy.

When Emperor Tai Zong noticed Lai Zai being troubled by his older brother

and shortly after told by Lai Zai of Lai Tai's intimidation, Emperor Tai Zong's mind was set.

He exiled Lai Tai and just like that, Lai Zai became the crown prince of the throne.

Zai got delivered the throne just like that by simply being daddy's good boy.

And the good boy he was.

He loved his father and spent his time as a crown prince keeping his dad happy, which touched Emperor Taizong deeply.

When Emperor Taizong was on his deathbed, Crown Prince Xie spent many days next to his bed,

going days without food and constantly weeping about his father's unaffordable fate.

A couple days later, Emperor Taizong passed away and Lai Zee ascended to become

Emperor Gao Zong.

Now being told all of this, how would you describe the new emperor?

Would you call him a brave, heroic and charismatic leader?

Or rather a mommy's boy who took the wrong turn in their local Ikea?

This was Wu Sutan's golden opportunity.

Someone raised to the top that could possibly be influenced by, let's say, one of his wives.

And so Wu went and managed to smooth talk her way into marrying the new emperor.

Now, unfortunately for Wu, we are still talking about China here,

where multiple wives exist and people continuously try to make each other's life worse to rise in power.

Wu ended in a similar situation that

Emperor Gao Zong used to be when he was younger.

That being between two rifles.

The first was Gaozong's first wife, Emperor Zwang.

Being the first wife means a higher rank, so something had to be done about that.

The second rifle turned out not to be a wife, but a concubine, Xiao Xu Wei.

All three of them tried to win the emperor over to get the most power.

But unfortunately for the first wife and the concubine, their opponent had everything already carefully planned out.

First, she used the years of experience sweet -talking that she gained while she was sharing a bet with the previous emperor,

being basically Emperor Gaozong's father, to win Gaozong to her side.

Then, to make sure no one would interfere with her in the long run,

she framed the first wife of the death of her own first daughter,

which might or might not have been killed by Wu herself to get rid of Empress Wang.

And finally, she influenced the emperor to also deal with the concubine Xiao Xu Wei.

Which, in Chinese dynasty terms, means reducing their rank to commoner and imprisoning them in the royal palace for the rest of their lives.

Emperor Gao Zong, being the mommy boy he was, continued to be influenced and controlled by Wu Zutain for 5 more years.

But an emperor being controlled by an empress is nothing out of the ordinary in China's history.

So what happened next?

Well, Gao Zong got a stroke.

Which meant Wu could finally come out the shadow and rule the Tang Dynasty with a solid reason.

That being her husband isn't able to do so himself.

And she did, for an additional 23 years.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.

As that year, her excuse to be the one in charge died out as the Emperor passed away in his sleep.

This meant that the whole oldest son has to be in charge thing had to start all over again.

And that meant

that Wu Sutein was about to lose all power of the country she used to rule for the past 28 years.

100

And she wasn't about to let that happen.

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During the time she was in power, she gave birth to his son.

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But unfortunately for him, he wasn't the oldest aka next in line.

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Or rather I should say, unfortunately for his brothers.

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Wu was a master -minded woman.

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And by carefully exiling the other sons throughout the years and finally poisoning the rightful crown prince,

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there was no other option left than for her son to become the next emperor.

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Any soon -to -be emperor kid would be thrilled and overwhelmed with joy about his upcoming legacy.

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But Lai -Zi with an E, I know the irony is real, knew it would be anything but joy.

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Wu practically locked her own son, mind you also the emperor, away in the palace and did everything herself for the next seven years.

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Though apparently Lai -Z didn't mind too much with the stream of juicy food

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and young concubines that kept being sent to his room.

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What Z did mind though is that his paradise was short -lived as Wu preferred her younger, older son a bit more.

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Back goes the hat and exiled gets his.. fat.

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Finally in the year 690, Wu Zetain decided that it was time for the final step.

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She forced her son, the Emperor, to yield the throne to her and established her own dynasty,

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the Zhou Dynasty, where she officially became the first and only female

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Emperor in the whole history of China.

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And all she had to do was murder, exile, manipulate and bear children.

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Mission complete!

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But how was it to live under Wu's rule in all those years?

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Well, the more she stepped into the spotlight, the more ruthless she became.

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In general, though, she was like the average emperor to the commoners.

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But for the others in the palace, though, that is a different story.

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But wait a minute.

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This video is called The Rise and Fall of China's Only Female Emperor.

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So how did she fall?

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Well, as Wu became older and often seriously ill for extended times, powerful men and military generals noticed the opportunity.

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Which, in Chinese dynasty terms, means overthrowing her so someone else can enjoy the luxuries of being an emperor.

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In the end, Wusatain passed away peacefully.

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Not by the hand of an ambitious general or by being poisoned by a close relative, but simply in bed because of her illness.

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This is the bizarre story of the rise and fall of China's first and only.. female emperor.

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이 레슨의 어휘와 말하기 포인트

이 말하기 레슨은 영상 “The Rise and Fall of Wu Zetian”을(를) 바탕으로 합니다. 가장 자주 반복되는 단어는 다음과 같습니다: emperor, Zhi, Taizong, Tai, dynasty. 이 영상에는 섀도잉할 문장 66개와 단어 1813개가 있습니다. 말하는 구간의 길이는 10:17입니다. 화자는 분당 약 176단어로, 일상 대화에 가까운 자연스러운 속도로 말합니다. 영어에서 가장 많이 쓰이는 3,000단어에 속하는 단어가 80%뿐이라 어휘가 어려운 편입니다.

이 영상의 핵심 어휘

영상에 나오는 익혀 둘 만한 단어 15개를 발음, 뜻과 함께 정리했습니다.

단어	발음	뜻
emperor 명사	/ˈɛmp(ə)ɹə/	황제, 천황
throne 명사	/θɹəʊ̯n/	왕좌, 옥좌
dynasty 명사	/ˈdaɪnəsti/	왕조, 왕가
exile 명사	/ˈɛɡˌzaɪl/	망명, 추방
palace 명사	/ˈpælɪs/	궁, 궁전
legacy 명사	/ˈlɛɡəsi/	유산
poison 명사	/ˈpɔɪ.zən/	독
relative 명사	/ˈɹɛl.ə.tɪv/	친척
carefully 부사	/ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/	주의하여, 조심스럽게
illness 명사	/ˈɪl.nəs/	질병, 병
conspiracy 명사	/kənˈspɪɹəsi/	음모
leaf 명사	/lif/	잎
successor 명사	/səkˈsɛsɚ/	후임자, 계승자
claw 명사	/klɔ/	발톱
complicated 형용사	/ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/	복잡하다

영상에 나오는 구동사

단어	뜻
pass away 동사	돌아가시다

이 영상의 문법

화자가 가장 많이 쓰는 문형을 영상 속 실제 표현과 함께 정리했습니다.

문형	영상 속 표현
“used to” used to + 동사 — 지금은 아닌 과거의 습관이나 상태	used to be · used to rule
수동태 be + 과거분사 — 누가 하는지보다 무슨 일이 일어나는지에 초점	is now split · was presented · being picked

주의할 발음

화자는 didn't, isn't, wasn't 같은 축약형과 약화된 형태를 8번 사용합니다. 들리는 대로 짧게 발음하세요.

“th” 소리: throne /θɹəʊ̯n/, smooth /smuːð/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/, thrill /θɹɪl/, ruthless /ˈɹuːθləs/
“sh”와 “zh” 소리: shortly /ˈʃɔɹtli/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, luxury /ˈlʌk.ʃə.ɹi/, conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/
긴 단어 — 강세 위치에 주의: conspiracy /kənˈspɪɹəsi/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, ordinary /ˈɔɹdɪnɛɹi/, practically /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.k(ə.)li/

한국어 화자가 어려워하는 소리:

/f/ — ㅍ(/p/)으로 바꾸지 말고 윗니를 아랫입술에 대기: carefully /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/, leaf /lif/, fate /feɪt/, interfere /ˌɪn.tɚˈfɪɚ/, peacefully /ˈpiːsfəli/
/v/ — ㅂ(/b/)과 구별하기: actively /ˈæktɪvli/, relative /ˈɹɛl.ə.tɪv/, brave /bɹeɪv/, rival /ˈɹaɪvəl/, behave /bɪˈheɪv/
/z/ — ㅈ이 아니라 성대를 울리는 /s/: exile /ˈɛɡˌzaɪl/, poison /ˈpɔɪ.zən/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, bizarre /bɪˈzɑː(ɹ)/, oppose /əˈpoʊz/

이 영상으로 연습하는 방법

먼저 말하지 않고 영상을 끝까지 듣고 모르는 단어를 적어 둡니다.
0.75배속으로 한 문장씩 섀도잉을 시작하고, 익숙해지면 보통 속도로 돌아갑니다.
자신의 목소리를 녹음해 원본과 비교하고, emperor, throne, dynasty 같은 단어에 특히 주의합니다.

쉐도잉이란? 영어 실력을 빠르게 키우는 과학적 방법

쉐도잉(Shadowing)은 원래 전문 통역사 훈련을 위해 개발된 언어 학습 기법으로, 다언어 학자인 Dr. Alexander Arguelles에 의해 대중화된 방법입니다. 핵심 원리는 간단하지만 매우 강력합니다: 원어민의 영어를 들으면서 1~2초의 짧은 지연으로 즉시 소리 내어 따라 말하는 것——마치 '그림자(shadow)'처럼 화자를 따라가는 것입니다. 문법 공부나 수동적인 청취와 달리, 쉐도잉은 뇌와 입 근육이 동시에 실시간으로 영어를 처리하고 재현하도록 훈련합니다. 연구에 따르면 이 방법은 발음 정확도, 억양, 리듬, 연음, 청취력, 말하기 유창성을 크게 향상시킵니다. IELTS 스피킹 준비와 자연스러운 영어 소통을 원하는 분들에게 특히 효과적입니다.

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쉐도잉 연습: The Rise and Fall of Wu Zetian - 영상으로 영어 말하기 배우기

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