Emperor of China

Emperor Kang-hsi was one of the greatest Chinese emperors of all(a) time. Ruling from 1662 to 1722 he was also one of the longest ruling emperors in Chinese history and for that matter the world. Kang-hsi brought China to long-term stability and relative wealth after years of war and chaos. Jonathan Spence writes from the eyes of Kang-hsi getting his information from Kang-hsis own belles-lettres. Though a little biased towards himself this book still provides important insight into his mind. Emperor of China is dissever into six parts In Motion, Ruling, Thinking, Growing Old, Sons, and Valedictory.In the first episode, In Motion, Spence tells the au interruptnce ab reveal Kang-hsis travels and how much of an avid hunter he is. In a letter to Ku Wen-hsing, Kang-hsi wrote, he had traveled over 2,000 li in individually of the four cardinal directions and later states, River, lakes, mountains, deserts- Ive been done them all. Kang-hsi travelled the countryside to hunt and to win ov er the Chinese citizens. He hunted for pleasure stating, Huntings basically for exercise, and to train his military in shooting, camp life, and formation riding.The second episode, Ruling, goes more into detail on how the government activity was set up. Kang-hsi had is set up so he had complete catch over the economical and educational structure but did not bear to deal with the small tidies problems of every county. Emperor Kang-hsi thought a percentage about his purpose in life. He goes into more detail in his third episode Thinking. The Emperor was a Neo-Confucianism but refereed to it mostly as Confucian Classic. He claims he involveed to find things out for himself and not pret bar to have the knowledge.He would ask his elders questions and ask about their experiences so he would take away from their mistakes and gain from their accomplishments. Realizing in the fourth episode he was growing old and was going to die. He was very adamant about not wanting to die but he kne w it was inevit equal to(p). He did try to prolong his life as much as possible with his awareness for his diet and medicine. Kang-hsi tried to balk open with the public about his health, explaining that this is the ultimate form of honesty. Emperor Kang-hsi tried to live forever through his children. He had 56 children all together but completely one with his first wife, who later took over the thrown. The Emperor was very protective of his sons and made sure they got everything they wanted. He would often kill person that threatened the chance of a power overthrow. He once killed three cooks and several servant boys for suspicion of homosexual activity with his son Yin-jeng. At the end of Kang-hsis life, he became very senile and distant from reality and the Chinese people.Even though Spence goes into great detail about Emperor Kang-hsis life than any history book could have. He does this by emphasizing his writings and not other sources. The downfall to this is he does not go into great detail about many of the facts or important historical events. By this time China had foreign intervention and influence Spence did not cut across any of the foreign policies Kang-hsi made during his reign. Spence only wrote one paragraph about the confrontations with Russia, but the real even actually lasted over several decades.And the only thing that was mentioned was how nice the Emperor was to the Russian prisoners. Emperor of China Self Portrait of Kang-hsi should not be read as a text or as a completely true historical resource. This is because it is told by one person and by his point of view with no one else able to tell the other side of the story. Granted this is what Spence wanted to do with his book but for the point most of his sources were of Kang-hsis writings we cannot believe everything that is written.If psyche would read this book they would think Kang-hsi was the greatest leader/person in the world. We do not get the dirty side of his life, the si de that describes all the thousands of people that he killed for no reason. When they were addressed in the book Kang-hsi put a positive twist on it so it would be justify in his mind. Every storyteller is going to tell their version of the story so it sounds better than it really was. On the other hand Spence takes us into Kang-hsis head and we realize what Kang-hsi was thinking behind some of his actions.For example, his easoning for restructuring the tax system in 1711 because the population was increasing but the farm belt down was not increasing so his thought was every census year the tax quotas should be redivided among the entire surviving population, so that all would pay the same, and each year the tax burden could get lighter. But he went with another plan we know what he was thinking and what his other options were. Knowing what is going on in someones mind is what everyone wants to know and especially for someone as important as the Emperor of China. Through Kang-hsis writings you can feel the whole heartedness from him.He was a good person and Spence really expressed that while writing this book. Most emperors would not help out war criminals let alone treat them with medicine. Also he helped out average citizens of China that were in need of help. An example of this is when a citizen became very project and was not able to bow in front of Kang-hsi so he let him incline the body forward instead of performing the intact prostration, and that same citizen was not able to sit down so Kang-hsi offered him to sit on a couch of cushions. At that time most heads of government would behead that citizen because he was physically handicapped.Kang-hsi knew he could not help his condition, he was born with a handicap so if did not want to severalize against him for something he could not prevent. Spence did a very good job at writing a book from Kang-hsis perspective and was able to log his thoughts fairly well. In the six episodes of the book he was able to go through Kang-hsis young life, when he ruled over China, he thoughts and beliefs and what he thought about his sons. We could really feel how he felt about certain issues and who is loved and cared for, it was like we were seeing certain scenes through he eyes rather than a third party.The only thing that would have made it better is if Spence went in more detail about political personal business and foreign policies. Though if he had gone in depth over everything the book would have been 2000 pages or more. So as a reader you have to start this book with some background information it is only from Kang-hsis perspective, Spence leaves some important governmental issues out, and finally you do not want to read a boring book describing every little detail about someones life that lived three hundred years agone that is why Spence left those issues out.