Chinese History - Emperor Kang essays

Chinese History - Emperor Kang essays Emperor Kang-hsi ruled China from 1661 to 1722 and his reign is captured by Jonathan D. Spences book Emperor of China. The different chapters of the book deal with certain aspects of the Emperors life. Aspects that the history books to normally deal with. The information in Spences book is based on Emperor Kang-hsis correspondence, his own writings. This writing maybe biased towards himself, but no other piece of information could provide insight into his mind. The book is divided into six parts; In motion, Ruling, Thinking, Growing Old, Sons, Valedictory. The book follows Emperor Kang-hsis life as Emperor in chronological order. In the first part, "In Motion," the main emphasis was on Emperor Kang-hsi travels though his kingdom. He wrote a letter to Ku Wen-hsing stating that he had traveled 1000s of miles in each direction. He had traveled to the provinces of Shansi and Shensi in the west, to the provinces of Manchuria and Ula in the east, north across the Gobi to the Kerulean River and south to the Yangtze River. On his travels, Emperor Kang-hsi, liked to collect and compare different plats, animals, birds that he came across. He loved to hunt with bows and guns during his travels. Emperor Kang-hsi hunting practices were not just meant for joy and exercise, it was also an exercise in military preparedness. He took thousands of his troops on many of his trips to train them in shooting, camp life, and The second part of the book emphasis on the historiographically part of the emperors rule. The authors' facts were based on the thousands of imperial documents that came from the emperor. The author was able to piece together the kind to government that existed. The central bureaucracy of emperor Kang-hsis China was composed of a metropolitan division and a provincia ...