Emperor K’ang-hsi

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Emperor K’ang-hsi ruled China from 1661 to 1722 and his reign is captured by
Jonathan D. Spence’s 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 Spence’s book is based on Emperor K’ang-hsi’s 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 K’ang-hsi’s life as Emperor in chronological order.
In the first part, “In Motion," the main emphasis was on Emperor K’ang-hsi travels though his kingdom. He wrote a letter to Ku Wen-hsing stating that he had traveled
1000’s 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 K’ang-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 K’ang-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 formation riding.
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 K’ang-hsi’s China was composed of a metropolitan division and a provincial division. The metropolitan division was supervised by four to six Grand Secretaries and were directed by the presidents and vice-presidents of the Six Boards. The provinces were divided into six province blocks, controlled by s governor-general. Each province was divided into prefectures and each prefecture was subdivided into counties controlled by a magistrate. Ruling to Emperor K’ang-hsi meant he had compete control for his economical and educa...

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...gaging in homosexual activities with his son.
In conclusion, the book achieves in its purpose, to give new insights into the
Emperors life. Spence’s book goes into greater detail about Emperor K’ang-hsi life then any history book could have. Spence is able to do this by emphasizing on K’ang-hsi’s writings, and not on other sources. The book was divided into six sections that described different aspects of the K’ang-hsi life and times. The most interesting chapter in my option was the chapter “Sons.” In this chapter Spence describes the Emperor’s protective nature towards his sons. He went to great lengths to protect his sons and their heir to the kingdom. Spence’s summary of the data he collected was a little too short. Spence did not go into great detail over many facts. In addition, Spence did not address issues outside China that effected it. By this time in history, China had foreign intervention and influence. Yet Spence did not address the issue of foreign policies that K’ang-hsi made during his reign. In the end Spence did achieve his goal of gaining new insights into
Emperor K’ang-hsi and wrote a good history of the Emperors life.

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