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Exemplary Emperors
Am reading Emperor of China by Jonathan D. Spence. Passages from edicts, letters, and what-all of the Kangxi Emperor, third of the Manchu dynasty, pieced together by Spence to make a kind of memoir.
Must say, in this and in Spence's later book, Treason by the Book, the earlier Manchu emperors come across as rational, reasonable, and dear *god* hard-working people. I gather that the Kangxi Emperor got more paranoid in later years, but then, who didn't?
Must say, in this and in Spence's later book, Treason by the Book, the earlier Manchu emperors come across as rational, reasonable, and dear *god* hard-working people. I gather that the Kangxi Emperor got more paranoid in later years, but then, who didn't?