Chinese History - Emperor Kang

A detailed Summary of Chinese History - Emperor Kang

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

Emperor did not look kindly towards this. This political theme is the basis for the chapter

In conclusion, the book achieves in its purpose, to give new insights into the

the son. Different officials also tried to jockey for position with the government.

perspective on his life and of his subjects. Emperor K'ang-hsi believed in Neo-

K'ang-hsi had his sons killed also. In 1712 the garrison commander of Peking was put to

took thousands of his troops on many of his trips to train them in shooting, camp life, and

Confucianism and often refereed to it as the Confucian Classic. In different parts of the

by four to six Grand Secretaries and were directed by the presidents and vice-presidents of

he had compete control for his economical and educational structure. He also felt that he

Approximate Word count = 950
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics

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