Qianlong in his study, possibly by Giuseppe Castiglione
I'm off to Beijing on Friday so I've got emperors on the brain. It is said that the Qianlong Emperor (Qing Dynasty 1711 - 1799) composed over 40,000 poems and 1,300 prose texts during his lifetime. Quite a remarkable feat. He would have made a pretty serious blogger as 40,000 poems means making at least 1-2 postings a day, every day for his entire lifetime, if he started writing at say the age of ten. He was a busy beaver in more ways than this, he also had 17 wives, 17 sons and 10 daughters (his grandfather Kangxi had 56 children) and travelled extensively.
And here I am, thinking I lead a busy life... phew...
ReplyDeleteDet var en post som fick mig att tänka på föreläsningar med Berra. Det var roliga föreläsningar!
ReplyDeleteI average as many postings as Qianlong but I wonder if I will be able to keep it up as long as he did! And I've only got one husband and two kids, and don't have to expand the empire, fight the border barbarians or hobnob with the military and court officials. On the other hand I have to cook all my food and don't have hundreds of palace ladies or eunuchs to help me. Maybe it would be nice to be Qianlong for a day, but never ever would I like to be a court lady, princess or empress. No way.....Maybe Cixi?
ReplyDeleteHmm...jag vet inte jag. Hon var nog lite för förfärlig för min smak Cixi. Jag är glad att du inte är kejsarmoder. Men du kanske blir om Burton skulle bli kejsare någon gång!
ReplyDeletePaddy skulle nog säga att jag redan nu styr hemmet som om jag vore Cixi. Men skämt åsido, håller på att läsa en bok skriven 1911 av en adelsdam som var hennes högerhand under ett par år och Cixi är väl så intressant som person tycker jag. Men om jag får välja provar jag gärna på hur det är att vara man och då varför inte en kejsare? Fast de fick gå upp himla tidigt varje dag....
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