Election Day, 2006 [November 7, 2006]

Dear Colleague:

    As Election Day approaches, I can't help thinking of K'ang-hsi, Emperor of China from 1661 to 1722, and wondering whether he would make a better Emperor of USA than our current occupant, George W. Bush.      Consider K'ang-hsi's qualifications. The leader of the world's only super-power has to be an alpha male, and K'ang-hsi was certainly that. He sired 56 children by 30 consorts of varying ranks. He was a great hunter, having in his lifetime killed 135 tigers and 20 bear, 25 leopards, 20 lynx, 14 tailed mi deer, 96 wolves, 132 wild boar, as well as hundreds of ordinary stags and deer. (Compare this with Vice-President Cheney's girly-man record).

    K'ang-hsi made hunting a preparation for military campaigns. He took thousands of troops on many of his hunting trips, to train them in shooting, camp life, and formation riding. In the war with the great Zungar leader Galdan (1696-1697) K'ang-hsi rode out to fight in person; he stalked Galdan as a hunter stalks his prey. K'ang-hsi showed almost a motherly care for his troops. Not trusting entirely his Secretary of Defense, he made sure, personally, that the troops had enough armor--and especially the right sort of armor--and that they should be well supplied with food and water. He urged his generals to be more competent in astronomy so that the location of water holes and sources of food could be more precisely recorded. He not only urged but personally demonstrated in the field the advantages of possessing a sound knowledge of astronomy and geography. He didn't just ride into a distant military camp on his "heavenly" horse (tien ma), ate chop suey with his troops, and then as speedily departed. No, he shared the hardships and dangers of his troops. After all, he was emperor and the soldiers were his people! He felt a responsibility for their welfare in a way no democratically elected president would--least of all, if I may say so, our current office holder. K'ang-hsi was Commander-in-Chief in every sense of the word, whereas George W. is... well, you finish the sentence.

    K'ang-hsi was endlessly curious. He had the good fortune of having, in his court, learned Jesuits who introduced the new astronomy, mathematics, hydraulic engineering, and all sorts of other technical skills and products (e.g., the chiming clock) into China. "Since my childhood I have always tried to find things out for myself and not to pretend to have knowledge when I was ignorant," wrote the Emperor. And "I've always been willing to admit I made a mistake, be it over a trifle or some serious matter." He was rather proud to be able to calculate the weight and volume of spheres, cubes, and cones, and to measure distances and the angle of river banks, and "to calculate why, because of the horizon and the roundness of the earth, an eclipse of the moon visible in Peking might not be visible in the western provinces... and I corrected the provincial eclipse reports accordingly; I was able to follow the passage of a solar eclipse and calculate its duration more precisely than the staff in the Bureau of Astronomy."

    K'ang-hsi was a compassionate conservative, at least in his younger years. He repeatedly adjusted a sentence to one of greater leniency in the hope that the guilty would be inspired to reform. He embraced "all under heaven." He was, after all, emperor of all the people, unlike the American president, who boastfully excluded citizens he disapproved of from the good and virtuous life. (Jonathan Spence, Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-hsi, Vintage 1975).

Best wishes,

Yi-Fu