Some extra thingies

Yesterday night was the chinese drama about Tan Kah Kee. However, I'm not blogging about it today, but about somewhere that I went to last Saturday, which is very near the location Victoria Theatre is at.

Okay, suspense is not working here. I went to the Asian Civilisation Museum last week to view the exhibition on the Kang Xi Emperor, the chinese emperor ruling for the longest period of 60 years. It was very informative, with exhibits on how enterprising, clever and great this emperor was. Based on memory, I have recollected some information about him.

1. He had over 60 children from his two wives and 55 concubines. (The exact number might not be correct.) He and his first wife (known to be kind) were paired ina planned marriage, meaning that their parents chose them to be together. However, it was said that they were a loving couple and when she died, the emperor was ver much grieved and was sad for eons. However, he married again, and his second wife was kind and caring like the first and if i am not wrong, brought pride to the royal family. The sad part is that she died soon afterwards. After that second disaster, Kang Xi emperor never married again. Sorry for the lack of pictures, because photography is strictly unallowed by the museum people, but a strange characteristic was that the wives of the emperor had two holes pierced in each ear for each of them, and from each hole hang an earring with two pearls. (I would like to reiterate that this information is strictly taken from memory and may not be correct. Sorry.)

2. He was knowledgeable in areas of writing, science, and even archery. For some reason, he had already had a rifle which was showcased and had a length of about 1.2 m. He was known to have killed hundreds of rabbits, tens of tigers, wolves and other game. His largest haul from one day was over 300 rabbits. He was good at all aspects of science too, owning many scientific  instruments including a globe brought by explorers in the 17th century and a mechanical calculator created by Blaise Pascal. He even had a Mathematical set consisting of a protractor and other 3D objects such as spheres, prisms, cuboids, pyramids etc.

3. Finally, he reached a ripe age with a rule of 60 years, dying a few weeks away from his 70th birthday. His grandson could have surpassed his record, but resigned from his post before a rule of 60 years, in respect of the Kang Xi emperor.

After hearing so much about the Emperor, here is the real Elements Song.