Emperors and emporia

The Yongzheng Emperor, I learned on Thursday, used seals bearing the legends 'Being a ruler is difficult' and 'Perturbed by day and night'. For that reason I found him the most endearing of The Three Emperors whose courts are being commemorated at the Royal Academy for, I think, another week. I wouldn't have gone had a trip not been suggested by pellegrina, but in the event I've been glad to fill in the gaps in my knowledge of eighteenth-century China. I hadn't realised that relations with Europe, even with Great Britain, were as extensive and influential before George Macartney's unsuccessful attempt to start diplomatic relations in 1793-1794. There were examples of clocks ordered by the Qianlong Emperor in Beijing from the London craftsmen Timothy Williamson and John Cox; paintings by Jesuits such as Giuseppe Castiglione; and copies of prints from engravings ordered by the Qianlong Emperor from Paris to celebrate his conquests, for distribution across the Chinese Empire. I was particularly struck by a painting showing the Qianlong Emperor entertaining the leaders of recently conquered territories, the message being that it is good to be ruled by China, and that Chinese dependents need not do anything for themselves again, as the Emperor would feed them and they should only be sustained by the Emperor from then on. Of the three emperors - the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors - the last two came across as more human, the Yongzheng Emperor in particular with his Screen of Twelve Beauties and his series of portraits of himself in various roles, including as a European tiger-slayer, complete with a curled black wig that would have rivalled those of Louis XIV or Charles II, as a Daoist magician reviving a dragon, and as a Manchu horseman. Throughout I was impressed by pellegrina's knowledge of Chinese characters.

Afterwards pellegrina and I went shopping and, after a deeply scientific process involving much notetaking and saying that the new things we saw in shops 2, 3 and 4 weren't as good as what we saw in shop 1, bought a present for foradan and Meglorien. I then went back to Dunharrow with pellegrina - observing the problems of using TfL's Oyster pre-payment system en route - and joined pellegrina and the much recovered malaheed for that great banquet favourite of yore, the leek and oat soup, which is always appreciated.

Today was an office day, catching up with correspondence rather than doing anything dramatic. I have a visitor - Dr Woods - tomorrow, a blank Sunday, office on Monday, and then up to the ancestral seat for Easter on Tuesday.