A few years ago, when I was living in Shanghai, I used to read a story to my daughter, about a brownie called Tiddles. This was an Enid Blyton book, and it recounts the tale of a brownie, who wore the King's shoe's and was transformed into the King, whereas the King was transformed into a brownie.
Over the course of the day,Tiddles became the prisoner of the ritual of the King's routine, was forced to wear uncomfortable clothes, and hardly had the time to eat. At the end of the day, he escaped, and went back to where he used to live, to find the King happily lying on the ground, besides a fire, munching an apple. Tiddles quickly kicked off the King's shoes again, and the King unhappily went back to the palace.
Subsequently, I read Hirohito's biography. The tale of Japanese monarchy seemed to be the same.
And then, I read the autobiography of Pu Yi, the last Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. On the one hand, every whim was allowed to him. He even had a whipping boy, a boy whom he could whip, so that he could blow off steam. Huge quantities of food were cooked in the Forbidden City. For instance, the monthly consumption of pork was over 7 tons. 7 tons of pork consumed per month? In one particular month, apart from that there was 15 tons of extra meat, 400 kilos of extra pork fat, 4,786 extra chickens and ducks. This excludes shrimps, eggs etc etc. Yet, he was not allowed to go anywhere he pleased. He had to follow the ritual of the court, and had to inform the Ministers of his every move.
In the end, in 1911, he was forced to abdicate when the new Republic of China was created. Finally, in 1924, he left the Forbidden City.
Both, Hirohito and Pu Yi were survivor's and, neither was a particularly admirable individual, in my eyes. However, the fact is, that they both lived through turbulent times, and who is to say that I would have been better, or different.
However, all of this reading, and some of these thoughts came subsequent to the time that I took this photograph. When I took the photo, I was only focussed on the graceful curves of the moat, and the grandeur of the palace.
Truly, the Forbidden City is a palace fit for kings, and I am sure that the first kings to built it were powerful kings. However, as power corrupts, it also weakens. It did make the kings dependent on their courtiers. The rituals that were devised to impress the common folk soon became the binding ropes that made prisoners of the kings.
Like ritual has robbed us of divine wonder, of appreciating the beauty and power of nature, ritual and pomp gradually emasculated the Kings of old.
Change is inevitable. What is left of the great history of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, is the legacy and the great structures that they have left behind.
History builds upon itself, and makes us what we are today.
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