Word: emperor
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...years, the Manchu ruler is engaged in an enormous program of cultural improvements. Some 15,000 calligraphers have been engaged to make handwritten copies of 10,000 books for the nation's half-dozen main libraries. (No books critical of the Manchus are permitted, however.) The Emperor is also subsidizing hundreds of poets and painters to exalt Chinese achievements...
...this military and cultural display, the Emperor appears to be ignoring a future problem. Partly because of the Manchus' imposition of political stability, and partly because such newly introduced American foods as maize and peanuts can be grown on marginal lands, China's population is virtually exploding. The increase in the 132 years since the founding of the dynasty: from 100 million to nearly 300 million. Just to the south of Ch'ien-lung's empire, a new civil war is raging among the Vietnamese. Chief victors so far: the three Tay Son brothers, Nhac...
...century left the army lax and indolent. It was a time of great prosperity, and excess wealth had its customary enervating effect. But it was the lack of supporting structure behind the impressive forms of government that doomed Rome, Gibbon believes. He traces this lack to the very first Emperor, Augustus, who ruled from 27 B.C. to A.D. 14. Augustus' predecessor and adoptive father, Julius Caesar, had been assassinated in the Senate, and this worked its effect on "a cool head, an unfeeling heart and a cowardly disposition." Augustus, Gibbon says, "wished to deceive the people by an image...
...middle of the 3rd century, chaos at the center had led to weakness at the outposts. The Goths became uncontrollable, and when the Emperor Valerian tried to fight off the Persians, he was captured and finally skinned and stuffed with straw. As Gibbon breaks off his story, early in the 4th century, a number of strong Emperors-Aurelian, Diocletian, Constantine-have temporarily imposed a kind of order, but it is clear that their strength is that of men, not of enduring institutions, and that the fall of the empire is inescapable. Gibbon is no moralist intent on admonisinng modern readers...
Despite his productivity, Mozart does not have much official support. Emperor Joseph II, commenting on Haydn's love of thick orchestration in his operas, said to another composer who had not heard them: "You haven't missed anything. He's just as bad as Mozart in that respect...