Finally finish watching 雍正王朝. It is a long series (44CDs) on the story of Emperor Yong Zheng, the third Emperor in Qing Dynasty.

Instead of typical fares where history is twist into some martial art cum romance story, the series follows closely with the history (with a bit of glorification to Yong Zheng). The story is interesting in the subtle politic games that goes on in the court: dealing with rich merchants, dealing with corrupted officers, power struggle over the successor and implementing unpopular policies. And it truely demostrate what it means to be “先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐”¹ a philosophy I subscribe to.

The sad conclusion is that it is so much easier to be a corrupted officer (Mandarin) then a good one. And that’s why good one are so honored in Chinese history because they are really rare.

¹ loosely translated to be “be concern about the country and the people before anything else”.