17 replies to this topic

[Ghost_of_Han]

Well I've been studying Homosexually and China, and the Emperor Han Aidi is the most infamous of them all. I came arcoss what I think is his portrait, can someone varify this? And if so, GZ will you put this on the "List of Rulers Page", if it a real picture.

[Ghost_of_Han]

(5)　汉哀帝知道后，就叫刘歆与五经博士进论《左传》等一批古书的义理。诸博士不同意为《左传》等建立学官，都不肯讨论研究这件事。

I got this from another page I couldn't make out what the chinese says, somthing about the Han Aidi not wanting to talk to someone about some kinda studies(学官?). My question also refering to the first one, is this just fan fiction pic or is it real?

[General_Zhaoyun]

GOH,

Make sure that when providing chinese quotes, please 'translate them into english'..if you can't tanslate them into english, you can always seek our help..anyway, this is also part of our forum rules.. and to comply with invisionfree's english rules.

Anyway,

(5)　汉哀帝知道后，就叫刘歆与五经博士进论《左传》等一批古书的义理。诸博士不同意为《左传》等建立学官，都不肯讨论研究这件事。

Translation:

After Han Aidi knew this, he asked Liu "?" and other "5 confucian classics" scholars to discuss about "Zuo Chuan" and other old books's teaching. These various scholars did not agree to establish any scholar-bureaucrats based on the book, and refuse to discuss about this matter.

歆 - Can't find it in dictionary...does anyone know how to read this? (This is a new character to me)

[janz]

歆 xin1

[Ghost_of_Han]

歆 xin means: pleased, moved according to a translation.

But no one knows if its a real picture or not? :(

[General_Zhaoyun]

Ok.. thanks for help with that chinese character.. I've learnt a new chinese character today..

[Yun]

The picture is indeed depicting Aidi, but it was drawn in the 1990s by a modern Chinese artist Lu Yanguang, for his book 100 Chinese Emperors.

Liu Xin 刘歆 (not to be confused with Liu Xin 刘欣, Han Aidi's name) was a great scholar of the late Western Han, and the son of another great scholar Liu Xiang 刘向. He was also a member of the imperial clan. He created the first library classification system in Chinese history, dividing books into seven categories, and also wrote the mythological geography "Book of Mountains and Rivers" (Shanhai Jing 《山海经》). He made some improvements to the Han calendar system, and wrote the earliest written description of the Chinese calendar system known in Chinese history. He was also the first Chinese scholar to try to find the value of π, obtaining a value of 3.1457.

In the quote you provided, Han Aidi is asking Liu Xin and other Confucian scholars to set up an institute just to study the "Annals of Zuo" (Zuo Zhuan 《左传》), which is an annotation and elaboration of Confucius' "Spring and Autumn Annals" (Chunqiu 《春秋》). Liu Xin was an avid researcher of the Annals of Zuo. However, the other scholars regarded this book as a forgery and favoured other versions of annotations to the Spring and Autumn Annals. So they opposed Han Aidi's initiative and accused Liu Xin of trying to overturn the traditions of the previous emperors.

Liu Xin was angry at this and wrote a letter criticising these scholars, which ended up indirectly offending some powerful ministers at court. Fearful of being executed, he requested a demotion to a post outside the capital.

Later, after Wang Mang usurped the throne, Liu Xin served in his government. He at first helped to produce propaganda supporting Wang Mang's legitimacy, but later led a conspiracy to overthrow Wang Mang and make himself emperor. The conspiracy failed, and Liu Xin was killed. This was in 23 AD, shortly after Liu Xiu's victory at the Battle of Kunyang. Interestingly, Liu Xin is said to have changed his name to "Liu Xiu" during the conspiracy because of a widely-known prophecy that a man named Liu Xiu would become the new emperor.

[Tyler]

The picture is indeed depicting Aidi, but it was drawn in the 1990s by a modern Chinese artist Lu Yanguang.

Do you know the name of the artist?

[Ghost_of_Han]

Liu Ce I think the answer to your question is in the question. Lu Yanguang.

He was also the first Chinese scholar to try to find the value of π, obtaining a value of 3.1457.

Whats the value of N, I must be missing somthing?

So picture is nothing like the real him right? Its kinda like just an imagition of him, if I were to find Han Aidi tomb, I should exepct him to look like that?

All quotes below are from the Gay Emperor Post.

Yun Posted: Aug 10 2004, 10:39 AM

Han Aidi was given the posthumous title Aidi (Emperor of Sorrow) partly because his homosexuality and consequent failure to produce an heir was a tragedy for the Western Han dynasty in the long term.

Two questions one so was he sad about not having children and he named himself Emperor of sorrow or was it the people who gave him that title.

According to Yau

However, as it was a hobby, it never threatened the confucius' value on ...reproduction. The same sex marriage was never advocated, and no matter which sex you loved, you had to get married and have offspring.

If Han Aidi was so big on Confucius beliefs why didn't he follow it and make an heir?

Aidi had no son, and was succeeded by a young cousin (Pingdi).

Did Aidi have no brothers either? And what you wrote said he was also fourteen, is that actually young for ancient China, I remeber reading that at age 15 you were considered a man, and expected to work or somthing.

[Yun]

Whats the value of N, I must be missing somthing?

It's "pi", the value you multiply by the square of the radius to get the area of the circle. The symbol just doesn't show up properly in this font.

Two questions one so was he sad about not having children and he named himself Emperor of sorrow or was it the people who gave him that title.

"Posthumous" means he was given the title after he died, like all other titles that the emperors got. When they were alive they were simply known as "His Majesty". He probably wasn't a sad man, except for being sick - but people thought it a waste that he died just like that.

If Han Aidi was so big on Confucius beliefs why didn't he follow it and make an heir?

We don't know that he didn't try. He actually had Dong Xian's sister brought into the palace and made a concubine, but whether that was for the sake of producing an heir, or just because Dong Xian missed his sister, we will never really know.

And what you wrote said he was also fourteen, is that actually young for ancient China, I remeber reading that at age 15 you were considered a man, and expected to work or somthing.

At about 15 or 16 (and latest at 20), a boy would receive his headdress (guan) in a ceremony and officially come of age. And at 14 they might already be married and have fathered children. But the thing is that Pingdi had not fathered a child. Also, 14 was still considered young, especially for a ruler of an empire.

[zelbest]

i thought pi was first calculated by Zhang Heng(张衡)

[Ghost_of_Han]

We don't know that he didn't try. He actually had Dong Xian's sister brought into the palace and made a concubine, but whether that was for the sake of producing an heir, or just because Dong Xian missed his sister, we will never really know.

I was under the impression that he was strictly gay. I thought maybe he would have male concunbines if wasn't wasn't so into Dong Xian. Did Han Aidi have male concubindes, Wu Zetian had male concubindes according to our Empress who ruled the Empire.
Quote from the thread

It tells that since an emperor could have many wives and concubines, why can't an empress have as many men or husband as she wants?(I changed the grammar a little, same idea)

Yun Posted on Aug 11 2004, 06:18 PM

It's "pi", the value you multiply by the square of the radius to get the area of the circle. The symbol just doesn't show up properly in this font.

Well another instance were China is left out, today in math we use the Greek symbol for pi not the chinese one.

[back]

歆 means “贪图；羡慕” （envy；admire）

[Sephodwyrm]

To friend Ghost of Han:
Just use Zu Chong Zhi's pi ratio instead of 22/7
For more accurate results: 355/113. Its accurate to 3.14159

[Yun]

Haha, Zu Chongzhi - the subject of one of my most highly commended papers :D

Download it here: http://www.math.nus....e.html#Projects

... And learn lots of stuff you always wanted to know about Chinese astronomy, mathematics, and calendars. And yes, about the Age of Fragmentation too!