Imperial Astronomical Bureau

　　Xi Xi's latest historical novel:
　　"There are many historical novels about Kangxi, but I haven't read one about the Imperial Astronomical Bureau during his reign."

　　"Qin Tian (欽天) comes from the phrase 'Qin Ruo Hao Tian' (欽若昊天) in the Book of Documents (Shang Shu). 'Qin Ruo' means to admire and obey; 'Hao Tian' means the vast heavens."

　　"The Qintianjian (欽天監), or Imperial Astronomical Bureau, was originally an official title. It was formerly known as the Sitianjian, responsible for observing celestial phenomena, calculating calendars, and announcing time. It also generally referred to the government department in charge of astronomy and calendrical research."

　　The origins of writing "The Imperial Astronomical Bureau" probably stem from the following:

　　1. I read a novel titled "Flatland" which described a fictional country where people were two-dimensional. That is, all people were two-dimensional, possessing only length and width, but no thickness. Consequently, everyone there resembled plates, being only circles, triangles, pentagons, pencils, squares, etc., but without thickness, like sheets of thin paper.

　　2. I also read a book somewhat related to the ancient Chinese "I Ching" (Book of Changes), which mentioned that a Western mathematician named Leibniz discovered that the hexagrams in the I Ching, composed of six horizontal lines, either solid (yang) or broken (yin), with every three lines forming a trigram, were not 1s and 0s of the binary system?

　　3. Emperor Kangxi in the early Qing Dynasty, it turns out, established a toy factory in his sprawling 700,000 square meter residence, specializing in producing various ingenious handicrafts, including Chinese lacquerware and porcelain, and Western glass, self-striking clocks, eyeglasses, and snuff bottles, among others—both fun and useful.

　　Adding these together, isn't it an interesting story? I love writing interesting stories, so I started. — Xi Xi