Current location:	NOT the BPL
Current mood:	accomplished
Current music:	Man of La Mancha soundtrack

Research Update
I've been spending oodles of time in the BPL recently working on my thesis. A lot of the books I need don't circulate, so I sit in this absolutely lovely pseudo-Romanesque courtyard and read my books there. I've been reading about Chinese tomb statuary (if you thought jockeying for corner offices was bad, you should try to get buried in an imperial tomb!), and have now moved on to a 1930s dictionary of Chinese symbolism in art, and will next go to a two volume monster entitled A Dictionary of Ming Biography. My stack of books is getting bigger than I am.
Meanwhile, for your enjoyment, here are some of the juicier tidbits I have gleaned from my research.

"The already tarnished reputation of the court was brought to a new low by the frequent visits of an ill-disguised Son of Heaven to the brothels in the southern part of the city."
Paludan, Ann. The Imperial Ming Tombs. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981; 111

When the Zhengtong Emperor died, he predeseaced the Empress. The Empress hadn't born him any children, so his son by another wife became emperor (Xianzong), and elevated his mother to the rank of Empress as well. According to Zhengtong's wishes, the first Empress was to be buried in his tomb upon her death. It was considered patently unlucky to open the tomb of an emperor after it had been sealed, but he had left instructions that it should be done. Well, it did prove to be unlucky, because Empress number Two, the mother of the current emperor, decided she didn't want the other woman to be given such a venerated place as to be buried with the emperor, and the new emperor, being something of a pushover, agreed with her, despite his father's wishes to the contrary. The court, however, had other ideas. The ministers, worried at the lack of respect for the late Zhengtong's wishes, convened a council meeting and refuse to let the young emperor Xianzong out of the chambers until he agreed to override his mother and bury Empress number One in Zhengtong's mausoleum. Said ministers also brought in a number of their followers, who banged on their forheads and wailed from 9am to 5pm. Xianzong eventually agreed to bury the first Empress in his father's tomb.
Ibid., 96; 103

Evidently the libido has nothing to do with ambition, because there were a lot of viciously corrupt, profiteering eunuchs in Chinese history. More on that when I have my non-circulating books in front of me.

Men's fans in China can have 9, 16, 20, or 24 ribs, while a woman's fan should not have less than 30 ribs.
Williams, C. A. S. Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives: an alphabetical compendium of antique legends and beliefs, as reflected in the manners and customs of the Chinese. New York : Dover Publications, 1976; 176

A Chinese idiom "selection by hitting the bird screen" means "to choose a husband." This is because the daughter of the 6th century CE general Tou I painted a peacock on a screen and declared that the man who could shoot the bird twice while running would be allowed to marry her. The first emperor of the Tang dynasty managed to put an arrow through each of the bird's eyes, and made her his empress.
Ibid., 318

My current list of books on hold at the library is:
The Imperial Ming Tombs by Ann Paludan
The Ming Tombs by Ann Paludan
Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives by C. A. S. Williams
A Dictionary of Ming Biography (2 volumes) by L. Carrington Goodrich
A History of East Asian Civilization (2 volumes)

My next batch will be:
Chinese Reader's Manual by Mayers
A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology by Edward Werner
Sexual Life in Ancient China by Robert Van Gulik
Chinese Eunuchs by Mitamura Taisuke
Barbarians and Mandarins by Cameron Nigel
Round About My Peking Garden by Mrs. Archibald Little (wife of a missionary in the 1880s)
The Religious System of China (6 volumes) by J. J. K. de Groot
Fifteenth Century Oriental Primer by L. Carrington Goodrich
Chinese Tomb Figures by Carl Hentze
Painters of the Great Ming by Richard M. Barnhart
Les Tombieaux imperiaux Ming et Ts'ing by Georges Bouillard

And that doesn't include the books that I already have out!

Now everyone who reads my journal could write my thesis. Except I'm the only one nuts enough to try . . .