News Archive - Jan 2003

Trivial Pursuit Round 2 in the Community Forum finished last night when the first person reached 1000 points.

Many congratulations to the winner, Fortuna, with 1000 points and third place Alex_pharaoh with 900 and also to the second place participant with 950 points who isn't a million miles away from this news article.

It was an excellent competition with 21 different forumers taking part. Many thanks to Debbie who organised the whole thing, finding about 40 new questions every day, marking all the answers and adding up points. She deserves a short rest ... then on to Round 3?

Apologies for the quality of the picture but it was in a fairly dark corner. I’ve enhanced it as much as I can. Anyway … it’s a tablet but not quite what it seems as it was specifically made for long ago collectors and is a reproduction.

The questions:

1. What is it made of?

2. What is the Chinese name for it?

3. When was it made (the Dynasty or approximate date within 100 years)?

4. What period was it reproducing (the Dynasty or approximate date within 100 years)?

Answers to me (link under the title) by 1.00am forum time next Friday, 7th February. As before, no prizes except for the honour and glory of being congratulated in the news.

Thank you to so many of you for having a go at the picture quiz. Many of you knew what it was, four of you got the right dynasty and two of you got the date within a hundred years. The answers, according to the V&A Museum in London where I took the photo, is that it was a stone pillow or headrest and was made in the Song Dynasty, slightly later in the dynasty than most of you guessed in about 1200-1250.

Anyway, congratulations to the two winners:-

Very close behind them in third place were the two people who had the right dynasty, but were a little further out on the date - Runhe Zhang and Trevor Keller.

I thought it was quite hard ... I'll have to try to find a picture that might cause you all a few more problems - probably later today.

Secondly put your thinking caps on and have a look at this picture:



I can tell you that it's painted stoneware; it's solid (ie there's no lid) and its dimensions are about 2 feet wide x 6 inches high x 8 inches deep.

Question: What was it used for; approximately when (within 100 years) was it made and which dynasty would that have been?

Answers to me (email link at the top of the article) by next Friday morning 1.00am forum time. No prizes I'm afraid, but the closest to the right answer will get the honour and glory of being mentioned in Emperor Heaven's news.

If you are squeamish you may not want to read any further as the actual mechanics of footbinding were not pleasant. The idea was to stop a girl’s feet growing and it usually began between the ages of about three and six although it might be later in poor families to allow her to work for a while first. As would be expected from the size of the country, there was no one standard age or even style.

Merepatra pointed out to me earlier today that we had nearly reached the magic figure and I noticed just now that we have passed it. Over 10,000 downloads have been made from Emperor Heaven.

This is great news ... but what would be even better would be to have some more campaigns and maps to download so get those creative juices flowing, have a look at the History Section if you need some ideas, visit the Scenario Design Palace to kick your thoughts around with other designers or ask for help, then upload your masterpieces into our Downloads Section.

If you don't know one end of a map editor from the other and don't want to know, then you can still join in by downloading, playing and then reviewing one of the downloads.

Merepatra has added an excellent article on the effect Xi Wang Mu can have on monument building in your city. If you are bored waiting for your Temple Complex to appear, then have a look at the article and discover what she can do for you. (The 'she' referring to Xi Wang of course and not Mere!)

He says: 'Forbidden Gardens is an interesting place, with exhibits (replicas) of ancient Chinese structures and artifacts. It is a great place to visit if you are a fan of Emperor, because you can see replicas of the monuments and buildings the game lets us build like the Terracotta Army, Tumulus, Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City.'

Thanks for telling us about this, Gweilo. It looks a fascinating place to visit ... here in the UK I can but dream, but it looks as though anyone in the Houston area would have a very good time there. He was also kind enough to send three photos from his visit:

Emperor Qin	The Terracotta Army
The Forbidden City