From East to West: The Enchanting Blend of Architectural Styles in Yuanmingyuan
Yuanmingyuan, also known as the Old Summer Palace, was 20 kilometers northwest of The Forbidden City, the ancient walled city in Beijing. It was an enormous multi-functional complex for the emperor to work and live in. Even more, it was the alternative political center of the Qing Dynasty. Construction began in 1709 and continued for […]
The Garden of Perfect Brightness, part 4 and last
From the third part Beyond these painted scenes, only a few other impressions of the Chinese-style gardens remain. The Jesuit painter Jean Denis Attiret, for example, wrote to a friend of his high opinion of the Forbidden City and the Yuanmingyuan. On his journey to Beijing, he saw little to impress him in the architecture: […]
The Garden of Perfect Brightness, part 3
From the second part The three parts of the Yuanmingyuan, as well as the Joyful Spring Garden that preceded them, were considered to be gardens, hence the term yuan. Each consisted of a number of complexes containing buildings of various types, artfully arranged in a “natural” setting that was carefully designed with lakes and streams; […]
The Garden of Perfect Brightness, part 2
Comes from part one In order to create a private retreat near the Forbidden City but away from its formality, the Kangxi emperor created a villa with gardens to the northwest of Beijing which was named the Garden of Joyful Spring (Changchunyuan 暢春園). The emperor had taken frequent excursions to this area at the foot […]
The Ruins of Paradise on Earth
Over the course of two days in October 1860, around 5,000 British and French soldiers took part in what has been described as the greatest act of cultural vandalism in modern Chinese history — the pillaging and destroying of The Old Summer Palace near Beijing. More accurately, the site was known for its garden, or […]
The Garden of Perfect Brightness, part 1
The 3 Great Qing Emperors The Qing emperors (1644 to 1911) formed the last of the successive dynasties of China. As “alien” rulers, the Manchus inherited and adopted the cultural norms and political institutions of the previous Han Chinese Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644), at the same time maintaining their own Northeast Asian military organization, […]