Qingyi Garden, the predecessor of the Summer Palace, was the last royal garden built among the Three Mountains and Five Gardens. After the British and French forces burned the Old Summer Palace, the garden was also burned down. During the Guangxu period, Empress Dowager Cixi built a new garden on the original ruins and renamed it the Summer Palace.
The Summer Palace is the best-preserved Chinese classical garden. It is a witness to China’s modern history and a carrier of China’s thousands of years of history and culture. Studying the history and culture of Qingyi Garden and Summer Palace has very important historical significance, and it also has very important practical significance in promoting the construction of Haidian Three Mountains and Five Gardens historical and cultural scenic spots.
1–The location of Qingyi Garden
Qingyi Garden is located in Wengshan and Wengshanbo. Wengshan is a branch of Xishan Mountain. It is a broken mountain. Because its shape resembles an urn, it is said that a stone urn was dug out of the valley, so it was called Wengshan. Wengshan Lake is located in front of Wengshan Mountain. It is a lake naturally formed by the mountain spring water gushing out, especially the mountain water that contains Yuquan Mountain. Wengshanbo has many names in history, such as West Lake, West Sea, Jinhai, Qililuo, etc. Before the construction of Qingyi Garden, Wengshanbo was called Split Silk Lake during the Kangxi period. There was a small lake at the southeast foot of Yuquan Mountain also called Split Silk Lake, which was easy to confuse. Generally speaking, the small lake is the cracked silk lake in Yuquan Mountain, and the big lake is the cracked silk lake in front of Wengshan Mountain – Wengshan Bo.
The Wengshan area was once a famous tourist attraction in history. Tourists have been coming here since the Yuan Dynasty. By the Ming Dynasty, a very fixed custom was formed in Beijing, which is to go to the foot of Wengshan Mountain to enjoy the scenery. Because this place is called West Lake, this scenic spot is called West Lake View. West Lake View has gradually become a very famous tourist hotspot in Beijing. There is a long embankment in the east or northeast of the West Lake scenery called the Xidi. It is called the Xidi because it is to the west of Beijing (it is not the same thing as the Xidi in the Summer Palace now). The scenery of the Xidi is beautiful. There are many articles about the beautiful scenery of the Xidi in history. .
2–Construction of Qingyi Garden
In the ninth year of Qianlong's reign, all forty scenes of the Old Summer Palace had been completed. Emperor Qianlong wrote the "Postscript to the Old Summer Palace", saying that the Old Summer Palace was a very good imperial garden and that future generations should not spend more money building new gardens. He now wants to build a new garden at the foot of Wengshan Mountain, which is equivalent to violating his promise, so he has not started construction until he found two suitable excuses to start construction here. One excuse is to build water conservancy facilities in the western suburbs of Beijing to introduce water from Xiangshan and Yuquan Mountains into the Haidian area for planting rice and building gardens, so that more water can flow into Beijing and even into canals. The first thing to do when building water conservancy is to transform Wengshan Lake and dig it bigger and deeper. The second excuse is to celebrate the 60th birthday of his mother, the Empress Dowager, and prepare to build the Yanshou Temple in Wengshan. The two projects were started separately. In the winter of the 14th year of Qianlong's reign, it took two months to hire many migrant workers from near Haidian to dig the Wengshan Park twice as big and twice as deep, forming a large-scale park. Artificial reservoir.
The western boundary of Wengshanbo is Gongde Temple, which is now Gongde Temple to the west of Qinglong Bridge. Its eastern boundary is outside the gate of Yuanjing Temple, which is in front of the current Paiyun Hall. The original Wengshan Lake was quite different from the current Kunming Lake. The current Kunming Lake is located directly south of Wanshou Mountain. The former Wengshan Lake was located to the southwest of Wanshou Mountain. Workers backfilled the west side and excavated the east side to move the lake as a whole eastward. The east bank of the lake was excavated all the way to the eastern foot of Wengshan Mountain, and finally a large peach-shaped lake was formed. The peach shape symbolizes longevity. The soil excavated from Wengshan Park is piled on the east side of Wengshan, making the mountains on the east and west sides of Wengshan generally symmetrical and forming a bat shape. Bat means "blessing". After renovation, Wengshan and Wengshanbo became "Fushan Shouhai", which was the best birthday gift given by Qianlong to his mother.
The construction of Qingyi Garden among the Three Mountains and Five Gardens is very different from the other four gardens. Changchun Garden and Yuanmingyuan are gardens built on flat land, with a lot of water flow and large lakes, but there are no mountains. All the mountains are rockeries, and they are not very high. The two gardens, Yuquan Mountain and Xiangshan, are mountain gardens with real mountains and real rocks, but little water and no large water surface. Qingyi Garden is different. Qingyi Garden is a place with real mountains and rivers, high mountains and big lakes. Qingyi Garden also has a different feature, that is, other gardens were gradually built over many dynasties. For example, the Old Summer Palace was built in the 46th year of Kangxi. After Emperor Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, 32 more scenes were expanded. Qianlong became the emperor. After the emperor built 40 scenes in the Old Summer Palace, and later built the Changchun Garden, Qichun Garden, etc., it is a garden composed of a collection of architectural groups. Xiangshan Jingyi Garden and Yuquan Mountain Jingming Garden were expanded and built during the Qianlong period based on the small gardens during the Kangxi period. The original foundation of Qingyi Garden had few man-made buildings, and it was completely empty except for the Gongde Temple and the Tomb of Yelu Chucai. It is a royal garden that was built in one go over more than ten years from the beginning to the completion. Qianlong was responsible for the theme planning, Shi Fenglei was responsible for the specific design, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Works were responsible for supervising the construction. By convening skilled craftsmen from all over the country, the country's manpower and With material and financial resources, a royal garden was built under the personal inspection and supervision of Emperor Qianlong.
The construction of Qingyi Garden is very integrated and is obviously different from other gardens. Qingyi Garden is roughly divided into two parts, one is the palace area and the other is the scenic area. Qingyi Garden is a temporary palace, and the palace area is relatively small, which is fundamentally different from the Old Summer Palace. The Old Summer Palace is an imperial garden, where the emperor lived, administered government affairs, and met with ministers. It has a large area.
3–Architecture and scenic spots of Qingyi Garden
Qingyi Garden was first called Wanshoushan Palace, and later changed to Wanshoushan Qingyi Garden. According to its functions, it can be divided into palace area and scenic tourist area. Qinzheng Hall is the place where ministers are received. The place where Emperor Kangxi worked in Zhongnanhai was called Qinzheng Hall, and the place where Emperor Yongzheng worked in Yuanmingyuan was called Qinzheng Qinxian Hall, also called Qinzheng Hall. Although Qianlong never held official business here, he still named it Qinzheng Hall. His real offices are Yulan Hall, located a little south behind Qinzheng Hall, and Jianyuan Hall on Nanhu Island. Of course, his working time here is relatively short, and his main purpose of coming here is to visit. Yulan Hall was Qianlong's first stop after arriving at Qingyi Garden. It is a very important building in the palace area. Behind Yulan Hall is Yiyun Hall, and yun means Yun compiled books. This is the place where he read in Qingyi Garden. In fact, he rarely read here. To the north of Qinzheng Hall is Yichun Hall, which is the place where his mother rested when visiting the garden. There is also a place called Leshou Hall, which has two floors. It is a Buddhist hall. This is the place where his mother rested when offering incense. These are the main buildings in the palace area, relatively small in scope, not too far from the Dadongmen.
The main scenic spots are Wanshou Mountain and Kunming Lake. The scenic area of Qingyi Garden can be divided into the front and back scenic areas of Wanshou Mountain and the Kunming Lake Scenic Area. Some people also divide it into Wanshou Mountain Scenic Area and Kunming Lake Scenic Area. The middle of the front mountain of Wanshou Mountain starts from the archway at the bottom of the mountain, passes through the Paiyun Hall and the Buddhist Incense Pavilion and ends at the Sea of Wisdom at the top of the mountain. It is a central axis. To the west of the central axis are the Painting Center and the Tingli Pavilion. To the east are the Yangyunzhai and the Oriole Pavilion. Wuyi Xuan et al. There is a shopping street to the west of Wanshou Mountain, called Wanzihe Buying Street. To the north is Beique, to the south is Shifang, and to the west is the Changdao of Wanzihe River called Xiaoxiling. On the central axis in the middle of the back hill of Wanshou Mountain, all the buildings from the Songtang at the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain are Lama temples. To the west of the Lama temple are several quiet and elegant small gardens, such as Qiwangxuan and Jianchun Garden. To the east of the central axis of the back mountain is Huacheng Pavilion. In the east-west direction of the Sankong Bridge at the foot of the mountain, on both sides of the Houxi River, a 270-meter-long Suzhou Street with 200 paved houses was built. This is a trading street. On the east slope of Wanshou Mountain, there is a hexagonal Epiphyllum Pavilion, and Huishan Garden and Ji Qingxuan are built at the foot of the mountain.
On the east embankment of Kunming Lake, there are Wenchang Pavilion, Zhichun Pavilion, Tongniu, Bafang Pavilion and Nanhu Island connected by the Seventeen-hole Bridge. The main building of Nanhu Island is Wangchan Pavilion, which is modeled after the Yellow Crane Tower. There is a moon in the south. Wave Tower, and Danyuan Hall by the lake. There is a West Embankment in the middle of the lake. There are six bridges on the West Embankment, with the Yudai Bridge in the middle. There are three major buildings, Changguantang, Zhijing Pavilion and Zaojiantang, in the southwest of the lake. To the north, in the middle of the West Embankment, in the north direction is Farming and weaving diagram.
4–Historical and cultural characteristics of Qingyi Garden
The historical and cultural characteristics of Qingyi Garden are mainly reflected in four aspects.
First, Qingyi Garden is a royal garden worthy of its name and with outstanding features. It highlights the characteristics of royal gardens in every aspect. It covers a vast area, has grand buildings, bright colors and exquisite textures.
Second, the architecture and scenic environment of Qingyi Garden highlight Emperor Qianlong’s basic national policy, nation-building strategy and governance philosophy. The stone boat at the northwest corner of Kunming Lake is not only beautiful in style, but also has profound meaning. Water can carry or overturn a boat. Emperor Qianlong accepted the ancient teachings of history and designed this scenic spot, which means that the Qing Dynasty's mountains and rivers are as solid as a rock.
Third, the buildings and scenic spots in Qingyi Garden fully reflect the rich connotation of Chinese traditional culture. The construction of royal gardens in all dynasties in China has always emphasized the need for a pond and three mountains, symbolizing the East China Sea and the three fairy mountains of Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou. The one lake and three mountains in Yuanmingyuan are located in Fuhai. There are three islands in the Yuhu Lake in Yuquan Mountain, which is also one pool and three mountains, but the scope is smaller. Qingyi Garden also has a pond and three mountains. Qianlong divided Kunming Lake into three lakes by building the West Dike and the Horizontal Dike. The big lake has Nanhu Island, and the two southwest lakes have Zhijingge Island and Zaojiantang Island, forming a so-called lake. Chi Sanshan, the traditional Chinese royal garden construction style is fully reflected here.
Fourth, many of the scenery, scenic spots, and landscapes in Qingyi Garden were transplanted and transformed from excellent southern garden landscapes or even excellent landscapes from all over the country. Qianlong often took a painter with him when he went to the south of the Yangtze River. When he saw good scenic spots, he asked the painter to draw them. Then he found the appropriate location and environment in Qingyi Garden, designed and transformed them according to different situations, and creatively designed the scenic spots.
(This article was compiled by Liu Deti of Haidian District Archives)
*This article is excerpted from Zhang Baozhang: "From Qingyi Garden to Summer Palace", originally published in "Beijing Archives" Issue 6, 2014.