Page 426 - Bonhams Chinese Art London May 2013

The pair of cabinets and Da Ji plaque, lots 389 and 390, in situ

The present rare pair of Imperial cabinets is very similar to a pair of The Yucuixuan trompe-l’oeil mural provides us with the atmosphere and
gilt-lacquer cabinets in the Forbidden City, in the Yucuixuan (‘Bower setting for the pair of the Palace Museum cabinets; see Berliner, ibid.
of Purest Joy’), a hall within the Ningshougong (‘Palace of Tranquility pl.57, p.186. It is very likely that the present pair of cabinets, so similar
and Longevity’), the Qianlong Emperor’s private palace designed for to the Palace Museum ones, could have come from the Forbidden City
his retirement (see fig.1 previous page). One of the pair of the Palace and most probably from the Ningshougong and may have been part of a
Museum cabinets is illustrated by N.Berliner, The Emperor’s Private set of cabinets furnishing the Yucuixian.
Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City, New Haven, 2010, pl.54,
p.178 and Catalogue no.18, pp.220-221 (see fig.2 previous page); In 1793 the Qianlong Emperor composed a poem in the Yucuixuan,
see also pp.179, and 191. For a related gilt-lacquer cabinet from the encapsulating the importance of this hall:
Palace Museum, Beijing, see Collections of the Palace Museum: Painted
Furniture, Beijing, 2009, pl.97. ‘At the foot of the artificial mountain, winding and delicate, the jade-
green bamboo sways and swishes. The high wall obstructs the wind. It
‘In my Eighties, exhausted from diligent service, I will cultivate myself, has the delight of jade. I’m afraid a painting cannot capture its spirit.
rejecting worldly noise’ (the Qianlong Emperor, from a poem pasted in Inside I cultivate my purity. Do not say it is an empty room’.
the Fuwangge, 1776, quoted by Berliner, ibid. p.94)
The wish of the emperor to preserve his creation resonates to this day:
Out of reverence to the Kangxi Emperor who ruled for 60 years, the
Qianlong Emperor vowed not to out-rule his grandfather. Twenty years ‘These purified rooms, these Buddhist buildings, they are here today,
ahead of the planned retirement date, the Emperor set about planning there is no need to destroy them. These palace halls, they should always
his retirement quarters and chose the Ningshougong in the Northeast be as they are today’.
section of the Forbidden City. In the traditional manner, the palace was
to echo the composition of the Forbidden City.

The Qianlong Emperor was very much involved in the design and
decoration of the complex, and indeed in the embellishment of the
Yucuixuan, as demonstrated by the following Imperial edict:

‘On the 22nd day of the second month, eunuch Hu Shijie passed on the
decrees: in the central room, within the partition, on the Western wall
of Yucuixuan in the Tranquility and Longevity Palace, have Wang Youxue
and others paint a xianfa painting’

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