Page 15 - Sothebys Fine Chinese paintings Hong Kong

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WITHOUT LEAVING HOME:

QIAN WEICHENG’S
TEN AUSPICIOUS LANDSCAPES

OF TAISHAN

YANG DANXIA

Inheriting the artistic legacy of his forefathers A verse line of his that celebrates the azure sky commissioner. After that, he played a part in
and driven by his own passion, Emperor composed during a visit with his father to the pacifying an insurrection of the Miao tribe.
Qianlong devoted himself to connoisseurship capital city made the then 17 year-old quite a
and artistic creation especially in the genres of sensation. Learned and talented, Qian did not have to
painting and calligraphy besides amassing an wait long to achieve recognition. Instead of
imperial collection that was unprecedented in When he was no more than 26, the young being complacent, he was meticulous and
scale. His reign has thus come to be regarded Weicheng came first in the palace examination conscientious when discharging his duties.
as the golden era for Qing court art. At the time, held in the 10 year of the Qianlong reign (1745) When he was Education Commissioner of
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officials recruited through civil examinations and was made a senior compiler. Upon release Zhejiang, an area in no want of scholars but
were effectively men of letters. Whether acting from study three years later, he took up the post where presentation took precedence over
of Right Companion for substance, he corrected the anomaly by
Whether acting under imperial order or hoping the Heir Apparent. This condemning flamboyance and emphasizing
to curry imperial favour when not attending to was followed a year later morality and thorough understanding of the
official business, those who were accomplished by his appointment to classics. When working in the Ministry of Justice,
in painting and calligraphy became the the Southern Library his legal conversance and shrewdness enabled
him to discerningly identify inconsistencies,
as a literary attendant
mainstays of court artists and often attended and then to the Hanlin however complex, and to propose proper
imperial viewings on invitation. Among them, Academy as Academician rectification of the relevant laws. These proposals
Qian Weicheng was particularly noteworthy. Expositor-in-waiting of his were sanctioned by the emperor without
concurrently serving as exception, putting many of his senior colleagues
under imperial order or hoping to curry imperial Imperial Diary Officer. He became concurrently to shame. Take for example the embezzlement
favour when not attending to official business, Academician of the Grand Secretariat and Vice case in Guizhou, which eventually gave rise to
those who were accomplished in painting and Minister of Rites in the 16 year of the Qianlong as many as six cases, implicating hundreds of
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calligraphy became the mainstays of court reign (1751) before serving as Vice Minister of people and involving over 290,000 taels. Justly
artists and often attended imperial viewings on Works in the 22 year of the Qianlong reign and impartially, Qian took great care in cross-
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invitation. Among them, Qian Weicheng was (1757), Vice Minister of
particularly noteworthy. Justice in the 26 year
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of the Qianlong reign The importance of ancient masters, great or
Also known by his various courtesy and literary (1761), and Education otherwise, in the imperial collection is readily
names, Qian Weicheng (1720-1772) came from Commissioner of acknowledged by Qian in an inscription in
a literary family that was well established in the Zhejiang in the 27 verse form, which also explicitly stresses the
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south of the city Wujin (present-day Changzhou, year of the Qianlong indispensability of calligraphic brushwork.
Jiangsu) in the Jiangnan area. His literary reign (1762). In the 34
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training started when he was small and he had year of the Qianlong
the chance of meeting preeminent litterateurs reign (1769), he was assigned to co-preside examining the offenders to establish the truth
from all corners of the empire on account of his over a case involving embezzlement by a with hard evidences and was commended by
grandfather and granduncles. Intelligent and subprefectural magistrate in Guizhou and Emperor Qianlong when the cases were settled
diligent, he was able to compose regular poetry another involving irregular practices for personal beyond disputes.
at the age of 10 and fu-poetry at the age of 12, gains by a provincial governor and a surveillance
not to mention well-written prose in ancient style.

A REDISCOVERED IMPERIAL HEIRLOOM – TEN AUSPICIOUS LANDSCAPES OF TAISHAN BY QIAN WEICHENG 13