Page 103 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong Sotheby's April 2017

Kangxi reign. From the Yongzheng period onwards it was
where the emperor would sleep while in the imperial garden.
Located close to the palace and in an elevated area secluded
by vegetation, Qinghuige naturally became an important place
for leisure for the emperor. Records show that on the north
wall of Qinghuige there was hung a monumental image of the
complete vista of Yuanmingyuan,2 possibly for the emperor’s
viewing pleasure. According to extant documents, we know
that when Qianlong stayed in Yuanmingyuan, he spent much
time at Qinghuige and especially enjoyed listing to pines in
wind, drinking tea, and playing the zither in front of the nine has the feeling of a void. Shuimu zhan qinghua is drawn from
pine trees there.
After ascending the throne, Jiaqing went to Qinghuige for
the first time in 1801 and wrote a poem commemorating the
occasion.3 In it Jiaqing praises the scenery, expresses his
appreciation for Qianlong’s benevolence, and articulates his
resolve to follow Qianlong’s example and maintain the health
of the people. Every year afterwards, Jiaqing would come to
Qinghuige in mid-summer to escape the heat and compose
poems, which give us insight to his thoughts and feelings.
Jiaqing praised Qinghuige as an excellent place to escape
summer heat in various different poetic expressions, which
clearly convey both his pleasure and the attractiveness and
elegance of the scenery around him. We can imagine the
Emperor enjoying his leisure, playing the qin and drinking a
cup of tea after a day of handling the affairs of government.
However, Jiaqing often expressed also his concern for his
subjects. No doubt Qinghuige was a place for the Emperor
both to relax and to contemplate quietly important questions.
We are not better positioned to understand the relationships
between the three seals in the Qinghuige ensemble. The
trailing seal Shuimu zhan qinghua offers a clear and direct
explanation of the name of the palace, Qinghuige. The fourth
characters in Shuimu zhan qinghua and Yunri xiang huiying
happen to form the name Qinghui—this is unusual for Jiaqing’s
imperial seals. The texts of both trailing seals are excerpts
from classical poetry, but both describe exactly what Jiaqing
would see at Qinghuige and thus become perfect literary
expressions of the scenery. Yunri xiang huiying is taken from a
poem by the important writer Xie Lingyun of the Six Dynasties
period. In it Xie describes the miraculous scene he saw during
a tour of a solitary island in the middle of a river: white clouds
and a brilliant sun, illuminating each other, are reflected in
the river, creating an infinite expanse of light that nonetheless
the Eastern Jin poet Xie Hun’s poem describing the scenery
that he saw with a friend while traveling around Xichi. The
particular couplet in question describes a dusk scene, with
birds gathering happily in their nests and the last rays of the
sun caressing the lake area. Under this illumination the water
appears especially pure, and the trees especially alluring. Both
couplets referenced by Jiaqing’s seals are perfect descriptions
of the scenery in Yuanmingyuan and around Qinghuige. The
reasons for their selection by Jiaqing are easy to understand.
From the above, we know that the Yunri xiang huiying seal was
one of the imperial seal ensembles that the Jiaqing Emperor
had made specifically for Qinghuige and used in the same
place. Such seals were typically stored in their corresponding
palaces. Although they were used relatively infrequently, they
were important symbols of their corresponding palaces and
remain artefacts of tremendous historical, artistic and cultural
value.
1 Guo Fuxiang, Ming Qing dihou xiyin [Ming and Qing imperial seals], Beijing,
2003, p. 169.
2 Yu Minzhong [Qing dynasty] et al., eds, Qinding rixia jiuwen kao [Imperially
authorised edition of historical studies of Beijing], juan 80.
3 Yongyan [Qing dynasty], Yuzhi shi chuji [Imperial poems, vol. 1], juan 31.
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 101