Page 117 - 2018 Hong Kong Important Chieese Art

fig. 2
Wang Hui et al., Emperor Kangxi Going on An Inspection Tour to the South (No. 1), Qing dynasty
After: The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Paintings by the Court Artists of the Qing Court, Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 5
圖二
清 王翬等作，《康熙南巡圖》 第一卷
出處：《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集：清代宮廷繪畫》，香港，1996年，圖版5

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The presence of ladies on hunts is also noteworthy and environmental conditions needed for the diverse game.
provides an interesting example of the different treatment According to the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ripa, a resident in
of Manchu women in society from Han Chinese women. China between 1710 and 1723, it was divided into two sections,
Contemporary Western accounts note how they wore boots one in the east that was reserved for the emperor, his ladies,
and rode astride like men, making a notable figure either and eunuchs, and a larger one in the west for his guests.
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afoot or on horseback. George Staunton, a member of the Lord George Macartney, who visited Kangxi’s grandson, the
Macartney delegation to China commented on the equestrian Qianlong Emperor, at Rehe in 1793, described the Mulan
habits of Manchu women, and noted on the absence of foot- reserve as wild, woody, mountainous, and rocky, abounding
binding as follows, ‘[There] were several women, natives of with stags and deer of different species, and most other beasts
Tartary or of Tartar extraction, whose feet were not distorted of chase. He further notes how the emperor rode about his
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like those of the Chinese… Some of these ladies were in park for several hours without exhausting the sights. The first
covered carriages, and others on horseback, riding astraddle official hunt by the Kangxi Emperor at Rehe was organised
like men.’ 15 in 1681, and from 1683 hunts were conducted on a yearly
basis usually starting in the fifth month and lasting until the
Royal hunts were conducted in the three imperial hunting
ninth month in autumn. The emperor had the honour of the
parks located in the outskirts of the capital, Beijing, and
administered by the Imperial Household Department first shot, and if a tiger was caught, he would kill it personally
as a spectacle demonstrating the bravery and martial skill
(Neiwufu). The parks were enclosed by large brick walls and
of his imperial lineage. The emperor’s exceptional valour is
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contained roads, artificial lakes, hills and plenty of game,
recorded in 1692, when his retinue came across a bear which
especially deer. Even grander than the parks in the capital 20
was the imperial reserve at Rehe, in eastern Inner Mongolia, he shot with an arrow and then finished off with a pike.
Interestingly, imperial hunts were temporarily discontinued by
site of the grand hunts established by the Kangxi Emperor
the Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723-35), who hunted as a prince,
in 1681. Known as Mulan Weichang or the ‘Mulan Enclosure’,
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but never again on the throne. The tradition was restored by
the reserve occupied an area of over 1600 square kilometres,
and was large enough to offer a varied topography and the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-95), who conducted them in an
even grander and wider scale. 22
IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 115