Page 50 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

EMPERORS OF THE GREAT CH'ING DYNASTY—Continued

DYNASTIC TITLE TITLE OF REIGN DATE OF
accession
Mjao Hdo Nien Hao
1723
^JK Shih Tsung ^ it Yung Ch'eng 1736
1796
1^ -^ Kao Tsung ?£; I*-^ Ch'ien Lung 1821
Chia Ch'ing
t ^ J^" Tsung ^^ 185 1
1862
rC TjV Hsuan Tsung '^ 7t Tao Kuang
1875
^ :jjV Wen Tsung ^j^ Hsien Feng
Mu Tsung
viin ^JV |5J Vjp? T'ung Chih

;3t $B Kuang Hsu

The Empress Dowager rules China in the present
day with diminished prestige when compared with

her illustrious predecessors, K'ang-hsi (i 662-1 722)

and Ch'ien-lung (1736-1795), but undismayed withal,
she wields the calligraphic brush with a firm hand on
the autograph scrolls which she distributes among her
adherents, and is a liberal patron of native art. Her

"seals" are to be seen on many of the vases and dishes

lately looted from the palace at Peking, an evidence

that the fires are again burning at the imperial pot-
teries, the scene of which is vividly pictured in the lines:

"And bird-like poise on balanced wing

—Above the town of King-te-ching,

A burning town or seeming so,

Three thousand furnaces that glow
Incessantly, and fill the air
With smoke uprising, gyre on gyre.

And painted by the lurid glare
Of jets and flashes of red fire."

Longfellow: Keramos.

xxxviu