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Splendors of China's Forbidden City
Published by Merrell Publishers Limited (2004)
Splendors of China's Forbidden City was published to coincide with the special exhibition of the same name held by Chicago's Field Musuem in first week of September, 2004. The book, like the exhibit, is very well done and contains the only published photographs of the objects featured in the exhibit, making this book an extremely rare resource as photography is prohibited in the actual exhibit. These objects have never been publicly displayed in China, this book is your opportunity to view the the collection that Emperor Qianlong amassed throughout his reign.
Splendors of China's Forbidden City was published to coincide with the special exhibition of the same name held by Chicago's Field Musuem in first week of September, 2004. The book, like the exhibit, is very well done and contains the only published photographs of the objects featured in the exhibit, making this book an extremely rare resource as photography is prohibited in the actual exhibit. These objects have never been publicly displayed in China, this book is your opportunity to view the the collection that Emperor Qianlong amassed throughout his reign.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 15, 2017
The artifacts pictured in here? Fantastic. But the accompanying text is often inaccurate, incomplete, or, worse, biased-- not to mention that stylistically, it's a bit of a drag. Quite a juxtaposition to the beautiful and rare art it purports to explain. The rating here is substantially inflated by the pictures of the gorgeous artifacts.
May 18, 2016
It is always interesting to see what is provided in a book of an exhibition. Some events need to be visited many times to take in the vast quantity of information as well as the full array of experience of items on display. Others seem to be quite simple in their representative objects with a far deeper story and collection behind the scenes.
With this collection from the Forbidden City single objects contain many layers of understanding. To spend time reading all of the captions beside the items, while fruitful in many extra details, was difficult in the constant crowds hoping to do the same. A few jotted notes were not enough to check against the stories within the “catalogue”. It is not that type of book.
Rather the deeper and broader story of the reign and the context within Chinese and Asian history is covered in a thorough themed presentation. There is a very personal story here as well as the cultural and historical one. The remarkable character of a single man holding many threads together through his own knowledge, curiosity and respect makes it an intriguing one.
While some chapters concentrate on many photographs of individual items and their detail as art and artefact, others present broader images of interconnections in geography and time. This is a very generous appreciation of a significant shift in leadership style, which appears to be based in the generosity of the leader himself.
But such generosity is also wise.
Where cultural “minority” groups are included and acknowledged, they are also proportional in the attention of the Emperor who had his own beliefs and preferences as well as weighing the significance of the beliefs of many under his reign. More than lip-service, Qianlong’s investments in multiple religious observances, for instance, show his entering into the beliefs of the major influences in peoples’ lives beyond a merely ritualistic practice.
While the length of the reign of Qianlong is similar to that of Queen Victoria of England, the political importance of marriage alters by the cultural expectation of multiple concubines for the Chinese Emperor. Queen Victoria had children married throughout the royal houses of Europe, which constantly had her at a remove from decisions and events. Qianlong held such connections within his own household, and his own family.
It is hard to imagine how this one man was capable of such integration within himself. We have become reductionist in our own lives to the concept of nuclear families. We struggle with the concept of multiple wives in those few religions still allowing such simultaneous unions. We consider such societies primitive, while we constantly struggle with the mixture of races and cultures that global resettlement has wrought over the past 150 years.
But by comparison, the reign of Emperor Qianlong over 150 million people from 1736 to 1796, incorporates personal development through a number of religious, social, cultural and technological shifts as well as political sensitivities to others in all these regards.
It may be a modern view that includes the personal choices of the man who was Emperor. Much is made of the continuing distinction between a human representative of Heaven in the symbolism within dress and court furniture. But the shifts elsewhere in the world during this period cover the same kind of issues of divine and temporal overlap within a single physical body.
It is a constant throughout history that many officials are required to maintain the differentiation between the best and highest capabilities “under heaven” and the general capabilities of any specific individual. In reality it is, and always has been, a collective effort to produce such finery and idealism.
To guide such excellence and diversity from a young age does require a special individual – one capable of both recognising and utilising the capabilities of many others. If we each thought that it was our own personal duty to be capable of fulfilling such a role, one wonders what the human species might really be capable of together.
With this collection from the Forbidden City single objects contain many layers of understanding. To spend time reading all of the captions beside the items, while fruitful in many extra details, was difficult in the constant crowds hoping to do the same. A few jotted notes were not enough to check against the stories within the “catalogue”. It is not that type of book.
Rather the deeper and broader story of the reign and the context within Chinese and Asian history is covered in a thorough themed presentation. There is a very personal story here as well as the cultural and historical one. The remarkable character of a single man holding many threads together through his own knowledge, curiosity and respect makes it an intriguing one.
While some chapters concentrate on many photographs of individual items and their detail as art and artefact, others present broader images of interconnections in geography and time. This is a very generous appreciation of a significant shift in leadership style, which appears to be based in the generosity of the leader himself.
But such generosity is also wise.
Where cultural “minority” groups are included and acknowledged, they are also proportional in the attention of the Emperor who had his own beliefs and preferences as well as weighing the significance of the beliefs of many under his reign. More than lip-service, Qianlong’s investments in multiple religious observances, for instance, show his entering into the beliefs of the major influences in peoples’ lives beyond a merely ritualistic practice.
While the length of the reign of Qianlong is similar to that of Queen Victoria of England, the political importance of marriage alters by the cultural expectation of multiple concubines for the Chinese Emperor. Queen Victoria had children married throughout the royal houses of Europe, which constantly had her at a remove from decisions and events. Qianlong held such connections within his own household, and his own family.
It is hard to imagine how this one man was capable of such integration within himself. We have become reductionist in our own lives to the concept of nuclear families. We struggle with the concept of multiple wives in those few religions still allowing such simultaneous unions. We consider such societies primitive, while we constantly struggle with the mixture of races and cultures that global resettlement has wrought over the past 150 years.
But by comparison, the reign of Emperor Qianlong over 150 million people from 1736 to 1796, incorporates personal development through a number of religious, social, cultural and technological shifts as well as political sensitivities to others in all these regards.
It may be a modern view that includes the personal choices of the man who was Emperor. Much is made of the continuing distinction between a human representative of Heaven in the symbolism within dress and court furniture. But the shifts elsewhere in the world during this period cover the same kind of issues of divine and temporal overlap within a single physical body.
It is a constant throughout history that many officials are required to maintain the differentiation between the best and highest capabilities “under heaven” and the general capabilities of any specific individual. In reality it is, and always has been, a collective effort to produce such finery and idealism.
To guide such excellence and diversity from a young age does require a special individual – one capable of both recognising and utilising the capabilities of many others. If we each thought that it was our own personal duty to be capable of fulfilling such a role, one wonders what the human species might really be capable of together.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews