Language: English
ISBN/ISSN: 7503216980
Published on: 2000-01
Hardcover
At the height of his power in the eighteenth century, the Chinese emperor ruled over a population of four hundred million people spread over a land mass that covered a third of the Asian continent. He lived in splendour in this palaces, the most important of which was located in the city of Beijing.
In the eighteenth century, China was ruled by the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). The dynasty originated in the North Eastern provinces of China (formerly known as Manchuria), but by then had become quite sinicized. The emperor was a hard-working man who rose early to attend court. He was assisted by a sizeable bureaucracy selected by examination. Indeed, he kept a harem, closely supervised by his principal consorts and eunuchs. His palace served as his home and his office. Nevertheless, to see the palace design as being governed by such practical concerns as where he might sit ot rule on matters of state and what he might do in his leisure hours missed the very important element of his religious life for which the architecture must also cater. The Chinese emperor was the Son of Heaven, and it was his duty and privilege to intercede between Heaven and his subjects. The quarters he lived, therefore, were surrounded by shrines of deities and ancestors, to whom tight regulation required that he give offerings on a regular basis. The palace, therefore, combines practical administration with the emperor’s domestic life and his religious personage. Chinese ideas concerning these various aspects of imperial authority are writ large in palace architecture.
