Word: qianlong
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...human bodies to form a water clock in the Summer Palace, the home of the royal family. The clock, which was designed so each head would spout water for two hours each day and all would spray in unison at noon, was said to be a favorite of the Qianlong emperor...
...these details were well known in China by the time the map was supposedly drawn in the 18th century, argue critics such as Li Xiaocong, a cartography expert at Peking University. "It's simply not logical," says Li, "to use a map drawn in [Emperor] Qianlong's time to prove the existence of a map that might have been drawn during the reign of Yongle"?some three centuries earlier, in the Ming era. Li adds: "We don't even know if that Ming map existed...
...until mid-April: artifacts from ancient dynasties, flowing calligraphy, elaborate scrolls, magnificent dragon-decorated robes, priceless jades and ancestor paintings that represent the most important Confucian value, filial piety. In fact, the subjects of this exhibition are a father, his son and grandson - the Qing Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong - who ruled the Middle Kingdom for 133 consecutive years and expanded China even beyond its present-day borders. And the trio weren't even Chinese. They were Manchus, hunters and fishers from north of the Great Wall who successfully vanquished the crumbling Ming Dynasty in 1644 and were greeted with...
...Qianlong was a true connoisseur. He not only admired bronzes from China's earliest dynasties, classical paintings and calligraphy, but he also wrote about them - sometimes on the works themselves. He stamped his approval on a piece quite literally, and his seals seem to be everywhere. For instance, several seals and a colophon mark Spring's Peaceful Message, a charming double portrait, painted by Castiglione around 1736, of Qianlong and his father. The older man is handing his son a sprig of flowering apricot, symbolizing a peaceful transition of power and wishes for a fruitful reign. Yongzheng did not want...
...demand from wealthy Western and Eastern collectors seeking to decorate their SoHo lofts and Shanghai penthouses with everything from ancient Buddha heads to Khmer sculptures. During art auctions in London this summer, two of the brightest sales were of prized Asian objects, both of them legitimately acquired: a Chinese Qianlong-era jade vase from a private collection that went for $280,000 at Bonham's and a calligraphy-brush washer from the Southern Song dynasty that sold for an astounding $1.2 million at Sotheby...