Foreign painters painted a painting for Qianlong, and qianlong ordered after reading it 3 times: Whoever looks at Ling Chi again will be executed
I think a lot of people are familiar with the name of Lang Shining, don't they? The Italian Lang Shining originally came to China as a missionary, but by chance, he entered the palace and became a court painter. He painted a lot of his works that are very famous.
However, "Heart Writing Zhi PingTu" is the most we have heard of. If you know a little about the history of the Qing Dynasty, you will know that the protagonists of this painting are the Qianlong Emperor and the eleven concubines of Qianlong. The little story we're going to talk about today is about this painting.
Before painting this picture, an interesting thing happened. When Qianlong saw Lang Shining coming, he deliberately made fun of him, and the concubines in front of him all laughed and ignored his greeting. Lang Shining knew that Qianlong was testing himself, so he put all his body and mind on his paintings and did not look at Qianlong's concubines at all.
When Qianlong was happy, he also forced the painter to say, "Who do you think is the most beautiful of the imperial concubines?" If Lang Shining answered, it would prove that he had peeked. If he does not answer, he is deceiving the monarch. Others may have panicked and said nothing, but Lang Shining had served generations of emperors, so he said: "I have just been counting the tiles of the house above my head and have not noticed anything else".
As a result, Qianlong asked him to answer the number of tiles on the roof, and if he made a mistake, he would be severely punished. After Lang Shining finished speaking, Qianlong immediately ordered people to count the tiles, and the number of tiles was indeed the same.
Therefore, Qianlong really recognized him in his heart. Let him paint himself and the queen and eleven favorite concubines, which is "Heart Writing ZhipingTu". Although this painting is the most famous work of Lang Shining, not all the figures were completed by Lang Shining himself, because Lang Shining was too old to do the arduous work of thirteen portraits at that time. Except for the emperor and queen, the other concubines were completed by Lang Shining's disciples and other court painters. It is worth mentioning here that at first Qianlong only intended to paint nine concubines. The three later concubines were added later.
The Qianlong Emperor attached great importance to this painting. His original purpose was to collect it, not to be appreciated by others. So he only watched it three times and it was done. The painting was painted on his seventieth birthday, and when he abdicated, it was kept in a secret place. After the Jiaqing Emperor ascended the throne, the Qianlong Emperor handed the painting to him and issued a decree forbidding anyone to peek at it. If anyone looked again, he would be executed quickly.
The Jiaqing Emperor collected this painting in the Yuanmingyuan and it is well preserved. Who knew the Yuanmingyuan would burn down several rounds after the eight-wheel federation army was burned, the painting was eventually preserved by the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States.