In 1982, an American art museum exhibited a special set of pictures in Japan, which made many Chinese people, especially historians, rush to see it.
What kind of precious scroll is it?
The text at the time of the exhibition reads:
"In the first year of Qianlong (1736), Lang Shining and others painted portraits of the Qianlong Emperor, empresses, and eleven concubines."
This is the true appearance of these historical figures, and it can more intuitively understand their appearance, demeanor, clothing and various scarce information, which is of great help to the study of history in the middle of the Qing Dynasty.
Qianlong had a total of 41 concubines in his lifetime, and there were only 12 on the scroll. These 12 concubine women have different lineages, the time of entering the palace is different, and the title is also different. According to the number of each person indicated on the portrait, the age and age of the painting can be determined, and the order of the portraits of Qianlong and his 12 queen concubines can also be clarified:
Qianlong, Empress Fucha.
Next came twelve concubines.
Concubines, Concubines, Concubines, Concubines, Concubines
The Qianlong Emperor wore a winter crown, a red ribbon top, a sea dragon leather hat, a large pearl at the top of the crown, and a bright yellow dragon robe, and the leader was offered a stone blue satin embroidered multicolored cloud golden dragon, plus a sea dragon leather collar.
Qianlong was painted in the first year of the year, when he was 25 years old.
Empress Fucha wore a winter crown on her head, with a sea dragon fur hat brim and a crown topped with an eastern bead. Dressed in a bright yellow eight-tuan dragon robe, the stone green satin leader is embroidered with a cloud golden dragon, plus a sea dragon leather collar.
Qianlong painted in the second year, 26 years old.
Guifei, also known as Emperor Huixian's noble concubine Gao Shi, was painted in the second year of Qianlong and was about 24 years old.
Pure Concubine, also known as The Noble Concubine of the Pure Hui Emperor, was painted in the second year of Qianlong and was 24 years old.
Jia Fei (嘉妃), also known as The Noble Concubine of the Shujia Emperor, was painted in the sixth year of Qianlong and was 27 years old.
Concubine Ling, also known as Empress Xiaoyi, was also the biological mother of the Jiaqing Emperor, painted in the fourteenth year of Qianlong, at the age of 27.
Shu Fei, yehenara clan, Qianlong fourteen years old, 22 years old.
Qing Concubine, also known as The Noble Concubine of the Qing Gong Emperor, was painted in the sixteenth year of Qianlong, at the age of 28.
Ying Concubine, also known as Ying Guifei, was painted in the sixteenth year of Qianlong, at the age of 21.
Xin Concubine, also known as Xin Guifei, was painted in the nineteenth year of Qianlong and was about 19 years old.
The above portrait was painted by Lang Shining and his disciples.
Concubine Huan, wang, qianlong thirty-nine years of painting, 28 years old.
Shunfei, also known as Shun Guiren, was painted by Qianlong forty-one years old, aged 28.
Xun Concubine, also known as Xun Guifei, was painted by Qianlong forty-one years old and was 26 years old.
The above 3 concubines were re-painted by the court painter, because Lang Shining had died of illness in the thirty-first year of Qianlong.
The 12 queen concubines were about 24 years old on average at the time of the portrait, and God gave them talent and beauty, but they failed to give them a real life, and their overall fate was not happy, and their life expectancy was generally low.
The Qianlong Emperor and his concubines are framed together with 13 solo portraits. From the beginning of the Qianlong statue to the statue of the concubine, it took 40 years.
Qianlong combined his portraits with them, which lasted for 40 years and was a huge project. In his later years, he slowly opened the picture of the queen concubine under his pen and ink, and found a comfort in the dim lonely lamp, perhaps the portrait was his real spiritual world.
Qianlong did not allow anyone to appreciate it except him. At the time of his abdication, he took the painting out for the last time to admire it, after which he sealed it.
Qianlong also specially asked someone to take care of him, and ordered that whoever looks at it again will be executed by Ling Chi.
The reason why Qianlong let people seal it and ordered that it was not allowed to look anymore was that he wanted the imperial family to maintain a sense of majesty and mystery in front of officials and people, so as to maintain imperial power. If the paintings are everywhere for people to see, and some people with other thoughts write down the contents of the portraits, and then copy them, and then declare that they are the concubines and emperors painted by the court painters themselves, then it will not be a great chaos in the world.
Therefore, Qianlong decreed that the viewing of portraits was prohibited on the one hand out of selfishness, and on the other hand, he wanted to maintain social order and the rule of the Qing Dynasty. I have to say that he is still considerate.
This rather distinctive picture scroll should be framed in the forty-first year of Qianlong, because Qianlong's birth mother Empress Xiaoshengxian died of illness in the first month of the following year, and Qianlong, who was a filial son, naturally did not frame him and his concubines during the empress dowager's great funeral.
In the Qing Dynasty, there was a group of painters who served the court. The portraits of the emperor and the empress dowager they painted are collected in the Jingshan Shou Imperial Palace, the Rehe Palace and the Yuanmingyuan. In the tombs of the Qing Dynasty, almost all the buried figures also have images. They are divided into full-body portraits and busts, which are stored in the various halls of Longen or Enjoy, and are hung during the sacrifice.
Unfortunately, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, due to the poor management of the mausoleum and the invasion of soldiers and bandits, these portraits have long disappeared.
The "Qianlong Emperor and Empress Dowager Picture Scroll" is not only very well preserved, but also from its annotated text and character numbers, it can also determine the age of the portrait and the age of the characters, providing us with precious image information for us to understand the life of the queen concubine in the palace.
Even more valuable, a single portrait of a person whose time is more than 40 years apart will be framed and framed into one, which is breathtaking.
So the question arises: Since it is the Qianlong Emperor's things, how can they be kept by the Americans?
At first, the painting was left in the Yuanmingyuan and no one dared to open it. until
In the Xianfeng Decade (1860), after the British and French forces captured Beijing, they occupied the Yuanmingyuan. The leader of the British army, Erkin, with the support of British Prime Minister Palmerston, ordered the burning of the Old Summer Palace.
3,500 British and French troops rushed into the Yuanmingyuan, first looted and then set fire to the Yuanmingyuan, and the fire was not extinguished for three days.
In this way, the "Heart Writing Zhiping Tu" (also known as the "Qianlong Emperor Concubine Picture Scroll") was appropriated by this group of robbers, and later exiled to the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States.
