Cloisonné mural "Three Mountains and Five Gardens"
The greatest contribution of the Qing Dynasty to the construction of Beijing's spatial structure was the construction of the imperial garden in the western suburbs. Among them, the construction achievements of "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" are the most representative. The Three Mountains refer to Wanshou Mountain, Yuquan Mountain and Xiangshan Mountain. The five gardens are generally considered to be the Yuanmingyuan, Changchun Garden, Wanshoushan Qingyi Garden (now the Summer Palace), Yuquan Mountain Jingmingyuan and Xiangshan Jingyi Garden.
The "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" is the palace garden of the Qing court, one of the political centers, the daily office and residence of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, and together with the summer resort in Chengde, it has become an important place for extensive contact with ethnic minorities in the frontier, jointly building a unified multi-ethnic country, and promoting and developing Chinese civilization.
The Qing Dynasty court painter Lang Shining painted the "Hunting Map of nanyuan" in which the guards wearing yellow coats hunt
In the early Qing Dynasty, the royal gardens in the western suburbs had not yet been built. The Shunzhi Emperor often lived in the South Garden and the West Garden of the Imperial City. The land of Nanyuan is very open and is ideal for horseback hunting.
Yuquan Mountain Yufeng Pagoda
From the Kangxi Dynasty onwards, the royal gardens in the western suburbs began to be built. In the nineteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1680), the southern foothills of Yuquan Mountain were converted into palaces, named Chengxin Garden (later renamed Jingming Garden), and a palace was built next to the Xiangshan Temple. In the twenty-third year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1684), Changchun Garden was built on the site of the Qinghua Garden. Changchun Garden was also the Kangxi Emperor's favorite residence. Around Changchun Garden are the gardens of princes and courtiers, the famous ones are the Yuanmingyuan, the Zide Garden, and the Water Village Garden.
Forty Views of the Old Summer Palace
Kangxi gave the Yuanmingyuan to his son Yin Chan, the future Yongzheng Emperor. In the third year of Yongzheng (1725), the Yongzheng Emperor upgraded the Yuanmingyuan to a palace and began a large-scale expansion, expanding its area from 300 mu to about 3,000 mu, and naming it "Twenty-Eight Views of the Yuanmingyuan". The Yuanmingyuan became Yongzheng's favorite palace. In the second year of Qianlong (1737), the twenty-eight views of the Yuanmingyuan were expanded to 40 views.
Twenty-eight pictures of Zhang Ruocheng Jingyi Garden
In the tenth year of Qianlong (1745), the Qianlong Emperor began to build the Changchun Garden on the east side of the Yuanmingyuan. In the same year, Jingyi Garden was built in Xiangshan and twenty-eight scenes were built. In the fourteenth year of Qianlong (1749), in order to wish his mother a happy birthday, he built Qingyi Garden on Urn Mountain (later changed to Wanshou Mountain). During the same period, the Changchun Garden where the Empress Dowager lived was overhauled, and a West Garden was added to its western part to make it a place for the Crown Prince to study and live. In the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), the Jingming Garden of Yuquan Mountain was expanded, and all the Yuquan Mountain was occupied, and sixteen views of the JingmingYuan were built. In 1760, the western-style building scenic spot in the north of Changchun Garden was completed. In 1769, a number of princes and princesses in the southeast of the Yuanmingyuan were reclaimed and turned into Qichun Garden. So far, the "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" project has been basically completed.
The "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" had a troubled fate, and was successively looted and destroyed by the British and French allies and the Eight-Nation Alliance. Today, the Yuanmingyuan is only a ruined wall and has become a patriotic education base. Changchun Garden is located on the campus of Peking University and the family courtyard, and its remains can be faintly seen around the unnamed lake. There are a small number of remaining remains in Xiangshan Jingyi Garden. After reconstruction and restoration, the Yuquan Mountain Jingmingyuan was left on a relatively complete scale. Wanshou Mountain Qingyi Garden has become a familiar Kunming Lake scenic spot. The Summer Palace is the most intact and has become a World Heritage Site.