Where Dragon Veins Meet: The Kangxi Emperor and His Estate at Rehe

by Stephen H. Whiteman

Overview

Winner of the 2023 On the Brinck Book Award, presented by the University of New Mexico School of Architecture + Planning

An auspicious political landscape, represented in image and text

In 1702, the second emperor of the Qing dynasty ordered construction of a new summer palace in Rehe (now Chengde, Hebei) to support his annual tours north among the court’s Inner Mongolian allies. The Mountain Estate to Escape the Heat (Bishu Shanzhuang) was strategically located at the node of mountain “veins” through which the Qing empire’s geomantic energy was said to flow. At this site, from late spring through early autumn, the Kangxi emperor presided over rituals of intimacy and exchange that celebrated his rule: garden tours, banquets, entertainments, and gift giving.

Stephen Whiteman draws on resources and methods from art and architectural history, garden and landscape history, early modern global history, and historical geography to reconstruct the Mountain Estate as it evolved under Kangxi, illustrating the importance of landscape as a medium for ideological expression during the early Qing and in the early modern world more broadly. Examination of paintings, prints, historical maps, newly created maps informed by GIS-based research, and personal accounts reveals the significance of geographic space and its representation in the negotiation of Qing imperial ideology. The first monograph in any language to focus solely on the art and architecture of the Kangxi court, Where Dragon Veins Meet illuminates the court’s production and deployment of landscape as a reflection of contemporary concerns and offers new insight into the sources and forms of Qing power through material expressions.

Art History Publication Initiative

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295745800
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	01/09/2020
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stephen H. Whiteman is senior lecturer in the art and architecture of China at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Note to Readers xvii

Introduction: Historicizing the Early Qing Landscape 3

Part I Recovering The Kangxi Landscape

Excerpt from "Record of Traveling at the Invitation of the Emperor" Zhang Yushu 15

1 Reconstructing Kangxi 20

Part II Allegories Of Empire

2 Mountain Veins 59

"Record of the Mountain Estate to Escape the Heat" by the Kangxi emperor 79

3 Only Here in Rehe 81

Part III Space And Pictoriality

4 Painting and the Surveyed Site 105

5 Paper Gardens 151

Part IV The Metonymic Landscape

6 Touring the Rear Park 191

Conclusion: The Landscape of the Emperor 225

Glossary 231

Notes 235

Bibliography 247

Index 261

What People are Saying About This

Robert E. Harrist Jr.

"The fruit of excellent research that embraces an impressive range of mediums, including garden architecture, painting, printmaking, and poetry."

Editorial Reviews

"This book...fills a monumental gap in the art, architectural, and landscape histories of the early modern world, providing a long-overdue interdisciplinary discussion of the Qing emperor whose reign and works overlapped with those of better-studied contemporaries."

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

"Where Dragon Veins Meet is a thoroughly researched and intellectually illuminating work. Its interdisciplinary approach shows what the landscapes of the Mountain Estate can tell us about early Qing politics and its position in the early modern world. This book will certainly be of interest to historians and art historians of late imperial China. Scholars of garden and palace construction, landscape history, as well as monarchy studies will also find it valuable to compare the Kangxi emperor’s park-palace to other projects in the early modern world."

T'oung Pao

"Whiteman displays a dazzling command of his subject. His careful presentation of the source materials, their defects, and the methods he chose to transcend obstacles bespeak a commitment to historical accuracy that is both commendable and impressive."

Journal of Chinese Studies

"Whiteman’s impeccable work goes far beyond simply a comprehensive and thought-provoking study of Kangxi’s Mountain Estate itself. Instead, it reveals not only the global dimension of this ‘frontier landscape’ but a Qing political landsape within an interconnected ‘long’ 18th entury, creating a milestone in writing global art history."

Architectural Histories