九洲清晏Jiuzhou QingyanNine Continents Clear and Calm

What it was

九洲清晏 Jiuzhou Qingyan, "Nine Continents Clear and Calm", is the largest of the nine islands round the Back Lake 后湖 Hou Hu and the emperor's residence from Yongzheng to Xianfeng (S05 j80:20b-23b; E1129; S02 pp.77-79, E1153; E1134). Its central axis runs from the Front Lake 前湖 Qian Hu north through three halls: 圆明园殿 Yuanming Yuan Dian (five bays, the garden's name plaque in Kangxi's hand), 奉三无私殿 Fengsan Wusi Dian (seven bays) and 九洲清晏殿 Jiuzhou Qingyan Dian (seven bays in S05; a Yangshi Lei record gives five bays with a three-bay rear porch, S310 rec. 7237), whose plaque is in Yongzheng's hand. East of the last stands 天地一家春 Tiandi Yijia Chun, west 乐安和 Le'anhe (so named as the sleeping hall in 1774) and further west 清晖阁 Qinghui Ge with small buildings round a court (S05 j80:20b-21a, 24a-25b). Malone found the island so built up that there was room for almost no artificial hills (E1153). A fire on 丙申九月二十六日 (1836) burned the three axis halls; Daoguang rebuilt them in under a year to the old form, adding nothing, by his own account (御製重修圓明園三殿記) (E1131, E1132, E1134). 慎德堂 Shende Tang on the west side was built in 1831, the date of Daoguang's essay for it (E1130; S310 rec. 7342); 同道堂 Tongdao Tang had a theatre by 1855 (S43). On 7 October 1860 Swinhoe walked through the audience hall to the emperor's bedroom, where the treaty of 1858 lay on a table (S02 pp.180-181, E2111). Malone, citing Favier, reports that fires broke out during the looting of 6-8 October and burned the emperor's own residence, before the ordered burning (S02 p.183, E1151). The burning of 18-19 October by British troops on Elgin's order followed (E0485). Tongzhi's repair of 1873 renamed several halls (E1135, Q36).

The leaf of 1744, its poem and preface

Leaf 3 of the 1744 album (P0003). Qianlong's preface (S40, E1091; printed in S05 j80:23b-24a) opens: '正大光明直北為㡬餘游息之所棼橑紛接鱗瓦參差前臨巨湖' ('straight north of Zhengda Guangming is the place to rest from affairs; rafters crowd together, scaled tiles stand uneven, and in front lies a great lake'). He compares the islands round the lake to Zou Yan's nine continents ringed by the great ocean, then recalls his father living here, working at maps and books, and binds himself to the same diligence: the poem lists the fear of Heaven and of the people, and sets the fine dishes of the kitchen against the hungry in the ditches. The preface and poem are moral rather than descriptive: they give the dense roofs and the lake in front, not a layout.

How it changed before 1860

The 日下旧闻考 Rixia Jiuwen Kao (S05 j80, compiled after 1774) adds what the album lacks: by 1765 the tall pines before 清晖阁 had burned and Qianlong set small buildings round its court, a two-storey 松云楼 Songyun Lou on the high ground of the stone wall, 露香斋 Luxiang Zhai by a rockery, 涵德书屋 Hande Shuwu and the book room 茹古堂 Rugu Tang (j80:24a-25a, E1094). In 1774 Qianlong named the sleeping hall 乐安和; his note says the room he had lived in before was called 随安堂 Sui'an Tang (j80:25a-b, E1099). Jiaqing wrote on 九洲清晏, 奉三无私 and the small studios (E1106-E1114); Daoguang built 慎德堂 in 1831 (E1130) and, after the fire of 1836, rebuilt the three axis halls by 1837 (E1134). The theatre at 同道堂 dates to 1855 at the latest (S43). The plan S01 shows the island after Tongzhi's renaming of 1873 and carries a pasted slip for a later rearrangement (E1135, E1152, Q36); the Yangshi Lei drawings E1156-E1171 record the 慎德堂 interiors and the 九洲清晏 axis at several dates.

Yangshi Lei sheets give three states of the island. Before the fire of 1836: 样004-5 九洲清晏旧样 and 样005-4 慎德堂 fit-out (E1171, E1156). After it: 样005-34 of 1837, an unapproved first round, and 样010-3, the approved rebuilding, which gave the west side of the 九洲清晏 hall the 同道堂 annex instead of a mirror of the east (E1169). Xianfeng: 样007-9-1 of 1855.3 for 圆明园殿 (E1163), 样005-13 and 样005-27-1 of 1855.9, for a three-bay rear porch added to the 九洲清晏 hall that year (E1162), 样004-2-1 for the hall and 同道堂 (E1170), and 样011-3 九洲清晏全样 of 1855.10-12, the latest whole-scene plan found before 1860 (E1161); and the 慎德堂 interior sheets of 1851, 1856 and 1859, one of the 1859 sheets dated only by the site (E1160, E1174, E1164, E1165). The 1874 plan 故1299 (E1166) is Tongzhi's design: same three axes and most old names, but a jade-disc pond with a double-eaved square pavilion between 奉三无私 and 天地一家春, a seven-bay hall north of it, 慎德堂 as five bays under four roofs, 思顺堂 in the west court (S310 rec. 11901). The 1873-74 three-garden plan 样1203 renames 基福堂 to 同顺堂 and 天地一家春 to 承恩堂 (E0532; S310 rec. 7217); the decree of 1873, as quoted in S220, has 思顺堂 for 基福堂 (E1135). S01's labels here (七间殿, 福寿仁恩, ?顺堂, 承恩堂, 同顺堂) are those of the Tongzhi design, which supports Q36.

Inside

Plaques and couplets by hall (S05 j80:21a-23a): 圆明园殿 has Kangxi's 圆明园 plaque, a couplet Yongzheng wrote as a prince ('每對青山緑水㑹心處…') and one by Qianlong; 奉三无私殿 holds Qianlong's copies of the moral instructions of Kangxi and Yongzheng, the plaque 清虚静泰 and a couplet at the throne; 九洲清晏殿 carries Yongzheng's plaque in front and 蔚然深秀 at the back. On the north wall of 清晖阁 hung the painted map of the whole garden of 1737 by Castiglione, 唐岱 Tang Dai, 孙祐 Sun You, 沈源 Shen Yuan, 张万邦 Zhang Wanbang and 丁观鹏 Ding Guanpeng, inscribed 大观 (j80:23a; S02 p.62). In 1860 Swinhoe found, in what he took for the emperor's own rooms, a moderate room with a double-seated throne, chandelier and clocks, two small rooms and a spiral stair to two upper rooms of books whose windows looked down into the hall (E1037); M'Ghee a court about 50 ft square flagged in marble and the only spiral stair, on the left, in the ladies' rooms (E1150). Hérisson's side rooms full of gold, beside the throne hall, are not trusted (S246 pp.315-317, E2441).

The garden around it

The island faces the Front Lake on the south and the Back Lake on the north (S05 j80:20b, 23b; E1153). Malone found little rockwork and almost no artificial hills on it (E1153). In the west court a long stone wall stood opposite 清晖阁, with tall pines in front that had burned by 1765 and others still standing outside the wall; 露香斋 sat by a rockery with real trees (S05 j80:24a-b). M'Ghee describes the apartments' front on 'another sheet of water' with large planted rockeries (E1150); Wolseley and Swinhoe reached them by a pebbled path round half a pond from behind the audience hall (E1037, E1038). Bridges: 如意桥 Ruyi Qiao on the south-east and 南大桥 Nan Da Qiao on the south-west, 棕亭桥 Zongting Qiao at the north-west corner (S313; S41).

What survives

The island keeps its shape between the front and back lakes. An archaeological survey (勘探) report gives the scene about 220 x 120 m, 25,000 m2, with 8,600 m2 of buildings and 656 rooms and gallery bays (S151, opening only); a 紫禁城 article of 2011 gives the island about 234 x 116 m and 21,600 m2 (S313). The page that carries the report says that the foundations of the Tongzhi repair were wrecked in 1900 by bannermen and bandits (S151); who did the damage of 1900 is disputed (Q28). No dig report with hall sizes has been seen; the paywalled report and a 慎德堂 dig record are on the wish list.