蓬岛瑶台Pengdao YaotaiParadise Island of the Enameled Green Terrace

What it was

蓬岛瑶台 Pengdao Yaotai, "Paradise Island of the Enameled Green Terrace", stands on three islands in the middle of 福海 Fuhai (S05 j82:16b, E1933). The central island has a three-bay gate facing south, a seven-bay main hall, 畅襟楼 Changjin Lou and 神洲三岛 Shenzhou Sandao before it to the east and west, and 随安室 Sui'an Shi and 日日平安报好音 on the east and west sides (S05 j82:16b, E1933); a bridge south-east leads to the east island with the pavilion 瀛海仙山 Yinghai Xianshan, a bridge north-west to the north island with a three-bay hall (j82:16b). Under Yongzheng it was called 蓬莱洲 Penglai Zhou; the new name dates from 1744 (S05 j80:10a, j82:16b). Malone: a small palace court with glazed tile on the central island, the north-west island also built over, the east island a rustic retreat with pavilion, rocks and trees (S02 p.93, E1936). On the dragon-boat day under Qianlong the emperor sat in the pavilion 望瀛洲 Wang Yingzhou and the empress dowager watched the race from 蓬岛瑶台, east of it (S202 j14, E1889). A list drawn from 刘敦桢 Liu Dunzhen (1933) puts 蓬岛瑶台 among the seventeen or so places where buildings still stood after the burning of 1860 (E0451); when they were lost is not stated in the texts read.

The leaf of 1744, its poem and preface

Leaf 32 of the 1744 album (P0032). Qianlong's preface (S40, E1925; S05 j82:17a): '福海中作大小三島仿李思訓畫意為仙山樓閣之狀' ('in the Sea of Blessings three islands, large and small, were made, after the paintings of 李思训 Li Sixun, as towers of the immortals on their peaks'), looking like the 'five golden halls and twelve jade towers'. He adds that large and small are one: know this, and here are the sacred isles, and one may boil rivers and mountains in a half-pint pot. The poem gives famous flowers, white jade steps, and 'towers and halls in the water, steeped in 琉璃' (水中樓閣浸琉璃), 琉璃 being both glaze and glass-clear water.

How it changed before 1860

The dragon-boat feast moved from 望瀛洲 and 蓬岛瑶台 to 澄虚榭 Chengxu Xie under Jiaqing; the race was still held in the early Daoguang years and then stopped (S202 j14, E1889). S360 files 28 dated items under 福海, 1741-1858, 26 of them poems, on boating, the view and the summer heat (E2365): the lake was in use to the end. No dated rebuilding was found in the texts read.

The garden around it

On P0032 the main island carries a yellow-roofed gate with green-tiled wings on a stone base and a white stair to the water, the main hall behind with a blue upper roof trimmed in yellow and a purple-brown lower roof, a green-roofed two-storey 楼 on the east and a railed terrace on the west; the north-west islet is grey-tiled behind white walls and linked by an arched timber bridge; the east islet carries a hexagonal pavilion among willows. Rocks edge every shore. (S08 P0032)

What survives

The islands of 蓬岛瑶台 survive in 福海 Fuhai, whose shape is kept (S146, S148). Modern structures stand on them: seen from the shore, a glazed pyramidal pavilion roof and a white-walled hall with a grey roof on a rock base (P0791, P0387). No excavation report of the islands was found (S946).