The Summer Palace and Chinese mythology

By STEVEN WINDUO
IN China, another spectacular site that is popular to tourists and Chinese visitors is the Summer Palace, a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing, China.
It was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in December 1998, describing the Summer Palace as “a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value.”
The Summer Palace is dominated by Longevity Hill and Kumming Lake, covering an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water. Longevity Hill is about 60 meters (200 feet) high and has many buildings positioned in sequence. The front hill is rich with splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill, in sharp contrast, is quiet with natural beauty.
I enjoyed the trip to the Summer Palace taking in all the inspirations I can get from this magnificent site. I climbed up to the top of the hill and then made my way back down the other side of the island.
The origins of the Summer Palace date back to the Jin dynasty in 1153. The emperor ordered the construction of the palace in the Fragrant Hills and Jade Spring Hill in the northwest of Beijing.
Around 1271, after the Yuan dynasty established its capital in Khanbaliq (present day Beijing), the engineer Guo SHoujing initiated a water project to direct the water from Shenshan Spring in Baifu Village, changing into the Western Lake, which would later become Kumming Lake. Guo’s aim was to create a water reservoir that would ensure a stable water supply for the palace.
The design of the Summer Palace was based on a legend in Chinese mythology about three divine mountains in the East Sea, namely Penglai, Fangzhan and Yingzhou. The three islands in Kunming Lake – Nanhu Island, Tuancheng Island and Zaojiantang Island – were built to represent the three mountains, while the lake itself was based on a blueprint of the West Lake in Hangzhou. Besides, many architectural features in the palace were built to resemble or imitate various attractions around China.
The Summer Palace remains one of the most beautiful expressions of Chinese aesthetics through natural beauty and artificial constructions that imitate nature itself. There is a sense of peace, harmony, and tranquility about the Summer Palace that I almost felt I was there before in another life.
As we walked along the Lake and crossed the arch bridges I felt as if I was in a dream world, floating in and out of it every step I took. Summer Palace was for me the manifestation of a link between man and nature, between what is the mythic and what is modern. Here perhaps is the site of Chinese mind, Chinese poetry, and playfulness of the natural rhythm of life.
The sad part of the history of Summer Palace was that at the decline of the Qing Empire under the reign of the Daoguang Emperor (r. 1820-1850), the Simmer Palace gradually became neglected and the architectural features on the three islands were ordered to be dismantled because the cost of maintenance was too high.
In 1860, the British and French destroyed parts of the Summer Palace at the end of the Second Opium War while looting and burning down the nearby Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan). The destruction of the palaces was ordered by Lord Elgin, the British high commissioner to China, and was undertaken in response to the torture and killing of two British envoys, a journalist for The Times, and their escorts.
In the later part of the 1880s there were efforts to rebuild the Summer Palace under the reign of the Guangxu Emperor (r. 1875-1908). This effort suffered a blow in 1900 with forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance destroying the imperial gardens and seizing many artifacts stored in the palace. The palace was restored two years later.
Summer Palace refuses to give up its beauty even though it went through the very destructive periods of its life. A day’s walk through it is not enough to know everything about this magnificent beauty.
I did not have time to see the full splendor of the Summer Palace. All around the Island there are various towers and temples that hold deep spiritual connections to the world around the Chinese.
There are halls such as Hall of Joy and Longevity in the east to the Shizhang Pavilion in the west. The Long Corridor is 728 metres and contains artistic decorations, including paintings of famous places in China, and scenes from Chinese mythology and folktales, The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars and the Four Great Classical Novels.
I went to China without knowing much about it, but in the few days I was there, I learnt so much about it.
The Summer Palace was for me a classroom for the visitor who wanted to learn something about Chinese culture, mythology, folklore, and the ways of life of the imperial courts. China today is built on the foundations of its culture, people, and powerful rule of each dynasty.
China will continue to maintain its cultural links as it progresses into the future.
The respect and love the people have for the Summer Palace resonates all over China. It is one of the reasons most of the ancient imperial palaces have remained good conditions for a long time. The Chinese respect what their ancestors left them to enjoy today.
The values that define them as a people continue to define them today. The Summer Palace is no ordinary palace as we discovered. It has a long history and has been through a lot over the modern period of Chinese history.
Thanks to our good friend and guide Jessica Liu from the Beijing Normal University Press, Summer Palace is another memorable site that now fills my imagination about how to live in a place we created for ourselves.