History
Initial construction of the Old Summer Palace began in 1707, during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. It intended as a small gift for the emperor's fourth son, the future Yongzheng Emperor, who would greatly expand the Imperial Gardens in 1725. Yongzheng also introduced the waterworks of the gardens, creating lakes, streams, and ponds to complement the rolling hills and grounds, and named 28 scenic spots within the garden.
In the Qianlong Emperor's reign, the second expansion was well underway and the number of scenic spots increased to 50 (Qianlong personally directed construction). By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Imperial Gardens had undergone constant expansion in one form or another for over 150 years.
The last European appearance in the Old Summer Palace in the context of traditional Chinese imperial foreign relations was a diplomatic mission representing Dutch and Dutch East India Company interests. The Titsingh delegation included Isaac Titsingh, the Dutch-American Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest, and the French Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes. Both published complementary accounts of the mission (Titsingh himself died before he could publish his version of events).
Read more about this topic: Old Summer Palace
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“The reverence for the Scriptures is an element of civilization, for thus has the history of the world been preserved, and is preserved.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)