Forbidden City: About the Exhibition

An introduction to the exhibition

Qianlong was the symbolic father of his people, but also was the literal father of twenty-six children, and was married to many wives. The emperor’s family lived in the most secluded areas of the palace, leading lives that were luxurious, but tightly hemmed in—by both the oppressive architecture of the Forbidden City itself, as well as by the endless rules and tradition that assigned everyone in the imperial household to a particular rank.

The exhibition also explores the private world of Qianlong. One of the most fascinating aspects of Qianlong was the amazing breadth of his interests and abilities: he was a classic scholar, a keen military strategist and martial arts expert, a poet who composed some 44,000 poems in his lifetime, a skilled huntsman, the only Chinese Emperor to speak four languages, a hands-on administrator, a deeply spiritual person and the patron of China’s diverse religions, and a restless innovator in the arts and sciences.

China’s diverse religions are also presented in the exhibition. As emperor, Qianlong was both patron and participant in these religions, which included the Manchu Shamanism of Qianlong’s ancestors; Tibetan Buddhism—a religion which he personally practiced; Han Buddhism, which was the majority religion of most Chinese; and Daoism, China’s indigenous religion.

After a sixty-year reign of expansion, peace, and prosperity, Qianlong retired in 1795, so as not to exceed the reign of his grandfather, the Emperor Kangxi. Qianlong died four years later, at the age of eighty-nine. There would not be another like him. After his death, China experienced a long period of decline, before reestablishing itself in the twentieth century as a great nation. The exhibition concludes with the memorial throne of the emperor, on which is placed his spirit tablet, which was thought to contain the emperor’s spirit. These objects have never before been viewed outside China.

photos courtesy of Palace Museum, Beijing