For Immediate Release Contact: Pat Kremer/Nancy O’Shea (312) 665-7100 (For Media Use Only) Splendors of China's Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong It was the largest empire the world has ever seen, stretching from the Siberian forests to the South China Sea, and from the mountains of Tajikistan to the island of Sakhalin, north of Japan. Its resources—in gold and jade, in rice and silk, in livestock, land, and priceless art—made it richer than all of Europe combined. And at its zenith, it was led by one man who held absolute power over 300 million subjects for sixty years. This was China in the eighteenth century, under the emperor known as Qianlong. At the heart of the empire was a walled palace complex: the Forbidden City—axis of the universe, pivot point of the four directions—where the Son of Heaven lived and ruled. Today the Forbidden City is Beijing’s Palace Museum, a repository of China’s national treasures. And now The Field Museum brings to Chicago nearly 400 of those treasures—many never before seen outside the Palace Museum—to tell the story of Qianlong, and of life as it was lived behind the palace walls. The new exhibition, Splendors of China’s Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong, opens on Friday, March 12, and will be on view through Sunday, September 12, 2004. In carefully crafted environments drawn from actual palace settings, visitors will have an opportunity to view the elaborate, gold-lacquered Dragon Throne from which the emperor ruled; the desk he worked at and the table where he dined; an imperial consort’s chamber; and the emperor’s memorial throne, with the tablet said to enshrine his spirit. Throughout the exhibition an extraordinary range of objects is on display, including jade carvings and ceramics, statues of gold and bronze, imperial dragon robes, hunting gear and weapons, elegant calligraphy and musical instruments, and extraordinarily detailed paintings by Qianlong’s court artists, who included several Jesuit missionaries. Splendors of China’s Forbidden City was developed by The Field Museum in cooperation with The Palace Museum, Beijing. The exhibition is presented by Exelon, proud parent of ComEd. Additional support provided by the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. Continue