The Summer Palace, or Garden of Peace and Harmony Yíhéyuán 頤和園: the dialogue of two ages
The Garden of Peace and Harmony is an example of the architectural and planning activities of the Qing Dynasty rulers. This Garden located in the north-west of Beijing, in the complex of Summer Palaces “Three mountains, five parks”, was build during Qianlong’s governing (1736-1795). In the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries this complex was the second residence of Chinese Emperors after the Forbidden City in Bejing. All ensembles, including Qianlong’s “European” Palace in the Garden Yuanmingyuan, were destroyed during the Opium Wars (1840-1860). In the last years of Qing Dynasty, the only one of the five parks was fully recovered - the Garden Transparent Ripple, which was renamed into the Garden of Peace and Harmony (1888). Now it is an important tourist object. The purpose of the article is to show that the Qing Dynasty style brought the image of Chinese architectural tradition as their version of eclecticism into modern time. All changes into the ensemble of the Summer Palace reflect the Qing style transformation during the two centuries from Qianlong’s era to the times of Regency of Empress Dowager Cixi, or Tz’u-hsi (1835-1908).