Wànshòu Shèngdiǎn Chūjí 萬壽盛典初集
First Compilation of the Grand Records of the Sixtieth-Birthday Festival by 王掞 (監修), 王原祁 (奉敕撰), 王奕清 (奉敕撰)
About the work
A comprehensive imperial record of Kāngxī’s sixtieth-birthday festival of Kāngxī 52, third month (1713). 120 juǎn organized in six gates: chénzǎo (imperial compositions: 1 juǎn of edicts; 1 of imperial poems, prose, fù, eulogies); shèngdé (sage virtue, with sub-sections on filial-virtue, modesty, peace-keeping, instruction); diǎnlǐ (rituals, with sub-sections on the audience-and-congratulation, parade-equipage, sacrifice-and-announcement, edict-promulgation, longevity-feast for elders, great-reception); ēnlài (imperial favors, with sub-sections on imperial clan, outer vassals, officials, elders, tax-remission, examination opening, troop-rewards, judicial pardons); qìngzhù (celebrations, with diagrams and records of mountain-blessing rituals and tribute deputations); gēsòng (eulogies). The work was directed by Wáng Shǎn 王掞, with the prose by Wáng Yuánqí 王原祁 (1642–1715) and Wáng Yìqīng 王奕清 (1665–1737); the famous two juǎn of pictorial diagrams document the celebrations were initially drawn by Sòng Jùnyè 宋駿業 and revised by Wáng Yuánqí.
Tiyao
In Kāngxī 52, third month, the sixtieth-birthday festival of ShèngzǔRénHuángdì (Kāngxī) was reverently celebrated; this is the compilation of the inner-court editorial officers. Six gates: 1) chénzǎo (imperial compositions): zhàoyù (edicts), 1 juǎn; imperial-composed shīwénfùsòng, 1 juǎn. 2) shèngdé: filial-virtue, modesty, peace-keeping, instruction—four sub-sections. 3) diǎnlǐ: court audience, parade-equipage, sacrifice-and-announcement, edict-promulgation, longevity-feast for elders, great-reception—six sub-sections. 4) ēnlài: imperial clan, outer vassals, officers, elders, tax-remission, examination opening, troop-rewards, judicial pardons—eight sub-sections. 5) qìngzhù: with diagrams and records, including famous-mountain blessings and the zhūchén cháogòng protocol. 6) gēsòng: inner and outer celebratory compositions, all gathered.
Reverently regarding our ShèngzǔRénHuángdì’s deep virtue and high Way, his blessings long and abundant, his subjects of the time enjoyed his rich transformation, every land and people sharing in joy. The street songs and lane-dances of celebration were unprecedented in past ages. Yet reading the imperial edicts, he constantly placed “the peace of all the people” and “the blessing of all-under-heaven” first, with apprehension. The work serves not only to record a great age of peace; it shows ten thousand generations of subjects the sage’s careful preservation of plenitude, the great foundation of long blessing.
The book contains 2 juǎn of diagrams documenting the welcomed-imperial-carriage, popular celebrations, etc., in fine detail—rare in pictorial history. The diagrams were initially drafted by Sòng Jùnyè 宋駿業 and revised by Wáng Yuánqí and others. Opening these juǎn, one feels the prosperity of streets and lanes, the joy of children and elders, as if seen and experienced. The diagrams in the Sìkù edition are copied from the original; their scale is therefore slightly larger than other juǎn.
Abstract
A signature Kāngxī-period compilation, both a documentary record and a piece of imperial-cult propaganda. The dating bracket: 1713 was the festival year; the work was compiled and presented over 1714–1717. The catalog meta gives the date Kāngxī 52 (1713) which marks the festival itself; presentation followed by a few years.
The work was the model for KR2m0040 Bāxún Wànshòu Shèngdiǎn (the eightieth-birthday festival record of Qiánlóng’s mother) and other later imperial-festival compilations. The pictorial juǎn (the Wànshòu shèngdiǎn tú 萬壽盛典圖) drawn by Sòng Jùnyè (an imperial-painter of the Nèitíng atelier) and revised by Wáng Yuánqí (the principal disciple of the late-Míng / early-Qīng painter Dǒng Qíchāng’s tradition and one of the Sì Wáng of orthodox Qīng painting) is itself a major art-historical document.
The Wáng Yuánqí dates 1642–1715 (CBDB) confirm his death two years before the work’s completion. Wáng Yìqīng 1665–1737 (CBDB) carried the work through to its final form.
Translations and research
Standard editions: Wényuāngé Sìkù. Madeleine Zelin, The Magistrate’s Tael: Rationalizing Fiscal Reform in Eighteenth-Century Ch’ing China (Univ. of California, 1984); Pamela Crossley, A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology (Univ. of California, 1999), use the work as a primary source on imperial-cult production. The pictorial juǎn are studied in: Cheng-hua Wang 王正華, “Wàn-shòu shèng-diǎn tú yǔ Kāngxī wén-huà jiàn-gòu” (Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 75.2, 2004).
Other points of interest
The pictorial collaboration between Sòng Jùnyè and Wáng Yuánqí is a small landmark in early-Qīng art history: the orthodox-school painter Wáng Yuánqí, normally identified with formal landscape, here engages with a documentary-narrative pictorial mode (the xíngtú / progress-diagram), bridging orthodox painting and court-document illustration.