THE SUMMER PALACE AND ITS GROUNDS
The Summer Palace, the Empress Dowager’s favorite residence, is
really a superb domain. Its naturally picturesque situation among the
beautiful Western Hills, sixteen miles from Peking, has been improved
wherever possible, by the devices of art. The many buildings that
constitute an Oriental Palace have been most picturesquely grouped on
the banks of its great lake. The eminences and natural undulations have
all been made the most of as sites for Palaces and temples, and the
grounds are laid out with all the art the Chinese landscape artist has
at his command.
The buildings of the Palace proper, where Their Majesties and their
suites live, are all massed in one great town-like group at the
southeastern end of the lake. In this group are the Theater, with its
courts, and the Great Audience Hall. Palaces, temples, summer-houses,
tea-booths, dot the whole surface of the great park, and all the
vantage-points have been utilized for constructions.
A beautiful white marble terrace runs the length of the southern side
of the lake. Pavilions at intervals vary the monotony of this line or
give accent to the natural indentations of the banks. Picturesque
landing-places, with their marble steps lapped by the waters of the
lake, also lend their variety to this terrace surmounted by its
beautiful lotus balustrade.
The highest of the hills in the park of the Summer Palace is crowned
by the Great Temple of the Ten Thousand Buddhas. This is approached
by hundreds of steps, which lead up from the broadest part of the
marble terrace over the lake. Beautiful Palaces are built along this
terraced height. Picturesque pai-lou (memorial arches) are built at
such beautiful points, that Nature herself seems to have designed these
positions for them.
A fair, verdure-clad island lies peacefully on the bosom of the lake,
and the Palace and temple built thereon seem a part of the natural
formation of stone out of which they rise. A graceful seventeen-arched
bridge of white marble connects this island with the northern bank of
the lake.
The canal from Peking, which feeds the lake, winds in and out of
the grounds in such graceful meanderings as to seem some fair
mountain stream. The outlets to the lakes are spanned by the graceful
camel-backed bridges that only the Chinese architects build. Nature
and art are everywhere so blended, so harmonized, it is difficult to
tell which is which. The simple lines and beautiful proportions and
harmonious colors of the one-storied Chinese buildings make even these
seem almost a part of the landscape.
Chinese architecture--and one grows to admire it very much when studied
in its own environment--is tent-building, carried to its greatest
perfection and made enduring by the use of materials that last.
The grouping of the Chinese buildings is on the same order as the
congregation of tents of some roving tribe of Nomads. The downward
curve and upturned tilt of their roofs is but the natural slope of the
canvas and its uplifting by the tent-poles. These slender tent-poles
have developed into the supporting pillars of the verandah, and the
raised canvas door of the tent has grown into its buoyantly curved
roof. The ornamental eaves are but the solidified silken fringes
and embroidered valances of the tents of old. The curious roof
ornamentations of the modern Chinese house replace the weights that
held the tent-canvas steady. These weights, from rough stones, have now
become carven images, cunningly wrought. The Chinese even erect their
houses as their ancestors raised their tents. The builder places the
columns and puts on the roof before the walls are built. Except the
pagoda--and this even seems like so many superposed tents--the Chinese
building remains to-day, in spite of its elaborate roofs, its lacquered
pillars, and elaborate ornamentation, like some splendid tent, grown
into greater fixity and beautified by some magician’s wand. It is
admirably suited to the calm pastoral landscapes in which it rests, and
seems a part of Nature itself, and is never out of keeping with its
surroundings!
Wherever available, in the grounds of the Summer Palace, flowers are
planted, and they succeed each other almost the whole year round,
for the Chinese are wonderful gardeners. The extensive grounds are,
however, not given up entirely to flowers and beautiful constructions;
there are great fields of grain. Wheat and millet, and even
vegetables, are raised in these pleasure grounds. It was curious to
me to see how picturesque so prosaic a thing as a field of turnips
might become, when properly placed in a large pleasure domain. By
the planting of these useful crops, a great deal of fertile land is
utilized, without any detriment to the landscape, and the utilitarian
spirit, so strong in the Chinese, is satisfied.
There is one terraced hillside in the grounds of the Summer Palace,
called the “Flowery Mountain.” In the season of the peonies, which
the Chinese call “The King of Flowers,” this is really a flowery
mountain--one mass of blooms of exquisitely blended colors and faint
evanescent perfume. The China Aster is also brought to great perfection
by the Chinese gardeners, and in the time of the chrysanthemum the
grounds fairly blaze with this autumnal glory. The Chinese do not go
in for the cultivation of the chrysanthemum of extraordinary size. Her
Majesty does not care much for these; but her gardeners arrive at some
wonderful combinations of colors and some most curious shapes. The year
I was in the Palace, Her Majesty was delighted with a beautiful green
variety, that the gardeners had succeeded in getting, and that year
there was also a new variety whose petals were like threads, they were
so thin and hair-like.
[Illustration: OLD RUINS IN THE SUMMER PALACE]
The Temple of the Ten Thousand Buddhas is so-called from its being
built in glazed yellow tiles, each representing a niche, in which is
seated a Buddha, of which there are many more than ten thousand. The
interior is composed of three chapels. In the central one thrones the
Great Buddha. There was another famous Buddha in this temple, which
was invested with peculiarly sacred qualities, but it was hurled into
the lake below and broken into a thousand pieces when the foreign
troops were in possession in 1900. Her Majesty seemed to feel the
depredations to the temples, by the foreigners, more keenly than
anything else. The Chinese are so perfectly tolerant in matters of
religion, they cannot understand our attitude toward any other religion
but our own, and our contempt for any other kind of worship except that
in which we ourselves indulge.
The Chinese are said to hate the foreigner. They certainly have not
much reason to like him; nor to admire our much vaunted civilization.
The European Christian soldier in China has burned, destroyed, and
killed with as much barbarity as the heathen, and in many instances has
given the latter points in cruelty.
On the slope behind the terraced hill of the Ten Thousand Buddhas are
the ruins of the old Summer Palace, destroyed by the European troops
fifty years ago. After this, the site of the dwelling Palaces was
changed, and they were massed on the southern side of the lake. Her
Majesty has nearly hidden all trace of the 1900 devastations to the
Summer Palace, but these old ruins of the former Palace still remain,
and they are not a blot upon the landscape. On the contrary, they have
become picturesque with time, and give the one note of somberness to
this smiling demesne that is needed to accentuate its charm. There is
a small lake not far from these old ruins, built around with smiling
pavilions and a curious tower-like construction which is used as a
private temple. There are landing-places and small boats. It looks
like a charming bit of old Venice. We never went here, however, but
once. There are some unhappy associations connected with this beautiful
spot, and Her Majesty did not seem to care to visit it. The promenade
in the direction of the old Palace also seemed to sadden her, for she
had passed the early years of her married life in these now crumbling
ruins.
From the highest elevations in the grounds of the Summer Palace, we
could see the road from Peking! Sometimes Her Majesty and the Ladies
would watch from some of the summer-houses, the carts and chairs and
vehicles as they passed along. Several times we saw the Emperor and his
suite returning from some ceremony in Peking, over the road cleared for
his passage. Her Majesty, herself, would be the first to descry him,
and she would say, “The Emperor comes.” Then the Empress and Ladies
would all look, for it was not against the Proprieties for them to look
at His Majesty at such a distance. These views of the high road from
the eminences of the Summer Palace were all Her Majesty and the young
Empress ever saw of the outside world and common humanity; for neither
at the Winter nor Sea Palaces could they get any views from a distance,
nor was there any opportunity of seeing beyond the walls. When Their
Chinese Majesties go abroad--and this is generally only from one Palace
to another--quaint, triangular flags are placed along the Imperial
route, warning the people that Their Sacred Majesties are to pass,
and that the road will be reserved for them between certain hours. No
vehicles or pedestrians are allowed for some time before and after
the Imperial passage. In the City of Peking, the inhabitants, even on
the streets where the Imperial cortège is to pass, are shut into their
houses and not allowed to go out of their doors during the time, and
at the intersection of the transversal streets huge curtains are hung,
shutting them off from the Imperial way. For these progresses of Their
Majesties, the roads are covered with yellow sand.