Two Mechanisms by which the Ch’ing Emperor Kao-tsung Exerted Direct Control Over the Implements Made for Court Use, as Evidenced in the Documents of the Archives of Imperial Workshop
Chang Li-tuan
National Palace Museum
Antiquities Department
Abstract
The Ch’ing emperor Kao-tsung was a man of elegant taste, and he was keen on the refined pleasures in life, and that the implement and objets d’art produced under his commission are of a style exhibiting both imperial grandeur and classic grace. Yet, how did he control their quality? Additionally, how did he manage to have the works, noted for their large quantity and great diversity, made to meet his scrutinizing standards?
The paper is based primarily on materials from the Archives of the Imperial Workshop（or Huo-chi-tang 活計檔）, which is a conglomeration of Imperial edicts and instructions, as well as in-coming communications from other divisions of the government, received and kept by the staff of the Imperial workshop, an agency of the Ch’ing Imperial Household Department（or Nei-wu-fu內務府）. As these documents are all in one way or another related to the making of implements for court use, they are considered first-hand source materials for the study of imperial administration of the Workshop and the quality of its products, as well as other pertinent topics.
This article will consider the Archives of the Imperial Workshop, as compiled during the 60th year of Ch`ien-lung’s reign. The manufacturing process of goods from the Imperial workshop will be systematically analyzed, starting with imperial orders for work that originated from the Inner Court and continuing to the point at which the work for these projects was completed and submitted for final evaluation. Ch`ien-lung’s links with and active control over this work will be shown. Especially worthy of analysis is the early stages of manufacturing, in which Ch`ien-lung passed over control to the workshop. The Ch`ien-lung Emperor actively utilized all manner of preliminary drafts and samples in order to effectively communicate with the palace artisans. This allowed the artisans to thoroughly understand Emperor’s wishes. Also, this enabled the Emperor to grasp the artisans’ ideas and their production method. Therefore, this article will make a systematic list of the categories of objects, preliminary models used in this process as well as the final products produced. Additionally, the Emperor sometimes chose specific artisans or painters to work on a given piece; an action that shows that he was very familiar with the strengths of specific artisans and trusted them to design and manufacture products that would appeal to his specific tastes. This was a very effective system of control.
Keywords: Ch`ien-lung Emperor, Imperial workshop of the Ch’ing Imperial Household Department（or Nei-wu-fu-tsao-ban-ch’u）,Archives of Imperial Workshop, Ch`ing dynasty court artisans, The implements made for Ch`ing dynasty court use.