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Stories Behind Architectural Charm
Summer palace
Auspicious structure
Seen high from Wanshou Hill (Longevity Hill), the Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace is shaped like a peach and the structures on the sides of the Tower of Buddhist Incense shaped like wings of bat. Peach is a Chinese symbol of longevity, and bats indicate happiness.
Was it simply a coincidence or a deliberate arrangement No historical accurate historical records have been found. But the legend goes like this.
To celebrate the 40th birthday of Empress Cixi, Emperor Tongzhi (reign 1862-1874) had the Qingyi Garden rebuilt and renamed it the Summer Palace, in 1873.
Lei Tingchang, of the seventh generation of the Lei family, was the chief architect for the reconstruction. He was asked to incorporate the themes of ‘happiness, fortune and longevity, or fu lu shou in Chinese, into garden’s design to please Empress Cixi.
Lei Tingchang had people dig a lake at the foot of Wanshou Hill. Seen high up from the top of Wanshou Hill, the lake, now known as Kunming Lake, looks just like a peach. Spanning over the lake was a 17-arch bridge. Lei Tingchang had some islands built along the bridge in the shape of a turtle,
also symbolizing longevity. What’s more, he had structures on the sides of the Tower of Buddhist Incense on Wanshou Hill shaped like wings of a bat. The Chinese word for bat, fu, means happiness. It was common practice in ancient Chinese architecture to incorporate auspicious meanings into the
overall planning of a structure.
Bronze ox to tame flood
A bronze ox stands on the bank of Kunming Lake. It was built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796) to tame the flood. As one of the Chinese traditional customs, the practice is said to have existed ever since the Xia Dynasty (22nd-17th century B.C.). Whenever and wherever Yu, the
official responsible for flood control, finished taming a flood he would sink a very big iron ox in the river, assuming that the flood could in this way be subdued. Towards the Tang Dynasty (618-907) the iron ox was no longer sunk into the river but instead to be laid somewhere on the river bank.
When Emperor Qianlong finished dredging the Kunming Lake and built a causeway he couldn’t do otherwise but lay a gilded brass ox here in order to tame the flood, and to memorialize it a “Golden Ox Inscription” was done on the ox’s back.
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