Summer Imperial Palace in Beijing and Empress Cixi
For more than 20 years, from 1861 till 1884, her political life at the Palace was concentrated on fighting down the opponents. Through intrigues and scheming she was able to take them away one by one. On the other hand, she brought in to the Palace many of her trustworthy supporters. Although Qing Dynasty was experiencing big difficulties both inside and outside the country, Cixi’s grip on power was still very strong. She acted at her own will, overlooking the hardships of her people and advice of her ministers. Construction of the Summer Palace is one of the most vivid examples of this.
For a long time Cixi wanted to restore the Garden of Clear Ripples, devastated by the English and the French troops, and to make it her second palace. Since the people at that difficult time were against it, she did not dare to do it on a big scale. But her supporters found the way – to usse the money designated for the Navy. Breaking the old rule which forbade eunuchs to leave the capital, she sent her chief eunuch Li Lianying to Tianjin to have secret negotiations with Li Hongzhang who was at the time the Superintendent of the North Sea Navy. To win Cixi’s favor, Li Hongzhang immediately agreed to give half of the amount designated for the Navy annually to build the garden.
In 1885 Navy Administration was organized and Prince Yixuan was appointed as Chief Overseer of the Navy’s Affairs. Navy academy was established on Kunming Lake as an umbrella for the reconstruction of the Garden of Clear Ripples. The academy was opened on January 27 1887. On the same day there was a ceremony of installing beams into the construction of the Cloud-Dispelling Hall – the main hall of the Garden.
For two or three years Cixi had been observing the reaction of people at the Court and outside it to the reconstruction of the Garden of Clear Ripples before she decided to announce it publicly. On March 13 1888 she issued a decree from the name of the Guangxu Emperor who formally announced the restoration of the Garden of Clear Ripples and renamed it into Yiheyuan – the Garden of Peace and Harmony.
After the defeat in the Cino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, when unrest was spreading throughout the country, Cixi dismissed the academy and stopped the construction of the Summer Palace. Historical records tell us that by this time the Garden of Peace and Harmony was almost completely restored to the condition of the Garden of Clear Ripples except for some buildings on the back side of the Longevity Hill and in the area of the West Dam.
There is different information about the cost of the restoration of the Summer Palace. Some say it was 80 million taels of silver, others say it was 30 million taels. It is difficult to say which is true, since the money came from different sources and often under different pretexts, for example, as the money for purchasing some equipment for the Navy. Now the latter figure is believed to be more accurate, the one taken from the book of Duan Qirui «Records of Early Sages», written about Li Hongzhang – the Superintendant of the Navy. According to it, Li Hongzhang collected 30 million taels of silver to build new war ships but they were never spent on the needs of the Fleet. How much money was actually spent exactly is not known.
After the Summer Palace was built Cixi lived there for the most part of the year. Sometimes she would come here in February and would not go back to the Forbidden City till the middle of December. In the last years of Cixi’s reign the Summer Palace became not only her place of rest but also the national center of state power. Its influence on the political life of the country was greater than that of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
In 1900 the Summer Imperial Palace was destroyed again during the Boxer Rebellion, this time by the allied forces of eight states. Big temples and halls on the western side of Longevity Hill were torn down. Only one temple remained – the Sea of Wisdom Temple, which was built with stone. In 1903 the Empress Dowager Cixi again spent a huge amount of money to rebuild the Palace. Now the Summer Palace was almost the same as it was in 1903.
From 1914 the Summer Palace existed as a private property of the Royal Family. After the last Emperor Puyi left his throne in 1924, the Palace was formally opened as a public park.
Until 1949 the park had not been renovated and fell into decay. After the People’s Republic of China was established the Summer Palace underwent a number of major restorations. Such landmarks as Four Great Continents, Su Zhuo Street, Wenchan Gallery, and others were rebuilt. Nowadays the Summer Palace is one of the most beautiful places in Beijing.
In December of 1998 UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List.
The Summer Palace could possibly be divided into three unique districts: Inner Court, Longevity Hill and the area of Kunming Lake.
The East Palace Gates that lead into the Inner Court are the main entrance to the Summer Imperial Garden. Here a group of typical for imperial palaces buildings, connected by roofed galleries, is located. At the center of it there is a Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, where the Guangxu Emperor had his court and where he took care of official affairs when he stopped here.
To the north from it there are three halls: the Hall of Jaded Waves where Guangxu lived, the Hall of Virtue and Harmony, where the biggest at its time theater of Qing Dynasty was, and the Hall of Happiness and Longevity – a luxurious residence of the Cixi Empress Dowager. To the north-east there is a Garden Of Harmonious Interests. This is a place where the emperors were resting and fishing.