Outside the Summer Palace in Beijing, there’s a famous statue of a dragon. I read somewhere - I cannot remember for the life of me where - that back in the day, when foreign diplomats wished to be given the court’s ear, they had to wait in front of it, or weren’t to pass it, or were to kowtow to it - or something like that. Perhaps the dragon represented China, or something; I’m not sure. I looked for information about this in the two sources I thought I might have stumbled upon it, and I Googled it, but I couldn’t find anything. Does anyone know anything about this?
The said dragon isn’t really a dragon and it isn’t outside the Summer Palace either. The statue is a bronze qílín, a mythical Chinese creature, that sits not too far inside the main entrance of the Summer Palace and just outside the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity (仁壽殿, Rén Shòu Diàn). During the period in which Qing Guangxu Emperor and the Empress Dowager lived in the summer palace, this hall was the centre of political activity. It’s where the Emperor and Empress governed the country, met with high ranking officials, and received foreign diplomats. Everyone that waited to see the Emperor/Empress waited by the qílín, not just foreigners.
Did we evil foreign powers manage to smash that one up too? Oh wait, I’m Australian, we were there under duress from our colonial overlords, the English.
That’s a good question. The answer is probably in Sterling Seagrave’s Dragon Lady. I remember reading that artwork left the country by the boatload. Now, I’m curious about that.
The reason I ask the question in the first place is that there’s a Confucian Institute an hour from where I live in Canada, and on its website it has that image. I was wondering if it were some sort of inside joke or something, although it’s probably unintentional.
[quote=“Ed Lakewood”]…You’re pretty brave. I wouldn’t even take a dip way out in the middle of nowhere in Guangxi province. Not in China: no thank you.
Ed[/quote]
I was assured by the local two-headed mermales that it was okay.
