A Further Discussion on the Creation Age of Leng Mei’s The Summer Resort Painting Based on Qing Court Paintings and Literature

For the purpose of verifying the creation age of The Summer Resort Painting by Leng Mei of the Qing Dynasty, this paper studies the styles and characteristics of the Summer Resort royal garden during the reigns of Emperor Kangxi to Emperor Qianlong. By comparing historical materials of the court paintings of the Qing Dynasty, such as The Thirty-Six Sights of the Summer Resort by Shen Yu in Emperor Kangxi period and The General Plan of the Summer Resort as contained in Annals of Rehe Made by the Imperial Order in Emperor Qianlong period, it raises an objection to the “conclusion” on the age of creation of The Summer Resort Painting by Leng Mei. It analyzes the drawing method of Leng Mei, which was to exaggerate the main subject while abandon the supporting objects, to conclude that The Summer Resort Painting focused on “Ji’en Hall” in “Wanhe Songfeng”, voicing Emperor Qianlong’s memory of his grandfather Emperor Kangxi for the grace of patronage. By consulting and translating literature of the Qing Dynasty, in Chinese and Manchu languages, in the Construction Office of the Internal Affairs Department, the authors have found that The Summer Resort Painting was created in a different age from Shen Yu’s The Thirty-six Sights of the Summer Resort.