[VOL II] PAVILION OF THE STAR OF HOPE, TONG-CHOW

PAVILION OF THE STAR OF HOPE,TONG-CHOW

Cover Image: Pavilion of the Star of Hope, Tong-chow Old Summer Palace / BeiJing China / Drawn by T. Allom Engraved by T.Turnbull – ALAMY Image ID:2X4BD3F

*The Pavilion of the Star of Hope（KuiXing Tower）is located in the Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) in Beijing and was built for Confucian scholars and students to worship KuiXing, the god believed to control the rise and fall of literature and studies.

“Let her but wish for shawls or pearls,
To bind her brow, to braid her curls;
And I from east to west would fly,
Ere she should seek, or I deny.”

THE MANDARIN.

EVERYWHERE in the Chinese empire, respect—calm, senseless, ceremonious respect—a sort of consideration due from the stronger to the weaker, from the older to the younger, from the natural protector to the object of protection—is paid by the sterner to the softer sex. But this sentiment being rather instinctive than rational, instead of a tribute to worth, it is only an extenuation of contempt. This habitual feeling for female feebleness is displayed most conspicuously in the villas or pavilions which the mandarin erects for the occupation of his wife and children; and the name of the splendid specimen which Mr. Allom has here selected, as an illustration of aristocratic life in China, has a sort of poetic reference to the father’s hope of happiness, from the representatives of his illustrious line, that are so fondly cherished within it.

Exhibiting an endless variety in design, yet built in strict accordance with the laws that limit domestic architecture, the Pavilion of the Star of Hope is, even amongst the metropolitan mandarins, who retire in summer to this locality, considered the Villa of Tong-chow par excellence. The lawns that extend, or rather rise, from the bank of the silvery Pei-ho to the pleasure-grounds of the villa, constitute a spacious demesne, intersected by artificial rivulets, adorned with artificial lakes, and embellished with bridges more numerous than necessary, and constructed for luxury rather than convenience. The garden and pleasure-grounds passed, visitors reach the marble court in front, a broad bright plateau, where the venerable owner occasionally receives them, and accepts the homage of the kow-tow, or prostration. The impiety of such a ceremony, it is not necessary to censure here; because habit has obliterated all idea of its impropriety—because despotism has polluted reason at its source, and the waters that flow thence can never be pure—and, lastly, because the Chinese do not know to whom alone the knee should be bent, and the spirit humbled. May the glory of teaching them be reserved for Britons!

Beneath a tee, or large umbrella, in the centre of the court, the humiliating ceremony is going forward, while the domestics, some with their velvet-buttoned caps, others bare-headed, are either awaiting the mandarin’s orders, or performing their respective duties. Three distinct pieces of architecture unite to form one grand combination, on which Chinese fancy and parental feeling have conferred a sentimental name. The first, or outer, exhibits the heavy double roof, with dragoned angles, an imperial finish—the second, a shaded corridor, introduced to give an air of lightness to the pavilions which it connects—and the third, an exquisite design, two stories in height, enriched with costly ornaments and delicate workmanship. The corridor, which separates the matron’s apartments, is furnished with stands of flowers, tables with china ornaments, and various trifling objects of vertu; while square, richly-carved, and guiltily-painted lanterns hang from the ceiling. The walls consist of panels carved or painted, or even of trellis-work, through which refreshing breezes enter; while the prospect over the landscape is rendered more agreeable by the limit of the aperture through which it is enjoyed. The inner apartment, the first of that suite, from which the jealousy of barbarian habits and the bigotry of a grovelling creed exclude the visitor, is generally supplied with an extravagant collection of ornaments and curiosities. Bamboo is enlisted extensively in furnishing chairs, sofas, tables, lattices, curtain frames, and other useful appendages of a boudoir; and, if artificial paintings be not present, nature is pressed into the service by affording some delightful spectacle of a distant landscape through an opening of a fanciful form. Above the boudoir are the sleeping apartments, which open upon a balcony enclosed by a carved and gilded balustrade, and from the roof depend lanterns adorned with embroidered silk and numerous tasselled honours.

In our view of the Pavilion of the Star of Hope, the entire range of colonnades, corridors, verandas, balconies, &c., has not been given. Repetition would have been less pleasing, without being more effective; besides, judgment can readily multiply the idea which this beautiful wing of the palace presents. The actual number of little temples which constitute the whole edifice, is enormous—the amount of pillars or columns, absurdly great—and, the extent of ground which the building occupies, from the peculiar style of national architecture, covers at least an acre of English measure.

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