Rulers of art

A significant event in the Qing Dynasty's royal collection was the establishment of the Sanxi Tang (Hall of Three Rarities). Emperor Qianlong assembled three invaluable works from the fourth century: Kuaixue Shiqing Tie (Sunlight after Snowfall) by the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi; Zhongqiu Tie (Mid-Autumn) by his son, Wang Xianzhi; and Boyuan Tie (Letter to Boyuan) by Wang Xun.

Qianlong housed them in one of his studies at the Forbidden City (today the Palace Museum) — the West Warm Chamber of the Yangxin Dian (Hall of Mental Cultivation) — and in 1746, he renamed it Sanxi Tang. He wrote The Record of the Hall of Three Rarities to mark the occasion, which is now on display, reflecting his excitement in acquiring the three works. His calligraphy is elegantly rounded, showing the soaring spirit of a sovereign then in his prime.

The exhibition shows another of Qianlong's calligraphies, a practice copy of the Three Rarities. In an appended inscription at the end of the scroll, the emperor wrote that he had previously "copied the original pieces dozens of times" to capture the brush techniques and truly understand the artistic spirit.

Wang Yuegong, deputy director of the Palace Museum, says the reigns of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong marked a climax of civil governance in the Qing imperial court, and in the Kangxi era, the Nan Shufang (Southern Study) was established as an institution serving both administrative and literary functions. "It recruited erudite 'literary courtiers' to serve within the palace, thereafter fostering a flourishing tradition in which monarchs and their ministers bonded through poetry, calligraphy and painting," he says.