Prince Gong's Mansion

Prince Gong’s Mansion, known as Gong Wang Fu in Chinese, is located in Liuyin Street, West District of Beijing. This is a typical Prince Mansion of the Ming and Qing dynasties. This area is 330 meters long from north to south, 180 meters wide from east to west with a total of 59,800 square meters in area.

Originally Prince Gong’s Mansion was the private residence of He Shen, a favorite official of Qing Emperor Qianlong. This mansion garden was built in 1777 and then He Shen stayed here until 1799 when he was executed because of corruption. In 1851 Emperor Xianfeng, the seventh emperor of the Qing dynasty gifted this garden to his sixth brother Yixin, with the title  Prince Gong, ever since then the mansion was named Prince Gong’s Mansion.

Prince Gong’s Mansion is one of the best examples of a traditional Chinese aristocratic garden survived in Beijing. Trees, plants, rockeries, different types of gates and doors, the buildings and rooms as well as the paintings on the pillars and beams all indicated the status of the occupant. There are three masterpieces of structures in Prince Gong’s Mansion, which are the Western-Style Gate, the Grand Theater Hall and the Happiness Stele.

Western-Style Gate

The main gate of Prince Gong’s Mansion is a western styled gate which is also the front gate of the Mansion. This gate is the first masterpiece of architecture in Prince Gong’s Mansion. The western styled gate carved with beautiful Chinese carvings shows the perfect and harmonious combination of western style and ancient Chinese carvings.

The Grand Theater Hall

This is the second masterpiece of architecture in Prince Gong’s Mansion. The grand theater was built inside a big hall during the Qing dynasty with a seating capacity of more than 200. There are three unique features of this theater, firstly, the theater is a dovetail structure and wholly made of wood. That is why the theater stands firmly without any changes even with the changeable weather in the north. Secondly, the theater hall was painted with wisteria design everywhere that made people feel just like enjoying Peking Opera not inside a hall but in a courtyard under the wisteria tree. Thirdly, the theater hall was paved with gold bricks on the floor. In the old days, only the place where the emperor stayed cou ld use the gold bricks, for instance the Forbidden City, but gold bricks were used here.

Ever since the Prince Gong’s Mansion opened to the public, many important people have enjoyed performances here, such as Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his wife, former Premier of Singapore, Mr. Bush, former President of United State and his wife, Mr. Ryutaro Hashimoto, former Prime Minister of Janpan, and his wife Mrs. Yeltsin, the former first wife of Russia.

Happiness Stele(Fu Stele)

People can see the Chinese ” Happiness Culture” everywhere in the Prince Gong’s Mansion, for instance the “bat” design carved on the windows, doors and furniture. It was said there are 10,000 bat designs in the Mansion, so here was also called Ten Thousand Happiness Garden in the old days.

But the most famous ” Happiness” in the Mansion is the Happiness Stele which was written by Qing empeor Kangxi. This is the third masterpiece  in Prince Gong’s Mansion. In 1673, before her 60th birthday celebration, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, grandmother of Emperor Kangxi got serious illness. Empeor Kangxi decided to pray for happiness for his grandmother by writing a big Chinese character “Happiness” for her. He broke a rule for having his royal seal stamped on the calligraphy of ” Happiness” in order to make an exception. Ever since getting this inscription, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang became much better and healthier and lived another 15 years. So this “Happiness” was regarded as a national treasure and before Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang died, she ordered to inscribe this word”Happiness” on a large stone stele and placed it in the Forbidden City, Later during Emperor Qianlong’s regin, the stele was hidden by official He Shen in his own private garden. It was said that Emperor Qianlong granted the Happiness Stele to his favorite official He Shen. After He Shen got this stele, he built a cave in the center of his garden with thousands of rocks in a huge dragon design. And then the Happiness Stele was hidden inside

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Author: AmoyTrip.com--Prince Gong's Mansion
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