Summer Palace, a place where retired people take care of themselves. In her later years, Cixi promised Emperor Guangxu to take charge of the government and retire and no longer interfere in government affairs, so she built the Summer Palace for Cixi. Emperor Guangxu supported the Reform Movement of 1898, which touched the fundamental interests of the old ministers. Cixi launched a coup to re-train the government and put Guangxu under house arrest in the Summer Palace, which was then turned into a royal palace.
In the early years of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, the number of gardens in Haidian area in the western suburbs of Beijing increased. The large amount of water used for gardens increased the water consumption. At that time, in addition to the Wanquan River system with a small flow, most of the water used for gardens came from the Yuquan Mountain. The water flows into the West Lake, which has also been the water source of Tonghui River since the Ming Dynasty. In the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), in order to prepare for the 60th birthday of Empress Dowager Chongde (Empress Xiaoshengxian), Emperor Qianlong ordered the excavation of the West Lake under the pretext of managing the water system in the west of Beijing to intercept the water from Xishan, Yuquan, and Shou'an Mountains. , and excavated Gaoshui Lake and Yangshui Lake to the west of West Lake, using the three lakes as reservoirs to ensure water for the palace gardens and provide irrigation water for surrounding farmland. Emperor Qianlong renamed the West Lake Kunming Lake based on the allusion that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty dug the Kunming Pool to train the navy. The earthworks dug from the lake were piled on Wengshan Mountain in Hubei, and Wengshan was renamed Wanshou Mountain.
This "design drawing" is the design drawing of the Summer Palace at the beginning of its construction. It was created by the court painter and architectural designer Lang Shining. It is a rare overall architectural planning layout of the Summer Palace in the Qing Dynasty. This picture has very important historical value for various subjects such as early Chinese royal architectural design, research, geographical environment, etc.