Yuanmingyuan was originally a garden given by Emperor Kangxi (reigning 1662- 1723) to his fourth son Yin Zhen (later Yong Zhengdi). According to the examination, it began in 1707 (forty-six years of Kangxi) when it was small. To 17 19 (fifty-eight years of Kangxi), the main landscape was on the four banks of Houhu, with Gengzhixuan in the north and willow trees near my Caotang on the west coast of Fuhai in the east. It was built on a large scale after Yongzheng dynasty (1723- 1735), and was added in the early years of Qianlong. By 1744 (the ninth year of Qianlong), Emperor Qianlong had divided the scenery into "Forty Scenes of Yuanmingyuan". In the next twenty or thirty years, the park has been expanded and rebuilt many times. There are nearly 50 landscape groups and about 600 halls with plaques. Many of these landscapes are copied from famous gardens in China, especially famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, such as Ten Scenes of West Lake in Hangzhou, An Lan Garden in Haining, Jichang Garden in Wuxi and so on.
The word "Yuanming" means "harmony and brilliance" in meaning, which means perfection, but in fact the name belongs to Buddhism. As we all know, Xuanzang, a famous monk in the Tang Dynasty, said that the first lady of Wang Sujing, who was released from Yamabu Prefecture, was very happy to give birth to a prince today, because he would be a know-it-all person, which also proved that Kangxi and Yongzheng loved Buddhism. Kangxi is known as the "Buddha's heart and son of heaven", and Yongzheng also claims to be "a layman". So it is not surprising that Kangxi chose this Buddhist term as the name of the palace.