- Museum number
- OA+,0.7423.1
- Title
- Series: Suite des seize estampes représentant les Conquêtes de l' Empereur de la Chine
- Description
-
Plate I: Presentation of the prisoners from the pacification of the Muslim tribes; the Qianlong Emperor is presented with prisoners taken during the East Turkestan campaign; scene at the Wumen (Meridian Gate), the southern gate of the Imperial Palace in Peking in 1760; to right, in an open gallery forming part of a pavilion at the top of the gate, the Emperor and attendants watch the scene in the courtyard below; here, three groups of men kneel on a pathway facing the gate, one man holding up a bag with the head of Khoja Jihīn (in Chinese Huojizhan) known as the Younger Khoja; with imperial bodyguards and figures playing music, in attendance. 1783
Etching and engraving
The plate is a reduced version of Plate 14 in original set: Presentation [to the Emperor] of the prisoners from the pacification of the Muslim tribes (On offre [à l'Empereur] les prisonniers [faits lors] de la pacification des tribus musulmanes)
- Production date
- 1783
- Dimensions
-
Height: 265 millimetres
-
Width: 427 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This set consists of twenty prints, and is in the form of an album half-bound in calf and marbled paper-covered boards. There is an ex-libris on the inside front cover with "Dr. and Madame Bodichon, 5 Blandford Square, N.W." and the stamp 'J.C.' (?). The fly-leaf is inscribed in pencil and in ink with a brief description of the album.
Sixteen of the prints are reduced copies of the prints in the original set 'Conquêtes de l'Empereur de la Chine' which were engraved under the direction of Cochin. Helman produced these reduced versions from 1783 to 1785, and they were published in 1785 in four livraisons of four plates each by Helman and Ponce. Soon afterwards, in 1786, Helman added four further prints to the set, representing two additional subjects, one of an agricultural ceremony led by the Emperor and another (in three plates) of a procession by the Emperor in Peking. These were published by Helman and Ponce and are included in this album. In 1788, Helman added a further four prints to the set, bringing the total number of engravings to twenty-four. These last four are not included in this album, but are part of another copy of the Helman album, kept in the Department of Prints and Drawings (Registration Numbers 1877,0714.1505 to 1526).
However, the identification and description of the events and scenes lettered in the sixteen Helman prints corresponding to Cochin's set is unreliable, because most of the the plate numbers (and therefore the plate sequence) do not correspond to those established by Pelliot for the Cochin set. Pelliot provided a concordance for the plates in both sets, which has been used in the literature thereafter.
The above-mentioned copy of the Helman album in the Department of Prints & Drawings also includes a printed sheet with a summary of the original imperial 'Conquêtes' commission, and a list of the contents of the Helman album itself. This list, in the form of a table, provides descriptions of the scenes depicted (as lettered on the individual prints). In addition, for the first sixteen plates, corresponding to those in Cochin's set, the original producer names are also provided (ie. Cochin's name, that of the engraver and usually that of the original draughtsmen).
A description is provided for Plate XVII, but no producer names. Plates XVIII, XIX and XX have a joint entry, with an indication that they were intended to be 'assembled' to form one scene, and with the names and addresses of Helman and Ponce.
Impressions of prints from the original 'Conquêtes' set are kept in the Department of Prints & Drawings. See 1932,0715.46 to 59.
See Paul Pelliot, Paul Pelliot, ‘Les Conquêtes de l’Empereur de la Chine’, T’oung Pao, vol.XX, 1921, 183-274; Michèle Pirazzoli-t'Serstevens, 'Gravures des Conquêtes de l'Empereur de la Chine K'ien-long au Musée Guimet', 1969.
See also Joanna Waley-Cohen, ‘Commemorating War in Eighteenth-Century China’, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 30, no.4, Special Issue: War in Modern China (Oct. 1996), pp. 869-899.
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- OA+,0.7423.1