- 280
An extremely rare and important set of ten Imperial Bannermen Paintings ATTRIBUTED TO JIN TINGBIAO (ACTIVE 1757-1767), INSCRIBED BY THE QIANLONG EMPEROR QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD, c. 1760
Description
Provenance
Acquired in Berlin, Germany, circa 1955.
Catalogue Note
Three very similar paintings of bannermen, similarly inscribed by the Qianlong Emperor, and most likely from the same handscroll, are still in Berlin, in the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst (Museum of East Asian Art). They were included in the Museum’s exhibition Bilder für die Halle des Purpurglanzes, Berlin, 2003, cat.nos.1-3. As discussed in greater detail in Annette Bügener’s essay, the handscroll, which originally comprised fifty portraits, was commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor for his personal use from the court painter Jin Tingbiao in the 25th year of his reign (AD 1760). The poems were composed in the same year. No further fragments of the scroll appear to be recorded.
The portraits show the following bannermen (biographical notes by Annette Bügener):
1. Jaohûi, General, Pacifier of the Frontier, Duke of the first rank [with the epithet] wuyimouyong (Martial, Steadfast, Resourceful and Brave) and Minister of Revenue
Jaohûi (1708 - Dec. 10, 1764), given name He-fu, was a member of the Wu-ya clan and belonged to the Manchu Plain Yellow Banner. As a grand-nephew of Empress Xiaogong, he was a second cousin of the Qianlong Emperor. Outstanding among his many civil and military missions was his successful participation in the First Jinchuan War (1748-1749). Later he played an eminent role in the conquest of East Turkestan (1755-1759). During the three-month siege at the Kara Usu river near Yarkand in the winter of 1758-1759, he showed perseverance and received much glory and many imperial honors, among them the honorary title of Duke of the first rank, with the epithet wuyi mouyong. On his return to the capital at the head of the victorious army in 1760, Jaohûi was greeted by the Emperor personally outside Beijing and honored with several banquets before the throne. Afterwards he served as Minister of Revenue and was appointed Assistant Grand Secretary in 1761. Until his death in 1764, he was several times sent to inspect and report on river conservancy. In 1796, the name of Jaohûi was placed in the Imperial Ancestral Hall, among those of other eminent statesmen.
The two seam seals read Xu zhong cheng zhao and Suo bao wei xian.
2. Bandi, the late General, Pacifier of the North, Duke of the first rank [with the epithet] chengyong (Perfect and Brave) and Minister of War
Bandi (died Oct. 4, 1755) was a member of the Borjigit clan and belonged to the Mongol Plain Yellow Banner. He passed through several minor offices in the Grand Secretariat, the Court of Colonial Affairs and the Board of War. Due to his failure to report the commanders' mismanagement in the First Jinchuan War (1748-1749), he was discharged from all offices. After postings in Kokonor, Tibet and Guangzhou, he was recalled to Beijing in 1754 and, with the rank of Minister of War, put in charge of the provisions for the army of the northern route among hostile Mongols. His able management won him praise and further honors from the Emperor. In the summer of 1755, General Bandi played an eminent role in the pacification of Dzungaria and therefore was raised to the hereditary position of Duke of the first rank, with the epithet chengyong. As head of a garrison in Ili, he was suddenly attacked by the disloyal West Mongol leader Amursana and his troops. Being surrounded, Bandi committed suicide and his officers were all slaughtered.
3. Namjal, the late General, Pacifier of the Rebellion, Duke of the third rank [with the epithet] yilie (Righteous and Heroic) and Minister of Works
Namjal (d. 1758) belonged to the Tu-bo-te clan and was a member of the Mongol Plain White Banner. At the beginning an unemployed bannerman, he obtained a post as Junior Guardsman and held several posts in the border regions, in Tibet and elsewhere. As a reward for his assistance in capturing a West Mongol tribal leader, he was in 1756 granted the title of Earl; a year later, he was promoted to Minister of Works. In December 1758 General Namjal was called for to replace the exhausted troops under Jaohûi (see no. 1) and Fude (see no. 5), which were beleaguered at Yarkand. He departed with two hundred mounted troops, but at night shortly before reaching his destination, was trapped by the enemy and killed together with his soldiers in a battle against a superior Muslim force of more than three thousand men. The Qianlong Emperor records this story in the accompanying eulogy. Posthumously he was honored with the title of Duke.
The two seam seals read De ri xin and He gong […] zhong.
4. Čebdenĵab, Vice General, Pacifier of the Frontier, Commandery Prince with the rank of Imperial Prince [with the epithet] chaoyong (Outstanding and Brave)
Čebdenĵab (1705-1782) belonged to the Borjigit clan and was a member of the East Mongol Qalqa. His illustrious father Cering had been honored by marriage to an Imperial Princess and thereby awarded the title Consort (of the Imperial Princess). Since 1755 he gained merit by persecuting the West Mongol rebel leaders Dawaci and Amursana. In the spring of 1758, he decisively participated as General in the victory of the battle of Khorgos and was awarded the honorary title ‘Eminent and Brave' of his father. Later he was transferred to posts in Ili and Tibet. From 1771 to 1773 he acted as third Governor of Qalqa. In his commentary, the Qianlong Emperor makes special mention of Čebdenĵab’s imperial descent, praises his excellence in horseback archery, and compares him in his lack of literary aspirations to the famous generals of old.
5. Fude, Vice-General, Pacifier of the Frontier, Count of the first rank [with the epithet] jingni chengyong (Perfect and Brave Suppresser of the Rebellion) and Minister for Colonial Affairs
Fude (died 1776) was a member of the Guwalgiya clan garrisoned at Kirin and belonged to the Manchu Plain Yellow Banner. He held a leading position in the campaign in East Turkestan and Jinchuan (1771-1776). He showed special heroic bravery together with other generals during the breaching of the besieging army’s lines and the relief of the Manchu troops under General Jaôhui (see no. 3) in February 1759. Due to his merits in this campaign, he was promoted several times and finally awarded the title of Marquis with the epithet jingni chengyong. Fude’s subsequent career was characterised by numerous inglorious affairs. He was sentenced to death several times for embezzlement and other offences, but the Qianlong Emperor always pardoned him. Finally, his false accusation against the successful General Agûi (1717-1797) for exceeding his authority proved fatal. A few days after Agûi’s triumphal return from Jinchuan (1776), Fude was beheaded.
6. Saral, the late Vice-General, Pacifier of the Frontier, Earl of the second rank [with the epithet] chaoyong (Outstanding and Brave) and Senior Treasurer of the Imperial Guard
Saral (died 1759) was a member of the Mongol Plain Yellow Banner. A Dzungar (West Mongol) by birth, he submitted to the Qing with his followers in 1750. Thereafter he entered the banner army and held several posts. In 1754, he took part as Vice-General in the pursuit of the West Mongol rebel leader Dawaci. In the following years he was repeatedly honoured for his military merits; in 1759, he was awarded the honorary title of Earl of the second rank, with the epithet chaoyong.
The seam seal reads Chui lu.
7. Dou Bin, the late Divisional Commander, Provincial Commander of the Green Standards of Anxi and Commander of the Garrison of the Green Standards (Brigadier General)
Dou Bin (died 1759) was a Han Chinese and a native of Guyuan in Shaanxi province. Under the Yongzheng Emperor he was injured in the fight against the Dzungars and was honoured for his bravery. From 1736, he held various posts, such as Provincial Commander in Guangdong, Guangxi and Anxi. When Muslim enemies laid siege to the troops under General Jaohûi (see no. 1) on the Kara Usu river near Yarkand in winter 1758, Dou Bin under the command of General Fude (see no. 5) set out from Aksu to help the encircled army. At the battle of Qurman in February 1759, Dou Bin led his troops equipped with firearms. Although wounded in the chest, he continued to fight valiantly. After victory had been achieved, he finally died of his heavy injuries.
The two seam seals read Ge zhong zi you yu hu bing and Hua gong si qi wei quan shi.
8. Gao Tianxi, the late Divisional Commander, Provincial Commander of the Green Standards of Gansu and Commander of the Garrison of the Green Standards (Brigadier General),
Gao Tianxi (d. 1758), a Dzungar (West Mongol), was captured by the Qing army under the Yongzheng Emperor. He was adopted by a family named Gao in Xining (Gansu province), hence his Chinese name. In 1757 and 1758 he held the post of Provincial Commander of the Green Standards at Xining in Gansu and that of a Commander of the Garrison of the Green Standards. In November 1758 a tragic incident occured during the battle of Yarkand, when a bridge over the Kara Usu river collapsed under several hundred horsemen, cutting off the rest of the soldiers at the opposite bank. The horsemen were attacked by an approaching superior enemy force and Gao was among numerous officers killed in action while trying to assist their comrades. The Qianlong Emperor is particularly affectionate in his eulogy for Gao, which can be translated
The ‘teeth-and-claws' Commander always went by the rules, but never followed them blindly.
My feelings for him are particularly deep,
That he sacrificed his life leaves me at a loss for words.
A hundred times in a hundred battles he fought in the front line.
One called him ‘blood hero' since in rage his face turned blood-red.
The first of the two seam seals reads Xie xin.
9. Duan-ji-bu, Divisional Commander, Assistant Banner Commander (Lieutenant General of the Banner) and ta-shi baturu
Duan-ji-bu (died 1761) was a member of the Guwalgiya clan and belonged to the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner. He began his military career in the Vanguard and in 1757 received the Emperor’s order to follow the troops under General Jaohûi (see no. 1) on their way westward. He participated in the successful capture of several West Mongol rebel leaders. When General Jaohûi’s army in winter 1758 was besieged at the Kara Usu river near Yarkand, Duan-ji-bu joined the troops under General Fude (see no. 5) for the lifting of the siege. His merits on this occasion are particularly mentioned by the Qianlong Emperor in his eulogy. He fought in more than a dozen battles, including that at Qurman in February 1759. For his merits he was awarded the honorary title ta-shi baturu and others.
10. Macang, Divisional Commander, Commander of the Vanguard and mergen baturu (Outstanding Hero)
Macang’s exact dates are not known. Presumably a member of one of the eight Manchu banners, he took part in numerous battles in East Turkestan. He gained great merit in the battle of Qurman in February 1759. While General Fude (see no. 5) was on the march to relieve the army invested at Yarkand under General Jaohûi (see no. 1), he encountered at Qurman a superior force of five thousand enemy horsemen. The battle raged for five days and four nights before the Manchu army and its allies gained the victory. Macang fought against the superior forces at the head of a cavalry squadron. While fiercely in pursuit of a foe, whom he finally killed with his third arrowshot, he inadvertently crossed the enemy lines. Although many warriors surrounded him and killed his horse, he continued to fight on foot despite many wounds, until his own soldiers were able to rescue him. In his laudatory poem, the Qianlong Emperor pays tribute to this feat in particular. His great heroic courage became known to the Emperor, who sometime later called him to Beijing. He was awarded the honorary title mergen baturu (Outstanding Hero), among others, got promoted to Commander of the Vanguard at the Imperial Palace and was presented with an estate.
The Qianlong Emperor and His Bannermen
Annette Bügener
The Qianlong Emperor himself regarded his Ten Victorious Campaigns as brilliant achievements of his reign. In order to consolidate the power of the Qing empire (1644-1911), he followed the expansionist politics of his grandfather, the Kangxi Emperor, and during the second half of the eighteenth century undertook several campaigns along the borders of his empire, in Central Asia, for instance, and in Tibet, Myanmar (Burma), Annam (Vietnam), Taiwan and Nepal. On his orders, the military campaigns were glorified in painting series, which mainly consisted of battle scenes and portraits of meritorious banner officers. Between 1760 and 1792 alone, a period of more than thirty years, four such portrait series were created with altogether 280 compositions in versions of different formats.[1]
When the Qianlong Emperor ordered the court painters to produce portraits of officers, he was following a tradition established at least two millennia earlier. Already in the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), emperors had honoured loyal officials and successful generals with painted portraits, which they displayed on the walls of the imperial palace. The paintings were meant to keep alive the memory of these immortal heroes and at the same time to demonstrate the ruler's power. During the Tang dynasty (618-907), the Taizong Emperor (r. 626-647) commissioned the famous court painter Yan Liben to produce twenty-four portraits of outstanding officials and generals. The Qianlong Emperor took up this tradition and surpassed it already by sheer number. The first series, which was painted after the successful campaign in East Turkestan (Xinjiang, 1755-59), already contained one hundred portraits. For the first half of these pictures, the Emperor himself composed the eulogies; for the second half, this work was given to high-ranking officials who were particular favourites of the Emperor. The same number was painted following the campaign in Jinchuan (Sichuan, 1771-76) in the Chinese-Tibetan border region. A further fifty portraits were commissioned after the campaign against Taiwan (1786-88) and thirty more after the victory over the Gurkhas in Nepal (1790-92).
The Qianlong Emperor was not only the patron of this mammoth project, but also carefully supervised the whole process involved in the genesis of these paintings. The officials and officers were recalled from the battlefield to the capital, where they had to sit a few hours for their portrait. The Emperor used their presence at the court to learn the latest news about the campaigns. Working from sketches drawn with charcoal, the artists would first provide bust portraits in oil on paper, and these were shown to the Emperor. If he was satisfied, the faces were copied on large pieces of silk and then the body, headgear and weapons added. The hanging scrolls together with the monumental battle paintings were then taken to the Hall of Purple Splendour (Ziguangge), a two-story building west of the imperial palace on the western shore of the Central Lake, where war trophies like banners and weapons were displayed on the upper floor. It was there that the Qianlong Emperor received envoys from foreign countries and regularly gave magnificent banquets for loyal officials and allies. After the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, many of these pictures from the imperial palace were spirited abroad. Of the original 280 hanging scrolls, fifty have by now been identified outside Beijing, of which a surprising two thirds are found in Germany. It seems that Berlin was the centre of this trade. Not a single portrait of this type appears to be preserved in the imperial collections in Beijing or Taipei. Among the almost forty surviving portraits, half can be ascribed to the first series of c. 1760.
The portrait of Grand Secretary Fuheng (c. 1720-70; Fig. 1) is the first of the hundred scrolls of the first series (1760) and shows the Emperor's closest adviser in the traditional ceremonial court dress (chaopao). Above the portrait is the so-called poetry hall (shitang), a separate piece of yellow silk where the eulogies are inscribed in black ink. The combination of a full figure, generally in three-quarter profile on a blank background, with a poetry hall symbolises dignity and can be traced back to the Song dynasty (960-1279). The inscription lists the officer's rank, honorary title and name and his memorable deeds in war, and gives the date and the author(s) of the eulogy.
The traditions of the Manchu people as steppe nomads are reflected in the tight cut and the lateral fastening of the garments worn by most of the officers, as shown in the portrait of Uksiltu (Fig. 2). The usual footwear consisted of knee-high satin boots. The head was covered with a winter hat trimmed with fur and surmounted by stones of different colours, called mandarin knobs and indicating the person's rank. The so-called banner troops provided the crack and elite troops of the Qing army, a situation that was crucial for the dynasty's longevity. The groundwork for this military organisation, which would remain in place over several centuries, was laid in 1601 by Nurhaci (1559-1626), the founder of the Manchu nation, when he divided the whole Manchu population into eight banners.
Fuheng was the only one among the Emperor's advisers who had argued for the campaign in eastern Turkestan (1755-59), in which Jaohûi (no. 1) was the leading commander. The last phase saw the three-month long siege of the Chinese troops in winter 1758 at the Kara Usu river near Yarkand, which only ended due to the outright victory at Qurman in February 1759. The subsequent conquest of numerous cities was the first step in the eventual establishment of Xinjiang (lit. new territory) province.
The victory celebrations at the end of each campaign were accompanied, like the sacrifices regularly performed by the Emperor at various temples in Beijing, by splendid rituals designed to maintain the structure of political power. The most important work for the court artists was to document these ceremonies in countless paintings, ranging from narrow horizontal scrolls to monumental wall paintings several metres long. For these, the Emperor deliberately referred to European traditions of history painting, which the Jesuits, active at the imperial court since the seventeenth century, had introduced mainly by means of book illustrations. The Qianlong Emperor was fascinated by the true perspective and by the play of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), which made figures in engravings and woodcuts as well as in oil paintings so much more substantial and lively. As the Emperor abhorred spotted faces and allowed oil colours, because of their glossy surface, to be used only for sketches, almost all surviving portraits of the imperial family and officers are executed in ink and colours and in a Chinese-Western style, which achieves plasticity by modelling the faces through shading.
In the sixth month of the year 1760, the Qianlong Emperor ordered the much admired court painter Jin Tingbiao (active 1757-67) to paint for his private use a horizontal scroll with fifty portraits of officers involved in the East Turkestan campaign in brilliant colours on paper, of which only a few fragments have survived. A second scroll with fifty portraits was evidently commissioned by the Emperor in the following year. The imperial catalogue Shiqu baoji xubian (Precious Collection of the Stone Canal Hall, Second Series) of 1793 mentions only the first scroll, however.[2] Three portraits are kept at the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst in Berlin (Arigun, Looge and Daktana),[3] a fourth (Ayusi) is in the S.J. Noumoff collection in Montreal.[4] Jin Tingbiao, a native of Wucheng in Zhejiang province, during his ten-year activity as a court painter at the Painting Academy in Beijing, became a respected specialist in figure and portrait painting, and the Emperor equally appreciated his landscapes.
On the hand scroll, full-length representations of officers alternate with eulogies in cursive script (xingshu) in the Emperor¡¦s hand. Where two sheets of paper meet, the mounting shows along the borders a so-called seam seal of the Qianlong Emperor, which generally contains a poetic device. The broad sweep of the brushwork is impressive and conforms to the traditional mode of Chinese figure painting. While the faces are finely modulated with light ink and several colour washes, the body contours are left vague underneath the decisive and prominent outlines of the garments. Brilliant opaque colours, a typical indication of academy painting, are used both here and for the hanging scroll versions. The figures, despite some anatomical shortcomings in the representation, are nevertheless more harmonious than in the workshop portraits on the hanging scrolls. The artist's love of detail is expressed in the delicate shading of feathers, pearls and sword mounts. Here the influence of Western painting traditions is noticeable, which were introduced by Jesuits active at the imperial court. With his right arm bent at his back, the imperial guard officer Daktana (Fig. 3), for example, presents himself in a posture similar to that of European portraits of emperors and princes.
Whereas the large hanging scrolls, on account of their function as cult paintings and unsigned workshop productions, are not listed in the major catalogue of the imperial collection of painting and calligraphy, the Shiqu baoji xubian, the hand scrolls with portraits of officers from the first three series are recorded, which indicates how highly the Emperor regarded them. The pertinent hand scroll from the campaign in East Turkestan is entitled Yubi pingding Yi-li Huibu wushi gongchen xiangzan (Eulogies composed by the Emperor for portraits of fifty meritorious officers active in the pacification of Ili and the Muslim tribes).[5] Besides commissioning and supervising the project, the Qianlong Emperor was also the author and calligrapher (in cursive script) of the eulogies for his favourite officers which appear in the more intimate hand scroll format.
As the supreme ruler of a multi-cultural empire, the Emperor aimed for a synthesis of civil (wen) and martial (wu) virtues in his relations with allies and subjects. Conquered peoples were sometimes affiliated to the military organisation of the Eight Banners, which of course supplied the fighting strength of the Manchu empire, and their leaders integrated into the existing power structure. Among the meritorious officers of the portraits one finds not only Manchus, Han Chinese or Mongols, but also Uighur territorial princes from East Turkestan and chieftains of the Jinchuan who lived in the region of present-day Sichuan along its border with Tibet.
Many of the warriors manifest their martial spirit with expressive gestures and the inclusion of weapons like swords, bows and quivers. They demonstrate Manchu virtues, the highest being the skill of mounted archery. The Manchu did not use the simple bows common in Europe, but instead composite reflex bows. These demanded much greater strength for drawing the string for the shoot. Mastering this skill took years and persistent training. The thumb-ring protected the archer from being harmed by the string flicking back. Boots with non-slip soles helped archers on horseback, as they permitted standing up in the stirrups. In actual warfare, however, mounted archery had already partly lost its importance with the introduction of firearms and canons.[6]
The order in which the officers in the portrait series are listed, was by rank and in particular by their merits on the battlefield. After a victorious campaign they would receive not only money and silk, but often also honorary or hereditary titles together with an entry in the official biographical records. Should an officer have been honoured with a portrait in the Hall of Purple Splendour, this would be specially mentioned. Some bannermen are shown wearing on their cap a peaock feather with one eye spot, an award for particular merits in battle, thus Bandi (no. 2), Namjal (no. 3), Saral (no. 6), Dou Bin (no. 7), Gao Tianxi (no. 8), Duan-ji-bu (no. 9) and Macang (no. 10); Dou Bin and Macang also received the honorific baturu, Manchu for 'hero'.
In traditional China, for centuries the cult of the hero was as important in public life as the cult of the ancestors was in family life. Officials who risked their life to assist the ruler in founding a new dynasty or saved a village from an attack by robbers, were celebrated as heroes. Their deeds for the common good gave them the status of 'adopted ancestors', whose portraits were venerated in temples. The populace occasionally accorded them divine status and they were called on in times of need. In his eulogies, the Emperor repeatedly mourns the untimely death of his brave warriors, as in the case of Gao Tianxi (no. 8). If they did not live to see themselves properly honoured, their portraits expressed posthumous gratitude, somewhat akin to ancestral portraits.
What was the function of the hand scroll within the overall genesis of the portraits of meritorious officers? To this day, scholars remain divided about the answer to this question. We know that the eulogies were written in spring 1760 and that the hanging scrolls were meant to have been finished by April 1760, for the banquet celebrating the victory in East Turkestan; in fact it seems that the hanging scrolls were only displayed in the Hall of Purple Splendour at the New Year's banquet of the following year. Without referring to this situation, Nie Chongzheng quotes a source from the archives of the Painting Academy covering the year 1763-4, which according to him states that the hanging scrolls were based on the hand scrolls by Jin Tingbao.[7] The same textual source as interpreted by Ka Bo Tsang says just the opposite, namely that the hand scrolls were modelled on the hanging scrolls finished in the sixth month (i.e. July) of 1760, adding that in 1763-4 a second series of hanging scrolls was executed, of which so far no evidence has come to light.[8] Tsang's suggestion seems more convincing, since the hand scroll version, as already mentioned, shows greater consistency. On the other hand, it is also possible that more than one hand scroll version was produced.
A fragment of the second series pertaining to the Jinchuan campaign and consisting of the preface and the portraits of seventeen officers, was sold in these rooms on June 1st, 1992, lot 77.[9] The inscription states that it was painted by the court artist Jia Quan in the fifth month of 1779, according to the Chinese calendar, that is, three years after the hanging scrolls of this series. No further hand scroll fragments from this or later series have otherwise been recorded.
The way in which the Qianlong Emperor made use of European traditions for history and portrait painting to glorify his rule is surely unique in history. An impressive example are the large- and small-format portraits of banner officers, which put faces and names to individuals (a feature rather scarce in Chinese history and art) and thus literally turned them into immortal heroes.
Annette Bügener is Junior Curator for East Asia at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany. The portraits of meritorious officers from the Qianlong era form the subject of her Ph.D. thesis (in preparation).
Sources:
Butz, Herbert (ed.), Bilder für die Halle des Purpurglanzes: Chinesische Offiziersporträts und Schlachtenkupfer der Ära Qianlong (1736-1795), with contributions by Annette Bügener, Rui Magone, and Erling von Mende, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin, 2003.
Guochao qixian leizheng chubian [Elder documents and similar testimonies of the Qing dynasty, first series], comp. by Li Huan, 65 vols, (Qingdai zhuanji congkan [Collection of Qing biographies], vols. 127-91), facsimile reprint, Taipei, 1985.
Emperor Ch'ien-lung's Grand Cultural Enterprise, exhibition catalogue, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2002.
Ho Chuimei & Bronson, Bennet, Splendors of China's Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong, exhibition catalogue, The Field Museum, Chicago, 2004.
Hummel, Arthur W., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644-1912), Washington, 1943.
Ledderose, Lothar, 'Machang durchbricht die feindlichen Linien: Ein chinesisches Historienbild in Berlin', in Peter Wapnewski (ed.), Wissenschaftskolleg Jahrbuch 1983/84, Berlin, 1985, pp. 181-93.
Ledderose, Lothar, Orchideen und Felsen: Chinesische Bilder im Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Berlin, with contributions by Kohara Hironobu, Willibald Veit, and Nora von Achenbach, Berlin, 1998.
Nie Chongzheng, 'Tan Qingdai "Ziguangge gongchenxiang" [On Qing "Portraits of Meritorious Officers from the Hall of Purple Splendour"]', Wenwu 1990, no.1, pp. 65-9.
Qingshigao [Draft history of the Qing dynasty], comp. by Zhao Erxun et al., 48 vols, reprint Beijing, 1977.
Qingshi liezhuan [Biographies to the history of the Qing dynasty], 10 vols, facsimile reprint, Taipei, 1983.
Shiqu baoji xubian [Precious collection of the Stone Canal Hall, second series], comp. by Wang Jie et al., preface dated 1793, 8 vols, facsimile reprint, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1971.
Tsang, Ka Bo (Zeng Jiabao), 'Ji fenggong, shu weiji: Qing Gaozong shiquan wugong de tuxiang jilu - gongchenxiang yu zhantu [Victories commemorated: Pictorial records of the Ten Perfect Military Achievements of the Qianlong Emperor: Portraits of meritorious officers and battle paintings]', Gugong wenwu yuekan, no. 93, 1990, pp. 38-65.
Tsang, Ka Bo, 'Portraits of Meritorious Officials: Eight Examples from the First Set Commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor', Arts Asiatiques, no. 47, 1992, pp. 69-88, 54.
Tsang, Ka Bo (Zeng Jiabao), ' "Pingding Jinchuan qian wushi gongchenxiang" juan canben ['The fragment of the handscroll "The First Series of Fifty Portraits of Meritorious Officers of the Jinchuan Campaign"]', Wenwu 1993, no. 10, pp. 54-6, 53.
Walravens, Hartmut, 'Portraits of Meritorious Officers, Accompanied by Manchu Eulogies', in Barbara Kellner-Heinkele (ed.), Altaica Berolinensia: The Concept of Sovereignty in the Altaic World, Wiesbaden, 1993, pp. 307-30.
Walravens, Hartmut, 'New Material on the Portraits of Meritorious Officers of the Qianlong Campaigns', in Árpád Berta (ed.), Historical and Linguistic Interaction between Inner Asia and Europe, Szeged, 1997, pp. 401-23.
Zhang Hongxing, The Qianlong Emperor: Treasures from the Forbidden City, exhibition catalogue, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2002.
Figure captions
Fig. 1 Anonymous, Portrait of Fuheng, ink and colours on silk, Qianlong period, inscription dated in accordance with AD 1760
Collection of Dora Wong (Sotheby's New York, 23rd-25th April 1987, lot 56)
Fig. 2 Anonymous, Portrait of Uksiltu, ink and colours on silk, Qianlong period, inscription dated in accordance with AD 1760
Collection of Dora Wong
Fig. 3 Jin Tingbiao (act. 1757-67), Portrait of Daktana, with imperial inscriptions, fragment of a handscroll, ink and colours on paper, Qianlong period, commissioned in AD 1760
Museum of East Asian Art, Berlin (OAS 1991-3c)
[1] Cf. the list of portraits in Walravens 1993, pp. 313-20.
[2] Tsang 1992, p. 72.
[3] Butz 2003, pp. 26-29, cat. nos 1-3.
[4] Tsang 1992, p. 54.
[5] Shiqu baoji xubian, 3652b-7b.
[6] See Ho & Bronson 2004, p. 108.
[7] Nie 1990, p. 67.
[8] Tsang 1992, p. 72; cf. Walravens 1997, pp. 407-9.
[9] See Tsang 1993.