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[Name]: Qing Qianlong copper gold-plated inlaid enamel telescope

[Category]: Bronze ware

[Age]: During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty

[Cultural relics original]: the old collection of the Qing Palace

[Status of cultural relics]: Now in the Palace Museum in Beijing

【Introduction】:

It is made by the Qing Palace Internal Affairs Office, with a monocular length of 22.5cm, a cylinder diameter of 5cm, an objective lens diameter of 5cm, and an eyepiece diameter of 0.4cm.

This is a single-cylinder refracting telescope with gold-plated copper and can be pulled out of 4 sections. The outer wall of the cylinder is finely engraved with floral patterns and bird feather patterns and inset with oval enamel decorations, and decorated with flowers, grasses, birds, butterflies, etc.

During the Qianlong Dynasty, there were Westerners in the Qing Palace's Internal Affairs Office. Judging from the decorative style of this telescope, it was made by the Qing Imperial Interior Office in cooperation with Western craftsmen.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, China's ancient scientific and technological civilization had matured and was likely to transform into modern science. But social unrest interrupted the process. By the Kangxi period of the early Qing Dynasty, political stability was gradually achieved, which contributed to economic development to a large extent, and the supreme ruler also attached great importance to the development of scientific jishu. With all these conditions in place, it is very likely that China will be able to "start in sync" with Europe scientifically. However, due to various reasons, we have lost this opportunity to walk in the forefront of shijie, but today we can still feel the splendid civilization of our ancestors through those works of art with profound scientific and technological connotations.

In the Science and Technology Museum of the Palace Museum in Beijing, there are more than 150 telescopes left over from the Qing Dynasty. These early crystallizations of modern human technology have become valuable artifacts for understanding the relationship between Qing emperors and Western culture. They not only have high artistic value, but also have considerable historical and cultural value, and have also witnessed the development and transformation of human scientific and technological civilization.

As an early product of Western science, the telescope, like other Western scientific instruments, is also a scientific and technological instrument favored by the Chinese court among the "Far Western Strange Vessels" brought by Western missionaries. Soon after Galileo built the astronomical telescope in 1609, news reached China. In 1626, John Tang and Li Zubai took the lead in translating the book "Telescope", introducing the use, principle, construction and production method of telescope. According to the Sino-German Center for Scientific and Technological Exchange, the telescope was first brought to China in 1619 by the German Deng Yuhan. More than 10 years after entering China, the telescope has become the "key vessel" of official astronomy. As early as 1629, Xu Guangqi, a scholar in the late Ming Dynasty, built a telescope to observe planets and solar eclipses. However, 40 years later, there are no telescopes on the list of astronomical instruments ordered by the Kangxi Emperor. It was not that the Kangxi Emperor was unaware of the telescope, but that he had not thought of using it at all to find new astronomical discoveries, and he thought that it would be enough to do some practical calendar work with traditional instruments. In 1773, the French Jesuits presented the telescope they had brought from Paris as a gift to Emperor Qianlong. Fearing that the emperor would despise this important gift, the missionary also wrote a special instruction note, saying that this was the latest scientific achievement in the West, and that Qianlong had indeed shown great interest in telescopes. It also deliberately asked the Qing Palace Office to use various crafts to imitate treasures and give them to the princes, ministers and relatives of the emperor. This copper-plated gold-inlaid enamel telescope is a classic of the Qing Palace's Internal Affairs Office at that time. It's made of copper and gold-plated throughout. The shape is a single cylinder refractive shape, which can be pulled out of four sections. The outer wall of the cylinder is finely engraved with floral patterns and bird feather patterns, and the ornamentation is exquisite and clear, and it is ingenious. And inlaid oval enamel ornament, decorated with flowers, grass, birds, butterflies, etc., the pattern is beautiful and harmonious, looking at it, people can't help but admire. At that time, there were Westerners in the craftsmen of the Qing Palace's Internal Affairs Office. This telescope was made by the Qing Imperial Interior Office in cooperation with Western craftsmen. And this telescope, which is unusual in terms of craftsmanship, also has an unusual history.

In the 57th year of Qianlong (1792), at the instigation of the East India Company and merchants in China, King George III sent Lord Macartney to form a large delegation of 700 people to congratulate Emperor Qianlong on his birthday and hope to establish diplomatic relations with China. Macartney and his entourage set sail from Portsmouth on the warship "Lion", carrying gifts worth 13 million pounds, and arrived in Dagu the following year, and then took a wooden boat along the Haihe River to Tianjin and Beijing. At that time, Emperor Qianlong took refuge in the Rehe Summer Resort, and Macartney came to the Summer Resort by car and was able to meet Emperor Qianlong.

However, Macartney's trek through mountains and rivers was only one more tributary state in the eyes of the Qing government. At that time, Britain's industrial revolution was in full swing, with colonies all over the continents, and its national strength could completely compete with the Qing Dynasty, but the Qing Dynasty had always regarded itself as the "Heavenly Empire" and did not take these distant countries into account at all. However, Britain attaches great importance to this visit. Macartney also brought quite a generous gift, and they learned that although the Qing Dynasty was rich in goods, it was far from being comparable to the British in terms of technology. In order to show his strong national strength, 19 of the gifts brought by Macartney were Shijie's leading technology products at that time. There is a gift list in the "Chronicles Series": including celestial globes, globes, barometers, telescopes, etc. These are enough to represent the achievements of the British Industrial Revolution and the development of modern civilization. In particular, one of the telescopes was very delicate, and it was the most advanced telescope in Shijie at the time. But in the eyes of Qing officials, these tributary gifts were nothing more than "tricks". Qianlong said in his edict to Macartney: "The Celestial Empire has never been expensive KitKat, and there is no country to make things, and the Celestial Empire has abundant products and everything. He also asked the Qing Palace Office to take out this copper-gilded enamel telescope for Macartney to see, and made a one-to-touch one back to Macartney to show our craftsmanship and jishu. He also asked the officials of the Ministry of Rites to tell Macartney that "the Celestial Empire has all the things offered by the country, and the goods that are not originally from foreign countries can be used to pass through them", thus rejecting Macartney's proposal to open Tianjin and other ports and implement free trade. This was originally a head-on encounter between the ancient Chinese civilization and the modern scientific Jishu civilization of the West, but it is a pity that the blind and arrogant Qing government did not take this civilization exchange to heart, and those instruments of scientific and technological civilization were displayed in the imperial palace. It became an object for the emperor's concubines to enjoy. The most ironic thing is that Macartney also gave the Qianlong Emperor a cannon that the British found still locked in a box and rusted when the British and French invaded Beijing and burned the Old Summer Palace.

Today, we are far away from the arrogance and backwardness of the past, and when we re-examine this ancient artwork with a focused eye, we will find another kind of beauty, which can bring us the same beauty as the great ancient civilization of mankind. It has a rich connotation, like a splendid flower endowed with life by culture, converging at a certain time and a certain space node, making people deeply feel the beauty of the masters of art who made it when they pursue the ultimate expression of details. Although it silently and gradually changes its appearance in this time and space, its connotation will not age, and always leads people into the depths of the soul of those masters who pursue details, so that we can feel their depth, clarity and attention, so the search for details is destined to be a great elegance. It allows those perfect elements to never age and survive for generations.