Prince Gong’s Residence is located at Qianhai West Street, Xicheng District, Beijing.This mansion originally belonged to He Shen, the highest official in the reign of Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911). He Shen was put in prison for 20 crimes by Emperor Jiaqing, and the mansions he owned were confiscated by the court. Emperor Jiajing granted this mansion to his brother Prince Qingxi, whose name was Yong Lin. And the mansion was renamed as Prince Qingwang’s Residence. During the reign of Xianfeng, it was the mansion of Prince Yixin, the sixth son of Emperor Daoguang and renamed as Prince Gong’s Residence. Yixin was famous in Chinese modern history. When the British and French allied army invaded Beijing, Emperor Xianfeng escaped to Rehe (today’s Chengde, Hebei Province) and Yixin was appointed as a full-fledged minister to negotiate with the allied army. Colluding with Dowager Empress Cixi, he launched the Beijing Coup in 1861and controlled the regime. He was promoted to the positions of Prince Yizheng and the Minister of Privy Council, taking charge of foreign affairs. Later, he started the westernization movement. Because he proposed to eliminate the Taiping Army by the force of foreign countries, he became the leader of westernizers in the Qing Court. In 1865, he was dismissed by Cixi, and was dismissed several times after that. He died of illness in 1898.
Prince Gong’s Residence is the most intact mansion preserved in Beijing. It consists of a mansion and a garden. It occupies 46.5 mu (15 mu = 1 hectare). Since the residence was extremely luxurious when it was firstly built by He Shen, the halls in it followed the style of Palace of Tranquil Longevity in the Forbidden City. Some halls were made of nanmu and combined the features of both mansions and gardens. From the south to the north, the halls are divided into five rows with three groups of courtyards from east to west. At the front of the axis, there are two gates and the second one is larger than the first one. Originally, there stood the main hall named the Yin’an Hall, which has collapsed. The extant Jiale Hall features the style of imperial palaces. The three quadrangles along the eastern line feature Ming Dynasty architecture style. The main stucture of the western line is shaped like Chinese character in a bird’s view. The three-bay building in the middle has the blindstory of two floors in the east, west and north. It was in this building that the calligraphy titbit Pingfutie by Lu Ji in the Jin Dynasty (265-420) was treasured up. In the sixth year (1880) of the Guangxu reign, Yixin gained the masterwork from Prince Cheng’s mansion, and its name was changed to be the Xijinzhai. In this building there were delicately decorated yarn cabinet and banister, etc. In the thirteenth crime committed by He Shen, there were the following words: the nanmu house was too luxurious, with the style and pattern akin to that of the Ningshou Hall. The house mentioned above was just the Xijinzhai. Behind the three courtyards, there is a back building, which is 160 meters long from the east to the west. It is a two-storeyed building with more than 40 rooms. The east part is named the Zhanji Building and the west part the Baoyue Building. The whole mansion looks very magnificent.
Behind the building there is the Cuijinyuan Garden of 38.6 mu. There are winding corridors that connect each other, pavilions and terraces here and there. The bluish green water flows like a jade belt with the craggy hill stones stand beside. The scenery changes with passage of time. The main building includes the Yaoyue Hall, Opera Tower, Qinqiu Pavilion, Yu Pass and Duxiu Hill, etc. The scenery here is as beautiful and serene as that of the Rongguo Mansion and Daguanyuan Garden described in Dream of the Red Chamber, the masterwork of Cao Xueqin. Therefore, legend has it that Prince Gong’s Mansion was the residence of Jia Baoyu (dramatis personae in Dream of the Red Chamber), while some people think Yixin built the garden following the architectural style of the Daguanyuan Garden. On the east of Prince Gong’s Residence lies the Shichahai Lake, a place for people to enjoy the summer evenings. The nearby famous gardens, ancient temples and royal mansions also add to the flourish here.
(Source: chinaculture.org)
