Cultural history of Chengde in Qing Dynasty

In A.D. 1673, when conquering the rebellion in San Francisco, Kangxi discovered that the soldiers of the Eight Banners, who were brave and good at fighting, were afraid of death and were ineffective in fighting. In order to strengthen the combat capability of the army and frighten restless remote tribes, he visited the Great Wall twice, and finally chose Mulan paddock as the place for Royal Hunt and military exercises. Moreover, mountain villas, large and small, were built along the way, and the summer resort was the largest one.

The Summer Resort was founded in 1703 and completed in 1792, which embodies the painstaking efforts of three generations of emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong. The villa is surrounded by 12 grand temples of various shapes, such as the stars holding the moon, which symbolizes national unity and centralization.

With the construction of villas and Waiba Temple, Chengde, a small town, has risen rapidly. According to the Records of Jehol County, when Kangxi first built the Summer Resort, there were only a hundred families in Jehol, but there were more than a thousand people. In the fifty-first year of Kangxi, in a short period of eight years, more than 654.38 million people gathered from the suburbs of Beijing, around Chengde and Shandong, and Chengde became an important town outside the mouth of the Qing Dynasty and a center for cultural and ethnic integration and activities.

After the villa was completed, the Qing emperor spent half a year here to handle state affairs and meet with ministers of various ethnic minorities' palaces and foreign envoys. In the Qing Dynasty, a series of important historical events happened in Chengde: Turhut Wanli returned to the east, the British envoy visited Qianlong, the Sixth Panchen Lama entered the incense Qianlong, DashDawa moved his family, Qianlong hosted a banquet, Emperor Xianfeng signed the Beijing Treaty on his deathbed, and Empress Dowager Cixi planned the Xinyou coup.

Kangxi Qianlong and Qianlong dynasties built the world's largest royal garden summer resort and the world's largest royal temple group in Chengde, and consolidated political power and unified the country with the help of religious forces, turning complex purposes and military significance into lush smoke.

The two former capitals had a rare history, and Chengde, as the capital of the Qing Dynasty, played an irreplaceable role in history.