Descripción

Einband angeschmutzt. Hinterer Innendeckel mit Sammlungsstempel und Erwerbungsvermerk. - The changes of style in the robes of the imperial court of the Ch'ing dynasty can be understood far better by studying the series of details shown in the accompanying illustrations-the wave borders-the central mountains in the wave borders-the clouds, and particularly the clouds -than they can by verbal description. This analysis of the Ch'ing dynasty style is based on the scheme of dating derived from a comparison of the robes of Kuo Ch'in Wang, which may be dated 1738 (when he was buried) or earlier, first, with a long series of twelve-symbol imperial robes and, second, with a large number of robes that are obviously associated with them. The scheme, since it was first set forward in 1943, has been in general most favorably received, and no sensible objection has been raised against it. Furthermore, whereas at that time we felt that we could account for the period from late K'ang Hsi (the end of the seventeenth century) through the reign of Tao Kuang, we now feel that we can tentatively extend the period covered right back to Shun Chih (1644-1661), at the beginning of the dynasty, and go a long way towards disentangling the last part of the dynasty, tracing the scheme right down through twenty-odd years of the twentieth century. ISBN 0405022654