Book Review

Asia

Philippe Forêt's book is a highly original and creative study of a city and its environs in northeastern China. Designed and built by two of the most influential rulers of China's last dynasty, Kangxi (r. 1662–1722) and Qianlong (r. 1736–1795), the city was, Forêt argues, unique in conception, design, purpose, function, and symbolism, and in its relationships to the terrain it occupies and its historical past. The author attempts to convince the reader that these extraordinary aspects of Chengde are manifest by and thus understandable through the landscape on which it lies.

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This complex explication of the cultural geography of a city at China's border is further complicated by the profoundly multicultural world of eighteenth-century China, particularly in this region formerly known as Manchuria. Even the name of the city is confusing. Chengde, its Chinese name today, was known as both Chengde and Rehe during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). The prefecture in which it lies was and still is known as Chengde or Jehol. In the first part of the twentieth century, Chengde's province was also known as Jehol or Rehe. Today, Chengde is in Hebei province, the same province of China that surrounds the city Beijing; and former Manchuria includes that part of Hebei as well as today's Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. Forêt provides a map with English labels (p. vi) and a chart of names (p. 153). There are lists of emperors, temples at Chengde, landscape elements, and a chronology. The reader should be prepared to consult these frequently, because the book contains so much theory it is possible even for a sinologist to lose track of the pertinent data.

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