The
Water-Power Clock
17
Sep 2007
Known as the Garden
of Gardens (万园之园) for possessing
extensive collection of buildings and gardens
and artworks, the Garden of Perfect Clarity (圆明园) once covered an area of 3.5
km², almost 5 times the size of the Forbidden City, and is said to be
the biggest royal garden in history and the
largest museum the world ever had.
Situated in the
northwest part of Beijing between the Tsinghua
and Beijing universities, it is built in the
18th and early 19th
centuries on the principles of traditional Chinese architectural
theories and practices which has thousands
years of history.
Within this
marvellous estate, there was a corner with a
group of European-style buildings and
gardens, commonly referred as the Western
Terrace (西洋楼). Unlike the rest of
the 95 percent of the Perfect Clarity
primarily constructed with timbers and
bricks, this European corner was built of
stones entirely.
Within this stone
wonderland, there was an imposing building
called the Hall of Tranquil Sea (海晏堂) which is the centrepiece of
this Western domain; in front of the Tranquil
Sea there was a fan-shaped pond with a
fountain in the middle; by the pond in the
both south and north shores there were twelve
alters; on the alters there were twelve
figures representing twelve Chinese zodiac
animals (生肖).
Each zodiac figure
had a matching animal head made of bronze (青铜兽首) and a human body crafted
with stone, complete with a water pipe in the
hollow space of the torso.
In the traditional
Chinese system, the twelve zodiacs are not
just used to mark the year, the month and the
day, but the time as well, and it was exactly
what these zodiac symbols stood by the
Tranquil Sea for.
At each zodiac hour (时辰, two hours), a corresponding
zodiac figure would spew out water from its
mouth. By the due noon, 12 zodiacs spray
hosed the pond all together. Thus this set of
time-conscious fountain was dubbed the “Water-power
Clock“.
The splendid Garden
of Gardens was, sadly, looted and then burned
to the ground by the Anglo-French
military
arsonists who invaded China in 1860 in the name
of teaching Chinese how to behave in a civilised manner. It took the
barbaric Easterners 200 years to build and
destroyed by 3000 civilised Westerners in
just three days.
Gone with the blaze
were countless culture relics, some dated
back to the Shang (16 - 11BC), Zhou (11 -
221BC) and Han (221BC - 220AD) dynasties, and
some are utterly irreplaceable. Among them
were the twelve bronze zodiac heads.
It was until in
recent years, four of the twelve, including Ox, Tiger, Monkey and Pig, were bought back at
auctions by China with huge price paid. While
Rat and Rabbit remain in the French
museum, the whereabouts of Dragon, Snake, Goat, Rooster and Dog are still unknown,
and may never be known.
It is under such an
circumstance, the decision to reproduce the
whole set of the time-conscious zodiacs was
made.
And so here they are.
On 12 September, the freshly crafted 12
zodiac figures made their first presence at
the historical antique store Liuli Chang (琉璃厂).
This bronze
snake head is one of the twelve
zodiac figures newly crafted
based on the old relics that have
been missing for 140 years since
the Garden of Gardens was
destroyed by Europeans.
The European
corner in the Chinese palace
garden:
The Hall of Tranquil Sea, looking
from a garden pavillion
Yin-yang in Chinese
Zodiacs:
Chinese zodiacs,
like nearly everything in the traditional
Chinese cultural system, is said to have
wonderfully reflected the underlying
yin-yang dual aspects:
The first team,
Rat and Ox, represents intelligence (yin)
and diligence (yang).
The second team,
Tiger and Rabbit, symbolises courage
(yang) and caution (yin).
The third team,
Dragon and Snake, stands for firmness
(yang) and softness (yin).
The forth team, Horse and Goat,
signifies progress (yang) and reservation
(yin).
The fifth team,
Monkey and Rooster, implies flexibility
(yin) and formality (yang).
The six team, Dog
and Pig, indicates royalty (yang) and
sociability (yin).
The
Hours and their associated Chinese zodiacs:
Rat: 11pm - 1am
Ox: 1am - 3 am
Tiger: 3am - 5am
Rabbit: 5am - 7am
Dragon: 7am - 9am
Snake: 9am - 11am
Horse: 11am - 1pm
Goat: 1pm - 3pm
Monkey: 3pm - 5pm
Roster: 5pm - 7pm
Dog: 7pm - 9pm
Pig: 9pm - 11pm
