Taiye Lake

Taiye Lake
Zhongnanhai during the Qing dynasty
Chinese太液池
Literal meaningGreat Liquid Pond
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTàiyè Chí
Wade–GilesT'ai-yeh Ch'ih

Taiye Lake or Taiye Pond was an artificial lake in imperial City, Beijing, during the Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties of China. The beauty[1] and utility[2] of the lake was responsible for the siting of Kublai Khan's palace and the position of modern Beijing. It continues to exist but it is now known separately as the North, Central, and South Seas, the three interconnected lakes just west of the Forbidden City in downtown Beijing. The northern lake makes up the public Beihai Park while the southern two are grouped together as Zhongnanhai, the headquarters for the Communist leadership of the People's Republic of China.

Taiye Lake was immortalized in the early 1410s when the Yongle Emperor commissioned The Eight Views of Beijing (北京八景圖), recording the capital's chief sites in poetry and painting in order to legitimize his removal of the imperial capital away from Nanking. It is best remembered in China today from the scene of "Clear Waves at Taiye Lake" (太液晴波, Tàiyè Qíngbō).[3][4]

  1. ^ Hou Renzhi. The Works of Hou Renzhi, pp. 56 ff. Peking Univ. Press (Beijing), 1998.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference h2story was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ ""燕京八景"名不虚传,有些正适合踏青赏春~". 2022-03-22. 据说,"太液秋风"原名"太液晴波",因其天气晴明,波光潋滟而得名
  4. ^ Whiteman, Stephen. "From Upper Camp to Mountain Estate: Recovering Historical Narratives in Qing Imperial Landscapes", pp. 14 ff. Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes: An International Quarterly. Taylor & Francis, 2013. Accessed 16 November 2013.