Wedding planning is always quite the production, but in 19th century China an imperial wedding at the Forbidden City Palace warranted the creation of a six-metre long floor plan mapping out every detail to scale.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The delicately painted scroll has left China for the first time to be the centrepiece of the National Library of Australia's summer blockbuster exhibition showcasing 88 treasures from the National Library of China and 80 items from the Australian library's own collection.
As well as the plan, Celestial Empire: Life in China 1644 to 1911 also features books, folk art, maps, and early magazines from the Qing Dynasty.
Curator Dr Nathan Woolley said the exhibition was a great opportunity to reveal more detail of what life was like during the last imperial dynasty, and expected it to have broad appeal when it opens on January 2.
"When you're dealing with Chinese material, language is always going to be a problem, so all the materials we've selected are going to have a visual element so people can gain insight into life at the time," he said.
"Material from the court is always very accessible. In this exhibition we've also brought together a lot of material that will give people an idea of what life was like at different levels of society."
The undated plan, believed to be from around 1899, shows the entire length of the Forbidden City's central axis to map out the wedding, beginning at the Qing gates at present day Tiananmen Square.
"The reason I really like this document is that it's a working document made to be used in situ," Dr Woolley said.
"When you look at it you can imagine people pacing it out, measuring distances, thinking about where preparations should be made… it has all these little details like distances between different gates and buildings, where tables should be set up."
The plan is one of a number of objects in the exhibition that were originally part of the Lei family archives, now owned by the National Library of China.
Dr Woolley said one of the earliest items is a woodcut printed poetry book published in 1645, just after the Qing Dynasty was founded.
It's one of a number of original books chosen to demonstrate different skills needed for their production, from block printing to early lithographs.
"The thing that impressed me was to see original woodcut printed books from 17th century," Dr Woolley said.
"They're beautiful, usually one looks at reproductions so to see the originals is stunning."
Dr Woolley said the exhibition also showcased a large amount of material reflecting how Western culture entered China in the 19th century and the response of Chinese people, including pictorial magazines.
"Written material is always difficult to engage with so we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce different aspects, but seeing as we're are a library we wanted to introduce book culture," he said.
Celestial Empire: Life in China, 1644–1911 is on at the National Library of Australia from January 2 to May 22. Entry is free, bookings are essential.
