Long Corridor Paintings


Paintings on the Long Corridor depict a broad range of subject matter such as flowers, birds, trees, rockeries, landscapes and human figures. Emperor Qian Long (1736-1759) sent court painters to sketch scenic spots around West Lake in Hangzhou. They brought back 546 pictures, which they transferred onto the wooden boards between rafters and pillars in the Long Corridor. In the 1960s 14,000 pictures of other subjects were added to the original ones. The selected picture is about Yue Fei's mother tattooing on his back, an episode from Complete Biograghy of Yue Fei, a well-known army general who fought against Jin troops during the Southern Song Dynasty.