China. Ink on paper. With fresh lines, the hilly landscape with calvary riding towards the fortified city, infantry men cross the river, fighting the frightened Miao rebels at the city gates. The battle is depicted at its end as the helpless Miao are surrounded on every side by Qing soldiers who raise their arms in surrender.

Inscriptions: The top with a poem composed by the Emperor Qianlong: 'Although Ma'anshan is close to Qianzhou / there are still large and small ridges/ across the river to Qianzhou / Several thieves, bandits built stone defenses/ At that time, Fukang'an died of illness/ so He Lin divided his troops in three/ ordered the two groups on the left and right/ to rush across and lure the thieves / When the thieves saw it, they resist in the face of death / He Lin followed the governor / he led the officers and soldiers on the middle route upstream and downstream / When the officers and soldiers of the two groups on the brink of death / he crossed the turbulent currents/ The bandits retreated panicked / and occupied Shangjianyun Mountain Ridge / The officers and soldiers flanking them seized the moment to cross the river / they attacked the bandits and capture Jianyun Mountain / During the Wei Dynasty, the troops went against the rightful heir far and near / After hearing the news, they reached the vicinity of Qianzhou / The surrounding mountains were scattered / Several officers and soldiers mobilized reinforcements and climbed up to Zhi to attack / Shuye engaged in the battle and defeated Huanglianpo, Shaigupo, Yaohuipo, Tiantouchong […] / Dozens of stone blocks in Mucheng and Mucheng are visible along the path to the fort / Seeing the strong force of the officers and soldiers, the bandits dared not enter the city, fearing entrapment / So they fled in all directions / The officers and soldiers occupied the second fort / all vital ridges were watch to capture the enemy / He Lin entered Qianzhou, inspected the city walls, government offices, warehouses, and private camps / and made preparations for the installation of Qianzhou's civil and military officials, stationing officers and soldiers there / When the battle ended , he led the troops into Qianzhou and quickly captured Qu Ni. Written by Qianlong in the fall during the year of Wuwu (corresponding to 1798).'

Provenance: From an Austrian private collection.
Condition: Very good condition with minor wear, minuscule foxing, and small tears.

Dimensions: 87.1 x 50 cm

The present print is the twelfth of sixteen engravings depicting the quelling of the Miao Rebellion of 1795-1806. The artist for the original drawings was the court artist Feng Ning, who specialized in portraits and architectural scenes at the end of the Qianlong period. Later in life he apparently changed his name to Feng Xiang.

The Battle Copper Prints are a series of prints from copper engravings dating from the second half of the 18th century. They were commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor and depict his military campaigns in China's inner provinces and along its frontier. The master illustrations for the first engravings were large paintings done by European missionary artists employed at that time at the court in Beijing. These artists were Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), French Jesuit Jean-Denis Attiret (1702-1768), Bohemian Jesuit Ignatius Sichelbarth (1708-1780), and the Italian Augustinian missionary, Jean-Damascene Sallusti (d. 1781). The engravings of the first set of 16 paintings were not produced in China but were executed in Paris, at that time home to the best European artisans working in this technique. The emperor even decreed that the work emulate the style of the Augsburg copper engraver Georg Philipp Rugendas the Elder (1666-1742), whose work he knew. Small-scale copies of the paintings by Castiglione and his Beijing colleagues were sent to Paris to be transferred on to copperplates, printed, and then sent back to China, along with the plates and prints. Later sets of engravings were executed in Peking by Chinese apprentices of the Jesuits and differ markedly in style and elaborateness from those of the Paris series.

Qianlong's Battle Copper Prints were just one of the means the Manchu emperor employed to document his campaigns of military expansion and suppression of regional unrest. They served to glorify his rule and to exert ideological control over Chinese historiography. In the history of Chinese art, copper-print engraving remained an episode. Seen in their political context, the Qianlong prints represent a distinct and exceptional pictorial genre and are telling examples of the self-dramatization of imperial state power.

The Reconquest of Qianzhou took place at the end of Emperor Qianlong's reign after Miao rebels raided Qianzhou and the neighboring prefectures of Yongsui and Fenghuang. Qianzhou was the capital of the region and fell to the Miao in 1796. The Miao rebellions were an anti-Qing uprisings in Hunan and Guizhou provinces. These rebellions took place during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor and continued into the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor. The Qing army retook Qianzhou three months after it was captured by the Manchu and Han armies. The rebellion was catalyzed by tensions between local populations and Han Chinese immigrants. The rebellion was bloodily suppressed, but it served as the antecedent to the much larger uprising of Miao rebellion between 1854 and 1873.

Literature comparison:
Compare an identical print of the Reconquest of Qianzhou in the East Asia Department of the Berlin State Library, print number 56. Compare a closely related complete set of sixteen engravings of the Qianlong Emperor's conquests, each approx. 52.8 x 89.5 cm, at Christie's New York, 22 March 1999, lot 132.