QIANLONG PERIOD, DATED TO 1771 AND 1777 RESPECTIVELY, AND OF THE PERIOD

The first edict is woven on tri-coloured silk brocade mounted as a handscroll. The text is arranged in standard form, reading from right to left, in Chinese characters and repeated from left to right in Manchu, the Chinese text opening with a vertical, four-character title, Fengtian chiming, 'By the Admonishment of Heaven'. This is flanked by a pair of dragons, ending with the date ‘36th year of Qianlong’, corresponding to 1771, and stamped with a seal impression within a square. Similarly, the other edict is woven on five-coloured silk brocade. The Chinese text opens with Fengtian zhaoming, ‘By the Command of Heaven’, and ends with the date ‘42nd year of Qianlong’, corresponding to 1777.

Both edicts command Li Lin, a native of Shandong province who had been successively appointed as District Magistrate of Tangyin and Xiangfu counties, Associate Administrator of the capital, Kaifeng, and Prefect of the Superior Prefecture of the Weihui and Runing counties, during the Qianlong period. The first of these two edicts was issued in 1771 when he was the District Magistrate of Tangyin county, and the second in 1777 when he was the Associate Administrator of capital, Kaifeng.

Another imperial edict, also issued to Li, is preserved in the National Museum of History (with the inventory number 84-00482).
100 in. (254 cm.) long and 109 in. (277 cm.) long