Hall of Raining Flowers (Yuhuashi; 雨花室)
“Hall of Raining Flowers ” (雨花室) is a poem written by the Emperor Qianlong in 1754, when he devoted considerable energy to Buddhist practice and patronage in his late thirties and forties. In this poem, he reiterated his desire to “manifest emptiness”, as Vimalakirti had done.
This poem indicates the Emperor Qianlong’s paradoxical religious practice: The construction of a path to enlightenment and the apprehension of emptiness must take place in a sensory world filled with desirable, fascinating things.
Hall of Raining Flowers
During the three months of spring I came to a peaceful, quiet lodging
Where, for five days, I practiced pure amusements.
Each time I chanted I took a turn and
Discrimination returned.
On the other side of the window, the vaporous shadow of a kingfisher-
I enter and sit in solitude in the cypress’s shade
To put Vimalakirti’s investigations to the test,
So that I might yet manifest emptiness.
The Qianlong emperor was famous for his enthusiastic engagement with the material world. He was obsessed with collecting works of art and craft in all the media of the day. The Qianlong emperor did not only collect all these art works, but also arranged to construct a number of temples; each conceptually replicated an earlier model.
Sources:
Berger, Patricia, Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China. U Hawaii .P, 2003
Entry by Lan Wu 03/23/07