etirabys:

In cultural affairs, Qianlong’s approach was similar to his father’s. He made a public show of his filial piety, particularly in his ritualized treatment of his own mother, the dowager empress. He pampered and flattered her to an extraordinary degree, taking her with him on lavish tours to the Yangzi delta region and even building a copy of southern streets in the northern palace after she was no longer able to go on her travels. …

In some areas he took new initiatives. He expanded the imperial collection of painting and calligraphy enormously, drawing into the court many of the finest works from the previous millennium. (He has been blamed, by later connoisseurs, for writing elaborate poems on many great paintings in his neat but undistinguished calligraphy, thus ruining the subtlety of the original compositions.)

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