Belvedere of Literary Profundity

Belvedere of Literary Profundity
Belvedere of Literary Profundity
文渊阁
	Wenyuan Ge
General information
Type	Palace building
Town or city	Beijing
Country	China
Coordinates	39°54′59″N 116°23′58″E / 39.91629512740444°N 116.39952820366824°E
Completed	1776
Website
	www.dpm.org.cn/explore/building/236513.html

The Belvedere of Literary Profundity (simplified Chinese: 文渊阁; traditional Chinese: 文淵閣; pinyin: Wényuān Gé; Wade–Giles: Wen-yuan Ko; Manchu: ᡧᡠ
ᡨᡠᠩᡤᡠ
ᠠᠰᠠᡵᡳ šu tunggu asari), Wenyuan Ge or Wenyuan Library is a palace building in the Forbidden City in Beijing.^[1]

The hall was an imperial library, and a place for learned discussion so several Grand Secretaries were assigned here.^[2] It was sited to the east of the Fengtian Gate in Nanjing, during the Hongwu era. After the Yongle Emperor made Beijing China's capital, its name continued to be used for the lobby in the east of the Cabinet Hall of the Forbidden City, which was burnt down in the late Ming period.^[3]

The existing hall which is patterned on the Tianyi Ge in Ningbo was rebuilt behind the Wenhua Palace, in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. Completed in 1776, it was a kind of library and stored numerous works, including a copy of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries. The Wenjin Ge in the Chengde Mountain Resort is its counterpart.^[3]

References

^ Hucker, Charles (1985). A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China. Stanford University Press. p. 568. ISBN 9780804711937.
^ Qiu, Shusen (1991). 中国历代职官辞典 [A Dictionary of Chinese Historical Official Titles] (in Chinese). Jiangxi Education Publishing House. p. 141. ISBN 9787539203966.
^ ^a ^b 中国大百科全书（第二版） [Encyclopedia of China (2nd Edition)] (in Chinese). Vol. 23. Encyclopedia of China Publishing House. 2009. pp. 342–3. ISBN 978-7-500-07958-3.