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- happened with regards to jade carving for the palace during his short unstable reign.4
Following his death in 1661, the new dynasty was passed to an eight-year-old child, who came to be known as Kangxi (1662-1722). Few could foresee that this child was to become the saviour of the dynasty. By 1673 Kangxi had dismissed his regents and had taken over the government by himself. He proved from the very first to be a ruler of character and decision. By 1681 he had put down the ma�jor rebellions in south China and was firmly in control of the entire country. The success of Manchu rule over China owed much to Kangxi�s tolerant and concili�atory policy towards the native Chinese. He won the respect of most of his Chi�nese subjects by his administrative skills and also by the fact that he himself was the instigator of a great revival of interest in Chinese literature, and arts and crafts.5
In 1680 Kangxi established craft workshops in Beijing under direct imperial con�trol for the making of all kinds of objets d�art for use in the palace. Twenty-seven imperial workshops were put into operation producing such things as optical in�struments and watches, armour, printing type, enamels, carved ivories, and fili�gree jewellery employing gold and various precious stones like jade.6 The finest craftsmen in the land were summoned to the court to staff the different depart�ments, which were housed within the walls of the Forbidden City. The whole pro�ject was administered by the Bureau of Works (Zaoban Chu), and the emperor�s personal interest in every aspect of the production ensured that high standards of craftsmanship were maintained.
Probably some time in the latter part of Kangxi�s reign, the filigree jewellery de�partment developed a jade carving workshop. The reason for this statement is the mentioning of the term for jade workshop, yu zuo, in the Qing archives in the first year after the death of Kangxi.7 Therefore, it is likely that a full fledged jade work�shop must have been established at least some time in the last decades of Kangxi�s rule. However, with regards to the jade carved, there is a general lack of knowledge amongst scholars as to the types of jade which were favoured during his reign. It appears that during most of his rule, the Beijing market was starved for jade mate�rial. No doubt this was due to the disturbed state of affairs which existed in east Turkestan, where most of China�s jade came from. As a result, there are far too few jade pieces to make precise statements about the prevailing styles during Kangxi�s lengthy reign. Perhaps, the most outstanding example from his period is the almost three metre high jade pagoda in the University of Oregon Museum, Winston Guest Collection, which is dated 1710.8
Kangxi was succeeded by his ambitious son Yongzheng, who may have even murdered his father to get the throne. During his short rule from 1723 to 1735, he centralized power in the hands of the emperor. Many of his measures contributed to the extreme wealth and splendour of China which lasted throughout the eight�eenth century. His reorganization of finances brought a higher income to the state, and the laws he enforced checked corruption to some degree.
Yongzheng, like his father, was a keen patron of the arts. Despite his fondness for jade, the jade workshops of his reign appear to have produced only a small num�ber of jade carvings due to the lack of material available on the market. However, there were some exquisite carvings being made at this time in various other pre�cious stones such as amber, agate, crystal, coral, turquoise and malachite.
To appease his desire to own jade, Yongzheng gave orders to have jade pieces rounded up from various parts of the country and brought to the palace. For exam�ple, in 1732 he ordered the Imperial Household (Neiwufu) and the Imperial Silk- works in Suzhou to collect any jade material they could find and to transport it to
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