It is situated in the Daxinggong area, Xuanwu District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, and it is a museum established on the former site of Jiangning Imperial Silk Manufacturing Museum in the Qing Dynasty. It was once the temporary palace of the Emperors of Kangxi and Qianlong in Qing Dynasty. The litterateur Cao Xueqin was also born and grown up there. Everything here, including the flowers and trees, has been integrated into his masterpiece Dream of the Red Chamber.
This book was undertaken and designed by Mr. Wu Liangyong, a famous architect and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.The complete style of the architecture features the profound, lofty, and a peaceful conception of Chinese landscape paintings, and the architectural complex with high north and low south are covered with garden techniques as much as possible.The original buildings of the Imperial Silk Manufacturing Department, such as the Western Baray, Lian Pavilion, Xuanrui Hall, and West Hall, are rebuilt in the building. One can see the rugged architectural trend within this building from the south to the north, like a Jiangnan landscape painting, which is a classic work combining the language of modern architecture and traditional gardening architecture.
The high loom machine stands quietly in the hall of Brocade Pavilion. The two brocades works such as Longevity China and Nine Dragons Picture in the exhibition hall are radiant and harmonious, as if presenting a landscape of prosperity and stability in the halcyon days, this is a beautiful and grand dream.Isn’t the past of the Imperial Silk Manufacturing Mansion just a dream under the big locust tree?It underwent the vicissitudes of the world, everything is illusory. Cao Xueqin woke up in a big dream before writing the Dream of the Red Chamber. However, we are still immersed in this stupid dream after seeing the Dream of the Red Chamber, living with relish in the illusion of the greed, hatred and ignorant……
