[Industry Anecdote] The Twelve Zodiac Water Fountains of the Old Summer Palace

The Old Summer Palace has always been like a veiled maiden, with many secrets hidden beneath its mysterious veil. Among them, the operation of the Twelve Zodiac Fountain, which works on the hour and precisely without human intervention or electricity, remains a major puzzle.

(Image source: Kuai News / Why bother to show off again)

Around the tenth year of the Qianlong reign, after seeing the album sent by Louis XV, Qianlong thought about building a Western-style building in the Old Summer Palace. The album mainly contained European architecture, with many European-style fountains and sculptures. The content of the album is speculated to depict the Palace of Versailles. Qianlong, who was determined to do it, found a missionary to design the Western building for him. However, the missionary was not an architect, so he brought in two partners to help build the Western building—painter Lang Shining and mathematician Jiang Youren. The three began to research materials and look for popular European architectural styles, ultimately finding the Baroque style that was popular in 18th-century Europe. Therefore, the Western building is quite obviously in the European Baroque style.

(Image source: Kuai News / Why bother to show off again)

The biggest feature of the Western building is the fountain. The construction of the fountain was overseen by mathematician Jiang Youren. Before construction, Jiang Youren found a book on hydraulic architecture, and after calculations, he designed the fountain to utilize the potential energy from height differences. In designing the fountain, Jiang Youren not only incorporated the Twelve Zodiac signs from Eastern culture but also blended in Western artistic design, creating the fountain's spouts in the shape of animal heads with human bodies representing the Twelve Zodiac signs.

(Image source: Kuai News / Why bother to show off again)

The Twelve Zodiac signs also represent the twelve hours of the day, with each zodiac taking turns to spray water in sequence during each hour. However, at noon, when it is the horse's turn to spray, the other eleven animal heads will also spray water simultaneously. This is known as 'only looking to the horse's head.' Historical records state that the sound was deafening, like a thousand troops galloping.

(Historical photo of Haiyan Hall)

The fountain sprays water using potential energy from height differences, but how can hundreds of tons of water be lifted to create this potential energy difference? On July 8, 2020, at the digital Old Summer Palace interactive exhibition held at Shougang North No. 7 silo, the research results of the Haiyan Hall hydraulic system were showcased. A special research team composed of Chinese and foreign experts found letters exchanged by missionaries during the construction period of the Western building in ancient libraries across China and Europe, as well as a list of Western architectural and hydraulic books brought to China by the missionaries. Following these clues, the research team ultimately found the hydraulic system blueprints used in the Western building. It turns out that in an era without electric motors, mules became the source of power. By driving mules to turn horizontal and vertical gears to operate pistons, water was lifted to create a height difference, which then allowed the Twelve Zodiac signs to spray water, forming a magnificent fountain.

(Image source: Beijing Evening News New Vision Network)

As is well known, these twelve zodiac animal heads began to be lost during the invasion of the Old Summer Palace by the Anglo-French Allied Forces. Currently, the country has retrieved seven animal heads: the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Horse, Monkey, and Pig. However, the Dragon, Goat, Snake, Rooster, and Dog heads remain missing. During the search, counterfeit items that are hard to distinguish from the real ones occasionally emerge, increasing the difficulty of gathering all twelve zodiac animal heads.

Although it is not easy to gather them all, looking at the increasingly strong motherland, I believe that as long as the missing animal heads still exist in the world, the Twelve Zodiac animal heads will one day be reunited!

(Historical photo of Haiyan Hall)