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The images produced by court artists of the Qing Dynasty usually look similar and formalistic. Though most of them have gorgeous appearance, these images are usually considered to be low-brow.

Behind this rigid artistic creation paradigm, however, there is a lot to decipher behind the visual codes of this final autocratic dynasty. As argued by Lothar Ledderose, the mass production of Chinese artworks has an internal ‘modular system’, which coincides with the creation of court artworks. This article is not intended to defend this artistic paradigm in the Qing Dynasty, but to explore the reasons of its emergence, as well as its influence on the evolution of production management of court artworks. Similar to the politics of Qing Dynasty, the aesthetic preference of Qing court also penetrates into the entire society like a capillary network, in an exceedingly delicate manner. Certainly, this transmission effect expands beyond the palace walls, resulting in a two-way impact between two sides of the dynasty’s boundary. Therefore, the controversies over the imperial palace aesthetics of Qing Dynasty should be review in the dimension of an era, instead of merely inside the Forbidden Palace.

In addition, from the perspective of art history, the Qing court provided an inclusive platform, where painters and craftsmen from Manchu, Han, Mongolian, Tibetan, other domestic ethnic groups, and Western countries coexisted. In this environment, fusion of diversified artistic styles and genres were bound to happen, deriving a unique artistic creation mode. Aside from these, it is also meaningful to analyze the interaction between imperial palaces and regional civilian workshops.

By focusing on the analysis of paintings as an epitome of art world, this article intends to reveal the aesthetic mechanism of Qing court art. There is an absence of systematic review of contributing factors to Qing court painting styles, which, aside from external influence, include fusion among diverse ethnic groups, palace-folk interaction, and mutual influence among different forms of artwork. On this basis, the author will start from the perspective of institution history, systematically sort out the Qing Dynasty’s management of court paintings, and discuss the operating mode of Qing court artwork production.