In the cartoon Georgiana had seen in the carriage earlier, Macartney was kneeling on one knee before the "Tatar Emperor," while the other envoys seemed to be threatened by bloody blades into prostrating themselves.
Yet Qing government records stated that Macartney had performed the grand ceremony of three bows and nine kowtows—in other words, he had knelt on both knees nine times.
Qianlong had actually been quite magnanimous in this regard. By the time of his son Jiaqing's reign, as imperial authority declined, kneeling had become an even more urgently needed formality.
According to the Celestial Empire's rules, foreigners who came to serve it had to become officials. Chao Heng, the Tang envoy to Japan whose Japanese name was Abe no Nakamaro, was one example. The British proposal to station someone separately in the capital while disregarding the Celestial Empire's rules was simply impossible.
Before Wang Zhicheng, there had been an Italian painter who truly came from Milan, Italy. His original name was Giuseppe Castiglione, later changed to Lang Shining. He served under Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong, and also took part in designing the Western Mansions of the Old Summer Palace. Wang Zhicheng had originally been meant to succeed Lang Shining, but he had been worked to death. He died in Beijing in December 1768, and his remains were buried there as well.
Court painters did not only paint the emperor and imperial consorts; they also had to paint portraits for princes and high ministers. During the journey accompanying the court to Rehe, besides the emperor's brothers, consorts, several imperial princes, and princesses, a number of princes and favored courtiers also sought him out for paintings.
Painting them was one thing. The key was the revisions—removing what the patrons disliked and adding what they liked. Today, they thought the pose