Harvard Bixi
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Bixi Bixi, or Bi Xi (), is a figure from Chinese mythology. One of the 9 sons of the dragon, 9 sons of the Dragon King, he is depicted as a Chinese dragon, dragon with the shell of a turtle. Stone Chinese sculpture, sculptures of Bixi have been used ...
is a 17-foot high, 27 ton Chinese marble
stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
with a turtle pedestal located at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, north of Boylston Hall and west of
Widener Library The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, housing some 3.5million books in its "vast and cavernous" stacks (library architecture), stacks, is the centerpiece of the Harvard College Libraries (the libraries of Harvard's Harvard Faculty of Arts an ...
in
Harvard Yard Harvard Yard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest part of the Harvard University campus, its historic center and modern crossroads. It contains most of the freshman dormitories, Harvard's most important libraries, Memorial Church, sever ...
, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The stele was presented to the university by the Chinese Harvard Alumni for its Tercentenary in September 1936.


History

The Bixi was created ca. 1820 in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, and the stele was originally a gift from the
Jiaqing Emperor The Jiaqing Emperor (13 November 1760 – 2 September 1820), also known by his temple name Emperor Renzong of Qing, born Yongyan, was the sixth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and the fifth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, fro ...
to
Songyun Songyun (Manchu: ''sungyūn''; ; 1752–1835) was a military governor during the Qing dynasty of Imperial China, from 1802–1809. He was an amban of Xinjiang, Guangdong, and Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering ...
(松筠), the governor-general of Jiangsu and Jiangxi.Shand-Tucci, Douglass & Richard Cheek
''Harvard University: an architectural tour''
Princeton Architectural Press, 2001. p. 153.
Although the original inscription was unknown, the stele was kept in the
Old Summer Palace The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan () or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens (), and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. I ...
in Beijing until the complex was destroyed in 1860, during the
Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...
. The meticulous carvings of dragons chasing pearls on the sides and top of the marble tablet are the only traces that indicate the stele's imperial past.


Harvard's Tercentennial celebrations

In the 1930s there were five Harvard Clubs in China. More than 35 members of the clubs were known to be involved in donating the stele, and at least two of them attended the Tercentennial Ceremony in September 1936. They were Dr. J. Heng Liu, president of Harvard Club of Nanking, and Fred Sze, a banker and the president of Harvard Club of Shanghai. New inscriptions were carved on the front of the marble tablet. Shih Hu, who was invited to take part in the Tercentenary Celebration to receive an honorary doctoral degree from Harvard, was believed to be the calligrapher of the inscription.Macdonald, Vanessa Noëlle. ''Harvard's Silent Dragon''. A.M. thesis. Harvard University, 1999.


Inscription

The Bixi's stele is inscribed with Chinese text in which the content commemorates the tercentennial of Harvard University on behalf of Chinese Harvard Alumni. In September 1936 Dr. J. Heng Liu provided an English translation of the inscription which has been the official translation recorded in the Harvard Archives. However, it was unclear why the English translation provided by Dr. Liu did not contain a part in the inscription in which the Harvard Chinese alumni expressed hope for a brighter and more prosperous China. Following is part of the English translation provided by Dr. J. Heng Liu in 1936:


Present

Due to acid rain and severe weathering, many of the inscriptions on the stele have become illegible. In the early 1980s the
Fogg Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...
Conservation Department examined the condition of the stele and proposed moving it to an indoor location. The site chosen was th
Holyoke Center
Arcade. Due to financial cost the plan was abandoned. In 1998 an informational notice appeared in front of the stele which stated the origin of the stele and that the university was working on a suitable indoor location for the statue. The notice did not offer a translation of the inscription. Plans were also underway to relocate the stele to th
Center for Government and International Studies
(CGIS) buildings on Cambridge Street and Sumner Road. The CGIS was completed in 2005 but the stele remained in the
Harvard Yard Harvard Yard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest part of the Harvard University campus, its historic center and modern crossroads. It contains most of the freshman dormitories, Harvard's most important libraries, Memorial Church, sever ...
. Various groups such as the Harvard Club of Beijing, Harvard Club of Taipei and Harvard-Yenching Institute have expressed interests in preserving or restoring the stele since 2004. In 2009 the University Planning Office began to work on adding interpretive information to the base of the stele. A signage designer has been commissioned to study options for creating a sign at the base. In 2012, a project was started to create a 3-D scan of the monument, using the same digitizing technique (structured light scanner) that had been used in the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions program at Harvard's
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with ...
.


References

{{Harvard University Chinese sculpture Harvard University Monuments and memorials in Massachusetts Chinese steles Harvard Square Marble sculptures in Massachusetts 1820 sculptures China–United States relations Outdoor sculptures in Massachusetts