Emperor Qianlong and Chinese Goldfish: An 18th-Century Oddity
2025-05-21
Published in 1780, *Histoire naturelle des dorades de la Chine* (Natural History of the Gilded Fish of China) was the first monograph on goldfish published in Europe. The book opens with a coloured portrait of Emperor Qianlong, followed by text from Louis-Edme Billardon de Sauvigny describing goldfish and offering “observations and anecdotes relating to the customs, manners and government of this empire.” It reflects the exotic image of the East held in the Western imagination at the time.