Panorama of Peking during the Celebrations of the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Emperor Kang-He's birthday.

The DianshizhaiLithographic Press was established in 1879 by Ernest Major (1841-1908), a remarkable British media entrepreneur who founded the first Chinese independent newspaper Shenbaoin Shanghai in 1872. Dianshizhaiwas the division responsible for illustrated publications within the ShenbaoPublishing House. The Press offered affordable reduced-size lithographic editions of many of the great classics of Chinese literature. The publications of the DianshizhaiPress were notable not just for their pioneering use of lithography, but for their striking publisher’s wrappers, often printed in gold on vivid coloured silks.

The present publication is based on an illustrated Imperial edition published in 1717 by order of the Kangxi Emperor. The "Wan shou shen dian chu ji" consisted of 40vols. It records in great detail the ceremonies and festivities on the occasion of his 60th birthday (1713) along the long procession down the road from the Changchun Garden (enlarged into the Yuanming yuan) to the Shenwumen northern gate of the Forbidden City. That edition was reserved for the inner circle of the court and it was only in 1879 that Dianshizhai publishing house was able to issue this reduced lithographic edition of the plates for the general public in Shanghai.