The saying that Qianlong was a "prodigal son" is not only related to his six trips to the south of the Yangtze River where he was squandering money, but also related to the "prodigal stone".
In the courtyard in front of the Leshou Hall of the Summer Palace in Beijing, a beautiful large sea-blue stone lies on a stone seat carved with wave patterns, with the inscription of Emperor Qianlong on it: "Qingzhixiu". This rock is eight meters long, two meters wide and four meters high, like a screen in the courtyard. This stone is called the "Prodigal Stone". This rock turned out to be deep in the mountains of Fangshan County, a suburb of Beijing. In the Ming Dynasty, there was a man named Mi Wanzhong who loved stones. After he found this big bluestone, he liked it very much and decided to transport it back to Shaoyuan. But the stone was too big and heavy, so many migrant workers were hired to build a big road first, and then drilled small wells every three miles and large wells every five miles beside the road. In winter, water was poured onto the road and it froze into an icy water channel. The road was built all the way to Fangshan Dashiwo. Mi Wanzhong spent an unknown amount of money to transport this large bluestone. When the stone was transported to Liangxiang, his financial resources were exhausted and he had to abandon it on the roadside. Therefore, people at that time called this big bluestone the "Prodigal Stone". In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong came back from visiting Xiling to worship his ancestors. He walked to Liangxiang and saw this strange big blue stone, so he issued an imperial edict to transport the prodigal stone to Qingyi Garden within a time limit. At that time, the courtyard wall of Leshou Hall had been repaired, but the prodigal stone was too big, so the door had to be dismantled and transported into the courtyard. The empress dowager heard about it and thought that the prodigal stone was an ominous thing. It would be even more unlucky if he broke into the "door" again, so she came forward to dissuade him. Later, Liu Yong said that this large bluestone was shaped like Ganoderma lucidum, which would add auspiciousness to the royal family, symbolizing longevity and longevity, and the eternal foundation of the emperor! It is most suitable to place it in front of the Hall of Longevity and Longevity; it would be very unlucky to abandon it in the wilderness. The Queen Mother turned her worries into joy, and Qianlong was satisfied, so he named her "Qingzhixiu". But precisely because of this "prodigal stone" that "broke in" and Qianlong's extravagance and waste, Qianlong was known as a "prodigal son".
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