Lei Jinyu

Also known as Yang Shi Lei Di Er Dai Zhang An

Lei Jinyu, courtesy name Liangsheng, was the eldest son of Lei Fada. A student of the Imperial Academy who qualified for the rank of sub-prefect, he took up his father's trade as a foreman in the Construction Office and was enrolled as a bondservant of the Imperial Household. The family genealogy records that when the main hall of the Changchun Garden in Haidian was being raised under Kangxi, he solved the problem of fitting its beams, was received by the emperor and appointed head draughtsman of imperial works with seventh-rank status. Under Yongzheng, when the Yuanmingyuan was greatly enlarged, he ran its Design Office, producing plans and pasteboard models. At seventy he was presented with a plaque reading Rare Old Age. He died in 1729, his coffin was carried back to Jiangning for burial outside Ande Gate, and his descendants kept charge of the Design Office until the end of the Qing.