Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Palace Architecture

According to the excavations of archaeologists and ancient documents, there were palace buildings as far back as the Shang Dynasty in the 16th century BC and the Zhou Dynasty in the 11th century BC.The palaces of Yin, the capital of the Shang Dynasty, were built on earthen platforms about one meter high, and some houses were as long as 80 meters long and 14.5 meters wide.The palaces of the Zhou Dynasty were built in the center of the royal city, forming a group of buildings with five palace gates in front and three palace rooms in the middle.Both the Shang and Zhou dynasties were still in the period of slave society in China, and the productivity was still very low at that time, so of course the palace architecture was not very particular.

In the Qin and Han dynasties, China had entered a feudal society, and its productive forces had developed.The scale of the palaces in Xianyang of Qin Dynasty and Chang'an City of Han Dynasty greatly exceeded that of the previous dynasties, and both became self-contained architectural groups. There were not only palaces for the emperor to handle political affairs, but also architectural areas for the emperor to live and play.The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of China's feudal society. In the well-planned Chang'an City, the palace buildings were concentrated in the palace city and the imperial city, which were located in the north of the city.The Daming Palace built outside Chang'an in AD 634 is a group of large-scale buildings, and the main buildings are arranged along the central axis.The main hall is called Hanyuan Hall, which is built on a slightly higher platform with a long ramp leading directly to the front of the hall.On the two wings of the main hall, there are auxiliary halls stretching forward, forming a pattern surrounded by three sides, which is very majestic and reflects the strong national power of that era.

In the Song Dynasty, the capital was moved to Kaifeng in Henan, and its palace city was located in the center of the capital.The main palaces in the palace city are also arranged along the central axis. There are gates on all sides of the city and turrets at the four corners.In the 13th century AD, after the Yuan Dynasty unified China, a large-scale palace complex was built in the capital city. The imperial city composed of palace buildings is located in the center of the city. From the palace buildings of the past dynasties, we can see the following characteristics: First, the ancient Chinese palace buildings are all single buildings, and their volume is mostly not very large, which can meet the needs of the rulers for work, life, entertainment, etc. various requirements.Second, these single buildings are organized together in a certain sequence. The main palace is arranged on the central axis in the north-south direction, and the secondary buildings are on the left and right sides.Thirdly, these palace complexes form a palace city, surrounded by walls, and the palace city forms a district of its own, located in the center of the capital.This form has become a fixed format, which has been used by successive dynasties in China's long-term feudal society.