Chapter 5 Section 4 Architecture of the Forbidden City in Beijing

There are more than a thousand buildings in the Forbidden City, so it is naturally impossible to introduce them one by one. Here we can only focus on the main palaces and gates on the central axis, from which we can see the majestic appearance of this huge palace complex. (1) Meridian Gate This is the gate of the Forbidden City. The emperor issued edicts, and the ceremony of accepting prisoners of war after the war was held here.In the Ming Dynasty, officials who violated the laws of the king were punished with sticks (that is, hitting with a board), and they were also executed in the square outside the Meridian Gate.The shape of the Meridian Gate is the central main hall, which is in the shape of a Π shape surrounded by left and right sides. Below it is a city platform with a height of more than 10 meters. The corridor houses stretch out forward, and there are square towers at the south end.This form was called Que Gate in ancient times, which is the highest level of the gate and has a majestic momentum.

(2) Gate of Supreme Harmony This is the gate of the three halls of the former dynasty. It has seven rooms wide and is located on a stone platform. There are two copper lions squatting on the stone seats on the left and right in front of the gate, looking up at the front. .Why put lions in front of the gate?Lions originated in Africa. About the Han Dynasty, King Anxi of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) presented them to the Emperor Han as a gift, and they were introduced to China.The lion is ferocious, commonly known as the "king of beasts", so it is placed on both sides of the gates of important buildings to increase the power of this group of buildings.We have seen this arrangement in front of Tiananmen Square and several groups of important building gates in the Forbidden City, and it has also formed a fixed pattern, that is, on the left side of the gate is a male lion with a colored ball on its feet, and on the right is a lioness. Step on a lion cub.There is another door on the left and right wings of the Taihe Gate, which together with the Taihe Gate form a group of magnificent entrances.Shunzhi, the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty to enter the Forbidden City, held the ceremony of issuing the first edict in the Gate of Supreme Harmony.

(3) The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the most important hall in the Forbidden City. It is not only located in the center of the Forbidden City, but also ranks first in the entire building complex in terms of its shape and decoration.The size of ancient Chinese buildings is counted by rooms, the more rooms, the taller the house, so we always measure the size and specifications of a building by the number of rooms.The Hall of Supreme Harmony is 11 rooms wide, with a total height of 26.9 meters from the ground to the roof, which is second to none among the existing ancient buildings.The roof forms of ancient Chinese buildings can be divided into four types: hipped halls with slopes, Xieshan, hanging hills, and hard hills.All kinds of buildings adopt different types of roofs according to their size and importance, so the roof form has become a symbol for distinguishing building levels.The Hall of Supreme Harmony naturally uses the highest-level double-eave hipped roof.All the roofs are made of yellow glazed tiles, shining against the blue sky.The walls, doors and windows of the Hall of Supreme Harmony are all red, which looks very bright and eye-catching against the white platform below.The Hall of Supreme Harmony has been decorated from top to bottom, from the inside to the outside.Both ends of the main ridge of the roof have a three-meter-high mouth (Figure 5), which looks like a dragon's head, with its mouth open to hold the main ridge, and its tail raised upwards.On the front ends of the four ridges, there is a series of small beasts, which are called beast decorations (Figure 6).The wooden beams under the eaves are covered with turquoise-based decorations, which are called "color paintings".There are wood carvings of various patterns on the wooden doors and windows.Looking at the interior of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, there are six oil-painted golden pillars in the center of the hall, with a golden dragon coiled on each of them.Above the six gold pillars is a decoration called "caisson", that is, in the central part of the ceiling, a square wellhead rises upwards, and the wellhead shrinks inward layer by layer, changing from square to octagonal, and reaching the top. There is a coiled dragon as decoration, the dragon's body is coiled, the dragon's head is downward, and a spherical mirror is held in the dragon's mouth.Below the gold pillars is placed the emperor's throne.Below the throne is a wooden platform on which the emperor's chair is placed. Behind the chair there are seven screens wide, and on both sides of the front there are incense burners, incense tables, peacocks and other decorations.If the Hall of Supreme Harmony is the center of the entire Forbidden City, then the emperor's throne should be the center of the center.

The entire Hall of Supreme Harmony is full of decorations from the roof to the doors and windows. Here, the most used decorations are dragon patterns.The dragon is a symbol of the Chinese nation. There have been many debates in the academic circles about its origin. Some scholars believe that it is a totem mark of the primitive era, which is made of various animals such as snakes, fish, shrimps, cows, and eagles. Some scholars believe that the dragon is the image of clouds and lightning in the sky; some scholars believe that the dragon is the image of a dinosaur or a crocodile in the biological world; because the origin of the dragon involves the origin of paleontology and primitive religion , Paleographology and other issues are very complicated, and it is difficult to draw definite conclusions for a while.But no matter what its origin is, the dragon shape we see now is formed by the gradual development of the images of various animals. It is a kind of sacred animal revered by the Chinese nation, which is recognized by everyone.Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty called himself the son of the dragon, the feudal emperors all called themselves the "true dragon emperor", who was sent by heaven to rule the people.Therefore, the building where the emperor lived was called the Dragon Palace, the clothes the emperor wore were called dragon robes, and the chairs he sat on were called dragon chairs.In this Hall of Supreme Harmony, there are nine stone-carved dragons on the royal road in the center of the front platform, under the eaves, on the ceiling, and in the algae well, there are dragons in various postures, and there are also wooden dragons on the doors and windows. On the throne of the emperor, from the platform base, screen to the imperial chair, there are dragon patterns carved everywhere.On the glazed tile roof of the main hall, there are kisses at both ends of the main ridge, and the beasts on the roof, although they are not dragons, are also called the sons of dragons.Some people have counted that there are 12,654 decorative dragons inside and outside the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which can really be called the world of dragons.

(4) Hall of Zhonghe and Hall of Preserving Harmony The Hall of Zhonghe is the place where the emperor made preparations before going to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The area is relatively small and the furnishings are relatively simple.The Hall of Preservation and Harmony is the place where the emperor held the imperial examination. It is the place where the emperor personally held the final examination for the Jinshi selected from various regions. Therefore, the area is relatively large, and there is the emperor's throne inside, but its scale and exquisiteness cannot be compared with Tai Compared with the temple.

From the appearance, the Baohe Hall is nine rooms wide, and the roof is double-eaved and resting hills; while the Zhonghe Hall is square in plane, only five rooms wide, and the roof is a pointed roof, which is a four-sided slope. The four ridges converge toward the center to form a roof form, which is often used on houses with square or circular planes.Here, the three halls of Taihe, Zhonghe, and Baohe also have yellow glazed tile roofs and red doors and windows. They are on the same white platform, but they are two big and one small, and there are three palaces in three styles. Roofs, so the buildings they form are full of variety in unity, and not rigid in solemnity.

(5) Qianqing Palace It is the main hall in the back bedroom of the Forbidden City. It was originally a palace for the emperor and empress to live in. It was also here to receive ministers and handle some daily government affairs.After Emperor Yongzheng ascended the throne in the Qing Dynasty, he moved his bedroom to the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the west, and the Qianqing Palace became a special palace for the emperor to work. He usually received ministers, discussed major affairs of the government, and met foreign envoys here. Therefore, there is a comparison hall in the hall. A stately throne.Above the throne hangs a horizontal plaque of "Fair and Bright".The emperor in Chinese feudal society is a hereditary system, and the emperor must determine his heir before his death, so the inheritance of the throne is fiercely contested among the many princes and the forces they represent.Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty had 35 sons in total. After overt and secret competition, his fourth son Yinzhen finally succeeded to the throne.After Yongzheng ascended the throne, in view of the experience of his previous life, he proposed that the emperor would not announce the name of the heir during his lifetime, but only write down the name in duplicate, one copy was hidden by the emperor, and the other was hidden in the "upright and bright" horizontal section of the Qianqing Palace. On the back of the plaque, after the emperor died, he took out two lists and compared them to be correct before publishing them to the public.Formally, this method seems to be upright, but the feudal system itself determines that under this "upright" banner, intrigues are still going on.

(6) Jiaotai Hall and Kunning Palace Kunning Palace was the residence of the empress in the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty. Later, the hall was divided into two parts. There are heated kangs and cauldrons on the wall, where pigs can be slaughtered and meat cooked, and sacrificial ceremonies can be held.Between the two palaces of Qianqing and Kunning, there is a square Jiaotai Hall, which is not large in scale. This is the place where the queens of the Qing Dynasty received congratulations from the royal family on important festivals, so dragon and phoenix patterns appeared on the decoration. When used together, the dragon represents the emperor, and the phoenix represents the queen. The feudal dynasty took the two most respected beasts among the people as their own.These three palaces are the same as the three halls of the previous dynasty, they are also located on the same platform, and the appearance is also two large and one small, but in terms of overall scale, such as the height of the platform, the size of the courtyard around the building, and the distance between the buildings etc. are much smaller than the first three halls.

(7) The last part of the Imperial Garden on the central axis of the Forbidden City is the Imperial Garden.This is a palace garden exclusively for the emperor to play. Its area is not large, about 11,000 square meters, and there are many pavilions and pavilions in it.In addition to planting trees and flowers that can grow in the north, some southern flower and tree bonsai are arranged according to the seasons, as well as strange stone scenes contributed from all over the country, making this a garden environment with a completely different atmosphere from the front and back three halls . (8) Hall of Mental Cultivation The Hall of Mental Cultivation is not on the central axis of the Forbidden City, but in the west of the back bedroom. It used to be the place where the Empress Dowager lived. Daily government affairs, so there is a throne in the center of the hall.The Dongnuang Pavilion of the hall is also a place where the emperor and his ministers discuss matters. During the reign of Emperor Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty, his mother, Empress Dowager Cixi, held power behind the scenes. Whenever the emperor was in charge, the little emperor sat on the imperial chair of Dongnuang Pavilion. There was a hanging curtain behind the chair. The Eastern and Western Empress Dowagers sat on the left and right respectively, and the emperor on the imperial chair was actually a puppet, who had to listen to the instructions of the Empress Dowager Cixi behind the scenes in everything, which was "listening behind the curtain".Today, the furniture and furnishings of that time are still arranged in Dongnuan Pavilion, which has become a true portrayal of this special period of history.