Dagaoxuan Hall

Dagaoxuan Hall

Dagaoxuan hall, an ancient royal Taoist temple in Ming and Qing Dynasties, belongs to the national key cultural relics protection unit.

Dagaoxuan hall is located in the imperial city of Beijing, east of Beihai Park and west of Jingshan. It was built in 1542.

The front gate of dagaoxuan hall is three gates side by side, which is also known as "three gates". The whole building covers an area of about 13000 square meters, with a total construction area of about 5300 square meters.

In May 2013, dagaoxuan hall was officially returned to the Forbidden City.

In 2020, the grand hall will be restored to health and is expected to open.

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look south

Located at No.23, sanzuamen street, Xicheng District, dagaoxuan hall is a royal Taoist temple in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Dagaoxuan hall has been renovated in later generations. It faces south, 264 meters long from north to south, 57 meters wide from east to west, covering an area of nearly 1.5 hectares. The existing ancient buildings are about 1600 square meters, basically maintaining the original style. It has a rectangular shape in the north-south direction. On the front, there are three doors with double green glass and imitation wood structure. At the back of the door, there is a large and high porch. In front of the dagaoxuan gate, there was a flagpole (now only a stone seat) and a bell and drum tower behind it. The main hall is named dagaoxuan hall, with a width of 7 rooms, a double eaves yellow glazed tile veranda top, a platform in front and 5 auxiliary halls on the left and right; the back hall is named jiutianying yuanlei altar, with a width of 5 rooms and 9 auxiliary halls on both sides. The main existing buildings are three doors opened up by the wall and protected by stone railings. There are dagaoxuan gate, bell and Drum Tower, dongxipeidian, dagaoxuan hall, jiutianyingyuan Leitan hall. Finally, there is a two-story Pavilion, Qianyuan Pavilion, which is a symbol of a round sky and a place. It has a round and sharp roof, covered with blue glazed tiles, which symbolizes the sky. At the bottom is kunzhenyu, a Square Pavilion, covered with yellow glazed tiles, which symbolizes the land.

Historical evolution

Dagaoxuan hall was built in 1542, which was destroyed by fire in 1547, and rebuilt in 1600.

In the Qing Dynasty, it was renamed "dagaoyuan hall" to avoid the taboo of Emperor Kangxi. Later, it was renamed "Dagao hall". It was rebuilt in 1730, 1746 and 1818, and then repaired many times. During the invasion of China by the Allied forces of eight countries in 1900, the hall was seriously damaged and then restored.

During the period of the Republic of China, some buildings in front of the hall were demolished and changed. In the early days of the founding of new China, dagaoxuan hall was used by the service bureau of the general staff security department. Due to the long-term use of office buildings, the internal buildings of the hall were seriously damaged, and the color paintings fell off seriously. Many white marble railings on the platform in front of the hall were corroded and collapsed. Several red brick houses were built in front of the thunder altar of jiutianying yuan. The office buildings in the hospital were built in disorder, and the fire risk was serious.

Repair and protection

The main hall of dagaoxuan hall has not been repaired for 100 years. The buildings in the courtyard basically keep the appearance of the Qianlong period. The painted paintings and doors and windows are the original ones of the last restoration in the Qing Dynasty.

In 1996, dagaoxuan hall was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit. In 1998 and 2000, members of the National Committee of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) twice received proposals calling for the return of the grand hall to the Palace Museum, which is expected to be open to the public after renovation. In November 2000, several ancient architecture experts also issued the proposal on taking back the grand hall as a cultural facility. However, due to various reasons, the relocation conditions were not settled. In 2005, Ji Xianlin, a master of traditional Chinese culture, and a number of experts and scholars jointly proposed that the Department occupying the grand hall should vacate and repair as soon as possible, so as to open up to the society as soon as possible.

In May 2013, dagaoxuan hall was officially returned to the Forbidden City.

On April 3, 2015, the Grand Palace of the Forbidden City was overhauled for the first time in more than 60 years.

Main building

Along the central axis of the hall, from south to north, there are dagaoxuan gate, dagaoxuan hall, jiutianwanfalei altar, Qianyuan Pavilion and other main buildings, and there are auxiliary hall, bell and Drum Tower, duty room and other buildings on the left and right.

Dagaoxuanmen: in front of the hall, there are two glazed doors, all of which are three side-by-side with stone railings. Inside the glazed gate, there is a large and high Xuanmen gate, with a three room wide front and a royal road in the middle. The gate is 16.20 meters wide and 8.80 meters deep. The yellow glazed tube is used to tile the top of the hill, with a big ridge and five steps on the single Dougong.

There are bell and drum towers in the East and west of the gate, both of which are square in plane, with two floors. On the top of the yellow glazed tile hill, the bell and drum inside were also lost when the Eight Power Allied forces invaded Beijing.

Dagaoxuan Hall: the dagaoxuan hall is seven rooms wide, 34 meters wide and 16.5 meters deep, with double eaves of yellow glazed tiles on the top of the hall. The upper eaves have seven single cocks and five double cocks, and the lower eaves have five golden dragon and seal paintings. The front eaves have four doors and four plastered doors, and the two ends have sill windows with three intersecting and six bowls of water caltrop panes.

The main hall is located on the base of xumizuo surrounded by white marble railings. There is a platform in front of the hall. There are three steps on the front of the hall. In the middle of the hall are stone carvings on the royal road, which are carved with Yunlong, Yunfeng, crane and other patterns. There are five East and five West halls in front of the hall, all of which are green glazed tiles on the top of the mountain. The front porch is a dou'er-sheng bridge with MAH leaves, Dougong and gold colored paintings.

Jiutian wanfalei altar, located behind the main hall, is five rooms wide, 15 meters wide and 10 meters deep. It has a single eaves on the top of the hall, green glazed tiles with yellow trimming, five steps of high-rise Dougong, under the eaves painted with gold colored paintings, a platform surrounded by white marble barriers in front of the hall, and an imperial road in the middle. There are rooms in the East and west of the hall, each with nine bays, with a width of 37.40 meters and a depth of 9.60 meters.

Qianyuan Pavilion: the northernmost part of dagaoxuan hall is a two-story Pavilion. The upper layer is called "Qianyuan Pavilion", which consists of eight columns with a round top, covered with purple glazed tiles. The pavilion stands on a flat seat, surrounded by porches and wooden railings. The lower layer is called "Kun Zhenyu", which is square, with yellow glazed tiles on the waist eaves, single cocked single Dougong, ceiling at the mouth of the well and painted Golden Dragon. The pavilion is built on a platform with white marble railings, There is a stamp in the middle of the front, which is carved with stone.

Ancient function: built in 1542, it is the only royal Taoist temple of Ming and Qing Dynasties in China and an important part of the Forbidden City. For more than 60 years, dagaoxuan hall has been borrowed and transferred to the Palace Museum in recent years. Gaoxuan hall is a Taoist temple belonging to the royal court. It was used as a place for Taoist sacrifice in Ming Dynasty and an altar for praying for rain and snow in Qing Dynasty.

Large timber structure

Most of the existing ancient buildings in dagaoxuan hall have been in disrepair for a long time. At the same time, the damage of tile surface, color painting and stone components such as pedestal pillar, breast board and drainage tap are also very serious. During the occupation period, some ancient buildings were used as maintenance workshops, and a large number of sundries and inflammables were stacked inside. The fire-fighting facilities such as smoke detector and lightning protection were not complete, which greatly threatened the safety of cultural relic buildings.

On August 13, 2014, the Institute of ancient architecture of the Palace Museum Research Institute was officially unveiled. For the first time, the grand hall, which was cleaned up and restored by the team of experts on ancient buildings in the Forbidden City, has been opened to the media. Some houses in the courtyard have been demolished, and protective measures have been taken around the ancient buildings. After returning to the Palace Museum, the Qianyuan Pavilion, the last important building in the courtyard, was first repaired. This unique building, which symbolizes a round place in ancient times, has completed the initial repair. Later, more than 20 modern buildings in the courtyard will be demolished by professional personnel.

Open to the public

Wang Xudong, President of the Palace Museum, said that with the deepening of understanding, the opening mode of the grand hall will also change. It will mainly serve as a place for academic research, open to experts and scholars, and hold regular youth activities.

Huanhuo ancient building, the Palace Museum has cooperated with more than 20 scientific research institutions, colleges and universities, recorded about 60000 images, more than 1400 mapping drawings, environmental data monitoring for more than 270 days, more than 1800 bags of cultural relics samples, more than 200 rubbings, and obtained the intact, damaged and deformed data information of the main hall by using digital technology such as three-dimensional laser scanning.

In 2020, the grand hall will be restored to health and is expected to open. Wang Xudong said that with the deepening of our understanding, we feel that the grand hall is not particularly suitable for opening, so we adjusted the way of opening up. In the future, it will be more used as an academic research base, more open to scholars and researchers, but it will hold youth experience projects regularly. At the same time, some small digital exhibitions will be organized here.

Cultural Activity

In addition, the grand hall will also be used as a cultural activity venue of the Forbidden City to hold social education activities such as the "Forbidden City Forum". The East and west side halls of Qianyuan Pavilion will not be rebuilt, which is conducive to the formation of a small cultural square open to the audience and young people.

The main hall is 7-room wide with double eaves of yellow glazed tiles, which is the highest standard in ancient Chinese architecture; the back hall is jiutianwanfalei altar, which is 5-room wide; finally, there is a pavilion, which has two layers in appearance and one hidden layer in the interior, which is actually three layers. The top is round below, the top is round and the top is covered with five blue glazed tiles symbolizing the dome, and the bottom is square“ "Kunzhenyu" is covered with five yellow glazed tiles symbolizing the earth. This kind of "like heaven and earth" shape is rare in China because of its high level and exquisite shape. Its interior is decorated with exquisite workmanship, such as Panlong caisson, cloud crane Danbi, wooden shrine and various details.

Cultural relics protection

On April 7, 2016, the State Administration of cultural relics approved the report of Beijing Municipal Bureau of cultural relics on application for approval

Chinese PinYin : Da Gao Xuan Dian