the Imperial Palace

The Forbidden City, also known as the Forbidden City, is the most complete and largest wooden structure ancient building complex in China and even in the world. It is known as "the top five palaces in the world".

According to its layout and functions, the Palace Museum is divided into two parts: "outer court" and "inner court". Taking the qianqingmen as the boundary, the south of qianqingmen is the outer court, and the north is the inner court.

The outer Dynasty, also known as the "former dynasty", centered on the three main halls of Taihe Hall (Jinluan Hall), Zhonghe hall and Baohe hall, was the place where the feudal emperors exercised their power and held grand ceremonies.

The inner court, with Qianqing palace, Jiaotai palace and Kunning palace as the center, and the East and West six palaces, was the residence of feudal emperors and empresses, also known as "three palaces and six courtyards".

There are a large number of precious cultural relics in the Palace Museum. According to statistics, there are millions of them, accounting for one sixth of the total number of cultural relics in China. There are clock demonstrations at 11:00 and 14:00 every day in the clock hall. You can't miss them.

Beijing Forbidden City

synonym

The Palace Museum (Beijing Palace Museum) generally refers to the Beijing Palace Museum

Beijing Palace Museum is the Royal Palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, formerly known as the Forbidden City, located in the center of Beijing's central axis. The Palace Museum in Beijing, with three main halls as the center, covers an area of 720000 square meters and a construction area of about 150000 square meters. It has more than 70 palaces and 9000 houses.

The Palace Museum of Beijing was built in 1406, the fourth year of Yongle reign of emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, based on the Palace Museum of Nanjing, and completed in 1420. It is a rectangular City, 961 meters long from north to south, 753 meters wide from east to west, surrounded by a 10 meter high wall, and a 52 meter wide moat outside. The buildings in the Forbidden City are divided into outer court and inner court. The center of the outer court is Taihe hall, Zhonghe hall and Baohe hall, which are collectively referred to as the three main halls. It is the place where the state held the grand ceremony. The center of the inner court is Qianqing palace, Jiaotai palace and Kunning palace, collectively referred to as the latter three palaces. It is the main palace where the emperor and queen live.

The Palace Museum in Beijing is one of the largest and best preserved ancient wooden buildings in the world. It is a national AAAAA tourist attraction,

In 1961, it was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units;

It was listed as world cultural heritage in 1987.

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Historical evolution

On the meaning of the name

The Forbidden City is also called the Forbidden City.

In ancient China, the planning concept of "the unity of man and nature" was emphasized, and the stars in the sky were used to correspond with the capital planning, so as to highlight the legitimacy of political power and the supremacy of imperial power. The emperor of heaven lived in Ziwei palace, while the emperor of the world claimed to be the "son of heaven" who was appointed by the heaven. His residence should symbolize Ziwei palace to correspond with the emperor of heaven. The book of the later Han Dynasty states that "heaven has Ziwei palace, which is the residence of God. The king set up a palace and made it like an elephant.

Ziwei, Ziyuan and Zigong became the synonyms of imperial palaces. Because the feudal palace was forbidden in ancient times, ordinary people could not enter, so it was called "forbidden". In the early Ming Dynasty, it was called "imperial city" together with the outer forbidden wall. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it was distinguished from the outer forbidden wall, that is, the palace city was called "Forbidden City", and the outer forbidden wall was called "imperial city".

Construction principle

The Forbidden City was built in strict accordance with the principle of "the former dynasties and the later cities, the zuozu and the YouSHE" in KAOGONGJI of Zhouli. In terms of architectural layout, the whole palace museum is combined into a whole by means of shape change and ups and downs, which conforms to the feudal hierarchy in function. At the same time, the artistic effect of left-right balance and shape change can be achieved.

The roof forms of Chinese architecture are rich and colorful. In the Palace Museum, there are more than 10 different types of roofs. Take the three halls as an example, with different roofs. The roof of the Palace Museum is covered with colored glazed tiles.

The main seats are mainly yellow. Green buildings are used in the prince's residential area. Other blue, purple, black, emerald and malachite green, sapphire blue and other colorful glass, more used in the garden or glass wall. The two ends of the main ridge on the roof of Taihe hall have glass kissing beasts, which swallow the big ridge steadily and forcefully. It is a component and a decoration. Some of the tiles create three-dimensional animal images such as dragon, Phoenix, lion and seahorse, symbolizing auspiciousness and dignity. These components play a decorative role in the building.

Construction process

Beijing was originally the fiefdom of Zhu Di, the king of Yan. After the battle of Jingnan, in the first year of Yongle (1403), Li Zhigang, the Minister of rites, said that Yanjing and Beiping were the "land of Longxing" of the emperor, and should follow the practice of emperor Taizu of Ming Dynasty in Fengyang and be established as the auxiliary capital. Ming Chengzu then vigorously promoted the status of Beiping mansion in Yanjing, taking Beiping as Beijing and changing Beiping mansion into Shuntian mansion, which was called "Xingzai"

. At the same time, they began to move people to enrich Beijing; the people who were forced to move to Beijing were refugees from all over the country, rich families in the south of the Yangtze River, Shanxi businessmen and so on.

In the fourth year of Yongle (1406), Emperor Chengzu of Ming Dynasty issued an imperial edict to build Beijing Imperial Palace and city wall based on Nanjing imperial palace. Zhu Di first sent people to all parts of the country to mine valuable wood and stone, and then transported them to Beijing. Preparation alone lasted 11 years. Most of the precious Phoebe grows in high mountains. People venture into the mountains to pick up trees. Many people lose their lives for this. Later generations have left "one thousand into the mountains and five hundred out of the mountains" to describe the life cost of picking up trees. It's also hard to mine the stone for the palace. The largest Danbi stone behind Baohe hall is mined in Fangshan, southwest of Beijing. Historical records record the scene when it was transported: tens of thousands of laborers dug a well every mile on both sides of the road. When the temperature was low enough in the cold winter, they drew water from the well and poured it into an ice road. It took 28 days to get it to the palace. In addition, it is necessary to make square bricks in Suzhou for royal architecture, and Linqing, Shandong Province, also needs to deliver tribute bricks to Beijing.

In the seventh year of Yongle (1409), Emperor Chengzu of Ming Dynasty carried out the Northern Expedition based on Beijing, and began to build Changling in Changping near Beijing.

The fact that his mausoleum was built in Beijing instead of Nanjing proves that emperor Chengzu of Ming Dynasty has made up his mind to move the capital.

In the 14th year of Yongle (1416), Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty convened a group of officials to discuss the matter of moving the capital to Beijing. As for the officials who raised objections, Ming Chengzu dismissed or severely punished them one by one, and no one dared to oppose the move of the capital from then on.

The next year, the construction of Beijing Forbidden City with Nanjing Forbidden City as the template officially started. In 1420, the palace and the city of Beijing were built. The Imperial Palace in Beijing is based on the Imperial Palace in Nanjing, with a slightly larger scale. The newly built Beijing city has a circumference of 45 Li and a regular square shape, which is in line with the ideal shape of the capital in KAOGONGJI. The emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty officially moved the capital, changing yingtianfu of Jinling as Nanjing, and shuntianfu of Beijing as the capital. However, there were still six central organizations in Nanjing, which were called a certain Ministry of Nanjing, with Nanjing as the remaining capital.

Ming Dynasty

After the completion of the Palace Museum, the palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties has a history of more than 500 years, including emperor and empress activities, hierarchy, power struggle, religious sacrifice and so on. In 1420, the palace in Beijing was completed. The next year, a fire broke out and the first three halls were destroyed. In 1440, the first three halls and Qianqing palace were rebuilt. In the third year of Tianshun (1459), Xiyuan was built. Through Yongle, Hongxi, Xuande, orthodox four generations, the whole 20 years.

In the 36th year of Jiajing (1557), the Forbidden City was ablaze, and the front three halls, fengtianmen, wenwulou and Wumen were all burned. It was not until 1561 that the reconstruction was completed.

During the Jiajing period, the names of the three main halls of the palace museum were changed to Huangji hall, Zhongji hall and Jianji hall.

In the 25th year of Wanli (1597), a fire broke out in the Forbidden City, destroying the former three halls and the latter three palaces. The reconstruction project was not completed until the seventh year of Tianqi (1627).

In the Ming Dynasty, Qianqing palace was the emperor's main bedroom and the main place for political activities. From Yongle Emperor Zhu Di to Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian, 14 emperors lived here. Because the palace was large and the space was too open, the emperor once divided it into several rooms. According to records, there are nine warm pavilions in the Qianqing palace of the Ming Dynasty, which are divided into upper and lower floors. There are 27 beds in total. The empresses can enter the palace. Because there were many rooms and many beds, few people knew where the emperor went to bed every night, just in case something happened. Although the emperor lived in the labyrinth style palace, and took strict precautions, he could not rest easy. According to records, after the renyin palace change in Jiajing period, Shizong moved to Xiyuan and did not dare to live in Qianqing palace. The "red pill case" caused by Emperor Wanli's Zheng Guifei and the "palace moving case" caused by Taichang's Li Xuanshi competing for the title of Queen took place in Qianqing palace. Qianqing palace in Ming Dynasty was also used as a place for emperors to watch their funerals.

The Qing Dynasty

In the 17th year of Chongzhen (1644, the first year of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty), Li Zicheng's army captured Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty perished. However, Li Zicheng was soon defeated by the Qing army at Shanhaiguan. Before Li Zicheng retreated to Shaanxi, he burned the Forbidden City. Only the Wuying hall, Jianji hall, Yinghua hall, Nanxun hall, surrounding turrets and Huangji gate were not burned. The rest of the buildings were destroyed. On the second day of May, the Qing army entered Beijing, and the Forbidden City was taken over by the Qing army.

In October of the same year, Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty moved his capital to Beijing. On the first day of October, Emperor Shunzhi issued an imperial edict to ascend the throne in taihemen, and the Qing Dynasty officially established Beijing as its capital. After that, it took 14 years to basically restore the middle road.

In the 22nd year of Kangxi (1683), the reconstruction of the Forbidden City was started, and the rest of the buildings were destroyed until the 34th year of Kangxi (1683)

Chinese PinYin : Gu Gong