Donghuamen

Donghuamen

Donghuamen, the east gate of the Forbidden City, was built in 1420, the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty. Donghuamen faces east, corresponding to xihuamen. There are Xiama steles outside the gate. The golden water inside the gate flows to the north of Henan Province. There is a stone bridge on the upper shelf, and there are three gates in the north of the bridge. To the west of Donghuamen is Wenhua hall, and to the south is luanyiwei library. Donghua gate and Xihua gate have the same shape, with rectangular plane, red platform, white jade xumizuo, and three coupons in the middle. The coupons are square outside and round inside. On the platform of the city, there is a tower with double eaves of yellow glazed tiles, a veranda top, and a base surrounded by white marble railings. The tower is 5 rooms wide and 3 rooms deep. It is surrounded by porches. Liang Fang is painted with ink lines, big dots and gold spirals. The plaque of "Donghuamen" under the eastern eaves was originally written in Manchu, Mongolian and Han languages, but later it was reduced to Manchu and Han languages. After the revolution of 1911, only copper characters were left.

introduce

Donghuamen is the east gate of the Forbidden City, which was built in 1420. Donghuamen faces east, corresponding to xihuamen. There are Xiama steles outside the gate. The golden water inside the gate flows to the north of Henan Province. There is a stone bridge on the upper shelf, and there are three gates in the north of the bridge. To the west of Donghuamen is Wenhua hall, and to the south is luanyiwei library. Donghua gate and Xihua gate have the same shape, with rectangular plane, red platform, white jade xumizuo, and three coupons in the middle. The coupons are square outside and round inside. On the platform of the city, there is a tower with double eaves of yellow glazed tiles, a veranda top, and a base surrounded by white marble railings. The tower is 5 rooms wide and 3 rooms deep. It is surrounded by porches. Liang Fang is painted with ink lines, big dots and gold spirals. The plaque of "Donghuamen" under the eastern eaves was originally written in Manchu, Mongolian and Han languages, but later it was reduced to Manchu and Han languages. After the revolution of 1911, only copper characters were left.

Since 1758, the gate tower of Donghuamen was used to place the cotton armour used for military parade. It was shaken and dried every other year. In March of the 28th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1763), the purpose of this project was to set up a storehouse for storing eunuch yinglingmishi, named "enfengcang", among the 70 vacant houses along the riverside of donghuamenwai.

Different from the other three gates, Donghua gate is close to the Imperial Palace, which is specially for the prince to go in and out of the Forbidden City, so there are only eight rows of studs on the Donghua gate.

In the early Qing Dynasty, only cabinet officials were allowed to enter Donghuamen. In the middle of Qianlong Dynasty, senior grade one and grade two officials were allowed to enter Donghuamen. In the Qing Dynasty, the Zigong of emperor Dahang, Empress Dowager and Empress Dowager all came out of Donghua gate, which is commonly known as "Guimen" and "yinmen". Among the four gates of the Forbidden City, the studs of Meridian Gate, Shenwu gate and Xihua gate are all vertical nine and horizontal nine. Only the studs of Donghua gate in the East are vertical nine and horizontal eight, which contain Yin number. According to legend, they are also related to this. During the change of Lin Qing in the Jiaqing period, the peasant army was led into the Forbidden City by eunuch Liu Decai and others through the Donghua gate. However, due to the contention with the coal seller in front of the gate, the hidden weapons were exposed in a hurry. As a result, the Guard officers and soldiers suddenly closed the Donghua gate, so only a dozen people broke into the Forbidden City, and the uprising was defeated.

Commonly known as "ghost gate"

survey

The general saying is: after the death of the Qing Dynasty emperor, Zi palace came out from Donghua gate, because funeral and spirit greeting came out from Donghua gate, so Donghua gate is commonly known as "ghost gate". Therefore, the number of doornails is an even number. At the Meridian Gate, Xihua gate and Shenwu gate of the Forbidden City, there are nine rows and nine columns of spikes on each door. Eighty one spikes are odd, that is, Yang number. It's customized.

reason

What is the real reason?

The relationship between the four gates of the palace walls and the main hall Taihe hall is a positive five element orientation system. There is a certain relationship between them. As far as the palace is concerned, the most important basic requirement is to be good. In the theory of Yin Yang and five elements, the East, the west, the south, the north and the middle are five directions. The East belongs to wood, the west to gold, the south to fire, the north to water and the middle to earth. The relationship of mutual generation and mutual restraint is as follows:

Wood makes fire, earth makes gold, water makes wood

Mu Ke Tu Ke Shui Ke Huo Ke Jin Ke Mu

In the East, West, South, North and center of the Forbidden City, the north-south axis is the relationship between fire and earth, and earth and water, that is, the relationship between the outside and the inside, and the inside and the outside, so that the house is auspicious, while the east-west axis is the relationship between wood and earth, and the earth and gold, that is, the relationship between the outside and the inside, and the inside and the outside, so that the house is vicious, especially the wood and earth. In order to avoid bad luck, Chinese ancient architects used the principle of Yin Yang and five elements to generate and control each other, and changed the number of door nails into 972, that is to say, they changed wood into shade wood (even number is Yin), because wood can conquer soil, but shade wood may not conquer Yang soil. However, it is still a nine way street without losing the respect of the emperor. The clever architect has solved this difficult problem skillfully.

The mystery of doornail

survey

In feudal society, the hierarchy was strict, and there were rules for clothing, cars, palaces and other aspects. In this paper, the doornail is an insignificant structural part, because it is in the most exposed position in a mansion, and after years of evolution to form exaggerated shape, so it has the function of showing off power. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the number of doornails had been limited by system. For example, according to the Qing Dynasty code system, the door of the Royal Palace is "Zhuye gold nails, nine in vertical and nine in horizontal". Because nine is the number of Yang, it is also the extreme number. Ninety nine and eighty-one nails can best reflect the dignity of the emperor. The door nails of the prince's mansion are reduced to "vertical nine horizontal seven", and the number below the prince is decreasing. Although there was no such specific provision in Ming Dynasty, the treatment was still in order, depending on the nobility. It seems that the function of the doornail is similar to that of the star on today's officer's epaulet. It is a sign of rank and is not ambiguous. It's strange that there is one exception: the Donghua gate of the Forbidden City is missing a row of studs, which is 8972 for each door, and this is the only exception. This is puzzling. What was the emperor's intention in giving up a row of doornails to represent his position?

Statement 1

There were two versions. One is that the nails of Donghua gate are different from those of other places, and the size is slightly larger. It can be inferred that there must have been a number of door studs enlarged in those years. If they still used nine rows, they would be crowded. It would be more comfortable to remove one row. In fact, this is to explain the Royal affairs with the common people's thinking. Feudal society for a title can fight for a life and death, let alone represent the level of the doornail? According to this, how to explain the huge cost of demolishing the pagoda and changing it into a pavilion? So this word should be reversed: because the design requires a row less, in order to avoid appearing sparse, this batch of door studs are specially made larger.

Statement 2

Another theory is that after the death of the royal family members, the coffin and the halogen book all came out of the Donghua gate. Therefore, the funeral of the gate belonged to Yin, and the doornail could not be Yang, so one row was removed. However, it has been proved that according to the records, coffins were carried out from the Xihua gate, and the emperor also went to the Donghua gate when he went out on a tour. It can not be considered that the Donghua gate only deals with funerals, so this theory is not tenable. In a word, the result of the discussion is still inconclusive, and this mere row of doornails has become a mystery. Did Liu Bowen "steal" the Forbidden City?

An early staff member of the Palace Museum once explained this phenomenon, and the staff member listened to the eunuch in the original palace. In fact, Liu Bowen did not participate in the construction of Beijing and the Forbidden City. When the Forbidden City was built in the 15th year of Yongle, he died for more than 40 years. Because Liu Bowen was legendary, many important events in the early Ming Dynasty were attached to him. No matter who his surname is, he refers to the designer of Beijing and the Forbidden City). He claimed that he had stolen the design of the heavenly palace to build the Forbidden City. In order to show his awe for the Heavenly Emperor, he had to remove a row of doornails to show the difference between the human emperor and the heavenly Jade Emperor. The reader said that people are discussing problems. Aren't you telling stories? I said, who can say that the answer must not be a story? In those days, the designer of the Forbidden City told a ridiculous story in such a solemn way, whose political intention was obvious: that is, to strengthen the subjects' understanding of the emperor's so-called "son of heaven" as a half man and half god.

reason

To solve this mystery, we have to start with folk customs. It turns out that one form of expression of Chinese folk culture is called metaphorical culture, which is to use homophony or other forms of expression to give things a specific meaning. Hou Baolin is the most incisive interpreter of metaphorical culture, which he calls "speech". For example, apple and saddle are used to describe "peace". Sometimes without the help of homophony, for example, to hang a gold lock on a newborn, in order to lock his life without premature death, and so on. The emperor was not free from vulgarity, and he enjoyed it all the time. Therefore, there are traces of metaphorical culture everywhere in Chinese ancient buildings, including palace buildings. If it is said that the feudal rulers lost their will by playing with things, it is probably also a way of playing. How many stories are there in the Forbidden City?

There are so many examples of metaphorical culture in ancient buildings. For example, the direction of Jinshui River in the Forbidden City forms three bow backs in front of Wuying hall, Taihe gate and the east side of Wenhua hall, and the three groups of Jinshui bridges are just like arrows on the bow, which means "sitting in the north and Zhennan". Coincidentally, the Yuhe river outside the East Palace of the summer palace is also arched. Although it does not point to the south, it still has the intention of deterring the outside world.

Another example is that the name of the Forbidden City comes from Ziwei Xingyuan, which refers to the constellation centered on Polaris. The ancients believed that Ziwei Xingyuan was the residence of the emperor of heaven, and the stars protected it. Therefore, since the Han Dynasty, the Imperial Palace has often been referred to as Ziwei. In order to prove this, there are seven red gold roofs in the Forbidden City (four in wufenglou, one in Zhonghe hall, one in Jiaotai hall and one in Qin'an Hall), which means the Big Dipper. With seven stars here, who can say it's not the palace in the sky?

Forbidden

Chinese PinYin : Dong Hua Men