the Gate of Devine Might

the Gate of Devine Might

Shenwu gate is the north gate of the Forbidden City. It was built in 1420, Yongle of Ming Dynasty. It was named Xuanwumen at the beginning. It took Xuanwu from the ancient "four gods" to represent the meaning of the north. Later, it was renamed shenwumen for avoiding emperor Xuanye of Kangxi.

There are bells and drums in Shenwu gate, corresponding to the bell and Drum Tower, which are used to start the watch and tell the time. But when the emperor lived in the palace, the bell on the Shenwu gate did not ring. There are three gates on the platform. The empress and the emperor go through the middle gate. The concubines, officials, bodyguards, eunuchs and craftsmen all go in and out through the gates on both sides. The Qing Dynasty draft women, will be concubines into the palace, all go this door. In 1924, Emperor Puyi was expelled from the palace and left through this gate. The plaque at the top of the gate, the Palace Museum, was inscribed by the famous historian Guo Moruo in 1971.

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brief introduction

In the old Shenwu gate, there were bells and drums, which were managed by luanyiwei and ordered by qintianjian. The bell rings 108 times after dusk every day, and it's harder to beat after the bell. After that, they beat the bell and drum every shift, and the bell will ring again at dawn. The emperor did not ring the bell when he lived in the palace.

In the early years of Shunzhi, the Empress Dowager of Xiaozhuang ordered that someone dare to kill the woman who had bound her feet. This Yizhi was once hung in Shenwu gate.

Shenwu gate, as the back door of the Imperial Palace, is an important entrance for the daily entrance and exit of the palace. When the Qing emperors returned from Rehe or Yuanmingyuan, they often entered the palace from this gate. This door is also a special door for empresses and royal family members to enter and leave the palace. When the emperor went out on a tour, he could leave the palace by the Meridian Gate, but his accompanying concubines had to leave the palace by the Shenwu gate. If the emperor serves the Empress Dowager out of the palace, he will go out of Shenwu gate together.

In the Qing Dynasty, women were selected every three years, and the candidates entered the palace through this side door. In 1924, Emperor Puyi was expelled from the palace. When he left the palace, he left through this door.

Architecture

The total height of the door is 31m and the plane is rectangular. The base is white marble xumizuo, with 3 gate openings on the platform and a city tower built on it. The building is built on the base of white marble, with a width of 5 rooms and a depth of 1 room. It is surrounded by corridors and surrounded by white marble railings. The front and back eaves of the building are open to the public, and the left and right secondary rooms are open to the public. The East and West Mountains are equipped with double panel doors, a city wall and left and right horse roads. Step out in front of the four doors. The floor is the top of the double eaves veranda. The lower floor is single cocked with five Dougong steps, the upper floor is single cocked with seven Dougong steps, and the beams and Fang are decorated with ink lines and large gold spirals. On the top of the eaves hung a gold-plated bronze plaque with Chinese characters of "Shenwu gate". The top is covered with yellow glazed tiles. The top of the building is a water grass ceiling with golden lotus, and the floor is covered with gold bricks. Shenwu gate faces Jingshan.

history

According to Yang Ji Zhai Cong Lu and other books, the "third floor" of the Qing Dynasty, namely the bell tower of shenwumen and the bell and Drum Tower in the north of Di'anmen, were in the charge of luanyiwei. In addition, the imperial celestial supervisor in charge of astronomical phenomena and calendar appointed a doctor of Liuke to work in shenwumen day by day to give instructions. At dusk, the bell tower of shenwumen first rings 108 times, and then "rises guard". At that time, a night was divided into five shifts, also known as five nights or five drums. One watch is about two hours. At each "Geng Ci", the flag drummer will sound the drum until the next morning, when the fifth Geng is over, and then the morning bell will sound 108 times. The bell and Drum Tower in the north of Di'anmen gate are the same, so there is a saying of "morning bell and evening drum" in ancient times. But when the emperor lived in the palace, he stipulated that Shenwu gate would not ring any more. According to Chen Yuan Shi Lue, according to the system of the Ming Dynasty, there were 40 shops around the inner Imperial City, each with 10 guards, guarding day and night. There are twenty-eight bronze bells. Every night when we get up from the first shop of the right que gate on the west side of the Meridian Gate, the bell will be sent to the second shop by the army. The bell will be sent to the first shop of the right que gate from the northwest to the southeast. The bell will be sent to the first shop of the right que gate for storage until the next day. After the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, the guards of the imperial city still followed the Ming system and patrolled from right to left, only changing "Chuanling" to "chuanchou". The leader of the guard in the dormitory is on duty in the Shenwu gate, who holds the key to the Shenwu gate. According to the ancient system, the imperial capital in feudal times should be "the former dynasty and the later city", that is, the front of the capital center is the imperial court, and the rear is the market. In addition to the north of Di'anmen (known as bei'anmen), the "Houshi" in Ming Dynasty also had a "NEISHI" in front of Shenwu gate, which opened on the fourth day of every month. At that time, the merchants were allowed to trade, so as to prepare for the purchase of the palace and dignitaries. There are many treasures in this long street, such as Xuande's bronze ware, Chenghua's porcelain, Yongle orchard's lacquerware and Jingtai Palace's enamel. As for the Qing Dynasty, there were also inner markets. When Empress Dowager Cixi lived in Xiyuan, the life palace supervisor opened a market and displayed department stores beside Tuancheng, Chengguang hall, Beihai. Cixi also went out to ask the price himself, which she called "the feeling of the merchants in the mirror" (notes to the Qing palace CI).

draft lottery

The origin of the imperial concubines in Qing Dynasty is different from that in previous dynasties. It established its own system of "draft women", while shenwumen was selected to watch the Eight Banners show

The gate of the imperial city through which women lead into and out of the palace. This kind of strict draft activity is supervised by the Ministry of household and held every three years. On the day before the election, the number of vehicles for each flag should be arranged in advance, and then they should go through the tail in order. There are two lights on each car, each with its own sign. The train leaves in the evening, passes through Di'an gate to Shenwu gate at night, waits for the gate to be opened, and then gets off to enter the palace. The bus, that is, from shenwumen to Donghuamen, and then from Chongwenmen street to the north, still goes into Di'anmen and returns to shenwumen. It is estimated that the time is about noon the next day. After watching the girls, they quit the Shenwu gate in order and get on the bus to return to their homes. Although there are thousands of cars, they are in good order, so people call them "platoon cars". It is said that during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, there were a lot of cars and horses in the draft. The candidates fought for their own way, and the cars were not allowed to enter. There were not only flag girls who lost their hairpins, but also traffic accidents. Since Dan baduoerji, the emperor's son-in-law of Jiaqing, proposed the above-mentioned way of vehicles going east and West from shenwumen, everyone said it was convenient, and xiunv's vehicles were no longer crowded because of the rush. In view of the fact that there were so many people and so many chariots when selecting the beautiful girls, the decree of the sixth year of Jiaqing (1801) stipulated that on the day of election, the ministers and officials who entered the palace were not allowed to go through the Shenwu gate. They had to go through the Donghua gate and the Xihua gate. Even the prince was not allowed to go through the Shenwu gate. Shenwu gate is the main gate for empresses and concubines to go in and out. Therefore, in the early years of Shunzhi, empress Xiaozhuang, who participated in the great administration, issued an edict: "those who enter the palace with foot binding women will be killed" ("notes to Qing palace Ci"), which was suspended in Shenwu gate in the early years of Qing Dynasty. In the early Qing Dynasty, Manchu and Han were very strict. The Manchu women were originally "Tianzu", and only the Han women bound their feet. Therefore, the edict of Xiaozhuang specifically reflected the strong national concept at the beginning of Qing Dynasty's entry into the pass.

The case of Shenwu gate

Chen Yuan is a place of great importance. Although the entrance guard is strict, there is also occasional negligence, resulting in a change. On the morning of February 20, 1805, the 10th year of Jiaqing, a sudden death occurred

However, from the north gate (originally in the north of Shenwu gate, now it has been demolished), a man rushed into the West fence. He was about thirty years old, tall and strong. He carried an iron spear on his shoulder, put on a cloth robe, and snatched the door. Seeing this, the guard went forward to intercept. Without saying a word, the man threw his robe and stabbed it with an iron gun. Although the guard's clothes were punctured, he grasped the gun. At this time, the escort leader arrived and hugged the man from behind. The man then pulled out his machete with his right hand and cut the brim of his cap in two places. After that, he rushed up to several guards, grabbed the machete, injured his ribs and head, surrounded him and beat him down with random sticks. He was interrogated immediately, but he only told some lies, and eventually died when he was about to be escorted to the Department of criminal justice. After many investigations, we learned that the real name of this man was Liu Shixing. As a result, the case threatened the dignity of the Qing government and violated the forbidden law of the imperial court. Emperor Jiaqing attached great importance to the case. Before he had a definite confession, he issued an edict the next day, sentenced the criminal to death for the crime of rebellion, and ordered the Ministry of punishment to "kill the corpse Owl". After the Ministry of punishment and other yamen accepted the case, they suspected that Liu Yiren was not responsible for the case and that there might be other accomplices, so they investigated and questioned the suspects in the capital, Zhili, Shanxi, Shandong and other places. Liu's parents, wives, artists, neighbors and so on were implicated in the case. Jiaqing personally read and approved the memorials, and personally directed the trial and handling. In the two months before and after the case was closed, he issued 20 instructions in succession. In the end, even Liu Shixing's two young sons (one five years old and one two months old) did not let go, and they were sentenced to be "slaves to the minister in charge of Nian Qi" (Qing palace News). In addition, a number of officials were punished for dereliction of duty and ineffective handling. It's no accident that Jiaqing lost his temper. Two years ago, on February 20 of the eighth year of Jiaqing (1803), when Jiaqing's "Shengjia" came back to the palace and was about to enter the Shenwu gate, a man named Chen de suddenly offended Yuyu, which shocked the emperor. Fortunately, he was arrested immediately and nothing serious happened. In just two years or so, there have been two door breaking incidents in a row. How can it not be irritating. Coincidentally, more than 70 years later, in the eighth year of Guangxu (1882), another criminal, Liu Zhensheng, who entered the inner palace without permission, was arrested. According to the confession, he also entered the inner palace from Shenwu gate. It can be seen that the Qing palace guards were loose and tight, and there were often loopholes in their strictness. The old feudal dynasty has its disadvantages

Chinese PinYin : Shen Wu Men