On the architecture and layout of the Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which has experienced more than 560 years of vicissitudes. Twenty-four emperors once lived here. It is not only the place where emperors held ceremonies, summoned ministers and exercised power, but also the place where emperors, queens and princes lived and played. The palace wall, which is 3 kilometers long and 10 meters high, is like a fortified castle, leaving a mystery.

Heaven and man in the Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is also called the Forbidden City. What is the explanation for calling the palace the Forbidden City? The "purple" in the Forbidden City refers to the purple star wall. Astronomers in ancient China divided the stars in the sky into three constellations, such as the Three Walls and the Twenty-eighth Palace. Sanyuan refers to Taiwei Yuan, Ziwei Yuan and Tianshi Yuan. Ziweiyuan is the Central Plains, also known as Ziweiyong and Zigong. It's in the northeast of the Big Dipper. "Sitting among the Taiping emperors, cautious officials are divided into four parts." The ancients thought it was the place where the Emperor of Heaven lived. The feudal emperor claimed to be the son of the Emperor of Heaven, and the place where he handled state affairs and daily life became the center of the world. Because the imperial palace is the highest forbidden place in the hierarchical feudal society, there is a word "forbidden" in the Forbidden City to emphasize the incomparable dignity of the imperial palace. There are three stars in the south of Taiwei Courtyard, which are regarded as three doors, namely, end door, left door and right door; Correspondingly, there are end doors and noon doors in front of the Forbidden City, and left and right doors on both sides. Between the meridian gate and the Taihe gate, the Jinshui River winds through, symbolizing the Milky Way in the Heavenly Palace. "Gan" and "Kun" indicate the meaning of heaven and earth in Gan Qing Palace and Kunning Palace where the emperor and queen live. The Rijingmen and Yuehuamen on the east and west sides symbolize the glory of the sun and the moon. The sixth house of East and West also symbolizes the twelve stars and constellations in the sky respectively.

What do you know about the rooms in the Forbidden City?

There are countless rooms in the Forbidden City. Some people say that the Forbidden City has 9999 rooms; Some people say that there should be 9999 and a half rooms in the Forbidden City. Then, why are there 9999 rooms and a half? Where is half a room? It turns out that this half room refers to the small room at the west end of Wenyuan Pavilion downstairs. In fact, the so-called half room in the Forbidden City does not exist at all. The room to the west of Wen Yuan Pavilion is very small, with only one staircase to go up and down, but it is still a complete room. Wen Yuan Pavilion is the collection place of the first Sikuquanshu in China. In order to get "water is above the sky, and the land is 60%", Wen Yuan Pavilion broke the convention that the houses in the Forbidden City are mostly odd, and adopted even numbers-6. But for the sake of beautiful layout, the first one in the west was built very small, like half a room. How many houses are there in the Forbidden City? According to field survey, there are more than 8600 rooms. Where is the cold palace? Visitors to the Forbidden City will always look for a cold palace to see if the emperor really lives a life of "three palaces, six hospitals and seventy-two concubines". Let's start with "three palaces and six hospitals". The Qing Palace, Jiaotai Hall and Kunning Palace in the middle of the Forbidden City are called the "Three Palaces". The Sixth Courtyard refers to six palaces on the East Road: Zhai Palace, Ren Jing Palace, Chenggan Palace, Zhongcui Palace, Jingyang Palace and Yonghe Palace. The emperor has many wives and concubines, saying that there are "72 concubines" or "3,000 ladies and gentlemen are good". According to the Book of Rites, the system of the Zhou Dynasty was "the son of heaven has six palaces, three wives, nine wives, twenty-seven wives and eighty-one royal wives". It can be seen that as early as the Zhou Dynasty in China, the son of heaven had wives, concubines and royal wives, and the number was quite amazing. Feudal emperors had "supreme" power and could choose concubines at will. There are many resentful women in the palace. In feudal society, how many young women were imprisoned in the palace and could not be free for life! As for the women elected to the palace, once they fall out of favor, they will die in the forbidden room of the palace, which is even more tragic. Where is the "cold palace" of the Forbidden City? There is no fixed place, but there have been two versions. One is Ganqing Palace and Changchun Palace; When the "cold palace" has no fixed address, the place where the princess and the prince are forbidden is commonly known as the "cold palace". Looking through the historical materials of Ming and Qing dynasties, we can see that there is no "Cold Palace" plaque in the Forbidden City, and the Cold Palace is not the official name of a palace. According to some documents, several places were regarded as "cold palaces" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the Emperor was revealed, Princess Li Cheng offended the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian and was driven from Changchun Palace to Ganxi in the west of the Imperial Garden, where she lived for four years. There are three people who have been living in seclusion in the west, namely Ding Fei, Qi and Ke Di. This "cold palace" is in the west of the Forbidden City. Before Emperor Guangxu's concubine fell into the well by Cixi, it was said that she was kept in the north of Qijing Pavilion (now collapsed). This place is in the mountain gate to the west of today's town flying well. If this rumor from the eunuch is true, then this place is considered as a "cold palace".

Mystery of door characters

The word "door" in the plaque of the Forbidden City is written straight down to the end, without an upward tick. Why did you write this on purpose? The word "door" was written as "",which existed in Song Dynasty. It is said that after the Song Dynasty favored Lin 'an, the Jade Butterfly Temple caught fire and the temple gate was burned out. Again, I said that the word "door" in the palace plaque has a hook foot and a fire pen at the end, so it is necessary to burn all these plaques to avoid disaster. Since then, all the plaques in the palace have written the word "door" at the end, and it is straight. There is a story that he died after writing the word "door", which can better explain the reason why the word "door" was not ticked on the palace plaque: Ming Taizu was typing in Nanjing, and Zhan Xiyuan wrote imperial academy's door plaque, and the word "door" was slightly evoked at the end, so many Ming Taizu people were furious and said: I want to recruit talents, so you Zhan Xiyuan will close the door and block my way! And then ordered it to be cut. Just like a tiger with a gentleman!

Who designed the Forbidden City?

Who will be responsible for the design of such a magnificent building as the Forbidden City, if it is a huge project? Who is in charge of the construction? This is indeed a historical mystery that puzzles many old Beijingers. Because the architecture of the Forbidden City is not as clearly engraved with the words of the building construction time and designer as modern architecture. At present, most people think that the Forbidden City was designed by an outstanding craftsman named Kuaimingxiang and Kuailuban in Ming Dynasty. However, in recent years, Yu Xiansheng, a senior engineer in the ancient architecture department of the Palace Museum, has put forward different opinions. He believes that Kuai Xiang, who once participated in the construction of the Nanjing Forbidden City, is the designer of the Forbidden City. In fact, Kuai Xiang is only the construction director of the Forbidden City, and the real designer of the Forbidden City should be a little-known Cai Xin. When the Forbidden City Palace entered the climax of large-scale construction in Yongle 15, Kuaixiang came to Beijing with Judy from Nanjing and began to preside over the construction of the palace. Prior to this, Cai Xin presided over the planning, design and construction of the Forbidden City and Beijing.

Why not plant trees in the three halls?

If we open the history of the rise and fall of the Forbidden City, we can find that the rare ancient trees in the Forbidden City were originally related to a peasant uprising in the Qing Dynasty. 18 13 September 15, Lin Qing, a native of Songjiazhuang, Wanping, Beijing (now Songjiazhuang, Daxing County), led the rebels to the east and Xihuamen. The East Road Rebel was blocked, and the West Road Rebel attacked Xihuamen and killed Longzongmen. The door is closed. When the rebels saw the towering trees on both sides of the palace wall, they climbed up the trees, bravely climbed over the wall, cut off branches, and prepared to attack Longzongmen with fire ... There were no trees planted in the courtyard of the three halls. Some people said that they were afraid that the enemies hidden in the trees would threaten the safety of the emperor. At first glance, this explanation seems reasonable, but it is not the case-hall of mental cultivation in the Forbidden City and Gu Song cypress trees in the imperial home forest are tall and dense. How to explain it? Some people wrote that there were no trees planted in the three halls, mainly to set off the artistic conception. The Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe and the Hall of Baohe, also known as the three halls of the outer court, are the places where the emperor held ceremonies, which are located in the center of the whole outer court building and the whole Beijing city. In order to highlight the majestic momentum of this group of palaces, many architectural techniques have been adopted. One is that there are no trees in the yard. Starting from Tiananmen Square, the main entrance of the Imperial City, passing through Duanmen, Wumen and Taihe Gate, there are no trees in a series of courtyards (the trees before and after Duanmen were planted after the Revolution of 1911). At that time, people went to see the son of heaven and entered Tiananmen Square. After a long journey of emperors, they marched in the undulating architectural space, and they felt an invisible and growing mental pressure. Finally, they entered the Taihe Gate and saw the wide square and the majestic hall towering on the triple platform. This kind of mental stress has reached its peak. This is exactly what the supreme son of heaven demands of his subjects. If you plant trees in these courtyards with pleasant shade and flowers, it will destroy the majestic atmosphere of the imperial court. Indeed, the wide square and blue sky make the three halls more magnificent and impressive. Are there any other reasons why the three halls don't plant trees? During the tour, we might as well explore and think again to completely solve the mystery of this scenic spot.