Who named the Forbidden City?

It is not difficult for us to find that metaphor culture has four characteristics: first, its implication is to please people and avoid evil; Secondly, some works of metaphorical culture are superstitious, but not necessarily; Thirdly, the realization of metaphorical culture needs to pay a certain price; Fourthly, the carrier of metaphorical culture may be useful, but its implication is useless. For example, the bow of Jinshui River was not stopped by anyone. Didn't they all come from Li Zicheng to Eight-Nation Alliance? The brave words of "strong", "heroic" and "heroic" neither prevented Ming Yingzong from becoming a prisoner of war nor from signing a humiliating treaty in the late Qing Dynasty. It is also understandable to make an occasional elegant statement or be lucky. If a nation is led by the emperor and blindly addicted to these things for a long time, its wisdom and wisdom will be bypassed, and it will not be far from the crisis.

There are so many examples below, and then look at the explanation of the doornail below. If it's just a work of metaphorical culture, you probably won't feel far-fetched in order to get a statement, will you? At this point, the story is not over. It is said that Liu Bowen (or to borrow his name) stole the pattern of the Heavenly Palace, knowing that it is unforgivable to violate the dogma. It is better to make a good attitude by punishing himself, so he made himself a cangue to show his guilt. This cangue is nothing more than the door leaf of Donghua Gate. It is said that this kind of door leaf is different from other places. First, make the frame to simulate the shape of two flails, and then fill in the blanks. If the door leaf of Donghuamen is still the original of the Ming Dynasty, then this legend still has a chance to be verified.

The feudal society was hierarchical, and there were rules in clothes, cars and houses. The doornail mentioned in this paper is an insignificant structural part, because it is in the most exposed position in the mansion and has formed an exaggerated shape after years of evolution, so it has the function of showing off power. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the number of doornails had been restricted from the system. For example, according to the code system of the Qing Dynasty, it is stipulated that the palace gate is "Zhu Fei Jin Nail, nine in vertical and horizontal directions", because nine is yang number, and the number is extremely high. 998 1 doornail can best reflect the dignity of the emperor, and the number of doornails for pro-Wangfu is reduced to "nine in vertical and horizontal directions", and the number below the prince is decreasing. Although there was no such specific regulation in the Ming Dynasty, the treatment was orderly, depending on the grade. In this way, the role of the doornail seems to be similar to that of the stars on the epaulettes of today's officers. It is a sign of rank and cannot be vague. Strangely, there is one exception: the Donghua Gate of the Forbidden City is missing a row of doornails, each with 8972, and this is the only exception. This is puzzling. What is the intention of the emperor to voluntarily give up a row of doornails representing identity?

About ten years ago, a newspaper organized a discussion about this, and I still remember two of them. One is that the doornail of Donghuamen is different from other places, and its size is slightly larger. It can be inferred that many doornails must have been enlarged in those years. If you still use nine rows, it will be crowded, and it will be more comfortable to remove one row. This is actually to explain royal affairs with the thinking of the people. Feudal society can fight to the death for a title, let alone a doornail representing rank. In this way, it cost a lot of money to dismantle the tower and renovate the Buddha pavilion. Because the design requires one less row, in order to avoid sparseness, these doornails are specially made larger in size.

There is also a saying that after the death of members of the royal family, coffins and halogen books went out of Donghuamen, so the doornail could not be Yang, so a row was removed. However, some people have verified that the coffin was transported from Xihuamen according to records, and the emperor also went to Donghuamen when he went out for inspection. It can't be said that Donghuamen only held a funeral, so this statement is difficult to establish. In short, the result of the discussion is still inconclusive, and this row of doornails has become a mystery. Did Liu Bowen "steal" the Forbidden City?

I once heard an early employee of the Palace Museum explain this phenomenon. This employee heard it from the eunuch in the former palace. It is said that Liu Bowen built Beijing (in fact, Liu Bowen has never participated in the construction of Beijing and the Forbidden City. By the time the Forbidden City was built in the fifteenth year of Yongle, he had been dead for more than forty years. Because Liu Bowen is legendary, many important events in the early Ming Dynasty were related to him. No matter who the surname is, it refers to the designers of Beijing and the Forbidden City. He claimed to have stolen the pattern of the Heavenly Palace to build the Forbidden City. In order to show his respect for the Emperor of Heaven, he had to pull out a row of doornails to show the difference between the emperor on earth and the jade emperor in heaven. The reader said that people are discussing problems. Aren't you telling a story I said, who can say that the answer is not a story? At that time, the designer of the Forbidden City told an absurd story in such a solemn way, and its political intention was obvious: to strengthen people's understanding of the demigod status of the emperor's so-called "son of heaven".

To solve this mystery, we must start with folk customs. It turns out that a form of expression of China folk culture is called metaphorical culture, that is, homophonic or other forms of expression are used to give things a specific meaning. The most incisive explanation of metaphorical culture is Mr. Hou, who calls it "rhetoric". For example, apples and saddles are used to mean "peace". Sometimes there is no homophonic, such as putting a golden lock on a newborn to lock his life so as not to die young. The emperor can't avoid customs, and he never tires of watching them. Therefore, the ancient buildings in China, including palace buildings, have traces of metaphorical culture everywhere. If the feudal rulers were tired of playing with things, it was probably a way of playing. How many stories are there in the Forbidden City?

There are countless examples of metaphorical culture in ancient buildings. For example, in the direction of Jinshui River in the Forbidden City, three arches are formed on the east side of Wuying Hall, Taihe Hall and Wenhua Hall. The three groups of Jinshui Bridges are like arrows on the bow, which means "sitting north facing south". Coincidentally, the Royal 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 shocking the outside world.

Another example is the Forbidden City, which takes its name from Wei Zixing Garden.

Wei Zixing Wall refers to the constellation centered on Polaris. The ancients believed that Wei Zixing Garden was the residence of the Emperor of Heaven, and the stars guarded it. Therefore, since the Han Dynasty, this palace has often been called Wei Zi. In order to prove this statement, the Forbidden City has seven red and gold roofs (four in Wufeng Pagoda, one in Zhonghe Hall, Jiaotai Hall and Qin 'an Hall), similar to the Big Dipper. There are seven stars here. Who can say that it is not a palace in the sky?

There are many Taiping cylinders for fire fighting in the Forbidden City. These jars were originally gilded, also called golden jars, which were in harmony with the voice of "King Kong". And its number is either four or eight, which means four donkey kong or eight donkey kong. It is said that if these tanks are placed in front of and behind the main hall, it is convenient to get water and put out the fire, but in the Forbidden City (except the Summer Palace), in order to get the homonym of "strong", most of them are placed by the wall. There are bronze cranes and turtles in front of the temple, which have another meaning besides symbolizing longevity. The word crane is pronounced as "good" in the old Beijing dialect, while the word turtle used to be called "constant". Together, it is "Haoheng" (this word is not commonly used today), just the opposite of "strong". There is a stone circle in the imperial garden of the Forbidden City, which is covered with a big iron cage. An eagle is raised above and a bear is raised below, in order to take the homonym "hero".

The main colors of the Forbidden City are red and yellow, which is said to be out of consideration for the five elements to show respect for the emperor. An interesting phenomenon is that the Wen Yuan Pavilion, which collects Siku Quanshu, uses black glazed tiles, and all the royal storage places outside the Forbidden City use black glazed tiles. Because books avoid fire, according to the five elements, black belongs to water, which means to put out fire. Another interpretation of the gates and walls of Beijing

Outside the Forbidden City, let's talk about Beijing. As we all know, the gate of Beijing is Nezha with three heads and six arms. Why the Beijing city wall lacks the northwest corner is also a controversial issue, and there have been many explanations. I think this may also be the product of metaphorical culture. In ancient China, there was a saying that "the sky inclines to the northwest and the ground sinks to the southeast". Since the sky is tilted to the northwest, avoiding it when building the city wall can show the sincerity of respecting the sky.

It has been estimated that if the missing corner of the city wall is filled, the inner city of Beijing is similar to a rectangle, and the intersection of the diagonal lines of this rectangle, that is, its center of gravity, is only a few meters away from the top of Wanshun Pavilion in Jingshan. However, if we look for the center of gravity according to the real number of the missing corner of the inner city of Beijing, the center of gravity coincides with the top of Wanchun Pavilion! In other words, Jingshan Wanshun Pavilion is not only the commanding height of the landscape, but also bears the heavy responsibility of provoking Beijing's center of gravity.

The plane distribution of Beijing is basically axisymmetric, and its axis of symmetry is called the central axis today. There was once a stone horse buried in front of Zhengyangmen and a stone rat buried in front of Di 'anmen. It is hard to understand in isolation, but when the two are combined, there is a story: the mouse is the son and the horse is the noon, which turns out to be the landmark of Beijing meridian and Beijing central axis. If they are just two ordinary stone piles, they can be considered as technical signs created by general engineering. If artistic modeling must be made at the expense of works in order to draw out the word meridian in the "earthly branch", then count them as works of metaphorical culture.

Outside the wall north of Dongbianmen, half of it was exposed. People always think that this must be a stone tablet, which has existed for a long time. It is not convenient to move when building a wall, and half of it is built in the wall. Even when the wall was demolished during the Cultural Revolution, people were surprised to find that there was nothing inside the wall, and what was exposed outside the wall was originally half. Archaeologists believe that if so, there should be another half outside Xibianmen, and it was found in the expected symmetrical position. There are nine kinds of dragons, all kinds of individuals, who are willing to bear burdens. According to China's ancient understanding, the earth is carried by weight. Then the moral of this example is that Beijing's wall system is built on a huge back, which is consistent with the ancient people's understanding of nature and will be stable.

The above examples are all official ways of playing. As for the existence of metaphorical culture among the people, there are many kinds of tricks. Because it is far from the doornail, I won't go into details.