What are the mysterious stories in the Forbidden City?

In A.D. 142 1 year, the Ming Dynasty built a huge city with Beijing as its capital, which is the Forbidden City. On the vast land of 72 hectares, the total number of houses has reached more than 9,000 when it was first built.

The Forbidden City, the largest palace in China, is also the largest palace in the world. Yellow glazed tile. Red fence, the composition of this hue mainly comes from China's ancient thought: represented by yellow in the middle and red representing the country's prosperity. This color also shows that the Forbidden City where the emperor lived is the center of the world.

The name of the Forbidden City comes from Wei Zi's metaphor. In ancient times, people divided the stars in the sky into three-walled and twenty-eight-star constellations. The three walls include Taiwei Garden, Ziwei Garden and Tianshi Garden. Purple MSI is in the center of the three walls, so it has become a constellation representing the Emperor of Heaven. The place where the Emperor of Heaven lives is called the Purple Palace, and the emperor is the son of heaven on earth, so we should imitate the Emperor of Heaven and call the place where we live the Purple Palace. Moreover, since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the residence of the emperor has also been called the Forbidden City, which means that it is not allowed to enter and leave casually, so it is collectively called the Forbidden City.

Right in front of the Forbidden City is Zhengyangmen, and to the north is Tiananmen Square. After Tiananmen Square, there are terminal gates and noon gates. In the future, it is the Forbidden City. The important buildings in the Forbidden City line up in a straight line. There is another gate in the square between Zhengyangmen and Tiananmen Square, called Daming Gate, which was called Daqing Gate in Qing Dynasty and renamed Zhonghua Gate in the first year of the Republic of China. When the gate was built in Yongle, Judy ordered Jie Jin, a university student, to write an ancient poem, "The sun and the moon are bright, the mountains and rivers are strong, and the emperor lives." The word sun and moon just forms a word "Ming". This couplet did not change during the Qing Dynasty.

The famous work Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji in the Warring States Period clearly recorded the capital construction of feudal emperors. The Forbidden City was built according to its construction principle of "the former dynasty followed the latter, and the left ancestor followed the right society".

The Forbidden City was built in the fifth year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1407). During the construction process, more than 65438+ 10,000 famous craftsmen and 1 10,000 civilian workers were gathered. All the building materials come from all over the country. Wood comes from Huguang, Jiangxi, Shanxi and other provinces; White marble stone comes from Fangshan County, Beijing; Five-color tiger skin stone is produced in Panshan, Jixian County. Granite was collected from Quyang County. The square bricks buried in the palace were fired in Suzhou; Shandong Linqing burned bricks for the city wall. The red color used in the palace wall is from Lushan, Shandong, and is processed by Boshan. The apricot yellow pigment on the indoor wall is produced in Yantongshan, Xuanhua, Hebei Province. The project is managed by Judy's trusted eunuch Ruan An and Minister of Industry Wu Zhong. The Taihe Gate of the Forbidden City is the main entrance of the outer court. In Yongle Emperor's place, the palace staff were summoned to conduct government affairs. Historically, there are more than 10,000 square meters of Taihe Square passing through Taihe Gate. When the ceremony was held, hundreds of civil and military officials and nearly a thousand people attended the ceremony and gathered here to see the emperor. Because the square is too wide, it can be said that there is no emperor in the hall. The Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City is the largest existing wooden structure in China. It is the palace used by the emperor to hold succession ceremonies, weddings and birthdays.

In the 19th year of Yongle, Di moved the capital to Beijing. At that time, the three halls in the Forbidden City were called "Fengtian, Gai Hua and Shenshen", which were built in the Forbidden City less than a hundred days ago and were burned down. Judy believes that this is because he became an emperor through the "Change of Jingnan". Even if he "goes against God's will", he dare not build it again. He has the right to take Fengtianmen, that is, Taihe Gate, as the place where he listens to politics. This is why the Ming and Qing emperors listened to politics. After Judy's death, his son Zhu Gaochi (Injong) succeeded to the throne, but it remained unchanged under the old system, because he wanted to restore the capital to Nanjing and had no intention of building three halls in Beijing. He was in office for only one year and failed to move the capital. Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji was determined to be a literate man and didn't want to move the capital. It was not until the first day of December in the fourth year of the Orthodox Church (1439) that the British emperor Zhu Qizhen wrote a letter to rebuild. During the construction process, the bureaus supervised more than 30,000 shift craftsmen and 36,000 soldiers. In November of orthodox six years, three halls and two palaces were completed. Later dynasties collected money from provinces to repair palaces. In the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing (1557), the Three Halls were burned down again and then rebuilt. In 1941, the three halls were built, renamed as Huangji Hall, CIMC Hall and Jianji Hall. Forty years later, in the 24th and 25th years of Wanli (1596 ~ 1597), the last two palaces and the first three halls were burned down again. In the thirty-second year of Wanli (1604), the last two palaces were restored, namely Gan Qing Palace and Kunning Palace. The first three halls could not be built for lack of wood. In August of the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Langlu Taoyuan, the Ministry of Industry of Tonghui River, found more than 1,000 nanmu trees left over from past dynasties among the reeds along the way from Tianjin to the coast, which solved the wood problem. In September of the following year (1626), Zhongji Hall and Jianji Hall were built.

On the roof directly above the throne of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, a golden dragon is carved. The dragon is like a ceiling, and there is a spherical mirror made of mercury in its mouth, called Xuanyuan mirror. Legend has it that if the emperor was not appointed by destiny to sit on the throne, the spherical mirror of Longkou would fall down and people would die. When the emperor held celebrations and ceremonies in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe and the Hall of Baohe were located behind the Hall of Supreme Harmony as preparation places and rest places. To the north of Baohe Hall is the Palace, which is the residence of the emperor. Gan Qing goalkeeper separates the outer court and the inner court of the three halls. In front of the dry cleaners, men and women each have a golden lion to guard the gate. The lion stepping on the hydrangea symbolizes "the unity of the world", and the lioness stepping on the little lion symbolizes "the prosperity of future generations".

Emperor Yongle spent four years in this magnificent palace. During this period, Emperor Yongle personally led troops to fight for more than a year in order to pacify the border incidents in the northern region, and finally died in the journey. After the death of Emperor Yongle, the Ming Dynasty's policy towards Mongolia changed from offensive to defensive. After Judy, the Ming emperor still lived in the Forbidden City. However, at this time, the Forbidden City was in a sense of crisis when Mongolia invaded.

In the Forbidden City in the Ming Dynasty, there were troops directly under the emperor, and there were guards who trained and managed the troops outside, usually guarded by 5600 soldiers. The Forbidden City itself has a strict defense function, and the square of the Hall of Supreme Harmony is covered with thick bricks. According to the survey results, the thickest part of the brick layer is more than five meters. In addition, there are large gold-plated water tanks for fire fighting. There are 308 such tanks in the Forbidden City. These water tanks are usually filled with water. In winter, the water tank is covered with a cover, surrounded by quilts, and the bottom of the water tank is lit with charcoal fire to prevent the water from freezing.

Imperial guards and eunuchs are the guardians of the emperor who lives in the Forbidden City Palace. Eunuchs are clean people. There was a long record of them waiting for the royal family. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the number of eunuchs had reached100000. In the palace, the walls and doors are carefully separated, so you can't walk freely inside. There is a small room by the door, where eunuchs are on duty. Eunuchs have 24 positions, such as housekeeping, catering and cleaning. In the deepest part of the palace, there is a place called Beiwusuo, which used to be the workplace of eunuchs in clean rooms. The eunuchs in the clean room are mainly eunuchs who serve the emperor's nightlife. When the emperor wants to have a rest, he will give dozens of books of concubines to the emperor for selection, and be responsible for sending the selected people to the emperor's dormitory. Eunuchs often use these opportunities to get close to the emperor and gain power. Among them were emperors who left all government affairs to eunuchs and bureaucrats.

After the establishment of Emperor Hong Wudi and Emperor Yongle in Ming Dynasty, some emperors surpassed them. Only twenty-five years after Yongle's death, the Forbidden City was facing a crisis of despair. Monograph The Change of Civil Fort The crisis was caused by the eunuch's authoritarian power, which was an indirect cause, and the Mongolian invasion was the direct cause.

Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, politics has become increasingly corrupt, which has led to the situation of eunuch's authoritarian power, and the result of eunuch's authoritarian power has intensified political corruption. Eunuch autocracy in Ming Dynasty began in Wang Zhen. Wang Zhen used to be an instructor, but later he entered the palace clean and clear. Yingzong waited on him day and night when he was in the East Palace. Therefore, after Emperor Yingzong acceded to the throne, he put Wang Zhen in charge of the ritual prison. Yingzong was nine years old when he ascended the throne. He is a completely ignorant child, and he likes Wang Zhen very much. He said everything and called him "sir" instead of his name. But in the early years of Yingzong, there was Zhang Taihou (Empress Injong) on it, and there were veteran etiquette "Sanyang" (Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and Yang Pu) in the cabinet, but Wang Zhen was suppressed and dared not be presumptuous. Zhang Taihou insisted on the ancestral system and refused to listen to politics. All the important affairs of the imperial court were decided by Sanyang, so the government returned them to the cabinet. However, Wang Zhen also began to play politics, claiming that "Duke Zhou helped him become king", and some people in North Korea gradually followed suit. For example, Wang You, Assistant Minister of Industry, called himself his son in front of Wang Zhen. Later, Zhang Taihou died, and Sanyang died or not, so all the power went to Wang Zhen, and life and death were taken away, all in his hands. In addition, Wang Zhen also stole the irrefutable evidence that Ming Taizu prohibited eunuchs from interfering in politics. This card existed at the time of Xuande, but it disappeared at the time of Wang. Wang is so arrogant that he calls himself "Weng's father" who can't resist the ceremony.

In the early years of English orthodoxy, Monva's thorny department became strong. Waci had a tributary trade relationship with the Ming Dynasty, but every time he made a fake tribute and extorted goods from the Ming Dynasty. According to the custom, Waci should send no more than 50 envoys every year, but in the four years of orthodoxy (1439), Waci sent more than 2,000 envoys to Beijing every year. The cost of supplying Waci envoys in the Ming Dynasty was very huge, for example, the annual supply cost of Datong alone reached more than 300,000 yuan. Moreover, Waci came to falsely report the number of places, often took the initiative to taste gifts, looted property along the way, and privately purchased prohibited items such as bows and arrows to be transported out of the Great Wall. Guo Jing, the eunuch guarding Datong in the Ming Dynasty, was a close friend of Wang Zhen. He is greedy and takes bribes. Every year, he gave Waci a large number of steel arrows in the name of Wang Zhen, and Waci sent people to Wang Zhenliang horses. This kind of smuggling collaborated with the enemy and seriously damaged the border defense of the Ming Dynasty.

In the spring of the 14th year of Orthodox Church (1449), another 2,000 people were sent to Jingmagong, pretending to be 3,000 people, asking for a taste according to the false quota. Wang Zhen usually colludes with Wasi, but this time he was joking. He must taste according to the actual number of people and greatly reduce the price of his horse. I was furious when I heard the news first, so in July this year, the soldiers divided into four roads and went south on a large scale. I also attacked Datong with white-collar soldiers first. Wang Zhen was not fully prepared, that is, he led Yingzong's army with 500,000 personal expedition. His ministers said that they could not send troops easily, but Wang Zhen wouldn't listen. After the army left Beijing, it left Juyongguan in the north, crossed Fu Xuan (Xuanhua, Hebei) and headed for Datong. Wang Zhen's absolutism runs rampant. Lord protector, Zhu Yong and others are ahead of Wang Zhenbai. Minister Lang Cong of the Ministry of War and Minister Wang Zuo of the Ministry of Commerce asked the emperor to return to the army, but Wang Zhen punished them for kneeling on the grass and didn't release them until late. Before the army arrived in Datong, the soldiers were short of food, hungry and cold, and the bodies were everywhere. At the beginning of August, when the army arrived in Datong, Wang Zhen reported that the front army had been defeated many times, so he dared not fight and returned immediately. On the way, Wang Zhenfei coerced Yingzong to return to his hometown of Tubo, showing off his family and even delaying his trip. When the Ming army arrived at Tumubao (Huailai, Hebei Province), it was overtaken by the Waci army, killing more than half of them. More than 50 people, including Zhang Fu, the minister of Yingzong, were killed, but Yingzong could not break through and was captured. Wang Zhen was killed by the bodyguard general Fan Yong with a hammer. This is the so-called "popular rebellion".

When the news of the defeat of the civil fort came, the ministers gathered together to cry and were at a loss. Some people proposed to move the capital to Nanjing to avoid the enemy. At this time, Yu Qian, assistant minister of the Ministry of War, denounced the remarks of moving south and insisted on sticking to the capital, and people began to settle down. When the country was in danger, Yu Qian stepped forward, rushed to the capital to guard it, and transported Tongzhou grain into the capital, shouldering the heavy responsibility of defending the capital, and was immediately promoted to the Ministry of War Shangshu. Then, Zhu Qiyu, the younger brother of Yingzong, inherited the throne of Jingtai Emperor. In October of the same year (the fourteenth year of orthodoxy), Yingzong first entered Zijingguan, and the Waci army approached the gates of Beijing and placed Yingzong at the gate outside Deshengmen. Yu Qian mobilized the generals to get 220,000 cronies and placed them outside the Nine Gates of Jingshi. Yu Qian and Shi Heng Chen Bing resisted the main force of tile thorn outside Deshengmen, and then closed the city gate to show their desperate siege. The Waci army attacked Deshengmen first, and ten thousand horses attacked. The result was defeated and the first brother was shot. The Waci army turned to attack Xizhimen again, but failed and retreated. The Waci army attacked again in the Tucheng of Zhangyimen (the main west gate of Jin, later the outer city Guang 'anmen), and the residents attacked the enemy, crying for land, and were also killed back. First of all, he didn't succeed, but retreated with Yingzong, heading west from Liangxiang and out of Zijingguan.

When Yingzong was just captured, he thought that strange goods could live, which was enough to blackmail the Ming Dynasty. However, after Emperor Jingtai ascended the throne, he could not intimidate the Ming Dynasty, and Yingzong had lost its role, so he was helpless. Yingzong was released in August of the first year of Jingtai (1450). The return of Yingzong was the result of Yu Qian's persistence in the war of resistance. If the policy of humiliating peace is adopted, Yingzong will never return. However, after the return of the British Sect, there was another struggle within the royal family. Emperor Jingtai is greedy for a younger brother and selfish. At first, he didn't want Yingzong to return and refused to send a special envoy to meet him. After Yingzong returned to China, he imprisoned Yingzong in Nangong (now Wang Hongbin), abolished the Crown Prince Zhu Jianshen (Yingzong) and made his son Zhu play it by ear as the Crown Prince. Soon, Zhu Jianji died of illness, and he didn't have a second son. He refused to restore Zhu Jianshen as the Crown Prince. So all kinds of things have accumulated into resentment between brothers. At that time, some disgruntled and dissatisfied officials, mainly Shi Heng, Xu Youzhen and eunuch Cao Jixiang, conspired to support the restoration of the British Sect in order to make contributions. In the first month of the eighth year of Jingtai (1457), Emperor Jingtai was critically ill and could not see the DPRK. 16, Hou Wuqing and assistant minister of the Ministry of Finance led the troops into the Nangong at night, acclaimed Yingzong to seize the gate of the People's Palace (Donghuamen), ascended the palace to reset, killed Yu Qian, a senior minister of the Ministry of War, and lied about welcoming the son of the foreign vassal king as emperor, and killed him on this charge. When Yu Qian was killed, Yingzong was a little reluctant to say that Yu Qian was really meritorious. Xu Youzhen suggested: "If you don't kill Yu Qian, you will be nameless." So he killed him. Yu Qian was killed unjustly, and the people in the suburbs of Beijing shed tears. This event is called "the change of seizing the door" and "the restoration of Nangong". After the restoration of British Zong, decent officials who changed their country name to Tianshun and cared more about state affairs were killed one after another. The regime fell into the hands of eunuchs and politics continued to be corrupt. In the late Ming dynasty, the party struggle was fierce. At that time, it was mainly divided into factions and villains, including Yi faction, Kun faction and Qi, Chu and Zhejiang faction. These party struggles contradicted the autocratic power of eunuchs, resulting in a series of court events.

The party struggle at that time was related to a series of court events. The first thing is "fighting for the country". Queen Zongshen had no children, and Mr. Wang Gongfei married Zhu Changluo (later Guangzong), which is an example of inheriting the throne. Later, Zhu was born. Because of his preference, he wanted to make Zhu a prince, but he was afraid of opposition from his ministers, so he didn't make a prince. Worried, ministers made suggestions and demanded that Zhu Changluo be made Prince immediately. However, the speaker was offended and countless people were demoted and transferred. Ministers fought for fifteen years, until Zhu Changluo was twenty years old, and Shen Zongcai followed the crowd and became the Crown Prince, which was called "serving the country". Since then, there have been three cases of "beating people", "red pill" and "moving the palace" in the imperial court, all of which are centered on "serving the country"

In the forty-third year of Wanli (16 15), a man named Zhang Hui, armed with a jujube stick, suddenly broke into the wife's palace (tattoo palace), injured the chamberlain and was arrested. First, Liu (Zhejiang Party member), suggestion, called Zhang Hui crazy. However, Wang Zhicai (Lindong Party), the director of punishments, discovered the truth. It turned out that Zhang Qian was not crazy, but was instigated by the internal envoys Pang Bao and Liu Cheng, and Pang and Liu were in charge of the palace. Therefore, courtiers suspected that Zheng Guifei was the mastermind and wanted to hurt the prince. When he saw that even he couldn't ask questions, he ordered Zhang Hui to be executed and killed Pang and Liu in the palace, which was vague. This is the so-called "explosion" case. In the forty-eighth year of Wanli (1620), after Zongshen's death, Prince Zhu Changluo succeeded to Guangzong. Soon, Guangzong suffered from dysentery, and Cui Wen, the interior minister, took laxatives. Guangzong was seriously ill after taking it. At that time, people in Beijing thought that Cui had taken this medicine. Since then, Li Cheng Ke of crack hon temple has entered the red pill again. Guangzong ate one at first, then another and died. He has only been in office for a month. Afterwards, party member impeached Cui and Li for taking drugs in articles such as does Shangshu, Zuo Guangdou and Sun, and attacked Fang Congzhe for defending Li. So he sent Li Ke to garrison, Cui to Nanking and Fang Congzhe to be an official. This is the so-called "red pill" case.

After Guangzong's death, Li, who was closely related to Guangzong, remained an upright official, and once joined forces with Wei Jinzhong, a confidant eunuch, to control the eldest son of the emperor, so as to control the state affairs. So Yang Lian, Zuo Guangdou, etc. Rushed into the palace, grabbed the emperor's eldest son and shouted long live, and then urged Li Xuan to leave the palace. Li Xuan was forced to move to Duoluan Palace, while Zhu Youxiao, the eldest son of the emperor, was pitied by the emperor for the sake of Xi Zong. This is the so-called "transfer of officials" case.

These court events are the cause and topic of party struggle. In these court cases, Lindong party member's opinions and positions were more in line with the public opinion, but then the Qi, Chu and Zhejiang parties made an article reversing their conviction and attacked Lindong party member with three cases.

At the end of Ming Dynasty, eunuch Wei Zhongxian attacked Lindong party member, pushing the Ming Dynasty to the brink of extinction. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, due to the corruption of feudal rulers, social and political darkness, economic depression and frequent famine, the peasant uprising was finally triggered. Li Zicheng, the leader of this peasant uprising, became king in Xi 'an in the first month of the seventeenth year of Yu Chongqi, and changed his title to "Dashun" and "Yongchang". The peasant army pointed its finger at Beijing, the capital of the imperial court Dashun regime made full preparations for this trip to Beijing. This year's Lantern Festival, the peasant army sneaked into the capital with generous bribes to get the opportunity to defend the city and be the inside man for the siege army. The peasant army sent troops to Shanxi and soon rivaled Beijing.

On March 16, Emperor Chongzhen was discussing with his courtiers. Suddenly, he received an urgent memorial. He was frightened to disgrace and went back to the palace. The minister doesn't know the truth. It turned out that Changping fell and 400,000 peasants surrounded the capital.

/kloc-in the early morning of 0/7, Chongzhen cried in front of the ministers. At noon, the sound of guns in Guang 'anmen, Fuchengmen and Xizhimen was greatly shaken, and the siege war started. 18, the peasant army attacked Xizhimen with a ladder. The Ming army has not been paid for several months and is extremely war-weary. Li Zicheng went to Guang 'anmen and surrendered to Emperor Chongzhen in eunuch city with a hanging basket. Chongzhen angrily rejected people thousands of miles away and ordered personal expedition. In the afternoon, eunuch Cao Huachun opened Guang 'anmen and welcomed the peasant army into the outer city. Chongzhen urgently called ministers to discuss countermeasures and prepare for street fighting. In the evening, Chongzhen and Jingshan watched the city catch fire, wandered for a while, returned to the Qing Palace and wrote an imperial edict, putting lord protector Zhu in charge of the overseers and assisting the prince. At that time, no one waited, and the "imperial edict" could not be issued.

Seeing that the end was coming, Chongzhen gave his three sons to two grandmothers (Zhou Hetian), ordered Zhou Empress and committed suicide, and took away his eldest daughter, Princess Akihito, and several concubines. Then he drank wine and changed clothes. He took dozens of eunuchs with axes and rode guns out of Donghuamen and went to Zhengyangmen first. The guard sergeant mistakenly thought that the inner city had changed, so he countered the shelling. Chongzhen had no choice but to go around Baijia Fence (near Taiji Factory) and get back to Dongsi Assorted Garden, which became the official residence of lord protector Zhu. Zhu Fu's door won't open; I went to Andingmen again, and the door was blocked. Chongzhen despaired, returned to the Qing Palace, rang the bell to summon his ministers, and one person in the future, Zhu Youjian consciously and thoroughly despaired, and finally hanged himself in Long Live Mountain with Wang Chengen. In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (AD 65438+April 25th, 0644), he died on March 19th. /kloc-at noon on 0/9, when the peasant army entered the city, an outstanding peasant leader Li Zicheng, wearing a felt hat and light green clothes, sat down. Legend has it that when he entered the Palace Square from the Daming Gate, he shot an arrow at the plaque of "Chengtianmen", which was just below the word Tian Zi.

After Li Zicheng entered the palace, he did not see Chongzhen and ordered a reward. Three days later, Chongzhen's body was found in Jingshan, and the farmer carried it out with a door panel. Together with the body of Queen Zhou, they temporarily set up a shed outside Donghuamen to park two coffins. On the day of the funeral, their three sons were allowed to pay homage, with Niu Jinxing giving a eulogy and the monk chanting. Drink it and send it to Changping, Ming Taizu.