The Forbidden City was the palace of 24 emperors in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. After the third emperor of Ming Dynasty seized the throne, Judy decided to move the capital to Beijing, that is, began to build the Forbidden City Palace, which was completed in the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (1420). According to China's ancient astrology theory, Ziweiyuan (i.e. Polaris) is located at the zenith where the Emperor of Heaven lives, corresponding to heaven and man. According to the emperor's residence, it is also called the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City is 96 1m long from north to south, 753m wide from east to west, and covers an area of 720,000 ㎡. There are 980 houses, a total of 8704. Surrounded by a 10m high fence and a 52m wide moat. There are gates on all sides of the city wall, of which the Wumen Gate in the south and the Shenwu Gate in the north are now exclusively for tourists to visit. The layout of the palace buildings in the city extends along the central axis to the east and west sides. Red walls and yellow tiles, colorful buildings and carved beams, resplendent and magnificent. The halls and terraces are patchwork and magnificent. In the evening, it is like a fairyland on earth. The south half of the city is centered on the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe and the Hall of Baohe, with Wenhua Hall and Wuying Hall on both sides. It is the place where the emperor held a court meeting, which is called "the former court". The northern half is centered on Gan Qing Palace, Jiaotai Palace, Kunning Palace, East-West Palace and Imperial Garden. There are Fengxian Temple and Huangji Temple on the east, and hall of mental cultivation, Yuhua Pavilion and Cining Palace on the west. It is the place where emperors and queens live, hold sacrifices and religious activities, and deal with daily affairs, which is called "post-bedroom". In addition, there are Zhaigong, Yuqing Palace and Zhonghua Palace. The total area of the front and rear palaces is163000m2. The layout of the whole palace is rigorous and orderly, and every inch of bricks and tiles follow the feudal hierarchical etiquette system, which embodies the supreme authority of the emperor. In the era of feudal monarchy, ordinary people can't and dare not go any further.
The Forbidden City is located in the center of Beijing. It is now called the Forbidden City, which used to mean the Imperial Palace. It is the imperial palace of Ming and Qing dynasties, and it is also the largest, grandest and best-preserved ancient palace and ancient architectural complex in the world today. Among them, the Hall of Supreme Harmony is the highest and most brilliant, and grand ceremonies are held here for the emperor's accession to the throne, wedding, canonization, command and expedition. The most famous in the Forbidden City is hall of mental cultivation. There are two Forbidden Cities built in the Ming Dynasty, one in Beijing and the other in Nanjing.
[Edit this paragraph] The origin of the name of the Forbidden City
The name of the Forbidden City comes from the Purple Star Tower. Ancient astronomers in China once divided the stars in the sky into three constellations, twenty-eight constellations and other constellations. The three walls include Taiwei Garden, Ziwei Garden and Tianshi Garden. Ziweiyuan is in the middle of the three yuan. According to the long-term observation of celestial bodies in space, ancient astronomy in China believed that Wei Zixing was located in the middle of the sky and its position was eternal, so it became a constellation representing the Emperor of Heaven. This is the residence of the Emperor of Heaven. Therefore, the heavenly palace where the Emperor of Heaven lives is the Purple Palace. Forbidden, on the other hand, is better understood, which means that the palace is the royal base camp and no one else is allowed to come here.
The feudal emperor claimed to be the son of the heavenly emperor and thought he was the real dragon emperor. And the palace where they live is compared to the purple palace in the sky. They also hope to live in the Purple Palace, rule the country by virtue, naturalize in all directions, and come to Korea from all directions to achieve the goal of maintaining long-term rule.
The palaces built by the emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties in order to safeguard their authority and dignity and consider their own safety are both magnificent and heavily guarded. The city is not only full of palaces and pavilions, but also surrounded by a wall more than 10 meters high and a moat 52 meters wide. Moreover, there are many outposts and high security. Needless to say, it is absolutely forbidden for ordinary people to enjoy balconies and pavilions, even if they are very close.
The imperial palace where the Ming emperors and their families lived, except the ladies-in-waiting, eunuchs and guards who served them, could only be entered by summoned officials and privileged people, which was a place where outsiders could not cross the border. Therefore, the imperial palace in the Ming Dynasty is both a purple palace and a forbidden area, so it is called the architectural pattern of the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City in Beijing covers an area of 724,250 square meters, not counting the green belts of moats and city walls. The total area of the palace building is163,000m2. The Forbidden City is a rectangular city with a length of 96 1 m from north to south and a width of 753 meters from east to west. It is surrounded by a wall whose height exceeds 10 meter. The outer perimeter of the city wall is 3428 meters, and there is a moat with a width of 52 meters outside the wall, which is an important facility to protect the Forbidden City. There is a gate on each side of the city wall, with the meridian gate in the south, the Shenwu gate in the north, the Donghua gate in the east and the Xihua gate in the west. There are four beautifully designed turrets at the four corners of the city wall. The palaces in the Forbidden City are all made of wooden structures, with yellow glazed tile roofs, blue and white stone bases, and decorated with brilliant colorful paintings. Its plane layout, three-dimensional effect and majestic, grand, solemn and harmonious form can be said to be rare in the world. The collection of China's ancient architectural art is the concentrated expression of China's imperial power thought in the autocratic society for more than two thousand years. Like the imperial palace in China, the overall planning and architectural form of the Forbidden City completely obeyed and reflected the requirements of the ancient patriarchal clan system, highlighting the supreme imperial power.
The Forbidden City in Beijing was built in the fifth year of Yongle (1404 ~ 1424) and in the fifteenth to eighteenth years of Yongle. The whole construction project was built by the Marquis of Chen Gui, with Wu Zhong as the planner. From the fifth year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1407), Ming Chengzu concentrated craftsmen throughout the country and recruited 200,000 to 300,000 migrant workers and military workers. 14 years later, this magnificent palace was built. After it was used in the Qing Dynasty, it was only partially rebuilt and rebuilt, and the overall layout remained basically unchanged.
The Forbidden City is located in the center of Beijing, the capital, with the central axis passing through the center of the imperial city, that is, through the three halls and the last three palaces of the Forbidden City. The main entrance of the Forbidden City is Nanwumen, also known as the "Five Peaks Pagoda". The Meridian Gate is the highest gate in Miyagi, and major ceremonies such as amnesty and offering prisoners are held at the Meridian Gate. Its north gate is Shenwumen, its east gate is Donghuamen, and its west gate is Xihuamen.
As a Miyagi in Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Forbidden City has two palaces, the outer court and the inner court. Located in front of the Forbidden City. The outer courtyard consists of the central axis consisting of Tiananmen-Duanmen-Wumen-Hall of Supreme Harmony-Zhonghe Hall-Baohe Hall, and the halls and corridors on both sides of the central axis. The outer court is dominated by three halls: Taihe, Zhonghe and Baohe, with Taihe Gate in front and Wenhua Hall and Wuying Hall on both sides. Judging from the function of the building, the foreign court is the place where the emperor handles government affairs and holds court meetings, and major national activities and ceremonies are held in the foreign court. The Forbidden City is the residence of the emperor's empress, including Gan Qing Palace, Jiaotai Palace, Kunning Palace, Royal Garden and six palaces on both sides. The Forbidden City is located in the back (north) of the Forbidden City, including Gan Qing Palace, Jiaotai Palace and Kunning Palace. This is where the queen lives. On both sides of this group of palaces, there are six palaces for living, Ningshou Palace and Cining Palace. And four royal gardens distributed throughout the palace. Miyagi also has a royal duty room and some service buildings, as well as a low room where eunuchs and maids live. It is located between the main entrance of Miyagi and Tiananmen Square, and the palace is built on both sides of Imperial Road. Outside the house, the ancestral temple is in the east and the national altar is in the west. Jingshan in the north of Miyagi is another group of buildings attached to the palace.
Taihe Gate, built in the 18th year of Yongle, is the south gate of the three main halls facing the outside world. It was called "Fengtianmen" in the early Ming Dynasty and renamed "Taihe Gate" in the Qing Dynasty. It is located on the first floor of Sumitomo Stone Pavilion, which is three meters high. It is nine rooms wide, four rooms deep and 23.8 meters high. It is the tallest and largest door among the existing ancient buildings in China. Its roof is in the form of double eaves and hills. There are a pair of tall bronze lions in front of the door. On both sides of Taihe Gate are Zhaode Gate and Zhendu Gate. There are Concord, Xihe and Gate 2 in the courtyard. All the doors are connected, and there are special buildings in the northeast corner and northwest corner. All these doors, buildings and bedrooms are smaller in scale and volume than Taihe Gate, which makes Taihe Gate stand out in the whole square. After entering the Taihe Gate, it is a larger courtyard. It is still 200 meters wide from east to west and about 190 meters deep from north to south, which is enough to accommodate a guard of honor of 10,000 people. There are three halls in the Guangting: Taihe Hall, Zhonghe Hall and Baohe Hall (called Fengtian Hall, Gaihua Hall and Shenshen Hall in Ming Dynasty, renamed Huangji Hall, Zhongji Hall and Jianji Hall in Jiajing period).
The Hall of Supreme Harmony, commonly known as the "Golden Hall", is the tallest building in Miyagi, Beijing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, including the Sumitomo Building with three floors, with a height of 35.05 meters and a total height of 37.44 meters. Each floor is in the form of sumitomo, surrounded by Bai Yushi railings, with expected stigmas on it, broken heads below, and each stigmas is decorated. Its halls are eleven rooms wide and five rooms deep, with a building area of 2,377 square meters. It is also the largest wooden temple among the existing ancient buildings in China. The double eaves on the top of the temple, that is, the "four houses" of Yin Shang Dynasty, are "supreme". The number of horns and buckets jumping on the roof is also the largest; Sculptures on the imperial road and railings, colorful paintings in the hall, and patterns of algae wells all use the dragon and phoenix theme representing imperial power, and only here can the Japanese regulations, Jia Liang, bronze turtles and bronze cranes on the platform be displayed. The golden throne of the Qi Diao Dragon in the temple is a symbol of the autocratic imperial power. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the place where the emperor held the enthronement ceremony, celebrated and received congratulations from civil and military officials. If a general is ordered to go to war, he will also be printed in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. In the Ming Dynasty, court examinations and New Year's Day banquets were also held in Taidian.
The Zhonghe Hall behind the Hall of Supreme Harmony is a building with a square plane, three rooms deep and three rooms wide, surrounded by a long corridor, covering an area of 580 square meters. The roof is a single-eave, pointed and gold-plated roof with bronze tires. It is the time for the emperor to rest and practice etiquette when he goes to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Baohe Hall behind Zhonghe Hall is the place where the emperor holds a banquet for foreign princes and ministers every New Year's Eve. In the Qing dynasty, this was the place where court examinations were held.
The main entrance of the Forbidden City is called Gan Qing Gate. In front of it is a flat courtyard, commonly known as Hengjie. To the south of Hengjie is Baohe Hall, and to the north of Baohe Hall, you can get to Hengjie by walking down the three-story abutment, so this is the junction of the outer court and the inner court. Gan Qing Gate is located in the north of Hengjie, with the center facing south. It is a five-bay, single-eave roof built on the mountain, and there is a white stone platform under the roof. The specifications of Gan Qing Gate are slightly lower than Taihe Gate, the main entrance of the Three Halls. On both sides of the gate, there are eight-shaped shadow walls decorated with glass. This pair of screen walls is made of brick, with glazed eaves on the red wall and a glazed sumeru pedestal under it. The center and four corners of the wall are also decorated with glazed tiles.
Palace of Heavenly Purity
Gan Qing Palace is the main hall of the last three palaces. During the Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Gan Qing Palace was always the bedroom of the emperor and queen. It is located in front of the palace and is 20 meters high. The shape of the palace is nine rooms, with a double-eaved roof and two small halls, Zhaoren Hall and Hongde Hall, which are connected left and right. The main hall between the two ends is a main hall, which can communicate with the Thai Hall and the Kunning Palace. In addition to the emperor's residence, he often summoned court officials here, read the throne, handled government affairs, and even met foreign envoys in the temple.
Gan Qing Palace is the main hall of the palace. There is a throne in the middle of the hall, and there is a "fair and square" plaque inside. There are warm pavilions at both ends. Gan Qing Palace is the bedroom of the feudal emperor. Before Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, this was the place where the emperor lived and handled government affairs. After Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, the emperor moved to hall of mental cultivation, but he still read newspapers, played newspapers, appointed officials and summoned officials here.
Jiaotai Hall is located between Gan Qing Palace and Kunning Palace, which means "harmony between heaven and earth, well-being and happiness". Built in the Ming Dynasty, it was rebuilt in the third year of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty (AD 1798). It is a square temple with four corners, a gilded dome and dragons and phoenixes. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this hall was the place where the Queen's birthday celebration was held. The so-called queen's silkworm-kissing ceremony in Qing dynasty needs to check the preparations for the ceremony. There is also a collection of "Bao Xi" seals from the Qing Dynasty.
palace of earthly tranquility
Located in the north of Gan Qing Palace, Kunning Palace is also a big hall with nine rooms wide and double eaves. It was the main palace where the Empresses lived in the Ming and early Qing Dynasties. During the Shunye period of the Qing Dynasty, according to the customs and habits of Manchu, the Kunning Palace was transformed, which was mainly divided into two parts: the east and the west. A circular kang was added along the wall in the west, and a cauldron was put indoors. In the east of Kunning Palace, the emperor's wedding room was built, and the entrance was changed to the east. There are double-happiness palace lanterns, a double-happiness golden screen wall on a red background, a Zhang Longfeng bed on the north wall, and colorful gauze embroidered with the ancient philosophers hanging in front of the bed.
Hall of mental cultivation, located in the west of the Palace, is an independent courtyard, 63 meters long from north to south and 80 meters wide from east to west, covering an area of 5,000 square meters. The front hall of hall of mental cultivation is three rooms wide and three rooms deep, and the main hall is seven rooms wide and three rooms deep. During the two hundred years from Yongzheng to the end of Qing Dynasty, the emperor lived here and carried out daily activities. In the eastern and northern parts of the Forbidden City, there is a complete set of palace buildings, which are Ningshou Palace buildings. In the Ming dynasty, there was also a group of buildings here, but the scale was not very large; During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, after Emperor Qianlong announced his abdication, Ningshou Palace was built here as the emperor's retirement home. This is a very complete building complex, which is divided into two parts: the front palace and the back bedroom. The second half can be divided into three areas, the middle road is residential, the east road is entertainment and the west road is garden. The whole building complex is surrounded by high walls and becomes a fairly closed independent area.
The main entrance of Ningshou Palace complex is the Imperial Gate, and there is a horizontal courtyard in front of it. On the left and right sides are Xiqin Gate and Jieqing Gate, and on the south side there is a shadow wall facing the Imperial Gate, forming a light bay in front of the door. Huangjimen is in the form of a stained glass wall with three doors hanging on the lotus column on the seventh floor. There are glazed tiles on the eaves of the three doorways, buckets and beams under the eaves, rotating objects painted with colored glass are stuck on the beams, there is a stone sumeru pedestal on the door, and four water tanks are placed in front of the door. The whole gate is magnificent and solemn. In the south of Huangjimen, there is a glazed screen wall with nine dragons on it, commonly known as the Nine Dragons Wall.
When I entered the Imperial Gate, I came to the courtyard in front of Ningshou. The courtyard is very wide, surrounded by pine trees, to show the special use of the emperor's father. Ningqingmen is located in the center of the north of the courtyard. It has a broad five-bay, single-eave gable roof with a white base below. There are three steps in front of the pedestal. Zhongshi is the imperial road. The east and west sides of the gate are splayed with shadow walls, and there are two gilded bronze lions on the left and right sides. The whole gate is very similar in shape and scale to the Gan Qing Gate in the last three palaces.
The development of history
The Forbidden City was built in the fifth year of Yongle in the early Ming Dynasty (1407). During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, especially during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty and the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the Forbidden City finally formed today's architectural scale. The architecture of the Forbidden City is a masterpiece of China's ancient palace architecture, from which we can appreciate the rich accumulation of China's 5,000-year architectural culture.
The four periods of Beijing architecture in Ming Dynasty-Judy, the founding emperor of Ming Dynasty, built Beijing Palace in the fourth year of Yongle (1406). Since then, the construction project has continued until the end of the Ming Dynasty. In addition to general maintenance, it can be roughly divided into four periods in terms of engineering quantity.
First, the pioneering period of Yongle. During this period, combined with the construction of the capital city, the old city of Yuan Dynasty was pushed southward as a whole, and the construction of the Beijing city wall was completed, thus determining the location and scale of Miyagi. Because the Forbidden City was built by absorbing the experience of palace architecture in Fengyang and Nanjing in the early Ming Dynasty, its layout is more complete. Before and after the north-south division of Miyagi, the central axis runs through the north and south, which is symmetrical from left to right, with three roads and one row, six palaces in the east and west, showing the trend of stars arching the moon, and basically planning according to the urban rules in traditional documents such as Zhou Li. The existing Forbidden City has basically maintained the plane pattern laid in Yongle period.
Second, the orthodox completion period. This period includes three dynasties: Orthodoxy, Jingtai and Tianshun, and it was a period of initial stability and prosperity after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. The country has relatively abundant financial and material resources, and has successively completed the construction of the main temples and the imperial homestead forest in Beijing. The reconstruction of the three halls of the Forbidden City and the renovation of the two palaces were also major projects in this period. Zhu Qizhen's first major task after he ascended the throne was to build the Forbidden City, which started in the first year of the Orthodox Church (1436) and was completed in the tenth year of the Orthodox Church (1446).
Third, Jiajing expansion period. At this time of Ming Dynasty, commercial capitalism was developed, and a prosperous business district was gradually formed outside the first three gates of Beijing. In the 23rd year of Jiajing (1544), Nanwai Luocheng was built for defense. The key project in this period is still the first to promote the three halls of the Forbidden City. This dynasty has the most fires. In the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing (1557), the fire caused "three halls and fifteen doors were all in disaster" and had to be rebuilt one after another. It was not rebuilt until the forty-first year of Jiajing (1562). In the meantime, due to the reconstruction of Wanshou Palace, the project of the three halls was once stagnant.
Fourth, the decline period in the late Ming Dynasty. From Wanli to the end of Ming Dynasty, the signs of decline became increasingly obvious, and the government was unable to carry out large-scale construction. Another fire broke out in the Third Hall of Wanli, but the reconstruction was shelved in 18, and the project lasted 12 years, and it was not completed until the apocalypse.
French architectural style
Architectural French refers to a special system formed by taking wood structure as the main structural mode in the process of standardization and finalization of ancient architecture in China. In the second year of Chongning in the Northern Song Dynasty (1 103), the architectural style was about the design, construction and materials specification of palaces, temples, yamen and mansions. Accordingly, modern architectural historians refer to the specifications, dimensions, proportional relations and practice requirements of various parts of ancient buildings and their components as "law" for short.
The architectural style of the Forbidden City is developed on the basis of inheriting the traditional standardization and stereotypes. In the 12th year of Yongzheng in Qing Dynasty (1734), the Code of Engineering was promulgated, which further institutionalized France's requirements for the renovation of palace buildings.
Compared with the past, the architectural style of palaces in Ming and Qing Dynasties is more complete, meticulous and practical, and there are clear regulations on site layout, abutment railings, large wooden frames, roof style, wall modeling, internal and external decoration, oil painting and many other aspects. On the one hand, the institutionalization of architectural style marks the high maturity of architectural system, which is conducive to improving work efficiency and strengthening project management, but on the other hand, it also has a rigid trend, which greatly limits the creativity of architectural designers.
building technology
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, architectural technology developed to a great extent. Design and construction are highly standardized and stereotyped, which not only speeds up the progress of the project, but also facilitates the management of construction and funds.
The renovation of palaces in Qing Dynasty was jointly managed by the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Industry. There is an architectural department in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is responsible for the renovation of the Forbidden City. The construction department has a "sample room" and a "calculation room", which is responsible for designing drawings, making "hot samples" and estimating engineering quantities. In the 12th year of Yongzheng (1734), the Ministry of Industry published "Engineering Practice" as a criterion for architectural design, construction and engineering quantity accounting of temples, palaces, warehouses, city walls, temples and palaces. There are eleven majors in housing construction, including about twenty types of work, with clear division of labor and different departments. There are mainly eight majors: wood, tile, stone, binding, earth, painting, color painting and pasting. All disciplines cooperate with each other to ensure the engineering quality.
By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the output of brick and glaze components was much higher than before, both in quantity and quality. Palace buildings generally use glazed tile roofs, and important halls use brick floors, so the architectural decoration is extremely luxurious.
[Edit this paragraph] Architectural Art
China ancient architecture has its unique artistic features. The symmetrical layout, courtyard combination, spatial layout, single building, architectural decoration, indoor and outdoor furnishings, roof form and architectural color of the Forbidden City reflect the artistic characteristics of ancient architecture in China, from which we can understand and appreciate the beauty of ancient architecture in China. The Forbidden City not only made great artistic achievements in overall planning and single building design, but also represented the traditional architectural art of China in the application of architectural colors.
Contrast method is widely used in the color design of the Forbidden City, which has produced an extremely bright and magnificent overall color effect. When people enter Miyagi through Tiananmen Square and Wumen Gate, the sharp contrast between blue sky and yellow tiles, turquoise paintings and scarlet doors and windows, white podium and dark ground along the way gives people a strong artistic appeal.
The main building on the central axis of Miyagi strictly follows the above overall effect, while other areas are handled flexibly according to the building function and surrounding environment. For example, the roof of Wenyuan Pavilion on Waichao East Road is decorated with black glazed tiles, and the doors, windows and columns are also green. Together with the stones and flowers piled up in the courtyard, it forms a quiet architectural environment for literati gardens. Imperial palaces, such as the Imperial Garden and Qianlong Garden, have a large number of pavilions, in which the color application is relatively free and diverse.
The color processing of the Forbidden City architecture not only involves large-scale operation, but also involves the scrutiny of details. Taking the Forbidden City as an example, green color paintings, hats, vermilion eaves columns and doors and windows under the eaves form the overall effect of cold and warm, bright and dark contrast. The pad between each bucket and the pad between the upper and lower foreheads are all red, and the couplets hanging on the eaves column are mainly blue, thus forming a situation in which contrasting colors penetrate each other. Contrast color takes a small proportion in the main color, which does not destroy the overall color effect, but plays a coordinating and balancing role. The extensive use of gold decoration also makes the transition between the two contrasting tones less stiff. For example, in the blue-green painting on the forehead, the golden dragon pattern is often used; The doors and windows of vermilion are decorated with gold foil at the skirt and center, and the border is marked with gold thread. In addition, the clever use of black and white and the technique of "intermediate color" played an important role in dealing with the color details of the Forbidden City.
The interior colors of buildings are mostly treated according to their functions. The main building plays an important role on the central axis. The ceiling and beams in the hall are painted blue and green, and the doors and windows are decorated with red gold, which sets off a solemn and luxurious atmosphere with heavy colors. But in the queen mother's bedroom (gas), the color treatment is completely different. Doors, windows, fans and ceilings usually keep the natural color of wood, and the interior walls are white powder walls or pasted with white paper. The style and color of decorations tend to be simple and elegant, and the overall tone tends to be peaceful and quiet in indoor mahogany furniture and furnishings.
Pay tribute to the Forbidden City; The mountain is not high, and there are immortals under the name; If the water is not deep, the dragon will cross the batch; The Chinese nation that swallowed mountains and rivers has a group of heroes who are hardworking, brave, fearless and brave in sacrifice. In the long history of thousands of years, they worked hard and made progress, created miracles and glories for our Chinese nation, and described the Chinese civilization that amazed the world. In this way, I pay tribute to the motherland and the great Chinese nation, and hope that this group of people will continue to unite and struggle to create greater glory for the motherland and our Chinese nation.