The Forbidden City, a royal palace complex with a history of nearly 600 years, is the culmination of classical court architecture in China. At the same time, with a construction area of 150,000 square meters, it ranks first among the world's largest existing wooden structure ancient buildings.
Since it is the world's largest wooden structure building, I don't know if you are curious about a question. Why has the wood of the Forbidden City never shown signs of decay in 600 years?
This has to start from the time when Zhu Di, the ancestor of Ming Cheng, began to build the Forbidden City, as we all know, the capital of the Ming Dynasty was actually in Nanjing. However, Zhu Di later launched the Battle of Jingnan and forcibly seized the throne from Emperor Jianwen, and since he was previously the King of Yan, the fiefdom was in Beijing, and after the Forbidden City in Nanjing was burned by Emperor Jianwen, he moved the capital to this place.
Also in order to imply "starting over", Zhu Di's construction standards for the Forbidden City were quite strict. The wood used in the construction of the Forbidden City in those years was the finest wood selected from all over the country. According to the "History of Ming", there were as many as dozens of officials who managed timber into Beijing in those years, such as Shangshu Songli of the Ministry of Works, who was responsible for the harvesting of timber in Sichuan, and Gu Pu, the left attendant of the Hubu, who was responsible for Jiangxi.
After these good trees were cut down, they flowed down the river along various rivers and finally transported to Beijing through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and eventually became part of the Forbidden City. Behind this magnificent building is the helplessness of countless natural ecology being destroyed.
Why doesn't the wood spoil? Mainly determined by its own characteristics, such as the golden silk nan wood, which has always had the saying that "water cannot be immersed, ants cannot burrow", and has always been the preferred wood for China's court architecture, and it is reasonable not to decay nature.
In addition to the non-decay of wood, climatic conditions are also a large part of the reason. Beijing's dry climate, coupled with the cold winters, is very beneficial to the preservation of wood. It should be known that after the construction of the Forbidden City that year, the remaining wood in the royal warehouse was retained until the late Qing Dynasty, which shows that the preservation conditions are excellent.
In addition, under such climatic conditions, it is difficult for termites that eat wood to survive, which invisibly prolongs the preservation time of wood. Moreover, at the end of the construction, all the wood will be brushed with a layer of rosin and paint, which also plays an important role in anti-corrosion.
However, there must be gains, and although this climatic condition can ensure that the wood is anti-corrosion, it is stretched in the field of fire prevention. According to incomplete statistics, in the two dynasties of the Ming and Qing dynasties, in the past 600 years, the Forbidden City has had more than 80 fires. This number also ranks first in the history of ancient architecture in the world.
Of course, the world's peace of mind? Nevertheless, it cannot be hidden that the Forbidden City is the most prestigious ancient palace in the world and the greatest of the wisdom of the ancient working people of our country. These extremely precious woods not only symbolize the authority of the royal family, but also the condensation of the painstaking efforts of countless laborers.