Why is there no threshold at the gate of the Forbidden City? Puyi told the truth in one sentence, and experts sighed and regretted
imperial palace
The Forbidden City in Beijing is the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties in China.
The Book of the Later Han Dynasty records that "there is a purple micro palace in the heavens, which is the dwelling place of God." The king's palace is like this", and because the imperial palace is a forbidden place that all generations of dynasties are not allowed to enter and exit at will, the Forbidden City in Beijing is also known as the "Forbidden City".
The construction of the Forbidden City is quite exquisite. The builders strictly followed the imperial capital construction principle of "former dynasty and rear market, left ancestor and right society" in the "Zhou Li Kao Gong Record".
Like other ancient Chinese buildings, the Forbidden City has a number of thresholds. But careful friends will find that the thresholds of some gates in the Forbidden City have been sawn off when visiting the Forbidden City.
Missing thresholds of the Forbidden City
The threshold that represents the status of the family and protects the feng shui of one party was sawn out of thin air in the Forbidden City. What is the truth of the matter?
When the Xinhai Revolution broke out in 1911, the Qing Dynasty was at the end of its mighty crossbow.
In February of the following year, Empress Longyu issued an abdication edict from the Qing Emperor Puyi announcing her abdication. Since then, the last feudal dynasty in our country has fallen.
Xuantong Emperor Puyi
As compensation, the Nanjing Provisional Government and the Qing Government agreed on the "Preferential Conditions for The Liquidation of the Chamber". The government of the Republic of China promised that the honorific title of the Qing Emperor would not be abolished, and he would be treated with the courtesy of a monarch. The Qing Emperor could still live in the Forbidden City, and then move to the Summer Palace in the future, and the guards and other personnel could still be retained as usual.
Preferential Conditions for Clearance
Puyi later recalled that time: "Mankind has entered the twentieth century, and I still live the untouched imperial life, breathing in the dust left behind by the nineteenth century. ”
But Puyi, the last emperor who was only 6 years old at the time, did not feel that life had changed.
Not only did his own family not move, but the palace eunuchs around him also served around as usual. It's just that there are no friends of the same age around, and there is less fun in life.
More than ten years have passed in this way, and in the blink of an eye, puyi has reached the age when he can get married and have children. Under the influence of the princesses and wives in the palace, the empress was finally set as Guo Buluo Wanrong.
Wan Rong and Pu Yi
WanRong's family is well-off and open. At the wedding of Puyi and Wanrong, guo buluo Runqi, a brother-in-law who became good friends with Puyi, brought him a rare thing - bicycle.
Mr. Runqi once said in the "Sanlian Life Weekly" column: "Many articles say that it was Puyi's British teacher Johnston who introduced the first bicycle to the Forbidden City. As a party to this matter, I dare to tell the reader responsibly that it was I who actually introduced the first bicycle into the Forbidden City. I still vividly remember that my mother got the first bicycle in our house. I think it's quite fresh, it must be fun. I have a fun new thing, and I can't forget the emperor's brother-in-law who is also greedy. So I rode my bike into the Forbidden City. ”
Puyi who accidentally fell
As the old gentleman said, Puyi, who was only 16 years old at the time, was very fond of this novelty item. It is said that he also spent 100 yuan a month to hire Li San, a flying car at that time, as a coach.
Not only the emperor, but also the lively empress also liked to ride a bicycle with Puyi around the palace.
Queen of bicycles
Later, it became a fashion in the palace. Puyi also spent a lot of money to buy more than 20 bicycles for this interest.
But the high threshold between the palace gates is too obstructive, and whenever the bicycle reaches the door, it must stop and carry the car over before continuing to ride.
So Puyi gave the empress dowager a first cut and then a play, and he immediately ordered that the threshold of the palace gate that he needed to pass through for play should be sawn off within five days. He wrote with gusto in "The First Half of My Life": "For the convenience of cycling, I sawed off the threshold of the palace gate, which my ancestors did not feel inconvenient for hundreds of years. ”
According to incomplete statistics, there are about thirty thresholds that he asked to saw off, including the Royal Garden and the East and West Six Palaces.
At that time, both ends of the door that were sawn off were re-installed with mortise, and the remaining two ends of the threshold under the door frame were chiseled with a double eye, and the sawn-off threshold was installed tightly, even when the door was closed, there would be no gap under the door or the problem of not being firm because of the threshold.
Snow view of the Forbidden City
It turned out that the reason for the lack of thresholds at the gate of the Forbidden City was that Puyi sawed it off in order to facilitate cycling. At that time, the Forbidden City was still Nominally Puyi's home, and we really couldn't manage too much by sawing off the threshold of our own home. But from the perspective of protecting cultural relics in later generations, it is really funny and regrettable.