The magnificent Palace Museum is not only a business card of Beijing, but also a business card of China, and many students who love to travel must have been there more than once. If you are careful, you may have an impression of a three-story Buddhist hall in the Forbidden City, Yuhua Pavilion, which has never been open to tourists for many years. As for the reason, few people know, and the tour guide is often unclear, adding a bit of mystery to this small building.
If you are not impressed by this, it should be noted that this Yuhua Pavilion is not the One in the Yuhuatai District of Nanjing. The history of The Yuhua Pavilion in Nanjing is much older, about the time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, while the Yuhua Pavilion in the Forbidden City was built during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.
The Forbidden City, which has experienced 600 years of wind and rain, is ancient and huge, hiding too many secrets and countless strange things have happened. There are some widely circulated rumors, such as someone who saw groups of palace women appearing in the corridors of the Forbidden City at night, walking by with lanterns, and suddenly disappearing, and the legendary "beast of the town palace", like a mouse and like a pig, running fast, no one has ever seen it really.
Located on the West Road of the Inner Courtyard of the Forbidden City, Yuhua Pavilion is the largest of the dozens of Buddhist halls in the palace. For a long time, tourists were quite curious about this forbidden Buddhist hall and speculated about it. The Forbidden City is so big, of course, there are more than one place that is not open, some are temporarily closed for repairs, and some are to protect precious cultural relics that are easily damaged.
The fact that the Yuhua Pavilion is not open has nothing to do with the rumored strange things, and the revelation of the truth is related to Puyi, the former owner of the Forbidden City and the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
Born in 1906, Ai Xin Jueluo Puyi was the great-grandson of Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty and the son of the regent Zaifeng. In 1908, after the death of the Guangxu Emperor, Puyi, who was only two years old, was pushed into the dragon chair by Empress Dowager Cixi. Puyi reigned for only three years, the Qing Dynasty collapsed with the tide of the Xinhai Revolution, and the 5-year-old Puyi also abdicated in ignorance.
Although Puyi and his royal family lost power, they still enjoyed very generous treatment, still living in the Forbidden City, and received millions of silver dollars specially allocated by the Republic of China government every year for their expenses. This good life lasted until 1924, when the Second Warlord War took place, and Puyi, who was already 18 years old, and his family were expelled from the Forbidden City.
Later, Puyi, who was at a loss, was used by the Japanese to become the emperor of the puppet state of Manchukuo. After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Puyi was imprisoned as a war criminal. In 1959, Puyi, who was more than half a hundred years old, performed well in labor reform, was granted a pardon, and regained his freedom. Not long after, he was assigned to work in a botanical garden in Beijing and began the life of an ordinary person.
At that time, the Forbidden City had been opened to the public and renamed the Forbidden City. Puyi once revisited the place in his spare time and returned to the Forbidden City to see where he grew up. But the former owner of the Forbidden City also had to buy a ticket to enter.
The first time ordinary people go to the Forbidden City, they are all shocked by its grand scale and royal weather, and feel the historical atmosphere of the waves. Any corner here can make history-loving tourists stop for a long time. This is obviously not the case for Puyi, who once said in his memoirs that he was very tired of life in the palace when he was a teenager, was suffocated, and longed for the outside world.
When Puyi revisited the Forbidden City, he turned to the Yuhua Pavilion on the Inner Courtyard Outer West Road, and just met some tourists asking the experts of the museum, why is it not open here? Experts explained that the Buddha statues in the Yuhua Pavilion are very precious and cannot be opened to the public to avoid being damaged.
Puyi, who was standing in the crowd, listened to this and couldn't help but shake his head and say, No, it's not like this. The expert did not know Puyi, felt confused, and asked, then you tell me what is going on?
Puyi has lived in the Forbidden City for more than ten years, familiar with the grass, wood, brick and tile, of course, he knows the secret of the Yuhua Pavilion, and at the moment he is not in a hurry to tell the truth to everyone: "In fact, the fourth floor of this Buddhist hall enshrines three Joyful Buddhas, originally only the emperor could go to see it before he got married, the purpose was to learn some men and women in advance. This place is not suitable for opening to the outside world, which is the fundamental reason. ”
Puyi is right, the Yuhua Pavilion is not open to tourists for this reason. In the fourteenth year of Qianlong (1749), according to the proposal of the Mongol division, the Qianlong Emperor ordered the construction of the Yuhuage Buddhist Hall of the Mixed Han and Tibetan Styles. The roof of the temple is paved with copper gilded tiles, and the roof ridge is decorated with dragon-shaped decorations, and its shape and color are unique among the many Buddhist halls in the Forbidden City.
The appearance of Yuhua Pavilion is three floors, in fact, there is a dark layer between the first and second floors, that is, the structure of "light three dark four". The interior of the first floor houses three circular mandalas, which are said to symbolize the truth of the universe. The area above the second floor gradually becomes smaller, called the "Immortal Tower", and under the east and west eaves of the second floor are columns of stupas. On the third floor hangs a plaque of "Puming Yuanjue".
The fourth floor is the smallest space, with a plaque of "Yuhua Pavilion" hanging, dedicated to the "Joyful Buddha" in Tibetan tantric Buddhism. The shape of this Buddha statue is not suitable for opening to tourists, especially for children to see.
After Puyi tells the secrets of Yuhua Pavilion, experts or tour guides will also tell the endless stream of tourists that the collections in Yuhua Pavilion are not allowed or suitable for opening to the public.
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, etc