The imperial palaces of the Ming and Qing dynasties were known as the Forbidden City. With the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Forbidden City was no longer a place for the royals to live alone, and everyone could enter and visit as long as they bought a ticket. In the process of exploring this ancient building, there are many interesting things, and the thing we want to talk about today is about the "Zhonghua Gate", but this "Zhonghua Gate" is not the "Zhonghua Gate".
The name "Zhonghua Gate" is very domineering when you hear it. There are two "Zhonghua Gates" on the mainland, one is one of the 13 Ming Dynasty capital gates of the Ming City Wall in Nanjing, it was originally called "Jubaomen", it is said that the origin of this name is related to the huge rich Shen Wansan at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang specially borrowed Shen Wansan's "cornucopia" to suppress evil and evil when he built the city wall, and he did not pay it back after borrowing.
Of course, the credibility of this story is relatively low. We know that Ming Chengzu Zhu Di was originally the King of Yan who guarded the north, and after he snatched the throne from his nephew Zhu Yunjiao, he moved the capital of the Ming Dynasty to Beijing in 1421, so Beijing became the imperial capital of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and built a magnificent new imperial city.
The "Zhonghua Gate" is the "national gate" of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The meaning of the word "Guomen" is very heavy, and unlike Tiananmen, "Zhonghua Gate" is not a city tower building, it is the south gate of the Imperial City, located on the central axis of Beijing, which is the dividing line between the Imperial City and the street outside, and belongs to the masonry structure on the top of the single-eaves hill.
In ancient times, there has always been a saying of "respect for the south", to the south of the morning sun, all things greet the sun, the emperor's throne is also facing the south, so the "Zhonghua Gate" is regarded as the "national gate" of a dynasty, which has very important symbolic significance. For example, li zicheng invaded Beijing at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and later after the Shunzhi Emperor entered the city of Beijing in 1644, he could not wait to change the name of this gate.
Of course, the "Zhonghua Gate" during the Ming Dynasty was not called "Zhonghua Gate", but "Daming Gate", and there was a couplet in front of the door: "Sun and Moon Light Heavenly Virtue, Mountains and Rivers Zhuang Emperor Residence." Li Zicheng was ready to change the "Great Shunmen" and did not change it, but the "Great QingMen" changed by the Shunzhi Emperor had been used for hundreds of years, and because of the special status of this gate, the civil and military officials had to get off their horses and walk over after arriving here.
And they can only go through the side door. As for the middle door, only the Emperor Taishang, the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, and the Empress could go, and the feudal dynasty was hierarchical, which showed it. However, we know that in the 19th century, the great powers opened the real historical sense of the "national gate" with guns, and since then, the Qing Dynasty has gradually declined, and finally completely collapsed in 1912.
In the early years of the Republic of China, the "Great Qing Gate" was renamed "Zhonghua Gate". Since the name has been changed, the door plaque must be taken off to re-write, the original door plaque is made of stone, in order to save costs, after consultation, we decided to directly in the "Great Qing Gate" door plaque behind the "Zhonghua Gate" 3 words, so that there is no need to rush to make a new door plaque, in turn hanging on it.
Unexpectedly, after the stone plaque was taken off, everyone was surprised to see the reverse situation, only to see that it was impressively written "Daming Gate", that is to say, the craftsmen of the Republic of China came up with a way to save trouble, and the Qing Dynasty craftsmen more than 200 years ago had long thought of it, and everyone's wisdom could be similar for hundreds of years, which was really laughable. In the end, the craftsman could only make a wooden plaque to hang on. Now the "Zhonghua Gate" no longer exists, and the original "Daming Gate" and "Great Qing Gate" door plaque have also been lying in the museum.