Growing up, I believe many people have the same dream----
Go to Tiananmen Square to see the national flag raised, and then go to the Forbidden City to take a walk.
After all, as a cultural relics treasure in China and even the world, the Forbidden City is not just a cold building, but the history and culture it carries are actually vivid and flexible.
Known as the "first of the five major palaces in the world", the Forbidden City began to be built in the fourth year of Ming Chengzu Yongle, and since ancient times, the Forbidden City has been the royal palace of China's Ming and Qing dynasties.
The Forbidden City, which has been walked for more than 600 years, actually hides many little-known and interesting small details.
First, the Hall of Taihe was earlier than it is now
As the largest palace in the Forbidden City--- The Hall of Taihe was called "Golden Ruan Hall" in the old days, and the Ming Dynasty was called "Fengtian Hall". It is mainly used for large-scale events such as the emperor's ascension to the throne, big weddings, banquets, and palace examinations.
However, the Taihe Hall is not "Taihe", and has been burned four times in history, the first two times were mainly caused by lightning strikes, and the last two were caused by fire in the palace.
The original Taihe Hall was destroyed by fire during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and five years later it was rebuilt about 1/3 smaller than the original.
The ancient paintings depicting the ceremony of the Fengtian Temple in the Ming Dynasty can be seen that the Fengtian Hall almost occupied the entire platform of the main hall at that time, and there were also long corridors on both sides.
Second, the Forbidden City has unique Arabic architecture
If you go to the Forbidden City, you will find that the Forbidden City is almost always built in Chinese style.
But the Yude Hall, located in the courtyard of the Wuying Temple, is an arched dome, and the walls are originally pasted with plain white glazed tiles, with a distinct Arabic style.
What is this palace for?
In fact, the word "bath virtue" is derived from the "bath virtue bath body" in the Book of Rites, which has the meaning of self-cultivation. According to research, Yude hall was originally a bathroom for the left-behind Si Yamen of the Yuan Dynasty's Main Gate Chongtianmen outside the Chongtian Gate.
In the Ming Dynasty, it was used as a place for the emperor to fast and bathe, and in the Qing Dynasty, it was used as a place for royal steaming paper, because the Wuying Hall, which was close to the place where the royal inner house was repaired.
Third, the Palace Museum will also collect fakes
Yes, you read that right!
The "Han Xizai Night Feast" collected by the Palace Museum is actually not a genuine manuscript, but an imitation of the Song Dynasty.
The original "Han Xizai Night Feast" is a painting by the Southern Tang painter Gu Hongzhong during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, while the Song Dynasty was only copied.
However, due to the raw materials, process, shape, etc., they can reach 99% similarity with the original handwriting, and their weight and printing are almost the same.
Therefore, although it is a fake, it is equally precious.
Fourth, the Forbidden City is really paved with "golden bricks"
Of course it wasn't paved with gold.
If there really is, as early as the eight-nation alliance invaded China, weren't the floor tiles all pried away by them?
The gold brick we are talking about is actually a generous scale of two feet two, two feet, one foot seven square square, in fact, it is also made of clay.
This kind of brick was only found in the three halls of the Taihe Hall, the Zhonghe Hall and the Bohol Hall, which was called "Beijing Brick" at that time, but because this brick particle was delicate, there was a sound of gold and stone when it was tapped, so it was slowly called "Golden Brick".
And this kind of brick is expensive, it originated from suzhou's Lumu brick kiln.
Due to the extremely complex and elaborate firing process, it takes 720 days to make a "golden brick", and a "sampling inspection" is also required.
If 6 of a batch of gold bricks do not meet the requirements of "knocking sound, breaking without holes", or the size of the error exceeds one millimeter, the batch is all wasted.
In addition, each gold brick is clearly engraved with the time of production, the name of the craftsman who made the brick, and the official position of the person who supervised the brick, as well as the name, prefect, governor, armor and the seal of the burner.
Therefore, if there is a problem with a brick, all those involved need to be punished.
According to incomplete statistics, the construction of the Forbidden City at that time cost more than 80 million bricks, which took 14 years, and all one or two gold bricks followed.