preface:
The word "Forbidden City" is no stranger to everyone, it is a symbol of China, the residence of several generations of emperors, and the wisdom of Chinese.
The Forbidden City has existed for more than 600 years since its construction, but it has remained intact for hundreds of years, although there have been several large-scale renovations in the middle, but it also depends on the exquisite craftsmanship of the ancient people when they were built, otherwise no matter how to renovate, the original appearance will not be preserved until now.
▲A panoramic view of the Forbidden City
The structure is unusual
In 1406, the Forbidden City began to be planned and built, and it lasted for 14 years before everyone could see the appearance of the Forbidden City.
What kind of story has it been through in the past 14 years? Why does the palace, built 600 years ago, stand tall?
Many people with this question begin to make assumptions and conjectures. There are even people who have spent a lot of energy to study and copy an identical Forbidden City, in order to explore the mysteries of the Forbidden City.
▲Exploded view of the construction of the Forbidden City
After the successful construction, everyone used various explosions, earthquakes and other ways to test whether the Forbidden City would collapse, and the results were unexpected. The answer is that there is no large-scale collapse, just small movements.
Why?
Through exploration, people found that although the building materials of the Forbidden City are made of ordinary wooden materials, the overall building structure is very special, and unlike conventional architecture, the construction method of the Forbidden City is "bucket arch structure".
▲The forbidden city bucket arch structure
The advantage of the "bucket arch structure" is that it is resistant to earthquakes. This is why at the time of the Tangshan earthquake, other cities were already in ruins, and the Forbidden City was still intact. Have to admire the wisdom of the ancients.
The special feature of the Forbidden City is not only its special architectural structure, but also a unique feature that we did not expect. This was also what we later discovered during a comprehensive renovation of the Forbidden City.
▲Forbidden City floor tiles
Secrets under the floor tiles
Frankly speaking, if only a bucket arch of the building structure, may not be able to maintain 600 years of standing. Every time it is repaired, the maintenance master will study every corner of the Forbidden City very thoroughly, worried about the destruction of the original architectural style.
But no one thought that there would be a big article under the floor tiles. There is a saying in folklore that "every inch of the forbidden city palace, every city tower is a golden brick" is indeed true. Why is it called "Golden Brick Land"? Is there really a gold brick under the floor tiles?
▲The Forbidden City floor tiles were built
Of course not, the maintenance master carefully pried open a floor tile and found some tung oil under the floor tile. Presumably, it took a lot of energy to make these floor tiles. The emperor's palace naturally uses the best materials, so these floor tiles are also valuable.
According to the Qing Dynasty official book "Engineering Practices", a two-foot gold brick can only be ground three pieces per worker. When ploughing the ground, one bricklayer plus two strong workers can only lay five pieces a day. For example, when laying the gold bricks in the Taihe Temple, 1573 sharpshooters, 944 bricklayers and 1888 zhuang workers were needed.
▲Repair of floor tiles in the Forbidden City
It is said that it took the craftsmen three years in Suzhou to burn a kiln of bricks, a total of 7,000 pieces, which does not include the unqualified defective products that appear in transportation, which shows the excellent workmanship. But what is shocking is that the floor tiles needed for the Forbidden City total more than 80 million pieces, and the entire 15 floors are paved.
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Zhu Di
The Forbidden City looks bright and beautiful, and it has cost thousands of people's efforts behind it. At that time, in order to avoid the private firing of gold bricks by the people, the emperor at that time, Zhu Di, ordered all the craftsmen involved in the firing of gold bricks to be dumb.
Since then, no one has known the secret of the golden bricks, and no one has been able to imitate it, so now we don't know how this technology was achieved at that time.
Beautiful map of the Forbidden City
Review
Behind everything that happens, there is a group of people who pay silently. It is the hard work of these selfless and dedicated laborers that has preserved the Forbidden City to the present.
Zhu Di actually made the craftsmen dumb for his own selfish interests, and now it seems that Zhu Di's heart is too fierce!
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Resources
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Journal of Historical Documents, Popular Archaeology
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