Six hundred years ago, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di decided to move the capital to Beijing, and the migration of the power center of the Ming Dynasty naturally required a new palace as a symbol of imperial power. This imperial city in the north is the future Forbidden City, or more people are willing to call it the "Forbidden City".
With a total length of 961 meters from south to north, a width of 753 meters from east to west, and a total area of 720,000 square meters, the Forbidden City is not only the largest historical museum in China, but also the largest and most complete preserved ancient wooden structure complex in the world. This is a miracle in the history of architecture created by the countless painstaking efforts of ancient skilled craftsmen.
From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the red wall of the palace was reborn
As the concentration of central power in the feudal dynasties of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Forbidden City perfectly embodies the strict royal hierarchy and etiquette system from the overall planning of the building to the subtleties of the building. Whether it is the three major halls distributed strictly according to the central axis, or the palace complex with balanced distribution left and right, from the large to the city wall to open a few door openings, as small as the city gate can nail a few door nails, it is necessary to strictly follow the royal etiquette and regulations. Today, when you walk from the Duanmen to the majestic Square in front of the Taihe Temple, all you can see is the magnificent palace wall of the temple that has been magnificent since the Yongle Dynasty.
In the history of the Forbidden City, after many fires, lightning strikes, and the transformation and reconstruction brought about by the change of dynasties, the different buildings within the palace walls are more stylish. In addition to inheriting the traditional palace architectural style, it also integrates Jiangnan gardens and Western styles. In the strict imperial etiquette, the architecture of the Forbidden City has become more and more rich, exquisite, gorgeous and lively, gradually forming the appearance that we are familiar with now.
The mountains and rivers change color, and the wind and rain drift southward journey
In 1924, the last emperor Puyi left his palace, and in 1925 the Palace Museum was officially established, and the Forbidden City became a new-style museum. Bronzes, calligraphy, paintings, porcelain and other cultural relics that were originally part of the royal collection were all exhibited to the public. The citizens of Beiping flocked to the Forbidden City, and the crowds of people gathered to watch. The formerly heavily fortified royal forbidden land has since opened its arms to the people.
In 1931, the Japanese imperialists invaded and occupied the three eastern provinces, and in 1933 Shanhaiguan fell, and Peiping was in danger. War is coming, and in order to protect cultural relics from harm, the Palace Museum decided to relocate its collection of cultural relics to a safe place. At this point, the cultural relics of the Forbidden City began a 15-year-long journey to the south.
During this period, he was displaced and displaced, and after experiencing dangers and obstacles, he traveled to Shanghai, Nanjing, Sichuan and other places, and was repeatedly invaded by the Japanese army, and accidents occurred frequently, but he was always able to turn the danger into a disaster. Not a single artifact has been destroyed or lost, and this journey is unique even in the history of the world's museums.
On the eve of the victory in the Liberation War in 1948, Chiang Kai-shek decided to transport the cultural relics of a number of museums represented by the Forbidden City to Taiwan. In the end, there were a total of 2972 boxes, accounting for about a quarter of the cultural relics that migrated south to the sea to Taiwan. The rest of the cultural relics, with the exception of some remaining in Nanjing, were returned to the Forbidden City in Beijing in the 1950s. This is the origin of the current National Palace in Taipei.
A bay strait, the forbidden city feelings from the south to the north
On November 12, 1965, the National Palace Museum in Taipei was inaugurated in Waisangxi on the outskirts of Taipei. This magnificent Chinese palace-style building is designed from the ancient five-room Mingtang concept, with a square and regular appearance, and a pattern similar to the shape of the "instrument" glyph. The main body of the central building of the National Palace in Taipei is a roof building, and the four corners are square exhibition rooms.
The designer adopted this square symmetrical arrangement in order to achieve a special visual effect: when the sunlight shines obliquely from above, the surrounding area presents a shadow at a 45-degree angle, and when people walk through the light and shadow, they seem to be in the sun in front of the noon gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing. At the same time, this kind of architecture can also preserve the design concept of traditional Chinese palace architecture "the north-south central axis is respected by the south direction, and the plane is symmetrically called Shang". For more than 50 years, Taipei National Palace has undergone many expansions, but it has always maintained the royal palace pattern of "the central axis stands tall and the left and right balance".
Inherit the spirit of the society by inheriting the past and forging ahead
When we visit the National Palace in Taipei today, we can still appreciate these ingenious and well-designed Chinese elements. Little is known, but when the National Palace In Taipei was built, it was almost a completely Western-style building. In 1960, when Taipei held the National Palace Architectural Design Competition, American experts and scholars were invited to participate in the review. In the end, the solution was to adopt a large area of new glass curtain wall as the exterior, full of bright and simple modern architecture.
At that time, the island was filled with the sublime atmosphere of "the great river goes east, the dollar comes west", and a museum that has nothing to do with traditional Chinese culture is catering to the preferences of society. However, the National Palace Museum in Taipei is not an ordinary museum, most of its collections are derived from the old collections of the Qing Palace, with a strong royal atmosphere, but also with a heavy historical background caused by the migration of war and the separation of the two sides of the strait. Chen Cheng, then head of Taiwan's administrative body, noticed the problem and eventually halted the original plan and replaced it with Huang Baoyu, a designer from the China Construction Society.
The "China Construction Society" is an academic society founded in 1930, and its most well-known members are Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin. From 1932 to 1937, the China Construction Society used modern architectural theories and methods for the first time to investigate and map the Forbidden City, making great contributions to the inheritance and protection of traditional Chinese architectural history. The National Palace Museum in Taipei, designed by Huang Baoyu, is also inherited from the Purpose of the China Construction Society to "study the architectural techniques inherent in China and assist in the creation of new buildings in the future".
Separated by a shallow strait, there have been two Palace Museums since then. Special history casts a special national memory. The spirit of Chinese history and culture and these cultural relics have floated across the sea together and blossomed in Taiwan.