The content described in this article is based on official and reliable sources, which are repeated at the end of this article.
The Forbidden City in Beijing, as the residence of the royal families of the last two dynasties in the history of the mainland, not only represents the power center of the emperor, but also represents the most advanced building technology in ancient China.
As a palace built with ancient mortise and tenon technology, the Forbidden City is currently the best preserved and largest building complex, and even foreign experts do not hesitate to spend a lot of time to study the architectural skills contained in the Forbidden City building.
At the same time, under the management of the state, the Forbidden City has become a popular tourist destination, allowing ordinary people to appreciate the former royal life, which can be said to be one of the must-see places for outsiders to visit Beijing.
However, what you see today is not the real Forbidden City, most of which have been renovated in the later period, which has led to the original historical charm of the building becoming much weaker.
Therefore, only those areas that have never been opened are the most authentic appearance of Bauhinia City, and the current situation of those areas is likely to subvert your perception......
"The integration of government and sleep" is a palace of heart-nourishing hearts
Previously, because of the popularity of the Qing palace dramas "Yanxi Raiders" and "The Legend of Ruyi", the palace of Yangxin Palace was mentioned again, and many people were full of curiosity about this palace.
However, when everyone came to the Forbidden City with the idea of visiting the Yangxin Palace, they found that this very representative palace was actually closed to the public, which made many people come here and return disappointed.
The Yangxin Hall is located on the west side of the three palaces in the inner court of the Forbidden City, and has always been used as the emperor's palace.
After Yongzheng ascended the throne, because his father Kangxi had lived in the Qianqing Palace for more than 60 years, he decided to move to the Yangxin Palace outside the Yuehua Gate.
It can be said that this palace has witnessed the ups and downs of domestic and foreign affairs and power change of ownership in the Qing Dynasty since then, and it is a veritable "political heart"!
Yongzheng and later Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi, Guangxu and Puyi, these eight emperors all promulgated various policies and dealt with matters large and small throughout the country in this palace.
Until the first year of the Republic of China (1912), the last emperor Pu Yi was forced to abdicate, and he issued his own abdication edict in the Yangxin Palace.
Therefore, the Yangxin Temple can be said to be a witness to the demise of the Qing Dynasty.
In fact, the Heart Cultivation Hall is not as brilliant as in the TV series, and the real Heart Cultivation Hall is very simple under the deliberate request of Yongzheng.
And in addition to the emperor's residence, office, the heart hall also has the function of worshiping the Buddha, the front hall of the West Warm Pavilion is divided into two parts before and after, the south side is the place where the emperor receives the courtiers, the north side is the place of reading, worshiping the Buddha.
The central area in the south of the Xinuan Pavilion of the Yangxin Palace is the one with the largest space area, the most open vision, and the only one with a confidential partition - the diligent and pro-virtuous room.
The name "Diligent and Virtuous Room" comes from the Yongzheng Emperor's imperial pen plaque "Diligent and Pro-virtuous", where the emperors of the Qing Dynasty and various ministers discussed major decisions related to the national economy and people's livelihood.
However, after the baptism of the years, the original dazzling murals and facilities in the Heart Cultivation Hall have been very dilapidated, which is also the main reason why the Heart Cultivation Hall is not open to the public.
Since 2015, the Palace of the Forbidden City's Yangxin Hall has been renovated for the first time in nearly 100 years, and it will be closed to the public because this repair is different from the previous partial maintenance.
It is hoped that after this renovation, the past style of the Palace of Cultivation of the Heart can be reproduced.
"Zhen Huan"'s Shoukang Palace
Shoukang Palace is a palace specially built for his biological mother, the Empress Dowager Chongqing, after Qianlong ascended the throne.
In fact, Li'er in the hit Qing court drama "Palace Lock Bead Curtain", Zhen Huan in "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and Lafayette in "Huanzhu Gege" are all talking about the same woman, that is, Yongzheng's Concubine Xi and Qianlong's biological mother Chongqing Empress Dowager.
In order to make his mother feel at ease, Qianlong took great pains to even demolish the west exterior wall of Cining Palace, which existed during the Ming Dynasty.
Among all the palaces in the Forbidden City, Shoukang Palace is not grand in scale, but it is one of the palaces with the most complete structure and facilities.
The main hall of Shoukang Palace sits in the north and faces south, faces 5 rooms wide, enters 3 rooms deep, adopts the top of the yellow glazed tile mountain.
And the color painting in the palace adopts the rare "dragon and phoenix and seal" pattern, the dragon and phoenix pattern symbolizing the imperial power in the picture, and also uses a large area of leaching powder and gold, which is the highest level form in the color painting.
After the Chongqing Empress Dowager, Shoukang Palace is the place where the Empress Dowager and the concubines retire, the Empress Dowager Xiaohe Rui of the Daoguang Dynasty and the Empress Dowager Kangci of the Xianfeng Dynasty have all lived here for a long time, and even Cixi has lived here in her later years.
It can be said that the buildings and facilities in Shoukang Palace vividly reflect the luxury and wealth of the Qing Dynasty court.
However, Shoukang Palace was closed to the public for a long time, and it was not until October 2015 that the palace built for "Zhen Huan" was opened to the public for the first time.
Shoukang Palace before the renovation
This is all because in the last years of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, during that period of political turmoil, Shoukang Palace was seriously damaged.
It was not until the Palace Museum lasted many years and underwent large-scale renovation that the former Shoukang Palace was able to reappear in front of the world.
Yanqing Palace
The palace was never opened to the public, and it is known as one of the least documented palaces in the Forbidden City.
According to historical records, Yanqing Hall is an inconspicuous small palace located on the east side of Yuhua Pavilion, although the area is small, but the role of this palace is extraordinary.
The successive emperors of the Qing Dynasty will carry out the solemn ceremony of "nine knocks to welcome spring" in the Yanqing Hall every time they arrive at the beginning of spring, the purpose is to pray for the blessings of the people, hoping that this year will be smooth and the people can have a good harvest.
But since the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the palace has been cordoned off and is still closed to the public.
However, when visitors look through the cracks in the door, it is difficult to associate the scene with the grandeur of the palace.
It can be seen that the palace inside has become dilapidated with the passage of time, and even the courtyard is overgrown with weeds.
Looking at the broken bricks and tiles in the Yanqing Palace, we have to sigh the ruthlessness of time, perhaps the real Yanqing Hall can only exist in the records of historical materials and people's imagination.
Cold Palace
The cold palace can be said to be an existence that will be mentioned in all Qing palace dramas, which has led many people to be curious about which palace the cold palace is, and what does it look like in real times?
In the Qing Dynasty, in order to save the face of the royal family, as long as he did not commit unforgivable sins such as rebellion, he would not give the concubines who made mistakes to death, but there should be a punishment, usually - into the cold palace.
In fact, there is no indication in Bauhinia City which palace is the cold palace where the concubines who have fallen out of favor are imprisoned, because the cold palace is not a fixed palace.
It can be said that all palaces used to confine out of favor concubines can be regarded as cold palaces, but under normal circumstances, cold palaces are very remote in geographical location, and they are all palaces in disrepair and dilapidated.
This kind of palace is not to mention pampered concubines, even lowly palace maids and eunuchs do not want to stay here, and once they are in the cold palace, they are basically cut off from the outside world, and they need to endure endless loneliness.
Therefore, in history and various film and television works, there are many concubines who choose to end themselves because they can't accept the miserable experience of the cold palace.
Although there is no palace called "Cold Palace" in the Forbidden City, the Cold Palace does exist, but the location of the Cold Palace is not fixed in different periods.
For example, during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Concubine Wang Gong, who was snubbed by the Wanli Emperor, was confined in Jingyang Palace, the most remote of the East Six Palaces, and Jingyang Palace was what people called the cold palace at that time.
However, with the passage of time, most of the palaces in the Forbidden City that are prohibited from opening to the outside world may not be much different from the "cold palace" in the eyes of the ancients, and some palaces are even more desolate than the "cold palace".
In fact, the biggest reason why these palaces are closed to the public is that they have been in disrepair for too long, and if tourists are allowed to visit them rashly, they are likely to collapse.
Therefore, these areas are closed to the public for the safety of tourists.
However, although there are still many places in the Forbidden City that need to be repaired, after years of hard work by experts, many places have begun to open to the outside world, and the area of the Forbidden City has reached about 76%.
It is believed that in the near future, those palaces that have not yet been opened will also face the world after gradually repairing and repairing.
Article source: People's Daily Online (Exploring the unopened area of the Forbidden City: Shoukang Palace is the real dormitory of the Queen Mother in the Qing Dynasty), Global Network (the world's largest and most complete ancient building complex - the Forbidden City), People's Daily (How to repair the ancient buildings of the Forbidden City).