Forbidden City: The culmination of ancient Chinese palace architecture

　　The Forbidden City is an important bearer of the 5,000-year-old civilization of the Chinese nation, a gathering place of excellent traditional Chinese culture, a wisdom creation of ancient Chinese working people, and a historical witness to the exchange and integration of diverse cultures. From the all-encompassing cultural relics of the Forbidden City, we can perceive the essence of the material and spiritual culture of the Chinese dynasties, which helps us to have a comprehensive understanding of the profound heritage and myriad atmospheres of Chinese civilization.

　　The ancient buildings of the Forbidden City, mainly in the Ming and Qing dynasties, are the largest and most well-preserved ancient palace complexes in mainland China, covering an area of 720,000 square meters and having more than 1,000 wooden buildings in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The rich architectural categories and complete architectural forms make the Forbidden City an encyclopedia of ancient Chinese official-style architecture, reflecting the outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization.

　　The idea of construction in the same vein, the concept of neutralization is endless. The Forbidden City not only has a direct relationship with the two palaces of the Ming Zhongdu in Fengyang, Anhui Province and the Ming Imperial Palace Ruins in Nanjing, but also can be traced back to the planning and design of the capital cities and palaces of the past dynasties after the late Xia Dynasty in Yanshi Erlitou, Henan, and can be traced back to a series of long traditions of capital and palace construction recorded in ancient documents such as "Zhou Li, Examination of Gongji" and "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period". After the planning and construction of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, Beijing City has formed a shape with the Forbidden City as the center, the palace city (Forbidden City), the imperial city, the inner city and the outer city four city walls are set together, upright and strict, symmetrical and even, and the central axis of Beijing city running through the north and south is 7.8 kilometers long, and the momentum is like a rainbow. The Forbidden City, under the backdrop of the city walls and the north-south central axis, shows the magnificent spirit of "the world".

Archaeological excavations in the Forbidden City have proved that there was a superimposed relationship between the palace buildings of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. In addition, the Forbidden City has also inherited the ancient systems of traditional Chinese palace construction, such as "sleeping in front of the front and sleeping in the back" and "three dynasties and five gates". The above construction tradition is in line with the important knowledge and ideological systems such as cosmology and time-space view obtained through "observation and time-teaching" at the beginning of China's agricultural civilization.

　　"The Mean" has a cloud: "Those who are in the middle are the great foundation of the world, and those who are harmonious are also the way of the world." To neutralize, heaven is in the ascendancy, and all things are nurtured. After a long period of development and accumulation, "Zhi Zhonghe", an important philosophical, aesthetic and ethical concept in ancient China, has become one of the core concepts and leading spirits of Chinese culture. The overall layout of the Forbidden City complex is symmetrical, balanced and orderly, fully reflecting the pursuit of cultural concepts such as "harmony" and "neutrality". Whether it is the three palaces named after the theme of "Baohe Taihe" and "Zhizhonghe" - Taihe Palace, Zhonghe Palace, and Baohe Palace, or the three palaces of the inner court that advocate the harmony and cultivation of Qiankun and Tai, and the harmony of all things, the way of neutralization of "keeping the middle and achieving peace" is the highest pursuit contained in it.

In addition, in the Forbidden City, there are many palaces with the word "and" in the names of Yonghe Palace, Tihe Palace, Summer Palace, and Zhuhe Gate, as well as plaques with the word "and" in the main hall of the Yangxin Palace, "Heqiyou" in Ningshou Palace, and "Taihe Man" in the Summer Palace. All of this, to name a few, reflects the cultural connotation of pursuing "harmony" everywhere.

Taihe Gate of the Forbidden City. Courtesy of the Palace Museum

　　The new technology of the revolution and the new technology of the integration of the north and the south of the new style of architecture. On the one hand, the Forbidden City is a product of inheriting the tradition of its predecessors, and on the other hand, it is also an innovative work of cultural exchange and integration between the north and the south of China. In the process of building the palace city in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of southern craftsmen participated in it, and the typical ones were the Suzhou "Xiangshan Gang" craftsmen represented by Kuaixiang, and the related technology was constantly innovated in the integration of the north and the south. According to historical records, the city wall of Yuan Dadu is still dominated by earth walls, and only the city gate is partially covered with bricks, which often collapses when it rains heavily, while the city walls of the Forbidden City are all covered with city bricks, which solves this problem well.

The "gold bricks" used in the interior paving of the palace are produced in Suzhou, which is made of the silt deposited at the bottom of Taihu Lake for many years through an extremely complex process, and is the product of the superb new brick-making technology of the Ming Dynasty. The material and color of the roof is a major innovation in the architecture of the Forbidden City, and the extensive use of yellow glazed tiles has opened a new generation of new style: it is different from the simple tone of the Tang Dynasty palace with blue gray tiles and green tiles, and the Song and Jin palaces are also quite different from the green glazed tiles as the main tone (the main hall of the Jinzhongdu Palace uses yellow glazed tiles), and the Yuan Dynasty palace uses various colored glazed tiles to decorate the ridge eaves and uses a large number of white glazed tiles is very different, thus forming a brilliant and magnificent and harmonious overall spirit.

　　Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty had "gone down to the south of the Yangtze River" many times, which further promoted the integration of northern and southern architecture. For example, in the Qianlong period, with reference to the Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo, the Wenyuan Pavilion was built to store the four library books, taking the meaning of "the sky is born of water, and the earth is sixty percent", the façade is designed as a unique six-bay room in the Forbidden City, the roof is dominated by black glazed tiles that symbolize water, and the wood structure part is mainly decorated with green oil. The construction of gardens such as Jianfu Palace Garden and Qianlong Garden integrated the style of Jiangnan gardens into the Forbidden City, which greatly changed the appearance of the palace city. In addition, the interior decoration of the buildings in the Qianlong Garden is a collection of the most outstanding craftsmanship in the south.

　　A diverse and integrated architectural cluster, a cultural atmosphere that embraces all rivers. The Forbidden City is a prime example of the formation of a unified multi-ethnic state. In addition to the Han palace buildings, there are also buildings with other ethnic characteristics in the Forbidden City. For example, the renovation of Kunning Palace is a typical embodiment of the integration of Manchu and Han cultures in the early Qing Dynasty, whether it is to change the location of the gate from the center to the east, and the interior is presented as a "pocket room" layout, or to set up a "swastika kang" on the west, south and north sides of the west side of the room, which is a typical Manchu architectural custom. Another example is the Han-Tibetan pavilion Yuhua Pavilion, which is the most iconic Tibetan Buddhist building in the palace, which perfectly fuses the Han-style architecture and the Tibetan Buddhist architectural style. The plaques of a large number of palace gates in the palace are written in Manchu and Chinese, and some of the inscriptions are also the same, and the plaques of Cining Gate are written in Manchu, Mongolian and Chinese languages.

　　The Forbidden City fully embodies the fusion of multiple cultures, mainly Confucian culture, and presents a harmonious pattern of coexistence of various religious beliefs in China. In addition to the main palace buildings, the Forbidden City also contains more than 40 Buddhist buildings, such as Yuhua Pavilion, Baohua Palace, Baoxiang Building, Jiyun Building, Buddha Day Building, Fanhua Building, etc., Taoist buildings such as Qin'an Palace, Xuanqiong Treasure Palace, etc., in addition to reflecting folk beliefs and Manchu primitive religious beliefs, Chenghuang Temple, Kunning Palace, etc. The Forbidden City is not only a representative of traditional Chinese palace architecture, but also a stage for the exchange and integration of Chinese and foreign architectural techniques. For example, the Yude Hall in the northwest of the Wuying Palace is a typical Central Asian Arabic dome building; in the Qianlong Garden, there are large-scale scenery paintings drawn by combining Western focus perspective techniques and traditional Chinese painting techniques, which make people feel like they are in it; in the main courtyard of Yanxi Palace, one of the six palaces in the east, there are still the relics of the Western-style "crystal palace" style building with modern steel structure, Lingnuma Xuan.

(Source: Qiushi.com WeChat public account; Author: Wang Xudong, member of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Director of the Palace Museum; picture source: original article with pictures)