Many friends who have gone to the Forbidden City in Beijing know that after you play a trip, the Impression left by the Forbidden City will not be luxurious, nor will it be neat, but "countless houses". This magnificent building covering an area of 720,000 square meters, with more than 70 palaces and more than 9,000 rooms built inside, is now the largest and most complete preservation of ancient buildings in the world, so the question is, do you know how the Forbidden City was designed?
Before Ming Chengzu Zhu Di ascended to the throne, in fact, beijing's status was not high, and Nanjing was the center of political power of the country, and this situation was not changed until the first year of Yongle, that is, in 1403. After zhu di the King of Yan ascended to the throne, Beijing' status as the emperor's "land of longxing" naturally rose, and under the advice of various ministers, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di also followed the example of the Nanjing Imperial Palace to establish the Beijing Imperial Palace, which is the Forbidden City in Beijing that we are all familiar with later.
Although the Forbidden City in Beijing was built based on the former Nanjing Imperial Palace, it is more grand in scale, not only in line with the planning concept of "the unity of heaven and man", but also strictly follows the construction principle of "the former dynasty and the future market, the left ancestor and the right society" recorded in the "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji", and because of this, you can see the change of shape, the undulating arrangement of the techniques in the Forbidden City, and you can also perceive the overall effect of balance and orderliness of the left and right, and its grandeur makes people have to marvel.
After talking about the construction history and construction principles of the Forbidden City in Beijing, let's talk about how the "9999.5 rooms" in the Forbidden City in Beijing are distributed. For the distribution of these houses, we can explore from the three parts of "central axis", "left side of central axis" and "right side of central axis".
First, let's talk about the buildings on the central axis from south to north in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
There are not many buildings on the central axis, but they are the absolute core of the entire imperial palace, such as the three main halls, and then the three palaces, and even the royal gardens that often appear in various film and television dramas.
As the so-called "former dynasty and rear market", the three halls, the back three palaces and the back garden also perfectly illustrate this point. The three main halls refer to the Taihe Hall, the Zhonghe Hall and the Bohol Hall, all of which belong to the office space, of which the Taihe Hall is mainly used to hold grand ceremonies and accept the pilgrimage of hundreds of officials, and the Zhonghe Hall is mainly used to sacrifice the Heaven and Earth Tai and the temple to perform the ceremonial place, as for the Bohol Hall, in addition to being a place where the emperor gives banquets to the princes of the foreign domain, it can also be used as a place for the imperial examination. In general, all three halls belong to the outer court.
Unlike the Three Great Halls, the Latter Three Palaces already belong to the Inner Court, while the "Three Palaces" generally refer to the Qianqing Palace, the Jiaotai Palace, and the Kunning Palace. As the largest palace in the inner court, qianqing palace was once listed as the residence of tianzi, like the Ming Dynasty, there were 14 emperors living there, and the Qing Dynasty's Shunzhi and Kangxi emperors also lived in the Qianqing Palace. Different from the Qianqing Palace, stepping into the Jiaotai Palace, you are equivalent to stepping into half of the harem, because from here on, the frequency of the empress and other harem concubines appeared higher, and the plaque of "the harem must not interfere in politics" was also standing here, and the final Kunning Palace was the empress's residence, which was also the wedding place of Kangxi and others.
Behind the Kunning Palace, followed by the Royal Garden, but during the Ming Dynasty, this place also had a nickname, called "Gonghou Garden", which was mainly used as an extension of the harem. With a depth of 80 meters from north to south and a height of 140 meters from east to west, and a cumulative area of more than 12,000 square meters, the Imperial Garden is simply an indoor park, and in fact, if you see the various exotic flowers and flowers planted in the Imperial Garden, you will be even more convinced.
After talking about the "central axis", let's talk about the "left and right sides" next.
Adhering to the principle of "Left Ancestor Right Society", after entering the Forbidden City, the first thing you see is the Fengxian Hall on the left and the Yangxin Hall on the right, the Fengxian Hall on the left needless to say, is a place dedicated to the ancestors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, covering an area of 1225 square meters, magnificent and spectacular; the Yangxin Hall on the right is a place dedicated to the emperor to rest, generally reserved for the emperor to use after work, but because of its comprehensive facilities and convenient location, it later became the main office place for the emperors. And the typical representatives here are Yongzheng and Qianlong.
Behind the Fengxian Hall and the Yangxin Hall, there is the very famous East and West Six Palaces, because the ancient left is respected, so the East Six Palaces in most of the time, the status is higher than the West Six Palaces, let's take a look at the East Six Palaces first.
The East Sixth Palace mainly includes Chengqian Palace, Jingren Palace, Yanxi Palace, Jingyang Palace, Yonghe Palace, and Zhong Pu Palace. Among them, Chengqian Palace, also known as Yongning Palace, has a higher status in the six palaces, the Ming Dynasty lived in the noble concubines, the Qing Dynasty lived in the queen concubines, Xiang Daoguang Emperor Xiaoxiao, Quancheng Empress, etc. lived here, for several other palaces, most of them are the residences of the emperor's concubines, only Yuqing Palace and Zhai Palace are more special, the former is the place where the prince reads, and the latter is used for fasting.
As for the Relatively Low Status of the Sixth Palace of the East, the Six Palaces of the West are mainly Changchun Palace, Yikun Palace, Chuxiu Palace, Taiji Hall, Yongshou Palace and Xianfu Palace. These six palaces also have no special places, most of them are the residences of concubines, the only thing to note is that Empress Dowager Cixi once lived in the West Sixth Palace, and after this, the status of the West Sixth Palace was actually higher than that of the Eastern Sixth Palace.
The main buildings in the Forbidden City are basically introduced here, and we should pay attention to the fact that the buildings in different locations of the Forbidden City often have different characteristics, for example, the buildings in the forefront of the Forbidden City are relatively more clear and open, magnificent and magnificent, which is to show the supremacy of feudal imperial power. The buildings in the middle of the Forbidden City are compactly arranged and the courtyards are deep, which is suitable for the luxurious life of the emperor and his concubines. As for the royal garden area at the end of the palace, it is built more quiet and idyllic, which is mainly to allow the occupants to relax and feel depressed.
In addition to architecture, the four gates of the Forbidden City are also quite exquisite. The main gate of the Forbidden City is called the Noon Gate, although when this door is mentioned, everyone thinks of the Noon Gate, but in fact, this door has a very high status, usually only the emperor can freely enter and exit, even the empress can only enter once at the time of the big wedding, and if the ordinary minister of culture and martial arts does not meet the examination, he must go through the side door.
In contrast, the back door shenwu gate, and the original name of this place was actually called Xuanwu Gate, but it was later renamed to avoid Kangxi's secrets, this gate is generally used for daily entry and exit in the palace, so it is lower in level than the noon gate. As for Donghuamen and Xihuamen, there is nothing to say, talk about decoration.
The Forbidden City is more or less so, seeing here, I think everyone must have a preliminary understanding, if you are interested in deeply feeling it, you can go to the Forbidden City in Beijing to visit, presumably more able to feel the grandeur and grandeur of the Forbidden City.