Recently, Gong Jun watched "The Biography of Zhen Huan" again, no way, the TV station has been broadcasting, and at the same time watched its sister article "Ruyi Chuan" (book version), which is also a classic of palace fighting dramas. The plot we can not say, Gong Jun found that these two dramas mentioned a door of the Forbidden City at the same time, and it is quite interesting.
This door, the name is not tall, but with a small bug we are accustomed to to name, from the Beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the name of many doors in the Forbidden City has been changed, but it is still the same. What's more coincidental is that this small insect is also carved on the jade cabbage of the "treasure of the town hall" of the National Palace in Taipei, so what is the insect so popular with the royals? It is it--the ant (pronounced "bell") si.
Friends who have been to the Forbidden City know that if you visit the West Sixth Palace, you will definitely encounter such a door - "Ant Gate", this word is difficult to pronounce, "ant", pronounced with "bell", a look at this word, the bottom is full of "worms", you can definitely guess that it is an insect, Xiaobian flipped through the "Xinhua Dictionary", its explanation of "Ant" is as follows:
Bug name. The body is about inches long and greenish brown. The forewings of males are vocal, and the females have sword-shaped oviducts at the tail ends.
The title of the Book of Verses. In the passage, there are many descendants of the ant, and later indo as a word of praise: 螽思延庆.
Zhōng (螽螽) insect, green or brown body, good at jumping, harmful to crops. [Fu ant] is "grasshopper".
In fact, it is "grasshopper". The Book of Poetry, Zhou Nan, and Ant Si reads: "螽思羽, 诜诜 (诜诜) 兮, Yi'er descendants, Zhen Zhen Xi." "What do you mean?" That is to say, this ant is particularly capable of reproducing, especially capable of giving birth.
Speaking of this, do you immediately understand, the reason why the Ming and Qing dynasties, changed so many forbidden city gates, palace names, is not changed this "worm gate", obviously, is to tell the future generations of emperors through this door, you don't patronize and deal with the government, remember well, you still have a glorious and great task, that is, to have children, breed offspring.
There is also a historically real story about the "Gate of The Dragon", which is about the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Longyu.
We all know that the Guangxu Emperor was not Cixi's own son, but the son of her sister, and Empress Longyu was the daughter of Cixi's younger brother, according to the generational division, it can be said that Longyu is Guangxu's cousin, the two have a very good relationship since childhood, only referring to the sister-brother relationship, but Cixi in order to consolidate his power, he forced Guangxu to marry his cousin Longyu as an empress, it is said that on the night of the big wedding, Guangxu hugged his sister and cried: "Sister, how did you become my daughter-in-law?" ”
(Guangxu Emperor)
Perhaps because he could not accept this reality, or perhaps he felt helpless about Cixi's arrangement, after the big wedding, Guangxu never touched Longyu again, and the relationship between the two became more and more rigid.
(Empress Longyu)
Cixi is actually well aware of the relationship between the two, seeing that the two have been married for so many years without children, Cixi is a little anxious, and always wants to seize the opportunity to talk about Guangxu.
（
Empress Dowager Cixi)
For example, on the first day of the first lunar month of a year, according to the royal custom, on this day, the emperor, the empress, and the concubines all had to ask Cixi for peace, and this invitation was the most important thing in the year, so the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Longyu did not dare to delay, and had already been at the gate of the Chuxiu Palace.
As soon as Cixi saw Guangxu, she began to speak: "Where did the emperor come from?" In fact, Cixi asked knowingly. And Guangxu replied, "Back to the Emperor's father, my son came from the Yangxin Hall, and in order to please you, I deliberately copied the short path." At this time, Cixi asked again, "Is there a door passing through?" Guangxu thought for a moment and replied, "My son passed through the Gate of the Ants." At this time, Cixi listened to this answer, put away a smile on his face, and said to Guangxu solemnly: "The emperor knows the meaning of the word 'grasshopper', I heard the former emperor say when he was alive, 'grasshopper' is a kind of male grasshopper, a wing, there will be a lot of female grasshoppers to give birth to it, each female grasshopper gives birth to 99, our ancestors have not changed the name of this door, is to tell future generations, we must remember the importance of breeding children!" ”
When Guangxu and Longyu heard this, they couldn't lift their heads in fright, and even promised that they would obey the emperor's will. But unfortunately, Longyu did not give birth to a son for Guangxu in his lifetime.
This little insect is too powerful and the meaning is too deep, so that many auspicious objects are willing to paint it, such as the most popular "treasure of the town hall" jade cabbage in the Forbidden City in Taipei today, see the following picture:
According to legend, it is the dowry of the Guangxu Emperor Jinfei, that is, the sister of Zhenfei, all white, symbolizing the purity of the woman, and carved a small ant and a small locust on the green leaves, which actually means that you will have more children when you marry into the royal family.
A small ant, how many meanings were given by the ancients, in fact, from the side of the suppression of women by feudal society at that time.