View the red walls and golden tiles, appreciate one of the imperial palaces of Ming and Qing Dynasties: Imperial Palace and City Pool (Revised Edition)

My 2021 edition of the Forbidden City stickers, the 17th volume of the serial "Looking at the Red Walls and Gold Tiles, Appreciating the Ming and Qing Palaces", has been generously read by many readers. Among them, some readers put forward some opinions and suggestions, and pointed out some fallacies. This revised edition is republished on the second quarter, adopting the opinions and suggestions of previous readers, enriching some content, correcting clerical errors, and updating and supplementing some pictures. Although I dare not say that all the fallacies have been corrected, most of them should have been corrected. Remember in detail the architectural art of ancient Chinese top palaces seen in the Ming and Qing palaces, some royal cultural relics exhibited in the Forbidden City, and the traces of royal life in the Qing palace, and also think of some stories and legends that happened in the Ming and Qing palaces. Readers", just want to share with readers. thanks.

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In 2020, a novel coronavirus outbreak broke out, which was extremely contagious, and the military and civilians across the country rose up to fight it. The simplest and most effective way to resist infectious diseases is to isolate. Everyone can avoid mutual infection by isolating each other. Therefore, during the epidemic, it is necessary to reduce the gathering of people and reduce travel. In this way, long-distance travel must be avoided as much as possible. I couldn't travel, and I couldn't quit my addiction to gaming, so I bought an annual ticket for the Forbidden City, focusing on the Forbidden City. This has a very good effect. The annual ticket of the Forbidden City is a wholesale price, and you can enter the Forbidden City ten times a year, each time at half price. During the epidemic, the Forbidden City restricted the flow of passengers. It is not as crowded as usual. It will not always apologize to people because they stepped on their heels; it does not need to often squat down to lift shoes because they were stepped on. There is another point, no appointment is required to visit the Forbidden City with an annual ticket, and you can enter at any time, but not on Mondays, and the Forbidden City will take inventory on Mondays, and there will be no visitors. If you visit for one year and enter ten times, of course you can see all the open areas of the Forbidden City, and you can also look carefully. In places that are not open, you can go around the wall to find cracks in the door, and peep through the cracks. When I come back after a year, I must write a series of posts, record my impressions, and share what I see and think with the viewers.

I saw the ancient city wall of Beijing earlier, and said that the city wall of Beijing is nested. The outermost is the Tucheng, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, the inner wall is the inner city wall of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the outer wall of the South City, the innermost is the imperial city, and the innermost is the palace city, that is, the imperial palace. A hundred years ago, the emperors in the palace went to Changping in the north, Zunhua in the east, and Yi County in the west in batches and stages, and now they are buried in those places.

In Chinese history, the house where the emperor lived was called the palace, and the house of the first emperor Yingzheng was called the Xianyang Palace. Xianyang Palace was the house before Yingzheng unified China. In fact, it was the house of Yingqu Liangxiu, the grandfather of his grandfather Qin Xiaogong. After the repair, Qin Xiaogong moved the capital from Liyang (Nian Yueyang) to Xianyang. After Qin Xiaogong's son Yingsi succeeded, he became king himself. He was the first king of Qin named Qin Huiwen. His concubine Miyue said that the Zhanghua Palace in her hometown of Chu was good, so she pestered King Qin Huiwen to build a high-quality copy of Zhanghua Palace. King Qin Huiwen built another Zhangtai Palace in Xianyang, and took Miyue to live in it. Later generations of Qin kings expanded the Xianyang Palace again. When Ying Zheng became the King of Qin, after he won the world, he started to build the real palace in the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shihuang (212 BC), which was the Afang Palace. Therefore, the real first imperial palace in China was the Afang Palace, but the Afang Palace died before the Qin Dynasty was completed. After Liu Bang won the Qin Dynasty, he built his own palace on the basis of Qin Zhangtai Palace, and it was really built, which is Weiyang Palace. This is the first imperial palace built in Chinese history, and the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty lived here for generations. "Weiyang" means "long live" in the Western Han Dynasty, but it is more poetic. In the "Book of Songs", there is "How is the night? The night is young, the light of the courtyard". Weiyang Palace was built in the ninth year of Liu Bang's Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty (198 BC). Between the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Mang usurped power, and Wang Mang regarded Weiyang Palace as his imperial palace. The red-browed green forest hero's Gengshi army overthrew Wang Mang and burned down Weiyang Palace, the largest imperial palace in the world at that time. After Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu regained the country, he established his capital in Luoyang, made the original South Palace in Luoyang the imperial palace, and built the North Palace. When Emperor Sui Yang moved his capital to Luoyang, the North and South Palaces had been destroyed, and he built a new palace, Ziwei City, which is the largest palace in Chinese history. Not to mention the largest in the world, the smallest imperial palace in China is also the largest in the world. Ziwei City covers an area of ​​4.2 million square meters, the current Forbidden City is 720,000 square meters, and the French Palace of Versailles has a construction area of ​​110,000 square meters.

After the Han Dynasty, the Chang'an Daming Palace in the Tang Dynasty was also very famous, with an area of ​​3.2 million square meters. The palace in Bianliang in the Song Dynasty was not very famous, but its palace garden was the most famous, that is "Gen Yue (read and read)". This garden was built by Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty in the seventh year of Zhenghe (1117 A.D.). The earliest ancient Miyagi relics in the world now come from this garden, those Genyue stones. Many of the rockeries in Beijing's imperial gardens are Genyue stones from Bianliang.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, the capitals of all dynasties in China have been in Beijing. If half of the relocation of the capital is also counted, then the count should start from the capital of Jinzhong. The Imperial Palace in Beijing is the only preserved ancient emperor's house, which is very complete. Although its scale is not large in history, it is still the largest imperial palace in the world.

Beijing first served as the capital of Yan in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which is incomparable with the capital of Zhou, Haojing (nianhaojing). It was not until the fifth year of Tiande in the Jin Dynasty (AD 1153) that Hailing King Wanyanliang moved the capital to Beijing as Jinzhongdu, and Beijing became the real capital. The capital city of Jinzhong is now outside the southeast corner of the Second Ring Road in Beijing, and there are basically no traces, especially the palace of King Hailing. The few imprints left by Jinzhongdu in Beijing have a place name "Huicheng Gate", which is a gate on the north city wall of Jinzhongdu. Walk two stops south along the Beifeng Road on the east side of the former Ministry of Railways and now the Railway Corporation, and that place is called Huichengmen.

In the tenth year of Yuan Taizu (AD 1215), when Temujin’s general Mu Huali attacked Jinzhongdu, he not only occupied Jinzhongdu, but also burned the city. Eight years later, Kublai Khan was born. Forty-five years later, in the first year of Zhongtong (AD 1260), Kublai Khan proclaimed himself the Great Khan of Mongolia. Another four years later, in the first year of Zhiyuan (AD 1264), it was decided to take Beijing as the capital and establish Dayuan. Because the capital city of Jinzhong had been destroyed, the Yuan University built by Kublai Khan had to start from scratch. In addition to the Tucheng ruins left behind in Beijing by the Yuan Dynasty, there are also memorials of the city’s construction, which are equivalent to the cornerstone, which is the "Dushan Dayuhai (Du Nian Du)" I saw last time when I went to Tuancheng in Beihai.

The imperial palace of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, was in Nanjing. After Zhu Di moved his capital to Beijing, he built a new palace that was basically the same as the Nanjing Ming Palace. In fact, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to move the capital to the north very early on. Prince Zhu Biao was infected with the virus when he went to Luoyang to investigate the feasibility of the new capital. He died in the ICU shortly after returning to Nanjing. Zhu Yuanzhang thought it was God's wrath, so he sadly gave up the plan to move the capital. In the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1370), Zhu Yuanzhang named Zhu Di, the fourth son of the ten-year-old emperor, the king of Yan; in the ninth year of Hongwu, Zhu Di married the eldest daughter of the general Xu Da; . Of course he can't live in the Yuan Palace, doesn't that mean he wants to compete with his father? Therefore, Zhu Di immediately eradicated the Yuan Palace, and only used its land and some building components to build the Yan Palace. When he made up his mind to move his capital to Shuntianfu, Beijing, he had to build a new palace. This is the origin of the Forbidden City now. Before Zhu Di, the emperors of all dynasties in China were "the emperor is in the center, and the princes guard the border", and the princes guarded the emperor. Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, which opened the era of "the emperor guarding the border" in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang led the army to overthrow the rule of the Yuan Dynasty and defeated the Mongolian army; when Zhu Di built the new palace in Beijing, the Americas, Australia, and Africa were still primitive societies, and the Black Death broke out in Europe, reducing its population by one-third without fighting, and it was in the "dark middle ages". This is the world structure when the Ming Palace was established. The Ming Dynasty was the largest and most developed dynasty in the world, not one of them.

From planning to move the capital to actually doing it, Zhu Di thought about being a young man. In the first year of Yongle (AD 1403), he instructed Yao Guangxiao to order Li Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites to set up Beiping as the accompanying capital, and later initiated a motion to move the capital. After quelling the opposition to moving the capital, it took ten years to prepare materials, wood and stone across the country. It was the 15th year of Yongle until the construction of the new palace started, and the 18th year of Yongle (1420 A.D.) was the completion of the Beijing Palace. At that time, the project manager of the new palace construction project appointed by Zhu Di was Taining Hou, named Chen Gui. It took four years to build the imperial palace, which shows that the Chinese have been infrastructure madmen since ancient times. Zhu Di not only built the capital city of Beijing, but also moved a large number of people from the south to Beijing to serve as North drifters, and there were hundreds of thousands of them. The ancient emperors claimed to be the son of heaven, and the emperor lived in Ziwei Palace in the sky, so purple represents the emperor Laozi. The palace where the emperor lives must not allow the people to enter, it is the Forbidden City, so the emperor's house is called the Forbidden City. The construction of the Forbidden City in the Ming Dynasty formed a fixed-format official building, as well as eight masterpieces of Chinese architecture. The construction engineering group in this period was the Xiangshan Gang in Suzhou, headed by Kuai Xiang "Kui Luban", from Zeng Guan to the minister of the Ministry of Industry. In the Qing Dynasty, it was the Lei family from Jiangxi who presided over the construction of royal buildings, which was styled Lei. The eight major works are soil work, stone work, wood work, wood work, tile work, oil work, color painting and paper work. On New Year's Day in the 19th year of Yongle, Zhu Di held the grand opening ceremony of the new palace and issued the "Beijing Palace Completion Edict". A total of 100,000 people from the civil and military dynasties, foreign missions and people from all walks of life in the capital entered the palace to congratulate Zhu Di, and visited the courtyard of the three front halls of the palace, six hundred years earlier than my visit to the Forbidden City this time.

The character "gong" has not changed much from oracle bone inscriptions to modern Chinese characters. At the beginning, it was a wall around the outside and two courtyards inside. The wall must be to prevent outsiders from entering, and also to prevent the maids from getting lost. The two courtyards are "sleeping in the front and sleeping in the back". Generally, there is only one courtyard in a common people's house. Usually, the formal residential courtyard in Beijing is called "eight rooms". There are five north rooms of the senior family, three east and west rooms, and two south rooms, making a total of thirteen rooms. There are several yards for big families, and even more houses. According to the observation records of the ancient Qin Tianjian, the Ziwei Palace of the Emperor of Heaven has 10,000 rooms. It is said that when Zhu Di built the palace, it had half a room less than Ziwei Palace, that is, there were 9,999 and a half rooms. There is no archaeological evidence for this number, and there is no record in "Ming Shilu". It is only a legend. When we talk about a room, we mean a room with four pillars and a roof. After hundreds of years, the Forbidden City has been rebuilt and demolished. By the time of the census in the 1970s, there were 980 houses and 8,704 rooms. Even if more than a thousand rooms are missing, who can compare?

Zhu Di's Forbidden City refers to the imperial city, and it was not until after Emperor Zhu Qiyu of the Ming Dynasty that the Forbidden City specifically referred to the palace city, which is now the Forbidden City. It has been 600 years since the Forbidden City was built, and it has suffered several fires during this period. Although it was almost rebuilt in the early Qing Dynasty, it is still quite unbearable now. In October 2002, the Forbidden City launched a century-old overhaul project, which is planned to take 19 years and will be completed when the Forbidden City is 600 years old.

Look at the gates of the imperial city.

Yes, the main gate of the imperial city is Tiananmen Square! In the Ming Dynasty, it was called Chengtian Gate, which is basically the same as the Chengtian Gate in Nanjing Minghuang City. "Chengtian" comes from the "Zai Kun Yuan, all things come into being, it is Shun Chengtian" in the Book of Changes. When Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty entered Beijing to rebuild the imperial palace, it was renamed Tiananmen Square until now. "Tian'an" means "ordered by heaven, Anbang governs the country". Tiananmen is the largest existing ancient city gate in the world. The city platform is more than 60 meters long, and the city tower is on it. The tower is nine rooms wide and five rooms deep, symbolizing the ninety-five supreme beings of the emperor. On the top of the city tower is the top of the mountain with yellow glazed tiles and double eaves, with bucket arches and beams. There are nine ridge beasts on the ridge, and there are eaves corridors at the front and back. Stand under the porch and look. On October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao announced to the world the founding of the People's Republic of China at the railing under the eaves of the city tower.

Look inside the tower. There are forty columns inside, plus the two rows of eaves columns at the front and back, a total of sixty columns. On the top is the ceiling of Longping chess with gold paste on the frame of Liang Fang, and on the top of Liang Fang is the painting of double dragons and seals with gold paste, which is top-notch and noble. A palace lantern is hung in the center of each square surrounded by Liang Fang, and these palace lanterns are replicas in recent years.

This tower was rebuilt in 1969 on the basis of the Shunzhi version. When rebuilding, the building will be reconstructed as it is, but the height of the building will be increased by one meter due to the size of the components. During the reconstruction period, several shells were dug out on the city platform, which were left over when the Eight-Power Allied Forces attacked the imperial palace in 1900.

Standing on the Tiananmen Gate Tower, you can see several buildings behind you to the north. From the front to the back are the shops of the Tiananmen Gate Tower, followed by the Duanmen Gate Tower, and then the Meridian Gate Tower and the Meridian Gate Yanchi Tower.

Today, Tiananmen Square is the heart of our great motherland and a symbol of the People's Republic of China, as well as a part of the national emblem. There are two slogans on the gate of Tiananmen, the first one is "Long Live the People's Republic of China".

The National Emblem is hung between the double eaves on the Tiananmen Gate, and the portrait of Chairman Mao is hung in the center of the tower. There is Jinshui River in front of Tiananmen Square, and there is Jinshui Bridge on Jinshui River. The water of the Jinshui River does not come from the sky, but from Yuquan Mountain in the west of Beijing. The most attractive thing about the south bank of the Jinshui River is the Chinese watches on the east and west sides, which the Chinese all know.

The Huabiao in front of Tiananmen Square is the highest grade Huabiao in China. Huabiao comes from the totem poles of ancient primitive tribes, and the dragon totem is also a symbol of the Chinese nation. This kind of totem later evolved into a Huabiao, often standing at the intersection to indicate the direction. There are four Chinese watches at the front and back of Tiananmen Square, symbolizing the might of the emperor. The Huabiao in Tiananmen Square is all made of white marble. Below it is a square xumizuo with railings, and there are stone lions on the four corners of the railings. Huabiao is an eight-sided stone pillar, and the relief on it is a flying dragon soaring ninety thousand miles in the clouds. There is a cloud board on the top of the stone pillar, and the direction indicated by the cloud board is Chang'an Street. On top of the stone pillar is a dew pan, on which sits a watcher named Shi Yu.

The most convenient way to visit the Forbidden City is to go to Tiananmen Square. Cross the Jinshui Bridge outside Tiananmen Square and pass through the gate opening to enter the former imperial city. There are five arched gates in Tiananmen Square, the largest one in the middle, where the emperor used to walk. Now, every morning at sunrise, the national flag walks out there under the guard of the guards and rises on the square. At sunset in the evening, after the national flag is lowered, it will be escorted back from there by the guards. Raising the national flag is the most solemn ceremony that Chinese people love to watch. Every night, people from all over the world spontaneously gather in the square to wait for the national flag raising ceremony at sunrise. Whenever the national anthem is played and the national flag is hoisted, tens of thousands of people around are watching the national flag with surging hearts and tears.

After entering Tiananmen Square, don't forget to look back. You can see the Monument to the People's Heroes in the distance from the middle doorway, which is the central axis of Beijing.

Look at the outline of the city tower, the little beast in the lower left corner is the stone jiao on the Huabiao inside the gate.

Zhou Gongdan's "Zhou Li" formed the basis of the ancient ritual and music system, and it is also a Confucian canon. During the Spring and Autumn Period, when rituals collapsed and music was destroyed, Confucius, a descendant of Shangtang, shouted "restrain oneself and restore the rituals", and what he wanted to restore was the Zhou rituals. Zhou rites regulated the ranks of rulers and princes and the corresponding ritual and music specifications. For example, the emperor had nine tripods and eight cups, princes had seven tripods and six cups, and officials had five tripods and four cups. According to the "Zhou Li", there are five gates for emperors, palaces, emperors, and three gates for princes. The five gates are Gaomen, Kumen, Zhimen, Yingmen and Lumen. Tiananmen is the Gaomen (Nian Gaomen) according to the Zhou system, the gate at the far end of the imperial city.

After entering Tiananmen Square, it is not the imperial palace. There is also a side gate between Tiananmen Square and the imperial palace.

Although Duanmen is outside the imperial palace, it is now owned by the Palace Museum. There is a signboard of "The Palace Museum" on the gate tower.

That brand didn't exist in the past, was it added after the new crown epidemic? In the past, there was no plaque on the front gate of the Forbidden City, that is, the Meridian Gate. Only the Shenwu Gate, the north gate, had a plaque of "The Palace Museum". The purpose of not adding a plaque on the Meridian Gate is to not destroy the scenery of the past, but the problem is that the Chinese people do not know where the Palace Museum is when they arrive at the Meridian Gate. Foreigners call the Forbidden City the Forbidden City, not the Late King's Palace. In fact, the official foreign language of the Forbidden City is The Palace Museum.

The shape of Duanmen is the same as Tiananmen Square, but one size smaller. This is the best-preserved building in the imperial city. It is said that the "Records of Duanmen Project" when it was rebuilt during the reign of Emperor Kangxi is still there, in the style of Lei's manuscript. In the past, Duanmen used to be the warehouse for the emperor's business trips, which was the storeroom for the housework of the guard of honor, such as swords, guns, halberds, flags, and gongs and drums. When Zhu Di left the palace, he placed these belongings on both sides of the imperial road, from the Gate of Supreme Harmony to Tiananmen Square. This is called "fighting with open fire". These ceremonial guards have a formal name, which is generally not mentioned. It is called "halo book". People who don't know it think it is a stewed book like a stewed egg. Duanmen was the warehouse of the History Museum (now the National Museum) before it was assigned to the Forbidden City in 1999. After the Forbidden City took over, it was slightly repaired. In 2015, it was opened as a digital exhibition hall of the Forbidden City, where cartoons of the Forbidden City are played and reservations are free. Between Tiananmen Square and Duanmen Square is Duanmen Square, the north and south of the square are gates, and the east and west are value houses.

To enter the end gate, you can go through the arch gate in the middle. Don't underestimate this gate, thinking it is an ordinary gate hole. Take a look at the white stone Xumizuo at the base of its door opening, with reliefs of auspicious clouds and fancao, super high-end!

Duanmen is the Kumen in the Zhou system, the gate of the imperial treasury. After passing through the Duanmen, we will soon reach the main entrance of the palace.

The Beijing Imperial Palace basically followed the design of the Ming Imperial Palace in Nanjing, and the length and width of the palace city were almost the same. Before the Beijing Imperial Palace, Zhu Yuanzhang also established Zhongdu in Fengyang, Anhui, his hometown, and built an imperial palace centered on the foundation of his former residence. Fengyang Ming Palace also uses the drawings of Nanjing Ming Palace, which is slightly larger and has a similar layout. However, the Fengyang Ming Palace is an unfinished building, and it was dismounted before it took shape. If this project is not discontinued, its area will be 100,000 square meters larger than the Beijing Imperial Palace.

After the Ming Dynasty, Dorgon led the Qing army to occupy Beijing, and then carried the Shunzhi Emperor Fulin into Beijing. The Manchus once built the imperial palace in Shengjing, and that imperial palace was actually similar to Song Jiang’s Loyalty Hall in Liangshanbo, not much better. The Shenyang Forbidden City we see now was rebuilt over the years. It is many times more advanced than what Qianlong rebuilt for his ancestors, and it is not the original appearance at all. Dorgon knows that the Manchus are not infrastructure madmen first; secondly, they have no artistic talent; if the Ming Palace is demolished, he can only build a cottage. Therefore, Dorgon happily set up the Qing Palace in the untouched Ming Palace, settled the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang's mother and son to live in it, and arranged for the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang's six-year-old son Shunzhi to be enthroned again. . In order to meet the emperor and visit the empress dowager conveniently, Dorgon took Dongyuan Nangong, which is across the street from the palace, as his residence of Prince Rui. At this point, under the auspices of Dorgon, the Qing Dynasty took over the Ming Palace. Therefore, we now say that the Forbidden City is the palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

After passing the Duanmen Gate, you can see the gate of the Imperial Palace, which is the gate of the Forbidden City "Meridian Gate".

Starting from the Meridian Gate, the inside of the palace is now the "Palace Museum", and you must buy a ticket to enter. Take a closer look at the Meridian Gate. The emperor's rule is to sit north and face south. This gate is the south gate of the imperial palace, and the sun at noon is in the south direction, so this gate is called the Meridian Gate, and its attribute is yang.

The Meridian Gate is definitely the city gate with the highest specification in the country, and it is also the gate with the largest shape. Below is the city tower, above is the city tower, this is the rule. There is a five-foot-high white marble xumizuo under the city platform. The city tower is nine rooms wide and five rooms deep. It is covered with yellow glazed tiles and double-eave verandas. Each vertical ridge has nine ridge beasts, counting from the beginning to the back: dragon, phoenix, lion, Tianma, seahorse, si (blind) fish, 狻猊 (garlic paste), Xiezhi (Xiezhi) and bullfighting. On the main ridge is the glass owl (reading to eat) kiss. If you pay attention, you will find that starting from Tiananmen Square, Xu Xun's sword is inserted on the back of the main ridge owl kiss of all buildings in the palace. In the Ming Dynasty, the sword on the folk owl kiss was inclined outwards, but in the Qing Dynasty it was upright. This is the difference in the style of the Ming and Qing owl kisses. In addition, the Xu Xun sword directly held by the Ming Dynasty palace is also different from the Qing Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty is short and fat, while the Qing Dynasty is thin and tall. Now most of the roofs in the Forbidden City were rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty, with Qing Dynasty ostriches installed. Only a few places still retain the Ming Dynasty Chi kiss, such as the four turrets. Xu Xun was a famous Taoist in the Jin Dynasty, known as the Celestial Master, and was one of the Four Great Celestial Masters back then. In Xu Xun's miracles, there is a story about exterminating monsters with a sword. The purpose of inserting Xu Xun's sword into the back of Chi Kiss is to ward off evil spirits and suppress monsters. There are eaves and corridors in the front and back of the Meridian Gate tower, and the lattice flowers on the doors and windows are all three crosses and six bowls, which are used exclusively by the royal family. The painted paintings on the horizontal beams are Ssangyong and Xi, which are also exclusive to the royal family. In front of the veranda are white marble railings.

Look at the eaves porch, the beams under the eaves are not straight, but curved bows, which is very special.

Sitting north to south, the east and west sides of the Meridian Gate extend southward, which is called Yanchi. As usual, there are buildings on the Yanchi of the city platform, with thirteen rooms on each side, called Yanchi Towers. The superstition of Chinese people is different from that of Westerners, and "13" is not taboo.

There is also a square pavilion with eaves and corridors at the front end of the Yanchi Tower, which is three rooms wide, with double eaves and pointed roofs at the four corners. They verified that the earliest Zhu Di built was a double-eave roof, which was later changed to a spire roof in the Qing Dynasty.

There are two identical square pavilions on the east and west sides of the Meridian Gate Tower, which are at the northernmost end of the Yanchi Tower on both sides. They are called Dongxique (Nianque) Tower. The bells and drums are installed in the tower, not for the watch, but for another purpose. There are also rules for when to ring the bell and drum. I guess when the enemy really gets to the city, they can attack by beating the drum and ringing the gold to withdraw the troops. But the "gold" is not the bell? There are five buildings on the Meridian Gate, so it is also called "Wufeng Building".

The front part of the city gate is called "Que", and the "concave" structure of the Meridian Gate is called "Shuangque Gate". The system of the Que Gate comes from "Zhou Li", and the Zhengnan Gate of Ziwei Palace in Luoyang, Sui and Tang Dynasties is a Que Gate. The Meridian Gate is the pheasant gate in the Zhou system, the gate of double ques. The pheasant is also the Suzaku, a legendary bird that resembles a phoenix, but is not real.

There are three holes in the Meridian Gate. It looks like a square arch from the outside, and a round arch from the inside, which symbolizes the roundness of the sky and the earth. The door in the middle is exclusive to the emperor, and potential queens can enter the palace in a sedan chair to go to the palace to get married; the top three in the palace examination can come out to the society from here. Other ministers go through the gates on both sides, clan princes and dukes go through the west gate, and other officials go through the east gate. There is also a secret door called "armpit door" in each of the armpits on both sides. During major events, young people use the secret door. Now it's all right, the people, employees of enterprises and institutions, and government officials all go through the middle door. The armpit door is not allowed to go, because the staff of the Forbidden City work there.

After walking in, first look at the Meridian Gate from the back.

Behind the Meridian Gate, there is a zigzag horse path on the east and west sides.

Although it is called a horse path, people can only walk here, of course it does not mean to be a cow or a horse. After going up, in addition to seeing the bow-shaped beams under the eaves just now, you can also stand in the middle of the tower. That position used to belong to the emperor, but now there is no dragon chair, and no one is allowed to dominate there. You can look down at the Meridian Gate Square from here, which is completely different from what the emperor saw back then. At that time, these happy people could not be seen now.

The front is not Tiananmen Square, but the end gate between Tiananmen Square and Meridian Gate. There is Tiananmen Square in front of Tiananmen, Duanmen Square in front of Duanmen, and Meridian Gate Square in front of Meridian Gate. It has been like this since ancient times. In addition to the Que Gate at the Meridian Gate, there are two side gates on the east and west sides of the Meridian Gate Square, namely the Que Left Gate and the Que Right Gate.

The left gate of Que faces the west gate of the Working People's Cultural Palace, and the right gate of Que faces the east gate of Zhongshan Park. During the epidemic, Tiananmen Square was not open, and the Forbidden City officially suggested that tourists go outside the Donghua Gate and follow the city wall to enter the left gate of the Forbidden City to visit the Forbidden City.

There is a dismounting stele outside the Que Zuo Gate and Que You Gate respectively, on which is written in Manchu, Han and Mongolian, "Officials wait to dismount here", which were objects during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty.

In the past, emperors generally would not climb the morning gate tower. Even if the enemy really hit the Meridian Gate, the emperor would not be able to go to the city to supervise the battle, and would have disappeared long ago. Sometimes, there will be eunuchs holding the imperial decree to the city tower, and then read: "Fengtian Chengyun Emperor, the edict says...", this is considered to be an announcement to the world, but in fact there is no The common people, not even representatives from all walks of life in the capital. The emperor still has a chance to go to the morning gate, that is, after the victory of the war, the army will return to the court. At this time, the general escorted hundreds of prisoners of war to kneel in front of the Meridian Gate, and the emperor sat on the gate tower of the Meridian Gate to accept the victory of the general who went out to offer prisoners. If the emperor was happy on the city tower and shouted "forgiveness", the prisoners outside the gate would jump up and run away without a trace. In the 25th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1760 A.D.), the rebellion of the Junggar and Hui tribes was suppressed. After the victory, there was such a prisoner offering ceremony at the Meridian Gate. After the suppression of the rebellion this time, Qianlong accepted Huibu and Zhuo's daughter as his concubine, that is, Concubine Rong, the legendary concubine Xiang.

If a minister offends the emperor in the palace, the emperor will give him twenty boards, which is called a stick punishment. At this time, an eunuch led the minister out of the Meridian Gate, followed by eunuchs holding large boards. On the east side of the imperial road outside the Meridian Gate, there was a case of folk slaughtering pigs. The minister was pushed down on it and took off his pants, and the eunuchs began to chop his buttocks with large boards. Sometimes, old and weak ministers would be chopped off to death, and the people outside the palace would hear someone shouting "嗞儿哦儿" outside the Meridian Gate, and they would see a cart covered with mats coming out, and they would say that someone He was "pulled out of the Meridian Gate and beheaded". In fact, even if there is a beheading, it is not at the Meridian Gate. They are all sent to prison first, and then executed at Lacai Market in the autumn.

"Zhou Li" has a theory of "five gates and three dynasties" in the layout of palace buildings, and the layout of Zhu Di's palace was also based on this system, which was also copied and pasted from Nanjing Ming Palace. The five gates are Chengtian Gate, Duan Gate, Meridian Gate, Fengtian Gate and Qianqing Gate. In front of Chengtian Gate, there used to be Daming Gate, which was renamed Daqing Gate in the Qing Dynasty. It was located between the Monument to the People's Heroes and Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. It was demolished in 1954. According to Shi Lei’s diagram of the central axis of the imperial palace, there is a wide road between Daqingmen and Tiananmen in the Qing Dynasty. In the middle of the road is the imperial road.

In the past, the Meridian Gate Tower was not open. After Misto Shan Jixiang became the director of the Forbidden City, the Meridian Gate Tower became the exhibition hall of the Forbidden City, holding some themed exhibitions from time to time. In 2020, the "Dan Chen Eternal" exhibition was held to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the completion of the Forbidden City.

This exhibition includes the relics of Nanjing Ming Palace and the unfinished Fengyang Mingzhong Palace, which can be regarded as a prelude to the Beijing Forbidden City. Look at the golden Buddha bricks in the Nanjing Forbidden City.

Look at the Liuli Immortal on the roof of Fengyang Mingzhongdu Imperial Palace.

At that time, Zhu Di asked someone to draw a fairyland picture of his mansion.

The Hall of Mental Cultivation is currently undergoing major repairs, so we will thank guests behind closed doors. The imperial seat of the main hall of the Hall of Mental Cultivation is exhibited here, and it was also exhibited at the First Expo before.

Take a closer look at the Lu end of the gilt and enamel mythical beast in front of the throne. Lu means that the beast has only one horn, and reads "deer". This divine beast has been hidden in the world since the first emperor of Qin Dynasty, but it appeared at the king's side when the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was in power. The emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties believed that they were the emperors and lords of the Ming Dynasty, but they did not see the shadow of the gods and beasts around them all the year round, so they stood this image in front of their seats, pretending to be divine.

The plaque of "Sanxi Hall" inscribed by Qianlong at the south Kangtou of Xinuang Pavilion in Yangxin Hall is also hung here.

"Heart Nourishing Palace Treasure" Jade Seal.

The seal of the emperor's imperial pen, the following one is the "treasure of Xianfeng's imperial pen" by Emperor Wenzong of the Qing Dynasty Xianfeng.

I didn't notice Qianlong's imperial pen seal. I saw the "Qinzheng Hall" inscribed by Qianlong's imperial pen in Xiangshan, and the seal on it was "the treasure of Qianlong's imperial pen". It was a very luxurious plaque with five golden dragons engraved on it, which was more luxurious than ordinary plaques in the palace. There is a nine-dragon gold plaque in the Qing Dynasty "Purple Qi Comes East" in the Shenyang Imperial Palace. It is a horizontal plaque, not a fighting plaque like this.

The queen's clothes, the bright yellow color is reserved for the royal family, and other people's clothes are deemed to be arrogance.

There are also some precious exhibitions, take a look at the "Jin Ou Yonggu Cup" below. Made by Qianlong and also designed by Qianlong, it is a three-legged wine cup in the shape of an elephant's teeth and trunk. Three pure gold and one gilt copper have been made successively; now the Forbidden City in Beijing has one gold, the Forbidden City in Taipei has one gold, and the Wallace Collection in London has one gold and one bronze. I didn't see him exhibited last time at the Wallace Collection. "Jin Ou Yonggu" is engraved on the front of the cup edge, and "Qianlong Year System" is engraved on the back. Ou is a wine glass, and Jin'ou refers to the land. Chairman Mao said, "It's really busy to divide the fields and land after tidying up the Jin'ou."

Before the epidemic, it was possible to go up the city wall from the Meridian Gate Tower, but now it is not possible. Standing here, you can see the parapet and the crenellation. The parapet is the chest-high parapet, and the crenellation is the sawtooth on the wall.

Look at the wall tiles of the Forbidden City.

Zhu Di's palace wall is such a plain wall, and the red wall was painted red after being plastered by later generations. This kind of brick is called "Linqing tribute brick". Linqing is located in Shandong, on the bank of the Grand Canal. In Linqing, there were two famous objects, one was Shandong Kuaishu; the other was "tribute brick". The soil in Linqing is special, and the bricks fired are dense and hard. They are specially transported to the capital to build houses and walls for the emperor's family, so they are called tribute bricks. Look at the city bricks above, with sharp edges and corners, and the texture looks like bluestone. The hardness of modern bricks can reach 70. Some people have tested the hardness of the Forbidden City bricks, and they are all above 100, and some can reach 150. It is said that the maximum hardness of the ancient bricks on the local stupa in Linqing was over 200. Our current household ordinary cement grade is 200. It can be seen that these "Linqing tribute bricks" are quite impressive! The adhesive between the city bricks is a mixture of white mortar and rice soup. The city wall built with this soup and a moat around it is called "impregnable gold soup". Jin, Jincheng, is the city within the wall; Tang, Tangchi, is the moat under the wall.

To the south of the Forbidden City is the Meridian Gate, the front gate, and to the north is the Xuanwu Gate, the back gate. Emperor Xuanwu guarded the north, and it was renamed Shenwu Gate after Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty.

During the period of the Republic of China, on October 10, 1925, the newly established Palace Museum opened to the public, and the opening ceremony was held at Qianqingmen Square. The "Palace Museum" plaque that hung here at Shenwumen that day was written by Mr. Li Yuying (Nian Yuying), a calligraphy student of late Qing calligrapher Wang Faliang. predecessor. When it first opened, the gate of the Palace Museum was Shenwu Gate. The current plaque was inscribed by Mr. Guo Moruo in 1971. Check out the gate of the Palace Museum in 1925.

In the thirteenth year of the Republic of China (AD 1924), Xundi Puyi was expelled from the palace, and then the Qing Dynasty Aftermath Committee was established to conduct a comprehensive inventory of cultural relics in the Forbidden City. In fact, this inventory is only for the inner palace north of Qianqing Gate, which is the place where Puyi just left. At that time, the Outer Dynasty was already under the jurisdiction of the Antiquities Exhibition established in the third year of the Republic of China. This time, there are more than 1.15 million pieces of various cultural relics counted, which belong to the inner palace. In the history of China, the emperors of all dynasties collected the world's treasures into the palace, and then they were burned and destroyed when they changed dynasties. Although there are still treasures produced in various dynasties, there must be fewer and fewer handed down from ancient times. Not to mention anything else, the jade seal handed down by Qin Shihuang is gone, the "Lanting Collection Preface" by Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty is gone, and the "Fu Tu of Luoshen" by Gu Kaizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty is also gone. Countless cultural relics were lost and destroyed in the Qing Dynasty. The first large-scale destruction and theft occurred in the Old Summer Palace in the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860 A.D.). The British and French allied forces ransacked the cultural relics in the garden. Pass it on to the grandson of the turtle. The last large-scale destruction and theft in the late Qing Dynasty was the Jianfu Palace fire in the 12th year of the Republic of China. After the fire, many antique shops opened by former eunuchs appeared on Yandai Xie Street. When Pu Yixun was in the harem, he dumped a lot of cultural relics and treasures at Pu Jie's house, and Pu Jie sold some of them to finance the restoration, but this is not a large scale compared with the previous few times. Therefore, when the aftercare committee counted, only 1.15 million pieces were counted. The number of cultural relics destroyed and stolen by the royal family in the Qing Dynasty must have been several times this number. Even for these cultural relics, it is quite difficult to preserve them in the danger of being destroyed and stolen during the war between warlords during the Republic of China and the chaos of the Anti-Japanese War. In the history of protecting the cultural relics of the Forbidden City and the Palace Museum, we should remember these people: Li Yuying, Chairman of the Rehabilitation Committee, Chen Yuan (Nian Yuan), Standing Committee Member of the Rehabilitation Committee, Zhuang Yun (Nian Yun), Inspector of the Rehabilitation Committee, President of Peking University Cai Yuanpei, Ma Heng, director of Peking University's Archaeological Research Office, Yi Peiji, the first director of the Palace Museum, and Wu Ying, an expert on cultural relics. Thanks to their efforts, the Forbidden City, the largest imperial palace in the world, was preserved intact and became the pride of the Chinese people.

Before Puyi left the palace, a large number of cultural relics were transferred. After leaving the palace, these cultural relics went to Changchun with him. When the Anti-Japanese War was victorious, he was captured in Shenyang on the way to escape with some cultural relics, and the captured cultural relics entered the Liaoning Museum. Some of the cultural relics left in Changchun flowed among the people, and eventually went to Liulichang antique shop in Beijing. During the Anti-Japanese War, a large number of cultural relics from the Forbidden City moved southward, and many of them ended up in the Forbidden City in Taipei. New China collected scattered cultural relics from the Forbidden City from the people, and many collectors donated to the Forbidden City, including Li Yuying, Ma Heng and Zhang Boju. By the time Mr. Shan Jixiang served as the director of the Palace Museum in the 21st century, there were 1.8 million items in the collection of the Palace Museum. In addition, part of the cultural relics of the Qing Palace are collected in the Liaoning Museum, and countless have been exiled abroad.

In 2002, the overhaul of the Forbidden City with an investment of 2 billion yuan started. This is the largest renovation project of the Forbidden City after the fire in the 14th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1888). The project has not yet been fully completed, and only a few palaces are still continuing. After the overhaul, the Forbidden City has a new look, and the subtleties still retain traces of history. When visiting the Forbidden City, you can see the vicissitudes of hundreds of years, and you can also see the effect of the new year.

Although the Shenwu Gate also has yellow glazed tiles and double eaves on the roof, it is much smaller than the Meridian Gate, with only five rooms in width and three rooms in depth, and there are only seven animals on the ridge. The horizontal beams are not painted with Hexi, but painted with Xuanzi, and the beams on the roof are said to be original from the early Ming Dynasty. The three coupon gates of Shenwumen are also inner circle and outer square.

From the door opening, you can see the Wanchun Pavilion facing Jingshan Mountain.

Standing in front of the Wanchun Pavilion, you can see the whole picture of the Forbidden City, but you can't see it clearly under normal circumstances.

We all know that the central axis of Beijing from Yongdingmen to Drum Tower passes through the center of the Forbidden City. Do you know where the center of Beijing is? It is at the Wanchun Pavilion in Jingshan, where there is a sign of "Beijing City Center".

As mentioned earlier, Shenwumen is equivalent to the back door of the Forbidden City. It is usually used for daily entry and exit, and Mira meat is delivered. The water trucks in Yuquan Mountain and the coal trucks in Mentougou also go here. Ladies and gentlemen can also meet their family members here and cry with each other. When drafting girls, the girls who are being selected also go from here. The most important people walking from here are the queen and concubines. Every spring, the royal family has two important sacrificial activities. One is that the emperor leads a team to Xiannongtan to sacrifice to Shennong. People say that "one mu and three points of land" is the piece of land that the emperor personally cultivated at Xiannongtan. Another sacrificial activity is that the empress leads a team to go out from Shenwu Gate to the Beihai Silkworm Altar to perform a silkworm ceremony. These two activities represent the "men plowing and women weaving" in Chinese culture. The male and female leaders personally participated in the event, reminding the people not to forget, because the royal family depends on tax income from farming and weaving.

Only one emperor in history walked through Shenwu Gate, and that was Puyi, the last emperor. On November 5, 1924, Feng Yuxiang launched a coup in Beijing and sent his subordinates to enter the palace through the Meridian Gate to facilitate Puyi. On that day, Emperor Xun Puyi walked through this door when he was expelled from the palace, but at this time he was no longer the emperor. Emperor Sizong Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty did not go through the Xuanwu Gate to the Dahuaishu in Jingshan in the end, but the Donghua Gate.

There is also a bell and drum tower on Shenwumen. Every day at dusk, the bell is rung, and then the drum is played. Ring the bell again in the morning to make it more exhausted. This is the morning bell and evening drum. Every night is divided into five shifts, with drumming and five passes. The exact time of ringing the bell and beating the drum is determined by experts sent by the officials of Qin Tianjian in the observatory.

There are also gates to the east and west of the Imperial Palace and the Forbidden City, and the Donghua Gate is on the east.

Donghua Gate and Shenwu Gate have the same architectural form, but the size seems to be slightly smaller. In the past, senior officials entered the palace through this gate. Not all high officials, but cabinet members and first- and second-rank senior officials. Of course, there must be a dismounting monument outside the door. Donghuamen was facing Donganmen in the imperial city. Officials who lived outside the imperial city had to enter Donganmen and then enter Donghuamen to enter the palace. It was not far away. Walking to the east entrance of Dong'anmen Street, there is a large shopping mall called Dong'an Market, which is called Dong'an Market because it is next to Dong'anmen. Dong'an Market was opened in the 29th year of Guangxu (AD 1903). I don't know if there is any royal share.

In addition to the living ministers, Donghuamen also walked away from the emperor. It can't be said that it is Emperor Liang, after the death of the current emperor, he will be the Emperor Daxing, who will lie in the Zi Palace and go out from the Donghua Gate after a few days of rest in the Qianqing Palace while the bones are still cold. After going out, I usually go to the Shouhuang Hall or Guande Hall in Jingshan for a period of time, and then I will go where to go. Therefore, the common people call Donghua Gate "Ghost Gate", and they don't mean to be disrespectful to the emperor. Some people say that because Emperor Liang walked out of the palace through this gate, the gate of Donghua Gate has one row less nails than other gates. The other gates have nine rows and nine columns, and the Donghua Gate has eight rows and nine columns. I reckon that fewer door nails means the door is wider, and it would be more convenient for Emperor Liang to go out lying down. The living emperor sometimes went out to the palace for private visits, that is, instead of wearing a suit and tie, he wore casual clothes such as jackets and a large secret mirror. At this time, the emperor may also go to Donghua Gate. Some people also say that Donghua Gate has eight rows and nine columns of nails, which is the theory of geomancy, and geomancy is Fengshui. According to the gossip, Donghuamen occupies the throne of the imperial palace and belongs to wood. Donghuamen has few nails, so what does it have to do with "wood"? I guess the lack of nails in the Donghua Gate was a mistake made by the designer. When Zhu Di discovered it, it was too late to modify it, so he had to throw the designer into the Tongzi River to kill him, and he was not allowed to mention this matter again. This reason was passed down to later generations and was lost. As a result, everyone thought that the door nails of Donghua Gate were at least instigated by gods and ghosts. The direction of the Bagua map is different from ours, it is the emperor's perspective. The emperor sits facing south, so his perspective is up and down, north, left, east, and west, which is exactly the opposite of ours.

In fact, Donghua Gate is the place where the prince of the East Palace lived in the Ming Dynasty, and it is the gate through which the prince entered and exited the palace. Since the prince is going, of course it is lower than the Meridian Gate where the emperor is going, so there is a row of door nails missing. In the 16th year of Zhengde (AD 1521), Zhu Houzhao, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, died of illness without heirs. Empress Dowager Zhang ordered Zhu Houzhao's cousin Xing Wang Zhu Houcong (Nian Cong) to succeed to the throne. When Zhu Houcong entered Beijing from Xingwangfan and walked outside Xuanwu Gate, the Minister of Etiquette said that he should enter the palace through Donghua Gate, ascend to the crown prince in Wuying Hall, and then succeed the emperor as crown prince. Zhu Houcong quit, saying that I came to be the emperor, not the prince, how could I enter the palace through the Donghua Gate, which lacked a row of door nails? I'm going through the front door. Zhu Houcong stood on the street with his hips akimbo, refusing to move forward. The people on the street gathered around to watch, and the ministers dared not go up and push him away. In the end, after Empress Dowager Zhang agreed, Zhu Houcong entered the city arrogantly from Zhengyang Gate, then passed Daming Gate to the north and walked north to Meridian Gate to enter the palace. Then there was another problem. His uncle's elder brother Wu Zong's main house, Empress Xia, was Zhu Houcong's sister-in-law. Zhu Houcong refused to call her Queen Mother, and finally gave her the honorific title of Queen Zhuangsu. In fact, Zhu Houcong should thank Empress Xia. If Empress Xia had a son, where would it be his turn to be emperor? Zhu Houcong also gave his father Xing Wang Zhu Youzhu (Nianzhu Youji) to honor Emperor Ruizong Xingxian, without a year name, but he put the tablet in the Taimiao, and it was still ranked above Zhu Houzhao, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty. His father's tomb was upgraded from the king's tomb to the emperor's tomb, called Xianling, in Hubei. Although his father had never been an emperor, Zhu Houcong's mother comfortably became the Empress Dowager Jiang. Emperor Jiajing's etiquette dispute was not actually about a few titles and which palace gate to go to. He wanted to show that he succeeded to the throne in an orthodox way, not an emperor who picked up a cheap one and gave it away as a phone bill.

Since there is Donghua Gate in the east, there should be a Xihua Gate in the west, right? There really is, look at Xihuamen.

The shape and size of Xihua Gate are the same as Donghua Gate, but Xihua Gate is not facing Xi'an Gate, and Xi'an Gate is still in the north. Outside the Xihua Gate is Xiyuan in the Ming Dynasty, which is now Zhongnanhai. The emperor walked through this Xihuamen to go to Xiyuan to have fun, and sometimes he would bring his concubines with him.

The four gates of the palace have different shapes and scales, and also have different common functions. Of course, there must be a city wall connecting the four palace gates, and there is a moat outside the city wall, which is now called Tongzi River.

The Tongzi River is a place for Beijingers to rest, do Tai Chi, eat melon seeds and so on.

You can also fish, just catch crabs.

As soon as spring comes, there will be "a city full of spring colors, palace walls and willows" as Lu You said.

In autumn, it is the road with clear water and yellow leaves.

Since the city wall is square, it has four corners. There are turrets on the four corners of the three-foot-high wall of the Forbidden City. Check out the southwest corner building.

The northwest corner building, many people like to take pictures here, I also took a picture.

Northeast corner building.

There are also many people who like to take pictures of the sunset in the northeast corner building, and I have also been involved in it.

before sunset.

Sitting upstairs.

Behind the Hitachi Building.

The day hangs at the corner of the building.

Watching the building from downstairs, "people follow the crowd".

Take a good look at this beautiful turret.

According to the ancient law, these four turrets are the positions of Spica among the twenty-eight constellations. These four turrets are the same. The main body is a square pavilion with four corners on the white marble Xumizuo, which is three rooms wide and surrounded by white marble railings. There is a pagoda on all four sides of the square pavilion with bucket arches and beams. The pagodas along the inner side of the city wall are long and the outer ones are short. The square pavilion with four corners is the top of the mountain with yellow glazed tiles and cross single eaves, the gilt-covered bowl is connected with the dew plate orb ridge temple, and the top of the building is the top of the mountain with double eaves. There are quite a lot of ridges on a turret, and there are eight ridges in total, two on each side. There are four vertical ridges on each side of the upper and lower sides, a total of sixteen ridges, six ridges on each side of the upper and lower sides, a total of 24 ridges, and two ridges on each corner of the bottom, a total of eight ridges; Seventy-two ridges can be counted. Boy, that's enough! Known as nine beams, eighteen columns and seventy-two ridges, the turret is the most complex building in the palace. They said that there are no indoor columns in the turret, so it was built by using the method of reducing columns to erect beams. Anyway, this turret is really magical. I don’t know if there is such a style in the Song Dynasty’s "Zao Fa Shi"? The Forbidden City once held an ancient building museum in the turret. When it opens next time, I will go to see it. These four turrets are still in the early Ming Dynasty. You look hard at the owl kiss on the ridge on the turret, pay attention to the Xu Xun sword on the back of the dragon, isn't it short and fat? This is the original Chi Kiss from the Ming Dynasty, which is rare.

Where did the security guards at the gates and walls of the ancient Forbidden City live? What can still be seen now is a row of bungalows and courtyards on the east side of Shenwumen, called Dongchangfang. Look at one of the gates.

That row of bungalows is now a cultural and creative experience hall, exhibiting good things created based on the cultural relics of the Forbidden City. If you have rich money, you can also use the money to bring these good things home.

Inside the courtyard surrounded by the city wall is the emperor's palace and towers and pavilions. Let's look at it later.

(to be continued)