Viewing the red walls and golden tiles, appreciating the palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties No. 15: Wuying Hall on the West Road of the Waichao (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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Go out from the Xihe Gate in the middle of the corridor on the west side of Taihemen Square, and this is Waichao West Road. Exit Xihe Gate and go westward to reach Xihua Gate. There is also a large building in the south of this road, which is Nandaku.

There must have been a building here in the Ming Dynasty in Nandaku, and it is estimated that it was also a warehouse for storing royal pots and pans. The pots and pans in the palaces of Ming and Qing Dynasties are all royal customization, royal style and royal quality, and they must not be popular among the people, so this warehouse also has a matching royal pots and pans tomb, in which all royal pots and pans are buried The remains of the gourd. In 2014, the Forbidden City's official gold-touching team dug up the ground in the southwest corner of Nandaku to dig out the tomb, and unearthed a large number of bones of royal pots and pans, which caused quite a stir. However, the official team has iron-like discipline, and the Panjiayuan antique market has not yet seen the results of this official dig.

During the Qing Dynasty, Nandaku was still used as a warehouse for the imperial palace, storing all kinds of miscellaneous things. Later, all kinds of furniture were piled up here, some were eliminated, and many were removed. In 2017, the Forbidden City cleaned up these royal furniture, rebuilt the Nanda Library, and improved the storage conditions. Later, the Forbidden City also restored some furniture, and opened an exhibition of Ming and Qing palace furniture in Nandaku, which is now the Furniture Museum.

There is a lot of wood in the furniture hall, so the room is air-conditioned, with constant temperature and humidity, and thick cotton curtains are hung at the door all the year round. Go in and have a look at the Ming and Qing court furniture, the most upscale ones.

Entering the door is a set of thrones in the palace.

There is no floor, and in the middle is a red sandalwood inlaid jade throne and matching red sandalwood inlaid jade long tables. Behind it are three screens carved with red sandalwood inlaid with boxwood, and the Pilu hat is extremely gorgeous. On both sides of the throne are a pair of red sandalwood tables. This set of throne screens was made in the palace during the Qianlong period, and it was produced by the Zaoban Office. In fact, there are many words in Qianlong's documents, "Sent to Guangdong Customs for making", "Guangdong Customs so-and-so sent red sandalwood carving forks", which shows that these are all made by people from Guangxi, with a clear Lingnan style. There is a pair of couplets hanging on the pillars on both sides. If you look closely, it is actually carved with lacquer, which is too luxurious. This set of thrones shows that Qianlong was very rich and tasteful. They said that it was the Jingyi Pavilion of the Jianfu Palace that was pulled down. Don’t forget that the fire in the garden of the Jianfu Palace also burned down the Jingyixuan.

Let's look at a set of huanghuali wood.

Huanghuali wood throne and foot table, blue sky primer inlaid on the backrest are ivory carvings and woodcut landscape pictures of chicken wings. There is a set of screens, and there are small houses and little people in the landscape. There are also huanghuali Gaoji on both sides. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, red sandalwood inlays were relatively common, but this kind of huanghuali wood inlays was rare, and it was so exquisite that no one but Laogan himself dared to think about it. They said it was the throne of Fuwang Pavilion in the garden of Ningshou Palace. Fuwang Pavilion is not allowed to enter, but you can see its throne here.

Check out the unsuitable ones.

There are nine screens with yellow lacquer inlaid with jade and flowers in a red sandalwood frame, and each screen has a poem inscribed by Qianlong. Rosewood inlaid jade huanghuali bed board Arhat bed, red sandalwood kang table.

There is also a copy of "Hongli Is One and Two Pictures" hanging in the furniture hall.

The original painting was painted by Ding Guanpeng in the Qing Dynasty. Qianlong liked to paint himself, so there are quite a few shadows left by him. Painters in the Qing Dynasty had begun to be influenced by the West, and there are signs of Western perspective in this painting. Sitting on the bed, Qianlong was appreciating the treasures collected in the player, and there was a portrait of Qianlong in the landscape painting on the wall behind. According to this artistic conception, Qianlong inscribed on the painting "one is one and two, neither is right nor left, Confucianism can be done, ink can be done, what to think about". There is an ancient painting hidden in the Qianlong Palace. The figure in the painting is Wang Xizhi. He ordered Ding Guanpeng to draw five Hongli paintings, one and two, here is the version of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, and another version of the Naluo Caves was sent to the National Palace Museum in Taipei for exhibition. The Naluo Caves are in Laoshan. This one is the first and second picture. All the furniture and decorations in the palace are Qianlong’s handy things. The Forbidden City arranged a set of pictures in the furniture hall, and some of them are really similar.

There are back screen, Arhat bed, round table, round table, square table and long table. On the right side of the picture, the Ming Xuande blue-and-white blue-examined Sanskrit script with a halberd and a Dharma wheel lid is the original object in the painting, as is the double-eared three-legged stove on the ground.

In addition to the large pieces of furniture, there are some decorations that are also very beautiful. Look at this, carved lacquer with double eaves and four-corner pavilion style Baoge. This should be the warehouse where the emperor stored the private seal, and it was still raised.

Check out the warehouse in the back.

Restored visible furniture is placed under the headlights. Look at the details of this red sandalwood painted and carved square table, Lingnan style, exquisite workmanship!

Almost all of the furniture on display are from the Qing Dynasty, with all the bells and whistles. The furniture of the Ming Dynasty was not so fancy, even the palace furniture was simple and bright.

Come out of the furniture shop and walk west along the main road. The palace officials of the Forbidden City have set up a fixed post at the intersection there. The sentry and a red ribbon blocked my way. I was stopped here by a female sentry last time I came here, and this time it was a male sentry. Men are easy to talk to men, so I asked him what's going on over there? He said that the Hall of Martial Heroes is not open, and the gate is not allowed to be seen, because the gate cannot be seen now. I asked him if he couldn't see Nanxun Hall and Baoyun Tower further on? He said yes, then Xihuamen must not be able to get out.

Recently, the Hall of Martial Arts reopened, and I came here again. The position of the sentry was moved to the west, and I took this road. Going forward on this main road, the south side of the road is next to the west side of Nandaku is Nanxun hall. The tall building at the back is not a palace building. It was built in 1973 when the East Building of the Beijing Hotel was newly built. In order to block the view of Zhongnanhai from the 14th floor and above, several tall buildings were built at this location.

As soon as you see the word "Nan Xun", you will think of Emperor Shun's "Song of the South Wind", "The smoke from the south wind can relieve the embarrassment of our people." When the ancient emperors appeared on the stage, there was a scene of playing Shao music and singing Nanxun. Therefore, this Nanxun Hall was to be connected with the ancient emperors.

In the courtyard of Nanxun Temple, there is only one main hall left intact, which was originally built in the Ming Dynasty, and the other auxiliary halls have collapsed. The main hall faces south, five rooms wide and three rooms deep, with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves resting on the top of the mountain. The East-West Side Hall is the Chuantang Hall, which is the east-west gate hall of the courtyard. The side hall is three rooms wide and one room deep, and there is an eaves corridor facing outwards. The layout of Nanxun Hall is different from other courtyards in the palace. Its gate is not on the south wall, but on the east and west walls. The small door in the picture above should have been built after the side hall collapsed, probably in recent years. Beyond the small gate and the low wall, you can see the restored roof of Nanxun Hall, plain mountain flowers, and five ridge beasts.

The Nanxun Hall existed in the early Ming Dynasty and was repaired in the Ming Dynasty. The main hall was still built in the Ming Dynasty. Now the palace is not all built in the Ming Dynasty. The components of the Zhonghe Hall have the inscription "Zhongji Hall"; the wooden components of the roof of the Inner Court Jiaotai Hall still have the inscriptions of Jiajing's reconstruction in a certain year. During the Ming Dynasty, Nanxun Hall was the Golden Book editorial department of the cabinet, and Zhongshu, who was equivalent to the secretary of the cabinet secretariat, wrote the Golden Book here. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty used the gold book for the canonization of the empress, the canonization of concubines, and the emblem of the empress dowager, as well as gold treasures, which are hand stamps. Princes outside the palace are also canonized with gold. The lower one is the silver book decorated with gold, the next lower is the paper book, and the lowest one is the air book. In the past few years, a gold album of Ming Dynasty vassal kings was unearthed in Sichuan, which was of the princely rank; a gold album of Ming Rong's silver ornaments was also unearthed, which was also of the princely rank. The secretary of the cabinet sat upright in the main hall of Nanxun Hall, breathed out and studied the ink, singing the song of the south wind in his heart, and wrote a series of golden books and sour essays. These books were engraved on gold plates and presented to the emperor. After the emperor finished reading them at the canonization ceremony, he closed the gold books and rewarded the recipients to take them home for ancestral inheritance. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen had some portraits of Ming emperors painted, and these portraits were hung in the Wuying Hall and Wenhua Hall.

After the Qing Dynasty, although he followed the Ming system, he stopped writing books in Nanxun Hall. After Qianlong came to power, he reframed and bound the portraits of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty and put them in the Nanxun Hall. The portrait of Ming Taizu in court clothes I saw in the Wenhua Hall should be hidden here. Qianlong also laid down a lying stele in the Nanxun Hall, "The Record of the Images of the Royal Nanxun Temple Enshrined". The Qing Dynasty's stele is not much different from the stele, but it does not have a stele cap. Lying stele is very rare, because it is called a shadow wall because of its large size. Last time I said in the article "Visiting the Yellow Temple in Beijing, Exploring the Three Hundred Years of Undisclosed Secrets" that there is a European and American Student Association at the intersection of East Chang'an Street and Nanheyan Road. It is the Pusheng Temple in the early Qing Dynasty. There are two A lying stele is now in the Wuta Temple in the north of the zoo, and it is the only existing one in Beijing. Nanxun hall is not allowed to enter, and the lying stele inside is unknown. In the Ming Dynasty, there was a temple for the emperors of all dynasties built in Fuchengmen. The Qing emperor said that the Manchus were part of the Chinese nation, so he also went there to worship the Chinese ancestors. Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty hung portraits of emperors of all dynasties in the palace for daily admiration. Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty received these portraits in Nanxun Hall, but did not hang them up, but rolled them up and hid them in a wooden pavilion. As in the imperial temples of previous dynasties, the emperors started from Taihao, Fuxi, the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, and I guess it included Mingxizong Zhu Youxiao. I don’t know if it includes Emperor Yuan. It also includes the sages and famous generals of the past dynasties, such as Boyi, Jiang Shang, Zhou Gong, Xiao He, and Zhuge Liang. Is Guan Gong with them or separate? The difference between Nanxun Hall and the temples of emperors of all dynasties is that there are still some statues of queens here. A few days ago, there was news from the Forbidden City that the third phase of the furniture museum project will be exhibited in Nanxun Hall, and some plays will be open to the public soon. However, to open the Nanxun Hall, it must be repaired first, and the courtyard also needs to be rebuilt.

Going west along the road in front of Nanxun Temple is the direction of Xihua Gate, which is now the office of the Palace Museum, and visitors are prohibited from entering. Looking from a distance, you can see a palace gate, which is Xian'an Gate.

This Xian'an Gate is the main entrance of the Xian'an Palace in the Qing Dynasty. The Xian'an Palace in the Ming Dynasty is located at the current location of the Shou'an Palace, which is behind the Shoukang Palace. Now this Xian'an Gate was the office of the Shangyi Supervisor in the Ming Dynasty. What did the Shangyi Supervisor do? He is the emperor's tailor, including shoe and hat maker. However, Shangyijian himself does not thread needles and thread the soles of shoes, but acts as a design institute and Party A's representative office. In the Ming Dynasty, there were twenty-four yamen for eunuchs, and Shangyijian was one of the twelve yamen in the twenty-four yamen. These yamen were in charge of surrounding affairs such as eating, drinking, sleeping and sleeping for the royal family, and they were regarded as the general affairs office. When the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, it first followed the establishment of the General Affairs Office of the Ming Dynasty, and then gradually reformed the organizational structure and established its own General Affairs Office.

The original Xian'an Palace imprisoned the abolished prince Yinreng during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. After Yinreng's death during the Yongzheng period, it was changed to a government school, which is the Sanqi cadres' children school. The Eight Banners in the Qing Dynasty were divided into the upper three banners and the lower five banners, and the Xianghuang and Zhenghuang banners were ruled by Huang Taiji. Zhengbai Banner was originally Dorgon's subordinate. After Shunzhi "exhumed Dorgon's grave and flogged his corpse", he took Zhengbai Banner to himself. After Qianlong came to power, he transformed the original Xian'an Palace into the Shou'an Palace to accommodate the retired concubines of the former dynasty, and the official school of Xian'an Palace moved to the place in the picture above. In the early days of the Republic of China, the Antiquities Exhibition Hall was established in Xian'an Palace in 1914, which was regarded as the first generation of national museums. In order to move the cultural relics from the Shenyang Forbidden City and the Summer Resort to the Beijing Forbidden City, Baoyun Building was built in Xian'an Palace, which is counted as the first cultural relics warehouse. The cultural relics of the Forbidden City moved southward during the Anti-Japanese War, and the treasures in Baoyun Building followed. A few years ago, Baoyun Building was rebuilt as the Museum of History of the Forbidden City.

Only the gate in the above picture is left in Xian'an Palace, and Baoyun Building is inside the gate. In the picture, you can see a corner of the Yanchi West Building of Baoyun Building, and in the picture, you can also see an ear room with a rolling shed and a hard mountain top in the gate hall.

On the east side of Xian'an Gate is the Hall of Martial Arts.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the Wuying Hall was symmetrical with the Wenhua Hall on Waichaodong Road, and its position, style, and layout were all symmetrical. One article and one martial arts, the east road is the essence of liberal arts, and the west road is the hero of martial arts. The east road of the Ming Palace is dominated by literature, and the west road is dominated by martial arts. On the square of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, there is also the Wenlou now called Tiren Pavilion in the east, and the Wulou now called Hongyi Pavilion in the west. In ancient China, the emperors were all controlled by both civil and military forces. They used civil to secure the world and used military to kill the enemy. The ancient Silk Road also spread Chinese culture to the West. As I said earlier, I also saw this kind of statue symbolizing civil and military at the entrance of the Florence Palace. However, it is the opposite of that of the Ming Palace. The right hand is the statue of "David" symbolizing Wenzhi, a work of Michelangelo; the left hand is "Hercules and Cacus", a symbol of martial power, a work of Bandinelli.

Although it was changed from a building to a pavilion, the Tiren Pavilion and Hongyi Pavilion on the east and west of the Hall of Supreme Harmony are basically the same. The Wenhua Hall has been continuously remodeled, coupled with the reconstruction of the Qing Dynasty, it has gradually deviated from the model of the Wuying Hall. The main gate of the Hall of Martial Arts is the Wuying Gate in the picture above. In front of the gate is the Neijinshui River. There are three white stone bridges with white marble handrails on the river in front of the gate. The middle one is the imperial road. The front of the gate of Wenhua Hall should be like this in the early Ming Dynasty. It is estimated that Wenyuan Pavilion was built during the Qianlong period to lead the inner Jinshui River from the front of Wenhua Gate to Wenyuan Pavilion.

Wuying Gate is the same shape as Wenhua Gate, and it is also a gate of the palace with five rooms and three openings. Go to the gate hall to have a look.

Entering the Wuying Gate is also a platform that leads directly to the main hall, the Wuying Hall.

Behind the main hall is the apse Jingsi Hall, and the main hall and apse are also connected by a corridor, which is the same I-shaped layout as the Wenhua Hall. According to records, this corridor was built in the early period of the Republic of China. The front and rear halls before were two separate halls on a platform.

The difference is that there are white marble handrails on the platform outside the Wuying Gate and the platform corridor inside the gate, and there is also a circle on the platform of the I-shaped front and rear halls. The east and west of the main hall, Wuying Hall, also have supporting halls, the specifications of which are the same as those of the supporting halls of Wenhua Hall. Take a look at the Huanzhang Hall in Xibei Hall.

The Wuying Hall was also the emperor's private hall in the Ming Dynasty, somewhat similar to the Jinluan Hall in the Tang Chang'an Daming Palace. The emperor of the Tang Dynasty summoned his ministers to discuss matters in the Jinluan Hall, while the emperor of the Ming Dynasty summoned his ministers to discuss matters in the Hall of Martial Arts. The Tang Emperor was also doing some literary work in the Golden Luan Hall, inviting those who were good at poetry to the party. And set up good poets in the Imperial Academy near the Jinluan Hall as waiting edicts, that is, waiting for the emperor's edict at any time. The Emperor Ming set up the waiting edict in the Wuying Hall, and selected those who were good at painting to live there. All kinds of skilled people are needed in the palace. Those who are good at great skills will enter the Imperial Academy as officials, and those who practice small skills will be ordered by the Sixth Division of the Palace, such as cutting the emperor's hair and picking out his ears. By the way, some remote villages still call those who shave their heads called Daizhao. Emperor Tang would occasionally take a nap or stay in the Jinluan Hall, while Emperor Ming would regularly go to the Hall of Martial Arts for a short stay, called Zhaiju. During the reign of Chongzhen, the empress received congratulations from the high-end wives here on her birthday. I don't know why she didn't go to Kunning Palace at that time.

In the seventeenth year of Ming Chongzhen (AD 1644), after Li Zicheng, the Chuang Wang, forced Ming Chongzhen Emperor to Meishan, he entered the palace. He groped around in the palace and found a lot of Kuyin. But Chuang Wang did not ascend the throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony at the beginning, but worked in the Hall of Wuying. Later, on April 20th, he couldn't help holding an enthronement ceremony in the Hall of Martial Arts. As a result, he was sprained, and Wu Sangui led Dorgon to drive him out of Beijing the next day. He himself said it was "retirement with honor". Before leaving, he set fire to the palace. The northwest wind was blowing that day, and the fire did not reach the Wuying Hall, but burned the Wenhua Hall. So far, King Chuang has only been stationed in the palace for more than forty days.

Dorgon is a very bad boy, he asked Wu Sangui to pursue King Chuang to avenge the destruction of his family, and he himself took over his government in the Hall of Martial Arts, which was nirvana in the fire. While cleaning the embers in the palace to rebuild the palace, Dorgon sent people back to his hometown to bring Shunzhi to Beijing, and the two shared a room to live in Wuyingdian. After the first three halls were repaired, Shunzhi lived in the Hall of Preserving Harmony. Dorgon built Prince Rui's Mansion for himself in the South Palace outside Donghua Gate where Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen was under house arrest at that time, and lived in it. After Dorgon was "whipped", the Prince Rui's mansion was transformed into Pudu Temple, which is still there now. The remaining hall is Dorgon's bedroom. During the Kangxi period, the three major halls and the Qianqing Palace were rebuilt. The emperor lived in the Wuying Hall for a few days, and the Qianqing Palace at that time was also unbearable. Although Emperor Kangxi lived in the Wuying Hall, he still went to the South Study Room of Qianqing Palace to manage politics. At this time, he took care of Oboi.

In the 19th year of Kangxi (AD 1680), the Qianqing Palace was rebuilt, and Emperor Kangxi moved back to live in the Qianqing Palace. After that, the Royal Bookstore was opened in the Hall of Martial Arts, and books were printed. The predecessor of the Royal Bookstore was the Wuyingdian Building Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the seventh year of Yongzheng (1729 A.D.), it was renamed the Wuyingdian Book Repairing Office. Although the book revision office is an institution of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the editors are all sent by the emperor and the Imperial Academy, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs only provides small workers. The Wuyingdian Printing Factory is very high-end, using brass movable type with beautiful fonts. The pictures are also on copper plates, very delicate. The Qing palace printed books not on Xuan paper, but on calligraphy and painting paper. The paper used to print the book is Kaihua paper, a top-grade printing paper made in secret by Kaihua, Zhejiang. Qianlong was a lover of reading. He selected more than one hundred classics from the "Yongle Dadian", arranged for Wuyingdian Bookstore to print and bind them into rare booklets, and often wrapped them in sleeves and took them everywhere to read. It is called "Dianben". After the "Siku Quanshu" was completed, the original copy was deposited in Wenyuan Pavilion. It was hand-copied, and the cost was very high, so it was difficult to circulate. Qianlong selected more than 100 articles and printed them with movable type of jujube wood into "Wuyingdian Juzhen Edition Series". During the reign of Emperor Guangxu, there was typesetting and printing, but there were very few products produced.

Since the Qing Palace printed books in the Wuyingdian, there must be a lot of written and blank paper, which are the rations of Vulcan. In the fifteenth year of Guangxu (AD 1889), in order to fight against the Vulcan, the imperial palace set up a fire brigade in the Wuying Hall, which is a semi-automatic sprinkler fire brigade. It is located in a black glazed tile roof value room in the south of the Wuying Hall. Black represents Water in the five elements.

This is China's first fire brigade in the modern sense. The predecessor of Guangxu Jitong Office was the fire squad established in the 26th year of Kangxi (AD 1687). Now, the Forbidden City conducts fire drills every year, and fire prevention is the top priority of the Forbidden City.

The last reconstruction of the Wuying Hall was after the fire in the eighth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1869 A.D.), which completely burned the entire Wuying Hall, and Emperor Tongzhi had to order the building office to be rebuilt. Since then, the Wuying Hall has been repaired during the Guangxu period, and it lasted until 2005. In 2005, the Forbidden City organized the overhaul of the Hall of Martial Heroes, which had been closed until then. After the overhaul in 2008, it was opened as a calligraphy and painting gallery, which caused a sensation. It was closed again during the epidemic, and it was said to be a re-exhibition. More than a year later, when it reopened on May Day in 2021, it was changed to a ceramics museum.

Inside the Hall of Martial Arts.

Inside the corridor of the front and rear halls.

The apse is in the Jingsi Hall.

The Forbidden City has a large collection of ceramic treasures. It is said that there are 350,000 pieces, of which more than 20,000 pieces have been collected since the founding of New China. The earliest is a schematic piece made of pottery fragments from 5,000 years ago. Below is a pottery pot from 2,500 years ago.

There are two ears on the side, which can be tied with a straw rope as a satchel. Look at the position of the ears, this satchel is easy to turn over. Such pottery has long since disappeared in China, and there were bronzes and the like in the Zhou Dynasty. But I also saw such pottery in the kitchen of their farmhouse in Turkey, and their braised beef in a pot uses such an ancient pottery pot.

Below is a blue-glazed pile plastic jar in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. The glaze on the outside of the pottery is still pottery, which shows that glaze appeared before porcelain.

Tang Sancai must have, lady figurines. Or pottery, painted pottery.

Hu merchants on the Silk Road.

In the Tang Dynasty, quite serious porcelain began to appear. The most mysterious one is the top secret color porcelain in Yue Kiln porcelain, which is exclusively for the royal family. This secret color has been discussed all the time, and no one can explain it clearly, nor do they know whether it really exists. It was not until 1987 that a group of cultural relics from the Tang Dynasty were unearthed from the underground palace of Famen Temple in Shaanxi Province, that the secret color porcelain was revealed to the world. Among them, there are Yue kiln secret color porcelain among the Buddhist porcelains, and there are related written records. This excavation of the underground palace also revealed a silver-bodied golden flower four-ply twelve-ring tin rod, the highest rank and the only tin rod king in the world. Take a look at the secret color porcelain net bottle of Yue Kiln collected in the Forbidden City.

Look at Song porcelain, Longquan opened a film.

The new ceramics museum opened, and the Forbidden City displayed the treasure of the town hall, which is the Song Ding kiln child pillow below. One of the Nine National Treasures.

Among the nine national treasures of the town, there are four in the Forbidden City. The Chencang stone drum seen in the Ningshou Palace, and the Jin Dynasty Lu Ji's "Ping Fu Tie" and "Ping Fu Tie" were exhibited in the Wu Ying Hall before the epidemic. Han Huang's "Five Bulls Picture" and the Dingyao Boy's Pillow in the picture above. Now in Beijing, there are also Xizhou Ligui in the National Expo and Dushan Dayuhai in Beihai Tuancheng.

The Ru kiln in the Northern Song Dynasty was the top porcelain in the Song Dynasty, and it was said that "a family with a lot of wealth is not as good as a piece of Ru kiln". Agate glaze, sky blue, cicada wing pattern. There are less than a hundred pieces of Ru kiln porcelain handed down from the Northern Song Dynasty, and there are more than a dozen pieces in the Forbidden City. Take a look at the following Ru kiln light sky celadon glazed string pattern three-legged bottle furnace. There are only two pieces handed down, this is one of them.

The emperors and elders of the Northern Song Dynasty liked art, so there were too many high-grade porcelains. There is also an old saying that "gold is priceless and Jun porcelain is priceless", which means Jun porcelain in the Northern Song Dynasty. The color of Jun porcelain is extremely dazzling, and there are secrets hidden in the glaze, which will not be revealed after being painted before entering the kiln. When it comes out of the kiln, what effect will appear depends entirely on Mongolian. Therefore, each piece of Jun porcelain is an orphan, and the craftsmanship cannot be repeated. Take a look at the Jun Kiln Rose Purple Glazed Ling Fancy Three-legged Flowerpot Holder below, which has pearly luster, like a shell.

Jingdezhen porcelain was already an official kiln in the Song Dynasty, one of the five famous kilns. Check out this bluish-white glazed engraved plum vase below.

Take a look at this, blue and white porcelain from Jingdezhen kiln in Yuan Dynasty, the top blue and white porcelain in Yuan Dynasty.

The underglaze red of the same kiln in the same period, and the blue and white underglaze red of the Yuan Dynasty, are more advanced and precious than the monochrome blue and white.

Take a look at the blue and white underglaze and red carved lid jar below. Yuan blue and white, also underglaze red, plus carved, it is simply a masterpiece. Is this the earliest carved porcelain in China?

The blue-and-white porcelain of the Ming Dynasty reached its peak. Take a look at the following piece, Xuande blue-and-white porcelain, which was once exhibited in a furniture museum and can only be seen from a distance. It appeared in the above-mentioned "Qianlong is one and two pictures", the blue and white blue of Xuande in the Ming Dynasty was examined in Sanskrit and the halberd Dharma wheel lid jar was produced.

Take a look at the underglaze red in the Ming Dynasty, called bright red glaze, which is really beautiful. Hongwu official kiln cloud dragon pattern tall bowl. Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty, began to set up an imperial kiln in Jingdezhen to make porcelain for the royal family. This is the earliest official official kiln in China. Since then, the year of manufacture must be written on the bottom of official kiln works, so the earliest year that can be seen on the bottom of porcelain is "Hongwu Year".

Blue and white porcelain started in the Tang Dynasty and reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty. Many porcelains from the Ming Dynasty have been handed down, especially from the Chenghua period. Ming Chenghua porcelain depends on the characters on the bottom of the bowl.

In addition to the official version above, there is also a girl version of Chenghua porcelain in the market.

This time, a batch of Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain unearthed from Dingling Mausoleum, the original works of Ming Shenzong Zhu Yijun during the Chenghua period were also displayed.

Five-color fish and algae pot, Ming Jiajing.

Porcelain in the Qing Dynasty is a variety of colors, dazzling and reaching the pinnacle. Check out this pastel, peach long neck bottle.

Take a look at this piece, the bowl with five-color gold-painted baby play pattern on alum red ground is extremely beautiful.

The enamel color that only appeared in the Qing Dynasty.

During the Kangxi period, in addition to enamel colors, Lang Yaohong was also very famous, a very special ruby ​​red.

Since it is ceramics, apart from ancient pottery, Yixing Kiln must be indispensable. The specialty of Yixing kiln is purple sand, the most common one is purple sand pot, but there are also the following ones. Yixing Kiln Purple Clay Embossed Green Field Pastel Painted Gold Pumpkin Pot.

Integrating various colorful large vases, the Jingdezhen kiln of the Qianlong period in the Qing Dynasty is an unprecedented and unprecedented Chinese porcelain masterpiece, known as the mother of porcelain.

During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial court selected a porcelain firing expert to be stationed in Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln as the general manager, called the assistant officer. This expert is the famous Tang Ying in the ceramic industry, a master of art and crafts in the Qing Dynasty. Every piece of Tang Ying's works in the Qing palace is the best. He is both antique and innovative, absolutely incomparable. Take a look at Tang Ying's works below.

A warm pavilion was built inside the gate of Wuying Hall.

Inside are several large hollowed-out porcelain revolving vases from the Qianlong Dynasty, all of which are extremely exquisite. The swivel bottle has a rotatable liner with paintings on it. There are hollow windows on the big belly of the swivel bottle, through which you can observe the pictures on the inner swivel.

The following is a yellow-ground pastel hollowed-out stem and branch character like ear-shaped heart-shaped vase, made by Tang Ying in the eighth year of Qianlong. The two circles of the neck can be rotated, which corresponds to a perpetual calendar.

During the Qianlong period, there was also a large vase with the upper and lower layers hollowed out together. Although the upper and lower layers were set together in two parts, they could not be separated. Not seen in this exhibition.

Qianlong not only sent Tang Ying to burn porcelain, but also devoted himself to the creation of "a flood in the Maokeng-go forward bravely". On the following famille rose and enamel consecrated landscape-pattern turn-neck vase, there is a poem written by Qianlong's imperial pen. This one is "Wind and valley patterns return to Yuanse, Xiadui peaks reflect Mingchuan". There are also two seals of "Qianlong Chenhan" and "Weijing Weiyi", which are a set of two special seals for Qianlong's imperial poems and books.

Exit the main hall of the Hall of Martial Arts and walk to the west side.

At the place where the apse is side by side, there is a small house on the platform, which is Yude Hall.

The Yude hall is not big, with three rooms wide and one room deep, a roof with bucket arches and beams, and a yellow glazed tile shed on the top of the mountain. Go in and have a look.

The interior is completely exposed and has no smallpox. This is now also the exhibition room of the Ceramics Museum. The exhibits are export porcelain, commonly known as "passenger and cargo".

Take a look at the pastel-painted gold medal plate in the middle, which says "I wish your old mother good health and good health forever" in Chinese X characters.

The export sales of China's porcelain are very large, and it began in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The enthusiasm of ancient European courts and high society in pursuing Chinese silk and porcelain is unimaginable now, and it is even worse than the worship of foreigners by some Chinese people today. In order to buy luxury goods such as Chinese silk and porcelain, European silver was emptied. The great voyages and geographical discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries started the development of the Americas, and the Europeans discovered large silver mines in South America, and they were rich at once. Later, Europeans established a sea route from South America to Guangzhou, China, and transported American silver to China. This is the famous silver route in history. They unloaded silver in Guangzhou and exchanged it with Chinese merchants for silk, porcelain and tea, and then shipped these luxury goods back to Europe to make a fortune. Later, American silver was also dug out, and the British wanted to trade with China with black clay, but the failure of the transaction triggered the first Opium War. The Qing Dynasty was defeated, so it had to pay the imperialists the silver exchanged for silk and porcelain. Don't say it, my eyes are full of tears when I say it.

There is a darkroom behind this hut in Yudetang. The darkroom is of masonry structure, with a square bottom and a dome with a skylight above. The dome reminds you of the Pantheon dome in Rome, only on a smaller scale. The darkroom was too small to let tourists in, for fear that everyone would be crowded and trample on each other. A picture of the dark room is hung in the Yude hall, and a part of the dome can be vaguely seen from the outside.

According to the research of experts in the Forbidden City, Yude Hall is a palace building in the Yuan Dynasty. I said why the dark room looks like a yurt, it turned out to be built by Mongolians. What is the use of the Mongols building this dark room? It is said that it is a Turkish bath, and it also has a supporting boiler room and water pipes. According to textual research, in the Yuan Dynasty, most of this place was left behind by the Siya Office, that is, the headquarters of the garrison area. It is appropriate to build a yurt-style bathroom for the commander to take a bath. The ancient Han people despised Turkish baths. In the Ming Dynasty, the emperor's ritual ceremony was to fast and take a bath, which was called fasting (Nianfu). Legend has it that the Ming emperors came here to bathe and go to the fasting palace to fast. In fact, it is not true. The Zhai Palace was built by Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty, but it did not exist in the Ming Dynasty. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty fasted in the Hall of Martial Arts. I wonder if it is because there is a Yudetang bathhouse here? The name of Yudetang was definitely not given by the Yuan Dynasty emperor Bor Jijin, it should have been in the Ming Dynasty. "Bathing virtue" is taken from the "Book of Rites Confucianism" written by Dai Sheng in the Western Han Dynasty, "Confucianism bathes the body and bathes in virtue, expresses the truth and subdues it, calms and rectifies it, and goes to the Buddha to know", which means to cultivate the mind and cultivate the character. In the Qing Dynasty, the Hall of Martial Arts became a publishing house and a printing house. It is said that this dark room was used to steam paper. There is a folk legend about the concubine Xiang of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. Qianlong had only one Huibu concubine, Concubine Rong and Zhuo. Concubine Rong's elder brother cooperated with the imperial court in the 23rd year of Qianlong's reign (1758 A.D.) to quell the rebellion of the Hui tribe. Afterwards, she was appointed as an official and went to Beijing. Concubine Rong's family settled in Beijing thereafter. In the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong, the twenty-seven-year-old concubine Rong entered the palace and was first conferred a nobleman. After that, she was gradually promoted, and she was canonized as Concubine Rong in the thirty-third year of Qianlong. Before the concubine Rong was conferred by the Jin Dynasty, Concubine Rong always wore back clothes in the palace, had meals, and had a separate halal stove. In the Qing Dynasty, there were occasional Han concubines, who were also specially approved to wear Hanfu in the palace. During the Qianlong period, after the death of the noble concubine Ling, the status of Concubine Rong gradually rose to the second rank of empress concubine. In the fifty-third year of Qianlong (AD 1788), Concubine Rong died at the age of fifty-five and was buried in Yuling Concubine Garden of Dongling. In 1979, when the tomb of Concubine Rong, which had been stolen, was sorted out, the remains of Concubine Rong were found, and there were palindromic "Koran" texts on the coffin. It is said that Xiangfei has a strange fragrance on her body, and this Yudetang Turkish bath was built for Xiangfei. Since the Yongzheng Dynasty, the Yude Hall has been changed to a steaming paper printing office, and Emperor Qianlong will definitely not change it back to the bathhouse, what a shame! Besides, it is impossible for Emperor Qianlong to allow the concubine to go out of the harem to take a bath in a side hall of another dynasty, and there is no such record in the Qing Palace Household Office. These are all unfounded, they were all fabricated by someone during the Republic of China, and they are limited to legends.

The pipes of Yudetang Turkish bath lead to a well pavilion, and the water in the well pavilion is of course used for bathing in Yudetang. The architectural layout of the east and west roads of the Ming Palace is symmetrical. The architectural form of the well pavilion in Yude Hall is the same as that of the big well in Chuanxin Hall in the east courtyard of the Wenhua Hall on the East Road. There are skylights, which are a pair of special well pavilions in the Forbidden City. The rituals of Zhou Gongdan become Zhouli or Zhouzhi, which is the basis of rituals in Chinese culture. In the Zhou system, there is a saying of "Left Pao, Right Pai", which is pronounced as "Pu", and it is a bathhouse. Last time, it was mentioned that the royal family of the Ming and Qing Dynasties worshiped the god of the well at Dapao well every year. Among the five gods of Chinese folklore (door, household, well, stove, and soil), there is no god of bathing, so the royal family of the Ming and Qing Dynasties did not worship gods here in Yudetang.

After watching the ceramic exhibition in the Hall of Martial Arts, stand in the yard and take another look at the big tree.

Come out of the Wuying Temple and turn north along the main road. Not far away is a small stone bridge, a single-hole stone arch bridge. According to research, this is an old object of the Yuan Dynasty Palace.

The river below this small stone bridge is the Inner Jinshui River, which flows from the gate of the Hall of Martial Arts and is about to flow to the Taihe Gate Square in the Meridian Gate. This is the Duanhong Bridge. The white stone on the bridge deck and the white marble railings on both sides look quite old. There are reliefs of double dragons eating grass on the railing. There are stone squatting dragons at the end of the railing.

Take a look at this squatting dragon of the Yuan Dynasty. Recall that this stone squatting dragon is the same as the stone squatting dragons in the Jingren Palace of the East Sixth Palace and the Yongshou Palace of the West Sixth Palace, both of which have long hair. Since the eight squatting dragons at the four corners of the bases of the two marble screen walls in the harem are the same as the four squatting dragons at the head of this bridge, they also prove to each other that they are all relics of the Yuan Dynasty palace.

There are lions sitting on lotus pedestals on the watchtower, all of which are carved from white marble.

There is a dragon head in the middle of the line connecting the bridge arches on both sides. This is called "Jiaolong Wangshui". Look at the Jiaolong Wangshui in the Yuan Dynasty, also known as the water-absorbing beast.

Take a look at the Sui Dynasty "Jiaolong Wangshui" unearthed from the Hongji Bridge outside the ancient city of Guangfu in Handan, Hebei, for comparison.

This Duanhong Bridge is not recorded in the Ming and Qing imperial palace texts. It is not clear whether it is from the early Ming Dynasty or a relic of the Yuan Palace. The name of Duanhong Bridge was given by later generations. After research by experts, many people believe that the Duanhong Bridge is a relic of the Yuan Dynasty. This location should be on the central axis of the inner palace of the Yuan Dynasty, that is, the central axis of the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty, and Duanhong Bridge is equivalent to the current Inner Jinshui Bridge, which was called Zhou Bridge back then. Zhouqiao is three side by side stone bridges, similar to the current five Neijinshui bridges. The current Duanhong Bridge is one of the three rainbows, and the other two have passed away, so the remaining one is called Duanhong Bridge. The current Duanhong Bridge is the middle of the three rainbows in those days, and it is a part of the Royal Road. There are reliefs of dragons on the railings of the bridge. These dragons are not flying in the clouds, but walking among the flowers. It seems that the dragons of the Mongols are all associated with flowers. The stone carvings of Youlong we saw on the slabs of the Qin'an Palace in the imperial garden are the same as those here, and those slabs were also removed from the buildings of the Yuan Palace. Let me tell you, all Chinese dynasties have demolished the buildings of previous dynasties to build their own houses. Not only the Chinese are like this, but foreigners are also like this. They used to tear down stones from castles to build their own palaces. The outer walls of the famous Flavian Arena in Rome, Italy, were all removed. Duanhong Bridge used to have a flying dragon relief on the stone slab in the middle of the bridge deck, which is similar to the current Yulu Danbi Stone. The flying dragon relief was chiseled out in the early Ming Dynasty. This is the only bridge in the Forbidden City that is full of carved stone dragons and little lions like the Duanhong Bridge. Combined with the Yudetang Turkish bath just seen in the Wuying Hall, this is probably the only two Yuan Dynasty palace buildings left in the Ming and Qing palaces. From this bridge component, the long-haired and squatting dragons in the Forbidden City should be relics of the Yuan Dynasty, such as the marble screen walls in the gates of Jingren Palace and Yongshou Palace; the relief railings of dragons eating grass are also the same, such as Qin'an Hall circle of handrails.

There is an ancient tree in the north of Duanhong Bridge, this one is called Shibahuai.

In the Yuan Dynasty, large willow trees were planted here. A poet in the Yuan Dynasty once said, "Forbidden willows, green and white jade bridges, and palace gowns with unprovoked spring colors", referring to the tall willows beside the Broken Hong Bridge. When Zhu Di built the palace, these tall willows were all dead, so he ordered these pagoda trees to be planted in the native land of the tall willows. These ancient locust trees have been around for 600 years. Even if they are not towering, the trunks are one meter thick. According to the GB series of national standards, the DBH exceeds 100cm, and the tree age exceeds 300 years. They are all classified as first-class ancient trees. The ancients had a lot of experience in planting pagoda tree willows in the palace, not to mention palace willows, everyone knows it. When Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty came to visit his friends in the imperial city, he wrote a poem, "The waning moon at the Jinqiao is dawning, the wind and dew are desolate and the forbidden office is deep. The willows and pagoda trees in the city are shaking and falling, and the sorrow does not reach the hearts of the nobles."

After seeing the eighteen pagoda trees, go north. There is a courtyard between the Hall of Martial Arts and the garden of the Palace of Compassion.

This courtyard existed in the Ming Dynasty, and its function has not been examined. In the Qing Dynasty, it was the office of Guangchu driver of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Guangchu Department is equivalent to the current Finance Department and the General Affairs Warehouse. It manages money and goods, and those silver warehouses, satin warehouses, leather warehouses, and tea warehouses are all managed by him. Now it is the writing institute of the direct unit of the Forbidden City, and a sign is hung at the door. In the early Qing Dynasty, there was also a Ruyi Pavilion here, where the royal painters painted. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Empress Dowager Cixi moved the Ruyi Hall to the North Fifth House behind the East Sixth Palace.

By the way, there is a warehouse under his management outside the north wall of this courtyard, which is the ice cellar, which is now one of the semicolons of the Forbidden City restaurant. What is also related to the ice cellar is that you can buy popsicles, which are definitely not Qing Dynasty popsicles, so you can eat them with confidence.

Every year before freezing, the Tongzi River outside the palace must be drained, and then the river course will be cleaned up, and then new water will be added. It is the clear water at the foot of Yuquan Mountain in the western suburbs, without pollution. Ancient pollution is a very scarce strategic material, which cannot be seen in ordinary places. After the winter solstice, after not a day of cold, the water in the moat was frozen three feet. At this time, the hardworking eunuchs in the palace came here to keep warm. They cut the ice on the river into ice bricks one and a half feet square, and then transported them to the ice cellar above. Everyone was working hard, sweating profusely, sweating profusely, it was so hot. The ice cellar has four cellars, which can store more than 5,000 ice bricks. The next summer, the emperor ordered people to go to the ice cellar to get ice to cool down, and to add snow to the large and small refrigerators in the palace. At that time, the refrigerators in the palace did not have front-opening doors like we do now. At that time, they were all top-opening doors, and they were made of cloisonné enamel, which was quite luxurious. Although there were refrigerators in the palace back then, there were no air conditioners, only manual fans, and the emperor could not enjoy the cold air from the air conditioners in ordinary people's homes. Did ordinary people have refrigerators in their homes? There are also, but they are all found in royal officials or luxury hotels. Where does the ice come from? It's definitely not from the Tongzi River. It usually comes from waters such as the moat, which is outside the city wall of Beijing, which is now around the Second Ring Road. There is an ice cellar outside the gap in Xinjiekou, where civilian ice is stored, and it is still named "Bingjiaokou". In fact, this ice cellar has a lot of elements for the imperial court, and most of the ice is still supplied to the palace, because the ice cellar in the palace is too small to serve the royal family through the summer heat. After the ice cellar outside Xinjiekou was abandoned, the ice pit was transformed into the current Qingnian Lake. There used to be such ice cellars in other places in Beijing.

Going further north is the Compassionate Ninggong, see later.

(to be continued)