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 north from Wenhua Hall, that is, go backwards. Walking and walking, a building appeared on the right hand, that is, to the east. This piece of building seems to be the office of the Forbidden City, but it must be a palace building. This is the Nansan Institute. Nansan Institute is a large courtyard with the main entrance in the south.
There is a big screen wall inside the door to block the sight of outsiders like me. There are three courtyards behind the screen wall, so it is called Nansan Institute. Each courtyard has three entrances, the same as the Qiandong No. 5 Institute behind the East Sixth Palace, which is also called the North No. 5 Institute now. This was not the case here in the Ming Dynasty, but there were several courtyards, such as Duanjing Hall, Duanben Hall and Xiefang Hall. It is called a hall, but it is actually a courtyard. In the eleventh year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1746 A.D.), the current Nansan Institute was built here, and the official name is also called Xie (Nianxie) Fangdian. The Nansansuuo area was the residence of the princes during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Prince Yinreng of the Qing Dynasty lived in Yuqing Palace. The other princes lived in the harem with Er Niang when they were babies. They lived here when they grew up, and moved out of the palace after they got married. live outside. Because it is on the East Road, the Prince Ming who lives here is sometimes called the "Prince of the East Palace". In the Qing Dynasty, Yuqing Palace was also on the east side of the palace. The prince of the East Palace is the prince who has a role to succeed.
Since it is Xiefang Palace, evil things will happen. In the 43rd year of Wanli (AD 1615), when the famous "Striking Case" happened, Prince Zhu Changluo lived in the Ciqing Palace here, and the Xiefang Palace was the front hall of the Ciqing Palace. Concubine Zhu Yijun, Emperor Wanli, had the eldest son Zhu Changluo, and Concubine Zheng Guifei gave birth to the third son Zhu Changxun. Because Emperor Wanli liked Zheng Guifei, he wanted to make his son the crown prince, but all the officials opposed it. After the national dispute, Zhu Changluo had to be made the prince in the 29th year of Wanli. On May 4th, the 43rd year of Wanli, when the sun was setting on the western mountain, a young man came to the palace. The young man held a Wusong whistle stick called a stiletto. He didn't know how to get to the Ciqing Palace where the prince lived, and knocked down the security eunuch who was guarding the door with a stiletto. Before the security guard fell down, he screamed, "There is an assassin!" Eunuchs all have thin voices, which are called "castration voices", as you know. The young man leaped over the living body of the security guards and strode towards the inner courtyard, waving the whistle stick in his hand. At the very moment when the ponytail was wearing tofu, the prince's bodyguard who was on duty at the Xiefang Palace in the front hall stepped forward, knocked down the young man, arrested him, and tied him up. During the interrogation, the young man said that Eunuch A and Eunuch B in Concubine Zheng's palace took him to the Crown Prince's uterus and ordered him to go in and beat Zhu Changluo to death. Emperor Wanli refused to delve into it, and suspected that the prince Zhu Changluo had framed Concubine Zheng. In the end, the young man was beheaded at Caishikou, and the first and second eunuchs in Concubine Zheng's palace were strangled to death in a dark corner of the palace, and the case was settled. Concubine Zheng originally wanted to persuade Emperor Wanli to abolish Zhu Changluo and make her son Zhu Changxun the crown prince, but after this case, she had to give up. This is a suspicious case in the Ming Dynasty, that is, the "striking case". In the end, Zhu Changluo successfully ascended the throne as Taichang Emperor. One month later, Taichang Emperor Zhu Changluo died strangely in the "Hongwan Case", which was another suspicious case. Zhu Changluo's eldest son Zhu Youxiao lost his mother when he was young, and was brought up by Zhu Changluo's favorite concubine Li Xuanshi. When Zhu Changluo became Emperor Taichang, he brought Zhu Youxiao into Qianqing Palace. Li Xuan tried Zhu Changluo to make her queen, but in the end she only got a noble concubine, which was not reconciled. Before Zhu Changluo's father went to heaven, Zhu Youxiao, Zhu Changluo's son, was made the grandson of the emperor. After Zhu Changluo died, Zhu Youxiao, the grandson of the emperor, became the emperor of Tianqi. After Li Xuanshi consulted Wei Zhongxian's opinion, he stayed in Qianqing Palace, saying that he wanted to continue raising Zhu Youxiao, who was already sixteen years old, for fear that his weaning would not go well. Later, it was forced by Wei Zhongxian's opponents to move to the Luan (Nianyueran) Palace, which was rebuilt as Ningshou Palace in the Qing Dynasty. This is the "Moving Palace Case" in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Youxiao, Emperor Tianqi reigned for seven years, but he still ate the unlucky elixir and drifted away like his father.
Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty ascended the throne since he was a child, and never lived in the prince's house in this area. Yongzheng lived here before he got married and left the palace; Qianlong lived in his father's Yongwang Mansion when he was a child, and he lived in Yuqing Palace when his father was Yongzheng, and moved to Qianxi No. 5 after getting married. The later Qing emperors lived in Nansan residence when they were young, and became the de facto princes of the East Palace.
Nansan Institute is now also the office space of the Palace Museum, and also serves as a parking lot. In the picture above, you can see parked Audis and Mercedes-Benz, both official vehicles. You can also see garages and fire garages inside if you walk on the west road, which means that the fire brigade of the Forbidden City is here to attack.
Continue to go north along the forest road, and you will see a hall in front of you.
This is Arrow Pavilion. It is five rooms wide and two rooms deep, with a beam-lifting structure and eaves corridors around it. On the top is the top of the mountain with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves, with seven ridge beasts, and the specifications are quite high. The five rooms on the front are fully open, and each room has four doors and six doors, with three crosses and six bowls of lattice flowers. Behind it is the open door and the secondary room, and the solid wall between the ends. Things are also solid walls, no windows. On the horizontal square under the eaves are painted paintings of Ssangyong and Xi. Standing under the veranda and looking up, there is a special place in the structure of the arrow pavilion.
There are bucket arches on the eaves pillars of the outer circle, but there are no bucket arches on the wall pillars of the inner circle, and they are pierced directly to the top, and the ceiling is the ceiling. Its roof is a beam-lifting structure in which beams are directly erected on the top of the pillars, without bucket arches. It is rare to see such a regular hall with yellow glazed tiles directly on the top of the pillars in the Forbidden City, and the Jianting Pavilion may be the only one. This kind of structure is often used in folk buildings. The Yiyuxuan in Yangzhou Geyuan and the Xichuntang in Heyuan that you just saw in March of the fireworks are all beam-lifting structures with beams directly erected on the top of the columns.
The stomp in front of the arrow pavilion is also different from other places, it is very wide, and there is also a Danbi stone in the middle. There are five bronze bulls in front of the gate of Jianting, which symbolizes "five blessings come to the door". The image of these five cows comes from the "Five Bulls Picture" by Han Huang (Huan Nianhuang) in the Tang Dynasty. This is the earliest paper painting in China. Taste. The paper of "Five Bulls" is not Xuan paper, but hemp paper, so it has been handed down for a long time. There are many ancient celebrity inscriptions on it, including Zhao Mengfu. In the eleventh year of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty (AD 1746), this painting entered the Qing Palace, and brother Hongli also wrote poems on it. When the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded, the "Five Bulls Picture" was lost overseas. In the 1950s, the country paid 60,000 Hong Kong dollars to take it back from Hong Kong. It was restored in the 1970s and now exists in the Forbidden City. In 2017, the Forbidden City invited Zhu Bingren, a bronze sculptor from Hangzhou, to make five bronze statues according to the "Picture of Five Bulls" and put them in front of the Arrow Pavilion. The five cows can be kissed, hugged, and ridden, but they are not allowed to take away the cultivated land. In the 2021 CCTV Spring Festival Gala for the Year of the Ox, "Five Bulls" and Tianlongshan Buddha's head will be displayed together as "National Treasure Going Home".
In the Ming Dynasty, there seems to be no record of what buildings there were in Jianting. Anyway, the earliest archery pavilion was built during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. It was a playground for royal horseback riding and archery, mainly for playing archery. The martial arts examination of the Qing Dynasty was also held here, comparing each person's bow and horse skills, the champion can be awarded the first-class guard in front of the imperial court. The current building was rebuilt during the Yongzheng period, and it must have been painted later.
The Qing emperor often organized the princes to practice archery here. The gate was fully opened, and a row of princes stood inside to shoot arrows at the target outside. Later, the princes also practiced muskets here, and then took the musketeers to Longzongmen to resist the Tianli Sect militia. Do you see a row of stone piers on the ground behind the arrow pavilion? Take a closer look.
There are holes in the middle of this row of stone piers, where the archery targets are inserted. You see, cough! Not far away?
The north of Jianting Pavilion is called Jianting Square, and the west side of the square is Jingyun Gate. Entering Jingyunmen is Qianqingmen Square, and the other end of the square is Longzongmen. In the eighteenth year of Jiaqing (AD 1813), the militiamen of Tianli Sect attacked Longzongmen. The prince Minning, who lived in Nansan at that time, went out of Nansan with a gun, went to Jingyunmen, and shot at Longzongmen. Two militiamen were shot and died. . Min Ning was extremely aggressive. When he was ten years old, he followed his grandfather Emperor Qianlong into the mountains to hunt, and once killed a deer. Min Ning later became Emperor Daoguang, and he never went into battle with a gun after that, but went into Kuma and released Nanshan. In the 20th year of Daoguang (AD 1840), the first Opium War broke out and the Qing Dynasty was defeated.
To the north of Jianting Square is the Fengci Hall of the Ming Dynasty, which is now the Yuqing Palace. On the east side of Yuqing Palace is Fengxian Hall, which is one of the two single-fee boutique exhibition halls in the Forbidden City, the Clock and Watch Hall.
When I walked in, I found that the Fengxian Hall, where the clock and watch museum was originally located, was not open, and the clock and watch museum was moved to the Nanqun room opposite the Fengxian Hall. The closure of Fengxian Hall should not be due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it may be due to renovations. I asked about it, and said that it will be displayed in the original state in the future.
Go into the Nanqun Room and look at the palace clocks. The earliest self-ringing bell in the palace was brought into Beijing by the Roman missionary Matteo Ricci in the 28th year of Ming Wanli (AD 1600) and dedicated to Ming Shenzong Zhu Yijun. Take a look at the following, an 18th-century British product, with gold-plated copper fingers and minutes.
There are three dials on the second floor, indicating hours, quarters and minutes. The following is a gold-plated copper inlaid enamel auspicious poultry reporting Swiss clock, which is also an 18th century British product. Produced by the famous British craftsman Williamson during the Queen Anne period.
The clock below is called a gold-plated copper clock, with a British Williamson dial and a Swiss base specially made for Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. It is Qianlong's favorite clock.
The most amazing thing is that the western gentleman in the pavilion below can write Chinese characters, see what he writes.
Before starting, the string must be wound first, then white paper is spread on the small table, and then ink is dipped in the brush of the foreigner's right hand. After starting, the foreigner shook his head and tail, and wrote "Eight Directions, Nine Earths Come King" on the paper.
The entry of Westerners into China started with the missionaries. If the early missionaries wanted to obtain the emperor's permission to work in China, they had to please the emperor. The tributes that were most likely to please the emperor were the above Western clocks. Emperor Qianlong had obtained many such Western clocks, all of which bear the imprint of the times. During the Qianlong period in France, the Rococo art style was in full swing. During this period, clocks and watches from European countries all had the Bling-Bling Rococo style. If there are pictures of Western ladies on the clock, they are all in the fragrant Rococo style of Boucher. This Boucher was from the same era as Qianlong, about ten years older than Qianlong.
Take a look at the production of the Qing Palace Building Office, black lacquer painted pavilions and fairy birthday bells.
Look at the group of immortals above, like three social aunts.
There are also some decorations in the watch hall. Take a look at the set of European-style tables and chairs below, as well as the coffee set on the table.
It is estimated that this is the coffee seat that Wanrong set up in the western restaurant in Chuxiu Palace.
Suddenly, I saw a painting hanging on the wall next to the coffee table.
This is Monet's "Sunrise Impression"! There is actually Monet's signature in the lower left corner. I haven't heard that Monet painted as many "Sunrise Impressions" as he did "Pond Water Lilies". Needless to say, this is a copy. Who copied it? Castiglione? Impossible, he and Monet are not from the same dynasty. There is only such a European-style scene arranged in the watch hall, without explaining the origin of this painting. In addition, a Chinese scene is arranged.
This scene looks much more pleasing to the eye in the Forbidden City. The painting on the wall is a part of "Ciyun Puhu" in the Forty Scenes of the Old Summer Palace made by court painters during the Qianlong period. The painting is the Kyushu "Jian Pavilion" built by Kangxi. Forty original paintings and poems were taken away by the British and French allied forces in 1860, and they are now stored in the National Library of Paris, France. In 1928, a Chinese took a set of black and white photos and brought them back to China. In 1983, a Frenchman gave China a set of color photo plates. In 2003, a company in Beijing bought the original color plate and domestic distribution copyright with a huge sum of money. In 2004, it produced 2004 sets of silk-printed color painting volumes for limited distribution. The first set of this collection of print scrolls is in the National Museum, and the National Library is also in the collection. The 1860th is in the Yuanmingyuan Society, the 1997th is in Hong Kong, and the 1999th is in Macau. There are also many big money, including Li Ka-shing and Zeng Xianzi. I guess the Forbidden City also has a set. I once saw a flower shooter in the park, he took the most beautiful one off and took it away. I think he learned this trick from the British and French allied forces. They destroyed the Old Summer Palace, took away this set of "Forty Scenes", and then sold the pictures of this set of pictures to the Chinese at a high price. Thieves are shameless!
Further east of Fengxian Hall is Neitingwai East Road, where there is another boutique exhibition hall of the Forbidden City, the Treasure Hall. Between the Clock and Watch Hall of Fengxian Temple and the Treasure Hall of Ningshou Palace is Dongtongzi Long Street. There are no doors and matching thresholds on this street, and it leads northward to Shenwumen Square Paradise Street.
The Treasure Hall is located in the Ningshou Palace, and the area around the Ningshou Palace was the place where the empresses and concubines of the first emperors lived for the elderly in the Ming Dynasty. After the first emperor left, the new emperor ascended the throne, and the rear three palaces and the east and west six palaces had to be vacated for the new emperor and concubines to live in. There are some palaces and halls behind the Ningshou Palace. In the Ming Dynasty, concubines also lived there. The Anxi Palace and Zhaode Palace where the Chenghua Emperor's concubine Wangui lived successively should be there. Li Xuanshi, the heroine of the "Moving Palace Case" mentioned above in the Ming Dynasty, was finally moved from the Qianqing Palace to the Luan Palace here. There is also a Fengfeng Palace here. It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang's concubine (Nian Gong) once lived there. They said that concubine Qi was Zhu Di's biological mother. There is no official historical record of this matter, and it is doubtful. According to historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang's concubines were all buried. How could there be a concubine living in the Beijing Palace?
After being burned by King Chuang, in the early Qing Dynasty, this area was quite barren, the kind of wasteland where everything was planted with grass. During the Kangxi period, his biological mother, the Empress Dowager Tong Jia, died early in the second year of Kangxi (1662 A.D.). Living in the Compassion Palace are Kangxi's grandma, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, and her aunt, the Empress Dowager Renxian, who was the second empress of Shunzhi, Empress Xiaohuizhang. After the death of his biological mother, the relationship between Emperor Kangxi and his aunt, Empress Dowager Renxian became closer. In the 22nd year of Kangxi, Ningshou Palace, where Empress Dowager Renxian lived, began to be rebuilt here in Hall No. 1 of the Ming Dynasty. In the twenty-sixth year of Kangxi, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang passed away, and she was seventy-four years old. Three hundred and thirty years ago, in the twenty-eighth year of Kangxi, Ningshou Palace was completed, and Empress Dowager Renxian lived in it. Ningshou Palace is the main hall in the front, and Jingfu Palace is the sleeping hall in the back. The Empress Dowager lived in Gyeongbokgung until her teeth shook, she was over seventy years old. Emperor Kangxi was also dizzy and swollen at this time, and he was nearly sixty years old. In the fifty-two year of Kangxi, the Queen Mother also passed away, and she was seventy-seven years old. During the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, Kangxi's noble concubines lived here, including the concubine Guerjia, until the death of the eighty-six-year-old concubine He in the thirty-third year of Qianlong (1768 A.D.), and Ningshou Palace was idled thereafter.
In the thirty-sixth year of Qianlong's reign, the entire Ningshou Palace area was rebuilt in an edict, occupying a large area of land. He is preparing to live there after returning to power, and then, at that time, he will be the Supreme Emperor. Qianlong said that sitting on the throne could not exceed the 60 years of his grandfather Kangxi, but how did he know that he could live to that time?
In the forty-first year of Qianlong, the renovation project was completed. A small palace was built in the area of Ningshou Palace, and its main entrance is Huangji Gate.
The Huangji Gate is very low-key, it is the three arched glazed gates on the wall of the tall palace. But there are Huangji left gate and Huangji right gate side by side on both sides of it, for non-emperor himself to walk.
The front of Huangjimen is of course called Huangjimen Square, it is not square, it is long from east to west and short from north to south. There are also doors at the east and west ends. To the east is Lianxi Gate and to the west is Xiqing Gate. The Lianxi Gate in the east is closed, and the Xiqing Gate in the west is now the entrance gate of the Treasure Hall. There is a glazed screen wall on the south wall opposite Huangji Gate, which is also the back wall of the warehouse behind Nansan. There is a screen wall in front of the mountain gate. This layout is commonly used in Chinese temples. Later, the palace also built such a screen wall outside the gate. Screen walls are very common, and there are various types. The center of the wall generally has patterns, most of which are carved with bricks, and there are also glazed ones. There are nine dragons on the glazed screen wall in front of Huangji Gate, called Nine Dragon Wall, which was built in the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty (AD 1772).
Dragons symbolized imperial power in ancient times, and nine dragons were the highest level. The Nine Dragon Wall is the highest grade glazed screen wall, and ordinary people definitely cannot use it. There are now four Nine Dragon Walls in China. Besides this one, there is another one in Beihai Park in Beijing, which is double-sided and was also built during the Qianlong period. Beihai Park used to be a royal garden, so there is no problem in building a Nine Dragon Wall. In Datong, Shanxi Province, there is the Nine-Dragon Wall, which is the oldest in China, and it is the screen wall in front of the palace of Zhu Gui, the thirteenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang. There is also a Nine-Dragon Wall in Pingyao, Shanxi. This one is very special. Although it was also built in the early Ming Dynasty, it has no royal background. Opposite the Nine Dragon Wall in Pingyao is the Prince Temple in the past. What is enshrined in the temple is not the Prince Ming, nor the Buddha, but the statue of the Prince of Kapilavastu before the Buddha became a Buddha. Among the four Nine-Dragon Walls, only the one in Beihai Park is double-sided, while the others are single-sided. On the Nine Dragon Wall of Huangjimen, there are nine dragons of different colors flying on the waves. Of course, the golden dragon is in the middle, and it faces forward, which is called Zhenglong. Look at the dragon head of the golden dragon.
The dragons on the left and right sides of it are symmetrical colors, and the rising dragon and the descending dragon are staggered. Among the nine dragons on the wall, the two white dragons are the most tragic. The lower half of the white dragon’s abdomen in the east was made of glazed glass that was broken when it was installed during the Qianlong period. In order not to delay the construction period, the workers did not burn a new piece, but carved a piece of wood and painted it with white paint. "Green paint" is the trick learned from this. It was not discovered at the time of acceptance, but after a long time, the white paint peeled off, revealing the true color of the wood. It is said that when it was discovered, Emperor Xun Puyi lived in Tianjin, and when he heard about it, he said, "Those craftsmen should be killed." You see, this Puyi is so inferior, he still thinks about arresting and hacking people casually. Now tourists A and B who come to the Nine Dragon Wall every day come to see this piece of wood. If you don’t know where it is, there will be a visitor C who will point it out to you.
The white dragon in the west has lost a section of its abdomen.
After entering the Huangji Gate, you can see a formal palace gate in front of it, which is Ningshou Gate. The square between Huangjimen and Ningshoumen is called Ningshoumen Square. It is very large. Three days after Qianlong abdicated, a banquet for thousands of seniors was held in Huangji Hall of Ningshou Palace. This Ningshoumen Square.
Ningshoumen and Qianqingmen have basically the same architectural form, and they are also house-style gates with five rooms and three openings, with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves resting on the top of the mountain. There is also a pair of gilt bronze lions in front of the door.
The special thing about Ningshou Gate is that the well pavilion is outside the gate. Usually the well pavilions should be in the courtyard, but there is a well pavilion in the corners on the east and west sides outside Ningshou Gate.
Entering Ningshou Gate is the same as Qianqing Gate, with a platform leading directly to the main hall behind. The main hall is the Huangji Hall, and the Ningshou Palace plaque was moved to the bedroom behind. This "Emperor Palace" dragon plaque is too new, it doesn't look like it matches the main hall.
The architectural form of the Huangji Hall is basically the same as that of the Qianqing Palace. It is also a five-foot-high single-story platform with yellow glazed tiles and double-eave roofs. There are nine ridge beasts, all of which are nine rooms wide and five rooms deep. The east and west of the Qianqing Palace are open, more like eaves corridors, and the Huangji Hall is formally nine rooms wide. Three doors were opened between the Ming Dynasty and the second time of the Qianqing Palace, and five doors were opened between the Ming Dynasty and the second time of the Huangji Palace. The Yunlongquedai under the eaves of the Huangji Hall is very special, and it is different from other halls in the Forbidden City. The first three halls and the rear three palaces are all painted woodcut flowers and plants, but here in the Huangji Hall are woodcuts pasted with gold clouds and dragons, which look like cast copper after being rough. There are yellow-green glazed tortoise-patterned bricks pasted on the outside of the sill wall under the window between the small and the extreme, which is the same as the Hall of Supreme Harmony. There are also sundials and Jialiang Pavilion on the east and west sides of the platform of Huangji Hall, and the Jialiang Pavilion is empty. On the platform, there is a Wanshou lamp base on both sides of Danchi. The lost furnishings on the platform include a bronze tortoise, a bronze crane and a tripod furnace. There is also a pedestal on the east and west sides under the platform. This is not a longevity lamp, but a sky lantern.
In the center of the hall are six large golden lacquered pillars, and the patterns on them are called Jiangshan Wandai Yunlongtu, which is the same as the Hall of Supreme Harmony. There is a platform in the middle, on which the emperor's throne is placed, and behind the throne is a back screen made according to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Behind the platform, there is a golden plaque of two dragons hanging between the two rear golden pillars in the middle, and a golden plaque of five dragons is hung in this position of the Qianqing Palace. On the golden plaque, there is a paper plaque of "Rende Dalong" hanging in front of the horizontal square.
There are tripod furnaces, white elephants and luduan on both sides. A white elephant carrying a vase is called "Taiping has an elephant", which is very auspicious.
Take a look at the algae well imitating the Doubahun golden Panlong in the Hall of Supreme Harmony above, with a one-foot-high Xuanyuan mirror hanging on it. It can be seen that two squares are rotated 45° and stacked together, which is the so-called "Douba".
The above plaque of "Rende Dalong" was reproduced in recent years, and the original one is currently hanging under the archway outside the gate of Huangji Hall.
The seal on the original plaque is "The Treasure of the Empress Dowager Cixi's Royal Brush" in the middle, "Counting the Heart of Plum Blossoms of Heaven and Earth" on the left, and "Peace, Benevolence and Heaven and Earth Consent" on the right. These three seals are giant sandalwood seals, which are specially engraved on large-character plaques written by Cixi himself or written on behalf of others. They are the largest seals in the palace. There is also a plaque of benevolence and virtue in the Palace of Compassion, which was also inscribed by Cixi. The time is unknown. The plaque was originally restored. The word "Plum Blossom" on the "Rende Dalong" plaque in the Huangji Hall does not match with that in the Compassion Palace, indicating that this plaque is likely to be forged, leaving flaws for future generations to comment on.
Seeing the "Huangji Hall" plaque under the eaves, you can't help but think that the Hall of Supreme Harmony was called "Huangji Hall" in the late Ming Dynasty. That is to say, although the Huangji Hall in Ningshou Palace was built according to the architectural form of Qianqing Palace, what Lao Gan thought in his heart was according to the level of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, second only to the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
In the forty-fourth year of Qianlong (1779 A.D.), the Huangji Hall was completed. According to Qianlong's own plan, he lived in Ningshou Palace after retirement. The front hall is a court hall equivalent to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, where congratulations are received; the sleeping palace is the Ningshou Palace at the back. Moreover, Qianlong said that this area was not allowed to be changed after his death, and it was still used as the pension place for the retired emperor. He set the sixty years of Kangxi's reign as the ceiling of the Qing emperor's reign, and no one was allowed to exceed sixty years. His uncle also issued an edict, "If I have been in the Qing Dynasty for hundreds of millions of years, and my descendants will look up to Hao's relatives, and enjoy the country for a long time like I do, and live to the end of my life, Ningshou Palace will still be the residence of the Supreme Emperor." , this edict became the ancestral system. In fact, Laogan himself has appeared here twice. The first time was the completion and acceptance of the project in the 44th year of Qianlong, and invited the princes and ministers to drink imperial tea by the way; After retiring, Qianlong, as the Supreme Emperor, came to the banquet of the thousand elders for the only time. On weekdays, he would sit in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, but during Chinese New Year, he would go to the Hall of Supreme Harmony to receive congratulations, which was a bit unreasonable. The reason why Lao Ganlai didn't show up in the Hall of Mental Cultivation was to continue to train the government, and there were two other things in the dark. One is that the seal handle cannot be easily put down, "Life is endless, and palm prints are endless." On the other hand, Qianlong's two favorite women in his life, the first one was Empress Fucha, who lived in the Changchun Palace, but lived in the east wing of the Hall of Mental Cultivation when she was sleeping. After the death of Empress Fucha, Qianlong's favorite concubine Ling also lived in this east wing when she was seriously ill. Qianlong kept the layout of Empress Fucha in the Changchun Palace until he abdicated, and the east wing of the Yangxin Palace was still the layout of Lingfei. Lao Gan wanted to live next to Lingfei's old house until he died.
After Qianlong, Jiaqing came to Huangji Hall once, that was the thirteenth year of Jiaqing (1808 A.D.) New Year's Eve banquet for ministers. This banquet was supposed to take place in the Hall of Preservation and Harmony. This year, one of the ceilings of the Hall of Preservation and Harmony collapsed, and construction could not be carried out in winter. Therefore, the Palace of Preservation and Harmony was used to hold a banquet for ministers on New Year's Eve. Since then, not only the Huangji Hall, but the entire Ningshou Palace area has been vacant. Until the 20th year of Guangxu (1894 A.D.), the 60th birthday celebration of Cixi was held here. For this celebration, the Huangji Hall was repainted. The Qianlong plaques and couplets in the hall were also replaced. Behind the throne was the inscription "Jianji Kangning" written by Qianlong, and the couplets on both sides were also inscribed by Qianlong. When Empress Dowager Cixi celebrated her 60th birthday, the plaque on it was replaced by the paper plaque that she inscribes "Benevolence and Virtue Dalong" that she now hangs, and the couplets on both sides were also replaced by Guangxu inscriptions. Since then, Cixi, a woman, could not appear in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. She often received festival celebrations in this Huangji Hall, which was only lower than the Hall of Supreme Harmony, including Spring Festival, Winter Solstice and birthdays, and also received foreign envoys here. The 60th birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi was originally planned to be held in the Paiyun Hall of the Summer Palace, but news of the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 broke out, so the ceremony in the Summer Palace had to be cancelled, and it was changed to the Huangji Hall in the palace. In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu, after Cixi's death, the coffin was not parked in the Cining Palace, but in this Huangji Hall, until it was buried in Dingdong Tomb a year later. Empress Dowager Cixi and Empress Dowager Ci'an were not buried together with Emperor Xianfeng, but each had its own tomb. Xianfeng Dingdong Mausoleum consists of one imperial mausoleum and two later mausoleums, which is the only one among Qing mausoleums.
After Cixi's death, she stopped her coffin in the Huangji Hall with a bad head, and then Guangxu's Empress Longyu also stopped her coffin in the Huangji Hall after her death.
In 2012, the Forbidden City re-arranged the Huangji Hall according to the original state during the Qianlong period, and then opened it to visitors. I guess the Qianlong tablet couplet on the throne must not be found, and there are no fakes or pictures left. There was no choice but to remake the couplets of Cixi and Guangxu and hang them up.
The platform in front of the Huangji Hall is relatively small, and it is not possible to walk from both sides of the platform to the apse. There are hanging flower doors on the palace walls on both sides of the platform to go to the apse.
The apse of Huangji Hall is Ningshou Palace.
The "Ningshou Palace" plaque that used to hang on the front hall is now hung in the back hall. Both Ningshou Palace and Huangji Hall were built in the 28th year of Kangxi. When Emperor Qianlong rebuilt the Huangji Hall in the 41st year, the Ningshou Palace was also rebuilt together. Ningshou Palace and the platform under Huangji Hall are integrated, and the emperor came and went through the back door of Huangji Hall, which is the same as the first three halls and the last three palaces. Ningshou Palace is seven rooms wide and three rooms deep, with yellow glazed tiles on the top of the mountain with single eaves. This one is different from Baohe Palace and Kunning Palace, which have double eaves. The sparrows under the eaves are the same as the Huangji Hall in the front hall. What is special about the eaves of Ningshou Palace is that there is an additional layer in the middle of the upper and lower brackets between the eaves and pillars. This layer is decorated with a row of hollowed out Yunlong woodcuts, which are called Huahuan Huaban. The Yunlong collar here is the same as the sparrow, it is woodcut and gilded. That sparrow may be original, at least refurbished for Cixi's 60th birthday decoration. This Yunlong collar has obviously been repaired in recent years, and the gilt on it is very new. Now you can see the original effect of these woodcuts pasted with golden clouds and dragon sparrows. What is pasted on them is not pure gold, but muddy gold. We now call pure gold open gold; muddy gold is called rose gold, and the purity is quite low. The front of Ningshou Palace is the same as that of Kunning Palace, with doors open to the east, while other rooms are equipped with mullioned hanging windows.
You can go in and visit Ningshou Palace. The layout inside is almost the same as Kunning Palace. It was used by Qianlong to worship Shaman after retirement. There is half a warm pavilion after Dongcijian enters the door, and it must be a place for those who boil water and boil meat.
The two rooms on the east side are closed into a warm pavilion, which can be used as a bedroom, similar to the emperor's new house in the east warm pavilion of Kunning Palace. The west side is connected, and a big kang can be seen under the wall at the end of the west. Inside the main hall is the dragon, phoenix and seal painted Pingqi ceiling.
Before the Qing Dynasty entered the Pass, the imperial palace was in Shengjing, which is now the Shenyang Imperial Palace. The main hall of the Shenyang Imperial Palace is the Dazheng Hall, and there is a Qingning Hall behind it, which is the place where the Qing ancestors worshiped the gods and shamans. After entering the customs, the Kunning Palace was transformed into a temple for the Qing emperor to sacrifice to the shaman. After the sacrifice, the princes and ministers were allowed to enter the hall to eat meat. Emperor Qianlong said in the "Ningshou Palace Inscription Supplementary Notes" that he planned to move the God of Kunning Palace here after retirement, and worship Shaman in this Ningshou Palace. If it is to relocate the gods of Kunning Palace, where will the descendants of the post worship the gods?
In the eighth year of Yongzheng, the Fucha clan of Fujin, the descendant of Prince Bao Hongli, the fourth son of the emperor, gave birth to a son. This was the eldest son of Hongli, and Emperor Yongzheng bestowed the name Yonglian. Yong Lian was raised by a concubine who lived in Ningshou Palace at that time. In fact, he should have lived in the apse of Ningshou Palace at that time, which is now Ningshou Palace. At that time, the concubine of Emperor Kangxi and Concubine Tong lived in Ningshou Palace. Hongli himself was raised by these two concubines when he was a child. This time Hongli had the eldest son, so he was sent to Ningshou Palace, Hefei and Concubine Tong to raise him. However, Concubine Tong was almost seventy years old at this time, and it was estimated that he could only start with it. Before Emperor Qianlong, the Qing emperor had no heir to the throne, so after Hongli ascended the throne, Emperor Qianlong had great expectations for the eldest son Yonglian. He secretly appointed Yong Lian as the crown prince, and even made a box to put Yong Lian's name on a piece of paper and put it behind the upright plaque in the Qianqing Palace. Unexpectedly, in the snowy winter of the third year of Qianlong, the nine-year-old Yong Lian "occasionally suffered from cold and illness, so he couldn't afford it and died." Ancient medicine was underdeveloped. Even in the emperor's house, it was not easy to raise children. Any cold disease such as smallpox or typhoid could take away the child. Therefore, the emperor's family had to play around to marry a wife and have children, hoping to raise a few sons to take over. The later Qing emperors were all dead. There were two generations of Qing emperors who brought children from other people's families to succeed them, but they lost their thrones.
There is a sign of "Stone Drum Hall" hanging outside the gate of Ningshou Palace, and the ten-faced stone drum in the picture above is exhibited inside, which is the famous "Chencang Stone Drum". According to records, in the early years of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty (627 A.D.), there was a storehouse in the land of Fengxiang Qishan. This Chencang is the place where Han Xin successfully "built the plank road in the open and kept Chencang in the dark" during the struggle between Chu and Han; Next, in the Tang Dynasty, one day, a shepherd in Chencang went up to the mountain to herd sheep. After the sheep had gone to graze, the pastor sat on a rock and sang folk songs. While singing, the pastor suddenly found that there were several large rocks beside him that were the same as the one sitting under his buttocks. Pastor Chen Cang thought that if there was something different about this stone, there must be a demon. The next day, the pastor came here to herd the sheep again, but the ten stones were still there, not yet escaped. The pastor dug away the soil covering the stone, but saw ancient stone carvings and paintings on the stone. The pastor hurriedly cleaned up the ten stones, and went home to tell the neighbors about the strange stones on the mountain. All the relatives agree that this is a strange stone from heaven and people, and something big will happen. Everyone went up the mountain to worship the ten stones, which were exactly "wives and aunts eating lotus, children and children carrying pots of pulp, going with the stones, young and strong in Nangang". As a result, countless literati guessed the picture on the stone, and found that it was not a picture, but a character, seal character. Because these big stones are shaped like drums, literati call them stone drums. The literati knew the seal characters on it, and read out that on each stone drum was a four-character poem similar to the "Book of Songs", describing ten scenes of Duke Qin running wildly on the mountains and rivers with his entourage. The literati named it "Liejie", also known as "Chencang Shijie". Jie is a stone tablet with a dome. The Chencang Stone Drum was lost in the Tang Dynasty due to the war, and when it reappeared in the Song Renzong period, one of the "Zuoyuan Stone Drums" was missing, and someone made a fake one to make up for it. A few years later, this original stone drum was recovered from a stove in a farmhouse, but it was completely damaged and severely damaged. During the Jingkang disaster, the Chencang stone drum was transported to Yanjing by the Jin soldiers, and then discarded. After the Yuan army captured Yanjing, Shigu returned and was collected in Guozijian. The Chencang stone drum was moved southward with the cultural relics of the Forbidden City, and then transported to Taiwan in a dangerous manner, but failed and returned to the Forbidden City. The ten-faced Chencang Stone Drum is the earliest surviving stone-carved poem in China and one of the treasures of the town. There are nine legendary national treasures: the gold ornaments of the Shang and Zhou god birds in the Jinsha Site Museum in Chengdu; Dushan Mountain and Great Jade Sea in the Yuan Dynasty; the Chencang Stone Drum in the Pre-Qin Dynasty, the "Pingfu Post" by Lu Ji in the Jin Dynasty, the "Five Bulls Picture" by Han Huang in the Tang Dynasty and the Dingyao Children's Pillow in the Song Dynasty are in the collection of the Forbidden City. Chencang Stone Drum is called "the ancestor of seal script", and there is a stone tablet in Longxing Temple in Zhengding, Hebei Province called "the ancestor of regular script". For more than a thousand years, experts all over the world have studied the research on Chencang Stone Drum, but it is impossible to determine who its author was and when it was written. So far, everyone has accepted that it was written during the period of King Qin Huiwen who killed Shang Yang in the late Warring States period, that is, more than 300 BC and more than 2,300 years today. Does Hachiko matter? In addition to the ten stone drums lined up in two rows in this exhibition, there is also a stele of "Stone Drum Text and Yin Training" written by Siye Pandi, son of the Yuan Dynasty, in the middle of the west. The tablet says the explanation and pronunciation of the stone drum text. Guozi Siye is the adjutant of Guozijian, and the official is Jijiu. Look at the "Tian Che Drum" in Chencang Stone Drum.
The Chencang Stone Drum is precious, as are its rubbings. The rubbings of the Tang Dynasty were lost; the rubbings of the Song Dynasty were left in the Eastern Kingdom. Check out the Dongguo photocopy of Tianchegu Song Ruuben.
The palace area of Ningshou Palace is the front three courtyards: the courtyard between Huangji Gate and Ningshou Gate, the square between Ningshou Gate and Huangji Palace, and the last one is the yard between Huangji Palace and Ningshou Palace. There are verandas in each courtyard, and there are small houses on the verandas, which can also be called verandas. The Treasure Hall of the Forbidden City is located in these huts, so when looking at the Treasure Hall, you can take a look at the entire Ningshou Palace area of the Taishanghuang Nursing Home.
Look at the treasures in the treasure house. Ming Wanli phoenix crown is called "Golden Dragon and Phoenix Crown with Emerald Emerald Pearl Stone". This is an unearthed cultural relic from the Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun's mausoleum, in which two queens, Xiaoduan and Xiaojing, were buried. This phoenix crown was worn by Empress Xiaojing. This Empress Xiaojing is the sad concubine Wang Gong mentioned in the previous episodes. She was originally the maid of the Empress Dowager Li. When Zhu Yijun visited her mother, she secretly gave birth to the prince Zhu Changluo. Concubine Wang Gong was not favored by Zhu Yijun, and was locked in Jingyang Palace, the most remote place in the Sixth East Palace. His son Zhu Changluo died in the Hongwan case before he ascended the throne and Emperor Taichang had no time to honor his mother. It wasn't until his grandson Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne as Emperor Tianqi that his grandmother Wang Gongfei was honored as Empress Xiaojing and buried in the main hall of Dingling Mausoleum. When the burial was moved, the empress-level funeral objects were added. This phoenix crown should have been added when the burial was moved, so it may be from the reign of Tianqi. After all, Empress Xiaojing had never worn a phoenix crown before. After being looted by the Qing emperor, almost all the treasures of the Ming emperor in the palace were lost. Zhu Yijun's Dingling Tomb is the only Ming emperor's tomb that has been excavated, and some hard imperial treasures were unearthed in it. In addition to this phoenix crown, there are other cultural relics unearthed from Dingling in the Forbidden City.
The headgear used by women in the Qing Dynasty is much more advanced than the headgear worn by patients with head trauma in hospitals today. Oh, it turns out that this kind of headgear is called "Tian".
This tea bowl is quite beautiful. It is called "golden cloisonné enamel inlaid gemstone high-footed bowl", a patented product of Qianlong.
The royal gold inlaid with jade is called "Golden Chisel Flower Ruyi".
The imperial jug with the pictures of the ladies in the courtyard is called the "golden body filigree enamel inlaid painting enamel holding pot", which is also a patented product of Qianlong.
Agate products, called "Golden Chiseled Agate Bowl with High Feet and Cover", made in Qianlong, non-patented product.
The gold utensils placed on the table when worshiping Buddha are called "gold inlaid with pearls and seven treasures". In the exhibition room, they are not placed in the order prescribed by Buddhism, in case there are worshipers who do not want to get up from the ground and affect the traffic.
In addition to the seven treasures, there are also eight treasures, which are called "eight treasures inlaid with gold". They are also not placed in the order prescribed by Buddhism, and the meaning is the same as above.
The stupa is definitely indispensable, the stupa with gold inlaid pearls and gems.
In addition to gold and jade, there is another good thing in Chinese treasures is red coral. Take a look at the red coral bonsai in the copper-plated enamel-inlaid begonia-style pot below.
Among the royal treasures and jades, the Tianhuang stone carving of "one or two Tianhuang and one two gold" is definitely indispensable. Take a look at the Tianhuang stone carving of the Yuxuan model below.
Yuxuan, Yang Yuxuan, a master of Shoushan stone carving in the Qing Dynasty, is good at figures and beasts.
Similar to the setting of the Clock and Watch Pavilion, there are also pictures and text treasures in the Treasure Pavilion. Check out this group below.
In the front is a ruby plum bonsai in a gold-plated copper pot with chiseled longevity characters, and in the back is the "Momei Tu" by Wang Mian of the Yuan Dynasty in the Forbidden City, on which Wang Mian wrote poems and Qianlong imperial poems. Although there is no fragrant plum, it complements each other when paired together.
Look at another group.
In the front is the picture of cranes and deer with emerald green carvings and the picture of Shanzi in Spring, and everyone knows the painting in the back. Part of the long scroll "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", which is the pinnacle of the famous blue and green landscape painting by Wang Ximeng of the Northern Song Dynasty, was collected in the Forbidden City. Although the jade carving and the back picture are not the same theme, they are both green landscapes with the same sentiment.
There are so many treasures in the Treasure Hall, if you like it, you have to watch it for three days and three nights.
(to be continued)
