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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There were three north-south axes in the imperial palace in the Qing Dynasty. From Meridian Gate to Shenwu Gate was the central axis of the middle road, running through the imperial palace. The east road has an axis in the Ningshou Palace area, from Huangji Gate to Jingqi Pavilion in the north. There is also an axis on the west road, from the Great Buddha Hall in the back hall of the Temple of Compassion to Ning to the south, through the main hall of the Palace of Compassion to Ning, the Gate of Compassion to Ning, and the Gate of Changxin, to the Nantian Gate. Standing at the Cining Gate, look at the Changxin Gate facing south, and you can pass through the Changxin Gate until you see the Nantian Gate at the far end.

Changxin Gate was called Yong'an Gate in the Ming Dynasty, and it is a small square that is slender from north to south.

There is Nantian Gate in the south of the square, and Range Rover Gate in the west, both of which are simple wall-mounted glazed doors. According to research, this area is the inner range of the Yuan Dadu Imperial Palace. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di smashed it and built the front hall of the aforementioned Renshou Palace called Dashan Hall, which was burned down during the Jiajing period. When Jiajing built the Cining Palace for his mother, Empress Dowager Jiang, he built it into a garden. Five or six years ago, when the Forbidden City was digging cable trenches here, it dug out the rammed earth layer and ground nails and ground piles in the underground part of the Dashan Hall, which is professionally called concealed engineering. A section of old floor tiles is preserved in the middle of the square. The outside of the east wall is currently closed to the public. The inside used to be the factory of the Qing Dynasty's Manufacturing Office, and now it is the Department of Restoration and Technology of the Forbidden City. Inside the Range Rover Gate is the Garden of Compassion Palace, which was repaired in the Qing Dynasty. The area of ​​the garden is small, about the same as Qianlong Garden. There are not many buildings in the garden, and the central building is Xianruo Pavilion.

Xianruo Pavilion is five rooms wide and three rooms deep, and there are three buildings in front of it. The two-foot-high pedestal opens the door in Baoxia Mingjian, and there is a royal road in front of the door. On the top is the top of the mountain with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves, and the top of the mountain with rolling sheds. There is a circle of eaves corridors, plum blossom eaves columns, and Fengduo copper bells hanging under the ridge.

The Xianruo Hall has been repaired in recent years. Take a look at the upper structure of the hall. The peony-painted Pingqi ceiling, and the dragon, phoenix and seal paintings on the Liang Fang, both retain the original state and newly supplemented parts. Experts studied the style and characteristics of these bucket arches, and said that the main hall of Xianruo Pavilion was built in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and the Baosha was built in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.

After the emperor's visit in the previous dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, the queen and concubines moved to the Cining Palace, Shoukang Palace and the surrounding small houses. Only during the New Year's Eve would the emperor come to pay his respects. Usually I have nothing to do, and I can't count on the first emperor to pay for it, but I don't have to fight for favor. After these concubines thought about it, they worshiped Buddha every day, morning, noon and evening every class. The Empress Dowager has private houses to worship Buddha in the Palace of Compassion and Shoukang, and her concubines have also placed incense burners at the end of the kang bed, but they can come to this Xianruo Pavilion to worship the Buddha. Look at the layout of the inner Buddhist hall.

This Buddhist hall is arranged in accordance with the rules of Tibetan Buddhism, and the front row is a cast copper five-offer tripod candle bottle. There is a row of woodcut and gilded vases in the back, and woodcarved and gilded coral trees are inserted in the front and rear vases. Behind it is an altar with eight treasures on it. We have seen a set of eight treasures inlaid with gold gems in the Treasure Hall. There is no Buddha statue in the Buddhist altar. It seems that this altar should be hung with a thangka of Buddha statue. There are brocade prayer flags hanging on the beams, many of which have faded.

To the south of Xianruo Pavilion is the Linxi Pavilion built by the aforementioned Empress Dowager Li, the wife of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty.

Linxi Pavilion is a three-bay square pavilion with open doors on all sides, and the doors and windows are simple oblique square lattice flowers. The sill wall in the middle is pasted with glazed bricks, with corners and carved boxes, which are very gorgeous. On the top are bucket arches and beams, yellow glazed tiles with blue trimmed edges, single eaves and four corners with pointed roofs, glazed dew plates and gold-plated jeweled bead ridge brakes. The pavilion is built on a lotus pond, and there is a circle of white marble handrails around the pond.

Go in and have a look.

The above is the ceiling of the sea wall, the peony painted Pingqi, and the painted Douba Panlong flat algae well. The Garden of Compassion Ning Palace is a hidden place, and it is very emotional, quite effective in attracting flowers and attracting butterflies. Occasionally, a beautiful woman would come to the door and stand there, throwing the round fan on the ground like a shoe. It turned out that there was a photographer over there lying on the railing of the pool, and he was taking the Nth picture of her private photo album.

In addition to adult beauties who come here to take ancient photos, there are also underage beauties.

Linxi Pavilion is a special event for beauties, handsome men should stay away. Where is this Sanshe? It's just under the wall.

There are rocks and trees around Linxi Pavilion, which is cool. To the south of the pavilion is a flower pond, where peonies are planted.

There used to be a pavilion at both ends of the flower pond, the Cuifang Pavilion to the east and the Lvyun Pavilion to the west. There is also a well pavilion at the bottom of the south wall of the two pavilions, leading water to walk in the small canal on the ground and flow into the pool of Linxi Pavilion. Cuifang Pavilion, Lvyun Pavilion and the two well pavilions are all gone now. Instead, two side halls were built under the courtyard walls on the east and west sides, each with a width of five rooms and a depth of one room. Look at the west side hall. The exhibition in the hall is some royal golden nanmu furniture, and sells some gadgets.

Corresponding to the north and south flower ponds of Linxi Pavilion, there is also a north flower pond, where peonies are planted. It will bloom in season for the appreciation of retired concubines. The Compassion Ning Palace has a wide variety of peonies and peonies, and even the ceilings in the house are painted with peonies and peonies. This may be because the peony has large flowers, graceful and luxurious, and has always been known as a national beauty and heavenly fragrance. This can be regarded as a compliment to the queens and concubines of the previous dynasty, which shows that this is a peony garden, with the beauty and beauty of the country after retirement. Besides, is there another reason for widely planting peonies?

Xianruo Pavilion, the main hall of the Garden of Compassion Ning Palace, has east and west side halls, the east side hall is Baoxiang Building, and the west side hall is Jiyun Building. The two buildings are similar in shape. Look at the Baoxiang Building on the east side, a two-story building with a width of seven rooms, with eaves and corridors on the front and bottom. This is the sixth-grade Buddha building mentioned in the article about Fanhua Building in Ningshou Palace, but the Buddha statues and Thangkas in this Baoxiang Building are almost lost. If you can't see the Fanhua Building, you can look at this Baoxiang Building, which is a sense.

Look at the Jiyun Tower on the west side.

Jiyun Tower is also a Buddhist hall, which contains 10,000 statues of Buddha mothers, which are the kind of Buddha statues. This is the only Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas in the palace, and also the only Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism.

There is a small courtyard in the south of Baoxiang Building, Hanqingzhai, and there is also a small courtyard in the south of Jiyun Tower opposite, called Yanshou Hall.

The Yanshou Hall is very small, with two entrances at the front and back, and a door along the wall on the side. As soon as you enter the courtyard, the main room is three rooms wide and three rooms deep. This kind of three-coupon hook-up roof is not only found in the imperial palace, but it is also not common in the market. From the side, it looks like the waves of the Yangtze River push forward, which is very unique. The second entrance courtyard is the bedroom, and there is only one room in the depth, with a gray tile roll shed and a hard mountain top. Yanshou Hall and Hanqingzhai were built by Qianlong. After he moved his mother, the Empress Dowager Chongqing, to Shoukang Palace, he thought that if the Empress Dowager fell ill, he would live in Yanshou Hall to make medicine for her to prolong her life. If the mother dies, Lao Gan intends to observe filial piety on the straw mat sleeping floor in Hanqingzhai, which is called "Tomaci", which means to prolong the life of the mother. In fact, Lao Gan never really lived here.

There is also a building to the north of Xianruo Pavilion, the main hall of the garden of Cining Palace, called Ciyin Building.

The east and west side halls of Xianruo Pavilion, Jiyun Building and Baoxiang Building are both seven rooms wide, and in order to match Xianruo Pavilion, Ciyin Building is five rooms wide and is also a two-story building. On the east, west and north sides of Xianruo Pavilion are two-story buildings with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves on the top of the mountain. It seems to be surrounded by mountains. There is a pool under the pavilion facing the stream in front, so the Xianruo Pavilion is facing south from the north, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the water on the other, the feng shui is so good. Ciyin Tower is a scripture building, which used to contain the Tibetan "Tripitaka". The Garden of Compassionate Ninggong is actually a Tibetan Buddhist temple, including the Buddhist Hall, the Sixth Grade Buddha Building, the Ten Thousand Buddha Hall and the Tibetan Scripture Building.

At the east tip of Ciyin Building is a passage door, and behind it is a small door leading directly to Ciningmen Square. The door opening is very dark.

Inside the door opening is the ceiling with sea wall, Su-style flat chess painting, and peonies and peonies.

After watching the Garden of Compassion Ning Palace, return to Longzongmen Square. From the west side of the square, follow the outer wall of the left gate of Yongkang to the north and go to the end. On the right hand, that is, on the east side is Qixiang Gate, which is the west end of Xiyiheng Lane in the West Sixth Palace. The West Sixth Palace and the East Road are not completely symmetrical, which is the result of the transformation of the Qing Dynasty, especially during the Qianlong period.

Going east into Qixiang Gate, there is a side lane of West Six Palaces, and the Taiji Hall is in front of it. Turn back and walk west towards the Qixiang Gate, and at the end is the Shou'an Palace behind the Shoukang Palace. Shou'an Palace was called Xianxi Palace in the early Ming Dynasty, and it was called Xian'an Palace after it was rebuilt during the Jiajing period. Xian'an Palace is also the residence of the concubines of the former Ming Dynasty. During the Longqing period, Concubine Chen Yong of Emperor Jiajing lived here. But there are exceptions. During the Tianqi period, the Hakka family, the nanny of Emperor Zhu Youxiao of Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty, once lived here. Ordinarily, the Hakka family should live in the West No. 2 Institute, but Zhu Youxiao made an exception and let her live in Xian'an Palace, and married her to Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian and the Hakka division of labor, the Hakka was responsible for destroying the concubines in the inner palace, resulting in Zhu Youxiao's childlessness, and finally passed the throne to his younger brother Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian. The Hakka family lived in Xian'an Palace until Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty died. After moving out of the palace, he was arrested by Chongzhen and flogged to death in the laundry room.

In the early Qing Dynasty, the Xian'an Palace was abandoned and useless. During the reign of Kangxi, Yinfeng was under house arrest here twice when he was deposed as the prince, until he died here in the second year of Yongzheng. After Yongzheng came, he set up an official school in Xian'an Palace, which was the Royal Children's University. In the 16th year of Qianlong (AD 1751), in order to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Empress Dowager Chongqing, the official school was moved away, and the Xian'an Palace was rebuilt and renamed Shou'an Palace. Qianlong set up a temporary three-story stage behind the Chunxi Hall in the front hall of the Shouan Palace, and the emperor and the queen mother sat in the main hall of the Shouan Palace to watch the play. Ten years later, Qianlong was going to celebrate his mother's 70th birthday again. The temporary stage was definitely unusable, and a permanent three-story theater building was built. This large theater building should be similar to Changyin Pavilion in Ningshou Palace, and earlier than Changyin Pavilion. During the birthday celebration ceremony, Qianlong sat in a sedan chair to the sound of drum music to wait for the Queen Mother in Shouan Palace early in the morning. After the Queen Mother arrived, the drum music stopped, and the two began to eat fried dough sticks and drink soy milk. Then there is the so-called "Nine-Nine Daqing Routine", where there are snacks such as steamed buns at nine and ten o'clock. Dinner starts at two or three o'clock in the afternoon, and lasts until the table is closed at four o'clock. This time, there is wine to accompany the meal, and there are big plays during the meal. Nowadays, during the annual meetings of major companies, they eat and perform shows at the same time. This is what I learned from Lao Gan. If I can’t afford to hire a troupe, the employees will sing and dance on stage by themselves. After the banquet, the ministers retreated from the side door, and the old cadre led the princes to send the queen mother to the gate of Shou'an. Afterwards, Lao Gan went home in a sedan chair, and when he saw Lao Gan walking away, the rest of the princes rushed away.

In the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799 A.D.), after the death of Qianlong, Emperor Jiaqing demolished the three-story theater building of Shouan Palace, and the whole country regulated entertainment, and less acting and singing. Now the Shouan Palace is a five-room hall facing south and north, which was rebuilt after the theater building was demolished during the Jiaqing period. After the death of Jiaqing, Emperor Daoguang arranged for Jiaqing's noble concubine Ru to live in Shou'an Palace, which also became a nursing home for former concubines. During the Xianfeng Dynasty, the noble concubine moved to live in Shoukang Palace, where Emperor Daoguang's Jia concubine and other concubines and nobles were settled here. The last one who died in the 16th year of Guangxu was Jia concubine. After Emperor Tongzhi got married, both Ci'an and Empress Dowager Cixi would move back to Zhongcui Palace and Changchun Palace where they lived. It is said that during the renovation of Zhongcui Palace and Changchun Palace, Empress Dowager Ci'an took a rest in Shou'an Palace, and Empress Dowager Cixi took a rest in Shoukang Palace. The current Shou'an Palace is the library of the Palace Museum, which is not open to tourists. I don't know if it will be vacated for restoration and reopened in the future.

Outside the east wall of Shouan Palace and Dongtongzi Street on East Road, there is a north-south lane. If you walk north along the lane, you will come to a temple behind Shouan Palace. The temple in this palace is not called a temple, it is the Yinghua Hall that was overhauled in 2011. Then why is it called a temple? There are many places to worship Buddha in the palace. There are more than one large and small Buddhist halls. Even Kunning Palace has a place for worshiping shamans. But only Yinghua Hall has a mountain gate, so it is a temple. Although there is a mountain gate, it is still impossible to set up a bell and drum tower, and it is useless. The emperor does not allow drums to be struck. There is a Yinghua Gate in front of the mountain gate. There is no statue of the Heavenly King in the gate hall, so it cannot be called the Temple of Heavenly Kings. After entering the Yinghua Gate, there is a platform leading directly to the Yinghua Hall, the main hall five rooms wide and three rooms deep at the back. There is a Qianlong Stele Pavilion halfway along the platform corridor. There is something like the Qianlong Stele Pavilion on the corridor. You can make up your mind about the Qianlong Stele Pavilion on the corridor behind the Yonghe Gate in the Lama Temple. Yinghua Hall is topped with yellow glazed tile single eaves veranda roof, which is quite special in Waichao West Road.

Yinghua Hall was called Longxi Hall in the Ming Dynasty. It was a royal temple at that time, and it housed Tibetan Buddhist-style Buddha statues, commonly known as "Xifan Buddha Statues". In the Yuan Dynasty, Bhaspa, the five-generation patriarch of the Sakya Sect, was honored as the national teacher by Kublai Khan, and Tibetan Buddhism began to spread widely in the mainland. By the time of Zhu Di in the early Ming Dynasty, it was the early stage when Tsongkhapa founded the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, and Tsongkhapa had already established close ties with the central government of the Ming Dynasty. Although the religious policy of the Ming Dynasty was mainly based on Confucianism and supplemented by Buddhism and Taoism, it did not exclude Buddhism and Taoism, and it was also open to Tibetan Buddhism. Zhu Di once recruited Lama Harima to Beijing and honored him as a national teacher. Therefore, it should be possible for Zhu Di to enshrine the statue of Xifan Buddha in Yinghua Hall. In the later Qing Dynasty, Tibetan Buddhism was even more respected, so there would be no problem keeping the Xifan Buddha statues in Yinghua Hall. However, Yinghua Hall is not open now, and I will not be allowed to enter, and I have not studied the Buddha statues there.

The most famous miracle in the Ming Dynasty was that the Empress Dowager Li, the mother of Emperor Wanli, claimed to be the incarnation of the Nine Lotus Bodhisattva. After the wedding of Emperor Wanli, Empress Dowager Li withdrew from the Qianqing Palace and moved into the Cining Palace. Since then, she has taken it as her duty to worship Buddha, and she has never stopped praying to Buddha. Empress Dowager Li built the Linxi Pavilion in the Garden of Compassionate Ninggong, and made nine lotus flowers bloom in the pool under the pavilion. She also planted a tree in front of this Yinghua Hall, a total of two trees, she said it was the Nine Lotus Bodhi Tree. Empress Dowager Li was born as a court lady, and she has the simplest understanding of Buddha. The pool and these two trees are her understanding of "one flower, one world, one tree, one Bodhi", right? Linden is a kind of banyan tree, which likes to grow in the tropics, and there are wild ones in Nepal. It can live in southern China, but it cannot be wild and can only be cultivated artificially. Even if it is artificially planted north of the Yangtze River, it will not survive. When Nehru visited China in the early years, he gave Chairman Mao a sapling cultivated from the bodhi tree that led Sakyamuni to enlightenment. It was later planted in the Beijing Institute of Botany. It is said that it is alive. I don’t know if it is in a greenhouse. The two linden trees in Yinghua Temple have been tested and found to be a kind of linden tree, called linden. The linden tree has a nickname called "Bodhi tree", and it is usually planted in temples in northern China. Therefore, the two nine lotus bodhi trees in the Yinghua Temple have been sung down all the time. Even Qianlong later said that they were the bodhi trees, and seven of them had multiplied by the Qing Dynasty. The Yinghua Palace is famous both inside and outside the palace for these two bodhi trees, which brought some comfort to the concubines of the former dynasties and concubines stationed in the harem in their later years.

Going west from Qixiangmen is Qixiangmen, and at the end is Shouan Palace. Halfway there are three glazed gates with walls, which are Chunhuamen, which were called Ninghuamen in Ming Dynasty.

You can see a piece of exposed brick on the palace wall outside the Chunhua Gate. The walls of the Ming Palace were not plastered, and the bricks were directly exposed. The wall seen here is not a city wall, but a palace wall, and the palace wall is plastered and painted red on the outside. In order to make the plastering last, there is also a hemp knife. On the top of the wall are glazed bricks stacked to protrude from the eaves, covered with glazed tiles to make a wall cap, with a wall ridge on it, and ridge beasts are installed on the ridge end. This section of exposed brick seems to have deliberately shoveled off the plaster to show you the flesh inside.

There are guards guarding this intersection, and they don't let me pass. I can only look at Chunhuamen from a distance. If you can pass, you can enter Chunhua Gate to see the largest Buddhist hall in the palace, Yuhua Pavilion, which is the tallest building on the West Road of the Forbidden City. Standing in the courtyard of Taiji Hall, you can see the corner of the roof of Yuhua Pavilion. Standing in the northwest corner of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, you can see the upper floor of the Yuhua Pavilion and the Beihai White Pagoda.

Looking at the roof of Yuhua Pavilion from a distance, it is very strange. It reminds me of the roofs of the Qingjing Dharma Wisdom Hall of Xiangshan Zhao Temple and the Falun Hall of Lama Temple. The roof of Yuhua Pavilion is called Jinding. It is not glazed tiles, but gilded copper tiles, and all components are gilded copper. The highest-level Tibetan temples and palaces all have this kind of golden roof, such as the Potala Palace in Lhasa.

In order to facilitate the management of the Mongolian and Tibetan areas, the Qing emperor respected Tibetan Buddhism. Huang Taiji bestowed Naumuhan Living Buddha on Bazhou Living Buddha, Emperor Shunzhi named him Chechen National Teacher, and the Kangxi Dynasty appointed Zhangjia Living Buddha as National Teacher. According to the advice of the third Living Buddha Zhangjia, Emperor Qianlong chose the place inside the Ninghua Gate to build a mandala in the palace. It is said that this place was built by Zhu Di in the early Ming Dynasty as the three major halls of Taoism and Xuangong. Yuhua Pavilion is the front hall, followed by the middle hall Baohua Hall and the back hall Xuanji Hall. Yuhua Pavilion was completed in the fifteenth year of Qianlong (AD 1750). It is a three-storey pavilion with three bays in a square shape. The second floor below Yuhua Pavilion is glazed tiles, and there is a dark layer between the first and second floors. The third floor is an attic with four corners and pointed roofs, a Tibetan-style treasure roof, and a Qing-style covered bowl Tibetan tower ridge brake. Counting the dark floor, this Yuhua Pavilion actually has four floors. On the four vertical ridges of the roof there are gold-plated dragon-riding ridges, and there are also flying dragons on the corners of the eaves. The layout of Yuhua Pavilion complies with the four methods of Tibetan Buddhist Tantric practice. The first floor is the Shibu Zhixing layer. In the middle is a copper-plated gold-plated Sakyamuni Buddha statue. Behind the altar is the famous three red sandalwood double-eave wooden pavilions covered with gold-clad enamel mandala. These three mandalas are the only ones made of filigree enamel in the world, peerless treasures, not even in Tibet. The dark layer is the virtue layer of the Ministry of Action, which offers nine gold-plated copper Buddha statues. In the middle is the Hongguangzhan Bodhi Buddha, and on both sides are the Buddha Mother and King Kong. On the third floor are five bronze-plated Buddha statues in the Yoga Department, and the main Buddha is Dainichi Tathagata. The attic on the fourth floor is the Supreme Yoga Department, which houses three bronze and gilt Buddha statues of joy. Back then, Zhangjia Living Buddha participated in the planning, review of the design, and supervision of the construction, so this Yuhua Pavilion fully complies with the teachings of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Its original initiative was to imitate a mandala hall of Tuolin Temple in Tibet. The current Tuolin Temple has been destroyed for a long time and is incomplete, so this Yuhua Pavilion is currently the most complete four Buddhist temples of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism in China. There are no monks and abbots in this Yuhua Pavilion Buddhist hall, and outsiders are not allowed to enter. It is just a private Buddhist hall for Qianlong himself to worship Buddha. Don't look at this old man who is both Tibetan and Chinese, Mahayana and Hinayana, gods of the emperor, Confucius, Mencius, Cheng Zhu, all Buddhas and saints, but no one knows what he believes in.

The main hall in the backyard of Yuhua Pavilion is Baohua Hall, which is also a Tibetan Buddhist temple. The Baohua Hall is small in scale, with three rooms wide and one room deep. The front and rear open doors and halls are open, and there are sills, walls, sills and windows. There is a pagoda in the back, and the top is a yellow glazed tile single-eave resting mountain top. There is no platform, there are prayer flags and pillars on both sides of the front of the hall, and there is an incense burner in front of the door. This should be the Baohua Palace that was left over from the Ming Dynasty. Temples in the Ming Dynasty often had a main hall with a building behind it, such as the main hall of Zhihua Temple in Beijing. According to the records of the inner palace, this Baohua hall was rebuilt in the eleventh year of Daoguang (AD 1831). Behind the Baohua hall, there is a corridor leading directly to the Zhongzheng hall behind, and there is a Xiangyun Pavilion between the two halls. The Zhongzheng Hall and Xiangyun Pavilion were destroyed by a fire during the Republic of China, leaving only the foundations. The Baohua Hall is still there, and there are Buddha statues and Buddha statue Thangkas in it, all of which are Tibetan Buddhism, that is, Xifan Buddha statues. According to the records of the Ming Dynasty, the Zhongzheng Hall in the Chongzhen period was the location of the Longde Hall in the Longqing period, and the Longde Hall in the early Ming Dynasty was called the Xuanji Palace. This Xuanji Treasure Hall and later the Longde Hall were the Royal Sanqing Halls of the Ming Dynasty, enshrining the statues of Yuqing Yuanshi Tianzun, Shangqing Lingbao Tianzun, and Taiqing Daode Tianzun.

During the Qing Dynasty, this lamasery in Chunhua Gate had regular activities, that is, Buddhist rituals. We ordinary people celebrate a festival for any reason, even the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is a festival. During the festival, they eat dumplings, or sweet things like moon cakes and Lantern Festival. Monks are not greedy, so they celebrate festivals for any reason, and practice rituals as soon as they celebrate festivals. Therefore, during the Qing Dynasty, lamas continued to engage in activities here in Yuhua Pavilion and Zhongzheng Hall, and the emperor also came to visit Zhuxiangwu. After Wuqing, there was no activity here, and it was deserted. But there's plenty of good stuff here, both on record and in kind. These good things came in handy later. In 1995, according to the detailed records of the Panchen Lama conferred by the central government in the past dynasties provided by the experts of the Palace Museum and the records of the style of the benba vase, the special commissioner of the State Council went to the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa to preside over the ceremony of drawing lots from the golden urn, and identified the six-year-old boy Gyaltsan Norbu as the reincarnated soul boy of the 10th Panchen Lama. . The benba bottle used was given by the emperor in the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong (AD 1792). There are two gold vases, one in the Jokhang Temple and the other in the Lama Temple. The gold-studded bemba vase of the Lama Temple was once on display to the public.

Behind the West Sixth Palace and the Zhongzheng Hall in the Ming Dynasty was the Ganxi Wusuo, which was symmetrical to the Gandong Wusuo behind the East Sixth Palace, and it was also the residence of the princes. The crown prince lives in Yuqing Palace, and other princes live here and there. They can live in these five houses, and the three houses in the south. It was also like this at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. During the Kangxi period, Prince Yinreng was abolished, and the emperor sent someone to arrest Yinreng from Yuqing Palace on the East Road to Xian'an Palace on the West Road. Since then, the Qing Dynasty no longer announced the prince. In the fifty years of Kangxi (AD 1711), Prince He Shuoyong's family had a baby son named Hongli. In the sixty years of Kangxi, the emperor was very happy to meet the grandson of Hongli by chance, and said, "I took this grandson back to the palace to raise and play." Although Prince Yong was unwilling, he knew that this was a signal from Kangxi. Sure enough, in the second year, Prince Yong unexpectedly ascended the throne as emperor. Soon after Yongzheng ascended the throne, he let Hongli live in Yuqing Palace, and wrote Hongli's name on rice paper and threw it behind the plaque of "Justice and Brightness" in Qianqing Palace. Ordinarily, the prince should move to live outside the palace after his wedding, but Yongzheng asked him and the Fujin Fucha family to move to the second residence of the Qianxi Fifth Institute in the palace during Hongli's wedding, which was a hint to Hongli. Within a few years, Yongzheng made Hongli the Prince of Heshuobao and gave the two schools the name "Leshantang". After Hongli ascended the throne as Emperor Qianlong, the second of the five Ganxi institutes became the Qianlong Palace. Qianlong no longer allowed others to live here, in case the tenants pretended to be Qianlong. The first, second, and third institutes were also merged and transformed into the Chonghua Palace, which became a memorial hall for the feudal mansion. The meaning of "Chonghua" is taken from "Shangshu · Shundian" "This Shun can succeed Yao, and he emphasizes the brilliance of his literature and virtue". Make "overlap" heavy. Because this palace implied that Qianlong had the merits of Shun, Qianlong did not dare to write notes when it was completed, and he did not dare to write "Chonghua Palace Records" until 48 years after he ascended the throne. ".

Go north along the West Second Chang Street in the middle of the West Sixth Palace and go north to the Baizi Gate. After the Baizi Gate is an east-west side street, turn your head to the right and you will see the Chonghua Gate of the Chonghua Palace.

The Chonghua Palace has three entrances according to the original system. The main hall in the front yard is the Worship Hall, which is five rooms wide and three rooms deep, with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves resting on the top of the mountain. The Chongjing Hall can be regarded as the ritual hall of the Chonghua Palace. When Hongli was named Prince Bao, he inscribed a plaque "Le Shan Tang", which is said to still be hung in this hall. The main hall of the second entrance courtyard is the Chonghua Palace, five rooms wide and one room deep, with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves on the hard mountain top, and side halls in the east and west. Chonghua Palace is Hongli's sleeping hall, Dongnuan Pavilion is the living room, and Xinuang Pavilion is the bedroom, which is also the new house for Hongli's wedding. The main hall of the Sanjinyuan is the Cuiyun Pavilion, which is five rooms wide and one room deep, with yellow glazed tiles and a single eaves hard top. This is Hongli's activity room, where he reads newspapers and culture in Dongnuange, and there is a plaque of "Changchun Bookstore" hanging in it. In the eleventh year of Yongzheng, the emperor granted Hongli the title of "Changchun Jushi". Changchun was the Changchun fairy house where Hongli lived in the Old Summer Palace at that time. After ascending the throne, Qianlong built a bookstore everywhere in the place where he lived, often named "Changchun Bookstore". The first Changchun Bookstore was in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, and the plaque was also inscribed in the first year of Qianlong. Qianlong learned from "A Dream of Red Mansions" and formed a Haitang Poetry Club. Every New Year's Day, he recruited academicians from the court, Hanlin and others to write poems in Chonghua Palace. Chonghua palace couplet poems became one of the New Year's programs of the Qing palace, and it didn't stop until the Xianfeng period.

After the death of Empress Fucha, Qianlong kept the Changchun Palace where she lived, and placed it as it was, and did not allow other concubines to live there. The Chonghua Palace retains the Hongli wedding bridal chamber, including the dowry cabinet where Empress Fucha wore the dowry. Emperor Qianlong went to the Changchun Palace every New Year's Eve to pay homage to the queen. After retiring, Emperor Qianlong moved all the things used by Empress Fucha from Changchun Palace to Chonghua Palace, and changed it here every New Year's Eve to pay homage to the queen.

When Qianlong remodeled the second institute, he also occupied the head office of the fifth Ganxi Institute, which is the third entrance courtyard to the east of the second institute. After the reconstruction of the head office, it was called Shufangzhai. The front hall was changed into a stage facing south and north. There was a door on the east wall of Shufangzhai leading to the imperial garden. A small stage was also built in the apse of Shufangzhai, and the Shufangzhai stage group was the earliest stage in the palace. The Chonghua Palace not only occupied the first place, but also occupied the third place, and the third place was changed into the Chonghua Palace kitchen. The Chonghua Palace is not open now, probably because tourists are afraid that Qianlong and Empress Fucha are friends, and the couple fight after eating dog food and returning home.

This Qianlong Emperor Qianlong Palace actually had tenants living in it at the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is said that during the Guangxu period, the concubine of Emperor Tongzhi once lived in the Chonghua Palace. In the thirteenth year of the Republic of China (AD 1924), Feng Yuxiang launched a coup d'etat in Beijing, abolished the preferential treatment conditions of the Qing palace, and drove Puyi out of the palace. Concubine Yu of Emperor Tongzhi also lived in the palace at that time, called Concubine Yu. Concubine Yu and Concubine Yu had just moved out of the palace at this time, and lived in the home of Princess Rongshou, the daughter of Prince Gong. When the two concubines went there, they didn't know whether Princess Rongshou had just flown to the west or just flew to the west in a few days. A few days after the two concubines moved away, Feng Yuxiang sent people to drag Puyi out of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, escorted him out of the palace and moved him to Prince Jin's Mansion to join his father.

Looking west at the gate of Chonghua Palace, the door along the passage is locked. Over the top of the wall, you can see the four-cornered spire of a pavilion in the west courtyard.

That courtyard is Jianfu Palace and Jianfu Palace Garden. Going west along the Chonghua Palace, it should be the fourth and fifth of the fifth Qianxi, which means that Jianfu Palace occupies the fourth and fifth. The construction of Jianfu Palace consists of two steps. The first step is to move the fourth and fifth buildings to the East Factory in the sixth year of Qianlong. The Dongchang in the Ming Dynasty was located on the north side of Donghua Gate, which means that the fourth and fifth factories were moved outside the imperial palace. All the five Ganxi institutes have been remodeled. In fact, the Qianxi five institutes probably have more than this renovation. According to research, in the early Ming Dynasty, there were seven houses on the east and west sides of the Qianqing Palace. At that time, the imperial garden was actually only the Qin'an Hall, and there were two houses on each side of the Qin'an Hall where the princes lived. In the 14th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1535 A.D.), two temples were demolished on both sides of the Qin'an Hall, attracting many veterans to deal with feudal superstition matters. Later, in the eleventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1583 A.D.), the old Taoists were imprisoned, and towers and pavilions were built on both sides of the Qin'an Hall, making the palace back garden more comfortable and comfortable. However, in the early Ming Dynasty, there were seven East and West schools, and why did two of them disappear? There is no evidence, and the idea is still hanging.

In addition to occupying the site of Qianxi No. 4 and No. 5, Jianfu Palace occupies the south of Shoukang Palace and Chunhua Gate in front of Yuhua Pavilion. At that time, there was a "gap", that is, a narrow and long open space. The east road corresponding to this land was the warehouse of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. What buildings were there on this gap in the Ming Dynasty? There is no evidence to check. The Jianfu Palace was built in the seventh year of Qianlong (1742 A.D.) mainly for a place to take a walk during the busy schedule, and to hide here so that no one can find it.

To the south of Jianfu Palace is Jianfu Gate, which is also a glazed gate along the wall. The Jianfu Gate is side by side with the Xianfu Palace Gate of the West Sixth Palace, which means that the Jianfu Palace did not fully utilize the "gap". The West Sixth Palace has three rows of courtyards, and the Jianfu Palace only uses the northernmost courtyard. There is still a long way from Jianfu Gate to the palace wall at the southernmost end of the gap, and there is only one Chunhua Gate leading to Yuhua Pavilion on that section of the palace wall, and the southern end of the gap is closed. There is a small hall called Yanqing Hall, which happens to be between Taiji Hall and Yuhua Pavilion. It is not open now and cannot be seen from the outside. Along the south palace wall to the north is the Jianfu Gate. There are five group houses on each side of the road. To the north of the group houses is the Yanqing Gate facing south. Entering the Yanqing Gate is the Yanqing Hall. The Yanqing Hall is three rooms wide and one room deep, with a verandah in front, and a yellow glazed tile single-eave rolling shed on the top of the mountain, with five ridge beasts on the ridge. There is Guangde Gate behind Yanqing Hall, and the small courtyard of Yanqing Hall is between Yanqing Gate and Guangde Gate. Yanqing means the continuation of Fuzuo. Emperor Liang Jianwen of the Southern Dynasty had a sentence "Feng Fa Zhian, Jishan Yanqing". Every time the Qing emperors came to the beginning of spring, they brought all the minions here to pray for spring. The folk spring sacrifice is held in Qingming, and it is an ancestor worship. The spring festival in the palace is to pray for blessings. According to Zhou rituals, in the four festivals of the four seasons of the Son of Heaven, "Spring Day Sui (recite the moon)". There is a saying in Guanzi: "Hold up the spring festival, pray for a long time, use fish as a sacrifice, and use glutinous rice cakes (Nian Nie) as wine, call each other." Holding a spring festival means wishing a good harvest this year. Who is the main god of the Spring Festival in the Yanqing Hall of the Qing Emperor? There is no record, and there is no factual evidence. According to Zhou rituals, the spring sacrifice is to worship the five emperors, namely the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu (Nianzhuanxu), Diku (Niandiku), Yao, and Shun. The right way to enter Yanqing Hall is from a door with a wall on the east wall of Yuhua Pavilion to the front of Yanqing Gate, and there is another door with a wall on the east wall in front of Yanqing Gate leading to Taiji Hall. If you go out from Guangde Gate, the north is Jianfu Gate; on the east wall is Suizhi Gate, which is the west end gate of Erheng Lane of West Sixth Palace, the right way to enter Jianfu Palace. When Taiji Palace and Changchun Palace merged, it was merged in Changchun intrauterine.

After entering Jianfumen, the main hall of the first entrance courtyard is Fuchen Hall, which is three rooms wide and two rooms deep, with green glazed tiles, yellow trimmed sides and single-eave rolling sheds on the top of the mountain, with eaves corridors at the front and back. The eaves corridor at the back of Fuchen Hall is connected with a circle of Chaoshou verandah to become the second entrance courtyard. There is a platform behind Fuchen Hall that leads directly to Jianfu Palace, the main hall of the second entrance courtyard. Jianfu Palace is the main hall of the courtyard. It is five rooms wide and three rooms deep. The roof is made of bucket arches and beams, with yellow glazed tiles and green trimmed single-eave rolling sheds on the top of the mountain, surrounded by verandahs. There is a throne in the Ming Dynasty, and a gauze partition between the east and the west, all of which are painted with black lacquer and gold, which is very particular. The west room is a Buddhist hall.

Behind the Jianfu Palace is the pavilion we saw across the west courtyard wall at the Qixiang Gate, called Huifeng Pavilion, which is the third entrance to the courtyard. Huifeng Pavilion is a three-bay square pavilion with double eaves and four-cornered pointed top, purple glazed tiles and blue trimming, gilt-covered bowl ridge brake, and a circle of white marble handrails around it.

There is a solid courtyard wall behind the Huifeng Pavilion. On the wall, there is a door with one hall and one coupon, followed by a circle of Chaoshou veranda, which is the fourth entrance courtyard. The main hall of the fourth entrance courtyard is Jingyixuan, which is five rooms wide and three rooms deep. The roof is a structure of bucket arches and beams. There are eaves corridors at the front and back, and the front eaves corridors are connected with the verandas. Jingyixuan is the sleeping hall of Jianfu Palace, which means "the mind is quiet and the body is happy". Although Qianlong didn't say it at first, he intended to sleep in this Jingyixuan to keep his filial piety when the Empress Dowager Chongqing passed away, which is called "shouzhi" in classical Chinese. On the first month of the forty-second year of Qianlong, the Empress Dowager watched the lanterns in Yuanmingyuan and died in Changchun Xianguan where Hongli lived when he was young. Qianlong did not live in this Jingyixuan during his filial piety. After the Jianfu Palace was completed, Qianlong built two small courtyards in the garden of the Compassionate Palace, namely the Hanqingzhai Hall and the Yanshou Hall mentioned above. After the death of the Empress Dowager in Chongqing, Qianlong once said, "The South Garden of the Cining Palace was repaired and asked several times, in case of benevolence or indecision, and it is a place where decoctions are served day and night. Ding You first month is considered tomosa." "Tomaci" also means keeping filial piety, and it is more visual. It is said to "live in a hut, sleep on a thatch pillow", that is, to live in a dilapidated house and sleep on a straw mat with a pillow of soil, which is similar to the degree of lying on salary and tasting courage. It may be because the Empress Dowager Zigong of Chongqing was parked in the Compassionate Palace after returning from the Yuanmingyuan, so Qianlong had to stay in Hanqingzhai in the garden of the Compassionate Palace for several days. When this happened, Qianlong wanted to go to Hanqingzhai to observe the system, but was stopped by the ministers in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, but failed.

According to Chinese architectural regulations, there should be a rear building at the end of Jianfu Palace. When the construction of Jianfu Palace began in the seventh year of Qianlong, there was no plan for the back building. It was finally added in the 22nd year of Qianlong, which is the Huiyao Building behind Jingyixuan. Huiyao Building is seven rooms wide and one room deep, with two floors. There must be a building at the end of the Chinese-style courtyard, which means that the courtyard is backed by a high mountain, and this building will cover the courtyard when the north wind blows. If there is no such a back cover building, then the owner of this hospital will be nothing, no matter how good he is. If the back building wants to exert its maximum feng shui power, it must enshrine Buddha statues inside. With the protection of Buddhism, it will be no problem to cover the courtyard. The Buddha statue is enshrined in Huiyao Building, which is a Buddhist hall. Such a Buddhist hall usually has a first floor for Buddha statues and a second floor for Buddhist scriptures. Huiyao Tower is a sixth-grade Buddha building like Fanhua Building in Ningshou Palace. It was built earlier than Fanhua Building, so it is still a relatively simple Six-Rank Buddha Building.

According to the custom, a big family must have a back garden. Since Qianlong wanted to steal half a day's leisure here, he must also build a garden. The land of Jianfu Palace is too small to build a garden behind Huiyao Building. Qianlong built a garden on the west side of Jingyixuan, which is the famous Jianfu Palace Garden, one of the four gardens in the Qing Palace: Imperial Garden, Compassion Ning Palace Garden, Ningshou Palace Garden and Jianfu Palace Garden. The central building of Jianfu Palace Garden is Yanchun Pavilion. From the old photos of the Republic of China, Yanchun Pavilion is a square two-story pavilion with five bays on the first floor and three bays on the second floor, with a dark layer in the middle. There are eaves corridors around the first floor, flat seats around the second floor, and four-cornered spires on the top. The east, north and west of Yanchun Pavilion are surrounded by Xuantang Zhai halls, and the south is a rockery with stacked stones, planted with some trees, flowers and grass. The Jianfu Palace Garden occupies a small area, and there are not many buildings. Although it is compact, it is not crowded. There are eight kinds of buildings lined with flowers and trees in four seasons, and the repairs are tireless. Qianlong placed and hung all kinds of treasures he collected everywhere in Jianfu Palace, and wrote poems on plaques and couplets everywhere. This is his most proud small courtyard.

After Qianlong left, his son Emperor Jiaqing packed up all the treasures in Jianfu Palace and sealed them up. It is said that they filled all the halls. Since then, Jianfu Palace has been empty, and no one has lived there. After the Qing Dynasty was gone, Puyi had no political affairs in the palace, and he had nothing serious to do except study culture. He was digging around in the inner court, and found that many treasures from the previous dynasty were sealed in Jianfu Palace. Puyi then ordered an inventory to be made. Those people under him could no longer be called eunuchs, but they were not regular migrant workers, so I called them eunuchs. Halfway through the counting, the eunuchs found that these treasures were not only very beautiful, but also light and easy to move. On a midsummer night in 1923, a fire broke out in the garden of Jianfu Palace, and the garden was completely destroyed, along with the Jingyi Pavilion on the east and the Zhongzheng Hall and Xiangyun Pavilion on the west boundary wall. This time, all the treasures are gone, even the half-made book is gone. Afterwards, those eunuchs who participated in counting the treasures gradually resigned and went home. Someone discovered that after they returned home, they all found a female neighbor to live together like Wei Zhongxian and Ke Shi, and it is said that they all bought houses and land. In 1999, a cultural protection foundation in Hong Kong provided 4 million US dollars and signed an agreement with the Forbidden City to rebuild the Fugong Garden. The reconstruction project was completed in 2006. After the reconstruction, the Jianfu Palace will never be open to the public, and it will be used exclusively for receiving VIPs and holding internal salons. It is said that in 2018, pianist Wu Muye held a signing ceremony to join Sony Music in the Jianfu Palace Garden.

There are Town God's Temples all over China, "City" is the city wall; "Huang" is the moat. In the Temple of the City God, the local god of protection is enshrined. In the Temple of the City God in Beijing, the deity enshrined is Yang Jisheng, a famous admonisher during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning, there was no Chenghuang Temple in the imperial palace, but the Chenghuang Temple in the capital next to Beijing No. 8 Middle School has always been used to worship the Chenghuang. It was the Chenghuang Temple established in the Yuan Dynasty. One morning in the fourth year of Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty (AD 1726), Yinzhen had a nightmare the night before, and ordered to build a Town God's Temple in the palace. Emperor Yongzheng was embarrassed to make a big fanfare, so he built a Town God's Temple in the northwest corner close to the city wall. In a very remote corner, it belongs to the dry position in the eight trigrams, the main water, and the Inner Jinshui River enters the palace. At the front are three mountain gates, followed by three temple gates. There are corridors behind the temple gate leading directly to the five main halls with platforms behind, and there are three side halls on each side of the main hall. The main hall enshrines the God of the Forbidden City God. Every year on the emperor's birthday, Wanshou Festival and a certain auspicious day in autumn, the Minister of Internal Affairs will offer sacrifices on behalf of the emperor, and meat and vegetarian delicacies will be offered. It is not open now, but it is the scientific research department of the Palace Museum. There are several pear trees with white flowers every year, and fruit trees like black dates.

So far, we have seen all the things that can be seen in the Forbidden City that are now open, and almost all the things that cannot be seen have been mentioned. In addition to entering the palace ten times with the annual ticket, there was also a second discount. Due to the epidemic situation, the 2020 annual pass can be used until April 30, 2021 after optimization by the Forbidden City. In order to prevent us from enjoying excessive preferential treatment, after the re-arrangement of the Wuyingdian Ceramics Museum, it is scheduled to open to the public on May 1, 2021. I paid out of my own pocket to look around the bottles and cans. Later, at my own expense, I visited the Zhai Palace, which was not open during the epidemic, and saw some Forbidden City-themed stamps for philatelists outside the palace.

Visiting the Forbidden City is a very hard work. Entering the palace from the Meridian Gate and exiting the Palace from the Shenwu Gate, coupled with the steps outside the palace, it is impossible to walk home without more than 10,000 steps in a day. When you are tired from walking, there are many benches in the Forbidden City to rest in the palace, and you can sit on the steps of every hall.

Every time I visit the palace, I eat at the Forbidden City restaurant at noon. Its beef noodles are good, but quite expensive. By the way, last time a friend asked me how the pillars of the ancient building were fixed to the ground? I took a photo of the remnants of the Shoukang Gongjing Pavilion displayed by the Forbidden City to solve this confusion. You can see that there are holes under the plinths and holes in the middle of the plinths. Fixing pins can be installed in these holes, a type of mortise and tenon structure.

The Forbidden City was built in the 18th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1420 A.D.), and it has been more than 600 years since then; the Palace Museum was established in the 14th year of the Republic of China (1925 A.D.), and it has been nearly 100 years. It has witnessed the history of China from prosperity to decline from a splendid imperial palace to what the people in the capital called "a pile of ruined temples" in 1949. The Palace Museum in New China has been restored from "a pile of ruined temples" to the present, and it has also witnessed the history of China's rise from the weak and the poor to become stronger. This world's greatest royal palace and world cultural heritage will also witness the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

In the future, I will also contribute the addendum to the serialization of this travel note, which will be released from time to time. This is all because there are still some restoration projects in the Forbidden City that have not been completed, such as the very important Hall of Mental Cultivation and Hall of Fengxian. The project of the Hall of Mental Cultivation has been going on for a long time, with no end in sight. Fengxian Hall seems to have been almost rebuilt, but it is still not open. It is estimated that it is painted on Liang Fang inside the painting. Others, there may be areas that have not been opened all year round and will be reopened after restoration, such as Nanxun Hall and Chonghua Palace. If the Forbidden City further vacates the office premises in the palace, it may also restore certain areas for me to visit, such as the Hall of Chuanxin. At that time, I will continue to issue new travel notes and share what I have seen with everyone.

Thank you all for reading.

(end of serialization)