FORBIDDEN CITY(紫禁城)
(In front of the meridian gate)
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am pleased to serve as your guide today.
This is the palace museum; also know as the Purple
Forbidden City. It is the largest and most well reserved
imperial residence in China today. Under Ming Emperor Yongle,
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construction began in 1406. It took 14years to build the
Forbidden City. The first ruler who actually lived here was
Ming Emperor Zhudi. For five centuries thereafter, it
continued to be the residence of23 successive emperors until
1911 when Qing Emperor Puyi was forced to abdicate the throne
.In 1987, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization recognized the Forbidden City was a
world cultural legacy.
It is believed that the Palace Museum, or Zi Jin Cheng
(Purple Forbidden City), got its name from astronomy folklore,
The ancient astronomers divided the constellations into groups
and centered them around the Ziwei Yuan(North Star). The
constellation containing the North Star was called the
Constellation of Heavenly God and star itself was called the
purple palace. Because the emperor was supposedly the son of
the heavenly gods, his central and dominant position would be
further highlighted the use of the word purple in the name of
his residence. In folklore, the term ”an eastern purple cloud
is drifting” became a metaphor for auspicious events after a
purple cloud was seen drifting eastward immediately before the
arrival of an ancient philosopher, LaoZi, to the Hanghu Pass.
Here, purple is associated with auspicious developments. The
word jin (forbidden) is self-explanatory as the imperial
palace was heavily guarded and off-explanatory as the imperial
palace was heavily guarded and off-limits to ordinary people.
The red and yellow used on the palace walls and roofs are
also symbolic. Red represents happiness, good fortune and
wealth. Yellow is the color of the earth on the Loess Plateau,
the original home of the Chinese people. Yellow became an
imperial color during the Tang dynasty, when only members of
the royal family were allowed to wear it and use it in their
architecture.
The Forbidden City is rectangular in shape. It is 960
meters long from north to south and 750 meter wide from east
west. It has 9,900 rooms under a total roof area 150,000
square meters .A 52-meter-wide-moat encircles a 9.9-meter—high
wall which encloses the complex. Octagon —shaped turrets rest
on the four corners of the wall. There are four entrances into
the city: the Meridian Gate to the south, the Shenwu Gate(Gate
of Military Prowess) to the north, and the Xihua Gate(Gate of
military Prowess) to the north, and the Xihua Gate(Western
Flowery Gate )to the west ,the Donghua (Eastern Flowery Gate)
to the east.
Manpower and materials throughout the country were used to
build the Forbidden City. A total of 230,000 artisans and one
million laborers were employed. Marble was quarried from
fangshan Country Mount Pan in Jixian County in Hebei Province.
Granite was quarried in Quyang County in Hebei Province.
Paving blocks were fired in kilns in Suzhou in southern China.
Bricks and scarlet pigmentation used on the palatial walls
came from linqing in Shandong Province .Timber was cut
,processed and hauled from the northwestern and southern
regions.
The structure in front of us is the Meridian Gate. It is
the main entrance to the forbidden City. It is also knows as
Wufenglou(Five-Phoenix Tower). Ming emperors held lavish
banquets here on the 15th day of the first month of the
Chinese lunar year in hornor of their counties .They also used
this place for punishing officals by flogging them with
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Qing emperors used this building to announce the beginning
of the new year. Qing Emperor Qianglong changed the original
name of this announcement ceremony from ban li(announcement of
calendar)to ban shou(announcement of new moon )to avoid
coincidental association with another Emperor` s name, Hongli,
which was considered a taboo at that time. Qing Dynasty
emperors also used this place to hold audience and for other
important ceremonies. For example,when the imperial army
returned victoriously from the battlefield ,it was here that
the Emperor presided over the ceremony to accept prisoners of
war.
(After entering the Meridian Gate and standing in front of the
Five Marble Bridges on Golden Water River)
now we are inside the Forbidden City.Before we start our
tour, I would like to briefly introduce you to the
architectural patterns befour us .To complete this solemn,
magnificent and palatial complex, a variety of buildings were
arranged on a north-south axis, and 8-kilometer-long invisible
line that has become an inseparable part of the City of
Beijing. The Forbidden City covers roughly one –third of this
central axis. Most of the important building in the Forbidden
City weree arranged along this line. The design and
arrangement of the palaces reflect the solemn dignity of the
royal court and rigidly –stratified feudal system.
The Forbidden City is divided into an outer and an inner
count.We are now standing on the southernmost part of the
outer count. In front of us lies the Gate of supreme Harmony
.The gate is guarded by a pair of bronze lions ,symbolizing
imperial power and dignity. The lions were the most exquisite
and biggest of its kind. The one on the east playing with a
ball is a male, and ball is said to represent state unity. The
other one is a female. Underneath one of its fore claws is a
cub that is considered to be a symbol of perpetual imperial
succession. The winding brook before us is the Golden Water
River. It functions both as decoration and fire control .The
five bridges spanning the river represent the five virtues
preached by Confucius :benevolence, righteousness, rites,
intellence and fidelity. The river takes the shape of a bow
and the north-south axis is its arrow. This was meant to show
that the Emperors ruled the country on behalf of God.
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The Forbidden City consists of an outer countyard and an
inner enclosure. The out count yard covers a vast space lying
between the Meridian Gate and the Gate of Heavenly Purity. The
“three big halls” of Supreme Harmony, Complete Harmony and
Preserving Harmony constitute the center of this building
group. Flanking them in bilateral symmetry are two groups of
palaces: Wenhua (Prominent Scholars) and Wuying (Brave
Warriors) . The three great halls are built on a spacious
“H”-shaped, 8-meter-high, triple marble terrace, Each level of
the triple terrace is taller than the on below and all are
encircled by marble balustrades carved with dragon and phoenix
designs. There are three carved stone staircases linking the
three architectures .The hall of supreme Harmony is also the
tallest and most exquisite ancient wooden-structured mansion
in all of China. From the palace of Heavenly Purith northward
is what is known as the inner court, which is also built in
bilaterally symmetrical patterns. In the center are the Palace
of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Union and Peace and Palace of
Earthly Tranquility, a place where the Emperors lived with
their families and attended to state affairs. Flanking these
structures are palaces and halls in which concubines and
princes lived. There are also three botanical gardens within
the inner count, namely, the imperial Garden, Caning garden
and Quailing garden. An inner Golden Water River flows
eastwardly within the inner court. The brook winds through
three minor halls or palaces and leads out of the Forbidden
City. It is spanned by the White Jade Bridge. The river is
lined with winding, marble –carved balustrades. Most of the
structures within the Forbidden City have yellow glazed tile
roofs.
Aside from giving prominence to the north-south axis,
other architectural methods were applied to make every group
of palatial structures unique in terms of terraces, roofs,
mythical monsters perching on the roofs and colored, drawing
patterns. With these, the grand contour and different
hierarchic spectrum of the complex were strengthened. Folklore
has it that there are altogether 9,999 room-units in the
Forbidden City. Since Paradise only has 10,000 rooms, the Son
of Heaven on earth cut the number by half a room. It is also
rumoured that this half –room is located to the west of the
Wenyuange Pavilion (imperial library). As a matter of fact,
although the Forbidden City has more than 9,000 room-units,
this half-room is nonexistent .The Wenyuange Pavilion is a
library where “Si Ku Quan Shu”- China `s first comprehensive
anthology-was stored.
(After walking past the Gate of Supreme Harmony)
Ladies and Gentlemen, the great hall we are approaching is
the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the biggest and tallest of its
king in the Forbidden City. This structure covers a total
building space of 2,377 square meters, and is know for its
upturned, multiple counterpart eaves . The Hall of Supreme
Harmony sits on a triple “H”-shaped marble terrace the is
8meters high and linked by staircases. The staircase on the
ground floor has 21 steps while the middle and upper stairways

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