When you came to the Forbidden City this holiday, you passed the security check at the ticket gate and rushed to the back of the three halls. Did you stop to have a good look at the noon gate?
There are thousands of households in the Forbidden City, with the most noon gates.
The meridian gate is the south gate and the main gate of the Forbidden City. Due south belongs to the noon position in the twenty-four directions, hence the name "Wumen".
The height of the meridian gate is 35.6 meters, which is a little higher than the most important hall of supreme harmony in the Forbidden City. It can be seen that this palace is the first in the world.
/kloc-the 0/3-meter-high red platform is surrounded on three sides, and the fifth floor of the platform stands tall and the corridor runs through it. The main entrance building has a double-eaved roof with four slopes and five ridges; Construction area of front and rear corridors 1773.3 m2. On both sides of the main entrance building and at the southern end of the East-West Wing Tower, there is a Quelou with a pyramid roof with two eaves and four corners, which is called Wufeng Building together with the main entrance building. Wufeng Pagoda and the corridor connecting the two wings of Quelou are integrated, towering and strewn at random, wanting to rise and fly, so it is also called Swallow Wing Building.
There are bright corridors with bells and drums on both sides of the gatehouse in the middle of the meridian gate. When the emperor offered sacrifices to the altar of society, the Temple of Heaven and the altar of immortals, the bell rang at the gate. When the ancestral temple sacrifices to the meridian gate, drums are played on the door; Major events were held in the palace. When the emperor boarded the Hall of Supreme Harmony, bells and drums rang on the gate.
When standing in the concave square of nearly 65438+100000 square meters in front of the meridian gate, looking up at the tower, it seems that it is not the emperor's palace, but the city. So the noon gate became a place to worship prisoners.
Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty held a captive sacrifice ceremony at Wumen four times, and Kang Yong also held a captive sacrifice ceremony at Wumen many times during his three generations and even Daoguang period. Only Emperor Qianlong held it four times.
It is most appropriate to hold such a ceremony to make Wumen a magnificent gesture in the world: at that time, the main building of Wumen was equipped with a throne and a yellow cover, and a large row of halogen books stood under the city gate. The princes and officials stood separately, and the emperor's royal robes and robes rode out of the inner palace and ascended to the throne, with bells and drums ringing. The Ministry of War led the prisoners to kneel down, and the Ministry of War wrote: How was the war when a place was pacified? When the emperor issued a decree or was released by the Ministry of Punishment or Amnesty, the prisoners bowed their heads and thanked them, and the princes and ministers saluted, and the music was loud, which was a great power in the world.
If you want to enter the Forbidden City, you must first pass through the entrance of the meridian gate. You have been to the Forbidden City so many times. Have you really observed it? Do you find anything special about it?
If you go through the wicket and stand at the entrance of the noon gate, you will find that the gate is square, but when you go through the gate and look back at the exit of the gate, the shape of the gate becomes circular arch. Is there a hole in the sky? In this way, the significance of the round place is reflected in the doorway design of the meridian gate, with the ground outside and the sky inside.
It is such a seemingly random design that visitors will inevitably have some doubts. What I see, what I am about to walk into, is it heaven and earth? Or a paradise on earth? When you go through the doorway and come to the square in front of the empty Taihe Gate, you suddenly feel like a palace in the sky.
There are five doorways under the noon gate. There are strict hierarchical restrictions on who passes through what doors. The ministers of civil and military affairs went in and out at the east gate, and the princes of the imperial clan went in and out at the west gate. Every big court meeting, officials go in and out from the east and west doors. In the middle of the door, it is naturally a special passage for the emperor, but at the emperor's wedding, the queen can pass once, and there are three places before the palace exam, and the second place is to explore flowers. You can take the middle doorway when you leave the palace. I think these three people must have held their heads high when they walked through the doorway dedicated to the emperor. After all, this special honor doesn't even have the etiquette of a prince.
Therefore, it is understandable why Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, who came to Beijing as the captaincy, refused to enter the palace from Donghuamen, but insisted on entering the palace from the meridian gate and went straight to Fengtianmen to show his rationality.
The meridian gate is not only a place for the emperor to show off his victory, but also a place to punish those who violate the sacred will. But what we often hear in costume dramas is "beheading at the noon gate". In fact, there is no such example in the history of the Forbidden City.
In the Ming dynasty, the outer side of the meridian gate was used as the execution place of the scepter. Zhang Ting was a very cruel punishment for the emperor to punish his ministers, which not only insulted the mind, but also hurt the body. Many people died under or behind the staff.
In the 19th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty (142 1), the three halls of Fengtian, Gai Hua and Jinsheng, which were built less than one year ago, were destroyed by lightning. Some ministers who were dissatisfied with Judy's move to Beijing took this opportunity to speak, thinking that this was a warning from heaven and demanding the return of Nanjing. So there was a fierce quarrel between the minister who supported the move and the minister who demanded the return of the capital. In a rage, Judy came up with a bad way to punish both sides for kneeling outside the noon gate.
In the fourteenth year of Zheng De's reign (15 19), Amin Wuzong of The Prince and the Geisha lived in Zhu Houzhao. Because many ministers signed a letter to prevent him from going out for sex, he became angry from embarrassment and fined him 1 146. The minister knelt at the meridian gate during the day and locked him up at night. Five days later, he was sentenced to death outside the noon gate.
Different from the above two, Emperor Kangxi turned the meridian gate into a "debate field". In the autumn of the seventh year of Kangxi (1668), ferdinand verbiest, a Belgian missionary who advocated the use of the western calendar, pointed out various fallacies in the Calendar of Kangxi written by Yang Guangxian and Wu Mingxuan who opposed the change of the traditional calendar. In the second year, Kangxi, who was only 15 years old, asked ferdinand verbiest, Yang Guangxian and Wu Mingxuan to calculate and verify the astronomical phenomena in the square outside the Wumen Gate and the observatory in front of his ministers. Therefore, Emperor Kangxi appointed Ferdinand ferdinand verbiest as the deputy supervisor of Qin Tian Prison, and ordered the adoption of a new calendar combining Chinese and Western styles.
The promulgation of almanac is a great event in ancient times. On the first day of October in the Qing Dynasty, the ceremony of issuing almanac in the second year was held at Wumen, which was called the ceremony of issuing almanac. Before the ceremony, Qin officials set the new moon day of the following year, stipulated the daily taboos, and formulated an almanac called Chronological Almanac, which was promulgated and implemented in the world by holding a ceremony in front of the meridian gate.
On the day when the new moon appeared, the ceremony was quite grand. The Book of Rites of Qing Dynasty (KLOC-0/104) records that (Qin) supervisor set Huang case 2 in the middle of Taihe Gate, Huang case 2 in the middle of Wumen Gate, and Red case 8 on both sides of Wumen Gate. The Ministry of Industry is located in the center of the lobby of the Supervision Department (Qin Yamen), while the imperial court is located on both sides of the lobby. He also set up 80 red boxes in two porches. The prison is a royal robe, respectfully presented to the emperor, queen, imperial concubine, concubine, wife and concubine, and placed in the massage parlor. Constitutional book of princes and ministers placed in Huang Ting. The Eight Banners yamen official's Book of Current Affairs and Constitutions was placed on Liang Lang's red case. On the way to Longting, I knelt down three times and saluted a captain's pavilion (yú), with imperial service in front, music department and voice department enjoying themselves, three officials in front and hall officials in the back. From the left gate of Chang 'an to the front of the noon gate. The supervisor took out the constitution book from the pavilion and put it on the yellow box. Awarded to princes and ministers, the "Book of the Constitution" was placed on the red case. A captain withdrew from the pavilion and put it on both sides. The supervisor submitted a letter from the middle gate of the noon gate to the Taihe gate, and established a yellow case. The hall official kneels three times and knocks nine times, and salutes the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Quit before the noon gate, crack hon temple officials praised them. Announce a salute. Princes kneel as tools.
After the completion of the Wumen Gate, Yongle Emperor Judy announced that every year on the Lantern Festival in the first month, civil and military officials and people in Beijing can watch the lights in front of the Wumen Gate. So, the upstairs of the Wumen Gate was decorated with lanterns, and Judy gave a banquet to entertain the officials. Thousands of lanterns outside the noon gate are stacked into a mountain, which is as high as 13 stories, and looks like the aojiang river, so it is called the aojiang mountain lantern. People set off fireworks and watched the lights for three days. Besides the Aoshan Lantern, there are music, songs and dances. In front of the noon gate, hundreds of spiritual officials played music and hundreds of artists performed. The atmosphere was warm and noisy. At the second watch, Emperor Yongle came out of Gan Qing Palace in a small sedan chair and went to the noon gate to see the Aoshan Lantern, followed by the queen, concubines, eunuchs and ministers. At this time, the singing was high, the dancing was graceful, the lights were brightly lit, fireworks were set off, and the lantern watching activities reached a climax. Later, when the emperor returned to the palace, citizens flocked to the meridian gate from all directions to watch the lights on Aoshan Mountain and celebrate the Lantern Festival.
However, the good times did not last long. In the 13th year of Yongle (14 15), the audience was so crowded that they crowded into Aoshan Mountain, which triggered a fire and caused heavy casualties that the activity had to be stopped.
Dragon Boat Festival also has activities at the Wumen Gate. According to Lu Rong, at noon, the emperor hosted a banquet for hundreds of officials outside the noon gate, giving food, zongzi and other cakes, and symbolically giving two glasses of wine. After eating zongzi and drinking wine, low-ranking officials quit, and high-ranking civil and military ministers will accompany them to Long Live Mountain (Jingshan) to see Chen Wu shoot willows; After that, the emperor will accompany his mother to Xiyuan (now Zhongnanhai and Beihai) to watch dragon boats and set off firecrackers. Since the late Jiajing period, the Luncheon Banquet of Dragon Boat Festival has been cancelled.
Today, the National Museum, located on the east side of Tiananmen Square, appeared for the first time in front of the world, on the Wumen Gate Tower.
19 12, the Republic of China was founded. In June, the State Council decided to turn Imperial College London into a history museum. 19 17. Due to imperial academy's remote location and small houses, the Ministry of Education suggested that the Wumen Building of the Forbidden City be used as the capital library and the Duanmen Building as the history museum. Later, due to lack of funds, the Ministry of Education stopped the relocation of Shi Jing Library, designated Duanmen and Wumen as the preparatory offices of the National History Museum, and moved in separately. After the preparatory office moved into the Wumen Gate, the Wumen Gate Tower and the two-wing pavilion were turned into exhibition rooms, the east and west pavilions under the Wumen Gate Tower were used as offices, the east and west courtyards were used as storage rooms, and the Duanmen Gate Tower was used to store heavy and large objects. There are 57,375 cultural relics, as many as 1924, and the collection has reached more than 200,000 pieces.
1920165438+10, the National Museum of History was formally established. However, the museum didn't officially open until1926 10/0/0.
On this day, ten showrooms were opened on the Wumen Gate Tower, four in the main building and three in the east and west. There are ten showrooms, "one is for storing goods for sale, the other is for carving stones, the fourth is for educational exhibitions, the fifth is archives of Ming and Qing Dynasties, old cultural relics, funerary wares and models of imperial academy, the sixth is bronze statues of acupuncture, miscellaneous utensils and cultural relics sent from the past, the seventh is for soldiers and instruments of torture, the eighth is for excavating cultural relics, the ninth is for model icons, and the tenth is an international souvenir".
According to the records in the archives, according to the comparison table of daily visitors during the opening period (19 15 years 10 to 1 1 7 months), the total number of visitors before and after the opening is180. 10 On the first day, the number of visitors was 45020. At that time, the "Forbidden City fever" was no less than today.
If you have been to the Forbidden City, you might as well dig out the photos and savor them. If you haven't been here, you might as well have a good look at her next time.