general layout
The Forbidden City is located in the center of Beijing. The layout is based on the principle of "Left Group, Right House, Facing the Future". It is built on the central axis of Beijing, eight kilometers long from north to south, and the north and south are symmetrical. Today, the working people's cultural palace in front of the Forbidden City is the ancestral temple of the Ming and Qing emperors. On the right front, Zhongshan Park is the social altar where the emperor worships the land gods and the valley gods. Zhongdun Wanshou Mountain is a man-made mountain specially built to create the geomantic omen of the imperial capital, and there is Jinshui River in the south, which just conforms to the truth of the ancients that "negative yin embraces yang, and rushing gas is harmony". Long live the Mountain is a man-made mountain specially built to create the geomantic omen of the imperial city. Built in the early Ming Dynasty, it is located in the former site of Yanchunge, the bedroom of the Yuan Dynasty, and was built by excavating the moat and the silt of the South Lake. The piling of this mountain, on the one hand, satisfies the principle that the imperial city should be "negative", on the other hand, it suppresses the geomantic omen of the previous dynasty, so Long live the Mountain is also called "Zhenshan". The layout of Beijing 49 City is that Erlong comes out of the water to protect the Forbidden City. According to China's ancient astrology theory, the purple star (i.e. Polaris) is located in the center of the sky, where the emperor lived, corresponding to heaven and man. According to the emperor's residence, it is also called the Forbidden City.
? The Palace Museum is surrounded by a palace wall with a height of 12 meters and a length of 3,400 meters. It is a rectangular city surrounded by a moat with a width of 52 meters, forming a fortified castle. So there are four official doors, the main entrance is called Wumen, the east entrance is called Donghuamen, the west entrance is called Xihuamen, and the north entrance is called Shenwumen. Facing the Shenwumen in the north gate, there is a Jingshan made of earth and stone. In the overall layout, Jingshan can be said to be the barrier of the Forbidden City complex.
? The Forbidden City is about 960 meters long from north to south, 750 meters wide from east to west, with an area of more than 720,000 square meters and more than 8,000 existing houses. Surrounded by a city wall with a height of 10 meter and a moat with a width of 52 meters. There are doors on all sides, the meridian gate in the south, the Shenwu gate in the north, the Donghua gate in the east and the Xihua gate in the west. The Forbidden City consists of an outer court and an inner court. The outer court is centered on the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe and the Hall of Baohe, with Wenhua Hall in the east and Wuying Hall in the west as its wings, which is the place where the imperial court held the ceremony. Behind the outer court is the Imperial Palace, including Gan Qing Palace, Jiaotai Palace, Kunning Palace, Imperial Garden and Six Palaces of East and West. It is the place where the emperor handles daily affairs and the emperor and queen live. In addition, there is Ningshougong District on the east side, which is the place where Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty abdicated to provide for the aged.