In the Forbidden City, there are many tiny settings that conform to the geomantic omen and architecture, which reflect the authority of the royal family everywhere. Let's look at a few cases.
A, 999 legend of half a room
According to legend, when Liu Bowen first built a palace in Beijing, he told the emperor that he dreamed that the Jade Emperor said that there were 1,000 palaces in the Heavenly Palace, and the number of mortal palaces could not exceed the number of the Heavenly Palace. He also asked 36 king kong and 72 dungeons in the sky to protect the imperial capital on earth, so that the weather is good and the country and the people are safe. "
Later, Liu Bo successfully completed the Forbidden City and was rewarded by the emperor. It turns out that the Forbidden City has 999 and a half palaces. Thirty-six King Kong, the god of heaven, is a thirty-six-mouth golden urn placed at the palace gate. The seventy-two underground palace is the seventy-two trench of the Forbidden City.
After several fires and renovations, the existing rooms in the Forbidden City are quite different from the original drawings. According to inaccurate statistics, there are still about 8700 rooms. The actual architect of the Forbidden City in history was Kuai Xiang of the Ming Dynasty, who built the Forbidden City under the authorization of Liu Ji, the founding father of the Ming Dynasty.
2. Why didn't any birds land on the wall?
Considering that the bird droppings on the palace wall were neither beautiful nor delicious, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty carefully studied the slope and width of the wall during construction, so that birds could not stand on it. Therefore, people can't see bird droppings or birds perched on the walls of the Forbidden City. Therefore, the Forbidden City has become a veritable "place where birds don't shit".
Third, the distinctive bronze lion.
There are many bronze lions, cranes, Kirin and other furnishings in the Forbidden City. The bronze lions in the Forbidden City are magnificent and full of imperial majesty. But the two bronze lions in front of Gan Qing drooped their ears. Why? Let's start with the history of Beijing at that time.
The Forbidden City is divided into an inner court and an outer court. The outer court is the place where the emperor handles government affairs, and the inner court is the place where the harem lives. At that time, the royal family of the Qing Dynasty prohibited courtiers from entering the harem, even forbidding the harem from interfering in state affairs, and even forbidding women from coming forward. The ears of these two bronze lions are drooping, just to warn the concubines and beauties in the harem to listen less and talk less about the politics of the previous dynasty.
Four, the Forbidden City Taiji Hall 25 square jade seal.
The word "jade seal" was put forward by Qin Shihuang and stipulated by him. Only the jade seal used by the emperor can be called "jade seal". This system was also used by later emperors. In addition, from the Qin Dynasty, the printing names of the emperor's imperial seals were determined, namely: imperial seal, imperial seal, imperial seal, imperial seal, imperial seal and imperial seal. In addition to the imperial edict of the Six-Party Emperor, there is also a separate imperial edict, which is the "national decree" specially sent by Qin Shihuang. This imperial seal is not used at ordinary times, but only when the emperor writes an imperial edict.
According to relevant historical records, before Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, there was no fixed number of imperial seals used by the emperor. After emperor Qianlong succeeded to the throne, he couldn't think of such an important imperial edict, and it could be so chaotic without customization! So he ordered craftsmen to carve special imperial seals for twenty-five emperors. However, unlike other dynasties, the seal on the imperial edict of the 25-party emperor ordered by him contained Manchu and Chinese characters, and he also created Manchu seal script for this purpose.
The ancients were very particular about numbers. The reason why Qianlong set the number of jade seals at 25 is that among the dynasties before the Qing Dynasty, only the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which started from Zhou Pingwang, spread steadily to the 25th century. Therefore, Emperor Qianlong also wanted the Qing Dynasty to spread to the 25th century like the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, so he ordered the production of 25 jade seals to express his good wishes.
As a result, the Qing Dynasty was ruled by * * * for 268 years, and there were twelve emperors in one * * *. Twenty-five jade seals with unrealistic wishes are still displayed in the Taiji Hall of the Forbidden City.
Oil painting on canvas of the Forbidden City in flight series
More than 600 years have passed, and the Forbidden City is a master of architectural art in China. Backed by the history of Ming and Qing dynasties, there are still many stories waiting for people to dig. Artist Jin (Daishan) painted a picture of the Forbidden City in Flying Series by imagist means, which recorded the outstanding representatives of China's characteristic buildings.