From the inside of the Forbidden City, the main entrance of the three halls, Taihe Gate, stands on the top of the mountain, with double eaves, and stands on the pedestal carved with white marble in three rooms. It is the emperor's "main hall of the dynasty", commonly known as "Golden Hall", with the most distinguished double-eaved roof.
Therefore, as the most distinguished "Golden Hall", the double-eaves hall of the Hall of Supreme Harmony is the highest point of the internal architecture of the Forbidden City.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony used to be the tallest building in Beijing, with a height of 36.57 meters from the courtyard to the main ridge, which is equivalent to the height of a 12-story building. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is also the largest building in the Forbidden City.
But the biggest gate of the Forbidden City is the "noon gate". It is 37.95 meters high. According to China's theory of Yin and Yang, due north is called Zi and due south is called Wu, so this gate at the southern end of the central axis of the Forbidden City is called Wu Gate.
But from our country, it is not the highest point of internal architecture. Therefore, although the meridian gate is actually1.38m higher than the Hall of Supreme Harmony, it is not the highest point of the Forbidden City.
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Some anecdotes about the Hall of Supreme Harmony;
According to the records of the Qing Dynasty, six-year-old the emperor shunzhi ascended the throne at the Imperial Gate, which is now the Taihe Gate. In the second year of Shunzhi, the palaces on the central axis were renovated and renamed. This is the most direct embodiment of dynasty change in architecture. The Forbidden City was renamed Taihe Hall, the Relay Hall was renamed Zhonghe Hall, and the Jianji Hall was renamed Baohe Hall. Since then, Manchu has appeared on the plaque of the Forbidden City.
For the unstable new regime at that time, the word "harmony" contains their most urgent expectation for future world peace and harmony between the monarch and the people. However, the emperor shunzhi died at the age of 24, and did not wait for the peaceful and prosperous times he hoped. The year is 166 1. 18 later, on a cold winter night, the chef on the west side of the hall of supreme harmony suddenly caught fire, and the fire spread all the way. Two hours later, the hall of supreme harmony burned up. A few days later, six eunuchs who set fire were hanged. Since then, the Hall of Supreme Harmony has been abandoned 18 years.
During this period, the young Emperor Kangxi was busy directing campaigns and stabilizing his rule in the incomplete Forbidden City. 16 years, successively put down the San Francisco rebellion led by Wu Sangui, recovered Taiwan Province Province, defeated the invading Russia, and signed the only foreign equality treaty of the Qing Dynasty, the Sino-Russian Nebuchadnezzar Chu Treaty.
Until the thirty-fourth year of Kangxi,
The world is peaceful.
Emperor Kangxi at this time
Finally, I can free my hands to rebuild the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
But this time the repair encountered the biggest problem.
The last reconstruction of the Hall of Supreme Harmony was during the apocalypse of the Ming Dynasty.
It has been 69 years now, and people don't know.
Accurate building scale and data.
Emperor Kangxi, who loved reading at that time, personally searched for books, which disappointed him. A man named Liang Jiu has made a great turn in this matter. Liang Jiu, who was over 70 years old at that time, entered the Ministry of Industry from the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty and worked in the Ministry of Industry for more than 40 years. According to the Biography of Liang Jiu, Liang Jiu made a wooden model of the Hall of Supreme Harmony at that time according to the ratio of ten to one, and completed the structural construction of the Hall of Supreme Harmony by enlarging the model components. It's amazing that every piece of enlarged wood can be perfectly installed.
Fortunately for future generations, all the materials and dimensions of the reconstruction of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in Kangxi's thirty-four years are recorded in detail in the book Chronicle of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which is the only detailed record about the construction of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. For the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which is about to be overhauled today, this book still has important reference value.
In the thirty-sixth year of Kangxi, the Hall of Supreme Harmony was completed and the ceremony was under way. This is not only a celebration of a palace, but also the beginning of a new era of prosperity. This is the Hall of Supreme Harmony that we saw today. The Hall of Supreme Harmony, located on a white marble platform more than eight meters high, is the core of the Forbidden City and the climax of the whole architectural movement of the Forbidden City. All its designs are for one purpose, that is, to set off the supreme imperial power to the extreme.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony used to be the tallest building in Beijing, with a height of 36.57 meters from the courtyard to the main ridge, which is equivalent to the height of a 12-story building. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is also the largest building in the Forbidden City. The area is 238 1 m2, which is equivalent to the size of half a football field. Its aspect ratio is exactly nine to five, representing the ninth five-year plan. The Hall of Supreme Harmony, followed by the Hall of Zhonghe and the Hall of Baohe constituted the main body of the previous dynasty, and people used to call it the Three Great Halls. The architecture of the Forbidden City is related to the number nine in many places, and nine is the largest and embodies the supreme significance. Like nine rows of nine-way doornails on the gate, nine beasts on the eaves and so on. But for the Hall of Supreme Harmony, even nine at most is not enough to express its majesty, so there are ten beasts on its roof. This extra one is called Shi Hang, which is the only one among all the ancient buildings in China.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the largest wooden structure building in the world at present. In this so-called largest hall in the world, the layout is quite simple. Against the abutment, the emperor's throne is the only protagonist. Looking around, the majesty of imperial power radiates to every corner. There are seventy-two pillars in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The six pillars around the throne are covered with gold, and each pillar has a dragon, which is a symbol of imperial power. Looking up from these six pillars, there is a dragon on the algae well, and the orb hanging from the Longkou is also called Xuanyuan mirror. Emperor Kangxi rebuilt the Hall of Supreme Harmony, changing the original shape of nine bays into eleven bays. It can be said that this is the most practical transformation in this reconstruction.
In June 2004, before the overhaul of the Forbidden City, the investigation entered the roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which is the beam frame of the largest wooden structure in the world. Here, people found a mysterious object. It is in the center of the top of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, just above the algae well. This is the "fu ban" that Yong Zhengdi ordered to put here.
A passage was found in the palace archives of the First Historical Archives: On August 12th, the ninth year of Yongzheng, Yong Zhengdi ordered three plaques to be placed in hall of mental cultivation, Hall of Supreme Harmony and Gan Qing Palace. "Placement of the symbol board is a very special content in ancient architecture and geomantic omen. Its purpose is to protect urban houses, ward off evil spirits and maintain peace. In addition to the traditional Taoist gossip, these tablets of Yongzheng also added spells of Tibetan Buddhism, which reflected that his religion was used by me to keep him safe. " Li Guorong, director of the editing and research department of the First Historical Archives, explained. Yong Zhengdi's placement of the blessing board undoubtedly shows that the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Gan Qing Palace and hall of mental cultivation are the most important places in the Forbidden City, while the other two palaces are all in the palace except the Hall of Supreme Harmony.