“The sky is round and the earth is round” The ancient Chinese had an almost obsessive love for symmetry. Therefore, almost 99% of the buildings and scene layouts in ancient times pursued squareness. Siheyuan in the north and Jiangnan in the south. This is true for gardens and so on. As the capital of the ancient Ming and Qing dynasties and the residence of the emperors, the Forbidden City has an extremely important and irreplaceable position in history. As we all know, the Forbidden City is located on the central axis of Beijing, so many people think that the Forbidden City is also boxy. Very symmetrical. In fact, it is not the case. If you look carefully at the map, you can find that the Forbidden City is not very symmetrical. The northwest corner of the Forbidden City is missing a large piece unlike the other four corners.
The north-south central axis of the Forbidden City is centered on the three main halls, the three back palaces, and the Imperial Garden. It is symmetrical from left to right. There are different opinions as to why the northwest corner of the Forbidden City lacks such a piece, but now people generally believe there are two theories:
First, due to Feng Shui reasons, the northwest corner is not easy to be too straight. At first, the designers of the Forbidden City planned the structure according to the square shape with the Hall of Supreme Harmony as the core, and wanted to use it to set off the emperor's nine-five-year-old dignity. However, due to various reasons during the construction project, the Forbidden City did not follow the square shape after the completion of the construction. It was originally imagined that the Hall of Supreme Harmony would be the intersection of the diagonals. In order to avoid the responsibility of overseeing the work, the minister at the time removed the northwest corner. Of course, some people say that it was because of Feng Shui that the northwest was not easy to be straight, otherwise it would have affected the overall stability of the Forbidden City and even the entire city of Beijing. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to make such a low-level mistake based on the technology at the time. Therefore, a corner of the Forbidden City was It has never been corrected.
Second, compared to the first statement, the second statement is generally more evil. The northwest corner of the Forbidden City cannot be built at all. According to the time, the emperor must have wanted his residence to be square, and the northwest corner was also straight at first, but I don’t know why. Whenever it was built, the city wall would always collapse on its own within a short period of time due to various reasons. Collapse is very evil. Many emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties failed to succeed after various methods in the city, and over time they had to change the northwest corner to an oblique angle.
In Chinese myths and legends, the entire Shenzhou is supported by eight mountains including the southeast, northwest and northwest. The Buzhou Mountain supporting the northwest corner was finally permanently destroyed due to the dispute between the Communists and Zhu Rong. is missing. The palace serves as a symbol of heaven and earth on earth, so the northwest corner is irreparably missing. There is a similar saying in Feng Shui: lack of care means lack of friendship. For this reason, the northwest corner of the Forbidden City can never be repaired.
Since ancient times, our country has paid attention to the "golden mean" way of life. Ancient people used this theory in the construction of houses, that is, they were built in a symmetrical manner, such as the well-known courtyard houses in Beijing. Friends who have been to the Forbidden City may know that there is a missing piece in the northwest corner of the Forbidden City. So what is puzzling is that since every courtyard house can achieve symmetry, why can’t the palace, which is much more advanced than it, not be able to achieve symmetry?
Aerial photography of the Forbidden City
In fact, the principle of symmetry was not deviated from during the construction of the Forbidden City. Its palaces are arranged along a north-south central axis. The three main halls, the back three palaces and the imperial garden are all located on this central axis. They are symmetrical and strictly follow the construction of the imperial capital in "The Rites of Zhou·Kaogong Ji" It was built based on the principle of "facing the front and sleeping in the back, the ancestors on the left and the community on the right". The only shortcoming is that there is a missing part in its northwest corner. There are two folk opinions about this.
The northwest corner of the Forbidden City is incomplete
The first type: the craftsmen’s own mistakes. In the 1950s, Hou Renzhi, a famous Chinese historian and geographer, explained this problem: "The walls of the Forbidden City are indeed designed according to a rectangle, and the craftsmen went to great lengths to build the Golden Hall of the Forbidden City on the diagonal of the rectangle. to highlight the supremacy of imperial power, but in the end natural reasons could not be avoided, and it was really difficult to build the Jinluan Palace at the intersection of the diagonals. In order not to cause death, they decided to remove the northwest corner to achieve their goal. ”
The northwest corner of the Forbidden City is incomplete
Second type: no city wall can be built on this corner. Originally, the craftsmen wanted to build it at right angles, but it collapsed as soon as it was built. I wonder if it was located in an earthquake zone. In short, it was very weird.
So in the following more than a hundred years, countless attempts and failures were made. In desperation, the craftsmen had to change the right angle of the northwest corner into an oblique angle, which eventually resulted in a missing piece in the northwest corner.
The northwest corner of the Forbidden City
In fact, the authenticity of these two statements needs to be studied. In ancient my country, there was a legend: There has always been a gap in the northwest direction of the Forbidden City. Because it is said that there is a mountain supporting the heaven and earth in each of the eight directions of the earth. The mountain in the northwest corner is called Mount Buzhou, and Buzhou is also called Bujiao, so naturally there is a missing piece in the northwest corner of the Forbidden City.
The northwest corner of the Forbidden City
It is not unreasonable to think of the structure of the Forbidden City. There is a piece missing in the northwest corner of the inner city and a piece missing in the southeast corner of the outer city, which corresponds to the sentence "** * When the workers hit Buzhou Mountain, the sky fell to the northwest and the earth sank to the southeast. ”