1403, Ming Taizu appointed Chen Hou and assistant minister Wu Zhong to be responsible for the planning and design of Beijing and the Forbidden City.
For any building or group of buildings, the nature that determines its scale and content is first of all their functional requirements, so is the palace building. The Forbidden City is the place where feudal emperors ruled and lived. It has many functions. The first is to deal with government affairs, which requires halls, offices and officials to hold various ceremonies to deal with daily government affairs; The second is daily life, including emperors, queens, numerous concubines, princes and grandfathers, and the living quarters, gardens and stages of the Empress Dowager. Third, places for emperors and their families to carry out religious sacrificial activities and learn martial arts, such as Buddhist temples, fasting palaces, library pavilions and archery courses. There are also building facilities that serve the above contents, including restaurants, workshops, confinement rooms, warehouses, living rooms for huge service personnel, etc. According to statistics, there are nearly a thousand houses in the Forbidden City.
From the planning of palace buildings in past dynasties, it can be seen that the palace where the emperor handled government affairs was always placed in front of Miyagi, called the former dynasty; The living part is placed at the back, called the back bedroom or harem; This layout, which meets the actual functional requirements, has become the basic pattern of imperial palaces in past dynasties. The same is true of the Forbidden City in Ming Dynasty. There are three halls belonging to the former dynasty, namely Taihe, Zhonghe and Baohe, which are located in front of the central axis. They are the places where the emperor called hundreds of court officials to hold grand ceremonies in major ceremonies and festivals. There are not only huge halls and vast courtyards, but also many halls and corridors for various preparations and storage equipment.
There are three palaces in the back hall: Gan Qing Palace, Jiaotai Palace and Kunning Palace, which are located on the central axis. They are places where emperors and queens live and deal with daily affairs and hold small ceremonies in the inner court. On both sides of the third palace are the West Sixth Palace, where the Empress Dowager and the Toffee live. East Liu Gong is the imperial concubine, and six things are the crown prince; Some temples for religion and sacrifice, royal gardens for emperors to rest and play, and a large number of service buildings are also scattered in the back bedroom area. According to their different functions and properties, these buildings in the former dynasty and the bedrooms in the later dynasty formed one courtyard after another. They are juxtaposed, separated and connected by tunnels, forming a large-scale palace complex.
In 206 BC, Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang founded the Han Dynasty. His deputies built a magnificent palace in Xianyang. Liu bang thinks it is inappropriate because he has just laid the world on a large scale. Xiao He, the prime minister, said to him, "The son of heaven takes the four seas as his home, and it doesn't matter if it is magnificent." (Biography of Emperor Gaozu in Historical Records) It can be seen that the ancients had long known that palace buildings needed to be magnificent to show the majesty of the emperor. When the Ming emperors passed through the Forbidden City, they wanted to show the supreme authority and grandeur of this generation of dynasties.
What means did the planners at that time use to realize this requirement? It's a pity that we haven't found the first-hand text and image data preserved so far. Only through the specific research and analysis of the Forbidden City can we explore the planning ideas and methods at that time.
2. Architectural layout of the Forbidden City
In ancient China, propriety was the basis for rulers to govern the country. What is etiquette? The first article of the Book of Rites and Quli comes first clearly states: "A husband makes friends, judges doubts, and distinguishes right from wrong if he is different." He also said, "Morality, benevolence and righteousness should not be indecent. The lesson is correct and vulgar, and the indecent assault is unprepared. It is indecent to argue and argue. Jun and Chen, up and down, father and son, brother, indecent assault. " Ceremony is the standard to determine human relations and distinguish right from wrong, and it is also the norm to formulate morality and benevolence. Rite is not only a concept, but also a series of specific rules of behavior, which not only restricts social ethics, but also restricts people's life behavior. The core idea and main content of these norms are to establish hierarchical concepts and hierarchical systems.
In the Book of Rites, we can see many specifications and requirements about architectural forms. The sixth book of Li Zhoudong's official examination divides the city into three levels: the king city of the son of heaven, the capital of princes, the capital of imperial families and the capital of Qing doctors, and stipulates: "There are five pheasants in the palace gate, seven pheasants in the palace corner and nine pheasants in the city corner. 9 tracks through the route, 7 tracks around the route and 5 tracks in the wild route. The system of men and women is the system of capital. Palace angle system, thought that the city vassal system. Around the road, the princes thought it was a passage, and the wild road thought it was all a passage. " This means that the tower is nine pheasants high, and each pheasant is ten feet high, that is, nine feet; The princes tower is seven meters high according to the angle system of the palace of the king city; The capital tower of the imperial clan is based on the system of the king's gate and can only be five meters high. The route of Wangcheng is North-South Avenue, with nine tracks wide, which can accommodate nine cars in parallel. The route of the vassal city is equivalent to the width of the ring road, that is, the width of seven tracks; However, the road of the imperial clan capital can only be the width of the road outside the city, that is, the width of the five tracks.
The Book of Rites X says: "Those who have it are of great value. The size of the palace, the size of the utensils, the thickness of the coffin and the size of the mound are all very expensive. " He also said: "There are many gifts that are more expensive. There are seven halls, five princes, three doctors and one scholar. " "There are high for you. The Tianzitang is nine feet, the princes are seven feet, the doctors are five feet, and the scholars are three feet. " It is stipulated that there are different grades from the size of palaces and utensils, the height of graves after death and the thickness of coffins. The bigger the coffin, the nobler it is. In the construction of palaces and temples, the scale of buildings and the grade of houses are regarded as the standards of nobility and inferiority.
In order to make the ceremony operable in practice, rulers of past dynasties formulated various more specific rules and regulations and incorporated them into the national code. According to the camp order of the Tang Dynasty, each city gate of the capital can open three openings, the main entrance of Dazhou can open two openings, and the county gate can only open one opening. The emperor's palace can be decorated with a tail-shaped roof, and the main hall of the residence of officials above grade five can only use the roof of the rest peak, and the main hall of officials and civilians below grade six can only use the roof of the hanging peak. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Ming Dynasty had a clear system on the scale, shape and decoration of official and civilian residences at all levels below the Prince. Ming Hui Dian stipulates that there are seven or five courtiers in the front hall, seven in the middle hall and seven in the back hall. First-class and second-class officials, five halls and nine racks; Three to five officials, five in the backyard and seven in the backyard; Six to nine grade officials, three halls and seven racks.
"Room" refers to the width of the house, and a room is counted between two columns. The more rooms, the bigger the area. "Frame" refers to the depth of the house. The more frames, the deeper the house. "Temple of Heaven", "Rest Mountain" and "Hanging Mountain" are all roof forms of ancient buildings in China. Temple of Heaven, Rest Mountain, Hanging Mountain and Hanging Mountain represent different levels of houses from high to low according to their different structures and forms. Therefore, the hierarchy is manifested in architecture through the width and depth of the house, the form of the roof and the different styles of decoration, and architecture often becomes the symbol and symbol of the traditional etiquette system. Compared with other types of buildings, the symbol and symbolic function of palace buildings will naturally be more obvious and prominent, so let's first discuss the planning and architectural layout of the Forbidden City from the order and level of etiquette.
Let's talk about the city gate and courtyard gate located on the central axis. Meridian Gate is the gate of the whole Miyagi, located at the southernmost tip of the Forbidden City. On the high platform, there is a nine-bay hall in the center. Its two wings have 13 hall, and there is a hall at each end of this hall. This zigzag gatehouse is called "Quemen" and is the highest form of ancient gates in China. The main hall of the meridian gate adopts the double-eaved roof of the fairy hall, which is also the most advanced style in the roof. As the gate of the Forbidden City, the Meridian Gate is also the place where the emperor issued an imperial edict, ordered to go out and the soldiers presented prisoners to the emperor in triumph after the war. Every time the imperial edict is read out and the almanac is issued, officials of civil and military affairs will gather in the square in front of the meridian gate to listen to the imperial edict. Officials commit capital crimes and are said to have introduced "beheading at noon". In fact, the place where the Ming and Qing Dynasties executed the death penalty was at Caishikou, which was quite far from Wumen Square, and Wumen Square was only the place where officials were executed with sticks. There are three doorways on the front of the wumen platform, and there is a door on the left and right platform. The doorway in the center of the front is dedicated to the emperor. In addition to the emperor, the queen can enter this door when she gets married and enters the palace. People from all provinces gathered in Beijing to take the imperial palace entrance examination, and the scholar who won the top prize can leave the palace through this door, which is a concession. Hundreds of officials go to court, civil and military officials go in and out of the east gate, and the royal family goes in and out of the west gate. In case the emperor goes to court, the number of officials who appear in front of the civil and military officials will increase, and the emperor will enter the palace to take the exam. Only the left and right doors will be opened for juren from all provinces in Jinjing, and deacons and military attaché s will go in and out from the east and west respectively, while juren from all provinces will rank in the exam, with odd numbers in the east and even numbers in the west. The five openings of the meridian gate also show such an obvious level.
The back door of the Forbidden City is Shenwumen, which is located in the north of the central axis. Shenwumen was originally named Xuanwumen. Xuanwu is one of the four ancient beasts. From the azimuth, Zuo Qinglong, You Baihu, Qiansuzaku, Houxuanwu and Xuanwu dominate the north, so the North Palace Gate of the Forbidden City is mostly named after Xuanwu Gate. The second emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi, was named Michelle Ye. In order to avoid taboo, he changed Xuanwu Gate to Shenwumen. Shenwumen is also a city gate building, with the highest-grade double-eaved roof, but its main hall has only five bays and cloisters around it, and there are no wings extending forward from left to right, so it is one level lower than Wumen in shape.
To the north of the meridian gate are the main entrance and Taihe Gate of the Forbidden City. Taihe Gate is not the gate of Miyagi, but the gate of a group of buildings, so it is not in the form of a gate, but a palace gate. The gate is located on the foundation of Baishitai, with nine rooms wide and four rooms deep. Above it is a double-eaved roof, which is second only to the double-eaved roof. There is a bronze lion on the left and right in front of the gate. The bronze lion is located on a high stone platform, with a wide mouth and a magnificent shape, which adds to the majesty of the gate. Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties held ceremonies in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in person on major festivals, and often received officials from civil and military officials in this Hall of Supreme Harmony when they needed to issue orders on weekdays. Therefore, in addition to being the gate of the former dynasty, Taihe Gate also has the function of "following the government".
There is also a door in the Imperial Palace's harem, called Gan Qing Gate, which is located in the north of Baohe Hall of the former dynasty and is also a palace-style door. It has a five-bay room, an eave, a roof built on the mountain, a white stone platform, and a pair of bronze lions around the door. But after all, it is the gate of the harem, so it is lower than the Hall of Supreme Harmony in roof form, width, pedestal height and bronze lion shape. Within the permitted scope stipulated by the etiquette system, in order to maintain the identity of the harem gate, two screen walls were specially built, which were connected to the left and right sides of the gate in a figure of eight, and connected with the Gan Qing Gate as a whole, making this palace gate quite imposing.
Let's take a look at several courtyards, squares and main buildings on the central axis. Entering the Forbidden City from the meridian gate, you first come to a horizontal square with an area of 26,000 square meters. To the north is Taihe Gate, which is surrounded by porches on the left and right sides to form a closed courtyard. There is a small river in the middle of the square, called Jinshui River, which runs across the east and west and divides the square into two halves. There are five stone bridges with white marble railings on the river, facing the Taihe Gate. There are no natural rivers in the Forbidden City. Where does this Jinshui River come from?
It turns out that in China people's environmental concept, the water facing the mountain is an ideal model, even fixed in the form of geomantic omen. Even if there is no natural terrain environment, we must artificially create corresponding conditions to achieve good luck and peace. When the Forbidden City was built, a Jingshan Mountain was built in the north of Miyagi by digging the silt of the moat. Water was taken from the moat and flowed into the palace from the northwest corner of the Forbidden City, allowing it to flow in front of several important buildings, thus creating an auspicious environment with clear water on the back of the mountain. As a result, this Jinshui River appeared in front of this important Taihe Gate, and the river is winding, also known as the "Jade Belt River". At that time, the emperor listened to the government at the Imperial Gate, and the officials of civil and military affairs stood in the south of Yudai River early in the morning, waiting for the arrival of the emperor, that is, listening to the instructions from the left and right steps of Taihe Gate. Dai Yuhe not only has the function of geomantic omen, but also has the function of draining rainwater and supplying water to extinguish fire. It straddles the gate of Taihe, which undoubtedly adds interest to the environment and strengthens the artistic expression of the square.
Enter the Taihe Gate to the front. First, it is a very wide courtyard square, and the hall of supreme harmony, the central hall of the Forbidden City, is located in the north of the square. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the most important temple in Miyagi. When the emperor ascended the throne, got married and celebrated his birthday, he would hold grand ceremonies here when he received greetings and banquets from officials on major festivals. After that, Zhonghe Hall was the place where the emperor prepared and rested before going to court. Baohe Hall, north of Zhonghe Hall, is the hall where emperors hold court examinations and entertain princes. The three halls of Taihe, Zhonghe and Baohe, which constitute the former center of the Forbidden City, are in the most important position in the whole Miyagi, especially the Hall of Taihe.
The width of the Hall of Supreme Harmony is 1 1 and 60.0 1 m.. The depth of five rooms is * * * 33.33 meters; Height 35.05 meters; With a building area of 2,377 square meters, it is the temple with the largest number of rooms, the largest depth and the highest roof among the existing ancient buildings in China. The roof is naturally the most upscale double-eaved temple style, and the abutment has three floors, with a height of 8. 13m. This abutment is used in the three halls. There are stone railings around the three-story abutment, and there are steps in front, back, left and right of the abutment, among which there are three parallel steps in front and back, and the middle one is an imperial road for the emperor to go up and down, engraved with nine dragon patterns. On the top terrace in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, there are rows of bronze turtles, cranes, Shijialiang, sundials and incense burners symbolizing the country's long-term stability and eternal protection. On the day of the Great Dynasty, a huge guard of honor stood in the square, colorful flags fluttered, hundreds of officials entered the court, bells and drums rang, and cigarettes filled the air in front of the temple. This atmosphere is quite infectious. Imagine that when court officials or envoys from all walks of life want to see the emperor, they first wait outside the meridian gate or the Taihe gate, then enter the square through several gates, pass the honor guard, climb the high three-story pedestal and enter the Hall of Supreme Harmony. This environment creates a deterrent. In this way, planners and craftsmen use the largest square, the highest platform and building, and the most exquisite decoration to make the Forbidden City magnificent through the management of the environment and the image and decoration of the building itself.
There are also three halls in the harem. In front is Gan Qing Palace, which is the living quarters of emperors and empresses in Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Sometimes emperors meet with ministers here to handle daily affairs. Then there is the Jiaotai Hall, where the Queen receives royal greetings. The northernmost Kunning Palace is the main palace where the queen lives. It was divided into two parts in the Qing Dynasty. In the west, according to Manchu custom, a kang is set up along the wall and a cauldron is put indoors. Every Memorial Day, the royal family will kill pigs, make rice cakes and drink to sacrifice to the gods. The eastern half is the bridal chamber of the emperor's wedding, equipped with a bed of dragons and phoenixes and a screen of double happiness characters. The three palaces are located on the central axis and on the same pedestal. Gan Qing Palace and Kunning Palace adopt the highest-grade double-eaved roofs. According to the ritual system, the harem is one level lower than the previous dynasty, so there is only one layer of pedestal here. The courtyard in front of Gan Qing Palace is far less spacious than that of the previous dynasty. There is also a tunnel between the Gan Qing Gate and the main hall, so that people can go directly to the Youth Palace after entering the Hougong Gate, without climbing the high platform from the courtyard. All these can make people obviously feel that this is the palace where the emperors lived, and it is not as magnificent as the previous palaces.
The planning and architectural layout of the Forbidden City used the concept of Five Elements Theory. Yin-Yang and Five Elements are a kind of world outlook and cosmology in ancient China. The ancients believed that everything in the world was divided into yin and yang, male being yang and female being yin; In azimuth, the front is yang and the back is yin; In numbers, the singular number is Yang, the even number is Yin, and so on. In the Forbidden City, the imperial court ruled by a masculine emperor is placed in front, and the living quarters of the emperor and queen are placed behind, which not only meets the needs of using functions, but also conforms to the theory of Yin and Yang. There were three halls in the previous dynasty, and only two in the harem (namely, Gan Qing Palace and Kunning Palace, and the Jiaotai Hall was added in the later period), which is in line with the saying that the singular number is Yang and the even number is Yin.
The ancients believed that the world was composed of five elements: gold, wood, water, fire and earth. The ground orientation is divided into five parts: east, west, south, north and middle. The constellations in the sky are divided into five senses: east, west, south, north and middle. Colors are divided into five colors: blue, yellow, red, white and black. The sound is divided into five scales: palace, quotient, angle, sign and feather. At the same time, the five elements are connected with the five elements, five colors and five tones, forming a regular relationship. For example, the middle official of the five senses in the sky lives in the middle, and the middle official is divided into three walls, that is, the upper wall is too big, the middle wall is purple, and the lower wall is in the middle of the official, which has become the most central position in the universe and the place where the Emperor of Heaven lives. Since the emperor on the ground claimed to be the son of heaven, the palace where the son of heaven lived on the ground should also be called Wei Zi Palace. Weiyang Palace, located in Chang 'an, the capital of Han Dynasty, is also called Wei Zi Palace. It is natural that the forbidden area in Miyagi, where the emperor lived, was called the Forbidden City in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Except for Zhongguan, Dongguan constellation is dragon-shaped, which matches the five-color cyan of the East and is called Qinglong. Xiguan constellation is tiger-shaped, with western white, called white tiger; Nanguan constellation is bird-shaped, with southern vermilion, called Suzaku; Beiguan constellation is turtle-shaped, which is called Xuanwu together with the dark black (black) in the north. Therefore, Qinglong, Baihu, Suzaku and Xuanwu have become the symbols of the four constellations in the sky, as well as the symbols of the four directions on the ground, thus becoming the animals on the ground. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were tiles with Four Holy Beasts patterns, which became the special tiles used in palaces at that time. Chang 'an, the imperial city of the Tang Dynasty, and Miyagi, the capital of the Song Dynasty, are called Zhuquemen in the south and Xuanwu Gate in the north. The meridian gate of the Forbidden City in Ming and Qing Dynasties is also called "Five Pagodas". Phoenix is a bird, so the noon gate is also Suzaku Gate, and the palace gate in the north is naturally called Xuanwu Gate.
Among the five colors, except Dong Qing, Bai Xi, Nanzhu and Beihe, the center is yellow, yellow is the color of the land, and soil is the foundation of all things. Especially in agricultural society, land has a special position, so yellow has become the center of five colors. In the Forbidden City, the roofs of almost all palaces are yellow glazed tiles, which is not surprising.
Besides the ritual system and the theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, what principles and corresponding methods did the planners and builders of the Forbidden City adopt? Professor Fu Xinian, a famous Chinese architectural historian, discussed the modular relationship between the courtyard area of the Forbidden City and the location of the palace. He carefully measured and analyzed the main courtyards and important buildings of the Forbidden City and found some phenomena:
Firstly, the courtyard composed of the second bedroom is measured, with the east-west width of118m and the north-south width of 218m, with the ratio of 6:11; The courtyard composed of three halls in the former dynasty is 234 meters wide from east to west and 437 meters long from north to south, and the ratio of the two is also 6:11; And the length and width of the latter is almost twice that of the former, that is to say, the area of the former is equal to four times that of the latter. Secondly, there are six east-west palaces and five east-west palaces on both sides of the harem. According to the measurement, the length of these two parts is 216m, and the width is119m, which is basically consistent with the size of the harem courtyard. It can be seen that the courtyard area of the former dynasty, the six palaces in the east and west, and the five palaces may be determined according to the courtyard size of the harem. Professor Fu believes that the establishment of the feudal dynasty in China was to "turn the family into the country" for the emperor, so it is completely understandable to plan the first three halls and other buildings with the emperor's home-harem as a module.
In addition, if diagonal lines are drawn on the four corners of the harem courtyard and the front yard courtyard, the intersection of diagonal lines is in the center of Gan Qing Palace and the Hall of Supreme Harmony. This may be a design technique to determine the location of the main hall in the building complex. The courtyard is in front of the center, and then other buildings are arranged to highlight the status of the main hall. This phenomenon also exists in important temples such as Zhihua Temple and Miaoying Temple in Beijing. Professor Fu also found that the I-beam at the * * * of the three great halls of the former dynasty was 232 meters long in the north and 130 meters wide in the east and west, with a ratio of 9: 5. According to the theory of Yin and Yang, the singular number is Yang, the number of nine genera is the highest, and the number of five genera is in the middle. Therefore, in ancient times, the number of emperors was often symbolized by nine or five, which was called "the glory of the ninth five-year plan". It should be said that it is not an unintentional coincidence that this important platform adopts this number.
As a Miyagi in Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Forbidden City covers an area of 720,000 square meters, with a building area of 6,543.8+6,000 square meters. So many buildings should be arranged reasonably, so that they can not only meet the needs of various material functions of the court, but also conform to etiquette, and create a spatial environment that shows the power of feudal emperors. Planners and builders at that time inevitably adopted various technical and artistic means. In the absence of accurate historical data, only through various means.