The Forbidden City is so big, why are there only three halls, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe and the Hall of Baohe, without planting trees?

Some friends will say that this is due to the consideration of architectural effect. As we all know, the outer court of the Forbidden City (namely, the three main halls, the Wenhua Hall and the Wuying Hall) is the place where the emperor held important ceremonies, so it has a very high political status. How to highlight the supremacy and inviolability of imperial power has become a difficult problem for architects.

Smart architects used many methods at the beginning of the design, one of which was not to plant trees in the courtyard. Not only are there no trees in the courtyards of the Three Halls, but there are no trees in all courtyards from Tiananmen Square to Taihe Gate (the trees near Duanmen were planted after the Xinhai).

What's the effect of this? Imagine that when the ministers who entered the palace walked on the long imperial road and passed through the undulating architectural space, the dead environment would cause an invisible mental stress.

After entering the Taihe Gate, the wide square and the magnificent hall standing on the white marble steps will make their mental stress reach its peak, and the timid courtiers are obviously the favorite of the emperors.

In order to maintain the majesty of the king, it seems a good choice not to plant trees. If we look at history carefully, we will find that there are more direct reasons for not planting trees. For safety reasons, the ruler tacitly refused to plant trees outside the three halls.

The first is to prevent the emperor from being assassinated. Although ouchi is a master in film and television dramas, someone really entered the Forbidden City. In the 18th year of Jiaqing (18 13), after Tianjin successfully developed some eunuchs as internal affairs, its leaders organized two armies to attack Donghuamen and Xihuamen. Due to the exposure of the action, the Tian Li Sect on East Road was blocked in front of Jing Yun.

Under the leadership of Gao Guangfu and Yang Jinzhong, the West Road team successfully entered Xihuamen, and then came to Longzongmen of Gan Qing Palace (the emperor's residence). As the gate was closed, these believers climbed the trees on both sides of the palace wall and turned into the courtyard in an attempt to launch a fire attack.

Although these rabble were finally suppressed and two domestic servants were beheaded, this incident left a great psychological shadow on the Qing emperor. As the highest level of a huge empire, they cherish their lives more than anyone else, so it makes sense that the emperors refused to plant trees in the three halls.