Ladies and gentlemen:
I am very happy to have the privilege of accompanying my family to visit today. This is the world-famous Forbidden City Museum. Most people call it the Forbidden City for short. As the name suggests, it is the former royal palace. Since the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Aisin Gioro Puyi, was forced to abdicate in 1911, it can be traced back to 1420, when the third Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, moved his capital here. There have been 14 emperors from the Ming Dynasty, 10 from the Qing Dynasty, and 24 emperors from the Qing Dynasty. He ruled the country in this splendid palace for five centuries. The Imperial House is naturally large-scale and majestic. Today, it is the largest and best-preserved ancient royal palace complex not only in China but also in the world. Because this palace embodies the excellent tradition and unique style of ancient Chinese architectural art, it plays a very important role in the history of architecture and is a classic of architectural art. In 1987, it was rated as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. .
The Forbidden City, also known as the Forbidden City, was formed by the blending of astronomical theory and folklore. Ancient Chinese astronomers divided all the stars in the sky into three zones, twenty-eight constellations, and thirty-one constellations. Its three walls refer to Taiweiyuan, Ziweiyuan and Tianshiyuan. Ziweiyuan is in the center of the three walls, which is in line with the saying of "Ziweiju". Therefore, the ancients believed that the ultraviolet micro wall was the seat of the Emperor of Heaven, so it was called the Purple Palace. The emperor is the son of the Emperor of Heaven and the supreme being on earth. Therefore, they should also imitate the Emperor of Heaven and put the purple character on the names of their palaces to show that he is at the center and looks over the world. There is another saying that refers to "Purple Qi coming from the east". Legend has it that when Lao Tzu came out of Hangu Pass, Yin, the commander of the pass, was delighted to see purple energy coming from the east and knew that a saint would pass through the pass. Sure enough, Lao Tzu came riding on a green ox, and he was so happy that he asked him to write the Tao Te Ching. Later generations therefore used the phrase "purple air coming from the east" to express auspiciousness. Of course, the emperor's family hopes for auspicious celestial phenomena, so it is logical to name it with the word "purple". The meaning of the word "forbidden" is more obvious, that is, the forbidden area of ??the palace, which is heavily guarded and not accessible to anyone. There is absolutely no falsehood in this statement. Before the place was officially opened after the last emperor was expelled from the palace in 1924, ordinary people could not even take a step closer. You can imagine how majestic and sacred the Forbidden City was in the past!
The Forbidden City has its own history when it was built in Beijing, and because it is a geomantic treasure, it’s a long story. Construction of the Forbidden City began in the fourth year of Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty (1406), and it took 14 years to be basically completed. It has a history of more than 570 years today. Everyone has seen that the Forbidden City is a first-class building complex with red walls and yellow tiles. Why is it like this? According to the Taoist theory of yin and yang and the five elements, the five elements include metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, with earth occupying the central position. Because the Chinese nation has lived on the Loess Plateau for generations, they have developed a feeling of admiration and attachment to yellow, so Since the Tang Dynasty, yellow has become a color representing the royal family, and others are not allowed to use it in clothing and architecture. Red symbolizes happiness, auspiciousness and wealth. For these reasons, red and yellow are used as the basic colors of the Forbidden City building.
The Forbidden City covers an area of ??more than 720,000 square meters, with more than 9,900 palaces and pavilions, and a construction area of ??about 150,000 square meters. It is surrounded by a city wall that is 9.9 meters high and is known as 10 meters. Outside the wall is a 52-meter wide moat, commonly known as Tongzi River. The city is about 960 meters long from north to south and 760 meters wide from east to west. Each of the four corners of the city has a turret with a unique structure, harmonious and beautiful shape. It is octagonal, known as nine beams, eighteen columns, and seventy-two ridges. There is a gate around the city. The main gate in the south is the Meridian Gate, the north gate is called Shenwu Gate, the east gate is called Donghua Gate, and the west gate is called Xihua Gate. During the construction of the Forbidden City, 230,000 famous craftsmen and 1 million civilians were recruited across the country. The building materials used were sourced from all over the country. For example, the white marble stone comes from Fangshan County in Beijing, the five-color tiger skin stone comes from Panshan in Ji County, Hebei Province, and the granite is collected from Quyang County, Hebei Province. The square bricks in the palace were fired in Suzhou, and the bricks used for the walls were fired in Linqing, Shandong. The red color used on the palace walls was produced from Yantong Mountain in Xuanhua, Shandong (now Gaoqing County). The wood mainly comes from Huguang, Jiangxi, Shanxi and other provinces. From this we can also see the vastness of the engineering at that time.
The building in front of us is called the Meridian Gate.
The Meridian Gate is the main entrance to the Forbidden City, commonly known as the Five Phoenix Tower. In the Ming Dynasty, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year, lanterns were hung at the Meridian Gate to give food to all officials. In the Qing Dynasty, this kind of activity was cancelled. Every year on the first day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, a ceremony to promulgate the next year's calendar is held here. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, "Ban Li" was renamed "Ban Shuo" to avoid the name of Emperor Qianlong's "Hongli". In the Qing Dynasty, when the emperor held court meetings or sacrifices, as well as important festivals such as New Year's Day, Winter Solstice, Longevity, and weddings, books and ceremonial guards were displayed here. In addition, whenever the country triumphs from a military expedition, the emperor will receive a prisoner presentation ceremony at the Meridian Gate. If the emperor is on a personal expedition, he will also depart from the Meridian Gate.
The statement about "introducing the Meridian Gate beheading" may be perfunctory due to the drama Wutai and unofficial history. In fact, the Ming Dynasty court officials committed crimes. Some of them used their sticks at the Meridian Gate. Of course, in serious cases, some of them might have been beaten to death on the spot.
(After entering the Meridian Gate and in front of the Jinshui Bridge)
Now that we have arrived inside the Forbidden City, before the official tour, I will first introduce the layout and tour route of the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City covers an area of ??more than 720,000 square meters. In such an area, various architectural techniques are used to build a group of buildings of such a large scale. Not only is there no chaos, but it gives people a sense of rigorous structure, brilliant colors and regular layout. , the most important method is to build a very obvious red axis, which is organically integrated with the entire city of Beijing. It runs from the Bell Tower in the north to Yongding Gate in the south, with a total length of about 8 kilometers. The portion accounts for about one-third. The important buildings in the palace are all located on this axis, and other buildings are symmetrically distributed from east to west. The design and layout of the entire palace express the "dignity" of the feudal monarch and the strictness of the feudal hierarchy.
The Forbidden City is in particular the inner court. Now we are at the southernmost end of the outer court, with the Gate of Supreme Harmony in front. There is a pair of bronze lions in front of the door. They are majestic and fierce. They have become the guardians of the bridge in front of the door, symbolizing power and dignity. Since the emperor is the Son of Heaven, the lion in front of the door is naturally the most exquisite and tallest. The one standing on the east side is a male lion with a young lion under its front paw, symbolizing the eternal power of the emperor for thousands of generations. The river in front of us is called Jinshui River, which is used for decoration and waterproofing. The five bridges on the river symbolize the five virtues advocated by Confucius: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith. The entire river looks like a bow with the axis being the arrow, which shows that the emperor was ordered by Heaven to govern the country on behalf of the Heavenly Emperor.
(In front of the Gate of Taihe)
The Forbidden City building is divided into two parts: the "outer court" and the "inner court". The part from the Meridian Gate to the Qianqing Gate is divided into "Outer Dynasty", with the three palaces of Taihe, He and Baohe as the center, and the two groups of palaces Wenhua and Wuying on the east and west sides, which are symmetrical on the left and right, forming the "Outer Dynasty" A majestic layout. The three halls are arranged front and back on the same huge "Gong" Zihan white marble hall base. The hall base is 8 meters high and divided into three floors. Each floor is surrounded by white marble carved railings, and the three platforms are surrounded by three-layer stone carved "imperial roads". The Hall of Supreme Harmony, commonly known as the Golden Palace, is the tallest building in the Forbidden City and the tallest and most magnificent ancient wooden structure in the country. Inside the Qianqing Gate is the "inner court", and the architectural layout is also symmetrical. The other two are Qianqing Palace, Jiaotai Palace and Kunning Palace, which are the places where feudal emperors lived and handled daily government affairs. The six east and west palaces on both sides are the residences of the concubines, and the east and west palaces are the residences of the princes. There are also three gardens in the "Inner Palace" for royal pleasures - the Royal Garden, the Cining Garden, and the Qianlong Garden. The Inner Jinshui River winds along the west side of the "Inner Court" and flows out of the palace, bypassing the Yingwu Hall, Taihe Gate, and Wenhua Hall. There is a white jade stone bridge on the river, and there are zigzag white jade carved railings along both sides of the river, shaped like jade belts. Most of the Forbidden City buildings are roofed with yellow glazed tiles, which are magnificent, majestic and beautiful in the sunshine.
In addition to highlighting the axis, the buildings of the Forbidden City also use various techniques to make each group of buildings in the palace city unique. For example, the treatment of the temple base, the form of the temple roof, the number of kissing beasts and hanging spine beasts, the regulation of painted patterns, etc. In this way, it not only makes the main buildings appear taller and more spectacular, but also expresses the grade differences of palace buildings. According to folklore, the Forbidden City has 9,999 and a half rooms. It is said that the palace in the sky has 10,000 rooms. The emperor on earth calls himself the "Emperor" and does not dare to match the number, so half a room is missing. Where is this half room? It refers to the room at the west end of Wenyuan Pavilion. In fact, there are more than 9,000 rooms in the Forbidden City, and the so-called half of them do not exist at all.
Although the room at the west end of Wenyuan Pavilion can only accommodate one staircase, it is still a whole room. Under the Wenyuan Attic is the place where my country's first "Sikuquanshu" is stored. In order to take care of the beauty of the layout, the west end room was specially built.
(After passing through the Gate of Supreme Harmony)
Ladies and gentlemen, the hall in front is called the Hall of Supreme Harmony, commonly known as the Golden Palace, and is the largest palace in the Forbidden City. With a construction area of ??2,377 square meters and a veranda with double eaves, it is the highest level of the palace and the largest of the three outer palaces. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is built on three overlapping "Gong" Zi Xumi seats, carved from white marble, more than 8 meters above the ground, with 21 steps on the lower level and 9 steps on the upper level.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony was built in 1406 AD and has been destroyed by three fires and one war. What we see now was built in the Qing Dynasty. There is a row of animals on each of the four eaves. They were originally nails used to fix tiles, but were later replaced by animals from myths and legends. It is said that they can ward off evil spirits, and the greater the number, the more important the building is. There are 9 in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. 9 is the number of the Yang pole, followed by 7, 5, 3, and 1. Common people are not allowed to have such decorations in their homes.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, 24 emperors ascended the throne here and announced their enthronement edicts. On New Year's Day, the Winter Solstice, the emperor's birthday, the appointment of a queen, the promulgation of decrees and decrees, sending generals on expeditions, the Golden Palace, and the blessing of peace, etc., the emperor would hold ceremonies here and receive congratulations from civil and military officials.
This square is Taihedian Square, covering an area of ??30,000 square meters. There is no grass or tree in the entire square, it is empty and quiet, giving people a solemn and solemn feeling. It is the royal road, and the bricks on the left and right floors are laid horizontally and vertically, with a maximum of 15 floors to prevent anyone from digging tunnels to enter the palace. There are some tanks around. What are they used for? There are 308 tanks in the Forbidden City, which are used to store water and prevent inflammation. Charcoal can be burned under the tanks to heat them to prevent the water from freezing in winter. Why was such a square built? It was to make people feel the majesty of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Standing below and looking forward: under the blue sky, the yellow tiles are shining. The layers of stone platforms are like white clouds, and the smoke is lingering. The entire Hall of Supreme Harmony is like a fairyland in the sky. During the ceremony, candles were lit on the enamel crane plate in the hall, sandalwood was burned in the incense pavilion and incense burner, pine and cypress branches were burned in the copper stove, turtle and crane on the terrace, incense smoke was lingering on both sides of the hall, and the whole place was silent. When the emperor ascended the throne, the drums and music sounded, and the civil and military ministers knelt down in the square according to Lu rank, looked up at the Yun Pavilion Mountain and shouted long live, to show the emperor's supreme authority and dignity.
When Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, ascended the throne at the end of 1908, he was only 3 years old. His father, the regent Zaifeng, carried him to the throne. When the ceremony started, there was a sudden burst of drums and music, which frightened the emperor into crying and shouting that he wanted to go home. Zaifeng was so anxious that he was sweating, so he had to coax the emperor and said: "Don't cry, don't cry, it's almost over, it's almost over!" The ministers thought this was unlucky, and it was a coincidence that the Qing Dynasty really fell after three years. This ended more than 2,000 years of feudal rule in our country.