Function:
1. To ward off evil spirits in the house:
Almost all water tanks have thick walls, most of which are copper-colored. The "ears" also bear the image of the patron saint, which has the meaning of holding a house. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, people called this large water tank "menhai" as a kind of evil spirit to reduce the occurrence of disasters in the palace.
2. Fire-fighting:
These water tanks have a very practical function, which is to put out fires. The entire building of the Forbidden City is basically made of wooden materials. In the dry season or in the case of arson, it is easy to form a spreading fire. At this time, a large number of water tanks can play a role in preventing the fire from getting worse as quickly as possible.
So at that time, one of the things that eunuchs and maids often had to do was to fill the water jars with water to prevent problems in the bud.
Extended information:
The construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing began in the fourth year of Yongle, Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty. It was modeled on the Forbidden City in Nanjing. It was completed in the eighteenth year of Yongle and became the 24th palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The emperor's palace. The Palace Museum was officially established and opened on National Day in the 14th year of the Republic of China.
The Forbidden City in Beijing is 961 meters long from north to south and 753 meters wide from east to west. It is surrounded by 10-meter-high city walls and a 52-meter-wide moat outside the city. The Forbidden City has four gates, the Meridian Gate in the south, the Shenwu Gate in the north, the Donghua Gate in the east, and the Xihua Gate in the west. Each of the four corners of the city wall has a graceful turret. There is a folk saying of nine beams, eighteen columns and seventy-two ridges to describe the complexity of its structure.