Chinese Imperial Palace of the Ming&Qing Dynasties

Imperial Palace of the Ming&Qing Dynasties

Palace Museum:
Palace Museum is also called Forbidden City, located in the central of Beijing. Nowadays people also call it as Palace Museum, means the passed imperial palace. The length from west to east are 750 meters, north to south are 960 meters, with a total area 720000 square meters. The whole building of Palace Museum is surrounded to the center by the two firm defensive lines: the external is surrounded by a moat which is 5.2 meters wide, 6 meters deep; then the internal is a wall with circumference 3 kilometers, the wall is high nearly 10 meters, 8.62 meters wide at the bottom. There are four gates on the wall: the Meridian Gate to the south, the Shenwu Gate (Gate of Military Prowess) to the north, and the Xihua Gate (Gate of military Prowess) to the north, and the Xihua Gate (Western Flowery Gate ) to the west, the Donghua (Eastern Flowery Gate) to the east; At each corner of the wall stands a unique shaped watchtower. Palace Museum is marvelous among the Chinese ancient architectures as well as the largest and most complete ensemble of ancient architecture complex all over the world. The Palace Museum was first built in 1406 year BC of Ming dynasty, lasted for 15 years. from which twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties .There is a north-south axis, on which according to the Chinese traditional aesthetics ( central axis as a center, symmetrical on both sides ) built three grand palaces (Taihe palace, Zhonghe palace, Baohe palace)indicating political power and the Inner Palace (Qianqing palace, Jiaotai palace, Kunning palace)which are the living quarters for the imperial residence

Taihe Palace　(The Hall of Supreme Harmony)
Taihe palace(The Hall of Supreme Harmony) is commonly called Jinnuan Dian, the first of the three grand palaces, built on the base of five meters high Han marble, with carved dragon columns standing on four sides. This is the largest building in the palace complex with 3.6 meters high 6.3 meters wide, total area 2380 square meters. The enthronement, birthday of the emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties, the Winter Solstice, the Spring Festival were all held here.

Zhonghe Palace （The Hall of Complete Harmony）
Behind Taihe Palace, Zhonghe Palace is on the three grand palaces. There are three rooms with 21 meters on each side, 20 corridors columns, yellow glazed tiles with four angled spires, in the center there is a gold Baoding. The emperor will have a rest here before going to Taihe Palace, received worship from the cabinet, etiquette department and bodyguards. Before the day of every big event, the emperor will read booklets and messages from the subordinates .

Baohe Palace（ The Hall of Preserving Harmony）
Following Zhonghe Palace is Baohe Palace, one of the three grand palaces. Every New year’s eve and Lantern’s day, the emperor will invite nobles and ministers to the banquet. The Wu Gate on the east and west side was transferred into Dynasty Art Exhibition which displayed 6000 years’ Chinese essential art from the primitive society to the Qing dynasty.

Qianqing Palace（The Palace of Heavenly Purity）
Qianqing Palace is the central palace of the Inner Palace, there is a gold set, in the above there was plaque which inscribed ”Zheng Da Guang Ming”. It is a place for residence and handling daily affairs for the emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties, after Emperor Yongzheng they moved out. According to the tradition, on New year’s day , Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn day, Winter Solstice, Wanshou festival, there would be family banquette.

Jiaotai Palace（The Hall of Union）
In the following of Qianqing Palace, Jiaotai Palace is a place for holding birthday banquette for the empress. There are 25 imperial jade seals here. There displayed a Self-tolled bell which was made in Qianlong age, on the east side there is a copper cattle dripping.

Kunning Palace（The Palace of Earthly Tranquility）
Kunning Palace is residential palace for empress in Ming and Qing dynasties, also called Zhong Palace. The west chamber was transferred as serving for religious purposes, morning worship and evening worship, spring and autumn huge worship were often held here. And the east one was the bridal chamber where emperor held his wedding. It was rebuilt in 12 year of Emperor Shunzhi of Qing dynasty(1655 year BC)

Chuxiu Palace:
Chuxiu Palace is a residential place for the concubines of the Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1884, Empress Cixi moved to Cuxiu Palace and rebuilt it which cost 630000 Liang.

Yangxin Palace:
Yangxin Palace is a Gong style palace, there are three rooms in the front, 36 meters wide, 3 meters deep, 12 meters in the whole deep. Yellow glazed tile with Qieshan style top, apparent rooms and west hidden rooms are mixed together. The front eaves cover the pillars, every room with two additional square pillars, seen from the outside it seems that there are 9 rooms.

The Imperial Garden:
The Imperial Garden was Gonghou Yuan, today it is commonly known as The Imperial Garden. It has an area of 12000 square meters with more than 20 buildings. The garden took the pattern of primary complements secondary , left symmetrical with right , the setup compact and classical and magnificent. There are imperial pavilions on the hills, on which Chongyang Festival the emperor and the empress would climb.

Tian’an Men
Located in the central of Beijing city, built in Ming dynasty, called Chengtian Men at that time as main entrance of Palace Museum. In 1651 of Qing dynasty it was rebuilt, renamed as Tian’an men used till now. Below Tian’an men there is Xumi Set which is made of marble, in the front of which build grand brick units with 13 meters high. The tower of Tian’anmen is 33.7 meters high with golden yellow glazed tile on the eave. Seen from afar, the scarlet wall and golden tile complement with blue sky , Tian’anmen tower is more magnificent. The brook in front of Tian’anmen is Outer Golden river, on which are five stone bridges called Outer Golden Bridge. There are another two bridges which were once called Gongsheng Bridge, whose slope is not very big with wide two ends and narrow middle, forming two curves. It is changeable and varied in front of those Vertical and horizontal and upright architecture, constituting beauty in the Tian’anmen composition.