My 2021 edition of the Forbidden City stickers, the 17th volume of the serial "Looking at the Red Walls and Gold Tiles, Appreciating the Ming and Qing Palaces", has been generously read by many readers. Among them, some readers put forward some opinions and suggestions, and pointed out some fallacies. This revised edition is republished on the second quarter, adopting the opinions and suggestions of previous readers, enriching some content, correcting clerical errors, and updating and supplementing some pictures. Although I dare not say that all the fallacies have been corrected, most of them should have been corrected. Remember in detail the architectural art of ancient Chinese top palaces seen in the Ming and Qing palaces, some royal cultural relics exhibited in the Forbidden City, and the traces of royal life in the Qing palace, and also think of some stories and legends that happened in the Ming and Qing palaces. Readers", just want to share with readers. thanks.
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After watching the treasures in the Treasure Hall, you must not back out along the original path of Ningshou Gate and Huangji Gate, that is called perverting. You have to follow the trend and go behind Ningshou Palace. From the west to the back of Ningshou Palace, be sure to look left and right. Looking to the left, inside Yanqi Gate on West Road is the Ningshou Palace Garden, which is the famous Qianlong Garden. It is closed during the epidemic, and the space inside is small, for fear that tourists will be unable to move their legs and feet and be possessed by the virus. Looking at the crack of the door, there is neither a screen wall nor a screen door inside, but a rockery to serve as this task.
Looking to the right, the door on the east road is open. The chimney of the boiler room of Ningshou Palace can be seen.
If you look behind Ningshou Palace, you will see a palace gate in the middle road, and there is a small square in front of the gate.
This is Yangxing Gate, and there is a pair of gilt bronze lions under the handrail in front of the gate.
It turns out that after Qianlong returned to power, he did not live in Ningshou Palace, but in Yangxing Gate. The Huangji Hall and Ningshou Palace in the front are the former courts of the Supreme Emperor, the front hall is ceremonial, the back hall is dedicated to gods, and the cultivation gate behind is the empress dorm of the Supreme Emperor. Therefore, Yangxing Gate is equivalent to the Qianqing Gate in the palace. Look at the fancy sparrows on the eaves posts of Yangxing's gate.
The main hall where the Yangxing Gate enters is the Hall of Yangxing.
Although this is the empress dorm of the Supreme Emperor, it is not imitated of the Empress Sangong, but imitated of the Hall of Mental Cultivation. The architectural form of Yangxing Hall is amazing. It is three rooms wide and two rooms deep, but the bays are very large, separated by square columns into nine rooms wide and four rooms deep. Let's look at it according to the width of nine rooms. On the top is a structure of bucket arches and beams, yellow glazed tiles on the top of the mountain with single eaves, five ridge beasts, and corridors with eaves all around. From the front of it, there are four rolling shed-roofed buildings, the Ming room plus the east and west rooms plus the west room, you see, it is not balanced. Looking at the bottom, the three-foot-high white stone platform has a hanging belt on the front, and there is a Danbi stone in the middle. There is a sundial on the east side of the tower, and the west side is empty. There is a hanging belt under the west second room, but there is no under the east second room, which is also completely asymmetrical. The asymmetry of this kind of thing is also imitated by the Hall of Mental Cultivation. The Yangxing Hall is not open, you can only look inside through the glass window.
In the middle of the hall is the ground, on which the emperor's throne of red sandalwood is placed, and the east and west are separated into warm pavilions. The south of Dongnuan Pavilion is the bright window and the clean table, and the north is the Sui'an room. To the north of Xinuang Pavilion is a Buddhist hall, and under the south window is a study room, called Changchun Study House, so the outer eaves and porch are covered with partitions. Yongzheng once gave his son Hongli the name of "Changchun Jushi". The south window of Xinuang Pavilion is arranged like the Sanxi Hall in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, which is called Moyun Room. In the fifty-third year of Qianlong (AD 1770), Bi Yuan, a scholar and official, and the governor of Shaanxi Province, paid Qianlong a piece of ancient ink of "Hanlin Fengyue" privately made by Li Tinggui of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and the Moyun Room was named after this ancient ink. From this point of view, this Hall of Mental Cultivation is the daily living place of the Supreme Emperor, where he learns culture and meets guests. .
"Zhou Li" says that the son of heaven has five schools, and the princes have three schools. Since the Supreme Emperor is the former emperor after returning to power, of course he is no longer the emperor, and there can be no five sects, only three sects. The three gates in the Ningshou Palace area are the Huangji Gate, which is equivalent to the Meridian Gate, which is the Zhou Zhizhi Gate, but there are no double gates; the Ningshou Gate, which is equivalent to the Taihe Gate, is the Zhou Zhi Ying Gate, but it is not here. Listening to the government; this Yangxingmen, which is equivalent to the Qianqingmen, is the Zhouzhilumen. There is no Fumen equivalent to Tiananmen and Kumen equivalent to Duanmen. What about the three dynasties mentioned in the five gates and three dynasties? Ningshou Gate can be regarded as the Outer Dynasty equivalent to the Gate of Supreme Harmony, the Huangji Hall equivalent to the Hall of Supreme Harmony as the seat of the dynasty, and the Hall of Yangxing equivalent to the Qianqing Palace as the seat of the Yan Dynasty. In fact, the Supreme Emperor is not a prince, and he does not work here, so the three dynasties don't matter.
Between the Yangxing Gate and the Yangxing Hall, there is a circle of Chaoshou verandah, which constitutes the first entrance courtyard of the Yangxing Hall. You can enter the second courtyard at the back by crossing the east and west corridors of Yangxing Hall.
There is a row of exposed seats at the back of Yangxing Hall, on which there are several decorations, including Taihu stones and bronze wares. That bronze vessel is not a vase, it should be called "Zun", an ancient wine container, which later evolved into a ritual vessel.
Turn around and look at the Leshou Hall behind the Yangxing Hall, which has just been repaired.
Le Shoutang is the sleeping hall of the Supreme Emperor. It is seven rooms wide and three rooms deep. There is no big gold chain on the front ridge of the Yangxing Hall, but there is one on the later Leshou Hall. I don't know if the front hall is lost: or the apse is the back hall?
Calligraphy inscriptions are inlaid on the inner walls of the east and west corridors of Le Shoutang. This is a collection of posts copied by ancient calligraphy by Qianlong, which is the famous "Jingshengzhai Fatie".
"Jingshengzhai Fatie" is a collection of Qianlong's calligraphy study, carved on stone and installed here. There was also a royal rubbing of this Fatie, because the stone carving and rubbing were all done in the palace, so folk circulation is extremely rare. It is said that only Chinese bookstores have a complete set of "Jingshengzhai Fatie", which is the treasure of the store and will never be sold.
Le Shoutang is a hall with a very special decoration in the Forbidden City. It is the master of Qing Dynasty architecture and also the proud work of Qianlong. It is a must-see hall, not one of them. Therefore, it is necessary to enter the hall and sigh.
The four front gold pillars in the middle are subtracted from the hall, so the space is very large, and there is no way to look at it according to the old routine. You can just call the middle hall the lobby. There is a platform in the middle of the lobby, and the throne is on the platform. Look at the end of the Swiss vessel placed on the platform, the gold body is pinched with gold silk enamel, it is very beautiful.
Behind the throne, between the central pillars is the back screen of a nanmu framed screen with yarn, and above the head is a nanmu carved flat chess ceiling. This is the only one in the Forbidden City, and I am afraid it is also an isolated example in China. Above the back screen of the central column, the second floor is built, with a partition wall, and the "Xinghe Qiyou" paper plaque and couplets hanging in the middle are all inscribed by Qianlong.
The east and west warm pavilions have also been made into a second floor. In order to build the second floor, several support columns not reaching the sky were added outside the front and rear golden columns. This is called the method of adding and subtracting columns, reducing the column in the middle to increase the space; adding columns on both sides to strengthen the support. The second floor of the Xinuang Pavilion is the bedroom of the Supreme Emperor, which is somewhat similar to the bedroom of the emperor in the Qianqing Palace in the Ming Dynasty. There are also partition walls outside the east and west attics.
Take a look at the first floor of Dongnuang Pavilion. The two jade carvings are very famous. The one on the south side is "Dantai Chunxiao", which is taken from Lu Guang's "Dantai Spring Dawn Picture" in the Yuan Dynasty. The original painting is now in the Metropolitan Museum of America. Lu Guang is the author of "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" and the successor of Huang Gongwang, the head of the four masters in the Yuan Dynasty. His paintings have the charm of Huang Gongwang. Another jade carving is "A Journey in the Autumn Mountains", which is taken from the "Travel in the Autumn Mountains" by Guo Xi of the Northern Song Dynasty. The original work has been lost, and the Qing Palace has a copy of Tang Di in the Yuan Dynasty, which is now preserved in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Guo Xi learned painting without a teacher, and was later influenced by the painting style of Li Cheng, one of the three great masters of the Northern Song Dynasty, and was good at landscapes and cold forests.
Look at the first floor of Xinuan Pavilion, the Duobao Pavilion bookshelf on one wall, and a "Sapphire Yunlong Jade Urn" placed in the room.
This is one of the two big jade carvings in the famous Le Shoutang in the imperial palace. Although it is not as big as the "Dushan Big Jade Sea" in Tuancheng, Beihai, its exquisiteness is definitely comparable to that of the big jade sea. This sapphire Yunlong jade urn was made in the forty-fourth year of Qianlong (AD 1779). It was made of six pieces of jade and weighed more than 5,000 catties. On the body of the urn are nine dragons playing with pearls among the waves and white clouds. Inside the urn is engraved with "The Jade Urn" written by Qianlong. As soon as it comes up, it mentions the great jade sea in Dushan Mountain in the Yuan Dynasty, and says, "The Hetian jade urn was cut yesterday, and the quality and text It wins twice as much.”
There is also a back hall behind the main hall lobby.
Looking from the back, it turns out that the second floor is an aisle between the east and west attics. A shrine was made under the middle aisle, and a throne was set inside. There is a jade sculpture in the middle of the back hall, called "Dayu Controls the Water", which is the second of the two large jade sculptures in Le Shoutang and one of the national treasures.
This jade mountain is also made of Xinjiang Hetian green jade from Kunlun stone, weighing more than 5,000 kilograms. It was made in the 52nd year of Qianlong, and it took more than seven years for Yangzhou jade craftsmen to make it. This jade mountain is taken from a painting scroll of "Dayu's Control of Water" by an unknown person in the Song Dynasty. The original painting is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. This piece of jade was transported from Xinjiang to Beijing, and then transported to Yangzhou for carving and then transported back to the imperial palace. Take a closer look.
The production of "Dayu Controlling the Water" made Yushan laborious and costly, and Qianlong's conscience found out that the production of such Yushan was prohibited from then on.
Le Shoutang is full of gauze partition walls, and the lattice core is full of calligraphy and paintings. have a look at this.
"Sheng Ye Ming Fen Ding, Ying Luo Shu in the prosperous period. I would like to accompany the end of the song and Fu, and stay like Shu Xiangru." This is an excerpt from "Fenghe Shengzhi Tours Old Residence Yingzhi" by Su Ting (Nian Ting), a literary hero and prime minister in the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty. Su Ting's sour poem singing praises to Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty. Gao Geng'en, who signed the signature, was a second-rank senior official during the Guangxu period, and he was a very literary person. This must have been posted when Empress Dowager Cixi was renovating Le Shoutang. I have never seen Luoshu, but I have seen a newly inscribed Fen Ding at the source of the Fen River in Ningwu County, Shanxi.
There is a tripod placed behind Le Shoutang, not a Fen tripod, but a bronze tripod forged by Qianlong.
Qianlong came to this Leshoutang once, that is, when it was completed, he came to walk around. Empress Dowager Cixi held her 60th birthday in Ningshou Palace, and then lived in the Leshou Hall behind for many years. Not only did she climb to the second floor of Xinuang Pavilion to sleep every night, but she also went downstairs to the east of the Hall of Yangxing in the front hall every morning. Nuan Ge eats breakfast, do you think she is tired? Qianlong didn't dare to go up and down the stairs every day like this. After living there for several years, Cixi's knees and sciatic nerves were severely worn out, and she finally knew why Qianlong didn't come to live in such a high-end building back then. Finally, Empress Dowager Cixi transformed Xiyuan Yiluan Hall into her nursing home, and moved there in the 28th year of Guangxu (1902 A.D.), which is now Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai.
Exit from the back door of Le Shoutang, and to the north is Yihexuan.
The Yihexuan is seven rooms wide and two rooms deep, but there are eaves and corridors in the front and back, and there are buildings in the front and back, so it doesn't look too thin. The structure of bucket arches and beams, yellow glazed tiles and single eaves on the top of the mountain, and five ridge beasts. There is a platform in front of Baosha leading directly to the back door of Leshoutang. There are a pair of exposed platforms on both sides of Baoxia, with a sundial on the east side and a space on the west side. You see, the pillars on the front eaves of the Baosha are actually stone pillars.
The Ming room in the Yihe Pavilion and the east and west rooms are the lobby, with a nanmu floor throne in the middle, and a nanmu partition fan with yarn and a turtle-back screen. The back screen is now replaced with glass, and the effect of the gauze from the past can still be seen in the rear window. The Forbidden City was carefully repaired. The floor is made of gold bricks, and the ceiling is made of plain white plaster. There are fire alarm detectors installed on it, which can sense both temperature and smoke. Sitting on this throne, if you look up, you can see Dayu's water control Yushan in front of Leshou Hall. Qianlong put his hands up and down on the back screen, and wrote a plaque saying "Taihe is full", and there is a couplet on both sides saying: "Jing Xinfu's armor contains the womb, and spring is in the heart and nature." This means that Lao Gan sits here in harmony after retirement, with spring breeze blowing outside the hall and spring heart rippling inside the hall. On the partition wall of Dongnuan Pavilion, Qianlong's poem "The Master of the West" is engraved, and he also wrote it himself, which is called Hongpi. "The Master of the West" describes the suppression of the Junggar rebellion, which belongs to the poem of Wangpo selling melons. On the partition wall of Xinuang Pavilion is his "Opening Huo Lun", which also contains Hong Zhu. This is a policy theory of Qianlong on quelling the rebellion in Xinjiang.
The east and west walls, one article and one poem, are all articles of the Western Expedition. Lao Gan regards the expansion of territory as his greatest achievement in governing, thinking that he is still here after retirement, and suddenly looks back and smiles. In fact, he has forgotten the old Chinese saying that "a good man does not mention his courage in the past." In addition to boasting about himself in the palace, Qianlong also erected monuments in the eight temples outside the Summer Resort and the Summer Palace, praising his great achievements in expanding the territory, consolidating the border defense, and establishing and improving the new frontier.
The name of Yihexuan comes from the Yi hexagram in "Book of Changes", "She'er Spirit Turtle, watch me eat". There are tortoise patterns everywhere in the pavilion, which shows longevity; Summer Harmony means nourishment, which is much more educated than the old saying of "health preservation" now. Lao Gan comes here every day to drink medicine to keep in good health, which is the medicinal soup made from wolfberry.
Entering the Yangxing Gate, the Yangxing Hall for daily living is quite satisfactory, the Leshou Hall for sleeping at night is a novel architectural structure, and the interior decoration of Yihexuan for daily health preservation has changed. This architectural change removes the majestic and gloomy atmosphere of the palace, and creates a relaxed and lively atmosphere, which shows that this is the harem, not the ruling place. The changes in the form and decoration of these three halls are also the best presentation of the rhythm of ancient Chinese architecture, which is different from the rhythm of landscapes and terraces in gardens. There are many three-entry courtyards like Yangxingmennei in the imperial palace, all of which are the front hall for living, the middle hall for sleeping and the back hall for convenience. The South No. 3 Institute, the North No. 5 Institute, and Chonghua Palace are all such three-entry courtyards, and they are not open now. The Compassionate Ning Palace that can still be seen now is also such a three-entry courtyard, but the apse is not open. Therefore, the Yangxing Gate of Ningshou Palace is the only three-entry courtyard that tourists can see in the Forbidden City, and it is the largest three-entry courtyard.
There are inscription corridors on both sides of the Yihexuan to connect with the Leshou Hall, and then to the Yangxin Hall in front. There is a corridor at the back door of Yihexuan.
There is also a plaque on the moon gate "挹明月" and "Introduction to Qingfeng" behind it, all written by Qianlong. It is said in "Ri Xia Jiu Wen Kao" that there are these two plaques here, but they were not there when the North Hall of Yihexuan was restored. Later, I turned over the frameless plaque paper from the painting and calligraphy library, re-pasted and framed it, and hung it here.
On the wall at the north end of the corridor is a picture of "wives, concubines and cubs".
The northern end of the corridor used to lead to Jingqi Pavilion at the back, but it was later partitioned off the wall with this plasterboard. The "Jingdao" plaque is from the small stage in Xicijian in Jingqi Pavilion, and it has been embezzled here. The "Picture of Wives and Concubines Playing with Cubs" under the plaque was moved from Yucuixuan in Qianlong Garden. Lao Gan can see the scenery of his wives and concubines laughing all over the house and children walking everywhere when he visits the garden. In the painting, there is a pair of Emperor Qianlong's couplet, "Hundreds of millions of people live longer than billions of years, and a peaceful year is worth a peaceful spring." The former director of the Forbidden City, Mr. Shan Jixiang, used this couplet as the slogan for the New Year's Eve activities in the Forbidden City in 2019.
There are two small doors on the left and right of the partition wall, leading to the east and west courtyards. The small courtyard inside the east gate is the west courtyard of Jingfu Palace, and there is the famous "Wenfeng" stone in the courtyard. It's not open now, unfortunately I can't watch it.
The west door is also a small courtyard. Standing in the courtyard, you can see Jingqi Pavilion, which is not open at the back. This is the northernmost end of the middle road. It is equivalent to the back building of Ningshou Palace. From this point of view, Jingqi Pavilion and Yihexuan should be counted in the same courtyard.
We can only look at the outline of Jingqi Pavilion. The exterior is a two-story pavilion, seven rooms wide and three rooms deep, with eaves and corridors around the first floor, and a circle of flat seat railings on the second floor. This is a dark floor. There are five ridge beasts on the top of the mountain with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves. Open the door in the open room on the first floor, connecting to the partition wall in the corridor just now. It can be seen that there is a circle of corridors outside Jingqi Pavilion, which is also connected with the corridors of Yihexuan. There are sauerkraut tanks in the courtyard, and there are also trash bins for throwing rotten leaves when pickling sauerkraut.
It was said earlier that the door of Ningshou Palace Garden on the west side of Yangxing Gate is not open, but it doesn’t matter, you can walk into Ningshou Palace Garden on West Road from the West Courtyard of Jingqi Pavilion, and have a peek at the scenery of Qianlong Garden. Qianlong Garden is a small narrow strip from south to north. There are four courtyards in front and back. What we can see here is the fourth courtyard. The main hall that enters the courtyard is Fuwang Pavilion.
To fulfill one's wish, to meet one's wish. Fuwang Pavilion is a five-bay square pavilion with two upper and lower floors. On the second floor, there is a circle of flat seats and a circle of surrounding ridges underneath. There are bucket arches between the flat seats and the surrounding ridges. dark layer. On the top is a yellow glazed tile with blue cut edges and a single eaves with four corners and a pointed roof. On the glazed ball sits a gilt-covered bowl ridge brake. On the first floor, there is a circle of eaves corridors and square eaves columns. Between the eaves columns, there are squares on the top and stools and lintels on the bottom, which are asymmetrical. In Fuwang Pavilion, there are many huts divided by partitions, and the passages between them are very complicated, which is called "Milou". Legend has it that during the Qianlong period, princes and ministers were rewarded for dinner here. One person sat in a small room, and the old man sat upstairs. As soon as the food was called, there were eunuchs and juniors carrying plates to each house to deliver the food. These diners couldn't see Lao Gan at all, so they immediately plopped on the ground and shouted "Thank you, Lord Long En". The old man would sneak downstairs to watch the ministers eating in the secret passage. If there was something bad about eating, he would cough outside the door, and the minister would be so frightened that fishbone or chicken bones would be stuck in his throat. So it's still a big deal to eat Laogan's rice.
To the north of Fuwang Pavilion is the Juanqin Zhai, which has never been opened.
The architectural pattern of Juanqinzhai is unconventional. Viewed from the front, it is five rooms wide, and the door is open in the open room. Looking at the top again, it is a hard mountain top with green glazed tiles and yellow trimmed sides. Take a closer look, it’s not right, there are not only five rooms under this roof, but there are also on the west side. It turns out that there are five rooms on the east side and four rooms on the west side, which is nine rooms wide. These five rooms on the east side form a courtyard with Fuwang Pavilion and east-west corridors, and the four rooms on the west side form another small courtyard. "Tired and diligent" means tired of being diligent in politics. After the old cadres are too old to manage politics, they want to retire and come here to hide. On the east side of Juanqinzhai, there are five rooms wide and four rooms deep. The house is divided into several small rooms with gauze partitions, and each room has a bed or Kang. Laogan plans to sleep in room 101 every night at the first watch, and then be carried to room 102 by the eunuchs and maids at the second watch, and so on. In fact, Lao Gan never really slept through Juanqinzhai. It is said that each room has beautiful inner eaves, and the yarn sandwiched on the partition is double-sided embroidery. The interior decoration is the only one in the world, the highest grade, and the highest level of decoration during the Qianlong period. In order to prevent designers from decoration companies among the tourists from mixing in, they secretly learned the decoration method of Qianlong. After the overhaul, the Forbidden City still does not open Tienqinzhai.
The west four rooms of Juanqin Zhai also have sea-wall ceilings, on which it is said that the bamboo frame and vines painted by Castiglione, the imperial painter of Qianlong, together with Gao Tu, and the three walls are also painted by Castiglione Castiglione. , this must be Castiglione borrowing from the Italian palace Renaissance murals and ceiling paintings. This is Qianlong's small stage, listening to very private plays. The hook bars on the small stage are all high-quality imitation bamboo carved from golden nanmu, which looks like a palace and is luxurious. These four West rooms are not allowed to be seen by tourists. Juanqinzhai has not been seriously repaired since it was built in Qianlong. Until 2002, the Forbidden City organized an extraordinary overhaul of Juanqinzhai. It is unusual because of the panorama paintings in the West Fourth Room. These paintings were not painted on rice paper, but on silk cloth, which is why they survived for more than two hundred years. The Forbidden City made a documentary about the process of restoring the landscape paintings of Juanqinzhai. If you are interested, you can watch it in "Forbidden City 100". The Juanqinzhai murals are the earliest surviving indoor Western-style murals in China, and there are even earlier Chinese-style murals.
Juanqinzhai is the last building to the north of Qianlong Garden. After passing Fuwang Pavilion, you enter the fifth room in the east of Juanqinzhai. After getting up, Lao Gan can go to Xisijian to listen to the opera, or go on stage and sing a song secretly. After that, he came out from Xisijian and headed south. There is a short arc-shaped wall inside, and an octagonal door is opened facing east on the wall. The plaque on the door reads "Yinghanbi".
"Ying" means Ying, and "Hanbi" means the cold blue sky, high and cold. The artistic conception of Yinghanbi is taken from Lu You's "East Lake New Bamboo" "insert thorns and weave fences carefully to protect and cultivate the cold green and reflect ripples". The East Lake that Lu You said is the East Lake of Shaoxing, with many bamboos. Therefore, Laogan built a small building with his back against the palace wall in the inner courtyard of Yinghanbi Gate, named Zhuxiang Pavilion. The window lattices of the four west rooms of Juanqin Zhai are also painted green, imitating bamboo. The Bamboo Fragrance Pavilion is a two-story building with three rooms in width, and there are ear rooms on both sides, which should be called ear towers. On the second floor of the ear tower, there is a climbing corridor that seems to be only enough for the old man to walk sideways, which is very cramped. There are no ripples in the Bamboo Fragrance House as Lu You said, but a few Taihu stones from Dongting Lake are placed in front of the house. When the rainy season comes, there will be white smoke from thousands of holes, as if Lu You will appear, which is quite scary.
The climbing corridor of the Zhuxiang Pavilion leads to the Juanqin Zhai in the north, and the Yucuixuan mentioned above in the south.
Yucuixuan is a very delicate place, everyone likes it. It faces east from west and sits on the base of a three-foot-high white stone Xumizuo. It is three rooms wide and one room deep, with a verandah in front. There is an upside-down lintel between the eaves and pillars, and a stool lintel underneath. On the top is a structure of bucket arches and beams, with yellow glazed tiles and green trimmed rolling sheds resting on the top of the mountain. The door opens in the Ming Dynasty, and there is a bluestone platform in front of the door that leads directly to Fuwang Pavilion in the east. There are white marble handrails on the platform, and there are white marble handrails on the north and south. The south end of Yucuixuan is the courtyard wall of the fourth courtyard of Qianlong Garden, and the eyes of tourists stop here now.
Just now we saw outside Yangxing Gate that the gate to the south of Qianlong Garden was not open, but the small gate to the east was open. Go out through the small door on the east side of Yangxingmen, good guy, there is still a building here on the East Road!
Downstairs on the east side of this building, there is an emergency shelter for tourists. What's the emergency? Of course it's urgent. After visiting the emergency station, I was not in a hurry, so I looked up at this building. This building is really a good building, but why is there no door plaque? Suddenly I understood that this is the back of the building, and its front face is on the north side. While looking around from the west side to look at the front, I thought that this building facing north must not be prepared for the emperor, the emperor always faces south. Looking around, it is true, this is Changyin Pavilion, which is the theater building.
When Changyin Pavilion was built in the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong (AD 1772), there was no building behind it. It was built by Qianlong's grandson during the Daoguang period. Changyin Pavilion is a three-storey pavilion, with green glazed tiles on the top and yellow glazed tiles on the top, and yellow glazed tiles on the lower two floors. There are seven spine beasts in the upper layer, five in the middle layer, and three in the lower layer. This kind of building had a tall name in ancient times, called "Chongtai Yange". In addition, do you see that the ridges at the four corners are a little upturned? This structure was also called the three-story double-eaved corner. This is the design of Xing Lei. The Xing Lei family came from Jiangxi and dominated the design of Qing Dynasty palace buildings for two hundred years. Jiangxi's Gan style architecture is inherited from the Hui style, with angled roofs and horse-head walls. Changyin Pavilion is a rare building with raised corners and ridges in the Forbidden City, which is in the style of the Lei family. Changyin Pavilion is three rooms wide and three rooms deep, the lower stage is two rooms deep, the middle stage is one, and the upper stage has none. The upper level is called Futai, the middle level is called Lutai, and the lower level is called Shoutai. There is a patio in the middle of the stage, which leads directly to the third floor. There is a winch that can hang heavenly soldiers and generals from the upper floor to fight monsters, and can also hoist the old way of becoming immortals from the lower floor to the sky. There is also a ground well in the middle of the lower floor facing the patio, which contains real water wells. When necessary, the manhole cover can be opened to spray water outside. Bodhisattvas can also sit on lotus flowers and ascend from underground wells to perform exercises.
A plaque of "Changyin Pavilion" is hung under the eaves of the upper floor. Changyin means smooth sound, and the sound is unobstructed and unobstructed. The skill requirements for singing in Changyinge are quite high, unlike in the theater, which has the effect of gathering voices. Under the eaves of the second floor, there is a plaque of "Daohe Yitai", which means to make people feel happy. "Hutian Xuanyu" hangs under the eaves on the third floor. Hutian is the sky in the pot, a fairyland. From "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: Biography of Fangshu", drinking the contents of the pot is like entering a fairyland. Yu means entertainment and happiness. That is to say, the entertainment performances on this floor are like a fairyland. The words on these plaques seem to be inscribed by Cixi, and they should have been written in the 17th year of Guangxu (AD 1891) when it was repaired for Cixi's 60th birthday.
There were no movies, no ballet in the Qing Dynasty, and karaoke was not OK in the Qing Dynasty. Their entertainment at that time was watching theaters. When it comes to Chinese New Year, I go to the theater. There are also several small theaters in the palace, including Ruting in Fuwang Pavilion. Changyin Pavilion is the largest stage in the palace, suitable for performing large-scale musicals, such as the kind where gods fight. Qianlong built the Summer Palace for the Empress Dowager Chongqing's birthday, and he also built a theater building in the Oriole Pavilion in the Summer Palace. That theater building faces south, because Qianlong was going on stage to sing for his mother. When Empress Dowager Cixi was rebuilt, it was changed to face south and face north. Moreover, Empress Dowager Cixi also built a three-story theater building in the Summer Palace to imitate the Changyin Pavilion in the palace. You must have seen it.
After the famous actors tossed and moved according to the script in Changyin Pavilion and shouted loudly, they stood under the front eaves of each floor, which could cover three floors. This is called a curtain call, also called a reward. The emperor who watched the play would call the eunuchs and throw sugar balls upstairs, which is called a reward. By the way, where is the emperor watching a play? Where is the emperor's box? Well, here it is.
This is the reading room. There are several photography scholars squatting downstairs, they are waiting for the filming building at twelve o'clock at noon. The sun on the roof of the theater above me is not in the middle of the roof, but the one they took must be in the middle. This is the difference between photographers and photography scholars taking pictures.
Yueshi Building was also built by Qianlong, but the last repair was in the Tongzhi period. The two-story building on a three-foot-high platform has five rooms wide and three rooms deep. On the top is a structure of bucket arches and beams, a rolling shed with yellow glazed tiles and green trimmings on the top of the mountain, and five ridged beasts. The ridge is pasted with yellow and green Ruyi-patterned glazed bricks. Between the eaves and pillars of the second-floor eaves is an upside-down lintel, and the bottom is a railing for sticks. Qianlong also built a building in the Summer Palace like this, which is the Jiaxi Building on the east bank of Kunming Lake. Standing on the Jiaxi Building to watch the sunset on Yuquan Mountain, the scenery is really amazing.
The emperor, empress, concubines, and all the children and grandchildren can squeeze into this building to watch the big show. There are eunuchs and maids in the side rooms on both sides to boil water, make tea, bake pancakes and bake sweet potatoes, and provide the royal family with food and drink at any time. The accompanying ministers could not enter the building, so they could only stamp their feet in the pool seat under the stage and in the corridors on both sides. Tables, chairs and benches were prepared for them in the corridors, and the audience under the stage would be filled with benches.
When the emperor came, he sat on the throne in the open room and left the two maids holding the fan outside the door.
After the emperor sat down firmly, the eunuchs served good tea, the court ladies opened the fan, and the opening gongs and drums of the show could be beat "Qi Delong Dongqiang". Once the emperor shouted or clapped his hands in the building, the two maids would close their fans together, that is, the two fans made a cross, and the officials outside would clap their hands and stamp their feet. This is watching a play in the palace. This is not the case for Empress Dowager Cixi when she watched plays in the Grand Theater Building of the Summer Palace. The grandstand of the Grand Theater Building in the Summer Palace is the single-story Yile Hall. Empress Dowager Cixi led the women's family to watch a play in the Yile Hall, the male guests were in the corridors on both sides (including the unlucky Guangxu), and the courtiers were seated under the stage.
To the north of Yueshi Building is Qingshou Hall. Qingshou Hall is a courtyard with four entrances. The courtyard is deep and there are no Zhangtai. The courtyard gate is a vertical flower gate.
After Qingshou Hall was built by Qianlong, it may have been there once during the completion acceptance, and later it was repaired once during the Jiaqing period. I don’t know who lived there for a while. It was repaired again in the 17th year of Guangxu, and Cixi moved into Le Shoutang after her 60th birthday. Cixi sometimes took her younger sister into the palace to live for a few days. This younger sister was the mother of Emperor Guangxu and the wife of Prince Chun. What are you doing in the palace? Of course, it is to accompany Cixi to watch theaters, drink wine, peel shrimps, eat meat, etc. during the Chinese New Year. The front yard of this birthday hall is Changyin Pavilion, so it doesn't matter how late you watch the show, and you can arrive at the dormitory in just one step. In addition to her own sister, Cixi also brought the daughters of relatives to play in the palace, and they all lived in this birthday hall, including Princess Rongshou, the daughter of Prince Gong Yixin's family, and the four daughters of Prince Qing Yikuang's family. rattle. The Qingshou Hall is now locked and no one is allowed to enter.
There is a glazed wall door on the north wall of Qingshoutang courtyard. After entering, it is Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Jingfu Palace was built in the 28th year of Kangxi (AD 1689). It was built by Kangxi as mentioned above for the empress dowager Renxian to live in. When Qianlong built the Taishanghuang Nursing Home, the Jingfu Palace was rebuilt, and it was repaired again in the 17th year of Guangxu.
The architectural form of Gyeongbokgung Palace is very high-end in Ningshou Palace District. According to the official introduction, it is a square hall with a wide face and five rooms, with a white marble Xumizuo underneath, and a large platform in front of the hall. Similar to Leshoutang, the architectural form of Gyeongbokgung Palace also has a special place, this time it is outside. Its roof is the top of the three-fold rolling shed, also called "Yuanbaoding", which is the only one in the palace. In addition, the plinths of the eaves and pillars surrounding the porch are embossed with lotus flowers, unlike other places where they are all plain. Qianlong built this Gyeongbokgung Palace in order to entertain guests here after returning to power, that is, to serve as a state banquet hall.
Immediately behind Gyeongbokgung Palace is a two-story building, which means a building with a back cover or a mountain hall. This is the Fanhua Building, and the word "Vatican" shows that it is a Buddhist hall. This is a sixth-grade Buddha building built by the Gelug sect, also known as the Miaojixiang Dabao Building. Fanhua Building is seven rooms wide on the first floor, with a bright room in the middle. The lower floor of the Ming Dynasty is a bronze gilt Zhantan Buddha statue of the Ming Dynasty that was moved from the Sheng'an Temple in Beijing. The Zhantan Buddha statue was a statue of Sakyamuni when he was alive. It is the first Buddha statue in the world. The upper layer is dedicated to Tsongkhapa, the master of the Gelug Sect with gold lacquer carvings. The other six represent the six ranks. There is a pagoda in each room, and there is a skylight on the pagoda leading to the upper floor. The downstairs is dedicated to the Dharma protector, and the upstairs is dedicated to the main statue. The upper and lower are combined into a first-class Buddha building. The sixth grade is one of the Sutras of Tibetan Buddhism and four of the Encrypted sects, among which the Supreme Yoga part of the Tantric Buddhism is the second of the parents, a total of six. There are four such six-rank Buddha buildings in the Forbidden City. The Huiyao Building of Jianfu Palace was destroyed by the fire in 1923; the Danyuan Building behind Yuhua Pavilion was also destroyed by the fire of Jianfu Palace; the other one is the main hall of the Garden of Cining Palace Baoxiang Building, the east side hall of Xianruo Pavilion. Not to mention the two that have been burned, the Buddha statues and thangkas in the Baoxiang Building were lost in large numbers out of the palace. Pinfolou. In addition to the imperial palace, Chengde Mountain Resort also has four sixth-grade Buddha buildings, and the thangkas of Buddha statues inside are also lost.
There is a circle of corridors in the courtyard of Gyeongbokgung Palace, which is equivalent to Chaoshou veranda. Its main entrance is not the wall-mounted door on the north wall of the Qingshou Hall in front, but the hanging flower door on the west corridor, which is Jingfu Gate. There is a small courtyard outside Jingfu Gate, inside which is the famous "Wenfeng" stone, which was inscribed by Qianlong in "Wenfeng Poetry". This is not the Genyue stone from the Huashi Gang of Dongting Lake, but from Xishan, Beijing. In the forty-first year of Qianlong (AD 1776), Qianlong obtained this stone and erected it here, and recorded it in a poem, which also mentioned that he would retire after 60 years in power. There is a reason why Lao Gan’s ruling was limited to sixty years. He once asked the experts of the Qin Tianjian to calculate the astronomy. The result was that in the sixty years of Qianlong (AD 1795), there would be Tiangou Tunri on the first day of the first lunar month, and another day on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. moon. As soon as the first month came, the Tiangu swallowed the sun and the moon, which was not good for Lao Gan's ruling, so he wanted to give up the throne before the Tiangu swallowed the moon, and gave up the throne to the fifteenth son Yongyan in name, and regarded himself as the Supreme Emperor politics. The first Zen seat recorded in Chinese history should be Yao Chan located in Shun, and the Qing Qianlong Chan seat in Jiaqing should be the last time. The ancient Zen position was a kind of self-consciousness, and most of the later Zen positions were forced to helpless, but Qianlong Zen was still conscious when it was located in Jiaqing. Emperor Yao made a good start, and Qianlong ended well.
From this Wenfeng stone to the north, there is another small building, which is Fori Building. This is still a Buddhist hall. The Fanhua Building houses Tibetan Buddhist statues, and the Fori Building houses Tantric Buddha statues, which are the five-fang Buddhas.
Going west from this Wenfeng Stone is the Jingqi Pavilion that you saw just now after taking the middle road of Ningshougong District and behind Yihexuan. The palaces and pavilions above are not open, and you can’t see the inside if you jump outside the wall. The above words are all recorded hearsay.
Among the aforementioned buildings, the most famous one is Gyeongbokgung Palace. The word "Jingfu" comes from the Book of Songs, "to enjoy and worship, to introduce Jingfu", which means Hongfu Qitian. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao's son, Cao Zhina, was quite talented, and he often surprised his father by writing poems. Cao Zhi has five "Nianpi (Nianpi) Dance Songs", the fourth of which has a sentence at the end of "The Longevity Test of the Holy Emperor, Jingfu Chang Laiyi". Another son of Cao Cao, Cao Pi, was quite kind. He snatched the dragon chair and two daughters of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, and became Emperor Wen of Wei himself. He also passed on the dragon chair to his son Cao Rui (Nian Rui), making Cao Rui Emperor Wei Ming. Emperor Wei Ming wanted to visit Xuchang from Luoyang to the east. He refused to live in a hotel in Xuchang, so he hired someone to build a palace in Xuchang. The name of the palace in it was "Jingfu Palace", which was borrowed from his uncle Cao Zhi's "Jingfu Changlaiyi". good wishes. Cao Cao's adopted son He Yan (Nian Yan) also wrote a poem "Jingfu Palace Fu" for this palace, which is full of flashy rhetoric. This may be the earliest palace called Jingfu in ancient China. Kangxi also borrowed the artistic conception of the Book of Songs to call this palace Jingfu, hoping that the Empress Dowager Renxian would live in it and enjoy happiness. Empress Dowager Renxian lived to seventy-four years old, and indeed enjoyed a lot of blessings, not being favored when she was Emperor Shunzhi was not counted. During the reign of Guangxu, when Qianlong's Epiphyllum Pavilion in the Summer Palace was rebuilt, Jingfu Pavilion was rebuilt with the artistic conception of the Book of Songs. During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, the ancestor of the Lee dynasty of the vassal state was called Li Chenggui. He built a palace in Seoul in accordance with the regulations of the three dynasties and three dynasties of the vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Gwanghwamun. It is said that South Korea now regards that gate as a national gate, and brigade leaders often take brigade groups to visit there. At that time, North Korea used Chinese characters as characters, so Seoul, Gyeongbokgung Palace, and Gwanghwamun were all written in Chinese characters, and its culture was also Chinese culture. It was not until King Sejong Li Xuan (Nian Tao) more than a hundred years later that experts and scholars were organized to compile a set of Korean characters. King Sejong's imperial edict to issue a new character was also written in Chinese characters. You see, the emperors of North Korea are also like China, the first one is called "Zu", and the second one is called "Zong" from now on. However, the current Koreans have forgotten their roots, and their newcomers don't know Chinese characters anymore, so they don't understand their own history at all, and they don't know their ancestors at all. According to the truth that "there is no history without writing", the history of Korea should be counted from the "Hunmin Jeongeum" which was published by King Sejong, which was the eighth year of the Lee Dynasty (AD 1443). You see, it is According to the chronology of the Ming Dynasty, the reigning Emperor Ming at that time was Ming Yingzong Zhu Qizhen.
Since the above are not open, you have to go back to the middle road after reading Yueshi Building, and go back along the veranda. Go to Jingqi Pavilion and turn west, there is a small door. Entering the small gate is the miserable Zhenfei Well.
Concubine Zhen is also a lady of every family. She grew up with her uncle in Guangzhou. She is open-minded, avant-garde in behavior and tough in style. In the fourteenth year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (AD 1889), thirteen-year-old Concubine Zhen and fifteen-year-old sister Jinfei were selected into the "Fengzao Palace", and they were conferred the titles of Concubine Zhen and Concubine Jin at the beginning. In the 20th year of Guangxu, Empress Dowager Cixi's 60th birthday gave amnesty to the whole world, the palace servants gave her kindness, and the second concubine Zhenjin was granted the second concubine Zhenjin. Concubine Zhen lived in Jingren Palace in the East Sixth Palace, and Concubine Jin lived in Yonghe Palace in the back alley. According to Hu Rensijing's "Guowen Beicheng", "The concubine Zhen is well-behaved and pleasing, skilled in calligraphy and calligraphy, and good at chess. She serves the emperor every day, eats and drinks with the emperor, and Dezong especially loves her." In the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu, Emperor Guangxu of Emperor Dezong of the Qing Dynasty planned the Reform Movement of 1898, and wanted to revive the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty. Concubine Zhen tried to help it. The reform was crushed by Cixi within a hundred days, and Emperor Guangxu was banned in Xiyuan Yingtai. Concubine Zhen was convicted of participating in the reform, was punished with a stick, and was imprisoned in the North Fifth Institute. In the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, the Eight-Power Allied Forces came to the capital, and Cixi took her family members to prepare to flee in packs. At this time, Concubine Zhen was the one who was being demoted, and Cixi refused to take her to escape with her, so she ordered people to throw Concubine Zhen into the well above to die. After Cixi returned to Beijing, she ordered the concubine Zhen to be fished out of the well, buried in the cemetery of palace ladies in the west of Beijing, and named imperial concubine afterward. After the death of Empress Longyu of Emperor Guangxu, Concubine Jin moved Concubine Zhen to be buried in the Concubine Garden of Emperor Guangxu's Chongling Mausoleum, and set up a mourning hall for Concubine Zhen in the hut on the south side of Zhenfei Well. It is the Huaiyuan Hall below.
During the period of the Republic of China, Puyi's father, the former regent Prince Chun Zaifeng, said that the eunuchs could not touch the jade body, and insisted that the concubine Zhen died in a martyrdom and threw herself into the well, not Cixi. Later, various related people told the truth one after another, and finally the academic circles believed that Concubine Zhen was indeed thrown into a well by Cixi's people. Zaifeng was just covering up for his aunt Cixi, as if his aunt hadn't done such a wicked thing. Outside the east wall of the small courtyard of Zhenfeijing is the small courtyard behind Jingqi Pavilion, which is not open.
After seeing the Zhenfei Well, if you walk out of the small Zhenshun Gate, you are considered to be out of the Ningshou Palace area.
Qianlong himself did not live in the hermitage of the Supreme Emperor, but was moved in by the 60-year-old Cixi. When Cixi lived here, she claimed to have returned to Guangxu, but in fact she was still involved in politics. In the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu, Emperor Dezong Zaitian of the Qing Dynasty issued the "Ming Dingguo Shizhao" and implemented the Reform Movement of 1898. Within a hundred days of the reform, Emperor Guangxu issued successive edicts, slashing at the old system, and Cixi was also touched. A hundred days later, it is said that Cixi received a secret report from Yuan Shikai, and suddenly on a dark and stormy night, she sneaked back to the palace from the Summer Palace. In fact, Cixi's launch of the 1898 coup had nothing to do with Yuan Shikai's whistleblowing, nor did it have anything to do with Rong Lu's emergency return to Beijing to report. The actual situation is that Cixi had already returned to the palace two days earlier, and told Guangxu that she would go to the Summer Palace two days earlier to paralyze Guangxu. As a result, early in the morning, Emperor Guangxu was in the Hall of Zhonghe to review the sacrificial rites that he was going to recite at the Sheji Altar the next day. After reviewing the manuscript, the guards and eunuchs led him to the Leshou Hall of Ningshou Palace, saying that the Empress Dowager invited him to have morning tea. Unexpectedly, when Cixi saw him coming in, she severely reprimanded him, saying, "I have already allowed you to carry out political reforms, but I didn't expect you to be so radical. It's really useless to talk about things, so let me teach politics." Then Guangxu was put under house arrest, Concubine Zhen was imprisoned, and Guangxu's party members were also taken away and beheaded. This was the 1898 coup after the Hundred Days Reform. When Cixi reprimanded Guangxu, she mentioned that "all the relatives and important ministers in the court should be educated", which shows that Cixi has her own party members who have persuaded them to enter the table. Since then, although Cixi released Guangxu and gradually pushed back his reforms, the Qing Dynasty's incurable disease is incurable no matter whether it is tonic or laxative. In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (AD 1908), Empress Dowager Cixi proposed a constitutional monarchy initiative and formulated a ten-year road map, but failed. Four years later, the Qing Dynasty fell, and the Mongolian aristocratic constitutional faction who supported Cixi's constitutional monarchy did not compete with the republican faction who fought for the 1911 Revolution. Empress Dowager Longyu issued an abdication edict for Puyi.
(to be continued)
