The Palace Museum is located in the center of Beijing, formerly known as the Forbidden City. It was accomplished in the 18th year during the reign of Yongle Emperor in Ming dynasty (1420). It was the imperial palace in Ming and Qing dynasty. It is a unique masterpiece of ancient architecture and the largest, the most complete ancient wooden structure building. All buildings of the Palace Museum are divided into two parts — ‘outer court’ and ‘inner court’. The Palace Museum was surrounded by a moat named ‘Tube River’. The area of the Palace Museum is rectangular. At each of the four corners stands turret. Each of the four sides is pierced by a gate. The Meridian Gate (wumen) is at the south side. It is the front door of The Palace Museum. The east door is Donghuamen; the west door is Xihuamen; the north door is the Gate of Devine Might.
The Palace Museum was built from 1406 to 1420 by the third Ming emperor Yongle (Zhudi) who decided to move his capital north from Nanjing to Beijing. Measuring 961 meters from north to south and 753 meters from east to west, the Palace Museum covers an area of 725,000 square meters. The buildings occupy 155,000 square meters. It was said that the Palace Museum had 9999.5 rooms in total. You may be curious about how does the half room come out. According to the myth, god has 10000 rooms in his palace. As the emperor claimed he was the son of god, he should show the respect of god, so he could not own the same number of rooms. But he wanted to show he was superior to others, at the end he compromised to reduce half room. There is a vivid explanation describing the large number of rooms in the Palace Museum – if a person every day lived in a different room in the Palace Museum since he or she was born, it would take 27 years to find oneself in the same room. In fact the real number of rooms in the Palace Museum is 8704, according to the survey made by experts in 1973. The Palace Museum is surrounded by 12-meter high and 3400-meter long walls. Outside of the walls, there is a 52-meter wide moat. All of those form a well-protected fortress.
The Palace Museum Attractions
The Palace Museum Story
1. Cold Palace
Before introducing ‘Cold Palace’, first we should know ‘Sangong and Liuyuan’ which is the inner court of the Palace Museum. ‘Sangong’ refers to the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Jiaotai and Palace of Kunning. ‘Liuyuan’ refers to the eastern six smaller palaces and the western six smaller palaces of ‘Sangong’. Emperor could have many wives. ‘Sangong and Liuyuan’ is where his wives lived. If some wives lost his love, he would locate them in the ‘Cold Palace’ and not allow them to leave it until he wanted to see them. There was no certain building named ‘Cold Palace’. It could be any building which was remote and shabby. It was said that there used to be several ‘Cold Palaces’ during Ming and Qing dynasties.
2. There is no tree in the three halls
The Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony, and the Hall of Preserving Harmony are called as the three halls in the outer court. The three halls is the places where emperor holding ceremonies. The three halls are located in the center of the Palace Museum; they are also the heart of Beijing. Architects used different methods to highlight the majesty of the three halls. No trees were allowed to be planted in the yard. When people went to visit emperor, through many magnificent buildings, their sublimity was increasing. And when they arrived at the three majestic halls and the extensive yard without tree, the sublimity would reach the peak. Then when they met with emperor, they would be more careful about their behavior and words and more afraid of emperor. That what the emperor wanted. If the Palace Museum was full of trees and birds singing in them, the majestic atmosphere would disappear.
The second reason why there are no trees in the any of the halls is that emperor belongs to the ‘earth’ in the five elements (in ancient China, people believed all the objects in the world can be classified in to the five elements. They are water, fire, gold, wood and earth. The five elements complement and restrict each other). ‘Wood’ restricts ‘earth’. So emperor would not allow his place having trees.
The third reason is to assure the safety of emperor and officials, as assassins could hide in the tress.
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