| Forbidden City |
Article Index for Forbidden City |
Articles about Forbidden City |
Website Links For Forbidden City |
Information AboutForbidden City |
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the mid- Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty . It is located in the middle of Beijing , China and now houses the '''Palace Museum'''. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, and the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government. Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms1 and covers 720,000 square metres. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture,2 and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 , and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. Since 1924, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artefacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Part of the museum's former collection is now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei . Both museums descend from the same institution, but were split after the Chinese Civil War . NAME The common English name, "the Forbidden City," is a translation of the Chinese name ''Zijin Cheng'' (). Another English name of similar origin is "Forbidden Palace".See, e.g., 3 In the Manchu language it is called ''Dabkūri dorgi hoton'' (Manchu: ), which literally means the "Layered Inner City." The name "''Zijin Cheng''" is a name imbued with significance on many levels. ''Zi'', or "Purple", refers to the North Star , which in ancient China was called the ''Ziwei'' Star, and in traditional Chinese Astrology was the abode of the Celestial Emperor . The surrounding celestrial region, the Ziwei Enclosure (), was the realm of the Celestial Emperor and his family. The Forbidden City, as the residence of the terrestrial emperor, was its earthly counterpart. ''Jin'', or "''Forbidden''", referred to the fact that no-one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor's permission. ''Cheng'' means a Walled City .p 18, 4 Today, the site is most commonly known in Chinese as ''Gugong'' (故宫), which means the "Former Palace.""Gugong" in a generic sense also refers to all former palaces, another prominent example being the former Imperial Palaces ( Mukden Palace ) in Shenyang ; see Gugong (disambiguation) . The museum which is based in these buildings is known as the "Palace Museum" (). HISTORY See Also: History of the Forbidden City painting]] The site of the Forbidden City was part of the Imperial City during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty . Upon the establishment of the Ming Dynasty , the Hongwu Emperor moved the capital from Beijing in the north to Nanjing in the south, and ordered that the Mongol palaces be razed. When his son Zhu Di became the Yongle Emperor , he moved the capital to Beijing, and construction began in 1406 of what would become the Forbidden City. Construction lasted 15 years, and required more than a million workers.p 15, 5 Material used include whole logs of precious '' Phoebe Zhennan '' wood () found in the jungles of south-western China, and large blocks of marble from quarries near Beijing. 6 The floors of major halls were paved with "golden bricks" (), specially baked paving bricks from Suzhou . From 1420 to 1644, the Forbidden City was the seat of the Ming Dynasty. In April 1644, it was captured by rebel forces led by Li Zicheng , who proclaimed himself emperor of the Shun Dynasty .p 69, Yang (2003) He soon fled before the combined armies of former Ming general Wu Sangui and Manchu forces, setting fire to parts of the Forbidden City in the process.p 3734, 7 By October, the Manchus had achieved supremacy in northern China, and a ceremony was held at the Forbidden City to proclaim the young Shunzhi Emperor as ruler of all China under the Qing Dynasty .8 The Qing rulers changed the names of the principal buildings, to emphasise "Harmony" rather than "Supremacy",9 made the Name Plates bilingual ( Chinese and Manchu ),10 and introduced Shamanist elements to the palace. 11 In 1912, Puyi , the last Emperor of China, abdicated. Under an agreement with the new Republic Of China government, Puyi remained in the Inner Court, while the Outer Court was given over to public use,p 137, Yang (2003) until he was evicted after a coup in 1924.12 The ,15 but the other part was evacuated to Taiwan in 1947 under orders by Chiang Kai-shek , whose Kuomintang was losing the Chinese Civil War. This relatively small but high quality collection today form the core of the National Palace Museum in Taipei .16 After the establishment of the People's Republic Of China in 1949, some damage was done to the Forbidden City as the country was swept up in revolutionary zeal.17 During the Cultural Revolution , however, further destruction was prevented when Premier Zhou Enlai sent an army battalion to guard the city.18 The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 by UNESCO as the "Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties",The Forbidden City was listed as the "Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties". In 2004, Mukden Palace in Shenyang was added as an extension item to the property, which then became known as "Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang": 19 due to its significant place in the development of Chinese Architecture and culture. It is currently administered by the Palace Museum, which is currently carrying out a sixteen-year restoration project to repair and restore all buildings in the Forbidden City to their pre-1912 state.20 In recent years, the presence of commercial enterprises in the Forbidden City has become controversial.21; see also the original store, 22 which opened in 2000, 23 sparked objections 24 and eventually closed on July 13 , 2007 . Chinese media also took notice of a pair of souvenir shops that refused to admit Chinese citizens in order to Price-gouge foreign customers in 2006.25 DESCRIPTION | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To The South Of The Forbidden City Were Two Important Shrines &mdash The Imperial Shrine Of Family () And The Imperial Shrine Of State (), Where The Emperor Would Venerate The Spirits Of His Ancestors And The Spirit Of The Nation, Respectively Today, These Are The Beijing Labouring People's Cultural Hall | "#ref_33">33 and Zhongshan Park (commemorating Sun Yat-sen ) respectively{{cite weburl= http://wwwchinaorgcn/english/features/beijing/31020htmtitle= Zhongshan Park |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In 2004, The French Musician | "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Jean_Michel_Jarre" class="copylinks">Jean Michel Jarre performed a live concert in front of the Forbidden City, accompanied by 260 musicians, as part of the "Year of France in China" festivities{{cite web url= http://newsbbccouk/2/hi/entertainment/3733290stm |
|
|