The
Forbidden City
In ancient China, the Emperors claimed
to be the Son of Heaven and their supreme power was conferred upon them from
Heaven. On Earth, the Emperors built their residences to be replicas of the
Purple Palace where it was believed God lived in Heaven. Such a divine place,
off limits to ordinary people, became known as the Forbidden City. The impressive architecture of the Forbidden
City reflects the essence and culmination of the traditional Chinese
architectural accomplishment.
The Forbidden City served as an imperial
palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the end of the Qing Dynasty
(1644-1912). Hongwu,
emperor of the Ming Dynasty, moved the capital from Beijing, in the North, to
Nanjing, in the South, following the collapse of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. In 1402, Hongwu’s
son, Zhu Di, became the Yongle Emperor and designated
Beijing the secondary capital of the Ming Empire. In 1406, Zhu Di issued an
edict to build an imperial palace, ancestral temple, altars, and his own tomb
in Beijing; thus began the construction of the Forbidden City. Before the
palace was completed, the administrative center of the empire was shifted from
Nanjing back to Beijing when Zhu Di moved to Beijing.
Construction of the imperial palace took
fourteen years, a huge accomplishment made possible due to the fact that
“preparations were adequate and the building process had been organized
scientifically.”About 100,000 artisans and one million civilians took part in
the project. Large pieces of stone needed for grand terraces and large stone
carvings couldn’t be transported; under the direction of chief engineers, Kuai and Lu Xiang, water was poured on the ……
