Forbidden City

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Forbidden City

• Matthew Meyer
• BAT 300S V26

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Overview

• Served as the Chinese Imperial Palace from the
  mid- Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.
• Location Middle of Beijing, China
• The Complex consists of 800 buildings with 8,886
  rooms.
• Largest collection of preserved ancient wooden
  structures in the world.
• The Palace Museum in the Forbidden City should
  not be confused with the National Palace Museum
  in Taipei.

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Names

• the Forbidden CityZijing Cheng
• Manchu LanguageDabkuri dorgi hoton
• ZI purple Polar Star
• Jin forbidden
• Cheng walled city
• TodayGugong Former Palace

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Conception

• Zhu Di son of Hongwu Emperor named Prince of Yan
  with seat in Beijing
• 1402 Zhu Di usurped the throne and became Yongle
  Emperor
• Construction of the palace that would become
  Forbidden City began in 1406

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Construction

• Fourteen Years
• 200,000 men
• Important Hall Pillars whole logs of Phoebe
  zhennan wood.
• Grand terraces and large stone carvings
  quarries near Beijing.
• Major Halls golden bricks
• Soil excavated during construction used to create
  Jingshan Hill.

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Ming Dynasty

• Zhu Di moved to Beijing prior to completion of
  the palace under the name of touring and
  hunting
• 1420 Palace Completed Zhu Di moved to new
  palace.
• Nine Months after completion the three main halls
  including the throne room burnt down.
• 23 years passed before these buildings were
  rebuilt/

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Ming Dynasty

• 1420 to 1644
• April 1644, Li Zicheng captured Forbidden City.
• Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty
  hung himself on Jingshan Hill.
• Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor of the Shun
  Dynasty.

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Qing Dynasty

• October the Manchus take the North
• Regent Dorgon proclaimed Qing Dynasty legitimate
  successor of Ming.
• Ceremony at the Forbidden City proclaimed the
• Shunzhi Emperor
• ruler of all China.

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Qing Dynasty

• Qing Dynasty maintained the Ming Dynasty scheme
  with a few changes.
• Changed name of the principal buildings
• Ming favored names meaning supremacy or
  extremity
• Qing preferred names meaning peace and
  harmony
• Huangji Dian vs. Taihe Dian
• All Signs and name plates were now bilingual

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Qing Dynasty

• Forbidden City center of power of Qing Dynasty as
  it rose and fell.
• 1860Second Opium War Anglo-French forces
  occupied the City until the end of the war.
• 1900Empress Dowager Cixi fled the city during
  the Boxer Rebellion.
• Occupied by forces of the treaty powers until the
  next year.

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Qing Dynasty

• Forbidden City served 24 emperors
• 14 Ming Dynasty Emperors
• 10 Qing Dynasty Emperors
• 1912Puyi, last emperor of China, adicated the
  throne and power over China to the Republic of
  China
• Puyi was required to remain within the palace.
• 1914museum established in the outer court.

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After the Revolution

• 1923Puyi announce an audit to determine if
  palace treasures were being stolen. Fire
  destroyed evidence.
• 1924Feng Yuxiang took control of Beijing and
  Puyi was removed from the Palace.
• October 10, 1925 the Palace Museum was
  established in the Forbidden City.

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Peoples Republic

• 1949Peoples Republic of China proclaimed at
  Tiananmen.
• The Palace Museum continued to work to restore
  the palace and its collections, over the next two
  decades.
• Various proposals were made to raze or
  reconstruct the city to create public park, a
  transport interchange, or place of
  entertainment.

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Peoples Republic

• Proposals all failed but
• Throne in the Hall of Middle Harmony was
  dismantled
• Several name tablets removed from buildings and
  gardens
• Demolition of minor gates and structures.
• 1966Hall of Worshipping Ancestors was modified
  and some artifacts destroyed due to cultural
  revolution.

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Today

• From 2005a 16 year major restoration project
  will seek to repair and restore all of the
  Forbidden City to their original state prior to
  1912
• While great effort has been made to prevent the
  commercialization of the palace, a variety of
  commercial enterprises exist, such as souvenir
  shops and photography stands.

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Description

• Rectangular in shape, the Forbidden City is today
  the world's largest surviving palace complex.
• It measure 961 meters from north to south and 753
  meters from east to west.
• The complex is surrounded by a six-meter deep,
  52-meter wide moat, and an eight-meter high wall.

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Collections

• 340,000 pieces of ceramics and porcelain from
  several dynasties.
• The Palace Museum holds close to 50,000 items of
  paintings.
• Of the almost 10,000 pieces held, about 1600 are
  inscribed items from the pre-Qin period (to 221
  BC).
• The Palace Museum has one of the largest
  collections of mechanical timepieces of the 18th
  and 19th centuries in the world, with more than
  1000 pieces

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Collections

• Jade has a unique place in Chinese culture. The
  Museum's collection, mostly derived from the
  imperial collection, includes some 30,000 pieces.