In my 2021 edition of the Forbidden City poster, the serial of seventeen bullets "Watching the Red Walls and Golden Tiles, Appreciating the Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties" has been generously rewarded by many readers. Some readers put forward some opinions and suggestions and pointed out some fallacies. This revised edition was reissued immediately, adopting the opinions and suggestions of early readers, enriching some content, collating clerical errors, and updating and supplementing some pictures. Although I dare not say that all fallacies have been corrected, most of them should have been corrected. A detailed account of the architectural art of ancient China's top palaces seen in the imperial palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, some royal cultural relics collections displayed in the Forbidden City and traces of royal life in the Qing Dynasty, and also associate some stories and legends that occurred in the imperial palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. I dare not say "for readers", just hope to share it with readers. Thank you.

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Last time, it was said that there were "five gates and three dynasties" in the rules of the Zhou Dynasty Palace. After entering the Meridian Gate, you can see the fourth of the five gates, which is also the first of the three dynasties, and that is the Taihe Gate. Taihe Gate is the answer gate among the five gates of the Zhou Dynasty and the gate that should be governed.

In front of Taihe Gate is Taihe Gate Square.

Below the five bridges on Taihemen Square is the Inner Jinshui River, which is curved. These five bridges are of course called Nei Jinshui Bridge. The one in the middle is the Yudao Bridge, the ones on both sides are the Wanggong Bridge, and the outermost side is the Grade Bridge. As the name suggests, it goes without saying much.

Although the Inner Jinshui River is curved, it is not blindly curved. It is curved into the shape of a bow. The five bridges are like five arrows on a bow, ready to shoot at the five doorways behind the Meridian Gate at any time. From this perspective, there is a bit of ruthlessness here, huh? But you can also regard it as a small bridge and flowing water, which is quite poetic, right? Red walls, gold tiles and gray cliffs, small bridges and flowing water, and heavy eaves, stone railings and blue bricks. The imperial style is like this in Zhou Rites.

To the west of the square is Youshun Gate, which was renamed Xihe Gate during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Xihe is harmonious and happy. Xihe Gate is a house-style gate with five rooms and three doors, yellow glazed tiles with single eaves resting on the top of the mountain, and a bucket arch and beam lifting structure. Solid couch door leaves, sill walls and partition windows. It was rebuilt that year after a fire was destroyed in the 23rd year of Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1758 AD). What we see now is what it looked like after reconstruction at that time.

Standing at Xihe Gate and looking at Taihe Gate Square, it is quite large, covering a total of 26,000 square meters. In Chinese architecture, squares are called courtyards. Chinese courtyards are usually enclosed, surrounded by a circle of houses or walls. And squares can be open, such as city squares. The courtyards in the Forbidden City are all very large and cannot be compared with ordinary people's houses. Therefore, I would rather call it a "square". The courtyard of a private house is called a court, and the courtyard of a royal palace is called a court, which has the saying of a court.

On the east side of the square facing Xihe Gate is Zuoshun Gate, which was renamed Xiehe Gate during Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty. Harmony also means harmony and harmony,"The people are clear, and all countries are harmonious." Xiehe Gate was burned and rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty, and the last time was during the Tianqi Period. Therefore, although what we see now is not Zhu Di's, it is still produced in the Ming Dynasty. The shape is the same as Xihe Gate, but there is a solid wall at the top.

Judging from the above picture, the east side of Xiehe Gate is not paved, but paved. In fact, the west side is also paved. This paved road is not a flat stone or brick, but a diagonal brick, which is arranged one by one to help prevent slipping. This kind of paved road is called a Kucha paved road, and the horse road in the Meridian Gate is also like this. The horse paths of all ancient city walls in China are like this. Do foreign city walls have horse paths? There should be, but I haven't seen any castles abroad. Maybe I don't want to understand the city.

Xihe Gate is the same as the base under the Xiehe Gate. It is very high. I tried it with my hand and it is almost more than 2 meters tall. This platform runs through the entire side wall of the square, and there is a verandah on the platform. In the Ming Dynasty, a group of historians who recorded the history of the emperor wrote in these rooms. What they mainly recorded the emperor's daily activities, called "daily life notes."

Taihemen Square also has a turret, which is much simpler than the turret on the palace wall, but it is still very beautiful. A square pavilion on the top of the mountain with yellow glazed tiles and double eaves.

Taihe Gate is very powerful.

Look at the gate hall of Taihe Gate.

Taihe Gate sits on a nine-foot-high white stone Sumi seat with a platform in front and back. In the center of the platform are three handrails, and in the middle is the royal road. The Danbi stone in the middle of the royal road is engraved with auspicious clouds and five dragons. The steps on both sides of the royal road are for ministers to walk on. There are white marble handrails on both sides and around the platform. This kind of handrail at Taihe Gate is called the "Zen Staff Railroad." The top one is the Buddhist staff, and the solid ones below are the upper and lower arches and the middle Chinese board. There is a void under the Buddhist staff and there is a net bottle supported by it. There are cloud patterns on the net bottle. There are Yunlong embossed on the column head. The handrails of Taihe Gate are still relatively simple, and there are no complicated carvings on the railings and columns.

Taihe Gate is a house-style gate, the largest house-style gate in the world. The gate hall is nine rooms wide and three rooms deep, with eaves corridors at the front and back. The double-arched beam structure is covered with yellow glazed tiles and double eaves on the top of the mountain and seven ridged beasts. Among the seven bright rooms in the middle, three rooms are open, and one room on each side is closed. On the beams are painted with Double Dragons and Seals. This is the highest-standard gate hall in China. Like the "Wumen Gate" plaque, the "Taihe Gate" plaque was originally composed of Manchu and Han characters. Yuan Shikai removed the Manchu characters when he wanted to declare himself emperor, leaving only the Chinese characters written by Wang Faliang, a calligrapher in the late Qing Dynasty.

There are also handrails on the east and west sides of the platform. These steps are not taken by even ministers, but by palace maids and eunuchs.

Look at the gate fan of Taihe Gate. It is also a real couch door with eighty-one gilded door nails.

Gilded door nail.

The door nail is a component on the solid couch door. The real couch door of the Forbidden City is very thick. There is a frame in the middle and door panels on both sides. The door nails are used to fix the door panels to the frame to prevent them from becoming loose. There are also folk real couch doors that do not have a frame, and the two door panels are directly welded together with pins. The number of door nails on the gate represents the level of the mansion inside the gate. The palace gate has nine rows and nine columns, the prince's gate has seven rows and nine columns, and the palace's gate has seven rows and seven columns. The following are at most five elements and five columns.

Look at this decoration on the door leaf. It is very gorgeous. It is called Ruyi Yunlong Playing Beads Gilded Lead Forged Face Leaf. There are Gilded Door Spikes on the Face Leaf.

The doorring on the door leaf is also gilded. The monster on the doorring is not a tiger, but one of the seven sons of the dragon called Bi 'an (read on the other side).

The door leaves are mounted on the back gold pillar, so the front hall is very large.

Under the eaves.

There are several bronze utensils such as incense burners standing on the ground in front of Taihe Gate. The most famous ones are the two bronze lions in front of the door.

There are a total of six pairs of bronze lions in the Forbidden City. The pair in front of Taihe Gate is the largest, and it is the only one that is not gilded, and it is also the only pair with ears supported. This pair of bronze lions is full-size. From the bottom to the top, there are white marble sumi seats, bronze bases, and then the bronze lions. There are very exquisite carvings on the Sumi seat, pedestal and brocade shop. The bronze lion itself is also very beautiful. This pair of bronze lions is completely different from the other five pairs and is likely to be original from the Ming Dynasty. There are no lions in China. The ancients saw them in the Western Regions and said,"Suanni, lions, also eat tigers and leopards." It is said that Suanni (Nian Garlic Paste) is the fifth son of the dragon. He does not like to exercise and likes to smoke. He often sits on a censer. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, envoys from the Western Regions brought lions as tribute. It is said that lions were used as tribute four times. The lion in front of the door is equivalent to the door god, which means to bless the safety of the owner. Lions in front of the door usually appear in pairs, one male and one female, with the male on the left and the female on the right. The left is the upper hand. When facing south, the left hand is the east, and the east is the upper position. No matter how the people interpret it, the lion in front of the palace should say this: the male lion holding the hydrangea symbolizes the control of the country; the lioness who caresses the cub symbolizes the prosperity of the children.

In addition to bronzes in front of Taihe Gate, there are other objects. There is a square stone next to the bronze lion in his right hand.

This is a white marble box called Shikui (Nian Shui). There is a Han white jade cloud base below it, and there is a cover on the box, with a coiled dragon button on the cover.

Next to the bronze lion on the left hand is a stone pavilion.

At the bottom is a two-story foundation with steps in front, and above it is a Sumi seat or "building". On the Sumi seat is a imitation wood white marble square pavilion with a single eaves on the roof of the hall and is dilapidated.

In ancient China, there were records of the Kebao system since the Han Dynasty. The Kebao was the book for canonization, and the treasure was the emperor's treasure seal. When there is a canonization ceremony to establish a title or a title, the imperial edict must be prepared first, which is the title; the royal seal must also be prepared, which is the treasure. During the ceremony, the seal on the book is called a seal. A book without a seal is invalid. The white marble stone box and square pavilion in front of Taihe Gate are called the Baogui Collection Pavilion. They are original objects of the Ming Dynasty and should have been built by Zhu Di. There were many ceremonies at Taihe Gate in the Ming Dynasty, including royal gate hearings and various canonization ceremonies. The treasure collection system was part of the emperor's supreme power. The treasure collection pavilion set up in front of Taihe Gate was a symbol of the emperor's power in the Ming Dynasty. According to the ancient system, the locations of the treasures and scrolls in the ceremony were east and west treasures. This is the case for the treasure chamber and scroll pavilion in front of Taihe Gate. There was once a treasure cabinet pavilion in the imperial palace of the Yuan Dynasty, but it is said that the location is exactly the opposite, indicating that the Mongolians had not yet fully understood Chinese etiquette. The Baogui Book Pavilion in front of Taihe Gate has been there since the Qing Dynasty. The Book Pavilion was also repaired during the Qing Dynasty. Although the Manchu people tried their best to learn Han culture, they did not understand the system of register treasures. Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty once asked all his ministers,"What is this?" The ministers replied,"Decorate your ears." In the Qing Dynasty, the canonization ceremony was not held at Taihe Gate. The imperial gate was moved to Qianqing Gate. Taihe Gate lost its function as a court gate and became a decoration.

Taihe Gate was called Fengtian Gate in Zhu Di's royal palace. 140 years later, it was renamed Huangji Gate in the 41st year of Jiajing (1562 AD) by Zhu Houcong (Nian Cong) of the Ming Dynasty. What happened this year that made Emperor Jiajing change the name of Fengtian Gate? In the 36th year of Jiajing, the Fengtian Gate and the first three halls were burned down in the Forbidden City fire. It was not until the 40th year of Jiajing that the Fengtian Gate and the first three halls were rebuilt. In the 40th year of Jiajing, Qi Jiguang led the Qi family army to fight against the Japanese pirates. Nine battles and nine victories were the "Great Victory in Taizhou." The great victory in Taizhou put down the Japanese disaster in Zhejiang, and Emperor Jiajing Long Yan was overjoyed. The most worrying thing is Yan Song (Nian Song), the chief cabinet assistant in the court. Not only did he place relatives in the court to serve as officials, he actually directly said to the emperor when the emperor did not approve him,"This is my relative. Let him take over my job. I can rest in peace only after I die." Isn't this a blatant attempt to force the court? Jiajing was embarrassed at that time, so he agreed to Yan Song and let his relative become an official. Looking back, Jiajing became more and more timid than he thought about it. Within a few months, he announced that Yan Song's relatives had ordered him to "retire", which was to resign. This relative took the emperor's edict ordering him to retire and showed it to Yan Song. Yan Song actually didn't know what it meant! There was no choice. After the New Year, Jiajing secretly ordered Xu Jie, the minister of the cabinet, to go to the Jianghu to find an old Taoist to perform a blessing (chanting chicken) in the palace. On this day, Jiajing announced Yan Song to enter the palace, and at the same time asked the old Taoist priest to sing the drama of supporting the spirit beside him. Yan Song went up to the temple, and Jiajing ordered him to read the talisman. Yan Song read: "Today there is a traitor reporting something." Jiajing pretended to be puzzled, and then shouted: "Guard company, take down this thief Yan Song!" After Yan Song was punished, Jiajing believed that strict law and discipline were needed and no one was allowed to despise the emperor again. He renamed the newly renovated Fengtian Gate to Huangji Gate, and Fengtian Hall was also renamed Huangji Hall. He told all officials that I, the emperor, am the eldest, and you should all be honest. The arrest of Yan Song is a folk joke. In history, Yan Song was retired from office in the 40th year of Jiajing and returned home to support his pension. His son Yan Shifan, Minister of Industry, was interrogated and beheaded in the 43rd year of Jiajing.

Fengtian Gate is the gate to the court hall of the palace, which is also the Yinggate. It is called the court gate. According to Zhu Yuanzhang's "Zuxun Lu", every third, sixth, and ninth day, when the fifth drum sounded, civil and military ministers in Beijing would gather outside the noon gate and queue up to call and count. When the bell rings, the Meridian Gate opens. It is five o'clock in the morning. Civil and military ministers must quietly enter the Meridian Gate in two teams with their eyebrows lowered and eyes lowered, and stand on both sides of the Dan Steps under Fengtian Gate. During this period, you are not allowed to cough, spit, and blow your nose. Anyone who makes a strange noise will be called by the picket team to record it by the imperial historian and deposit it into the imperial historian (also read it) for later use. In fact, the emperor also walked forward from the Qianqing Palace behind at five o'clock. Because it was far away, he arrived at Fengtian Gate later than the ministers. When the emperor was approaching, a royal whip master gave three blows. The emperor sits on the chair set up in advance. This process is called "ascending to the throne" and is very important. Officials should bow and bow to the emperor three times in unison. When the last bow is made, the emperor should shout "Thank you for your hard work" or "Please stand up" in time to show his sympathy for the courtiers. Officials from Honglu Temple (Honglu Temple) officiated during the ceremony, which is to shout a whistle. Honglu Temple is one of the nine temples like Dali Temple and is good at etiquette. After the ceremony, officials of Honglu Temple stood in front and read out the commendation order. The recipients had to walk out of the Meridian Gate and turn around to thank them. After that, as soon as the Honglu Temple officials shouted "Start the petition", the foreman of each yamen stretched out and began to report the matter in sequence. The emperor either approved, refused, guided, or scolded. After all the things were reported, the whip master gave three more whips. The emperor drove back to the palace. The officials turned around and went home. They bought two fried dough sticks and a bowl of soy milk on the way. This process is the morning court, and every day the morning court must be recorded by the censor and stored in the imperial history. Zhu Yuanzhang went to court early like this when he was in Nanjing. After Zhu Di moved his capital to Beijing, he followed the instructions of his ancestors and continued to do so. There were historians in China as early as the Xia Dynasty, but the history they recorded was never seen. There are "Zuogu" and "history" in oracle bone inscriptions, which means that there have been words to record history since the Shang Dynasty. The morning court at Fengtianmen is the so-called "Imperial Gate Hearing of Politics", and it has always been here in the Ming Dynasty. In the early Qing Dynasty, the imperial gate was also used to hear politics at Fengtian Gate, which had been renamed Taihe Gate. Since Kangxi, it moved to Qianqing Gate for the morning court. The last morning court of an emperor in Chinese history was on the 25th of the twelfth lunar month of the third year of Xuantong (February 12, 1912 AD). Empress Dowager Longyu issued an edict to the Qing Emperor to abdicate.

If the emperor occasionally feels a cold, or if the stars were unlucky last night, he may avoid an early court the next day. The emperor had to notify the ministers of waiving morning court attendance, but there was no regulation on when the notification would be made. If the emperor had premeditated it, he would have given advance notice, so that ministers would not have to get up early to gather outside the noon gate. It is often when ministers get to Fengtian Gate and get a notice from Honglu Temple that "the court is suspended today." The ministers can immediately turn back and go home early. During the Zhengde years, Zhu Houzhao, Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, devoted himself to government affairs and the entertainment career of leopard room. One night he drank too much and the next morning he was hung over. The ministers stood under Fengtian Gate and waited for the morning court. They could not wait for Emperor Zhengde to come. It was not until the sun was about to set in the afternoon that the emperor woke up and said that today was not the day. The ministers outside the door stood for a whole day and were hungry, so they scattered in a huddle and turned to run outside the Meridian Gate. This caused congestion at the entrance of the Meridian Gate. One of the old generals felt sore and numb from standing for a day, so he couldn't help but plop down into the entrance. The colleagues who rushed forward behind were eager to go home and eat hot tofu. Each of them kicked the general on the ground and killed him. You said that the lethality of this ancient stampede accident was not worse than that of the Shanghai Bund?

After Shunzhi entered this palace, Huangji Gate was renamed the "Taihe Gate". Taihe is also written as "Dahe". The Book of Changes has the meaning of "maintaining harmony and harmony is righteousness", which means harmony and integrity.

There is a commonly called side door on the left and right sides of Taihe Gate. The right hand side, that is, the west side, is called Zhendu Gate. Zhendu means "Zheng", Du means "Fa", and Zhendu means correct behavior. Zhendu Gate is Zhu Di's Xuanzhi Gate. Because this is the door in front of the right road hall, it is also called the front right door.

The Zhendu Gate has a width of five rooms and a depth of two rooms. It has yellow glazed tiles and single eaves on the top of the mountain. It opens in the middle. The roof is a bucket arch and beam structure, and the beams are painted with double dragons and seals. The door of the solid couch is mounted on the center pillar, so the front and rear doors are the same size.

The left hand side of Taihe Gate is called Zhaode Gate, and its shape is the same as Zhendu Gate.

The Taihe Gate was left by the emperor and the queen. When ministers go to court, they must go to the Zhendu Gate on the right and the Zhaode Gate on the left. The corridor room near Zhendu Gate was a royal warehouse in the Qing Dynasty, guarded day and night. There was a tragic Emperor Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty. When he reached the age of eighteen in the 14th year of Guangxu (1888 AD), the Empress Dowager Cixi arranged a marriage for him. This marriage was really given by Cixi, who chose her niece and Guangxu's cousin. Her name was Yehenara Jingfen, who later became Queen Longyu. The auspicious day calculated according to the Yellow Calendar is the first month of the 15th year of Guangxu, and weddings have been planned since October of the 14th year. All kinds of silk and satin, gold and silver jewelry, boxes, beds and drawers, rice tanks and toilets, etc. are stored in the royal warehouse of Zhendu Gate. On a windy and moonlit night in the twelfth lunar month of the 14th year, the old army guarding the royal warehouse went to sleep towards the fire. The ever-burning lamp at night was blown by the roaring north wind, and the oil inside spilled out and lit the Zhendu Gate. Under the wind and fire, Zhendu Gate, Taihe Gate, and Zhaode Gate were all burned, and the wedding goods prepared for Guangxu's wedding were also burned. Seeing that the emperor's wedding will be more than a month away, and the bride will have to enter the palace through this Taihe Gate. It will definitely be too late to build the new gate, and Jingfen cannot step on the scorched earth into the palace. There was no choice. The Military Affairs Department secretly reported this and was accurate. As a result, a fake Taihe Gate was built out of paper shells and linen on the base of Taihe Gate. On the day of the wedding, Jingfen's sedan chair was covered with red silk. She couldn't see the scenery and wind and grass outside inside. She didn't know if she smelled the smell of "cutting firewood and burning charcoal". The final wedding ceremony was still a complete success, but Guangxu has been unable to escape the shadow of Cixi since the fire. The reconstruction of the three gates started in June of the 15th year of Guangxu and was completed in the 20th year of Guangxu. The Taihe Gate, Zhendu Gate and Zhaode Gate we see now are the buildings rebuilt this time, which is more than a hundred years old.

It really shouldn't have caught fire at Zhendu Gate in the 14th year of Guangxu. Fire water tanks were set up here during the Ming Dynasty. In the picture above, you can see that there are iron tanks on both sides of the road to the south of Zhendu Gate, commonly known as the door sea, meaning the sea in front of the door. Go forward and take a look.

The words "Four Years of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty" are clearly engraved on it. Hongzhi is the year name of Zhu Youtang (Nianzhi), Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty. The fourth year of Hongzhi is 1491 AD. This iron jar is 530 years old. After so many years of wind and rain, although it looks rusty, the handwriting is still quite clear, indicating that the smelting and casting technology of those days was very noble. Even though there were two iron vats full of water in front of Zhendu's door, it was still not possible to save the fire.

Taihemen Square at sunset.

The sun is shining in the west, the light is fading, and the shadow of the thousand-year-old emperor is fading.

The bronze lion also looked at the sunset and sighed.

At sunset, the west wall boasts hard to chase, and the lion will not return no matter how long it calls. The bereaved families of noble nobles are sad, and heaven and earth have changed into embroidered brocade piles.

Golden light shone on the white platform.

The blue sky is as warm as washed white jade, and the golden light is like water and the green shadow is cold.

Golden light shone on the Taihe Gate.

The bronze lion and gold hall have red walls, the stone steps with yellow tiles painted with Fang, and the blue bricks and red pillars of clouds and dragons. The sun is dark, the tourists are scattered, and the Ming Emperor and the Qing Emperor have no company.

Standing at the Taihe Gate and looking towards the Meridian Gate.

The five phoenixes of the Zhu family still exist today, and the Qing character flag has no soul. In the past, the Palace and Forbidden City used to be, but now the people understand the dusk.

Stand on the Inner Jinshui River Bridge and look at Taihe Gate.

The winding Jinshui River and the sparkling white jade bridge. Look at the Golden Hall from afar and gather tourists at dusk.

The sun is about to set, and tourists are taking photos in the last sunset.

Qing Ge Ge held up her mobile phone, and the dark man held the camera. Everyone is chasing beauties in the world and is not afraid of the yellow wind beating the dusk.

The Forbidden City is about to end the day's visit, and tourists are urged to leave the venue on the radio. The security guards surrounded the last tourist kneeling on the ground to take photos.

The palace gate will close and we will rest, but you will not leave.

Not afraid of 10,000 yuan, but just in case. There was still a photographer who slipped through the net and finally photographed the lion.

A building, a lion, and a little person are crazy.

Wait for the Ming Dynasty, wait for the Ming Dynasty to visit the palace again and swing vigorously.

(To be continued)