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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There were three north-south axes in the Qing Dynasty imperial palace. The central axis of the middle road from Wumen Gate to Shenwu Gate was the central axis of the middle road, running through the imperial palace. The East Road has an axis in Ningshou Palace District, from Huangjimen to Jingqi Pavilion in the north. The west road also has an axis that runs south from the Great Buddha Hall in the back hall of Cining Palace, passes through the main hall of Cining Palace, Cining Gate, Changxin Gate, and goes straight to the Nantian Gate. Standing at Cining Gate and looking at Changxin Gate facing the south, you can pass through Changxin Gate and see the Nantian Gate in the far end.

Changxin Gate was called Yong 'an Gate in the Ming Dynasty. Entering is a small narrow square with north and south.

There are Nantian Gate in the south and Range Rover Gate in the west of the square. They are all simple glazed doors with walls. It is believed that this area was within the scope of the Yuan Dynasty's Dadu Palace. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di smashed it and built the front hall of the above-mentioned Renshou Palace called Dashan Hall. It was burned down during the Jiajing Period. When Jiajing built the Cining Palace for his mother, Empress Dowager Jiang, he built it into a garden. Five or six years ago, when the Forbidden City dug a cable trench here, it dug out the underground rammed earth layer and nailed piles of the Dashan Hall. The profession is called concealed engineering. An old floor tile remains in the middle of the square. The outside of the east wall is not open now. The inside used to be the Qing Dynasty manufacturing office factory, but now it is the Forbidden City Repair Skills Department. Inside the Range Rover Gate is the Cining Palace Garden, which was renovated during the Qing Dynasty. The garden area is not large, about the same as Qianlong Garden. There are not many buildings in the garden, but the central building is Xianruo Hall.

Xianruo Hall has a width of five rooms and a depth of three rooms, with three rooms in front of it. A two-foot-high base opens the door in the morning, and there is a royal road in front of the door. Above it is the top of the mountain with a single eaves of yellow glazed tiles, and the top of the mountain is surrounded by rolling sheds. There is a circle of eaves corridors around it, plum blossom eaves columns, and wind and bronze bells hanging under the ridge.

Xianruo Hall has been under great repair in recent years. Look at the superstructure of the hall. The peonies are painted with flat chess ceilings, and the beams are painted with dragons and phoenixes and seals. They have both the original state and the newly added parts. Experts studied the style characteristics of these arched arches and said that the main hall of Xianruoguan was built during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and the Bao Building was built during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty.

After the emperors of the previous Qing Dynasty made a great trip, the empress and her concubines moved to Cining Palace, Shoukang Palace and surrounding small houses. Only during New Year's Day does the emperor come to pay his respects. If you have nothing to do at all, you can't expect the late emperor to provide compensation. You don't have to fight for favor. After these empresses and concubines wanted to open their doors, they worshipped Buddha every day, and every class in the morning, noon and evening. The Empress Dowager had private rooms in both Cining Palace and Shoukang Palace to worship Buddha. Other concubines also set up Buddhist shrines and incense burners at the end of the kang and the bed. However, you can go to this Xianruo Hall to worship the Buddha. Take a look at the layout of the inner Buddhist hall.

This Buddhist hall is arranged in accordance with the rules of Tibetan Buddhism. The front row is a cast copper five-supply tripod and candle vase. There is a row of woodcut gold-plated vases in the back, and woodcut gold-plated coral trees are inserted in the front and rear vases. Behind it is an altar table with eight treasures placed on it. We have seen a set of eight treasures inlaid with gold and gemstones in the Treasure Hall. There are no Buddha statues in the shrine. It seems that this shrine should be where Buddha statues and Thangka statues should be hung. There are brocade prayer flags hanging on the beams, many of which are faded.

To the south of Xianruo Hall is the Linxi Pavilion built by Empress Dowager Li, the mother of Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty.

Linxi Pavilion is a three-bay square pavilion with open spaces on all sides and doors and windows are simple diagonal lattice flowers. The sill wall in the middle is covered with glazed bricks, with corners and box carvings, which is very gorgeous. Above it is a bucket arch lifting beam, yellow glazed tiles with blue trimmed edges, single eaves and spires at the four corners, and glazed glass bearing plates and gilded pearl ridges. The pavilion is built on a lotus pond with a circle of white marble handrails by the pool.

Go in and have a look.

Above it is a sea-covered ceiling, a peony painted with flat chess, and a flat caisson painted with a bucket of eight paneled dragons. The Cining Palace Garden is a secret place, and it is very romantic and has the effect of attracting flowers and butterflies. Occasionally, a beautiful woman would walk to the door and stand there, abandoning the round fan to the ground like a bad shoe. It turned out that there was a photographer lying on the pool railing over there, taking the Nth picture in her private album.

In addition to adult beauties coming here to take ancient photos, there are also underage beauties.

Linxi Pavilion is a special event for beautiful women, and handsome men have to retreat. Where is this Sanshe? It is under the wall.

There are rocks and trees around the Linxi Pavilion, making it cool. To the south of the pavilion is a flower pond planted with peony.

There were also pavilions at both ends of the flower pond. On the east was the Cuifang Pavilion and on the west was the Lvyun Pavilion. There is also a well pavilion at the base of the south wall of the two pavilions. Water is drawn out to walk in small canals on the ground and flows into the Linxi Pavilion pool. Cuifang Pavilion, Lvyun Pavilion and the two well pavilions are now gone. Instead, two side halls were established under the courtyard walls on the east and west sides, each with a width of five rooms and a depth of one room. Look at the west side hall. On display in the hall are some royal golden nanmu furniture, which also sells small toys.

There is also a northern flower pond corresponding to the north and south flower pond of Linxi Pavilion. Peonies are planted here. It will bloom in season for retired empresses to appreciate. Peonies and peonies are widely planted in Cining Palace, and even the ceiling in the house is painted with peonies and peonies. This may be because the peony flowers are big and elegant, and have always been known as the national beauty and fragrance. This can be regarded as a tribute to the queen and imperial concubine of the first dynasty, which shows that this is a peony garden with the national beauty after retirement. In addition, is there another reason for widespread planting of peonies?

Xianruo Hall, the main hall of Cining Palace Garden, has east and west side halls, the east side hall is Baoxiang Tower, and the west side hall is Jiyun Tower. The two buildings are similar in shape. Look at the Baoxiang Building on the east side. It is a two-story building with seven rooms wide and has eaves corridors up and down the front. This is the Sixth-grade Buddha Building mentioned in the previous article in Ningshou Palace when talking about Fanhua Building. However, most of the Buddha statues and Thangka in this Baoxiang Building have been lost. If you can't see Fanhua Building, you can take a look at this Baoxiang Building. It's a fantasy.

Look at Jiyun Building on the west side.

Jiyun Tower is also a Buddhist hall, with 10,000 statues of Buddha Mother in it, which is the kind of Buddha statue that is wiped. This is the only Ten Thousand Buddha Hall in the palace and the only Ten Thousand Buddha Hall in Tibetan Buddhism.

There is a small courtyard called Hanqing Zhai on the south of Baoxiang Building, and there is also a small courtyard called Yanshou Hall on the south of Jiyun Building opposite it.

Yanshou Hall is very small, with two small courtyards at the front and back, and a wall door opened on the side. At first, the main room of the courtyard has three rooms wide and three rooms deep. There are eaves corridors at the front and back. Above it are gray tiles and three coupons connected to build a rolling shed on the top of the mountain. This kind of roof with three coupons is not only common in the palace, but also in the market. It looks like the waves behind the Yangtze River pushing the waves ahead on the side, which is very unique. The second courtyard is a bedroom, only one room deep, with gray tiles rolling on the top of the mountain. Yanshou Hall and Hanqingzhai were built by Qianlong. After he moved his mother, the Empress Dowager Chongqing, to Shoukang Palace, he thought that if the Empress Dowager fell ill, he would stay in Yanshou Hall to brew medicine for her mother to prolong her life. If Niang died, Lao Qian planned to lay straw mats and sleep on the floor in Hanqing Zhai to observe the mourning ceremony, which was called "tomati", which meant to extend Niang's longevity. In fact, Lao Qian never really lived here.

There is also a building north of Xianruo Hall, the main hall of Cining Palace Garden, called Ciyin Building.

Jiyun Tower and Baoxiang Tower, the east and west halls of Xianruo Museum, are both seven rooms wide. In order to match Xianruo Museum, Ciyin Tower is five rooms wide and is also a two-story building. Xianruoguan is on the east and west sides of the temple. There are two-story buildings on the top of the mountain with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves. It looks like sitting among mountains. There is a pool under the river pavilion facing the front, so this Xianruo Pavilion is facing north and south, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing water on one side. The feng shui is so good. Ciyin Tower is a Buddhist scripture building, which used to contain the Tibetan Sutra. The garden of Cining Palace is actually a Tibetan Buddhist temple, with a Buddha Hall, a six-grade Buddha Building, a Ten Thousand Buddha Hall and a Buddhist Sutra Building.

There is a hall door at the east end of Ciyin Building, and behind it is a small door that leads directly to Cining Gate Square. The door entrance is black.

The top of the door is sea painted ceilings, Su style Pingqi painting, and all of them are peony and peony.

After watching the Cining Palace Garden, return to Longzongmen Square. From the west side of the square, walk north along the outer wall of Yongkang Left Gate to the end. On the right hand, that is, on the east side, is Qixiang Gate. This is the west end of Xiyi Hengxiang Lane in the West Sixth Palace. The outer sides of the West Sixth Palace and the East Road are not completely symmetrical. This is the result of the transformation of the Qing Dynasty, especially during the Qianlong period.

Walking east into Qixiang Gate is a horizontal alley in the West Sixth Palace, and in front of it is the Taiji Hall. Turn back and face Qixiang Gate and walk west. At the end, you will find Shouan Palace behind Shoukang Palace. Shou 'an Palace was called Xianxi Palace in the early Ming Dynasty, and was called Xian' an Palace after it was rebuilt during the Jiajing Period. Xian 'an Palace was also the residence of the concubines of the former Ming Dynasty. During the Longqing period, Consort Chen Yong of Emperor Jiajing lived here. However, there are exceptions. During the Tianqi Period, Ke, the wet nurse of Zhu Youxiao of the Ming Dynasty, once lived here. Normally, Ke should have lived in Xiersuo, but Zhu Youxiao made an exception and let her live in Xian 'an Palace and married her to Wei Zhongxian. Wei Zhongxian and Ke Shi divided the division of labor, and Ke Shi was responsible for destroying the concubines in the inner palace, resulting in Zhu Youxiao having no children, and finally passed the throne to his brother Zhu Youjian, Emperor Chongzhen. Ke lived in Xian 'an Palace until the death of Emperor Xizong of the Ming Dynasty. After moving out of the palace, he was captured by Chongzhen and flogged to death in the laundry room.

During the early Qing Dynasty, Xian 'an Palace was abandoned and useless. During the Kangxi years, Yin Reng was placed under house arrest here twice when he was deposed as Crown Prince until his death here in the second year of Yongzheng. After Yongzheng came, he held an official school in Xian 'an Palace, which was the Royal Children's University. In the 16th year of Qianlong (1751 AD), in order to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Empress Dowager Chongqing, the official school was moved, and Xian 'an Palace was rebuilt and renamed Shou' an Palace. Qianlong built a temporary three-story stage behind the Spring Festival Hall in the front hall of Shou 'an Palace. The emperor and the Empress Dowager sat in the main hall of Shou' an Palace in the back hall to watch the drama. Ten years later, Qianlong was celebrating his mother's 70th birthday again. The temporary stage was definitely no longer usable, and a permanent three-story theater was built. This large theater should be similar to and earlier than Changyin Pavilion in Ningshou Palace. During the birthday celebration ceremony, Qianlong arrived at Shou 'an Palace in a sedan chair early in the morning amidst the sound of drum music. The drum music stopped only after the queen mother arrived, and the two began to eat fried dough sticks and drink soy milk. Following this is the so-called 99 Daqing routine, with snacks such as food cakes at nine or ten o'clock. Dinner starts at two or three o'clock in the afternoon, and the table closes until four o'clock. This time, there is wine to accompany the meal, and there is a big drama to serve during the catering period. Nowadays, major companies learned from Lao Qian to eat and perform performances at annual meetings. If they can't afford a theater troupe, employees go on stage to sing and dance themselves. After the banquet, the ministers retreated first through the side gate, and Lao Qian led the princes to escort the Empress Dowager to the Gate of Shou 'an. Later, Lao Qian took a sedan chair home. Seeing Lao Qian walking away, the remaining princes scattered in a hustle.

In the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799 AD), after the death of Qianlong, Emperor Jiaqing demolished the three-story theater of Shou 'an Palace and regulated entertainment nationwide, with less acting and singing. The current Shou 'an Palace is a five-room hall built from the south to the north after the demolition of the theater building during the Jiaqing period. After the death of Jiaqing, Emperor Daoguang arranged for Jiaqing's imperial concubine Ru to live in Shou 'an Palace, which also became a nursing home for the concubines of the former dynasty. During the Xianfeng Dynasty, the imperial concubine moved to the Shoukang Palace. Emperor Daoguang's Jia concubine and other concubines and noble people were settled here. The last person to die in the 16th year of Guangxu was Jia concubine. After Emperor Tongzhi's marriage, both Ci 'an and Empress Dowager Cixi had to move back to Zhongcui Palace and Changchun Palace where they had originally lived. It is said that during the renovation of Zhongchu Palace and Changchun Palace, Empress Dowager Ci 'an once rested in Shou' an Palace, and Empress Dowager Cixi once rested in Shoukang Palace. The current Shou 'an Palace is the library of the Palace Museum and is not open to tourists. I wonder if it will be vacated and repaired in the future.

There is a north-south junction road outside the east wall of Shou 'an Palace and the position corresponding to the East Tongzi Street on the East Road. Follow the junction road north and you can reach a temple behind Shou' an Palace. The temple in this royal palace is not called a temple. It is the Yinghua Hall that was renovated in 2011. Then why is it a temple? There are many places to worship Buddha in the palace, including more than one Buddhist hall of large and small. Even the Temple of Kunning has places to worship shamans. But only Yinghua Hall has a gate here, so it is a temple. Although there is a mountain gate, it is still impossible to set up a bell and drum tower. It is useless if it is set up. The emperor does not allow drums and bells to be beat. There is a Yinghua Gate in front of the mountain gate. There is no statue of the Heavenly King in the gate hall, so it cannot be called the Heavenly King Hall. After entering Yinghua Gate, there is a platform that leads directly to Yinghua Hall, the main hall at the back, which is five rooms wide and three rooms deep. There is a Qianlong Stele Pavilion halfway through the platform corridor. There is something like the Qianlong Stele Pavilion on the corridor. You can imagine the Qianlong Stele Pavilion on the corridor behind Yonghe Gate in Yonghe Palace. Above the Yinghua Hall is a yellow glazed tile roof with a single eaves, which is quite special to face the west road.

Yinghua Hall was called Longxi Hall in the Ming Dynasty. It was a royal temple at that time. It served Tibetan Buddhi-style Buddha statues, commonly known as the "Western Buddha statues". Basiba, the fifth generation founder of the Sakya School in the Yuan Dynasty, was revered as a national teacher by Kublai Khan, and Tibetan Buddhism began to spread widely in the mainland. By the Zhu Di period in the early Ming Dynasty, it was the early days of Tsongkhapa's founding of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Tsongkhapa had already had close ties with the Central Committee of the Ming Dynasty. Although the religious policy of the Ming Dynasty was based on Confucianism and supplemented by Buddhism and Taoism, it did not exclude Buddhism and Taoism, and was also open to Tibetan Buddhism. Zhu Di once recruited Dalai Lama Halima to Beijing and respected him as a national teacher. Therefore, it should be possible for Zhu Di to worship the Western Buddha statues in Yinghua Hall. Later, in the Qing Dynasty, Tibetan Buddhism was respected, and the Western Buddha statues in Yinghua Hall were preserved without any problems. However, Yinghua Hall is not open now, and I am not allowed to enter, and I have not studied the Buddha statues there.

The most famous miracle in the Ming Dynasty was that Empress Dowager Li, the mother of Emperor Wanli, was known as the incarnation of Jiulian Bodhisattva. After Emperor Wanli's marriage, Empress Dowager Li left the Qianqing Palace and moved into the Cining Palace. After that, she took worshiping Buddha as her own duty, and she lived her life and worshipped Buddha endlessly. Empress Dowager Li built the riverside pavilion in the garden of Cining Palace, allowing nine lotus flowers to bloom in the pool below the pavilion. She also planted a tree in front of this Yinghua Hall. There were two trees in total. She said it was a nine-lotus Bodhi tree. Empress Dowager Li was born as a palace maid. She had the simplest understanding of Buddha. That pool and these two trees are her understanding of "one flower, one world, one tree, one Bodhi", right? The Bodhi tree is a type of banyan tree that likes to grow in the tropics. There are wild ones in Nepal. It can live in southern China, but it cannot be wild and can only be cultivated artificially. Even if planted artificially north of the Yangtze River, it will not be viable. In his early years when Nehru visited China, he gave Chairman Mao a sapling cultivated from the Bodhi tree that led Sakyamuni to enlightenment. Later, he planted it at the Beijing Botanical Institute. It is said to have lived. I wonder if it was in a greenhouse. The two Bodhi trees in Yinghua Hall have been tested and found to be a kind of linden tree called Tilia bran. The bran linden tree has a nickname called "Bodhi Tree", which is usually grown in temples in northern China. Therefore, the two nine-lotus Bodhi trees in Yinghua Hall have been sung down. Even later Qianlong said that these were Bodhi trees, and seven trees had been reproduced in the Qing Dynasty. Yinghua Hall is famous inside and outside the palace for these two Bodhi trees, which gave the empresses and concubines of the former dynasties stationed in the harem some comfort in their later years.

Walking west from Qixiang Gate is the road between Qixiang Gate, and at the end is Shou 'an Palace. There are also three glazed wall doors halfway there. That is Chunhua Gate, which was called Ninghua Gate during the Ming Dynasty.

You can see a brick exposed on the palace wall outside Chunhua Gate. During the Ming Palace period, the city wall was not plastered, and the bricks were directly exposed. The wall seen here is not a city wall, but a palace wall. The palace wall is plastered and painted red on the outside. In order to make the plaster last, there are also hemp knives. On the top of the wall are glazed bricks stacked together to form the eaves, which are covered with glazed tiles to make a wall cap. There is a wall ridge on it, and a ridge animal is installed at the end of the ridge. This section of exposed brick seems to have been deliberately shovelled off the plaster to show you the bristles inside.

There are guards guarding this intersection. I am not allowed to pass. I can only look at Chunhua Gate from afar. If you can pass through, you can enter Chunhua Gate to see the largest Buddha Hall and Yuhua Pavilion in the Imperial Palace. It is the tallest building on the West Road of the Forbidden City. Standing in the courtyard of Taiji Hall, you can see a corner of the roof of Yuhua Pavilion. Standing at the northwest corner of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, you can see the upper level of Yuhua Pavilion and the White Tower of the Beihai Sea.

Looking at the roof of Yuhua Pavilion from a distance, it is very strange. It reminds me of the roofs of Qingjing Dharma Zhi Hall in Xiangshan Zhao Temple and Falun Hall in Yonghe Temple. The roof of Yuhua Pavilion is called a golden roof. It is not a glazed tile, but a gold-plated copper tile. All the components are copper-plated. The highest-level Tibetan-style temples and halls are all made of this kind of golden dome, such as the Potala Palace in Lhasa.

In order to facilitate the management of the Mongolian-Tibetan areas, the Qing Emperor praised Tibetan Buddhism. Huang Taiji granted Living Buddha Bazhou the title of Naomuhan, Emperor Shunzhi granted him the title of National Teacher of Chechen, and during the Kangxi Dynasty, Living Buddha Zhang Jia was appointed as the national teacher. According to the advice of the third generation of Living Buddha Zhangjia, Emperor Qianlong wanted to build a mandala in the palace, so he chose this place inside Ninghua Gate. It is said that this place was the Third Hall of Xuangong in the Taoist Temple built by Zhu Di in the early Ming Dynasty. Yuhua Pavilion is the front hall, and behind it is the middle hall Baohua Hall and the rear hall Xuanji Hall. The Yuhua Pavilion was completed in the 15th year of Qianlong (1750 AD). It is a three-story pavilion with a square three-bay room. There is a building in front and eaves corridors on all sides. The building is a rolling shed and resting on the top of the mountain. The two floors below Yuhua Pavilion are glazed tiles, and there is a dark layer between the first and second floors. The third floor is a four-corner pavilion, a Tibetan-style treasure roof, and a Qing-style Fubo Tibetan Pagoda ridge. Including the dark floors, this Yuhua Pavilion actually has four floors. There are gilded dragon riding ridges on the four hanging ridges of the roof, and there are also flying dragons on the eaves corners. The layout of Yuhua Pavilion follows the four principles of Tibetan Buddhism Tantra practice. The first floor is the Ministry of Intelligence and Action level. In the middle of the interior is the copper-plated Buddha statue of Sakyamuni, and on both sides are the Buddha statue of the Ministry of Wuliangshou. Behind the shrine are the famous three red sandalwood pavilions with double eaves and gold silk enamel mandalas. These three mandala cities are the only ones in the world made of silk enamel. They are peerless treasures that even Xizang does not have. The dark layer is the virtuous layer of the Xing Department, which houses nine copper-plated Buddha statues. In the middle is the majestic Bodhi Buddha, and on both sides are the Buddha Mother and Vajra. The third floor is the five copper-gilded Buddha statues of the Yoga Department. The main Buddha is the Tathagata Buddha. The attic on the fourth floor is the Supreme Yoga Department, which houses three bronze gilded and happy Buddha statues. At that time, Living Buddha Zhang Jia participated in the planning, review and design, and supervision of the construction, so this Yuhua Pavilion was fully in line with the teachings of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Its original proposal was to imitate a Mandacheng Hall of the Tuolin Temple in Xizang. The current Tuolin Temple has been damaged and incomplete over the years, so this Yuhua Pavilion is currently the most complete four-part Buddhist temple of Tibetan tantra in China. This Yuhua Pavilion Buddhist Hall has no monk abbot, and outsiders are not allowed to enter. It is just a private Buddhist hall where Qianlong himself worshiped Buddha. Although this old man is both Tibetan and Han, Mahayana and Hinayana, Emperor gods, Confucius, Mencius, Cheng and Zhu all worship the sacred people, but no one knows what he believes in.

The main hall in the backyard of Yuhua Pavilion is Baohua Hall, which is also a Tibetan Buddhist temple. Baohua Hall is not large in scale, with three rooms wide and one room deep. It opens in the front and back, with a slight gap between sill walls and windows. There is a building behind it, with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves resting on the top of the mountain. There is no platform, there are prayer flags on both sides of the hall, and there are censers in front of the door. This should be the Baohua Hall that survived from the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, temples often had a building behind the main hall, such as the main hall of Zhihua Temple in Beijing. According to records in the Inner Palace, this Baohua Hall was rebuilt in the eleventh year of Daoguang (1831 AD). There is a tunnel behind Baohua Hall that leads directly to the Zhongzheng Hall behind, and there is a Fragrant Cloud Pavilion between the two halls. The Zhongzheng Hall and Xiangyun Pavilion were destroyed in a fire during the Republic of China, leaving only the foundation of the platform. Baohua Hall is still there, and it houses Buddha statues and Thangka Buddha statues, both of which are Tibetan Buddhism, that is, Western Buddha statues. According to records in the Ming Dynasty, the Zhongzheng Hall in the Chongzhen Period was the location of Longde Hall in the Longqing Period, and the Longde Hall in the early Ming Dynasty was called Xuanji Hall. This Xuanji Hall and later Longde Hall were the royal Sanqing Hall of the Ming Dynasty, dedicated to the statues of Yuqing Yuanshi, Shangqing Lingbao, and Taiqing Daode.

This Lama Temple inside Chunhua Gate had regular activities during the Qing Dynasty, that is, rituals. We laity people can celebrate a festival just by looking for a gift, and even the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month is a festival. Eat dumplings or sweet things such as mooncakes and yuanxiao during the holidays. Monks are not greedy. They find a child to celebrate the festival and do rituals as soon as the festival is celebrated. Therefore, during the Qing Dynasty, lamas continued to hold activities here in Yuhua Pavilion and Zhongzheng Hall, and the emperor also came to serve as pillars of incense. After the disappearance, there were no activities here and it became deserted. But there are many good things here, including records and objects. These good things came in great use later. In 1995, according to the detailed records of successive central governments canonizing the Panchen Lama and the style of the Bemba vase provided by experts from the Forbidden City, the special commissioner of the State Council went to the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa to preside over the golden vase lot-drawing ceremony, and identified the six-year-old boy Gyazen Nobu as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama. The Benba vase used was given by the emperor in the 57th year of Qianlong (AD 1792). There are two golden vases, one in Jokhang Temple and the other in Yonghe Temple. The golden-inlaid gemstone Bemba vase from Yonghe Temple was once displayed to the public.

Behind the West Sixth Palace and the Zhongzheng Hall were the five places in Qianxi, which were symmetrical to the five places in Qiandong after the Sixth Palace in the Ming Dynasty. They were also the residences of the princes. The prince lived in Yuqing Palace, while other princes lived everywhere. These five houses and the three houses in the south could live in them. This was also the case at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. During the Kangxi period, Prince Yin Reng was abolished, and the emperor sent people to capture Yin Reng from Yuqing Palace on the east road to Xian 'an Palace on the west road. Since then, the Qing Dynasty no longer announced the crown prince. In the 50th year of Kangxi (1711 AD), Prince Heshuoyong's family had a precious son named Hongli. In the 60th year of Kangxi, the emperor ran into Hongli's grandson. He was very happy and said,"I'll take this grandson back to the palace to raise him and play." Although Prince Yong was unwilling, he knew that this was a signal from Kangxi to him. Sure enough, Prince Yong ascended the throne the following year. Shortly after Yongzheng ascended the throne, he let Hongli live in Yuqing Palace, and wrote Hongli's name on rice paper and threw it behind the "Zhengda Bright" plaque in the Qianqing Palace. Normally, the prince should move outside the palace after his marriage, but Yongzheng asked him and the Fucha family of Fujin to move to two of the five Qianxi houses in the palace during Hongli's wedding, which was a hint to Hongli. Within a few years, Yongzheng granted Hongli the title of Prince Heshuobao and awarded two houses named "Leshan Hall". After Hongli ascended the throne as Emperor Qianlong, two of the five places in Qianxi became Qianlong Palace. Qianlong no longer let others live here to prevent tenants from pretending to be hidden dragons. The first, second and third buildings were also merged and transformed into Chonghua Palace and made the Fan Mansion Memorial Hall. The meaning of "chonghua" comes from the meaning of "Shun can inherit Yao and value the brilliance of his literary virtue" in "Shang Shu·Shun Dian". The "chonghua" here should be pronounced as the weight of "importance", but usually people read it as the weight of "overlapping". Because this palace implied the achievements of Emperor Qianlong and Shun, Emperor Qianlong did not dare to write a note when it was completed. It was not until forty-eight years after he ascended the throne that he dared to write "The Chronicles of the Palace of Chonghua", which was actually "It's easy to say how important it is to coordinate with Emperor Hua."

Walking north along the West Second Long Street in the middle of the Sixth West Palace, you will find Baizimen. After exiting Baizimen, you will find an east-west crossstreet. When you turn to the right, you will see the Chonghua Gate of Chonghua Palace.

Chonghua Palace has three courtyards according to the original system. The front yard, the main hall, the reverence hall, is five rooms wide and three rooms deep, with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves resting on the top of the mountain. The Hall of Resurrection is regarded as the ceremonial hall of Chonghua Palace. When Hongli was granted Prince Bao, he wrote a plaque "Leshan Hall". It is said that it still hangs in this hall. The main hall of the Second Entrance Courtyard, Chonghua Palace, is five rooms wide and one room deep. It has yellow glazed tiles, single eaves and hard mountain tops. There are ancillary halls on the east and west. Chonghua Palace is Hongli's bedroom, Dongnuan Pavilion is the living room, Xinuan Pavilion is the bedroom, and it is also the new house for Hongli's wedding. The main hall of Sanjin Courtyard is the Cuiyun Hall, which is five rooms wide and one room deep, with yellow glazed tiles and single eaves on the top of the mountain. This is Hongli's activity room, where you read books, newspapers and learn culture at Dongnuan Pavilion. There is a plaque of "Changchun Bookstore" hanging inside. In the eleventh year of Yongzheng, the emperor named Hongli "Changchun Jushi". Changchun was the Changchun Fairy Hall where Hongli lived in Yuanmingyuan at that time. After he ascended the throne, Qianlong built bookstores everywhere where he lived, often named after "Changchun Bookstore". The first Changchun Bookstore was in Yangxin Hall, and the plaque was also inscribed in the first year of Qianlong. Qianlong studied "Dream of the Red Chamber" and formed the Haitang Poetry Club. Every New Year's Day, he would gather scholars from the court, Hanlin and others to join poems in Chonghua Palace. Chonghua Palace couplet poetry became one of the Qing Dynasty's New Year programs, which did not gradually stop until the Xianfeng period.

After the death of Empress Fucha, Qianlong kept the Changchun Palace where she lived before her death, placing it as it was, and no other concubines were allowed to live in it. Chonghua Palace retained the new house for Hongli's wedding, including the large trousseau chest for Empress Fucha's dowry. Emperor Qianlong went to Changchun Palace to pay homage to the queen every New Year's Eve. After retirement, Emperor Qianlong moved all of Queen Fucha's belongings in Changchun Palace to Chonghua Palace, and changed it to pay homage to the queen every New Year's Eve.

When Qianlong renovated the Second Building, he also occupied the head of Qianxi Building No. 5, which was the Sanjin Courtyard on the east side of the Second Building. After the renovation, the head office was called Shufang Zhai. The front hall was transformed into a stage sitting south and north. There is a door on the east wall of Shufang Zhai leading to the imperial garden. A small stage was also built in the back hall of Shufangzhai. The Shufangzhai stage group was the earliest stage in the palace. Chonghua Palace not only occupied the first place, but also occupied three, and three were converted into Chonghua Palace kitchens. Chonghua Palace is not open now, probably because tourists are afraid that when they see Qianlong and Empress Fucha get better, they will fight after eating dog food when they go home.

In the late Qing Dynasty, there were tenants living in this Qianlong Palace. It is said that during the Guangxu period, Emperor Tongzhi's concubine once lived in Chonghua Palace, called Taifei. She also made pills in Dongnuan Pavilion and gave them to others. In the 13th year of the Republic of China (1924 AD), Feng Yuxiang launched a coup d'état in Beijing, abolishing the preferential conditions of the Qing Dynasty and driving Pu Yi out of the palace. Emperor Tongzhi's Consort Yu was still living in the palace at that time and was called Consort Yu. Consort Yu and Consort Yu moved out of the palace at this time and moved into the home of Princess Rongshou, the daughter of Prince Gong. When the two imperial concubines went, they didn't know whether Princess Rongshou had just flown west or would fly west in just a few days. A few days after the two imperial concubines moved away, Pu Yi was also pulled out of Yangxin Hall by Feng Yuxiang's people, escorted out of the palace and moved to Chun's Palace to join his father.

Looking west in front of the Chonghua Palace Gate, the door of the lane is locked. Across the wall, you can see the spires at the four corners of a pavilion in the west courtyard.

That courtyard is Jianfu Palace and Jianfu Palace Garden. Along the west of Chonghua Palace, there should be four and five of the five in Qianxi, which means that Jianfu Palace occupies four and five. The project to build Jianfu Palace consisted of two steps. The first step was to move four and five palaces to the east factory in the sixth year of Qianlong. The East Factory in the Ming Dynasty was located on the north side of Donghua Gate, which means that the Fourth and Fifth Offices were moved outside the imperial palace. The fifth Qianxi Institute has all been renovated. In fact, the fifth Qianxi Institute may not be renovated this time. According to textual research, there were seven on the east and west sides of the Qianqing Palace in the early Ming Dynasty. At that time, there was actually only Qin 'an Hall in the imperial garden, and there were two on both sides of Qin' an Hall where princes lived. In the 14th year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1535 AD), two buildings were demolished on both sides of Qin 'an Hall, attracting many old practitioners to handle feudal superstitious matters. Later, in the 11th year of Wanli of the Ming Dynasty (1583 AD), the Taoist priests were imprisoned. Towers and pavilions were built on both sides of Qin 'an Hall, making the garden behind the palace more comfortable and comfortable. However, were there seven Eastern and Western Schools in the early Ming Dynasty, and why did two of them disappear? Without evidence, thoughts are still hanging.

In addition to occupying the territory of the Fourth and Fifth Offices in Qianxi, Jianfu Palace occupies the south to Shoukang Palace and Chunhua Gate Road in front of Yuhua Pavilion. At that time, this was a "vacant land", a narrow and long open space. The east road corresponding to this land was the warehouse of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. What buildings were there on this vacant land during the Ming Dynasty? There's no evidence to check. Jianfu Palace was built in the seventh year of Qianlong (1742 AD) mainly to have a place to take a walk while busy during hard work, and to hide here so that no one could find it. It was a place to "dump" when tired.

To the south of Jianfu Palace is Jianfu Gate, which is also a glazed door with the wall. Jianfu Gate is parallel to the Xianfu Palace Gate of the West Sixth Palace, which means that Jianfu Palace did not fully utilize the "vacant land". The West Sixth Palace has three rows of courtyards, and Jianfu Palace only uses the northernmost courtyard. There is still a long way from Jianfu Gate to the palace wall at the southernmost tip of the vacant land. Moreover, there is only one Chunhua Gate on that palace wall leading to Yuhua Pavilion. The southern tip of the vacant land is closed. There is a small hall there called Yanqing Hall. It is right between the Taiji Hall and the Yuhua Pavilion. It is not open now and cannot be seen from the outside. Along the southern palace wall and heading north, you will see the lane in front of Jianfu Gate. There are five-room houses on both sides of the lane. To the north of the houses is Yanqing Gate facing south. Once you enter Yanqing Gate, you will find Yanqing Hall. The Yanqing Hall has a width of three rooms and a depth of one. There is an eaves corridor in front of it, with yellow glazed tiles, single eaves, rolling sheds on the top of the mountain. There are five ridge beasts on the ridge. There is Guangde Gate behind Yanqing Hall, and between Yanqing Gate and Guangde Gate is the small courtyard of Yanqing Hall. Yanqing means continuing the blessing. Emperor Jianwen of the Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasty had the sentence "Feng Fa made peace, and Yanqing was good". Every time the Qing emperors arrived at the beginning of spring, they would bring their subordinates here to pray for spring sacrifices. The folk spring festival is during Qingming Festival and is a sacrifice to ancestors. The spring festival in the palace is a blessing. According to the Zhou Rites,"Spring is the moon" during the four seasons and four sacrifices of the emperor. Guanzi has the meaning of "holding a spring sacrifice, stuffing it for a long time, using fish as animal animals, and using rice as wine to call each other." Holding a spring sacrifice means wishing a good harvest this year. Who is the main god of the Spring Sacrifice in the Yanqing Hall of the Qing Emperor? There is no record and no evidence is found. According to the Zhou Rites, the spring sacrifice was dedicated to the five emperors, namely, the Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu (recited as Zhuan Xu), Emperor Ku (recited as the coolness of the Emperor), Yao, and Shun. The right way to enter Yanqing Hall is from a wall door on the east wall of Yuhua Pavilion to Yanqing Gate. There is also a wall door on the east wall in front of Yanqing Gate that leads to Taiji Hall. If Guangde Gate goes out, the north is Jianfu Gate; on the east wall is Suizhi Gate, which is the west end gate of the Second Horizontal Lane of the West Sixth Palace. It is the right way to enter Jianfu Palace. When Taiji Hall and Changchun Palace merged, they were merged into Changchun Palace.

The main hall of the Yijin Courtyard after entering Jianfu Gate is Fuchen Hall. It is three rooms wide and two rooms deep. It has green glazed tiles and yellow trimmed edges with single eaves and rolling sheds on the top of the mountain. There are eaves corridors at the front and back. The rear eaves corridor of Fuchen Hall is followed by a circle of hand-handed verandah to become the second entrance courtyard. There is a platform behind Fuchen Hall that leads directly to Jianfu Palace, the main hall of the second entrance courtyard. Jianfu Palace is the main hall of the courtyard. It has a width of five rooms and a depth of three rooms. The roof is an arched beam, yellow glazed tiles and green trimmed edges, a single eaves rolling shed resting on the top of the mountain, and there are eaves corridors around it. There is a throne in the Ming Dynasty, and the east and west are separated by gauze and fan. They are all painted with black paint and gold, which is quite particular. The West Room is a Buddhist Hall.

Behind Jianfu Palace is the pavilion we saw across the western courtyard wall at Qixiang Gate. It is called Huifeng Pavilion. This is the third entrance courtyard. Huifeng Pavilion is a three-bay square pavilion with double eaves and four corners, purple glazed tiles and blue trimmed edges, gilded bowl ridges, and a circle of white marble handrails around it.

There is a solid courtyard wall behind Huifeng Pavilion. There is a hall and a hanging flower gate on the wall. Behind it is a circle of Fanshou Corridor that is the fourth entrance courtyard. The main hall of the fourth entrance courtyard is Jingyi Xuan, with a width of five rooms and a depth of three rooms. The roof is a bucket arch and beam structure, and three rolls are connected to form a single eaves and a rolling shed to rest on the top of the mountain. There are eaves corridors at the front and back, and the front eaves corridor is connected to the copy hand veranda. Jingyixuan is the bedroom of Jianfu Palace, which means "tranquility makes the body happy." Although Qianlong did not say anything at first, he intended to sleep in this Jingyi Pavilion to observe filial piety when the Empress Dowager Chongqing passed away. In classical Chinese, it was called "guarding the system". In the first month of the forty-second year of Qianlong, the Empress Dowager was observing lanterns in Yuanmingyuan and died in Changchun Fairy Hall, where Hongli lived when she was young. During Qianlong's mourning period, he did not live in this Jingyi Pavilion. After the completion of Jianfu Palace, Qianlong built two small courtyards in the garden of Cining Palace, namely the above-mentioned Hanqingzhai and Yanshou Hall. After the death of the Empress Dowager Chongqing, Qianlong once said,"The south garden of the Cining Palace was decorated several times to prepare for the kindness or discomfort. It was a place to serve soup and medicine day and night. The first month of Dingyou was considered to be the time to cover it." "Mating time" also means observing filial piety, which is more vivid. It means "living in a hut, sleeping with sheets and pillows", which means living in a dilapidated house, sleeping on straw mats and pillows, which is similar to sleeping on firewood and tasting courage. Perhaps it was because the Zizi Palace of the Empress Dowager Chongqing was parked in the Cining Palace after returning from Yuanmingyuan, so Qianlong had to guard the palace for several days in the Hanqing Zhai in the garden of the Cining Palace. When this really happened, Qianlong wanted to go to Hanqing Zhai to guard the rule, but was stopped by the ministers in Yangxin Hall and failed to go.

According to Chinese building regulations, there should be a rear building at the back of Jianfu Palace. When the construction of Jianfu Palace began in the seventh year of Qianlong, there was no plan to build a rear building. It was finally built in the 22nd year of Qianlong, which was the Huiyao Building behind Jingyi Xuan. Huiyao Building has seven rooms wide and one room deep, with two floors above and below. There must be a building at the back of the Chinese-style courtyard, which means that the courtyard is backed by a mountain and this building covers the courtyard when the north wind comes. Without this back building, no matter how powerful the owner of the hospital is, he would have no chance of success. He would have been defeated and had no good results. If the Houlou wants to exert its greatest feng shui skills, it must provide Buddha statues inside. With the protection of Dharma, there will be no problem in covering the courtyard. Huiyao Tower houses Buddha statues, which is a Buddhist hall. Such Buddhist halls usually contain Buddha statues on one floor and Buddhist scriptures on the second floor. Huiyao Building is a sixth-grade Buddha Building like Fanhua Building in Ningshou Palace. It was built earlier than Fanhua Building, so it is still a relatively simple sixth-grade Buddha Building.

According to custom, a large household must have a back garden. Since Qianlong wanted to spend half a day here, he must also build a garden. Jianfu Palace is too small to build a garden behind Huiyao Building. Qianlong built a garden on the west side of Jingyixuan. This is the famous Jianfu Palace Garden. It is one of the four gardens in the Qing Palace: Imperial Garden, Cining Palace Garden, Ningshou Palace Garden and Jianfu Palace Garden. The central building of Jianfu Palace Garden is Yanchun Pavilion. From old photos of the Republic of China, Yanchun Pavilion is a four-sided two-story building with five bays on the first floor and three bays on the second floor, with a dark floor in the middle. There are eaves corridors around the first floor, and flat seats around the second floor, with four corners on top of them. To the east, north and west of Yanchun Pavilion are surrounded by some Xuan Tang Zhai houses, and to the south are stacked stone rockery, where some trees, some flowers and some grass are planted. The Jianfu Palace Garden occupies a small area and has not many buildings. Although it is compact, it is not crowded. The flowers and trees line the eight types of buildings at all times, and the decoration is not enough. Qianlong placed and hung all kinds of treasures he collected everywhere in Jianfu Palace, and also wrote plaques and couplets and poems everywhere. This was his proudest courtyard.

After Qianlong left, his son Emperor Jiaqing packed all the treasures in Jianfu Palace in piles and sealed them, which is said to have filled the halls. Since then, Jianfu Palace has been empty and no one has come to live in it. After the end of the Qing Dynasty, Puyi had nothing to do in the palace and had nothing serious to do except study culture. He wandered around the inner court and discovered that many treasures of the previous dynasties were sealed up in Jianfu Palace. Puyi then ordered an inventory. Those under him could no longer be called eunuchs, but they were not regular migrant workers, so I called them official workers. Halfway through the count, the officials found that these treasures were not only very beautiful, but also light and easy to move. One midsummer night in 1923, a fire broke out in the garden of Jianfu Palace, and the garden was completely destroyed. Along with the fire, Jingyi Pavilion in the east and the Zhongzheng Hall and Xiangyun Pavilion on the western border wall were burned. This time, all the treasures were gone, even the half-made book was gone. Subsequently, those officials who participated in the inventory of the treasures gradually resigned and went home. Some people found that after returning home, they had found a female neighbor to live a life like Wei Zhongxian and Ke. It was said that they had both built houses and land. In 1999, a cultural protection foundation in Hong Kong provided US$4 million to sign an agreement with the Forbidden City to rebuild the Jianfu Palace Garden. The reconstruction project was completed in 2006, and the rebuilt Jianfu Palace will never be open to the public. It will be used exclusively for receiving distinguished guests and holding internal salons. It is said that in 2018, pianist Wu Muye held a signing ceremony to join Sony Music at Jianfu Palace Garden.

There are city god temples all over China. The "city" is the city wall; the "god" is the moat. The sacrifice in the City God Temple is the local patron saint. The sacrifice in the City God Temple in Beijing is Yang Jisheng. He was a famous remonstrant during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. He was framed and killed for exposing Yan Song's "five crimes of evil and ten crimes." At first, there was no City God Temple in the imperial palace. It has always been a sacrifice to the City God at the Capital God Temple next to Beijing's Eighth Middle School. That was the City God Temple established in the Yuan Dynasty. One morning in the fourth year of Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty (1726 AD), Yin Zhen had an unknown nightmare the night before. The imperial order to build a City God Temple in the palace. Emperor Yongzheng was embarrassed to make a big fuss, but as a result, he built a City God Temple under the northwest corner tower close to the city wall. It was a very remote corner that belonged to the Qianzuo area in the Eight Trigrams, where the Inner Jinshui River entered the palace. At the front are three mountain gates, followed by three temple gates. There is a corridor behind the temple gate that leads to the five main halls with a platform behind it. There are three auxiliary halls on each side of the main hall. The main hall is dedicated to the God of the Forbidden City. Every year, on the Emperor's Birthday, Longevity Festival and on an auspicious day in autumn, he will be offered sacrifices by the Minister of the Internal Affairs Office on behalf of the Emperor, and meat and vegetables will also be served. This place is not open now. It is the Scientific Research Office of the Palace Museum. There are several pear trees that bloom with white flowers every year, as well as fruit trees such as black dates.

At this point, everything that can be seen in the Forbidden City is now open and almost everything that cannot be seen has been mentioned. In addition to holding the annual ticket into the palace ten times, he also came twice at discount. Due to the epidemic, the 2020 annual ticket can be used until April 30, 2021 after being optimized by the Forbidden City. In order to prevent us from enjoying excessive preferential treatment, after the Wuying Hall Ceramic Museum was reopened, it was opened to the public on May 1, 2021. I spent my own money to look at a circle of bottles, cans and cans. Later, at my own expense, I visited the Zhai Palace, which was not open during the epidemic, where I watched some Forbidden City themed stamps for stamp collectors outside the palace.

Visiting the Forbidden City is a very hard undertaking. Entering the palace from the Wumen Gate, leaving the palace from the Shenwu Gate, and the pace outside the palace, it is impossible to walk home without more than 10,000 steps in a day. When you are tired from walking, in addition to many Forbidden City benches to rest on, you can sit on the steps of every hall.

Every time I visit the palace, I have lunch at the Forbidden City restaurant. Its beef noodles are good, but they are quite expensive. By the way, last time a friend asked me how ancient pillars were fixed to the ground? I took a picture of the remains of the Shoukang Palace well pavilion specially displayed by the Forbidden City to solve this confusion. You can see that there are holes under the column foundation and holes in the middle of the column foundation. Fixing pins can be installed in these holes, a type of tenon and tenon structure.

The Forbidden City was built in the 18th year of Yongle of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1420) and has been more than 600 years; the Palace Museum was established in the 14th year of the Republic of China (AD 1925) and has been nearly 100 years. From a splendid royal palace to what the people of the capital called "a pile of broken temples" in 1949, it has witnessed China's history from prosperity to decline. The Palace Museum in New China has transformed from a "pile of broken temples" to its present glory. It has also witnessed China's history of rising from weakness and poverty to strength. This world's greatest royal palace and world cultural heritage will also witness the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Later, we will also contribute an addendum to this travel journal series, which will be released from time to time. The reason why the Forbidden City still has some restoration projects that have not yet been completed, such as the very important Yangxin Hall and Fengxian Hall. This Yangxin Hall project has been protracted and has no end in sight. Fengxian Hall seems to have been almost rebuilt, but it is still not open. It is probably painted by the beams inside the painting. In others, there may be areas that are not open all year round and re-stretched after restoration, such as Nanxun Hall and Chonghua Palace. If the Forbidden City further vacates the office space in the palace, it may also restore certain areas for me to visit, such as the Hall of Tranquility. At that time, we will continue to publish new travel notes and share what we have seen and learned with everyone.

Thank you all for reading it.

(Serialization ends)