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Recently, I discovered a great museum with few tourists, a quiet environment, and detailed explanations. I must introduce it to everyone. This is the Beijing Museum of Ancient Architecture.

The Beijing Museum of Ancient Architecture is located in Xiannong Altan, a place where previous emperors offered sacrifices to Xiannong and prayed for good weather and rain.

The opening hours here are from 9:00 to 16:00 (closed all day every Monday, New Year's Day, New Year's Eve, and the first day of the first lunar month), and there are two volunteer lectures from 9:30 to 12:00 and 1:30 to 4:00 respectively.

There are also many scenic spots such as the Temple of Heaven and Dazhalan in the surrounding area. You can listen to the explanation in the morning, take photos during your free time, and go around in the afternoon.

The opening hours here are from 9:00 to 16:00 (closed all day every Monday, New Year's Day, New Year's Eve, and the first day of the first lunar month), and there are two volunteer lectures from 9:30 to 12:00 and 1:30 to 4:00 respectively.

There are also many scenic spots such as the Temple of Heaven and Dazhalan in the surrounding area. You can listen to the explanation in the morning, take photos during your free time, and go around in the afternoon.

Except for 200 people who are free before Wednesday, you need to buy tickets for 15 yuan per person during the rest of the time, so it's more cost-effective to come on Wednesday.

After entering Xiannong Altan, the first big building you see is called the Temple of Worship, which is connected to the courtyard of Tai Sui Hall.

Hall of worship

Taisui Hall

The Taisui Hall is the main hall, and the Taisui God enshrined in it is in charge of the good and bad fortune of the year. Therefore, the emperor would come to worship it every year. If something happened or fell ill, he would send palace ministers to worship in the hall instead.

Today, these two parts make up the Beijing Museum of Ancient Architecture. The worship hall shows the development history of ancient buildings, while the Tai Sui Hall displays ancient construction techniques and urban development. The auxiliary halls on both sides of the courtyard are the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Architectural Exhibition and the appreciation of ancient architectural types.

Cajing of Longfu Temple in the Ming Dynasty

In the museum, there are two treasures of the town and museum that are the biggest gains of your trip. First, you need to walk to the center of the worship hall and look up.

An extremely exquisite and complex wooden structure decoration is presented in front of you. It is called a caisson. It originally originated in the Han Dynasty. Because the name contains water and wells, it is placed on the ceiling to play a "fire prevention" role. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, caisines became more luxurious, with exquisite craftsmanship and consumption of wood, becoming a symbol of the sacred status of the royal family and religion.

This caisson comes from Longfu Temple in the third year of Jingtai in the Ming Dynasty. The middle part is called the mirror. A thick and powerful dragon dragon is carved from golden nanmu, so it is named the Panlong Mingjing caisson.

In ancient times, golden nanmu was a special material supplied by the royal family and was extremely precious. One of the crimes of Heshen's property was that the mansion was decorated with golden nanmu, which greatly exceeded the level. Today, a piece of top quality golden nanmu has reached 400 million US dollars. Every look we see can be called a city of value.

The golden nanmu in Gong's Mansion

The Tiangong Caisson located in the center of Tai Sui Hall also comes from Longfu Temple. Its carvings are more delicate, imagination is more novel, and colors are more gorgeous. It plays a decisive role in the history of ancient Chinese architecture.

It is said that this caisson originally had 6 floors, but only 4 floors remained after its restoration. The bottom of each floor is carved with fine moire patterns.

Supported by the auspicious clouds is the celestial palace of Qionglou and jade space. On the pavilion are also depicted the colorful twenty-eight constellation statues.

On the mirror there is a copy of the Tang Dynasty astrology, which depicts 1440 stars, of which 1420 are almost the same as modern constellations, which is amazing.

Finally, at the four corners of the caizhou well, four heavenly kings held it steadily, giving us a complete picture of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen's beautiful imagination of life in the celestial palace.

Caisines are the most magnificent part of ancient Chinese buildings. They usually appear above the throne of the emperor and above the head of Sakyamuni. If you visit historic sites in the future, you may wish to look up and have a look. Perhaps the most legendary craftsmanship of ancient craftsmen is hidden there.

After viewing the treasures of the town hall, we will embark on an architectural journey that spans time and space starting from the Neolithic Era.

Architecture during the Pre-Qin Period

At that time, some architectural relics had appeared. At the Banpo site in the north, the ancestors invented houses with wooden bones and mud walls according to the climate to keep warm; while the residents of the Hemudu site in the south could also adapt to local conditions and build nests through branches to prevent moisture and insects. Create a comfortable living environment.

By the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the city took shape, and the Erlitou site allowed us to see the planning of the palace city, the inner city and the outer city.

Plan of Erlitou Site

Miyagi has city walls and trenches to defend against foreign enemies. The palace was cleverly built on a high platform to effectively prevent rain erosion.

Restoration of Erlitou Palace Site

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, tiles hung on wooden eaves to prevent rain appeared. Some of them were quite large, which shows that wooden structures were already very grand at that time.

Vartan action

3-4 times that of ordinary tiles

During the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period, the tiles in the Zhongshan Mausoleum were more distinctive. Their cities were built on mountains, with mountains as totem, and even the tile nails used to fix the tiles and wood were made into the shape of mountains.

During this period, political turmoil and war were raging, but there was a major breakthrough in the history of ancient Chinese architecture, which affected the planning of the capital for more than 2000 years.

"Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji" was born.

What would the ideal royal city look like? The capital city should be square, with three doors open on each side. Nine horizontal and vertical roads divide the city into neat small squares, with a palace city in the center, forming a layout of the former dynasty and the future, and the left ancestor and the right community.

Until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the above-mentioned urban planning continued. For example, the Forbidden City, today we can still see the designs of the former dynasties and the latter, and the left ancestors and the right communities.

In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang finally ended the war. In the process of unifying the six countries, Xianyang Palace was also constantly expanding.

Restoration map of Xianyang Palace No. 1
At that time, craftsmen were not able to build pavilions. In order to make the palace look tall, they built rammed earth one story high and covered it with corridors. Then they built the palace on top of the rammed earth, which looked like a two-story building.

Although the buildings at that time had long been turned to dust, the huge tiles and sewer pipes unearthed showed people the once-grand building complex and the glory of an era.

Covering corruption: ultra-large tile

pentagonal sewer pipe

In the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, established the world's largest city: Chang 'an City in the Han Dynasty. Its area was 2.5 times the size of Rome. However, he did not refer to the "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji" for urban planning, but built large-scale palaces and temples filled the entire capital.

What is worth mentioning is the establishment of the east and west cities, which moved the trading markets from the Xia, Shang and Zhou periods to the cities, and created the saying of buying things from then on.

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, due to his dislike that Weiyang Palace was too small, he built a more gorgeous Jianzhang Palace on the west side of Chang 'an City and created the garden concept of a pool and three mountains.

This idea comes from the myth of our ancestors. It is said that there are three immortal mountains in the East China Sea: Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou. Immortals have long lived here and are in charge of the elixir of life. During the Qin Shi Huang Dynasty, he sent people to search for it many times, but failed.

Inspired by this, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty excavated the Taiye Pond in Jianzhang Palace and built three islands in the pond to pray for immortality. Since then, whether in the Daming Palace or the Summer Palace, we can see a similar garden layout with three mountains in one pool.

Daming Palace

summer Palace

Thick burials were popular in the Han Dynasty, and the concept of treating death as life led them to make their food, clothing, housing and transportation during their lifetime into burial objects, so that the deceased could continue to enjoy them in the world after death.

The architectural ghosts found in Han tombs give us a deeper understanding of the Han Dynasty residences. Their building materials are more complete and their technology is more mature. They can build high-rise buildings or build courtyards.

At present, the highest level of the national unearthed pottery building is seven floors

Underworld pottery courtyard (replica)

Another harvest from Han tombs is called Que. The chases are both missing and set up on both sides of the entrance to form a gap shape to mark the importance of this place. For example, both ends of the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City project outward to form a U-shape, which is its palace.

Gaoyi Que located in Ya 'an, Sichuan Province was found on both sides of the tomb path and is called the tomb Que. His master's name is Gao Yi, and many official positions he once held are engraved on the watchtower. The largest of them is the prefect of Yizhou, which is equivalent to the current governor of Sichuan Province.

1:3 model replica

The specifications of this watchtower are very high. Not only do they have main watchtowers and auxiliary watchtowers, but they are also carved with very complete maps of chariots and horses traveling. You must know that only people with outstanding achievements will this picture appear on the tomb. This is the emperor's appreciation of the master. A very high affirmation.

Created in troubled times

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism was introduced to China, and religious buildings began to rise for a time. The most famous one was the world's largest and most magnificent Buddhist art holy place, which was built during the 16-Kingdom Pre-Qin period and formed in seven dynasties. Mogao Grottoes.

Entering the Northern and Southern Dynasties, although wars were frequent and dynasties changed, Buddhism still could not stop its vigorous development. However, universal belief in Buddhism has also brought about quite a social crisis. There are more and more monks in temples, and they do not pay taxes, farm land, or join soldiers.

So Tuobatao, Taiwu Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, began the first large-scale extermination of Buddhism, burning temples and expelling monks. Many Buddhist wooden buildings were destroyed at that time.

However, due to the fact that there were too many Buddhist believers, Tubatao's descendants finally restored Buddhism in order to strengthen their ideological rule and began to build grotto temples that were difficult to burn, so that these Buddhist treasures were passed down forever.

Longmen grottoes

yungang grottoes

After the eminent monk passed away, the relics needed to be built in a tower to keep them safe. This was another type of religious building popular at that time. The Songyue Temple Pagoda in Zhengzhou, Henan Province is the earliest existing brick pagoda and the only twelve-sided pagoda.

This type of tower is called a dense eaves tower, and each floor is very narrow and does not have sightseeing functions

Architecture during the Sui and Tang Dynasties

In 581 AD, Yang Jian ended the Great Schism, established the capital in Xi'an, and established the Sui Dynasty. At that time, the capital city of the Sui Dynasty was called "Daxing City". It was written by the famous architect Yuwen Kai. It was an ideal royal city that was very consistent with the Zhou Rites and Kaogong Records.

Yuwen Kai

Sui Daxing City

In addition to leaving a perfect city for future generations, another living fossil building in the Sui Dynasty also had a great impact on us, that is, Zhaozhou Bridge, which appears in primary school textbooks. After 1400 years of ups and downs, the bridge is still unobstructed and intact.

Its durability is due to the smooth shape of a single hole and long span, and the sharing of stress by the open shoulder arches on both sides. Such advanced design concepts are 800 years earlier than those in foreign countries!

When the Tang Dynasty replaced the Sui Dynasty, Li Yuan did not destroy the capital, but expanded it to make it more in line with the description of Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji.

This is a very well-behaved city. The streets are divided into grids, which serve as places where the people live. They are called squares. High walls are built around them, and each door is opened and guarded by officials. In the morning, the bell rings and the doors open one after another, so that the people can come out and exercise. At night, drums come from the city, reminding residents to go home quickly. If they pass by, people will still walk on the street, but they will be arrested and beaten.

In the Tang Dynasty, there was a very important building that overthrew the Japanese's claim that there were no Tang Dynasty buildings in China and became the earliest surviving wooden structure building. This was the main hall of Foguang Temple in Wutai Mountain, Shanxi Province.

Its discovery and confirmation also involved a tortuous and arduous process. In 1925, Liang Sicheng, who was still studying in the United States, received a book from his father Liang Qichao. This was "Creation Style", known as the encyclopedia of ancient Chinese architecture.

Song Dynasty's "Creation Style"
This book inspired Liang Sicheng's determination to study ancient Chinese architecture. After returning to China, he immediately devoted himself to on-site inspections. However, five years later, no Tang Dynasty buildings were found.

Until one day in 1937, while studying the "Dunhuang Grottoes Catalog", Liang Sicheng discovered a Tang Dynasty style architectural mural, the Buddha Temple of Light. So, he immediately rushed to Wutai Mountain with his wife Lin Huiyin and other research scholars. When they saw the true appearance of Foguang Temple, they had already made a judgment in their hearts. The shorter straight ridge, gentle slope, strong arched arches, and curved eaves are all filled with the grandeur of the Tang Dynasty.

Architectural characteristics of Tang Dynasty

But how to prove that this is a Tang Dynasty building? Although the stone pillars in front of the hall have the construction date engraved with the construction date-the eleventh year of the Tang Dynasty, ancient buildings are often renovated by future generations. If you want to obtain strong evidence, you must start in the hall. After several days of searching, Lin Huiyin finally found faint ink on the beam of the hall. After dipping it in water and wiping it, the writing appeared, and the content was exactly the same as the stone pillar.

The discovery of the main hall of Foguang Temple shocked the whole world and filled a gap in the entity of ancient Chinese architecture. The rigorous proportion and scientific design made this building stand tall for thousands of years, continuously conveying the confidence and heroism of the Tang Dynasty in the prosperous era to the world.

There are many merchants and shops; there are many people and traffic. "Riverside Picture during the Qingming Festival" vividly shows us the market life of the people of Bianjing. Time has come to the Song Dynasty, a heyday when the total economy accounted for half of the world.

With the development of cities and the rapid increase in population, the market system that separates business and life can no longer meet people's needs. Finally, the government overthrew the wall of Lifang and lifted the curfew system. Business went from the streets to the alleys, lasting from day to late at night. Bianjing seemed to have become a city that never sleeps.

In such an era that has the courage to break tradition, people have a more sophisticated understanding of construction technology and aesthetics, and have also left many rare architectural masterpieces for future generations.

Longxing Temple in Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang, is known as the first famous temple in the Northern Song Dynasty. The roof of Mani Hall is particularly peculiar. On the basis of the top of the mountain with double eaves, a Xieshan-style building is formed on each side, forming a majestic yet lightweight style. This architectural style was later spread to Japan and other countries, but it was unfortunately lost in China, making Mani Temple an isolated example.

longxing temple

Mani Temple

Xieshan top: There is a fork on the roof
Double eaves: two-layered eaves
Baoxia: Side rooms surrounding the main house

In the Zhuanzang Hall of Longxing Temple, there is still the oldest surviving and rotatable Buddhist scripture bookshelf in China. It is designed as a pavilion with an octagonal lower eaves and a round upper eaves. The pillars and arches on it are all exquisitely and meticulously crafted. It is amazing.

The Jinci Temple in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province is also well-known. In the Temple of the Virgin Mary, there are 8 wooden coiling dragons. They are of various shapes and lifelike shapes. They are firmly fixed on the pillars with nails, forming a special arrangement only available to royal sacrificial buildings. Today, these eight pandragons, as the earliest existing wooden components, have become well-deserved national treasures.

Another must-see national treasure building is the Fish Marsh Flying Beam located in front of the Temple of Our Lady. This is a cross-shaped bridge connecting the Temple of Our Lady and the Temple of Sacrifice. It is stable in the longitudinal direction and slightly inclined in the horizontal direction. When viewed from the side, it looks like a bird flapping its wings and wants to fly. It is reflected on the slightly rippling fish pond, giving people a natural beauty.

Although the Northern Song Dynasty's national strength was prosperous and civil engineering was promoted, due to the lack of standards for projects, officials often resorted to cutting corners and embezzling them. In order to solve this problem, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty ordered Li Jie to compile "Creation Fa" and publish it nationwide.

"Creating French"

The central idea of this book is not original. It comes from the book "Wood Classics" written by craftsman Yu Hao in the late Five Dynasties, and conveys a universal and flexible architectural concept: modular system.

1 Li Jie 2 Yu Hao

That is to say, all wood is divided into 8 basic specifications, called eight materials. When you need to build a house, select the corresponding specifications and apply them to different formulas to accurately calculate the size of various components.

Bacai

Type of building applicable to each grade of material

In addition, it also standardizes labor, and can be calculated by how many people are needed to process, transport, and install each component. Moreover, these formulas are not mechanically applied. The north is dry, the south is humid, the winter is cold, and the summer is hot. It will also give parameters according to local conditions and adjust them.

In this way, budgets and accounts have a basis, and no one dares to corrupt anymore.

In 916 AD, when the Tang Dynasty fell and the Song Dynasty had not yet appeared, the Central Plains was in dire straits of war. At this time, the northern Khitan people had established the Liao Dynasty in Inner Mongolia and accepted the Tang Dynasty craftsmen who had defected.

As a result, Tang Dynasty style buildings continued in the land under Liao rule. Guanyin Pavilion of Dule Temple in Ji County, Tianjin is one of them.

From the outside, this is a two-story building, but when you walk into it, you will discover its hidden secrets. Around the 16-meter-high statue of Guanyin, an additional dark layer is set up in the pavilion, thus forming a three-story viewing platform surrounding Guanyin.

Climb to the third level (which is no longer possible now), and you will find that you are looking at the huge head of Guanyin. There are ten small Guanyin statues on top of her head. Her face is rich and kind, and her shoulders are drooping. Although it was made in the Liao Dynasty, it brings the rich artistic atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty.

With the rise of the Song Dynasty, the buildings of the Liao Dynasty not only inherited the grandeur and rough nature of the Tang Dynasty, but also gradually absorbed the meticulous and graceful nature of the Song Dynasty, leaving behind a national treasure-level boutique building for later generations: the wooden pagoda of Ying County.

Ying County wooden tower: located in Ying County, Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province

It is the oldest existing wooden tower in China and one of the three most amazing towers in the world, along with the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Eiffel Tower. The tower seems to have only 5 floors, but in fact there are dark layers between each floor, so there are actually 9 floors, which is equivalent to a modern building of more than 20 floors, giving people a sense of towering shock.

If you stand under the tower, you will find that each layer of the eaves is shrinking inward layer by layer, and the arch arches are also used differently, creating a beautiful silhouette with a unique Zen feel. It is said that there are more than 50 types of arched arches in the wooden pagoda in Ying County, accounting for half of the total types discovered so far. It is a veritable arched arch museum.

These tenon and tenon wood not only carry huge cornices, but also flexibly loosen and consume energy when subjected to vibration, and finally return to a balanced state.

1:5 Model of Arch of Wooden Pagoda in Ying County

In addition to the arch, the wooden tower in Ying County also has two secret weapons that have brought long-term stability to it. One is the four dark layers hidden in the tower, forming four rigid rings inside the building, providing firm support; the other is that during maintenance in the Jin Dynasty, wooden columns leaning towards the center were added to the periphery of the tower body to make it stronger.

According to historical records of the Ming Dynasty, there have been 7 earthquakes here, and all other buildings have been destroyed, except for the wooden tower.

However, unfortunately, in modern times, a county magistrate removed the walls on the outer eaves of each tower and the diagonal braces in the walls for feng shui, causing it to lose its stable structure and begin to tilt. Today, the tilt angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is only 4 degrees, while the wooden tower in Ying County is nearly 10 degrees.

Architecture during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties

In 1271 AD, Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty and moved the capital to Beijing the following year. From then on, the urban planning of the Yuan Dynasty began.

This is a capital city that best conforms to the Zhou Dynasty's etiquette and examination records, especially the construction of water systems. Water conservancy scientist Guo Shoujing not only solved the problem of using water for palaces and irrigating farmland, but also directed the construction of the Tonghui River, realizing the connection of the North-South Grand Canal from the Yuan Dynasty to Hangzhou City. From then on, ships and transportation on Jishuitan developed, showing a prosperous scene.

Beijing Guo Shoujing Memorial Hall

Due to the knowledge limitations of the Mongolian and Yuan rulers, the architectural development during this period was basically in a state of decline. Yongle Palace is one of the more outstanding masterpieces. This Taoist palace complex, which took more than 110 years to build, has few carvings and simple lines, showing a rough and uninhibited Yuan Dynasty architectural style.

Yongle Chongyang Hall in Ruicheng, Shanxi

But when you walk into the palace, you will find that its beauty and exquisiteness are all reflected in the walls. There are 960 square meters of murals here, which vividly show us the scene of a group of immortals paying homage to the Lord of the Yuan Dynasty.

"Picture of Chaoyuan"

In 1368 AD, the Ming Dynasty occupied Beijing in the Yuan Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor and established his capital in Nanjing. 54 years later, Zhu Diqian, the Emperor of Yongle, vehemently resisted public opinion and decided to move the capital to Beijing. Thus, another urban transformation began.

They destroyed the perfect water system built by the Yuan Dynasty, moved the imperial city 1 mile south, and the southern city wall 2 miles south, reducing the original capital area.

During the Jiajing period, the emperor wanted to build an outer city, forming an ideal layout with the imperial city in the center and the inner city and outer cities surrounding it. Unfortunately, after building a small part, the treasury became empty, so it had to be connected to the east and west temporary gates.

During the Yongle period, the city reform and the palace construction were carried out simultaneously. Referring to the etiquette system of "kings must live in the world", Zhu Di built the palace on the central axis of Beijing.

In ancient times, the emperor's celestial palace was located on the Ziwei Star, and the imperial palace was a forbidden area. Therefore, the built palace group was named the Forbidden City. Behind it was the "Long Live Mountain" built by Zhu Di to suppress the "royal qi" of the Yuan Dynasty.

In 1644, Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, hanged himself on this Visui Mountain, marking the end of the Ming Dynasty. In the same year, the Qing army entered the pass, and Shunzhi issued the first imperial edict at the Taihe Gate of the Forbidden City.

Taihe gate

The most common thing to change dynasties is to burn down. Because of this, all large-scale palaces in Chinese history have come to the same end. Fortunately, the Qing Dynasty did not do this. It left us this architectural art treasure and gave us a trace of that history.

If you are visiting the Forbidden City, there are a few interesting designs about architecture that you must not miss!

1 corner building
On each of the four corners of the Forbidden City, there are four turrets. They not only shoulder the responsibility of lookout and defense, but also provide accommodation for the Spicas among the 28 constellations that descend to earth.

corner tower model
The corner building is made up of 6 overlapping peaks. The three-story eaves have 28 wing corners, 10 mountain flowers, 72 ridges, and 230 kissing beasts. Therefore, there is the saying of nine beams, eighteen pillars and seventy-two ridges. It is the most complex building in the Forbidden City.

2 Watching pillar and dragon head
Walking through the Taihe Temple Square, you will see a magnificent three-story Han white jade platform, which carries the supreme power and prestige of the three halls of the Forbidden City.

Each floor of this high platform is shaped in the style of Mount Meru, which symbolizes the center of the Buddhist universe. It is decorated with Han white jade railings around it, and each observation pillar is carefully carved with dragon and phoenix patterns.

Below the railing, there is a protruding dragon head, called a dragon head. Every rainy day, they will use their mouths to drain away the rainwater, forming a spectacular sight of thousands of dragons spraying water.

3 BRICS
On the third floor of the Sumi Seat is the highest-ranking palace in the Forbidden City: Taihe Hall. In ancient times, the easiest way to distinguish ranks was to regard the middle as the most valuable, the number as the most valuable, and the Taihe Hall was located in the center of the central axis and had the largest number of rooms. It was the tallest and largest building in the Forbidden City.

On the floor of Taihe Hall, there are the largest number of gold bricks. One piece is equivalent to one month's salary for three county magistrates. It takes mud to be selected and dried for a year, the bricks are dried in the shade for 7 months, and fired for 130 days before they can be released from the kiln.

BRICS are not made of gold

Mud selection-mud refining-embryo making-drying in the shade-kiln burning-deposit-warehousing

Many signatures can be seen on the side of the brick. From craftsmen to supervisors, any party can be held accountable for problems. Qualified gold bricks sound as smooth as ink jade, and break without holes, representing the highest level of palace laying.

4 Doudou Arch
Looking up, you will see a structure made of individual wood standing between the pillars and the roof. It is a unique device of ancient Chinese buildings: the bucket arch.

Dougong originated from the Han Dynasty. It not only supports the eaves to prevent rain, but also enhances the force and resists vibration, so it is very large. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as materials and technology became more mature, houses also had waterproof functions, and bucket arches became exquisite and became part of the architectural decoration.

Qing Dynasty flat-body bucket arch members
In the Forbidden City, the greater the number of arched arches, the higher the level of the palace.

5 Roof
Yellow is the most important thing in imperial palaces, green is the most important thing in royal palaces, and black is generally used for sacrifices. Therefore, the Forbidden City uses yellow glazed tiles, the Yin 'an Hall of Gong's Mansion uses green, and the Tai Sui Hall of Xiannong Tan uses black.

In addition to color, roof shapes are also subject to strict grading. The roof of the temple is of the highest level, characterized by slopes on all sides and protruding eaves. The Taihe Hall adopts a double eaves roof of the temple, thus establishing the highest level of the palace.

Double eaves are two-layered eaves, which is of a higher grade than single eaves

The top of the mountain comes second, like two slopes resting and turning again. Tiananmen Square is the top of the mountain with double eaves.

The suspended mountain top is generally used for less important auxiliary halls, with only two slopes protruding beyond the gable walls.

Hard mountain tops are common in residential courtyards. They also have slopes on both sides but the eaves do not extend out.

6 Ringed Beasts
Okay, don't look away after you understand the roof. There are still more treasures hidden on the roof of Taihe Hall. First of all, at both ends of the horizontal ridge, there are two dragon heads with big mouths open to firmly hold the horizontal ridge.

Kiss: Dragon (Ming and Qing Dynasties)

This is a beak. Before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was called a bird's tail. It is said that it is a big fish in the sea. Its tail can raise thousands of waves. Fixing it at both ends of the ridge can prevent fires.

Chiwei: Fish (before the Ming and Qing Dynasties)

In addition to the main ridge, there are also a series of small animals on the ridge of Taihe Hall, which perform their duties to protect the safety of the temple.

Dragon Phoenix Lion Tianma Seahorse Suān Ní Sex Fish Xiè Bullfighting

In ancient times, nine was the highest number to represent the emperor, so there was a saying that the ninth five were supreme. There are 9 small beasts on the ridges of Zhonghe Hall and Baohe Hall. How can it show the highest level of Taihe Hall? The craftsmen racked their brains and finally installed a unique animal behind the nine little beasts. It looked like a monkey and held a lightning rod. People called it Xingshi.

As a result, Taihe Hall has 10 unique little beasts, proudly demonstrating to the world the highest glory in the Forbidden City.

After appreciating the design of the Forbidden City, our journey of ancient Chinese architecture finally came to an end. From ancient times to the Qing Dynasty, not many buildings have survived, but fortunately, we can still feel through them the lofty spirit of the Tang Dynasty, the gentleness and moving of the Song Dynasty, the barbaric growth of the Yuan Dynasty, and the rut of the Qing Dynasty. Answer with the soul of history time and time again.

The beauty and stories given by time have been waiting for someone to listen to.