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. Details of the ancient Chinese top palace architectural art seen in the imperial palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the collection of some royal cultural relics displayed in the Forbidden City, and traces of royal life in the Qing Dynasty. I also associate it with 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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The back door of the Three Later Palaces is the Kunning Gate, which is part of the Three Later Palaces, so the Kunning Gate opens north and the plaque hangs in the north. Moreover, the south of Kunning Gate is the territory of the Later Three Palaces, which is the third courtyard of the Later Three Palaces.

The gate that Zhu Di built at Kunning Gate faced south and was called Guangyun Gate. At that time, the gate to the north of the Imperial Garden was called Kunning Gate. Outside Kunning Gate was Shenwu Gate Square. Zhu Di's imperial garden is called "Gonghou Garden" and is part of the Later Three Palaces. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the corridors after the Kunning Palace were rebuilt became the current east-west prefabricated houses, and the Guangyun Gate in the middle became the current Kunning Gate. The original Kunning Gate was renamed Shunzhen Gate. The plaque of Guangyun Gate was hung in the south. After it was renamed Kunning Gate, the plaque was hung to the north, and the royal garden became the garden outside the three rear palaces.

During the Ming Dynasty, the imperial garden called Gonghouyuan was the only garden in the royal palace. During the Qing Dynasty, some small gardens were gradually built in the royal palace, which were only for special people to walk around.

Entering the Imperial Garden from Kunning Gate, you are facing a cypress tree.

At first, there were no trees here. Qianlong planted the tree. I don't know if he broke a tree in half and planted it in half, or if the cypress tree planted was already in half. Anyway, Puyi and Wanrong later took a photo here. At this time, Puyi was already Emperor Xun, but Wanrong was not the queen of Xunzu. She was the eldest wife of Puyi, a wealthy son. Some people say that Wanrong was the last queen, which is completely wrong! Her official external title is "Madam Pu". Puyi and Wanrong did not grow old together. This tragedy was related to Wanrong being coerced to Changchun. She tried to escape several times, but she gave up on herself and ended up without a body to bury. Therefore, all Chinese people know that this cypress tree is unlucky, and no elderly, middle-aged and middle-aged couple has ever taken a group photo under this tree.

In addition to Lianzhi cypress, there are two ancient trees on the side of Kunning Gate, which are catalpa trees.

In the Tang Dynasty, Han Yu once had "there are five rattan trees in the court, which coexist for ten paces; each has vines around it, and each is hooked on it." The catalpa tree across the path is surrounded by old vines. The tree has died and the vines are still luxuriant.

The catalpa trees in the Imperial Garden were planted during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and they still bloom in spring. Sorbus wood is a good wood, superior to elm wood, and it is not afraid of flooding. Making furniture is a bit wasteful. The most common use is to make butt butts. There are old World War II guns fished out of water, and all of them are intact.

There are some strange stone bonsai on both sides of Lianzhi cypress. Look at this stone sitting on the cliff of the seawater river in the west.

It looks to me like this is the tiger's posterior alveolar tooth extracted by the dentist, but they say it is Kong Ming and Beidou. It turned out that they said that the black shadow on a white background was Kong Ming, and the white dots on a black background were Beidou.

There is also a strange rock to the east of Lianzhibai.

I think this stone is the most disgusting stone in the Forbidden City, reflecting that anything disgusting can happen in the Palace. But they said it was sea cucumber stone.

Behind the cypress, there is a copper censer, which is very exquisite. Look at the carving on its base. Does it look like the National Center for the Performing Arts? The pattern on it is three-crossed and six-edged.

After passing the Lianzhi cypress, there is a courtyard door in the middle of the imperial garden. This is the Tianyi Gate. Outside the door are two gilded bronze unicorns.

In fact, the two mascots are not unicorns, but unicorns.

When this guy saw me taking pictures of it, he pouted and looked at me sideways for some reason. Many people had photographed it before me, and I'm afraid it also glared at those people like this.

There are glazed shadow walls on both sides of Tianyi Gate. Look at this shadow wall. It is extremely rare to use milky yellow cranes on the glass shadow wall.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were no doors here, and of course there were no walls. There were many fires in the imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty, and the monarch and his empresses and concubines had been suffering from fires for a long time. Emperor Jiajing built this gate for good luck and built a courtyard wall here in the 14th year of Jiajing (AD 1535). Jiajing's title "Tianyi Gate" was taken from the word "Tianyi generates water" in the Book of Changes, and was later changed to "Tianyi Gate" by the Manchus. Although Emperor Jiajing was eager to pray for water to protect the palace, this gate never showed its spirit. The thunder fire in the palace in the 36th year of Jiajing (1557 AD) was the most ferocious palace fire in history.

Since it is for fire prevention, this door is made of masonry. A one-foot-five-high green stone base, white stone platform handrails, and a white stone Shumi seat is built with a green brick arch gate. Above it is a glazed imitation wood bucket arch, and yellow glazed tiles have a single eaves resting on the top of the mountain. The green brick wall of the archway door is as smooth as a mirror and fits tightly. The wall must have been polished and polished. There are no cement, cement, cement and other adhesives in the cracks on the brick walls in the Forbidden City. That is because these bricks are beveled and the adhesives cannot be exposed inside. This kind of wall is called a thousand pendulum wall, and as the saying goes, it is called "a piece of jade". Although these main structures are made of masonry, there are still red solid wooden doors. It is this door leaf that destroys the water praying function of the door, and the eighty-one gilded door nails on the door leaf cannot solve the side effects of the wooden door.

There is also a reason why Emperor Jiajing built a courtyard here. This courtyard is the core building of the Imperial Garden, Qin 'an Hall. It is generally believed that this Qin 'an Hall was built in the 18th year of Zhu Di's Yongle (AD 1420) and was the only original building on Forbidden City Road that had not been overdone. There is also another group of people who said that Zhu Di's Qin 'an Hall is another hall that has now been lost. This Qin' an Hall was newly built in the 14th year of Jiajing.

Qin 'an Hall faces north to south. Below it is a five-foot-high white stone base of the Shumi Seat, with a circle of white marble handrails on it. The railings here are carved, with dragons and phoenixes looking at the capital, and double dragons flowers on the railings.

If you go to the back of the hall and look at these railings.

You will find that on one of the middle rails behind the back are double dragons playing in the water, while the other rails are all double dragons eating grass. Look, behind the mystery, it's always low-key. It is said that the Shuanglong grass eating fence is an old item of the Yuan Palace.

The platform of Qin 'an Hall is in front of the hall, and the front is the Imperial Road Dan Step, with handrails on both sides. The surface is five rooms wide and three rooms deep, with three rooms in front of it. The platform in front of Qin 'an Hall was quite wide in the Ming Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, three buildings were built on this platform for Qin' an Hall.

Above it is a bucket arch and beam lifting structure, with yellow glazed tiles and double eaves on top, and the ridge brake is a gilded treasure bottle with a gilded crown on it. The beams are decorated with gold dragons, phoenixes and seals, and the upper eaves and lower arches are decorated with gold, which is quite luxurious. When Qin 'an Temple was overhauled in 2004, more than 3,000 scriptures were found in the ridge temple, all of which were Tibetan Buddhist scriptures. Tibetan Buddhism has been in the royal palace since the Yuan Dynasty, and Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, respected Basiba, a master of the Sakya sect, as the national teacher. However, Qin 'an Hall was a Ming palace. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty respected Tibetan teachings. There were twists and turns, highs and lows. There are Tibetan temples in the Ming Palace, so it is unlikely that Tibetan Buddhist scriptures will be hidden in the ridge temples of Zhenwu Temple. Everyone agreed that this was the work of the Qing Emperor, and who did it remains to be investigated. When the overhaul of Qin 'an Temple ended in 2005, most of these scriptures were put back to maintain their original appearance. We tourists can't see these Buddhist scriptures, but we will definitely be blessed by them, so when we walk to Qin 'an Hall, we must recite a line into them no matter what scripture it is to thank the Bodhisattva for his blessing.

If you pay attention, you can find that there are six dragons on the Danbi stone. Except for the dragons playing with beads, the dragon carvings on the Danbi stone in the Forbidden City are all singular, three, five, and nine. Why are there six even here? There is also a reason for this. According to the records in the Book of Hetu and Luoshu, the ten numbers of heaven and earth are divided into two groups, one group to five, and the other group to six to ten. The interpretation of these numbers includes "the number of survival of all things", including the aforementioned "the sky produces water, and the earth produces 60%". Therefore, there is Tianyi Gate in front of it, and there are six dragons corresponding to it on this Danbi stone. From this point of view, after Emperor Jiajing built Tianyi Gate, he must have transformed this Danbi stone.

There are several white-bark pine trees in front of Qin 'an Hall, which look ancient.

Inside Tianyi Gate, there is a burning stove on the east and west sides, which is used to burn sacrifices after the god worship ceremony. The east is made of glaze and the west is made of gilded bronze.

Next to the copper liao furnace in the west is the most exquisite stone pillar in China, and the white marble stone carvings are full of seawater, river cliffs and double dragons riding on the clouds.

On this pillar stand the sacred flag of the Five Dragons, which was repainted in the 13th year of Jiaqing in the late Qing Dynasty (AD 1808).

There is a fragrant pavilion behind the Liao stove.

Look at these two fragrant pavilions, with red columns and green squares, and yellow glazed tiles with single eaves and four corners with spires. It is said that it is a square pavilion, but it turns out to be half-bright and half-dark. It is for some changes, meaning that there is a small hall with a pavilion in front of it. This pavilion should be called one room and a half rooms, which adds up to two rooms and one room. There should be a place like this among the 9,999 and a half houses in the Forbidden City, with four pillars supporting it in half light and half darkness. Why are there red pillars and green squares? The custom of Chinese court buildings is to paint those that see the sun red, and those that do not see the sun green or blue. If you notice, most houses in the Forbidden City are like this. All the houses under the eaves and above the beams are green or blue, and the columns, windows and doors are red. Of course, there are exceptions, and that is for the sake of surprise.

Zhu Yuanzhang passed the throne to his grandson Zhu Yunwen, but Zhu Di refused to accept it; when Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen came to power, Zhu Di was even more angry. He launched the Qing Jun Side Movement, claiming to go to Beijing to serve the king, but actually wanted to barbecue Emperor Jianwen. After he succeeded, Zhu Di said,"If I dare to revolt, I will calm the internal difficulties, God will assist me, and I will be popular." The god he was talking about was Emperor Xuanwu, who was later named by him as the North Pole Zhenwu Xuantian God and became the highest protective god of the Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Di sat on the dragon chair, he built some Zhenwu temples. The most important thing is the renovation of the Zhenwu Palace in Wudang Mountain and the construction of the Zhenwu Temple in Di 'anmen in Beijing. Zhu Di's seizure of the throne of Emperor Jianwen was actually a usurper and very disrespectful. He borrowed the name of Emperor Xuanwu to say that "the power of kings is given by gods" so that he can lead his troops to the south and become famous. Therefore, when he built the imperial palace in Beijing, he built a Zhenwu Temple in the palace, which was this Qin 'an Hall, the only temple on the central axis. Emperor Xuanwu was the god of the north and lived in a critical position in the Book of Hetu and Luoshu. This Qin 'an Hall was this position in the royal palace. In the earliest Zhu Di period, this was not a garden. It was very empty, only Qin 'an Hall. This is where Zhu Di offered sacrifices to Emperor Zhenwu, the Zhenwu Temple in the royal palace. In the sixth year of Zhu Qiyu's Jingtai (1455 AD), a garden was built here and became the Palace Houyuan. Judging from the reason why Zhu Di built Qin 'an Hall and its location, I also think this Qin' an Hall should be Zhu Di's original work.

Qin 'an Hall has not been open for a long time. I have really never gone in to pay homage to Emperor Zhenwu, but there must be a statue of Emperor Zhenwu inside. According to Taoist descriptions, the Great Emperor Zhenwu wore hair and bare feet, a black robe, a golden armor and a jade belt, glared angrily with a sword, stepped on turtles and snakes, and was covered with a round light. He was very powerful. It is estimated that the Great Emperor Xuantian in Qin 'an Hall also had this image. Because Qin 'an Hall had never been caught on fire, its interior layout was basically still in its original shape, original in the early Ming Dynasty.

The courtyard walls of Qin 'an Hall are also in the form of palace walls, with red brick walls and yellow glazed tiles and eaves. But the height is much shorter than the palace walls. Standing outside, you can see the Qin 'an Hall and other buildings in the courtyard. Because these buildings in the courtyard are not as majestic as the front hall and the back bedroom, the courtyard walls here should be shorter, and visually there will be a small temple in the garden.

After passing Kunning Gate, in addition to Qin 'an Hall in the middle road, there are also some towers and pavilions on the east and west sides, and they are basically symmetrical. Walking east, there is a row of canteen prefabricated houses under the walls of Kunningmen Palace. Now souvenirs are sold here and restaurants were sold in the past.

There is an ancient locust tree on the east wall of the canteen. This is Panhuai, commonly known as Longclaw locust. This dragon-clawed locust tree was planted in the early Ming Dynasty, and traces of artificial grafting can be seen. Now it has grown into the appearance of Mi Kong, the one-eyed pirate captain.

In front of the canteen are rockery and stacked stones, which are the famous Yuyue Stone. Look at this glazed flower bed and rockery.

In the picture above, there is a leafless shrub in the glazed flower bed. This is a very famous peace flower. The Taiping Flower first grew in the Sichuan Basin. In the Song Dynasty, the Shu people presented it to the emperor. Song Renzong named the Taiping Flower and planted it in Bianjing City. When this peace flower in the Imperial Garden blooms in early summer every year, it has green and white leaves, luxuriant and fragrant.

Nowadays, many parks in Beijing also have Peace Flowers. I once saw Peace Flowers blooming luxuriantly in Tanzhe Temple, which really has a strange fragrance.

Next to the flower bed are dead trees cut by Qianlong from deep mountains and forests, which cannot grow in spring. In fact, it was a silicified wood, a fossilized trunk. Because it was very complete and had beautiful texture, Lao Qian picked it up and went home when he went up the mountain to pick mushrooms, engraved it with words and poked it here.

To the end of the east, there is a wall door leading to the East Sixth Palace, called the East Gate of Qiongyuan.

There is a building facing east and west under the east wall of the Imperial Garden in the north of the gate.

This is the Crimson Snow Pavilion, with a width of five rooms and a depth of two rooms, with yellow glazed tiles and a hard mountain top. In front of it, there are three open houses, with yellow glazed tiles rolling sheds resting on the top of the mountain. The Crimson Snow Pavilion is a rare beam structure in the palace. It has wooden doors and windows and bamboo painting. If you don't look at the roof, this is a folk building. The most special thing about Jiang Xuexuan is its window rimlet. Although it has a "Wan" character grid, it has the word "Shou" edge. This rimlet is called "Wanshou Boundless". There were several crabapple trees in the flower bed in front of Jiang Xuexuan. When spring came, they would have flowers, and when spring passed, their petals would fall like snowflakes. It was so beautiful, hence the name Jiang Xuexuan. After Cixi came, she changed her mood and dug out Taiping flowers from ancient Bianjing to replace the crabapple trees.

There is a pavilion north of Jiangxue Xuan.

This pavilion is very beautiful. There are four pillars below, a yellow glazed tile octagonal roof above, and three spine beasts. The beams are painted in the Su style of flowers and plants, Fang hearts, and they are very old. Some of the paintings are repainted on the second floor to tell you what they looked like before. There is a newly built white marble railing under the pavilion, and there is also a water sink outside the railing. Is there a stone table in the middle of the pavilion? In fact, it is a manhole cover, and underneath it is a square well platform. Stretch your head out from inside the pavilion and look at the roof above.

Hey, this roof is a skylight. You can see the bucket arch lifting beam structure above, with two corners inside and outside added to the four corners, and the top becomes octagonal. Four pillars support the eight slopes above. This is a well pavilion, called the Imperial Garden Dongjing Pavilion. The skylight above is not used to catch rainwater, but to draw water from the well. You see, there is no pulley on the well. When they draw water, they hang the bucket on one end of a long pole and then stretch it into the well to draw the water up. Therefore, the long pole must have room to move up and down, and this is what the skylight does. There is also a well pavilion on Yuhuayuan West Road corresponding to this well pavilion. The West well pavilion is exactly the same as this East well pavilion. There are many well pavilions in the Forbidden City. Two of them have been seen in the front and behind the Baohe Hall, and you can also see them in the six palaces of the East and West. All the well pavilions in the palace are basically in the form of the well pavilions behind the Baohe Hall, with four pillars and four corners topped the square pavilions. Only the two well pavilions in the Imperial Garden have four pillars and octagonal roofs. There are not many well-preserved wells in the Forbidden City. By the way, there is also a pair of well pavilions in the Forbidden City that are very special. They are still well preserved, except for some paint. What makes it special is that its roof is neither the four-corner roof like behind the Baohe Hall, nor the octagonal roof like in the Imperial Garden. Instead, it is a rolling shed of yellow glazed tiles hanging from the top of the mountain. In order to open the way for the long pole for fetching water, a small skylight is opened in the middle of the roof of the roll shed. The pair of well-pavilions are in a non-open area and cannot be seen by ordinary tourists.

North of Dongjing Pavilion is Wanchun Pavilion, built in the 15th year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1536).

The well pavilion in front is four-pillar turned into octagonal. This Wanchun Pavilion is four-pillar, double-eaves, connected to a round peak on the mountain, and opens on all sides. There is a circle of white marble handrails on the base below, and there are handrails on each side before leaving Xiamen. Separate doors and windows, three-crossed and six-sided lattice flowers, and Ruyi skirts. The horizontal beams are painted with Double Dragons and Seals, and the gold has fallen off. The ridge on it is a colorful glazed vase with a copper-gilded ribbon, with a copper-gilded canopy on it, and a copper-gilded pearl on the top, which is very gorgeous.

This Wanchun Pavilion is colorful and exquisite in shape, which is rare in the world. This kind of bottom-upper-circle structure should symbolize the roundness of the sky and the square of the earth. In ancient times, it was called Mingtang and existed since the Zhou Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, Wu Zetian's main hall in Ziwei Palace in Luoyang was a hall in the form of a Mingtang. It was known as the Vientiane Divine Palace and was the largest wooden building in the world in history. The Anshi Rebellion during the Xuanzong period of the Tang Dynasty (late Tianbao, AD 755) began, and the Tang Dynasty went downhill. Less than ten years later, in the first year of Baoying of the Tang Dynasty (762 AD), the Huihe (Nianhe) people looted Luoyang and burned Mingtang. As soon as the symbol of national destiny fell, the Tang Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline. Although there were several revival times in the future, it was difficult to restore the prosperous era of the Kaiyuan era.

To the north of Wanchun Pavilion is Fubi Pavilion.

Below the Fubi Pavilion is a pool. There are fish but no shrimp in the pool. There is a stone bridge on the pool that spans the north and south, and the Fubi Pavilion is built on the bridge. Because the bridge looks much smaller than the pavilion, it is not good for you to call this bridge Pavilion Bridge, but it does not prevent you from calling this pavilion a water pavilion. The three-bay square pavilion was built in the 11th year of Wanli of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1583), and the three-bay pavilion in the south was added after the 10th year of Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty (AD 1732). The pavilion is a green glazed tile with yellow trimmed edges with a spires at the four corners, and a glazed dew receiving plate has a pearl ridge. Changxuan is a green glazed tile rolling shed with yellow trimmed edges hanging on the top of the mountain. Although this open pavilion was added later, it is consistent with the style of the pavilion itself. If you look carefully between the beams under the eaves, is there a layer of hollow woodcuts? Does it look like the railing board under the railing or the flower board? It is also called Huaban here, which is relatively rare, right?

Take a look at the wood carvings of Fubi Pavilion, double dragons playing with beads and fighting eight caisson wells.

North of Fubi Pavilion, backed by the north wall of the Imperial Garden is the Qinzao Hall.

Qinzao Hall has a width of five rooms and a depth of one room. It has a hard mountain top with yellow glazed tiles and a eaves corridor in front of it. This is the place where books are collected in the palace. When the emperor visits the garden, he can come here to pick up a book and take a square step with the book in his hands. It shows that the emperor is never tired of learning. During the Qianlong period, there was a big cultural project, which was the compilation of "Siku Quan Shu". After the completion of the project, Qianlong selected some Gao Wen compilations from the entire book, which he had never tired of reading and never tired of holding, to write "Siku Quan Shu Ji Yao". These Pocket Books were stored in this Zao-Catching Hall. This is now the Forbidden City Bookstore, and it is still related to books.

After passing Qizaotang and heading west, there is a commanding height in the imperial garden, which is Duixiu Mountain, and there is an imperial scenery pavilion on the top of the mountain.

These rocks can be seen at a glance as Wuyue Stone, also known as Taihu Lake Stone. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty built the Wansui Mountain Palace in Bianliang and sent people to pick various Taihu Lake stones from the south, called "Huashi Gang". After its completion, the palace garden was named Yuyue, which is actually the largest garden rockery in Chinese history. Later, in the second year of Jingkang (1127 AD), the Jin soldiers captured Bianliang and demolished Taihu rocks from Yuyuedui Mountain to Yanjing to build a palace, which is now Beihai Park. Since then, various dynasties in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have taken Shidui Mountains from Jingongyuan. Almost all of the royal Taihu Lake stone rockery in Beijing are taken from the Yuyue stones from Beihai Park. The imperial scenery pavilion on Duixiu Mountain is a four-pillar square pavilion with a square girder. It is covered with green glazed tiles and yellow trimmed edges with spires at the four corners, and gilded pearl ridges on the dew receiving plate. Although there are no eaves corridors around, there is a circle of white marble handrails.

This was originally the flower-viewing hall built by Zhu Di. I think that at that time, there must have been various flowers planted in the garden for the emperor to appreciate. When Zhu Yijun became the emperor, he felt that according to Feng Shui, the palace should be backed by high mountains, but the coal mountains in the north of the palace were a bit far away and unreliable. During the Wanli years, he piled stones here to make mountains. He dug stones on the rocks and built buildings on the top of the mountain. Water flowed everywhere in the mountains. During the Double Ninth Festival, the emperor would drive a group of concubines to climb high here. After going up, he could hold the beautiful woman in his hand and look at the palace, and then sigh,"My palace is very big, and my heart is very beautiful." Of course, Zhu Yijun's child would definitely not be able to climb these Xiushan mountains after becoming numb.

There are also some buildings symmetrically on the west and east roads of Qin 'an Temple.

There is also a row of snack shops under the west wall of Kunning Gate, and the west gate of Qiongyuan is a must-have, leading to the West Sixth Palace. Opposite Jiang Xuexuan, on the west road is Yangxing Zhai facing east. This is a two-story Shuangque Tower.

There is a five-foot-high bluestone platform under Yangxing Zhai. There is a circle of white marble handrails on the platform, and there are handrails on the front to step up and down. During the Ming Dynasty, this building was called Lezhizhai and had a width of seven rooms. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, three watchtowers were added at each end of the north and south ends, but now it is five rooms wide. Doors are opened in the open room on the first floor, and hanging windows are added to the blue brick sill walls in the second room and the second room. There is a glass ridge between the first and second floors. There are six-tiered doors on the second floor, there are eaves corridors in front of the upper and lower floors, and there are railings on the eaves corridors on the second floor. The roof is a yellow glazed tile with single eaves and roof. The horizontal Fang is painted in the Su style of flowers and plants, the sparrow is also painted with flowers and plants, and the eaves and wall pillars are both square pillars. The watchtowers on both sides are just the corners, and the shape is the same as the front.

What were the Ming emperors doing in Lezhizhai? The "music" here is the music, and music aspiration means pleasing the mind. How to be happy? Does Miao dance Qiang Di? I guess this is Emperor Ming's audio-visual hall, watching videos and singing karaoke. The Qing emperors renamed it Yangxing Zhai, which actually meant the same thing, except that the Qing emperors played calligraphy and painting here. After Puyi abdicated, he still lived in the harem according to the "Preferential Conditions for the Qing Dynasty". When he was in high school (14-19 years old), he hired an English teacher, the British Johnston. Zhuang Shidun lived in this Yangxing Zhai at that time, and it was very convenient for Puyi to ride a bicycle from Yangxin Temple and follow Xiyi Long Street to attend classes. Zhuang Shidun had a great influence on Pu Yi, and Pu Yi's braids were deceived by Zhuang Shidun.

There is a door on the palace wall on the north side of Yangxing Zhai, and outside the door is a glass shadow wall.

To the north of this door is Shufang Zhai. If you go forward, you will reach Baizimen on West Second Long Street and the road in front of Chonghua Palace. In fact, there is also such a door on the north side of Jiangxue Xuan in the east of the Imperial Garden. Going out is the road in front of the North Fifth Institute, but it is closed now.

There is also a rockery in front of Yangxing Zhai, and there are holes in the mountains. In his spare time, the emperor can play hide-and-cat with the palace maids and concubines.

There are stone puzzles on the path on the east side of the rockery. Among them is a train with a locomotive and wheels. It is a favorite of children. When parents take their children to visit the Imperial Garden, they often ask their children to find the small train they had looked for when they were young.

To the north of Yangxingzhai is the Xijing Pavilion, which corresponds to the Dongjing Pavilion. Then there is Qianqiu Pavilion, which corresponds to Wanchun Pavilion. You see, even the names correspond. Qianqiu and Wanchun were built at the same time in the 15th year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty.

Qianqiu Pavilion and Wanchun Pavilion look exactly the same outside. This kind of spike was called the "umbrella" style in the Ming Dynasty. It is very vivid, right? Go in and have a look.

It was very dark inside, only a drop of sunlight coming in from the leaking window illuminated Dougong.

After slowly adapting to the darkness, I found that the coil-dragon caisson on the round ceiling was very beautiful. Set up the camera, open the aperture, and slowly take a picture.

The interior is a gold-plated group Hemingqi ceiling, and the middle is a woodcarving gold-plated pandragon caisson, which is very beautiful. The Wanchun Pavilion and Qianqiu Pavilion are exquisite and unique, with profound connotations in shape. They are definitely architectural masterpieces in the palace.

On the east side of Qianqiu Pavilion, there is a Four Shrine on Yuhuayuan East Road without corresponding buildings.

This is an octagonal pavilion sitting south and north. It is covered with yellow glazed tiles and octagonal spires, and a pearl ridge temple on the yellow glazed bowl. There are eaves corridors around it. There is an exit building on the front, with yellow glazed tiles rolling shed resting on the top of the mountain. There are benches between the pillars of the eaves corridor where visitors can sit and rest. The formal name for this thing is "lintel". The eaves and corridors of folk buildings generally have this kind of lintel, and the one below is called the "bench lintel"; the bench lintel of folk pavilions is usually a place where husbands wait for their sisters. The corresponding one above it is called the "inverted lintel", which is usually under the horizontal fang, and below it is the quedi. This is the imperial garden. The upper end of the eaves columns must be made of horizontal arches and bird replacements. There are flower boards, but there are no upside down lintels.

Since it is called the Four Gods Temple, there must be four gods in it. Which four? What I didn't say was that they must be the four great emperors of the east, west, north and south, namely the Azure Dragon, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird and the Xuanwu. This Four Shrine was also built in the 15th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty.

To the east of Qianqiu Pavilion are the Four Shrine, and to the north is the Chengrui Pavilion corresponding to the Fubi Pavilion.

Chengrui Pavilion is exactly the same as Fubi Pavilion. Both pavilions were built in the 11th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1583), and Baoxia was built in the 10th year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (AD 1732). Zhao Guangyi, Taizong of the Song Dynasty, once wrote a poem "Yuan Zhi", in which he said,"Looking at the clouds from a distance, the blue sea and waves are clear and auspicious and floating in the sun." The names of these two pavilions "Fubi" and "Chengrui" should be the meaning of this sentence.

To the north of Chengrui Pavilion is Weiyu Zhai, which corresponds to the East Road Qizao Hall, with the same shape.

This row of houses was first called Duiyuxuan, renamed Yufangxuan in Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, and Weiyuzhai in the Qing Dynasty. During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, this house was once built as a Buddhist hall. In the imperial garden, there was also a Buddhist hall and Qin 'an Hall, where both Buddhism and Taoism were cultivated.

There is a pavilion under the palace wall to the west of Chengrui Pavilion, which looks similar to the open pavilion in front of Jiangxue Pavilion on East Road. In fact, this pavilion should be called Gate Hall. There is a door on the palace wall inside it. On the other side of the door is Shufang Zhai of Chonghua Palace. Look at this gate hall. There is a bench lintel under the eaves columns and an upside down lintel on it. This is a standard lintel.

There is a small pavilion in a corner outside the west wall of Weiyu Zhai. The four-pillar square pavilion, the four-corner spires, and the glazed pearl ridge temples. There are also regular seat lintels and upper upside lintels. This is the Jade Jade Pavilion, a remade plaque. Yucui Pavilion was also built in the 15th year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, and was called Yucui Pavilion at that time. When it was rebuilt during the Wanli period, it was renamed Jade Cuiting. Although it was still called jade, it was more peaceful and less bookish.

In front of the Yucui Pavilion is an old apricot tree that can still flower in spring. Outside the east wall of Qinzao Hall on East Road, there is also a square pavilion exactly the same as Yucui Pavilion. They have the same experience. That pavilion was first called Jinxiang Pavilion, but now it is called Ningxiang Pavilion. The original name was very vulgar, but now it is called elegant.

There is a building to the east of Weiyuzhai opposite Dongdui Xiushan. This is Yanhui Pavilion.

Yanhui Pavilion has a width of three rooms and a depth of two rooms. It has a double-arched beam structure and yellow glazed tiles with single eaves resting on the top of the mountain. The appearance of Yanhui Pavilion is two floors, and the upper floor has a circle of eaves corridors with pole seeking railings. Looking at the wooden pole finding railing, the clean bottle is completely different from the stone one.

Looking carefully, there is a waist eaves between the upper and lower floors of Yanhui Pavilion. There is a ridge above the waist eaves, and there is a bucket arch above the ridge, indicating that this is a "pavilion" with a dark layer. There are six partition doors in the bright room on the front of Yanhui Pavilion. There are blue brick sill walls below the secondary room and partition windows above it. The level of the door between the Ming Dynasty is not high, just three wipes, and the upper and lower doors and windows are all made of lantern frames and ribs. Look at the gold-plated Ruyi skirt on the door of Yanhui Pavilion.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many women were needed in the palace to work or enjoy happiness. No matter what you come to do, you have to go through selection, that is, choose a beautiful girl. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, beautiful women were selected from Jiangnan, and the emperor sent talent candidates to Jiangnan. If you see or hear which girl is attractive, you will go to see, and if you like the selection officer, you will send them to the capital for the emperor to select. These girls are not suitable for anyone. First, they have to go through identification verification. First, they are definitely not suitable for girls from all walks of life, and then there are other requirements.

After Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty entered the Pass, Dorgun engaged him as a relative. Although this queen was beautiful, she had a bad temper and often made the emperor angry. In the end, she was divorced as Consort Jing. Shunzhi told his mother, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, that he would choose a daughter-in-law to be the queen this time, but in the end, he would choose his own relatives. Since then, the Ming emperors in Shunzhi arranged a conference to select talented women, and the process determined that the conference would be held every three years. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty could not choose any girl to be beautiful. He wanted to choose girls from the families of officials of the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia. Before every meeting, each family personally sent their daughters to the capital and stayed in an isolation hotel designated by the royal family. The travel expenses were reimbursed by the royal family. When the day came, the royal family dispatched a horsepower minibus to pull these candidates to Shenwu Gate. A eunuch at the entrance led these young women into the palace through the side entrance of Shenwu Gate. They stood in a square inside Shenwu Gate. Then, another eunuch led a group of sixth and seventh women into Shunzhen Gate and walked to the gate of Yanhui Pavilion above. Why in front of the gate? Because the door does not open, you cannot enter. This talent selection is also graded. In front of the gate of Yanhui Pavilion, there are instructors and eunuchs who will conduct the selection according to whether they are pleasing to the eye. Showers go to Weiyu Zhai to register, and rusty ones cancel this audition. After the audition, only one-third of those who entered the audition were left and entered the re-election. The re-election was still held in Yanhui Pavilion, this time it was in the main hall, and the young women were still in groups of six. The mentor eunuch asked them to walk around to see if their posture was correct; they also read a poem to see if they were literate and pleasant in tone. Showers continue to register, and rusty ones cancel. After this round of re-election, only one-third of those who entered the ranks remained. After the re-election, there is a secret consultation. The secret consultation is not in Yanhui Pavilion. It is in a secret room, a place like Jingyi Xuan or Tiyuan Hall, not too far from the Imperial Garden. The secret experts are all mature women called Mammy. This experience is similar to the surgical examination during our physical examination and cannot be described. After secret examinations, one-third of the remaining ones were registered and left in the palace, and the rusty ones were cancelled and released from the palace. After the secret learning is entered into the hierarchy, it will also go through a trial run. Firstly, it will train palace etiquette and secondly, it will adapt to the loneliness in the palace. After the trial run, one-third of them were still ripe. This last one was the beautiful girl finally selected for this conference, and one-eighty-one of the women sent for this conference. These beautiful women enter the Emperor's Hall to select, where the Emperor can choose a partner for himself. Those who the emperor likes to leave behind are usually promised and always present, and occasionally those who make exceptions. Emperor Kangxi selected a beautiful daughter as his concubine during the selection, who was Yongzheng's biological mother, Wu Ya. The emperor could also choose partners from these beautiful girls for the adult princes. It was also the same Emperor Kangxi. In addition to choosing a virtuous concubine Wu Ya for himself, he also chose the eldest wife of Fu Jin Wu Nara for the then prince Yin Zhen in the 30th year of Kangxi (1691 AD).

The labor and personnel systems of palace ladies in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were very different. In the Ming Dynasty, palace maids were provided for life. After illness, they were sent to Xinei Anle Hall near Di 'anmen to die. There was a retirement system for palace maids in the Qing Dynasty. If palace maids were not favored by the emperor in the palace, they could retire and leave the palace in their twenties. If you have a difficult illness, you can retire without waiting until you are twenty years old.

Behind Qin 'an Hall, between Yanhui Pavilion and Duixiu Mountain, is a courtyard surrounded by low walls with doors on all sides.

Standing under the back platform of Qin 'an Hall and looking north, you can see a series of doors.

The front one in the picture above is Chengguang Gate, the back one is Shunzhen Gate, and the Gongzheng Gate behind it is Shenwu Gate. Through the doorway of Shenwu Gate, you can see the gate of Jingshan Park and Qiwang Tower. This chain of doors is part of Beijing's central axis.

There is a copper-gilded and gold-lying elephant on each side behind Chengguang Gate. You notice this elephant. Its front legs are crawling and its rear legs are kneeling. The elephant itself has the homophonic pronunciation of "auspicious", which means auspicious. This kind of lying elephant with legs is called "blessing before and expensive after", which is even more auspicious.

This courtyard is the north gate of the Imperial Garden, so its front faces north. Turn around and have a look. Chengguang Gate.

Shunzhen Gate.

Yanhe Gate under Xiushan Mountain is piled in the east.

The Jifu Gate of Sir Yanhui in the west.

Shunzhen Gate was the Kunning Gate during the Zhu Di period. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, when the rear corridor of Kunning Palace was changed to the palace wall, the Guangyun Gate in the middle was renamed Kunning Gate, and this gate was changed to Shunzhen Gate. Those who are obedient and chaste are obedient and loyal, which is the motto of women in the palace. The courtyard behind Shunzhen Gate is of course its gate. If there are many people standing in this courtyard, it is called "the door is like a city."

This pile of doors are all wall doors, and the side doors are exactly the same. The Chengguang door is slightly larger. There are small glass shadow walls on both sides of the three of them. As soon as Chengguang Gate closes, it becomes a big shadow inside Shunzhen Gate. Shunzhen Gate is also a wall-to-wall door on the palace wall. It has three doorways and is very formal.

Shunzhen Gate is the passage from the inner court to the Shenwu Gate at the back door of the palace. It is usually not opened. When does it open? When there is a dojo in Qin 'an Hall, it will definitely be opened. Gao Daoists register and swipe the green code to enter Qin' an Hall from here. The queen left the palace from here to Beihai and Yuanmingyuan. If women in the palace are ordered to meet relatives and only open Shunzhen Gate, relatives can come in from Shenwu Gate and meet the women in the palace in the courtyard of this Shunzhen Gate. If a palace official died in the Ming Dynasty, the coffin went out from the Ximen Cave of Shunzhen Gate. When selecting beautiful women in the Qing Dynasty, you should come in through the West Gate Cave of Shunzhen Gate, and then take the Jifu Gate to Yanhui Pavilion.

There are still some vehicles entering and leaving the palace that have to go through Shenwu Gate, but none of them can go through Shunzhen Gate. They can only go through the East and West Tongzi Street and the East and Second Tongzi Street on both sides. These vehicles include incoming water trucks and rice trucks and outgoing dung trucks, as well as incoming coal trucks and outgoing coal ash trucks.

In the past, in addition to entering the Meridian Gate and heading north, you could also enter the Shenwu Gate and go south to Shunzhen Gate to enter the Royal Garden. Now Shenwu Gate can only be exited but not entered, so Youyu Garden is walking from south to north. After visiting the Imperial Garden, you walk out of Shunzhen Gate and you will find Shenwumen Square, also known as Beiheng Street.

You can finish walking from south to north on the Middle Road of the Forbidden City. You have passed Tiananmen, the main entrance of the Imperial Palace, and then the end gate of the Imperial Warehouse, the Meridian Gate of the Que Gate, the Taihe Gate of the Imperial Palace, and the Qianqing Gate of the Bedroom Gate; I saw the Taihe Gate, where the Imperial Gate was responsible for government affairs in the Ming Dynasty, the Taihe Hall, the main hall of the Imperial Palace, the Qianqing Gate, where the Imperial Gate was responsible for government affairs in the Qing Dynasty, and the Qianqing Palace of the Yan Dynasty. These are the five doors and three dynasties. I visited all the three courtyards in the front three palaces of the Outer Court, all the three courtyards in the back three palaces of the Inner Court, and also the Imperial Garden. I have seen the middle road of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, so it is time to go to the east and west roads next.

(To be continued)