A woman walks inside the Forbidden City during late spring snowfall on March 18, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Image source: Getty Images)
Mention BeijingForbidden Cityeveryone intuitively felt that it was from the pastForbidden Cityis the place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties lived, and is also an important area that symbolizes the heavy traditional culture. Those who know the Forbidden City can count the palaces such as the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Jiaotai, the Kunning Palace, and the Yonghe Palace. However, from today’s perspective, do you know which room in the Forbidden City is intimidating because it does not house living people? It is said that even tourists find that house a bit spooky.
This is the main reason why the editor wants to talk to you! If a professional were to tell the story of the Forbidden City in detail, it would take three days and three nights to tell it all, so please let the editor give a rough introduction!
Imperial Palace of Ming and Qing Dynasties
The Forbidden City was the royal palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and a total of more than twenty emperors lived there. The Forbidden City is 960 meters long from north to south and 760 meters wide from east to west, covering an area of approximately 720,000 square meters. In the royal buildings, there is a central axis that runs through the north and south palaces. Craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty built the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe, and the Hall of Preservation and Harmony on this central axis according to the characteristics of ancient architecture – “sleeping in the front and in the back” These three main halls, as well as the Qianqing Palace, Jiaotai Palace, and Kunning Palace, the three palaces behind the inner court where the emperor and his concubines lived. People often wonder, since the Forbidden City is the largest and most complete ancient building complex in China, how many houses are there in it?
Generally speaking, the public’s understanding of the number of houses in the Forbidden City is 9999 or 9999 and a half. This should be inspired by Cai Xin’s idea that the heavenly palace is the residence of the emperor on earth. influence of the design drawings. Although according to historical data, the Forbidden City should have more than 10,000 houses, after all, the Forbidden City has suffered various disasters such as decay, burning, and collapse, as well as repairs, reconstruction and other projects. Therefore, after taking all conditions into consideration, the current results obtained The conclusion was indeed over nine thousand rooms.
In 1972, a group of ancient architecture experts conducted a comprehensive survey and statistics on the Forbidden City in accordance with the “four pillars and one room” construction standard. They found that there were a total of 980 palaces and halls, and 8,707 houses, for a total of 9,687 rooms. .
The Forbidden City is 960 meters long from north to south and 760 meters wide from east to west, covering an area of approximately 720,000 square meters. (Image source: Adobe Stock)
uninhabitedKunning Palace
Among the many houses in the Forbidden City, there is one palace that does not house living people – Kunning Palace. Kunning Palace has been the queen’s dormitory since the Ming Dynasty. In other words, the queen will live in Kunning Palace from the day she is enshrined until the day of her birth. If the queen has to move out of Kunning Palace midway, it is usually because of the “emperor’s death”, so the queen has to move to the palace where the queen mother lives, in order to free up Kunning Palace for the queen who succeeds the emperor. In another situation, The queen was dethroned, so she naturally had to leave Kunning Palace.
So, why doesn’t Kunning Palace, one of the most important three harems, house living people? Wasn’t Kunning Palace once the residence of the empress of the Ming Dynasty? How did it become such a gloomy place? Is it because Queen Zhou of Chongzhen committed suicide there? In fact, there is a reason for this.
The “Kunning” of Kunning Palace is taken from the “Kun” hexagram in the “Book of Changes”, which means “the terrain is Kun, the gentleman carries things with great virtue”, and the “Tao Te Ching”: “The sky will be clear, and the earth will be clear.” It means “Ning”, so “Kun Ning” means “Kun and earth are peaceful”.
The Kunning Palace was built in the 18th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1420). It suffered disasters from Zhurong in the 9th year of Zhengde (1514) and the 24th year of Wanli (1596). It was rebuilt in 1605) and rebuilt in the first year of Shunzhi (1645) of the Qing Dynasty. Kunning Palace is located directly behind Jiaotai Hall. It was used as the queen’s bedroom during the Ming Dynasty. However, the only Qing queen who used Kunning Palace as her dormitory was Kangxi’s queen, and Kangxi’s Xiaochengren Queen Hesheli Both the Empress Xiao Zhaoren and Niu Hulu died in Kunning Palace. In addition, in addition to the empresses of Kangxi, the empresses of Tongzhi and Guangxu also stayed in Kunning Palace for a while. Tongzhi and Guangxu both stayed for a few days on their wedding day.
Take a photo of Kunning Palace from the southwest side. (Image source: Public domain)
However, Kunning Palace is mainly used as a place of worship. In the twelfth year of Shunzhi (1655), after craftsmen remodeled Kunning Palace after Qingning Palace, Kunning Palace became a place for shamanism to worship gods.
Although Kunning Palace has become a place for worshiping gods, because it belongs to the royal family, the architecture, decoration and indoor appliances are very gorgeous. Even though the queen no longer uses the Kunning Palace originally provided for the queen, the status of the palace is still unshakable and has never been diminished. During the Yongzheng period, Yongzheng moved to the Yangxin Hall where many emperors loved to stay. The Kunning Palace had already become a residence specially provided for shamanistic sacrifices and no longer allowed the queen to stay. Therefore, the well-known costume drama “Huan Zhuge Ge” mentioned that Qianlong’s queen lived in Kunning Palace, which is actually wrong.
When Kunning Palace became a sacrificial site, over time, the place where no living people lived became eerie and scary. Therefore, it is said that tourists always feel scared after entering Kunning Palace.
References
〈Kunning Palace, the main place for shaman sacrifices in the Qing Palace, not the queen’s exclusive palace〉
Editor in charge: Gufeng Source: Look at China
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