| With a total
area of 440,000 square meters, Tiananmen Square is the largest square in
the center of Beijing. For over a hundred years, many ceremony and
demonstrations have been held here. The grandeur of Tiananmen Gate
(Heavenly Peace Gate) is a national symbol, with the Great Hall of the
People on the western side and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution and
the Museum of Chinese History to its east and west. The Monument to the
People's Heroes - the 36 meters obelisk, made of Qingdao granite,
dominates the center of the square. The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and
the Qianmen gate, sit in the south.
Tian'anmen Gate
Tian'anmen Gate (Gate of
Heavenly Peace) was built in the 15th Century and restored in the 17th
Century. From imperial days, the yellow glaze-tiled double-eaves tower
functioned as a rostrum for proclamations to the assembled masses.
October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the new
China. The tower has five doors and in front of it are seven bridges
spanning a stream. Only the emperor could use the central door and
bridge. On the top of the central door is a gigantic portrait of
Chairman Mao with slogans on each side stating 'Long Live the People's
Republic of China' and 'Long Live the Unity of the Peoples of the
World'. Walking through the gate, you can enter the imperial city -
Forbidden City with free charge while a panoramic view from the tower
costs 15RMB for Foreigners.
Huabiao
Right beside a pair of
marble lions in front of the Tian'anmen Gate stand obelisk of marble
engraved with entwisting dragons and clouds - an ornamental architecture
called Huabiao. Its history can be traced back to the Yao and Shun,
legendary kings in remote antiquity. To solicit public criticism, it is
said that wooden crosses were erected at marketplaces for people to
write down complaints. Later during the Han (206 B.C. -- 220 A.D.)
wooden posts were replaced by stone pillars, which gradually became the
sumptuous columns to palace gates. Huabiao can be usually found in
imperial gardens and mausoleums.
On the top is a
plate-shape flat called Chenglupan (dew-collecting) on which squats an
animal called kong (a legendary animal for watch-keeping) facing to the
south. They were called "Wangjungui" or "looking forward
to the emperor's return," who watched over the emperor's excursions
and called him back. The couple inside the gate facing north, called
Wangjunchu or "looking forward to the emperor's progress,"
were considered to supervise the emperor's behavior in the court when he
neglect court
Forbidden
City
The
Palace Museum, historically and artistically one of the most
comprehensive Chinese museums, was established on the foundation of the
palace that was the ritual center of two dynasties, the Ming and the
Qing, and their collections of treasures. Designated by the State
Council as one of China's foremost protected monuments in 1961, the
Palace Museum was also made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.
Situated
at the heart of Beijing, the Palace Museum is approached through
Tiananmen Gate. Immediately to the north of the Palace Museum is
Prospect Hill (also called Coal Hill), while on the east and west are
Wangfujing and Zhongnanhai neighborhoods. It is a location endowed with
cosmic significance by ancient China's astronomers. Correlating the
emperor's abode, which they considered the pivot of the terrestrial
world, with the Pole Star (Ziweiyuan), which they believed to be at the
center of the heavens, they called the palace The Purple Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City was built from 1406 to 1420 by the third Ming emperor
Yongle who, upon usurping the throne, determined to move his capital
north from Nanjing to Beijing. In 1911 the Qing dynasty fell to the
republican revolutionaries. The last emperor, Puyi, continued to live in
the palace after his abdication until he was expelled in 1924.
Twenty-four emperors lived and ruled from this palace during this
500-year span.
The
Forbidden City is surrounded by 10-metre high walls and a 52-metre wide
moat. Measuring 961 meters from north to south and 753 meters from east
to west, it covers an area of 720,000 square meters. Each of the four
sides is pierced by a gate, the Meridian Gate (Wu men) on the south and
the Gate of Spiritual Valor (Shenwu men) on the north being used as the
entrance and exit by tourists today. Once inside, visitors will see a
succession of halls and palaces spreading out on either side of an
invisible central axis. It is a magnificent sight, the buildings'
glowing yellow roofs against vermilion walls, not to mention their
painted ridges and carved beams, all contributing to the sumptuous
effect.
Known
as the Outer Court, the southern portion of the Forbidden City centers
on the halls of Supreme Harmony, Central Harmony, and Preserving
Harmony. These are flanked by the halls of Literary Glory and Military
Eminence. It was here that the emperor held court and conducted his
grand audiences.
Mirroring
this arrangement is the Inner Court at the northern end of the Forbidden
City, with the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Union, and the
Palace of Earthly Tranquility straddling the central axis, surrounded by
the Six Palaces of the East and West and the Imperial Garden to the
north. Other major buildings include the halls for Worshipping Ancestors
and of Imperial Splendor on the east, and the Hall of Mental
Cultivation, the Pavilion of the Rain of Flowers and the Palace of
Benevolent Tranquility on the west. These contain not only the
residences of the emperor and his empress, consorts and concubines but
also the venues for religious rites and administrative activities.
In
total, the buildings of the two courts account for an area of some
163,000 square meters. These were laid out precisely in accordance with
a code of architectural hierarchy, which designated specific features to
reflect the paramount authority and status of the emperor. No ordinary
mortal would have been allowed or even dared to come within close
proximity of these buildings.
After
the republican revolution, this Palace as a whole would have been
sequestered by the Nationalist government were it not for the
"Articles of Favorable Treatment of the Qing House" which
allowed Puyi to live on in the Inner Court after his abdication.
Meanwhile, all of the imperial treasures from palaces in Rehe (today's
Chengde) and Mukden (today's Shenyang) were moved to the Forbidden City
for public display in History Museum established at the Outer Court in
1914. While confined to the Inner Court, Puyi continuously used such
vestiges of influence as still remained to plot his own restoration. He
also systematically stole or pawned a huge number of cultural relics
under the pretext of granting them as rewards to his courtiers and
minions or taking them out for repair.
In
1924, during a coup launched by the warlord Feng Yuxiang, Puyi was
expelled from the Forbidden City and the management of the palace fell
to the charge of a committee set up to deal with the concerns of the
deposed imperial family. The committee began a sorting and counting of
the imperial treasures. A year of intense preparations later, its
members arranged a grand ceremony on 10 October 1925 in front of the
Palace of Heavenly Purity to mark the inception of the Palace Museum.
News of the opening flashed across the nation, and such was the scramble
of visitors on the first day that traffic jams around Beijing brought
the city almost to a standstill.
According
to a 28-volume inventory published in 1925, the treasure trove left by
the Qing numbered more than 1,170,000 items including sacrificial
vessels and ancient jade artifacts from the earliest dynasties;
paintings and calligraphy from the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties;
porcelain from the Song and Yuan; a variety of enamelware and lacquer
ware; gold and silver ornaments; relics in bamboo, wood, horn and
gourds; religious statues in gold and bronze; as well as numerous
imperial robes and ornaments; textiles; and furniture. In addition,
there were countless books, literary works and ancient records. All
these were divided into separate collections of antiquities, library
materials and historical documents and placed under teams of staff to
sort and collate. Exhibition halls were opened to display some of the
treasures, while writers and editors worked away at publishing in book
or journal form all the new areas of research and academic inquiry that
the establishment of the museum had ushered in. The Palace Museum was
soon a hive of activity.
Shortly
before the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese, having annexed
territory in China's northeast, proceeded to march on Beijing. With this
looming threat, the museum authorities decided to evacuate its
collection rather than let it fall into enemy hands or risk destruction
in battle. For four frantic months between February and May 1933, the
most important pieces in the collection were packed into 13,427 crates
and 64 bundles and sent to Shanghai in five batches. From there they
were dispatched to Nanjing where a depository was built and a branch of
the Palace Museum established.
On 7
July 1937 shots fired around Marco Polo Bridge west of Beijing heralded
the eruption of the Sino-Japanese War. Within a year, the Japanese had
penetrated to most of eastern China. Now the treasures stored in Nanjing
had to be moved again, this time by three routes to Sichuan, where they
were secreted in three locations, Baxian, Emei and Leshan. Only at the
end of the war were they consolidated in Chongqing, whence they were
returned to Nanjing in 1947. By then the Nationalists were considerably
weakened, and with the imminent takeover by the Communist armies of
areas south of the Yangtze, they began their retreat to Taiwan. Between
the end of 1948 and the dawn of 1949, the Nationalists picked relics to
fill 2,972 crates for shipping across the Strait. A rival Palace Museum
was set up in Taipei to display these antiquities. Most of what were
left were gradually returned to Beijing, although to this day 2,221
crates remain in safe-keeping in storag in Nanjing.
During
this tumultuous decade of war and revolution, not one item of the
treasures was lost or damaged even though the volume involved was
enormous. This was largely due to the dedicated energy of the Palace
Museum staff, whose achievement in preserving these treasures was
nothing short of heroic. But it was also as a result of this long period
of upheaval that the treasures have been dispersed. Yet the rationale
for keeping the collection together, representative as it is of the
motherland's traditional culture, seems so incontestable that most
people believe the treasures will be re-united one day.
In the
early 1950s, shortly after the establishment of the People's Republic,
the Palace Museum staff worked with a new will and enthusiasm to return
the Forbidden City to its former glory. Where previously the dirty and
dilapidated halls and courts lay under weeds and piles of rubbish, some
250,000 cubic meters of accumulated debris were now cleared out, giving
the place a sparkling fresh look. A policy of comprehensive
rehabilitation was also launched, and in time the crumbling palace
buildings, repaired, and redecorated, looked resplendent once more. All
the tall buildings were equipped with lightning conductors, while modern
systems of fire protection and security were installed. It has been a
priority of the People's Government, particularly since the beginning of
the reform era in the early 1980s, to keep the surrounding moat dredged
and clean.
As for
the collection of antiquities, a systematic inventory was completed
during the 1950s and 1960s, redressing the legacy of inaccurate
cataloguing. The collection was moreover augmented, for example by the
salvage of a number of precious artifacts from a jumble of apparently
worthless objects. After more than a decade of painstaking efforts, some
710,000 relics from the Qing palace were retrieved. At the same time,
through national allocations, requisitions and private donations, more
than 220,000 additional pieces of cultural significance were added,
making up for such omissions from the original Qing collection as
colored earthenware from the Stone Age, bronzes and jades from the Shang
and Zhou Dynasties, pottery tomb figurines from the Han Dynasty, stone
sculpture from the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and tri-color glazed
pottery from the Tang Dynasty. The ancient paintings, scrolls and
calligraphy added to the collection were particularly spectacular. These
included, from the Jin Dynasty, Lu Ji's cursive calligraphy "A
consoling letter" (Ping fu tie), Wang Xun's " Letter to Boyuan
(Bo yuan tie) and Gu Kaizhi's "Goddess of the Luo River" (Luo
shen fu tu); from the Sui Dynasty, Zhan Ziqian's landscape handscroll
"Spring Outing" (You chun tu) ; from the Tang Dynasty, Han
Huang's "Five Oxen" (Wu niu tu ), Du Mu's running-cursive
script handscroll "Song of the Courtesan Zhan Haohao" (Zhang
haohao shi) ; from the Five Dynasties, Gu Hongzhong's "The Night
Revels of Han Xizai" (Han Xizai yeyan tu) "; from the Song
Dynasty, Li Gonglin's "Painting after Wei Yan's Pasturing
Horses" (Lin Wei Yan mu fang tu) Guo Xi's "Dry tree and rock,
level distance landscape" (Ke shi pingyuan tu), and Zhang Zeduan's
"Going up River on Spring Festival" (Qingming shang he
tu)--all masterpieces without exception.
Unremitting
though this attempt at recovery has been, however, there have been
further exertions in recent years to acquire such works as Zhang Xian's
"Landscape with Poems (Shi yong tu)" (Song Dynasty), Nai
Xian's calligraphy "Ancient poem on south of the city" (Cheng
nan yong gu shi) (Yuan Dynasty), Shen Zhou's landscape handscroll
"After Huang Gongwang's 'Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains'"
(Fang Huang Gongwang fuchun shan ju tu) (Ming Dynasty), Shi Tao's ink
bamboo "Calling Wen Yuke" (Gao hu Yu ke tu) (Qing Dynasty).
The first two were spirited out of the palace by the last emperor Puyi
on the excuse of bestowing them on his brother Pu Jie; they fell into
the hands of others and only now have been returned to their rightful
place in the Palace Museum collection.
From
the 1950s onwards, the museum's existing storehouses were completely
overhauled to provide a damp-proof and insect-proof environment for the
treasures. In the 1990s a new storehouse with a capacity of over 600,000
items was built, equipped with controls for maintaining constant
temperature and humidity, as well as safeguards against fire and theft.
A workshop was established in the 1950s and expanded in the 1980s to
encompass a scientific Conservation Department. These not only continued
traditions of craftsmanship, but also drew upon scientific discoveries
to facilitate the restoration of damaged relics. In the past few decades
the Conservation Department has treated as many as 110,000 objects from
the Palace Museum and other public collections. Besides its continuous
refurbishment of the main courts and halls, the museum has opened
galleries to display bronzes, porcelain, crafts, paintings and
calligraphy, jewelry, and clocks to expand the scope of its exhibitions.
A number of thematic shows have been held in galleries devoted to
temporary exhibitions; in recent years these have included such
acclaimed ones as "A Comparison of Authentic and Counterfeit
Paintings and Calligraphy", "Genuine and Imitation Examples of
Ancient Porcelain and Materials from Ancient Kilns", "The Art
of Packaging at the Qing Court" and "Selections from the
Finest Acquisitions of the Last Fifty Years". Traveling exhibitions
have also graced various provincial museums and museums abroad. In fact,
since the beginning of the economic-reform era, an increasing number of
exhibitions have been mounted in countries such as Britain, the USA,
France, the former Soviet Union, Germany, Austria, Spain, Australia,
Japan and Singapore, among others. All of them have aroused great
interest and admiration and played a key part in the promotion of
international understanding and cultural exchange.
The
number of visitors to the Palace Museum has risen along with the growth
of tourism, in the last decade reaching six to eight million a year.
General
interest has been further stimulated by the Palace Museum's range of
publications touching on both the architecture of its buildings and its
vast cultural holdings. Published works include Famous Historical
Paintings in the Palace Museum Collection, Selected Porcelain from the
Palace Museum Collection, National Treasures, Palaces of the Forbidden
City, Daily Life in the Forbidden City, A Collection of National
Treasures, and The Complete Palace Museum Collection (in 60 volumes, of
which 18 have been published so far). There are also two periodicals,
The Palace Museum and The Forbidden City.
Since
1997, the Palace Museum's administration has been significantly
reorganized. Where previously there were three departments covering
conservation, exhibition and research, these have now been split into
the departments of Antiquities; of Painting and Calligraphy; of Palace
Arts; and the Exhibition, Promotion and Education Department. With
substantial investment, the latest technology has been deployed by the
newly established Resources and Information Center to set up the Palace
Museum website. The website you are now browsing enables all, even those
in distant places, to enjoy a sightseeing tour of this mysterious palace
and feast their eyes on its splendid treasures.
The
creation of a state-of-the-art virtual Imperial Palace is no longer just
a dream.
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