As you walk in the Forbidden City and
look at the emperor’s studyroom and bedroom, you will be surprised to
find that the emperor's living place is not much larger than ours,
merely 10 square meters or so. Insleep, two drapes areput down in front
of the Dragon bed, which makes the space narrower.
The whole country is the emperor’s, why being so ruthless on their own?
In fact, from the perspective of
FengShui,the size of the house must be proportional to the number of
people living there. That is, the bigger the house, the more people
should stay, which is what we called “flourishing popularity”. Emperor’s
flesh and blood is not much better than ordinary people,in order to
save physical fitness, to achieve the purpose of health and longevity,
so he could only live in a small space.
But is the reason really bekeeping smaller in order to prevent the "big house sucks popularity”?
Experts say that the real reason for
smell bedroom is to keep warm. In Ming and Qing dynasties, the
temperature is generally lower than minus 10 degree Celsius in winters
in Beijing, much colder than the temperature in globe warming. The
characteristics of the northern residential houses is also small and
narrow, the size is moderate and the sun can shine into the room making
the main room warm in winters and cool in summers, courtyard is a place
for outdoor activities.Thus, the emperor's space is not just that little
bedroom, but the whole courtyard.
What is the secret of the Nine-Dragon Screen in the National Palace Museum?
The Nine-Dragon Screen was built in the
37th year in Qianlong period Qing dynasty, outside Ningshou Palace. In
the middle, the dragon is called The Dragon, made by yellow glazed
tiles, representing the emperor himself. therefore, nine and five
together, is the symbol of respect.
Different colors of dragons on both
sides of the screen called ascend dragon and descend dragon,
representing the Eight Banners. Therefore, the Nine-Dragon Screen was
not casually built, but with meanings.
However, there is a shocking secret
hidden in the screen. The third white dragon from the east, look closely
at the abdomen, is there a tile different from the rest? It is not
because of the delayed maintenance that caused color distortion, but it
is not a glazed tile after all. Isn’t that shocking? At that time, it
was a death penalty. Who dared to deceive the emperor!
It is said that when Emperor Qianlong
ordered the construction of the Nine Dragon Wall, only gave a very short
time, and burning different colors of glasses was not a simple matter
back then, each piece of glass acquireddifferentsoils, furnace and
different burning time to make the color even. As all artisans working
days and nights, one accidentally broke one piece of white glass. This
was such a disaster, if they were to remake the piece, it would take
more time so that the deadline would be missed and it was a death
penalty.
As the situation was heading nowhere, a
man named Ma Chunde came up with a brilliant idea, which was to carve a
dragon abdominal shaped piece using a Nanmu and paint it white. You
would not recognize it if you are not a professional. By this way,
Emperor Qianlong was cheated by them and also, they escaped from death.
Nowadays, the fake glaze is still there
in the dragon’s abdomen. You would never find out if it was not for
long-time color distortion.
Why there are seventeen holes in the Seventeen-Arch bridge?
Walking into the Summer Palace, you
will see a very long bridge-the Seventeen Arch Bridge. It is said that
when the bridge was building, it was pictured as the turtle neck shape.
And the two ends, the Kuoru Pavilion and South Lake Island are
equivalent to the shell and head, meaning longevity.
Why was it built with seventeen arches?
Looking closely, what do you see? Among
the 17 arches, the middle one is the biggest. Counting to the sides,
there are eight pairs of small holes. These eight pairs plus the middle
one equals the number nine.
With the same meaning of the
Nine-Dragon Wall, nine also means the emperor, so Seventeen Holes Bridge
design is symbolic for the emperor.
Moreover, in order to make a
150-meter-long bridge stand across the Kunming lake, the architects must
also had taken full account of a variety of architectural, mechanical
and other factors. When you look carefully, you will always find
extraordinary traits.
There is a birthday peach in the Summer Palace?
To the Summer Palace visitors, few people know that its layout implied "longevity" pattern.
According to the architectural designer
whose family had served the royal family for seven generations, when
they were building the Summer Palace for the empress Cixi’s birthday,
the emperor ordered to reflect “blessing, position and longevity” in the
design. The 7th generation of house Lei, Lei Tingchang came up a
brilliant idea to complete the task.
He designed an artificial lake that was
dug into a peach shape. In the plain ground you cannot see the whole
picture. But looking from the Longevity Hill, a birthday peach is right
in front of you. The Seventeen Holes Bridge is connecting the island,
which was designed into a turtle shape. The bridge is the turtle neck,
meaning longevity. As for the word "blessing", Lei Tingchang made the
two sides of Fuxiang Chamber the shape of bat wings, together all makes
it a bat. Bat pronounces the same as “blessing”, so matching the
meanings.
What is the secret of the twelve bronze animal fountainheads in the Old Summer Palace?
The twelve bronze animal fountainheads
were designed and made by Italian Giuseppe Castiglione in Qianlong
period, Qing dynasty. The bronze statues are not only ornaments but also
a part of the fountain outside Haiyan Room.This fountain is not an
ordinary fountain, but anautomatically water timer- “water clock”.
The twelve animal heads have bodies
made out of stone, wearing robes. The heads are realistic style. They
are so exquisite that the shrinks and face hairs are perfectly detailed.
Red bronze was selected to build the animal heads for its deep
appearance color, fine material that would not rust for centuries.
As we all know, the ancients divided
the day into twelve hours, respectively corresponding to the twelve
Chinese zodiac, and those twelve heads is the first twelve animals in
line with the ancient way of timing. According to historical records,
the Old Summer Palace Zodiac animal statue was "eight" -shaped scattered
on both sides of the fountain stone platform, each animal is a fountain
trigger. Every hour, the corresponding animals will be spitting water
out of the mouthfor Hour. until noon, twelve animals spit water all
together and it is spectacular. This special clock with the Zodiac
statue spitting wateras times is world-famous.
It is worth mentioning that the
original Castiglione was to build a naked female sculpture with Western
characteristics, butemperorQianlong considered that was contrary to
China's ethics, so ordered to redesign, and now we have this zodiac
statue.
Source: http://www.beijing-haidian.com/
Source: http://www.beijing-haidian.com/
