北京故宮中英文雙語介紹

　　The Forbidden City was the living place of the emperor, so it was also called the imperial palace. In the feudal society, the common people were forbidden enter the city, hence the name, Forbidden City.

　　The Forbidden City is rectangular in shape, covers an area of 72 hectares, with 52 meters wide moat and 10 meters high city wall surrounded, each corner of the city wall built a watch tower, which was heavily guarded in the old days.

　　The Forbidden City was first built in early Ming dynasty that was 1420. When the construction of the Forbidden City was completed, the capital of the Ming dynasty moved from Nanjing to Beijing. From the early Ming dynasty to the end of Qing dynasty, altogether 24 emperors lived in here, 14 emperors in Ming dynasty and 10 emperors in Qing dynasty. In 600 years, the Forbidden City witnessed many changes in the Ming and Qing dynasties. After the 1911 Revolution, the Qing dynasty was overthrown. In 1925, the Forbidden City became the historical museum and opened to the public, so it was also called the palace museum. And in 1987, the Forbidden City listed in World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO.

　　The Meridian Gate is the main entrance and the front gate of the Forbidden City. In ancient China, the front gate of the large-scale constructions usually is the south gate. The Meridian Gate mainly served as the passage for the emperor only, which want to go to the Temple of Heaven to worship the god of heaven. It was called Meridian Gate because the emperor believe that the Meridian Line went through the Forbidden City and his residence was the cosmic center. A small square located in front of the gate, it was the place to announce the new lunar calendar on the first day of 10th lunar month every year. When a general returned from the battle, his captives would be offered on a ceremony here.

　　Enter the Meridian Gate; you have come into the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is the largest imperial construction in the world. According to the common people saying, the Forbidden City has 9999.5 rooms. It consists of two parts, which are the outer court and the inner court. The outer court is the political quarter and the inner court is the living quarter.

　　The Gate of Supreme Harmony is the entrance of the outer court. The inner golden river comes across here, with five marble bridges spinning over it. They were symbolizing the five virtues by Confucius, benevolence, righteousness, rites, intelligence and fidelity. Confucius is the most famous philosopher in China. He born in 7th century BC, at that time it was also called the spring and autumn period. In the five marble bridges, the middle bridge used for emperor only. Its railing carving is dragon, and the other bridges’ railing carvings are lotus. The dragon is an imaginary animal. Saying about the word of the dragon, Chinese people definitely think of a gigantic best with the head of ox, the horns of deer, the eyes of shrimp, the claws of hawk, the body of snake and the tail of lion, whose whole body is covered by fish scales. In Chinese tradition, the dragon was the symbol of power, and the phoenix was the symbol of lucky. In the feudal society, the emperor symbolized dragon, and the empress symbolized phoenix. Because the dragon live in the water, can control the flood, so you can see lots of the dragon temple built the place nearby rivers or lakes. Therefore more than one million dragons in the Forbidden City, they are appearing in paintings, carvings, clothing and decorations. You can look for the dragon pattern by yourself in the Forbidden City.

　　Entering the Gate of Supreme Harmony, there is a sketch map. In ancient China, all of the constructions have central axis. The most beautiful and important buildings are built along the central axis. Today, we will visit along the central axis, including the emperor’s hall, office, bedroom and garden.

　　Go through the Gate of Supreme Harmony, you will see the largest hall in China. It named the Hall of Supreme Harmony. It was the place where hold some important ceremonies, like the ceremony of emperor birthday, the emperor marriage, ceremony about success war, receive foreign country’s envoy. When the ceremony began, the civil and military officials all performed the three kowtows and nine prostrations on the square.

　　In addition, you can see the color of the glazed tiles on the roofs of all buildings is yellow. Saying about the colors of the roof, they can be divided into three rankings: the highest ranking is blue, symbolize sky, you can see it only in the Temple of Heaven; the second ranking is yellow, symbolize power, it used in some imperial constructions, such as the Forbidden City or Ming Tombs; the third ranking is green, symbolize official, the families of high ranking official can be allowed used this color. The common people only allowed use the grayer tiles. If you use another colors of the tiles, you would commit a crime, will be killed.

　　A large marble terrace beneath the Hall of Supreme Harmony, we called it Xumi Mountain. The name comes from Buddhist scripture. According to scripture, Xumi Mountain is the highest mountain in the cosmic. So, here we called it Xumi Mountain in order to show that the Hall of Supreme Harmony is the place having the highest power. There are 18 incense burners placed on the triple marble terrace. When ceremony began, burning some pine and cypress, to make smoke. The officials on the square find the hall was in the cloud. It can make state atmosphere.