Palace Architecture Shenyang Imperial Palace
Apart from the Forbidden City in Beijing, there is also the Shenyang Imperial Palace, which was built in Shenyang, Liaoning Province before the Qing Dynasty entered the customs. Nuerhachi, the Qing Taizu, was originally the leader of the Nuzhen nationality (Manchu) in Northeast China. After he acquired the sovereignty by annexing various tribes and established the post-Jin Kingdom, he organized all the people under the Eight Banners. The leaders of the Eight Banners are all held by himself and his brothers, sons and nephews. They command and fight in wartime, and usually manage household registration, land tax, corvee and other things. Therefore, the Banner is the organizational form of Nurhachi regime, and qiwang has become his main political assistant minister. In case of major events, eight tents will be set up in front of the King's Palace, respectively on both sides, to convene the kings and ministers of the Eight Banners to discuss state affairs. In 1622, Nurhachi moved the capital to Shenyang and immediately built a palace, which is now the East Road of the Forbidden City in Shenyang (Figure 8). The East Road building is dominated by the Dazheng Hall in the middle, which is the hall where national ceremonies are held. In front of the temple, the form of the Eight Banners tabernacle was maintained, and 1 pavilions were established. Except for the two-wing pavilions at the northern end, the other eight pavilions were arranged in a figure of eight according to the sequence of the Eight Banners. This is the place where the Eight Banners kings were called to discuss state affairs. This layout has not been seen in ancient palace buildings, and it is actually the embodiment of the political requirements of the ruling class in this period. After Nurhachi's death, his son Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne, changed the title of the country to Qing, strengthened centralization, weakened the power of the Eight Banners King, and the Ten Kings Pavilion lost its original function, and built another group of palace buildings focusing on the Chongzheng Hall in the west of the Dazheng Hall, which is the middle road of Shenyang Forbidden City. The Daqingmen in the south of the middle road is the main entrance of the Forbidden City, which passes through the Imperial Road until it reaches the Chongzheng Hall. This is the main hall for Huang Taiji to handle state affairs, where all court meetings, envoys and important banquets are held. Behind it, the Qingning Palace is the sleeping hall of the Forbidden City, built on a platform more than three meters high, and in front of it, there is the Phoenix Building as the entrance of this group of harem buildings, < P > 1-Dazheng Hall; 2-Right-wing Wang Ting; 3-Left-wing Wang Ting;
4— Zhenghuang Banner Pavilion; 5-Yellow flag pavilion; 6-Zhenghongqi Pavilion;
7 —— Zhengbai Banner Pavilion; 8-red flag pavilion; 9-White flag pavilion;
1 —— Pavilion with blue flag; 11-Zhenglan Banner Pavilion; 12-Daqingmen
13-Chongzheng Hall; 14-Phoenix Building; 15-Qingning Palace;
16— Yanqing Palace; 17-Linzhi Palace; 18-Yongfu Palace;
19 —— Guansui Palace; 2-Yihe Temple; 21-Jiezhi Palace;
22— Jingdian Pavilion; 23-Diguang Hall; 24-Baoji Palace;
25— Ji Enzhai; 26-Chongmo Pavilion; 27-Jiayin Hall;
28— Wen Suige; 29— Yang Xizhai;
Figure 8 The floor plan of Shenyang Imperial Palace has five palaces built behind the high platform for emperors, queens and concubines to live in. The west road part of the Forbidden City in Shenyang is an additional building group built by Emperor Qianlong when he visited Shenyang in the north in 1781, including a stage and a Wensui Pavilion for storing the Sikuquanshu.
On the whole, the East Road and the Middle Road of the Forbidden City in Shenyang represent the architectural forms in the early Qing Dynasty before entering the customs. What are their characteristics compared with the palace buildings in the Ming Dynasty?
firstly, from the overall layout of the building, Shenyang Forbidden City not only inherits the tradition of Han palaces, but also shows its own national characteristics. No matter whether it is the East Road or the Middle Road, the buildings are arranged in the form of axis symmetry. East Road Dazheng Hall is in the middle, and 1 Wang Ting are symmetrically placed in front. The main halls in the middle of the road, such as Daqingmen, Chongzheng Hall, Fenghuang Building and Qingning Palace, are all placed on the central axis, and there are halls on both sides to form several courtyards before and after; The palace is still the pattern of facing the front and sleeping behind; These are all traditional forms of Han nationality. However, the Ten Kings Pavilion on the East Road shows the tradition of the Nuzhen nationality after the Jin State. The back bedroom of the middle road was built on a high platform, forming a pattern that the front hall was low and the harem was high, which was just the opposite of the arrangement that the three halls of the Forbidden City in the Ming Dynasty were high on the base of the high platform and the three palaces in the imperial palace were lower than the previous dynasty. This form of high palace and low hall is related to the living habits of Jurchen people. Jurchen people have lived in Changbai Mountain for a long time and are used to living in high places. After the establishment of Nuerhachi, Jin State once built palaces in Xinbin, Liaoyang and other places. Most of these buildings were built on high ground, or high platforms were built on mountains, and then palaces were built on high platforms. This habit was naturally brought to Shenyang Forbidden City.
Secondly, in terms of architectural form, the Imperial Palace in Shenyang has not fully grasped the traditional style of palace architecture formed in the Ming Dynasty. The Hall of Supreme Harmony and Ganqing Palace in the Forbidden City in Beijing use the highest-grade double-eaved roof, while the Baohe Hall and Taihe Gate use double-eaved roof. Other buildings also adopt different roof forms according to different grades, which reflects a set of strict feudal hierarchy in architectural structure. However, in the Forbidden City in Shenyang, the main Dazheng Hall uses octagonal double eaves and a pointed roof, while Chongzheng Hall only uses the most general hard mountain roof, which does not reflect the status of these buildings in architectural style, and they only rely on decoration to show the importance of buildings. For example, an exquisite throne was set up in the Chongzheng Hall. There was a wooden platform under the throne, and a covered pavilion was added to the seat, which was called the hall. The beams, the throne and the screen of the hall were all decorated with wood carvings. Although there is no ceiling on the top of the hall, the beams are all painted with colorful paintings, which makes the simple Chongzheng Hall on the hard top of the mountain still look very gorgeous.
Thirdly, in terms of architectural decoration, the Imperial Palace in Shenyang not only follows the traditional decoration of Han architecture, but also can see some forms unique to Manchu and Mongolian areas. As a symbol of the emperor, the dragon is also widely used in the Forbidden City in Shenyang. On the eaves column of Dazheng Hall, a golden dragon coiled column is specially made, with the faucet sticking out and the left and right facing each other. A treasure bead with flame pattern is installed on the square in the middle to form a three-dimensional two-dragon play bead pattern. There is also a golden carved dragon in the center of the algae well in the Dazheng Hall. In the eaves gallery of Chongzheng Hall and Daqingmen, the short beams connecting the inner and outer columns are completely made into a dragon. The dragon head and claws extend out of the outer eaves columns, the dragon body is inserted into the inner columns, and some even extend the dragon tail into the room, which is very vivid. This style and style are rare in Han official buildings. Coloured glaze has long been a decorative material for palace buildings. When Nurhachi and Huang Taiji built the Forbidden City in Shenyang, they used a large number of colored glaze components for decoration because there was a base for burning colored glaze in nearby Haicheng. The roofs of the main palaces are made of yellow glazed tiles, and some of them are surrounded by green glazed tiles; In the Chongzheng Hall on the roof of Hard Mountain, in addition to all glazed tiles, the Bofeng boards on the left and right walls and the front wall are all decorated with glazed tiles. Several roofs and Bofeng boards are covered with glazed dragons, one after another. There is a treasure in front of each dragon's faucet. The dragon is blue, and there are green waves in the middle. On the yellow foundation, the colors are very bright, forming a dazzling ribbon on the roof.
From the planning, layout, architectural form and architectural decoration of Shenyang Forbidden City, we can see some characteristics of early Qing architecture, which on the one hand reflects the original political situation and living habits of the nation, and at the same time adopts and follows the traditional forms and techniques of the Han nationality. It shows that Qing Taizu and Qing Taizong paid great attention to absorbing the advanced skills of Han and Mongolian nationalities and recruiting craftsmen and artists of Han and Mongolian nationalities in the process of building the Qing Palace, which made the building of Shenyang Forbidden City have the characteristics of multi-ethnic cultural integration.