Standing on the top of Jingshan Mountain, overlooking the Forbidden City, the palace buildings are like a golden ocean; walking into the Forbidden City, you will see thousands of palaces and pavilions in each style, and the inner and outer eaves of the palace are decorated with magnificent gold and jade. Color painting. The architecture of the Forbidden City is worthy of being the greatest artistic creation of mankind.
Why are red and yellow colors commonly used in the buildings of the Forbidden City?
It turns out that in traditional Chinese concepts, yellow is the most noble. This is because the Chinese nation originated from the Loess Plateau. Most of the roofs of the palaces in the Forbidden City are made of yellow glazed tiles to symbolize the supremacy of imperial power. Ordinary civilians, even high-ranking officials and nobles, must not use yellow tiles, otherwise it will be treason. Puyi, the future emperor, wrote this passage in his "My First Half of Life": "Whenever I recall my childhood, a layer of yellow appears in my mind. The glazed tile roof is yellow, and the sedan chair is yellow. Yellow, the chair cushions are yellow, the insides of clothes and hats, the belts around the waist, the porcelain dishes for eating and drinking tea, the cotton covers covering the porridge pots, the furoshiki wrapping books, curtains, horse reins... nothing It’s not yellow. This exclusive so-called bright yellow has buried my self-consciousness in my heart since I was a child, giving me a unique ‘nature’.” Therefore, when he saw his second brother Pu Jie. When there was yellow on the cuffs or clothes, he immediately darkened his face and scolded: "This is bright yellow, you shouldn't use it!"
Of course, there are other reasons why some roofs in the Forbidden City do not use yellow. For example, the roof of Wenyuan Pavilion is made of black glazed tiles, because black represents water, and water can suppress fire. Wenyuan Pavilion contains the "Sikuquanshu", so the use of black is to prevent Wenyuan Pavilion from catching fire. In addition, the tall walls of the Forbidden City, the piers of the city gates, the pillars of the palace, and the doors and windows are mostly in red. This is because China has regarded red as a symbol of auspiciousness, celebration, contentment, and happiness since ancient times.
Although the colors of the roofs of the Forbidden City buildings are relatively single, the styles are quite different. They can be roughly divided into the following ten types:
Double eaves verandah roof: This is the highest level Most of them are built on the central axis of the Forbidden City, such as the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Qianqing Palace, the Kunning Palace, the Meridian Gate Main Building, the Shenwu Gate Building, the Fengxian Hall, and the Huangji Hall.
The roof of the veranda with single eaves: the level is lower than that of double eaves, such as Tiren Pavilion, Hongyi Pavilion, Jingyang Palace, Xianfu Palace, etc.
Double-eaves Xieshan Peak: The level is lower than the double-eaves verandah roof, including Taihe Gate, Baohe Hall, Ningshou Palace, Cining Palace, etc.
Single eaves on the top of the mountain: such as Chuxiu Palace, Changchun Palace, Yikun Palace, etc.
The top of the hanging mountain: such as the Lili Zaotang in the Royal Garden and the east and west rooms in Shenwu Gate.
Hard top: such as the Wei Yuzhai in the Imperial Garden and the Military Zhangjing Duty Room and some side halls in the Longzong Gate.
Rolled shed roof: such as the Baoxia in front of the Jiangxue Pavilion in the Royal Garden and the Baoxia in Chengrui Pavilion and Fubi Pavilion.
Four corners with spires: such as Zhonghe Hall, Jiaotai Hall, etc.
Round spire: such as Wanchun Pavilion and Qianqiu Pavilion in the Imperial Garden.
Panding: such as the Qin'an Hall and some well pavilions in the Imperial Garden.
The feudal palace system was highly hierarchical, so there were strict differences in palace size, roof style, etc., and they could never be built at will.
There are many glazed ornaments installed on the eaves and corners of the large and small palaces in the Forbidden City. The first one is a fairy riding a phoenix flying in the sky, followed closely by a different number of small ones. The animals are usually odd numbers, namely dragon, phoenix, lion, celestial horse, seahorse, suanni, fish, Xie and bullfighting. Some of these little beasts are animals that symbolize auspiciousness in myths and legends, some are ferocious beasts with clear lines of love and hate that punish evil and encourage good, and some are strange animals in the water. They all have the meaning of good luck, fire prevention and disaster relief. The number of small beasts is closely related to the building level. For example, the Taihe Palace has the highest level in the Forbidden City, so it also has the most small beasts on the corners. If you add a line after the bullfight, there are 10; the Qianqing Palace is the second highest level. In the Hall of Supreme Harmony, there are 9 small beasts with horns; in the Kunning Palace, there are 7 small beasts with horns; in the six east and west palaces where the concubines live, there are 5 small beasts with horns. These components used to fix vertical ridges and tiles are both beautiful and practical.
The palaces such as the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe, and the Hall of Baohe are paved with generous “gold bricks.” According to folklore, the gold bricks in the Forbidden City are all made of gold, but this is not the case. Gold bricks are fine-material pure mud bricks made of soil through a special processing method. The soil is the best in Suzhou, so the fine-material square bricks of the Forbidden City are all made in Suzhou.
Making gold bricks requires extremely high labor costs and requires extremely detailed processing procedures, including soil selection, mud scouring, slurry purification, brick making, shade drying, and fumigation. Let's talk about fumigation. After entering the kiln, it takes 130 days to get out of the kiln. That is, it is smoked with chaff for one month, with piece of firewood for one month, with tree firewood for one month, and with pine branches for 40 days. After the bricks are made, they must "make a sound when knocked and break without holes", which shows the fineness of the processing. The process requirements for laying gold bricks are also very strict. First, they need to be chopped and ground, then they need to be flattened, laid with mud, stretched, and trial-layed. Finally, the bricks are officially laid, which requires the bricks to be well laid, scraped flat, and soaked in raw tung oil. Chopping, grinding and brick-laying require extremely high quality. According to official regulations of the Qing Dynasty, each worker could only chop three bricks per day for cutting and grinding two-foot-square gold bricks. When making bricks, one bricklayer and two strong workers could only chop three bricks per day. 5 bucks. To lay the gold bricks of Taihe Palace requires 1573 cutters, 944 bricklayers and 1888 strong workers. The gold bricks in the Hall of Supreme Harmony are still black and shiny, smooth and wear-resistant, not slippery or astringent, just like polished black jade.
The inner and outer eaves of each palace in the Forbidden City are decorated with colorful paintings. It is an indispensable decorative art for the palace architecture of the Forbidden City. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the color paintings of the Forbidden City were strictly classified into grades. Generally speaking, they can be divided into the following three types:
Hexi color paintings: are the highest-grade color paintings, such as the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe, Baohe Palace, Qianqing Palace, Jiaotai Palace, Kunning Palace, Huangji Palace, Ningshou Palace, etc. all use Hexi color paintings. The color painting consists of three parts: the heart of the fang, the head of the fang, and the head of the hoop. The heart of the fang is in the middle of the head. The picture is the largest and the position is prominent. It is painted with dragon and phoenix patterns in various postures. On both sides of the center of the fang are the heads. At both ends of the head there are two zigzag-shaped brackets that separate the center of the fang and the head of the hoop. In the middle is a picture, also painted with dragons and phoenixes. The hoop head is the outermost part, and the two ends are separated by vertical lines. The middle picture is called a circular box. Because the dragon and phoenix patterns are evenly applied with powder and gold, it creates a magnificent effect.
Xuanzi color painting: The level is lower than Hexi color painting, and it is mostly used in secondary palaces, auxiliary halls, gate towers, verandas and other buildings. Its components are the same as those of Hexi painted paintings, the main difference lies in finding the head. The center of the pattern is called the center of the flower, and the outer circle of the center is surrounded by two or three layers of overlapping petals, and the outermost circle is surrounded by a spiral pattern, called the spiral. Use two brackets at both ends to separate the center of the fang and the head of the hoop. His painting methods of Fangxin are diverse, and his picture layout is flexible and full of changes.
Su-style painted paintings: There are two main styles of the center of the painting. One is the same narrow and long center as the Hexi color painting and Xuanzi color painting, and the other is in the larger [wooden beam] ] On the rafters, the cores of the eaves purlins, eaves pads and eaves rafters may be connected together to form a large semicircle, commonly known as "baggage", forming a large core. Due to their large area, Su-style paintings have more flexible layouts and a wider range of painting themes, mostly using landscapes, figures, flowers, birds, insects, fish, and auspicious patterns. Color paintings are closely related to the surrounding environment, such as some palaces in the East and West Sixth Palace. Color paintings and indoor inlaid and carved furniture and various furnishings form a harmonious whole, which is more full of life. The Su-style paintings in the Qianlong Garden complement each other with the pavilions, landscapes, flowers and trees, forming a unique artistic style of Chinese palace gardens.