The Three Great Halls are the main buildings of the Forbidden City, and also the places where important state activities are held. The names, plaques and couplets of the three halls largely reflected the mainstream concepts of the society at that time.
The change of the names of the three halls
The name of Santang has been changed three times. The first time was the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the second time was the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the third time was the Hongxian monarchy period.
The prototype of the Forbidden City in Beijing is Miyagi in Nanjing. Emperor Yongle seized power through the Battle of South Beijing, ascended the throne and moved the capital to Beijing. He ordered the Forbidden City in Beijing to be built after the Forbidden City in Nanjing. The three halls before the Nanjing Palace Museum were called Fengtian Hall, Gaihua Hall and Shenshen Temple, while the Beijing Palace Museum remained intact and completely copied.
To understand Fengtian Temple, let's start with the Forbidden City in Nanjing. Ming Taizu was a civilian, and through hard work, he became the founding emperor. He thought it was the result of God's care, so he named the main hall of the palace (also known as the Golden Hall) Fengtian Hall, and stipulated that the imperial edict should begin with a fixed format of "Fengtian carries the imperial edict". To serve heaven is to respect destiny, that is, to be the son of heaven by yourself, not to stand on one's own feet, but to respect destiny. Named Fengtian Hall, it is precisely to reflect the idea of divine right of imperial power.
Behind Fengtian Hall is Gaihua Hall. Gai Hua, originally the stars of Ziweiyuan, consists of sixteen stars, guarding the Emperor Star like an umbrella. When the sky is mapped to the earth, the umbrella-shaped roof on the emperor's car is called the canopy. The name of the Forbidden City comes from Ziweiyuan, which is the imperial palace in the sky. Hua Gaixing was moved to the Forbidden City by Ming Taizu and became the Hall of Gaihua. Behind the Gai Hua Temple is a hall of reverence, which means that we should always reflect on ourselves and manage carefully.