Travel notes of Shenyang imperial palace

After coming to Shenyang, the only scenic spot I want to visit is Shenyang Forbidden City.

When I was very young, I knew that Shenyang Imperial Palace was a well-preserved palace in China, second only to Beijing Imperial Palace in scale and value.

Just as An is the representative of Tang Wenhua, Kaifeng and Hangzhou are the representatives of Song Wenhua, Yinchuan is the representative of Xixia culture, and Shenyang is naturally the representative city of Qing culture. The things preserved in Shenyang Forbidden City are naturally concentrated in all kinds of cultural relics during the period before the Qing Dynasty officially entered the Central Plains. For me, they are almost the only things I can be interested in in in Shenyang.

The first thing that attracted me was a pair of stone lions and a group of people around them on the way to the entrance. This pair of stone lions have long been rusty, and the dust and dirt accumulated over the years have long since failed to see their true colors. The group of people around them are a group of young women in ancient costumes. Some of them are wearing Hanfu, some are wearing cheongsam, and some are wearing clothes that I can't tell what they should be called. When I passed them, they were twittering around the stone lions, as if they were communicating something, and their voices could almost catch up with those of the souvenir shop owner at the other end of the pedestrian street. Some people are still taking photos with this pair of beautiful stone lions, which are almost destroyed by years, or posing in various strange poses for selfies.

After passing the main entrance, the so-called "Great Qing Gate", I completely saw that the actual scale of Shenyang Imperial Palace was far from comparable to that of Beijing Imperial Palace. This is probably the best portrayal of the difference between local power and state power. However, judging from the main colors of the outer wall, the main entrance, the main hall, the Chongzheng Hall and the Longfei Pavilion and Xiangfeng Pavilion located on the left and right sides of the main entrance, the aesthetic appearance of Shenyang Forbidden City seems to be no less than that of Beijing Forbidden City. In my impression, the main color of most buildings in the Forbidden City in Beijing is warm and heavy goose yellow or orange yellow, which is luxurious and solemn; The main colors of the exterior walls of Shenyang Forbidden City and most buildings are almost big red, gorgeous and full of passion. I don't know if this is a metaphor representing the difference between "fighting a mountain" and "guarding a mountain". In addition, the order of Chinese characters and Manchu characters hanging above each plaque in Shenyang Forbidden City is also opposite to that in Beijing Forbidden City. However, the throne placed in the center of the main hall is not much different from the throne in the Forbidden City in Beijing, but the overall area is not that big. Standing at the main entrance of the main hall and looking in the direction of the throne, you can see two lifelike dragons, which may come back to life at any time and soar in the sky.

Located on the west side of the hall is a stage. Unlike the main hall, it has obviously not been carefully maintained or repaired, and its surface is covered with dust and stains that seem to be unable to be cleaned. It is empty, there are no cultural relics on the surface, and the room next to it is not open to the public. So few tourists will pay attention to it. After bypassing it, walk north along the road and you will find a very abrupt Wenshui Pavilion. According to the tour guide, since Wenshui Pavilion is a library pavilion, red represents the fire line in the five elements, and yellow can also represent the flame. Therefore, the color of the Warm Water Pavilion is not red, but mainly black, which represents the waterline, meaning to avoid the flame burning the books in the Pavilion. Its interior decoration is as simple as many ordinary study rooms, except for a desk, a chair, a pair of couplets, some books and a pen container with some pens. In the palace with bright red as the main color, such antique, dilapidated and even broken buildings are very out of proportion. However, it is indispensable for the monarch who governs the world.

After bypassing a crane pattern on the way to the back garden, a landscape pavilion appeared in front of you. Walking up the slope, there is a large grotesque rock pile in the corner of the yard, and a pavilion that can only accommodate a few people is firmly placed on the rock pile. From the angle of the slope, the pavilion surrounded by a large piece of white stone is very small and inconspicuous. Many grotesque white rocks are different from each other. They seem even stranger than what I saw in Confucius' House. Turning around, you can see a wisp of clear water flowing through the rocks. Clear water flows to the back door along the river on the edge of the rock, and makes a weak and crisp sound with the fountain in a black stone on the other side. The history textbook I have studied says that the ancestors of Manchu people were nomadic people who grew up between Baishan and Heishui. The moral of this scenery is probably the origin of this nation. In addition, there is not only a huge stone mill in the mill next to the back garden, but also the origin of traditional northeast dishes such as white meat, blood sausage and jar meat, and even the origin of hot pot. This is completely unexpected to me.

After climbing the wall on the south side of the back garden, a straight chimney first appeared in front. The height of this pagoda-shaped chimney is almost as high as that of the bedroom next to it, and the width of each floor decreases from bottom to top. Some people say that its height and number of floors may be related to the number of Qing emperors or the time they ruled. The tour guide elder sister, whose voice is so loud that she can almost completely drown out the voices of dozens of tourists, said that it was all groundless and had nothing to do with any emperor. However, the statue of Guan Gong hanging in Qingning Palace really makes many tourists, including me, very curious. The elder sister of the tour guide said that because Nurhachi didn't know much about the art of war when he first started his army, someone once gave him a copy of the annals of the Three Kingdoms. After that, Nurhachi took the History of the Three Kingdoms as the art of war for a long time. Therefore, apart from believing in Shamanism, the royal family in Qing Dynasty also had a tradition of worshipping Guan Yu. To this day, many Manchu people are still in a state of "believing everything". What also makes many tourists curious is the two cauldrons placed near the palace gate. The tour guide elder sister said that these two cauldrons were used to cook pork. Later, when the Qing emperors came back to worship their ancestors, they would send people to cook pork in a cauldron and let the ministers who worshipped their ancestors eat it together. It is said that some ministers who are not used to this fat and tasteless boiled pork will secretly put some salt or soy sauce in the ancestor worship ceremony to season when the emperor is not paying attention. After walking out of the palace gate, some tourists went to the window of the kang where Huang Taiji died to take pictures. But I think this place is a bit unlucky. I didn't take pictures with other tourists. Later, in the loud voice of the tour guide's eldest sister, another group of tourists and I successively entered the two palaces where Huang Taiji's two concubines once lived. The palace where the favorite princess lives is obviously better in lighting and bright in the room, and there are almost no corners where the sun can't shine. After walking to the center of the palace, the guide elder sister pointed to enough paper outside the kang and pointed to the crib hanging on the ceiling, telling us that there are "three monsters" in the northeast, namely, "enough paper to paste outside", "a big girl smokes a bag of cigarettes" and "hanging up after giving birth". Because the natural environment was harsh in those days, only by hanging the child with the crib could snakes, insects, rats and ants on the ground be prevented from hurting the child. The palace where the unloved concubine lives is very gloomy, and there is little sunshine in the room. Even during the day, some corners can only be seen when the lights are turned on. The elder sister of the tour guide told us that this princess was the later sourdrang queen. As long as you put her and her portrait of the emperor shunzhi together, you can see that although the emperor shunzhi doesn't look like Huang Taiji, she looks like her. Later, historians always compared her with Empress Dowager Cixi, saying that they just represented the rise and fall of the Qing Dynasty. Sourdrang queen created the world, and Empress Dowager Cixi brought disaster to the country and people.

After leaving the palace, a group of tourists came to the sacred pillar erected in the square. Magic poles are used to feed all kinds of rice and minced meat to crows. The tour guide also said that because Nurhachi was saved by crows, every generation of emperors in the Qing Dynasty worshipped crows very much. Every ancestor worship or ritual ceremony, shamans and wizards will put rice and minced meat on the top of the pole to feed the crows. A child said that it looked like a flagpole for raising the national flag, which caused a burst of laughter. Walking along the sacred pillar is the Fengtai that Huang Taiji once used to entertain guests. It used to be the tallest building in Shenyang during the Qing Dynasty, and the twenty-four steps upstairs and downstairs just represented the traditional twenty-four solar terms in China. From the bottom of the steps, it is more magnificent and wider than the main hall, and the whole building looks solemn and bright.

After leaving Fengge, I came to Dongsuo with another group of tourists. Go straight along the corridor and you will find the palace of the former empress dowager. There are also many grotesque rocks on both sides of the promenade. These rocks are like different animals, some like galloping horses, some like monkeys scratching their ears, some like tigers lying on the ground, and some like hunting dogs ready to go. The last stop after stepping out of the Imperial Palace is the main hall and square where large-scale activities are held, and eight pavilions representing the Eight Banners of Manchuria. The Eight Banners Pavilion shows the history of the formation and development of the Eight Banners in Manchuria, as well as various weapons and equipment. From short weapons to long weapons, from bows and arrows to ware, there are other articles such as armor, shields and flags. Among them, the introduction of various wire harnesses is more detailed. Everything from saddles to reins to whips. The regime from horseback naturally attaches great importance to equestrian and harness. Before this, I never thought that riding would have so much knowledge. After visiting the Eight Banners Pavilion, I also saw a man sitting on the steps in front of one of the pavilions, holding a selfie stick on his mobile phone and making a live broadcast of it. He first told the audience in the studio about the war between Nurhachi and Yuan Chonghuan, saying that Nurhachi died of grief because he was defeated by Yuan Chonghuan. Finally, he began to sell the audience a snack that I had almost never heard of. Few tourists noticed him except me.

When I left from the exit, I felt full. At least, I saw a lot of things and bought a good souvenir.

This is the biggest gain of my first visit to Shenyang.

2022.6.2 1