What colors are there in the Forbidden City? What are the humanistic connotations and meanings of colors?

The overall color of the Forbidden City is mostly red and yellow.

One of the most striking features of ancient architecture in China is the collectivity of architecture. The Forbidden City can be said to be the most prominent representative of this architectural group. It covers an area of 720,000 square meters with nearly 1,000 large and small buildings, all of which are colored. Therefore, the spatial environment of the Forbidden City is determined by the tonal environment. So, what are the characteristics of the color environment here?

To study the color of architectural environment, we must first talk about the great role of the whole. People enter Miyagi from Tiananmen Square through the meridian gate. The sky is blue. Under the blue sky is a golden glazed tile roof. Under the roof are green colored paintings. Under the eaves are rows of red columns and red doors and windows. The whole palace is located on a white stone abutment with a dark gray brick floor under the stage. This blue sky and yellow tiles, blue-green paintings and red columns, red doors and windows, white abutment and dark ground all form a strong contrast, giving people a very bright color infection. So in terms of color, the overall color effect of the Forbidden City is bright and strong.

What needs to be explained is why the buildings of the Forbidden City all use yellow roofs and red houses. Yellow is one of the five colors. The Book of Changes says, "Heaven is mysterious, but it is like rehmannia". In the ancient theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, the five colors are matched with five sides and five elements, and the earth is in the middle, so yellow is the central positive color. The yellow robe became the emperor's special costume. In 960 AD, Zhao Kuangyin, the general of the Later Zhou Dynasty, went out to war. The generals took the opportunity to hold him as emperor, dressed him in yellow robes and became the first emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty. Yellow is associated with the emperor. Red is also one of the main colors. Humans have known red for a long time. Archaeologists found red shells and animal teeth in caves where Neanderthals lived, which were judged as the earliest decorations for human beings. This shows that human beings regard it as a beautiful color. Red gives people hope and satisfaction and makes people feel beautiful, so people will regard red as a festive color; According to the regulations of the Ming dynasty, all memorials dedicated to the emperor must be red, which is the so-called little red book. The Qing dynasty also had a similar system. All the chapters approved by the emperor are wholesale by the cabinet in Bamboo Book, also known as the red edition. From this point of view, according to the etiquette system of feudal society, it is inevitable that the Forbidden City takes yellow and red as the main colors of the building.

The Color Layout Science of the Forbidden City

The emperor's demand for palace architecture is naturally that the overall spirit should be great, the building should be gorgeous, and the power and majesty of feudal emperors should be reflected as much as possible. In order to meet this requirement, in addition to the planning and layout of the building, the combination of spatial changes and the shaping of the architectural image, the contrast method is also applied in the architectural color. In chromatics, contrast refers to cold and warm contrast and complementary color contrast. The so-called complementary colors mean that when two colors are mixed and superimposed into white light, and two colors are fused together to become gray-black, these two colors or colors are called complementary colors, such as red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange. Putting cold and warm colors or complementary colors together can set off each other, making it more lively and the effect more eye-catching. And because of the adjustment of human vision itself, the two contrasting colors are neutral and balanced. This contrast rule is widely used in the architecture of the Forbidden City. Under the blue sky, with a single yellow glazed tile roof, with turquoise painted and bright red palace walls, stone pillars, doors and windows, and with white stone foundations and dark ground, blue and yellow, green and red, white and gray-black form a strong contrast, resulting in an extremely bright and magnificent overall color effect of the palace building.

The color of the Forbidden City not only has overall planning, but also attaches great importance to details.

People should not only look at the overall effect from a distance, but also look at the details from a close distance. Large areas of contrasting colors are obviously prominent together, but if they are not further carefully treated, the effect is limited. The color management of the Forbidden City building pays great attention to this aspect, which includes both large-scale operation and meticulous scrutiny.

The Emperor's Hall of Ningshou Palace is a main hall used when Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty abdicated to become emperor, so the decoration is very luxurious, with colors from the roof to the pedestal for decoration. Under the eaves are turquoise buckets and foreheads, and below are big red columns and doors and windows. Here, the dark blue and green color paintings under the eaves form a color contrast with the bright red columns, doors and windows, which is the overall effect; But careful observation shows that the pad between buckets under the eaves is red, and the pad between two foreheads is also red; Four pairs of blue couplets are hung on the eaves column and the golden column below. That is to say, there are red ribbons and colored blocks under the eaves of blue-green paintings, and blue colored strips on the doors and windows of red pillars. The two contrasting main colors permeate each other. Although it is only a small part, it will not destroy the overall color effect, but will play a neutral balance role. This phenomenon of red color infiltrating into green color painting can be seen in many other buildings in the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City successfully used color contrast.

Another way to reconcile the contrast between cool and warm colors is to use black and white. Objects completely absorb natural light and become black, while total reflection is white. Black is contractive and white is radioactive. They can be put together with any cold and warm colors, which not only won't appear abrupt but also add luster to other colors, so they are often used in painting and clothing.

China ancient craftsmen also adopted this kind of black, which is always silent and absolutely nothingness. In the garden of Ningshou Palace in the Forbidden City, the beams under the eaves are mainly painted in blue and green, which is in sharp contrast with the red columns and doors and windows, and even makes people feel a little stiff. Here, in addition to the green pane and the red paint beam, black is especially used to penetrate and coordinate with each other. Black ink lines are used at both ends of lacquer beams, and black door frames are used at the top of eaves gallery. Although this door frame stands out among the red columns, it is in harmony with the beam square above and plays a transitional role in the two parts with strong color contrast.

The ancient craftsmen who built the Forbidden City applied the effects of color on people's physiology and psychology, created various color environments, and successfully achieved the architectural artistic effect pursued by palace buildings.