Taking the Forbidden City as an example to analyze the layout regulations of ancient Chinese ritual buildings

The Forbidden City was built in 1406 AD and was basically completed in 1420. It was built by Emperor Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty.

The Forbidden City is 961 meters long from north to south and 753 meters wide from east to west, covering an area of ??approximately 725,000 square meters.

The construction area is 155,000 square meters.

It is said that there are 9999.5 rooms in the Forbidden City. According to the actual on-site measurement by experts in 1973, the Forbidden City has more than 90 large and small courtyards, 980 houses, and a total of 8704 rooms (and this "room" is not the current concept of a room, here

"Jian" refers to the space formed by the four pillars).

The palace city is surrounded by a 12-meter-high and 3,400-meter-long palace wall in the form of a rectangular city. There is a 52-meter-wide moat surrounding the wall, forming a castle with tight barriers.

The palace buildings of the Forbidden City are all wooden structures, with yellow glazed tile roofs, blue and white stone bases, and are decorated with magnificent colorful paintings.

The Forbidden City has four gates, the main gate is called Meridian Gate, the east gate is called Donghua Gate, the west gate is called Xihua Gate, and the north gate is called Shenwu Gate.

Facing the Shenwu Gate at the north gate, there is a Jingshan Mountain built of earth and stone, full of pines and cypresses.

In terms of the overall layout, Jingshan can be said to be the barrier to the Forbidden City complex.

The architecture of the Forbidden City is divided into two parts: the "outer court" and the "inner court" according to its layout and functions.

The "outer dynasty" and the "inner court" are bounded by the Qianqing Gate. To the south of the Qianqing Gate is the outer dynasty and to the north is the inner court.

The architectural atmospheres of the outer court and the inner court of the Forbidden City are completely different.

The outer dynasty is centered on the three main halls of Taihe, Zhonghe and Baohe. It is the place where the emperor held court meetings and is also called the "former dynasty".

It is the place where feudal emperors exercised their power and held grand ceremonies.

In addition, there are Wenhua Hall, Wenyuan Pavilion, Shangsiyuan and Nansansuo in the east of the two wings; there are Wuying Hall, House of Internal Affairs and other buildings in the west.

The inner court is centered on the three palaces behind the Qianqing Palace, the Jiaotai Palace, and the Kunning Palace. The two wings are the Yangxin Palace, the East and West Sixth Palace, the Zhai Palace, and the Yuqing Palace. There is the Imperial Garden at the back.

It was the residence of feudal emperors and concubines.

The Ningshou Palace in the eastern part of the inner court was built by Emperor Qianlong for his retirement after his abdication.

To the west of the inner court are Cining Palace and Shouan Palace.

In addition, there are buildings such as Chonghua Palace and North Five Palaces.

Architectural Features The Forbidden City was built strictly in accordance with the imperial capital construction principle of "the former dynasty and the later market, the ancestors on the left and the society on the right" in "The Rites of Zhou·Kaogong Ji".

In terms of architectural layout, the entire Forbidden City is combined into a whole using the techniques of shape changes and ups and downs.

Functionally consistent with the hierarchy of feudal society.

At the same time, the artistic effect of left and right balance and body change is achieved.

The roof forms of Chinese architecture are rich and colorful. In the Forbidden City building, there are more than 10 different forms of roofs.

Taking the 3 main halls as an example, the roofs are different.

The roof of the Forbidden City building is covered with various glazed tiles.

The main hall seats are mainly yellow.

Green is used for the buildings in the prince's residential area.

Other colorful colored glazes such as blue, purple, black, emerald, malachite green, sapphire blue, etc. are mostly used in gardens or on colored glaze walls.

There are glass-kissed beasts at each end of the main ridge in the roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, swallowing the ridge steadily and powerfully.

The kiss beast is beautiful in shape and is both a component and a decoration.

Some tiles create three-dimensional animal images such as dragons, phoenixes, lions, and seahorses, symbolizing auspiciousness and majesty. These components play a decorative role in the building.

The palace in front of the Forbidden City was required to be magnificent in architectural style at that time, with a clear and open courtyard, symbolizing the supremacy of the feudal regime. The Hall of Supreme Harmony was located in the center of the diagonal line of the Forbidden City. The designers of the Forbidden City believed that this would show the majesty of the emperor and shock the world.

The inner court at the rear requires deep courtyards and compact buildings, so the six east and west palaces are self-contained, each with its own gates and walls, arranged relative to each other in an orderly manner, coupled with couplets of palace lanterns and embroidered couches, all of which reflect the need for luxury.

The arrangements needed for life.

After the inner court is the palace garden.

In the back garden, there are green pines and cypresses that have not been carved in the cold weather, and exquisite rockeries made of beautiful stones. The buildings, pavilions, pavilions and pavilions are set among them, which is beautiful and tranquil.

The Forbidden City palaces are arranged along a north-south central axis. The three main halls, the three rear palaces, and the Imperial Garden are all located on this central axis.

And spread out to both sides, straight from north to south, symmetrical from left to right.

This central axis not only runs through the Forbidden City, but also reaches Yongding Gate in the south and Drum Tower and Bell Tower in the north. It runs through the entire city. It is magnificent, well-planned and extremely spectacular.

The Forbidden City is the result of the wisdom and sweat of the working people hundreds of years ago.

When it was first built, the number of enslaved workers included one hundred thousand craftsmen and one million slave laborers.

Under the social production conditions at that time, the ability to build such a majestic and tall building complex fully reflected the high intelligence and creative talents of the ancient Chinese working people.

At the same time, in order to build the Forbidden City, most of the wood needed to build the Forbidden City was collected from Sichuan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou and other places during the Ming Dynasty. Countless working people were forced to cut and transport wood in the primeval forests in the mountains.

Most of the stones used are collected from the outer suburbs of Beijing and the mountainous areas two to three hundred miles away from the suburbs of Beijing.

Each stone often weighs several tons or even dozens or hundreds of tons. For example, on the steps of the rear eaves of Baohe Hall, there is a Yunlong carved stone weighing about 250 tons.

Architects believe that the design and architecture of the Forbidden City is truly an unparalleled masterpiece. Its plane layout, three-dimensional effect, and majestic, majestic, solemn, and harmonious form. The building is majestic, luxurious, and magnificent. It is an ancient Chinese architectural art.

of essence.

It marks China's long cultural tradition and shows the outstanding achievements of craftsmen in architecture more than 500 years ago.