Characteristics of Traditional Royal Palace in China

The traditional royal palace in China is characterized by the surrounding of Miyagi, the front facing the back, the three dynasties and five doors, the symmetry of the central axis and the right society.

1. Surrounding Miyagi

As early as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the palace architecture formed a closed layout with the middle hall as the main part and the corridors around it, similar to the "quadrangles" of later generations. After the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, many countries fought for hegemony, and for safety reasons, they built city walls to form the earliest "city". Since then, the city has been applied to palace buildings.

2. Front facing and rear sleeping

The palaces of ancient emperors were courtyards composed of many houses of different sizes. This courtyard is generally divided into two parts: the former dynasty is the place where the emperor works, handles government affairs and holds ceremonies; The back bedroom is the place where emperors and empresses live. This layout was formed in the Zhou Dynasty, and it was inherited in later dynasties until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

3. Three Dynasties and Five Gates

The palaces of ancient emperors were called "nine palaces", that is, there were nine gates in front and five gates in the back. This system began in the Zhou Dynasty. There was a que in front of the gate of the palace in the Zhou Dynasty, also known as the Palace Que, which was used for observing, defending, revealing government decrees and accepting ministers as admonitions. Then there were five gates, namely, Gaomen, Kumen, Luomen, Yingmen and Lumen. The three dynasties refer to the outer dynasty, the inner dynasty and the Yan dynasty.

4. Axis symmetry

Most ancient palace buildings were composed of single buildings, and the courtyards were combined into huge buildings. In order to highlight the emperor's lofty and supreme authority, important royal buildings were built on the axis in turn.

5. Zuo Zu You She

"Zuo Zu You She" is a common form in the architectural layout of ancient palaces in China, that is, an ancestral temple was set up in the left front of the palace to worship the former emperor of the dynasty, which is also called the ancestral temple in China. Set up a social altar in front of the right of the palace to worship the earth god and the valley god. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Forbidden City built a ancestral temple in the left front of the palace and a social altar in the right front, which is a typical representative of the architectural layout of "Zuo Zu You She".