The Innermost Chinese Box
Beijing's innermost "Chinese box" is the Emperor's residence - The Palace City - popularly called "The (Purple) Forbidden City" or in todays official term, "The Palace Museum". From here all of China was governed -not just by a President or ruler but by the Son of Heaven himself.
Surrounded by a deep moat and an almost 10m high wall the Palace City laid well isolated and protected from the outside world. Only four gates led into the Palace City: Wumen (popularly "Wufengmen" - Building of Five Phoenixes) at the south, Shenwumen at the north, Donghuamen at the east and Xihuamen (Xuanwumen in Ming dynasty) at the west. Each gate served particular symbolic purposes and had separate entrances depending on what rank one held.
The Palace City could also boast four identical, but beautifully designed and decorated corner towers (picture left).
Best of all is that the entire Palace City remains intact, is well maintained and has been turned into a public museum. Thus, fortunately The Purple Forbidden City is no longer a "Forbidden City" for us mortals.
The construction of the Palace City commenced in 1406 on the order of the Ming Yongle Emperor (r.1403-1424) pictured right. It is an unsurpassed and superb demonstration of Ming architecture. The bold color scheme with its vermilion painted walls (the background color in above headers), imperial yellow glazed roof tiles, bright red lacquered columns and building bays and white marble staircases and terraces, creates an awe inspiring and stunning impression.
Some 200,000 workers and craftsmen spent 14 years to complete the entire Palace City including the surrounding wall and gates.
Why the PURPLE Forbidden City?
In ancient days the Chinese believed that the Heavenly King lived in the stellar constellation of Ziwei, the area around the North Star ("Zi", or "purple"). The Heavenly King's palace was therefore called "Zijin Cheng" litterally, "purple (zi) forbidden (jin) city (cheng)".
Logically the earthly royal counterpart, the Son of Heaven, lived in an earthly city counterpart, the "purple" forbidden city.
"The Forbidden City" is merely an English abbreviation of the real, full name of the imperial palace.
Nowadays, the Chinese generally refer to it as "Gugong", or the Former Palace.
Why the Palace MUSEUM?
Long after the fall of the last Chinese dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911), many people still subscribed to the concept of having one supreme ruler whose edicts would be followed unquestingly.
In a smart move to quell ideas of bringing back an emperor, the ruling government in 1924 evicted the last emperor, Pu Yi, and, subsequently, in 1925 reclassified the entire palace area to a "museum", thus clearly signalling that dynastic times were relegated to history and now belonged in a museum.