History and Background

                                           

            The Forbidden City was built in 1406 by the first Ming Emperor of China, Yongle and served as the Imperial Palace for the emperor.  For almost 500 years the magnificent palace housed 24 emperors from the Ming dynasty (Bulliet 330).  According to Zhigang, the palace is called the Forbidden City because no civilians were allowed into the gates after the building of the structure was complete.  I think the Forbidden City was a symbol to the Chinese civilians that the Ming emperors valued their privacy and wanted to remind their empire of their elite power.    

                                                

http://www.chinaodysseytours.com/pictures-of-china/?level=picture&id=1608
http://www.terrafirmatourist.com/empire-of-the-great-ming-%E2%80%93-chinese-culture-and-tradition/

Bulliet, Richard W. The Earth and Its Peoples. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009. Print.

The Architectural Structure

The Forbidden City is located in Beijing, China. The palace is made up of over 900 buildings and the grounds include gardens, series of gates, marble bridges, temples, political meeting rooms and much more (Morel 18). The city has an approximate area of 720,000 square meters and is entirely enclosed by a wall measuring 10 meters in height (Zhigang 7).  The entire structure is amazing and is basically a city built within a city! Looking at the structure as a whole, it appears that the city is built symmetrically and seems to have overall balanced look and feeling. “The middle part of the palace is the largest and tallest, with the rest of the architectural structures extending out symmetrically from the central axis to form a unified completeness” (Zhigang 7).  According to Morel, the palace was built with the buildings facing the south to promote the positive principles of the yin and yang in Chinese culture.  It is amazing to think that so much hard work and planning went into the palace to ensure a balanced living space, or what the Chinese refer to as fengshui. 

           

 

http://www.123rf.com/photo_10840792_aerial-view-of-beijing-forbidden-city-at-dusk.html 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmn3Mv2U07s 

Yang, Zhigang. Beijing's Imperial Palace: The Illustrated Guide to the Architecture, History, and Splendor of the Forbidden City. Pleasantville, N.Y: Reader's Digest Association, 2010. Print.

Béguin, Gilles, and Dominique Morel. The Forbidden City: Center of Imperial China. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1997. Print.

 

The Meaning of Color

            Over the fourteen years spent to create the Imperial Palace, over 200,000 laborers and artisans worked to design and build every structure (Morel 17).  Every color, design, and art work in the palace has a deeper meaning that just pleasing the eye.  According to Morel different colors used in throughout the design of the palace conveyed several meanings.  In Chinese culture the color yellow is reserved for the emperor to represent his power and closeness to the level of god (Morel 17). When looking at the palace each roof is covered in yellow tiles, which I think can maybe symbolize that the emperor is the highest power just like the roofs are the highest areas of the structures.  In China the color red represents wealth, and honor which is why the walls of the palace are displayed in red.  The color red can also represent fire therefore the roof of the library is made of black tiles that symbolize the element of water (Zhigang 8).  Color played an important role in the design elements in the palace. Maybe the carefully selected color scheme provided the Ming with good luck because they ruled for many years! 

                                        

                                             

                                             
                                                                                      

http://globaltraveltorusim.blogspot.com/2013/01/Forbidden-City-Beijing-China.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaha9vluwfA 

Béguin, Gilles, and Dominique Morel. The Forbidden City: Center of Imperial China. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1997. Print.

Yang, Zhigang. Beijing's Imperial Palace: The Illustrated Guide to the Architecture, History, and Splendor of the Forbidden City. Pleasantville, N.Y: Reader's Digest Association, 2010. Print.