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Chinese palace

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Hall of Supreme Harmony within the Forbidden City of Beijing

A Chinese palace is an imperial complex where the court, civil government, royal garden and defensive fortress resided. Its structures are considerable and elaborate. The Chinese character gong (宮; meaning "palace") represents two connected rooms (呂) under a roof (宀). Originally the character applied to any residence or mansion, but it was used in reference to solely the imperial residence since the Qin dynasty (3rd century BC).

A Chinese palace is composed of many buildings. It has large areas surrounded by walls and moats. It contains large halls (殿) for ceremonies and official business, as well as smaller buildings, temples, towers, residences, galleries, courtyards, gardens, and outbuildings.

The world's largest palace to have ever existed,[1] the Weiyang Palace, was built by the Western Han dynasty on the order of the Emperor Gaozu. The world's largest palace currently still in existence,[2][3][4] the Forbidden City, was constructed by the Ming dynasty during the reign of the Yongle Emperor.

Main imperial palaces, in chronological order

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Model of Xianyang Palace (1st millennium BCE); with architectural styles typical of pre-imperial China
Archaeological evidence shows that the Daming Palace platforms were painted in rose red as opposed to the deep red of the later Forbidden City.
Games taking place in Northern Song palace gardens (c.10th century). These imperial 'backyards' often came with grand artificial lakes and man-made islands.
Linde Hall of Daming Palace, used for recreational purposes and the entertaining foreign embassies.
Frescoes depicting Tang architecture from the Mogao Cave.
Song palaces are known to be less grand than both its predecessors and successors, this was due to the relatively egalitarian zeitgeist and policies of the period (see Culture of the Song dynasty).
The Forbidden City as depicted in a Ming painting. Despite significant changes in architectural details, palaces' general layout remained somewhat constant.
Ruins of the Old Summer Palace, 19th century, before it was completely destroyed.
In the 1880s, a New Summer Palace was built by Empress Cixi for her 60th birthday at the expense of the National Defense treasury. Costing over 20 million taels, it was still much smaller than its predecessor.

Other palaces

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Apart from the main imperial palace, Chinese dynasties also had several other imperial palaces in the capital city where the empress, crown prince, or other members of the imperial family dwelled. There also existed palaces outside of the capital city called "away palaces" (離宮) where the emperors resided when traveling.

Imperial gardens

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The habit also developed of building garden estates in the countryside surrounding the capital city, where the emperors retired at times to get away from the rigid etiquette of the imperial palace, or simply to escape from the summer heat inside their capital. This practice reached a zenith with the Qing dynasty, whose emperors built the fabulous Imperial Gardens (御園), now known in China as the Gardens of Perfect Brightness (圓明園), and better known in English as the Old Summer Palace. The emperors of the Qing dynasty resided and worked in the Imperial Gardens, 8 km/5 miles outside of the walls of Beijing, the Forbidden City inside Beijing being used only for formal ceremonies.

These gardens were made up of three gardens: the Garden of Perfect Brightness proper, the Garden of Eternal Spring (長春園), and the Elegant Spring Garden (綺春園); they covered a huge area of 3.5 km2 (865 acres), almost 5 times the size of the Forbidden City, and 8 times the size of the Vatican City. comprising hundreds of halls, pavilions, temples, galleries, gardens, lakes, etc. Several famous landscapes of southern China had been reproduced in the Imperial Gardens, hundreds of invaluable Chinese art masterpieces and antiquities were stored in the halls, making the Imperial Gardens one of the largest museums in the world. Some unique copies of literary work and compilations were also stored inside the Imperial Gardens.

In 1860, during the Second Opium War, the British and French expeditionary forces looted the Old Summer Palace. Then on October 18, 1860, in order to "punish" the imperial court, which had refused to allow Western embassies inside Beijing, the British general Lord Elgin- with protestations from the French - purposely ordered the torching of this massive complex which burned to the ground. It took 3500 British troops to set the entire place ablaze and took three whole days to burn. The burning of the Gardens of Perfect Brightness is still a very sensitive issue in China today.

Following this cultural catastrophe, the imperial court was forced to relocate to the old and austere Forbidden City where it stayed until 1924, when the Last Emperor was expelled by a republican army.

  • Foxiang Ge (Tower of Buddhist Incense) at Wanshou Shan (Longevity Hill)
    Foxiang Ge (Tower of Buddhist Incense) at Wanshou Shan (Longevity Hill)
  • Aerial view of the Forbidden City (1900–1901).
    Aerial view of the Forbidden City (1900–1901).
  • Close-up on the left protruding wing of the Meridian Gate
    Close-up on the left protruding wing of the Meridian Gate
  • Gate of Manifest Virtue
    Gate of Manifest Virtue

Summer Palace

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Empress dowager Cixi (慈禧太后) built the Summer Palace or Yiheyuan (頤和園 - "The Garden of Nurtured Harmony") near the Old Summer Palace, but on a much smaller scale than the Old Summer Palace.[6]

More palaces

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Some other palaces include:

Recently, Chinese archaeologists have announced that they have found the ruins of an ancient Chinese palace in Dadiwan.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Spilsbury, Louise (2019). Ancient China. Capstone. p. 20. ISBN 9781515725596.
  2. ^ a b Bhutoria, Sundeep (2019). China Diary. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9781529045284.
  3. ^ a b Bushell, Stephen (2012). Chinese Art. Parkstone International. p. 41. ISBN 9781780429243.
  4. ^ a b Bandarin, Francesco; van Oers, Ron (2012). The Historic Urban Landscape: Managing Heritage in an Urban Century. John Wiley & Sons. p. 17. ISBN 9781119968092.
  5. ^ "伪满皇宫博物院 - 伪满皇宫前身是民国时期管理吉林、黑龙江两省盐务的吉黑榷运局官署。".
  6. ^ There are currently some projects in China to rebuild the Imperial Gardens, but this appears as a colossal undertaking, and no rebuilding has started.
  7. ^ Origin of Chinese Palaces Found, People's Daily, Tuesday, September 19, 2000
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