Tour the Forbidden City
by Xu Depei
About This Novel
I had the honor to visit the Palace Museum in Beijing in the early autumn of 2006. Entering from Tiananmen, you will face Duanmen. The dictionary explains that "Duanmen" refers to the south main entrance of the palace. Why is the south main gate of the palace also called Duanmen? This comes from the ancients' understanding of celestial bodies and their imagination of the relationship between heaven and man. In order to deify the imperial power, palace buildings in the past dynasties all used these understandings and imaginations as the design concepts. The same is naturally true for the construction of the Forbidden City. The three-layer structure of the palace city, the imperial city and the capital city symbolizes the three walls of Ziwei, Taiwei and Tianshi. Ziwei Yuan (North Pole) is located in the center, surrounded by stars, and remains unchanged forever. It is considered to be the residence of the Emperor of Heaven. The palace city on the ground is located in the center, which reflects that the emperor, as the "Son of Heaven", has his imperial power entrusted to the sky and is supreme. Its position corresponds to Ziwei Yuan where the Emperor of Heaven lives, and the Forbidden City got its name from this. Taiwei Yuan is located in the south of Ziwei Yuan. "Book of Jin Astronomical Records" says: "Taiwei is the court of the emperor", and the space between the two stars of Nanfan is called Duanmen. It can be seen that the end gate of the palace corresponds to the end gate in the star position.
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