China News Service Client, Beijing, March 16th (Reporter Shangguan Yun) Today, many people walking into the Palace Museum will still be shocked by the beautiful and atmospheric ancient buildings in the Forbidden City. Countless efforts.
As a building that is unmatched in size and level in the Forbidden City, the Hall of Supreme Harmony has always attracted attention.
In the most recent popular book "The Hall of Supreme Harmony", Zhou Gan, a research librarian from the Palace Museum, told the history and stories about the Hall of Supreme Harmony, interpreting the superb skills of ancient Chinese architecture from the details.
Panoramic view of Supreme Harmony Square.
Photo by Zhou Qian
Why will the number of houses be changed in the fifth reconstruction?
Why are there ten little beasts on the roof?
In his narration, the magnificent Hall of Supreme Harmony also has little "secrets" that are unknown.
The history of the Hall of Supreme Harmony and the Fifth Reconstruction
The ancient buildings of the Forbidden City belong to the Ming and Qing official-style wooden ancient buildings. The main features are that the building contains bucket arches and the roof is mostly made of glazed tiles.
In history, the fate of the Hall of Supreme Harmony is very vicissitudes.
It has suffered fires many times and has been rebuilt many times.
Zhou Gan said that the Hall of Supreme Harmony we see today was completed in the thirty-sixth year of Emperor Kangxi (1697) of the Qing Dynasty. It belongs to the fifth reconstruction of the architectural form, and the person in charge of the construction is Liang Jiu.
Liang Jiu was a native of Shuntian Mansion (now Beijing) and the apprentice of the famous craftsman Feng Qiao.
On the third day of December in the eighteenth year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1679), six burning eunuchs accidentally used fire in the imperial dining room of the Forbidden City. As a result, a fire was triggered and the Hall of Supreme Harmony was destroyed.
Later, Emperor Kangxi was determined to rebuild the Hall of Supreme Harmony and appointed Liang Jiu as the chief of the project.
At that time, Liang Jiu was over 70 years old.
Since the Hall of Supreme Harmony was in ruins for 18 years after the fifth fire, many craftsmen who participated in the reconstruction of the Hall of Supreme Harmony did not even know the shape of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, let alone the detailed dimensions of the building.
Liang Jiu is very clever. With his strong memory, he made a model of the Hall of Supreme Harmony for the craftsmen to refer to when constructing.
Combined with the timber and other conditions, with the approval of Emperor Kangxi, Liang Jiu increased the number of rooms in the width direction of the Supreme Harmony Hall from nine to eleven, the number of rooms in the depth direction remained unchanged, and the overall size of the building remained unchanged.
In this way, the small-sized phoebe is used.
The front facade of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
Photo by Zhou Qian
Taking full account of the need for fire prevention, Liang Jiu removed the wooden sloping corridors at both ends when rebuilding the Hall of Supreme Harmony and replaced it with a brick wall.
He believes that every time the Hall of Supreme Harmony suffers a fire, the source of the fire comes into the Hall of Supreme Harmony along the inclined corridor.
"Today we saw the wall of the two ends of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which was ordered by Liang Jiu to be built. It can be said to be a typical example of the Great Firewall of China." Zhou Gan said. In addition, with the permission of Emperor Kangxi, Liang Jiu also ordered the Hall of Supreme Harmony to be built. The six Panlong gold pillars are made of pine wood, and the fundamental reason is that there is no large-sized nanmu.
Zhou Gan said that the six golden beauties next to the throne of the Hall of Supreme Harmony we see today are actually made of two pine woods and covered with a layer of copper.
"Decoration" of ancient buildings
When the main body of the house and building is completed, there is another link that consumes considerable energy, that is, "decoration."
The "decoration" of ancient buildings mainly refers to wooden structures with decorative functions such as doors, windows, furnishings, and ceilings.
In Zhou Qian's eyes, the "decoration" of the Hall of Supreme Harmony is a combination of luxury and luxury. It is not only the highest level of architectural decoration of ancient palaces, but also represents the essence of ancient architectural art.
The tortoise-back brocade sill wall of the Hall of Supreme Harmony and the three-pass and six-bowl diamond-patterned sill window.
Photo by Zhou Qian
For example, the partition doors and sill windows of the Hall of Supreme Harmony are made of three crossed six bowls of diamond patterns, which belong to the highest level of ancient architectural door and window decoration.
The characteristic of this kind of ornamentation is that the mullion in the middle and the two oblique sides intersect at one point, dividing the facade into six equal parts, and the border of each equal part is made into a diamond pattern, which looks like six bowls as a whole. The beauty of rhythm.
For another example, the throne of the Hall of Supreme Harmony is painted with gold lacquer cloud dragon patterns, and the material is made of nanmu. It is the extant throne of the Forbidden City with the most exquisite workmanship, the most luxurious decoration, the highest level, and the most exquisite carving.
"Painted gold paint is the top painting technique in ancient China. Generally, gold glue is applied to the wood base layer, and gold foil is applied three times, respectively, and then a layer of varnish (transparent lacquer) is applied. The lacquer is exquisite and does not Broken lines appear like ordinary lacquerware." He explained.
The exquisite and gorgeous "decoration" of the Hall of Supreme Harmony is reflected in many details.
Zhou Gan said that there is a well above the throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the full name is Longfengjiao, Cicada Yunlong, and octagonal golden dragonfly well.
The Zaojing of the Hall of Supreme Harmony is composed of three layers: the bottom layer is a square well, the middle is an octagonal well, and the upper is a round well.
This form integrates decoration and symbolism, and its complex architectural shapes are transformed into a kind of beautiful artistic beauty, coupled with the color of pure gold, to highlight the magnificence and beauty of the royal palace.
The ceiling and algae well of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
Photo by Zhou Qian
Why are there ten little beasts on the roof of the palace?
What's interesting is that people often hear a word in life, "five ridges and six beasts". The extended meaning is generally used to describe a person doing nothing and being uneasy.
When it is used in the field of ancient buildings, it refers to the roofs and small beasts of ancient buildings.
Roof ridge refers to the intersection of two sloping roofs. The hard mountain roofs of ancient buildings generally have five ridges, and the number of ridges for other types of roofs varies. Among them, the number of ridges for Xieshan roofs can be up to nine.
"There is no direct relationship between the level of ancient buildings in the Forbidden City and the number of roof ridges. In addition, there are generally varying numbers of small beasts at the ends of the roof ridges of ancient buildings, usually singular, and no more than nine." Zhou Qian explained.
Generally speaking, the names and order of the little beasts are: dragon, phoenix, lion, pegasus, seahorse, 狻猊, zhaoyu, 獬豸, bullfighting, and the order of pegasus and seahorse, 狻猊, and baiyu can be exchanged.
However, he said that the number of small beasts on the roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City is double dozens, and this is the only case in the Forbidden City.
What is the tenth little beast on the roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, that is, the shape of Lei Zhenzi.
When Liang Jiu was rebuilding the Hall of Supreme Harmony that year, he discovered that due to the changes in the total number of rooms in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the specifications of the roof tiles had to be adjusted accordingly. As a result, a space was left for the corners of the eaves in the four directions. The location can fit exactly one tile.
Therefore, Liang Jiu suggested to Emperor Kangxi that the roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony was originally nine small beasts, but one could be added to become ten small beasts; considering that the Hall of Supreme Harmony had been struck by lightning many times, the tenth small beast could be made The appearance of the god of thunder means to avoid lightning strikes in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
In addition, in front of the first little beast (dragon), there is a shape similar to that of an immortal riding a phoenix. It is called Jialingpinjia. It is a wonderful sound bird in Buddhism. It was introduced from India during the Sui and Tang Dynasties and served as the roof of the building decorations.
The ceiling and algae well of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
Photo by Zhou Qian
"The main purpose of the five-ridged six beasts on the roofs of the ancient buildings in the Forbidden City is to decorate and highlight the level of the building. The higher the level of the building, the greater the number of small beasts." From the perspective of cultural implication, Zhou Gan said, these Little beasts have strong characteristics of disaster prevention culture, we can also call it "town goods" culture.
The Grand Canal floats to the Forbidden City?
When it comes to the construction of the Forbidden City, there was a saying that "the Grand Canal floated to the Forbidden City", which was related to the transportation of construction timber.
Compared with ordinary wood, nanmu has the advantages of fragrant smell, no fear of insects, no fear of decay, etc. It is the finest wood for ancient palace construction and furniture production, but the problem is that its growth cycle is relatively long.
Zhou Gan mentioned that, including the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the wood used in the construction of the ancient buildings in the Forbidden City was nanmu. These nanmu originated from the deep mountains and old forest areas in Sichuan, Hunan, Shanxi, Zhejiang, Yunnan and other places. The wood is huge in size and diameter. Up to 2 meters.
Because of the large size and quantity of wood, transportation became a problem due to the limited conditions at the time.
The clever ancient craftsman thought that Nanmu could be transported to Beijing by water.
The specific method is: after the craftsman finds nanmu in the old forest deep in the mountains, he waits patiently until the flash flood occurs in the next year, then cuts down the nanmu, pushes it down the mountain, and then transports it to the nearby river.
"Hall of Supreme Harmony".
Image courtesy of publisher
These rivers are connected to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, allowing all the nanmu to flow into the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and drift to the water transport terminal in the Tongzhou District of Beijing today.
Of course, there are officials on duty along the way.
But Zhou Qian found that even so, historical data showed that at least 20% of the nanmu was missing on the "drifting" road.
After the nanmu "floats" to the water transport terminal, a special person drives the mule cart to transport the wood to the Forbidden City.
"It can be seen that the argument of'the Grand Canal drifting over to the Forbidden City' is basically reasonable." Looking back at many years of research experience, Zhou Qian always felt that the Hall of Supreme Harmony contains the essence of ancient Chinese architecture, and it will take a long time to study and interpret it. Dig deeper.
(Finish)