Viewing Red Walls and Golden Tiles: A Ming-Qing Palace Tour, Part 12: Outer Court Eastern Route – Wenhua Hall (Revised Edition)

My 2021 Forbidden City series, the seventeen-part serial 'Viewing Red Walls and Golden Tiles, Appreciating the Ming-Qing Imperial Palace', has received many readers' generous readership. Some readers offered opinions and suggestions, pointing out errors. This revised second edition has incorporated those suggestions, expanded some content, corrected slips of the pen, and added and updated some photos. While I dare not claim all mistakes have been rectified, most should be corrected. It records in detail the top ancient Chinese palace architectural art seen at the Ming-Qing Palace, some imperial relics on display, and traces of Qing court life, while also conjuring stories and legends from the palace. Not claiming 'to feast readers', I simply hope to share with you. Thank you.

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The Ming-Qing Imperial Palace is divided into the Outer Court from Wumen (Meridian Gate) northward, which includes the Three Great Halls; north of Qianqing Gate is the Inner Court, comprising the central Three Rear Palaces and the Six Eastern and Western Palaces. This layout is known as 'front court, rear residence.' Apart from the Three Great Halls on the central axis, the Outer Court also has buildings on the eastern and western routes, each with its own functions and history.

Exit through Xiehe Gate, which is set in the middle of the eastern corridor of Taihe Gate Square, and you're on the Outer Court's eastern route. Walk east from Xiehe Gate and you'll reach Donghua Gate. To the south of this road is a large complex—the Neige Daku (Grand Secretariat Archive), now the office of the Forbidden City Society. The sign there appears to be in the calligraphy of Mr. Qigong, very distinctive.

This complex was also built during the Ming dynasty. In the Qing dynasty, it housed the cabinets and document repositories of the Grand Secretariat. It held all sorts of archives, documents, etc., with those bearing red annotations called 'red copies', and there was a separate red copy storehouse. Many documents from the early Qing reigns of Shunzhi, Kangxi, and Qianlong were in Manchu. Here were also secretly kept Ming dynasty documents, including the 'Diaries of Activity and Repose' of Ming emperors, all housed in the Veritable Records Storehouse. After the Manchus entered the Pass, using these Ming archives together with the official Qing viewpoint, they compiled the last of China's Twenty-Four Histories, the History of Ming. The Manchus, lacking their own legal framework, adopted most Ming laws and systems, so they had to meticulously study these Ming records. Throughout Chinese history, the succeeding dynasty wrote the history of the preceding one. The Qing archives held in the Neige Daku were very complete, and the Republic of China intended to compile a History of Qing no less worthy than the History of Ming. The Beiyang Government organized a team and produced a Draft History of Qing, but due to haste, it was only an initial draft and never became a finished book. In 2004, the People's Republic of China re-mobilized scholars to compile the History of Qing, including experts from across the Strait studying Qing history.

The Ming dynasty archive was located outside the palace, in the Imperial City, at the southern end of Nanchizi Street in a building called Huangshicheng (Imperial Archives), built not during the Yongle era but in the Jiajing period. In the Qing dynasty, it was known as the Documents Hall.

Entering through the gate of the Forbidden City Society, between the western side of the Neige Daku and the palace wall is the Grand Secretariat Hall, where the Ming Grand Secretariat once worked. The courtyard faces south, but from the main road outside Xiehe Gate you can't see its entrance—only a toilet at the back of the hall. The gate of the Forbidden City Society was not open to visitors, so I could only walk along the narrow path by that toilet to its south to get a look. As it turned out, the gate to the Grand Secretariat Hall was also locked, and the alleyway had become a bike shed for staff.

I had no choice but to retreat and stand on the platform of Xiehe Gate, peering inside toward the Grand Secretariat Hall. I could not even glimpse the back of it, only the rooftop.

During the Ming dynasty, the Grand Secretariat ministers and the eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial were two rival factions vying for power. Eunuchs, being closer to the emperor and privy to more palace secrets, often gained greater imperial trust and wielded more real power than the secretaries. Notorious Ming eunuchs like Wang Zhen, Wang Zhi, and Wei Zhongxian all held heaven-reaching power. Memorials from across the empire were first sent to this courtyard’s Grand Secretariat, where secretaries would attach their opinions on slips of paper—this was called 'vote-drafting' (piao ni). The memorials with these notes were then sent to the emperor, who used his vermilion brush to annotate them, turning them into edicts—this was 'vermilion endorsement' (pi hong). The emperor often only annotated a few himself, leaving the rest to be endorsed by the chief eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial. Ostensibly, the eunuch endorsed them on the emperor's behalf, but in practice it served as a check by the inner court eunuchs on the outer court Grand Secretariat. This peaked in the Jiajing period, with fierce infighting between the Directorate and the Secretariat. After Jiajing’s death, his third son, Prince Yu, Zhu Zaihou (pron. Ji), ascended as the Longqing Emperor. Six years later, Zhu Zaihou’s eldest son, Zhu Yijun, succeeded as the Wanli Emperor. At his ascension, Wanli was only ten, and Senior Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng managed the vote-drafting while the chief eunuch Feng Bao handled the vermilion endorsements. Both Zhang and Feng had served in Prince Yu’s household, and their relationship was seamless. The first decade of Wanli’s reign was the most harmonious period between Ming imperial secretaries and eunuchs, enabling many of Zhang Juzheng’s reforms to be implemented and greatly strengthening the state. The Ming court governance system was highly sophisticated and influenced the West: the Western cabinet system was learned from the Ming, and the Western prime minister corresponds to the Ming Senior Grand Secretary.

Exiting Xiehe Gate, to the south is the Neige Daku; to the north is a grove of trees, but not a 'Jeta Grove' (read as Qishulin). You'll find a road through the trees leading to a palace gate.

This is Wenhua Gate, and beyond lies Wenhua Hall. Wenhua Gate is a south-facing building-style gate, five bays wide and two bays deep, with doors in the central bay and the two side bays—one large, two smaller. The end bays are enclosed, with low walls below and latticed windows above. Doors are set between the central pillars. This type of gate can be called a 'five-bay, three-opening' princely mansion gate; when doors are between the central pillars, it is also called a 'central-pillar gate'. The roof is covered in yellow glazed tiles with a single-eave hip-and-gable style, the beams and lintels adorned with 'double-dragon and hexi' paintings. Beneath the gate is a five-foot-high blue-brick base and a white marble platform, with three sets of stepped approaches in front, the central one featuring a carved marble slab, and the road leading straight to it is the imperial path.

Stand beneath the gate and take a look. The structure is open to the rafters, with bracket sets and post-and-beam construction. Looking in from the gate, a platform leads straight to the main hall, Wenhua Hall.

Wenhua Hall is laid out in an H-shaped plan: the front hall is Wenhua Hall proper, five bays wide and three bays deep, with a front platform and a yellow-glazed-tile single-eave hip-and-gable roof. The central bay has six double-leaf lattice doors, while the side and end bays have low walls and lattice windows. The window lattice patterns are of the highest grade—three interlocking six-petal clusters.

The front and rear halls are connected by a covered corridor. The rear hall is Zhujing Hall, five bays wide and two bays deep. Its plaque hangs inside the corridor.

On either side of the front hall are side halls. Look at the plaque of the eastern side hall: it’s called Benren Hall, now one of the Forbidden City bookstore outlets.

Wenhua Hall was built by Zhu Di in the early Ming dynasty. Its H-shaped plan reminds me of the layout of the Three Rear Palaces. As I mentioned before, in the early Ming the Three Rear Palaces had no central Jiaotai Hall; the front Qianqing Palace and the rear Kunning Palace were likewise connected by a covered corridor. In the twenty-first year of Jiajing’s reign (1542), the Renyin Palace Incident occurred: palace women rushed into Qianqing Palace at night to strangle the snoring, drooling Jiajing Emperor, but in their panic they failed to muster enough force. Finally, someone ran from the back door of Qianqing Palace through the corridor to Kunning Palace and woke the sleeping Empress Fang, who then rushed back through the same corridor to save the emperor. I also noted earlier that after the great fire of 1557, when Qianqing Palace was rebuilt, the rear corridor was replaced by Jiaotai Hall. So Wenhua Hall was built in the early Ming format of the imperial couple’s two palaces and has survived unchanged to this day. Seeing Wenhua Hall gives you a good idea of what Qianqing and Kunning Palaces were like in early Ming times, except that now the corridor has display boards blocking the view of the windows.

In the Ming dynasty, Wenhua Hall served as the emperor’s private audience hall, a retreat like the Golden Bell Hall of the Tang dynasty’s Daming Palace, where the emperor could relax in peace. A Wenhua Hall Grand Secretary was appointed, whose duty was to tutor the crown prince. Once the crown prince reached adulthood, the emperor-father would assign him some state affairs, which the prince handled here—this was called 'ascending the throne' (jian zuo). Starting with Emperor Yingzong (Zhu Qizhen), imperial lectures were held in Wenhua Hall. The emperor would periodically summon scholars from the Hanlin Academy or the Chancellor of the Imperial University to lecture on the classics or history, and he would require Grand Secretariat members, the Six Ministers, and other high officials to attend—this was known as 'jingyan', somewhat akin to today’s Politburo study sessions. The 'yan' in jingyan refers to the wine and meat feast served to the lecturers afterwards at the Xiehe Gate—then called Zuoshun Gate. The Hanlin Academy also held the marking of palace examination papers here. At the end of the Ming dynasty, when the rebel Li Zicheng set fire to the palace, Wenhua Hall was burned down.

In the early Kangxi reign of the Qing dynasty, Wenhua Hall was rebuilt according to the Ming system for Crown Prince Yinreng’s studies, and a Wenhua Hall Grand Secretary was appointed. Kangxi checked the Ming archives to see how Wenhua Hall was used and followed suit, also holding imperial lectures here. Qing princes did not 'ascend the throne' at Wenhua Hall, as Kangxi himself had ascended in childhood; Yinreng’s rebellion led Yongzheng to end open succession, after which there were no more Qing crown princes—Yinreng remained the only one. In the Qing dynasty, the Wenhua Hall Grand Secretary outranked the Ming version: one of the Three Halls and Three Pavilions Grand Secretaries, a first-rank official assisting the emperor with governance. The Wenhua Hall Grand Secretary seems to have been the highest among them; Heshen held this title, and Li Hongzhang also served as Wenhua Hall Grand Secretary. The 'Three Halls and Three Pavilions' are Baohe Hall, Wuying Hall, Wenhua Hall, Tiren Pavilion, Wenyuan Pavilion, and Dongge. Wuying Hall is on the corresponding western route of the Outer Court; Tiren Pavilion is the eastern side hall of Taihe Hall; Wenyuan Pavilion is behind Wenhua Hall; Dongge probably refers to the Grand Secretariat Hall, also called the Hall of Grand Secretaries—hence the Dongge Grand Secretary.

Today, Wenhua Hall serves as an exhibition space; it once housed ceramics, and now displays calligraphy and painting. The Ming-Qing palace collected countless paintings and calligraphies, most entering in the Qing dynasty, especially during Qianlong’s reign. Ming emperors, lacking literary flair, treated the works seized from the former Yuan palace as mere trophies. The Ming palace collection consisted mainly of confiscated items, including those taken from officials. After the death of his tutor Zhang Juzheng, the Wanli Emperor confiscated a huge number of paintings from Zhang’s home, locking them deep in the palace, neither viewing them himself nor showing them to others. In the Qing dynasty, the Manchus, with a fervent admiration for Han culture, gathered most of the world’s outstanding Ming paintings and calligraphies into the palace. Qianlong not only collected but often stared at them obsessively. He kept three famous calligraphy pieces by his pillow and named that corner the 'Hall of Three Rarities' (Sanxi Tang): Wang Xizhi’s Clear Skies After a Sudden Snowfall, Wang Xianzhi’s Mid-Autumn Manuscript, and Wang Xun’s Letter to Boyuan, all from the Jin dynasty. However, in the early Qing, when the emperor’s connoisseurship was weak, he was often deceived. During Kangxi’s reign, a Han official named Gao Shiqi, who later rose to first rank, taught the emperor Han culture and often presented ancient calligraphies and paintings. Many were forgeries, though high-quality ones. Gao kept a catalogue called Jiangcun Painting and Calligraphy Catalogue, noting items as 'not genuine, for giving away'; 'fine work, keep secret'; or 'authentic, divine, keep secret'. Some were noted as 'fake but good, can be palatable for the palace'—prepared for Kangxi. After Gao’s death, all these works entered the palace. Qianlong himself was badly duped: someone sold him a forged copy of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (the Ziming Handscroll) for 2,000 taels of silver—the masterpiece by Huang Gongwang of the Yuan dynasty, equivalent to Wang Xizhi’s Preface to the Orchid Pavilion. He couldn’t tell real from fake and insisted it was authentic. Later, when the genuine 'Useless Master Scroll' appeared, he stubbornly claimed the Ziming version was authentic, drawing secret laughter from his ministers. Today, both the genuine and fake versions are in the Taipei Palace Museum. After Qianlong scoured the world for art, the last famous painting to enter the Qing palace collection was Zhang Zeduan’s Along the River During the Qingming Festival from the Northern Song, confiscated from a henchman of Heshen in 1799. Currently, the earliest painting in the Forbidden City collection is Zhan Ziqian’s Spring Outing from the Sui dynasty, on silk, with colors and an inscription in the 'slender gold' script of Emperor Huizong of Song. Ancient Chinese masterpieces that survive to this day are extremely precious; many, many were destroyed by imperial hands. In 555 AD, the Western Wei general Yuwen Tai besieged Jiangling; before the city fell, Emperor Yuan of Liang, Xiao Yi, set fire to 140,000 scrolls of paintings, calligraphy, and books in the Eastern Pavilion—the 'Jiangling Book Burning'. Countless art treasures have been lost to the flames of war throughout history.

During the pandemic, when I visited, Wenhua Hall was hosting a special exhibition themed on Su Shi’s calligraphy and painting, titled 'Gallant Figures Through the Ages'.

Take a look at Su Shi’s original running-script calligraphy, Letter to Wang Jinqing. Su Shi lived openly and honestly, never hiding anything, and his calligraphy is equally sharp and unreserved.

A copy of Moonlit Jaunts from My Dinghui Temple Abode.

A Song-dynasty rubbing of Su Shi’s regular-script transcription of Ouyang Xiu’s Record of the Joyful Pavilion.

Su Shi’s Remembering the Red Cliffs, written by the Yongzheng Emperor.

After the Su Shi exhibition ended, Wenhua Hall closed for a new setup. Once the pandemic peak subsided, a new exhibition opened, titled 'Courtly Rituals and Paragons', showcasing portrait paintings from the Palace Museum collection. Since it’s portraits, imperial portraits are a must. Here’s Ming Taizu, Zhu Yuanzhang.

The palace holds two handsome portraits of Zhu Yuanzhang, one full-length and one half-length; the one above is the full-length version. There are also eleven ugly portraits, with a protruding chin like a shoehorn and a pockmarked face. It’s said the ugly ones are more realistic, and historical records describe Ming Taizu as having a 'five peaks facing heaven' visage. When Zhu Yuanzhang joined Guo Zixing’s rebel army, Guo saw him as 'extraordinary in appearance, unlike ordinary men'. Even a fortune-teller proclaimed his 'countenance indescribably noble'.

Now, a portrait of Qianlong in court robes.

This is a portrait from his youth, meticulous in detail. Look closely at his dragon robe—completely different from Zhu Yuanzhang’s, showing the gap between Ming and Qing dragon robes.

Observe this Qing-dynasty painting by Chen Shu, Illustrating King Tang’s Net with Three Sides Open, bearing the 'Treasure Appreciated by Qianlong' seal.

This tells a story. King Tang, the founder of the Shang dynasty who overthrew the Xia, was known for his benevolence. While still a vassal of the Xia, he went on an outing and saw a bird-catcher setting a net that enclosed all four sides. The catcher prayed: 'Birds from east, west, south, north, sky and earth, enter my net!' Seeing such ruthlessness, Tang also set a net, but left three sides open, praying: 'Escape through those three sides; only those who wish to die may enter my net.' People witnessed Tang’s compassion and flocked to him, gradually swelling his power until he won the empire.

Go around Wenhua Hall to the rear, and there is another building.

In the 17th year of Jiajing’s reign (1538), a Shengji Hall was built behind Wenhua Hall. 'Ji' means healing or medicine, so 'Shengji' typically refers to medicine. Before that, the imperial dispensary was called the Imperial Pharmacy; once Shengji Hall was built, the pharmacy was renamed Shengji Hall, which also served as a shrine to famous physicians through the ages. When Li Zicheng set the palace ablaze, Shengji Hall was also destroyed. In the Qing dynasty, the imperial pharmacy moved to the inner court—specifically, the Shou Pharmacy at the north end of the west wing of Kunning Palace, while the Imperial Pharmacy was in the east wing of Qianqing Palace. The Imperial Pharmacy’s superior agency was the Imperial Academy of Medicine, located at the western end of Dongjiaominxiang during the Ming and Qing, roughly where the Tiananmen police station is today. The Academy had a clinic inside the palace, tucked against the inner wall of Donghua Gate, north of the Shangsi Yard, along the Inner Golden Water River. The Shangsi Yard was the imperial stables—a suitable workplace for 'Bi Ma Wen' (the Monkey King’s post). The Academy had specialists treating the emperor and his family, stationed at the Imperial Pharmacy in the east corridor of Qianqing Palace. Here’s a glimpse of the Shangsi Yard and the clinic.

In the first year of Yongle (1403), Zhu Di tasked the Senior Grand Secretary Xie Jin with compiling a comprehensive anthology of Chinese texts. A year later, the Great Collection of Literature was produced. Zhu Di flipped through it and found it too thin, so he summoned the monk Daoyan (Yao Guangxiao) to supervise Xie Jin’s revision and expansion. In the fifth year of Yongle, Zhu Di personally reviewed and finalized it, titling it the Yongle Encyclopedia. Only one original set of over 10,000 volumes existed, which Zhu Di brought to Beijing and stored in Wen Hall—now the Tiren Pavilion, the east side hall of Taihe Hall. After the great palace fire of 1557, Emperor Jiajing, fearing for the encyclopedia’s safety, hired scribes to produce a duplicate set, the Jiajing copy. The original was then kept in Wen Hall, and the copy in the Imperial Archives (Huangshicheng). It’s said Jiajing adored the Yongle Encyclopedia so much that he demanded the original be buried with him in his Yongling mausoleum. However, when he died, transcription was incomplete—only 8,000 volumes finished. When the Qing dynasty took over, the Wen Hall original was missing, and only the 8,000-volume Jiajing copy remained in Huangshicheng. Over time, the copy scattered; today, around 400 volumes survive in eight countries, with just 160 in the National Library of China in Beijing.

Despite the Yongle Encyclopedia’s massive scale, Emperor Qianlong thought little of it. In the 38th year of his reign (1773), he ordered the establishment of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries editorial board, appointing his sixth son, Yongrong, as President, and Dongge Grand Secretary Liang Guozhi as Vice President. The infamous Heshen later served as President in 1780, then the Chief Grand Secretary. Another well-known figure, Ji Xiaolan, served as Chief Compiler from start to finish—the President was a managerial role, while the Chief Compiler was the professional lead. To house the collection, Qianlong decreed the construction of a library in 1774. The site chosen was the ruined Shengji Hall behind Wenhua Hall, and in 1776 the grand building was completed, with Qianlong personally inscribing the plaque 'Wenyuan Pavilion'. The Four Treasuries refer to Classics, Histories, Masters, and Collections. Classics are Confucian masterworks, including the Book of Changes and Book of Songs—not the scriptures brought back by the Tang monk. Histories cover dynastic histories and mirrors of governance, including the Twenty-Four Histories. Masters are the writings of various schools, a miscellany covering agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, divination, music, chess, cooking, and more. Collections are literary anthologies, including poetry, song lyrics, rhapsodies, and novels; the Tang monk’s scriptures fall here.

Wenyuan Pavilion is a two-story building on a five-foot blue-brick base, appearing as two floors from outside, but with a hidden mezzanine under the waist eaves, making it effectively three stories. It is five-and-a-half bays wide and two bays deep, with bracket sets and post-and-beam construction. The upper floor has a single-eave hip-and-gable roof of black glazed tiles with green trim, while the lower floor features a single-eave flush-gable roof with a front veranda. The veranda doesn't have a railing but a decorative latticework paneling; under the beams above are inverted hanging panels. Above the green glazed eave band, no bracket sets are visible, and the second floor lacks a balcony railing. This structure is completely different from Tiren Pavilion or Hongyi Pavilion; it resembles a tower more than an imperial hall. In front of the central bay is a stepped approach without a carved marble slab. Uniquely, it has five-and-a-half bays, with the central bay not in the middle; the extra half-bay is the westernmost end. To make the throne in the central bay appear centered, a wall was added between the western secondary and end bays, with the stairs hidden behind it. Some say the Forbidden City has 9,999.5 rooms, that half room being this one. But Wenyuan Pavilion is two bays deep, so two half-bays would make one whole room. Actually, four pillars with a roof count as one room, so the half-room is a myth. A 1970s survey counted 8,707 rooms. The entire wooden structure is painted green, with Suzhou-style circular and interlocking patterns on the beams, not the imperial hexi painting. The building looks less like imperial architecture and more like a garden pavilion. In front is a pond surrounded by white marble balustrades, with a stone arch bridge in the center. According to garden design principles, this round pool is called a 'fish pond'.

Qianlong borrowed the name Wenyuan Pavilion from the Ming dynasty; there was indeed a Wenyuan Pavilion in the Ming palace, also used for storing books. Rumors abounded whether it was a mere elegant name or an actual building. Archaeological investigations around Wenhua Hall have largely confirmed that the Ming Wenyuan Pavilion was the cluster of buildings now known as the Neige Daku, south of Wenhua Hall. In reality, the Ming Wenyuan Pavilion was a book repository—a two-story brick and stone structure like Huangshicheng at Nanchizi, with iron doors and windows, no wood, fireproof. It was merely a storehouse, not a true pavilion, leading to many misconceptions. Thus, Qianlong’s naming of his library as Wenyuan Pavilion was not fabricated but based on the Ming precedent. He turned the Ming imperial book repository into a genuine library pavilion.

In addition to building Wenyuan Pavilion here to house the Siku Quanshu, Qianlong also built other library pavilions: Wenjin Pavilion at the Chengde Mountain Resort, Wenyuan Pavilion in the Old Summer Palace, and Wensu Pavilion in Shenyang’s Imperial Palace—together with Wenyuan, these are the Four Northern Pavilions. In the south, he built Wenhui Pavilion at the Yangzhou temporary palace, Wenzong Pavilion on Jinshan in Zhenjiang, and Wenlan Pavilion by West Lake in Hangzhou—the Three Jiangnan Pavilions. These are the so-called Seven Pavilions of the Four Treasuries, all named with a character containing the water radical for fire protection. And you know, Qianlong’s trick worked; none were ever struck by lightning. Only wanton arson by ignorant villains destroyed them.

All seven library pavilions were modeled after the Tianyi Pavilion of the Fan family in Ningbo. In the 11th year of Jiajing’s reign (1532), a Ningbo native named Fan Qin passed the imperial examinations as a jinshi. Fan Qin, certainly an avid reader, came from a wealthy family and bought books rather than stealing them like Kong Yiji. As his collection grew, he built a three-room building called Dongming Cottage. Wherever he served as an official, he continued to acquire books. Fan Qin loved reading more than officialdom; in 1559, while serving as Vice Censor-in-Chief of Southern Jiangxi, he was promoted to Vice Minister of War, but instead of taking the post, he resigned and returned home to organize his books, bringing back countless volumes gathered over the years. Two years ago, I visited Guangfu Ancient City in Handan and mentioned the local gazetteer Guangping Prefecture Gazetteer in my travelogue. Compiled in the Chenghua period and expanded in the Jiajing period, Fan Qin brought that Jiajing edition home—the earliest surviving local gazetteer. With too many books for Dongming Cottage, he built a new library called Tianyi Pavilion within his residence, housing over 70,000 volumes. His descendants maintained the tradition, keeping it a private library closed to outsiders. It wasn’t until 1673 that Huang Zongxi (alias Mt. Pear), who argued 'the world is primary, the sovereign secondary', became the first outsider to read there. This boosted Tianyi Pavilion’s fame, and Qianlong learned of it. Impressed that the library had preserved books for over a century, he sent men to measure and survey it, then replicated the design for the Seven Pavilions. Tianyi Pavilion contributed six or seven hundred volumes to the Siku Quanshu and allowed Ji Xiaolan access. In Yangzhou during the Qing, the Ma brothers’ Xiaolinglong Mountain Hall had an even larger collection, over 100,000 volumes, and donated more to the Siku project. After the family fell, the library was sold to the salt merchant Huang Zhiyun, who moved it to his estate and renamed it the Congshu Tower; it still stands today in Yangzhou’s Geyuan Garden. Such is the story of these book repositories.

Qianlong had good reasons for choosing the Shengji Hall site: first, Wenhua Hall in front lent it cultural weight; second, the site had a river in front. Tianyi Pavilion had a pond; Wenyuan Pavilion would also have water. The fish pond in front is part of the Inner Golden Water River, which flows east from Taihe Gate, turns north past Xiehe Gate, then bends east in front of Wenyuan Pavilion, and finally south into the Tongzi River. I suspect the river originally passed in front of Wenhua Hall but was diverted here by Qianlong.

The entire exterior of Wenyuan Pavilion is decorated in cool tones, and the roof uses black glazed tiles—black represents water in the Five Elements, meant to suppress fire. Yet to the east of this cool building stands a warm-toned pavilion with red walls and golden tiles. Let's take a closer look.

It’s a stele pavilion, with bracket sets and post-and-beam structure, solid walls between the pillars. The roof is a four-sided helmet shape with an inverted-bowl finial at the ridge—very distinctive. The Forbidden City has all sorts of roofs: single-eave, double-eave, hip, gable-and-hip, flush gable, overhanging gable—each type appears on more than one building. Even the rare hollow truncated roofs appear on all well pavilions. But this helmet roof is not only rare, it’s the sole example in the entire palace. Inside the pavilion is a stele carved with Qianlong’s own Record of Wenyuan Pavilion, quite lengthy.

Standing before the stele pavilion, look at Wenyuan Pavilion’s side gable wall. You can see the white mortar lines between bricks—this grey face with white pointing is called 'silk surface wall', often used in garden architecture.

The Siku Quanshu project was planned from 1772, with a first draft completed by 1782 and final completion in 1792—a twenty-year process. Qianlong was immensely proud; the Siku Quanshu far exceeded the Yongle Encyclopedia in scale, encompassing nearly 80,000 scrolls of Chinese cultural texts up to that time. He hired a large number of copyists to produce seven sets, stored in the Seven Pavilions. The first set was deposited here at Wenyuan Pavilion, and Qianlong not only composed his Record of Wenyuan Pavilion but also treated all involved editors and copyists to a grand feast at the pavilion. Each copyist received a bowl of wontons. Sichuan copyists, upon returning home, raved about the extraordinary flavor, and thereafter Sichuanese called wontons 'chaoshou' (folded hands). This is a playful tale. In Hunan, when making wontons, you place the wrapper on your left palm, dip a chopstick into the filling, smear it on the wrapper, twist the chopstick, then pinch the sides—thus 'chaoshou' (crossed hands).

Though comprehensive, Qianlong’s compilation also destroyed many texts he disliked—banned books were certainly not included. Moreover, much was altered, revealing the dark side of the Siku Quanshu: preserving books while destroying history. In this, Ji Xiaolan was Qianlong’s accomplice. Of the seven copies, the Wenyuan Pavilion set is now in Taiwan; the completely original Wenjin Pavilion set, including early Jiaqing-era supplements, is at the National Library of China and is its crown jewel; the Wensu Pavilion set is in the Gansu Provincial Library; and the Wenlan Pavilion set in the Zhejiang Provincial Library. The rest were destroyed by war.

After seeing Wenyuan Pavilion, you must exit the same way through Wenhua Gate.

The Manchu Qing emperors were sticklers for ritual, always offering sacrifices to their ancestors. When holding lectures at Wenhua Hall, the emperor would first lead everyone through a side gate to the Chuanxin Hall to the east, to perform a sacrificial rite. Chuanxin Hall is a courtyard east of Wenhua Hall, containing several rooms, the most important being the hall itself. It is five bays wide and three bays deep, like Wenhua Hall, but much smaller. Inside are spirit tablets of imperial exemplars, called the Imperial Teachers, the Sovereign Teachers, and the Royal Teachers. The Imperial Teachers are Fuxi, Shennong, and Xuanyuan (Yellow Emperor); the Sovereign Teachers are Yao and Shun; the Royal Teachers include Yu the Great, King Tang, Kings Wen and Wu of Zhou, and the Duke of Zhou (King Wu’s brother); Confucius is enshrined as an attendant. The emperor presided, essentially declaring to these ancestors: 'I shall follow your example and be an enlightened ruler. These people I’ve brought are my tutors; they will expound your teachings. If I err, it’s their fault—punish them, not me.' The name 'Chuanxin' derives from the Book of Documents: 'The human mind is precarious, the moral mind is subtle. Be refined and single-minded, hold fast to the Mean'—the sixteen-word heart-transmission from Shun to Yu.

In the courtyard of Chuanxin Hall there is a well called the 'Grand Kitchen Well'. Its water is said to be sweet and pure, almost like nectar, giving rise to the palace saying: 'Jade Spring is first, Grand Kitchen second'. The well pavilion is unusual: most well pavilions in the palace have yellow-glazed-tile four-corner pointed hollow roofs; the two in the Imperial Garden have eight-corner versions. But the Grand Kitchen Well pavilion has a yellow-glazed-tile overhanging gable roof with a skylight—this style appears in only one other spot, which I’ll mention later. Because of its significance, the Ming and Qing court held an annual sacrifice to the Well God here in the tenth month; according to folklore, the well god was Liu Yi, whose original well is by Lake Dongting.

Chuanxin Hall is now an office for the Palace Museum, and visitors are generally kept away so as not to disturb the staff. You can only glimpse its outer wall and gate from a distance.

(To be continued)