Gazing at Red Walls and Golden Tiles: Appreciating the Ming–Qing Imperial Palace, Part 17: The Palace of Compassion and Tranquility and the Palace of Longevity and Health (Part 2, Revised Edition)

The 2021 version of my serialized posts on the Forbidden City, ‘Gazing at Red Walls and Golden Tiles: Appreciating the Ming–Qing Imperial Palace,’ reached its seventeenth installment, and many readers were generous with their time in reading it. Among them, some offered suggestions, pointed out errors, and shared their thoughts. For this revised second edition, I’ve incorporated those readers’ comments and suggestions, expanded some content, corrected slips of the pen, and updated and added images. While I can’t claim to have fixed every mistake, most have been corrected. It records in detail the pinnacle of ancient Chinese palatial architecture seen while appreciating the Ming–Qing imperial palace, some of the imperial cultural relics on display in the museum, and traces of royal life in the Qing palace. It also touches on some stories and legends associated with the Ming–Qing court. I wouldn’t dare say it will ‘delight the reader,’ but I hope to share these observations with you. Thank you.

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The Qing imperial palace had three north–south axes. The central axis runs from the Meridian Gate to the Gate of Divine Prowess, cutting right through the heart of the palace. The eastern route has an axis in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity area, stretching from the Gate of Imperial Supremacy north to the Pavilion of Pleasant Scenery. The western route also has an axis: starting from the rear Great Buddha Hall of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, it runs south through the main hall of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, the Gate of Compassion and Tranquility, the Gate of Enduring Trust, all the way to the South Heavenly Gate. Standing at the Gate of Compassion and Tranquility and looking south, you face the Gate of Enduring Trust straight ahead, and through it you can glimpse the South Heavenly Gate far in the distance.

The Gate of Enduring Trust was called the Gate of Eternal Peace in Ming times. Inside is a long, narrow north–south little plaza.

At the south end of the plaza is the South Heavenly Gate; to the west is the Gate of Embracing Scenery, both simple glazed-tile gates built flush with the wall. Research suggests this area was within the great inner precincts of the Yuan dynasty’s Dadu imperial palace. In the early Ming, Zhu Di had it torn down and built the front hall of the aforementioned Renshou Palace, called the Hall of Great Benevolence, which burned down during the Jiajing reign. When the Jiajing Emperor built the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility for his mother, Empress Dowager Jiang, he turned this spot into a garden. Five or six years ago, when the Palace Museum was digging cable trenches here, they uncovered the rammed-earth foundations, ground nails, and piles of the underground portion of the Hall of Great Benevolence — what professionals call concealed works. A section of old floor tiles has been preserved in the middle of the plaza. The area east of the wall is now closed to the public; it used to house the Qing imperial workshops and is now the Palace Museum’s Conservation Skills Department. Beyond the Gate of Embracing Scenery lies the Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, repaired several times during the Qing dynasty. The garden is not large — roughly the size of the Qianlong Garden. There are not many buildings; the central structure is the Xianruo Pavilion.

The Xianruo Pavilion is five bays wide and three bays deep, with a three-bay portico in front. It stands on a two-foot-high platform; the portico’s central bay has a door, with imperial steps out front. It has a single-eave hip-and-gable roof of yellow glazed tiles, while the portico has a rounded-ridge hip-and-gable roof. Surrounding it is a covered corridor with plum-blossom-shaped columns, and wind chimes hang under the diagonal ridges.

The Xianruo Pavilion has been well restored in recent years. Take a look at the roof structure inside. Painted flat ceilings with peony designs, and on the beams and lintels are ‘dragon and phoenix’ hexi-style paintings — some original, some touched up. Experts have studied the characteristics of the bracket sets and say the main hall of the Xianruo Pavilion dates from the Ming Jiajing period, and the portico was added during the Qing Kangxi reign.

In the Qing dynasty, after a former emperor passed away, the empress and consorts moved into the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, the Palace of Longevity and Health, and the surrounding smaller rooms. Only during the New Year and other festivals would the emperor come to pay respects. In daily life they had nothing to do; they couldn’t expect the departed emperor to console them, but at least they no longer fought for favor. Once these consorts came to terms with it, they spent all day worshipping Buddha, attending every morning, noon, and evening session. The empress dowager had her own private shrines in both the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility and the Palace of Longevity and Health, and other consorts set up shrines and incense burners by their bedsides and brick beds. But they could come to this Xianruo Pavilion to pay homage to the grand Buddha. Look at the arrangement of the inner shrine.

This shrine is laid out according to Tibetan Buddhist rules. In the very front row are five cast-bronze ritual vessels — tripod, candleholders, and vases. Behind them is a row of wood-carved, gold-pasted vases; inside both front and back vases are wood-carved, gold-pasted coral trees. Further back is an offering table displaying the Eight Auspicious Symbols, and we’ve seen a set of Eight Auspicious Symbols inlaid with gemstones in the Treasure Gallery. Inside the shrine there is no statue; it seems this niche was meant for hanging a painted Buddha thangka. Embroidered silk banners hang from the beams, many of them faded.

South of the Xianruo Pavilion is the Pavilion by the Stream, built by the Wanli Emperor’s own mother, Empress Dowager Li, mentioned earlier.

The Pavilion by the Stream is a three-bay square structure, with doors on all four sides in the middle bays; the doors and windows have simple diagonal lattice patterns. The short walls of the side bays are faced with glazed tiles, decorated with corner and central carved designs, extremely gorgeous. Above, there are bracket sets and beams, a single-eave pointed roof of yellow glazed tiles with blue-trimmed edges, and a gilded orb atop a glazed dew basin as the ridge fixture. The pavilion is built over a lotus pond, surrounded by a ring of white marble balustrades.

Above is a flat ceiling with peony-painted panels and a painted caisson with coiling dragons. The Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility is a secluded spot, rich in atmosphere, and quite effective at attracting lovely ladies and butterflies. Every so often a beautiful woman appears, stepping into the doorway and dropping her fan like a cast-off shoe. It turns out a photographer has been crouching on the pool’s balustrade, taking the N-th photo for her personal photo album.

Besides adult beauties who come here for vintage-style photos, there are also youthful beauties.

The Pavilion by the Stream is a ladies’ domain; gentlemen should retreat three li. And where is that? By the foot of the wall.

Around the Pavilion by the Stream are rocks, trees, and cool shade. South of the pavilion is a flower bed planted with peonies (herbaceous peonies, sháo yào).

Originally, there was a pavilion at each end of the flower bed — Green Fragrance Pavilion to the east and Green Cloud Pavilion to the west. There was also a well pavilion against the south wall on each side, which channeled water along small ground-level conduits into the pond of the Pavilion by the Stream. Green Fragrance Pavilion, Green Cloud Pavilion, and the two well pavilions are all gone now. In their place, side halls were built against the east and west courtyard walls, each five bays wide and one bay deep. Take a look at the west side hall. Inside, it displays some imperial furniture made of golden nanmu wood, and sells small souvenirs.

North of the Pavilion by the Stream, corresponding to the south flower bed, is a north flower bed where peonies (tree peonies, mǔ dān) are planted. When in season they bloom for the retired consorts to enjoy. In the Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, peonies and herbaceous peonies are widely planted — even the ceiling paintings indoors feature them. This may be because the peony’s large, elegant, and magnificent blossoms have long been celebrated as the national beauty and heavenly fragrance, a fitting tribute to former empresses and noble consorts, suggesting this is a peony garden populated by retired national beauties. Was there another reason for planting so many peonies?

The main hall of the Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, the Xianruo Pavilion, has east and west side halls: the Tower of Precious Aspects to the east and the Tower of Auspicious Clouds to the west, both similar in design. Let’s look at the east side’s Tower of Precious Aspects, a two-story building seven bays wide, with a covered corridor on the front at both levels. This is one of the Six-Class Buddha Towers I mentioned in the earlier post about the Palace of Tranquil Longevity when discussing the Tower of the Buddhist Canon, but most of the Buddha images and thangkas here have been lost. If you can’t see the Tower of the Buddhist Canon, you can look at this Tower of Precious Aspects to get the idea.

Now look at the west side’s Tower of Auspicious Clouds.

It’s also a Buddhist shrine, containing ten thousand Buddha-mother images — those tiny tsatsa clay idols. This is the only Ten Thousand Buddha Hall in the palace and the only tsatsa-style Ten Thousand Buddha Hall in Tibetan Buddhism.

South of the Tower of Precious Aspects is a small courtyard called the Lodge of Purity, and opposite, south of the Tower of Auspicious Clouds, there’s another small courtyard called the Hall of Prolonged Life.

The Hall of Prolonged Life is tiny, with two small successive courtyards and a flush-wall gate on the side. In the first courtyard, the main building is three bays wide and three bays deep, with covered corridors front and back, and a three-part continuous rounded-ridge gable roof of grey tiles. This three-part continuous roof is not only rare in the palace but also uncommon in the outside world; viewed from the side, it has a wave-like, ‘one wave pushes another’ feel, very distinctive. The second courtyard houses the bedroom, only one bay deep, with a rounded-ridge gable roof of grey tiles. Both the Hall of Prolonged Life and the Lodge of Purity were built by the Qianlong Emperor. After he moved his own mother, Empress Dowager Chongqing, into the Palace of Longevity and Health, his idea was that if the Empress Dowager fell ill, he would stay in the Hall of Prolonged Life to brew her medicine — hence ‘prolonging life.’ Upon her death, he planned to spread a straw mat and sleep on the ground in the Lodge of Purity as a mourning rite, called ‘shàn cì’ — to extend her life in heaven. But in reality, Qianlong never actually lodged here.

North of the main hall of the Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, the Xianruo Pavilion, there is another building called the Tower of Compassionate Shade.

The east and west side halls of the Xianruo Pavilion, the Tower of Auspicious Clouds and the Tower of Precious Aspects, are both seven bays wide. But to match the Xianruo Pavilion, the Tower of Compassionate Shade is five bays wide and also two stories tall. On the east, west, and north sides of the Xianruo Pavilion stand two-story buildings with single-eave hip-and-gable roofs of yellow glazed tiles, making the pavilion seem as if seated in a mountain embrace. In front, the Pavilion by the Stream has a pond below, so the Xianruo Pavilion faces south, with hills on three sides and water on one — exceptionally good feng shui. The Tower of Compassionate Shade was a sutra repository, which once held the Tibetan-language Kangyur. In essence, the Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility is a Tibetan Buddhist temple, complete with a Buddha hall, a Six-Class Buddha Tower, a Ten Thousand Buddha Hall, and a sutra repository.

The extreme east bay of the Tower of Compassionate Shade is a passageway door, leading to a small gate opening directly onto the plaza of the Gate of Compassion and Tranquility; inside the passage it is very dark.

Above in the passage is a flat ceiling with Suzhou-style painted panels — again peonies and herbaceous peonies.

After visiting the Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, return to the plaza of the Gate of Thriving Imperial Clan. From the west side of the plaza, follow the outer wall of the Left Gate of Eternal Well-being all the way north to the end. On your right — that is, on the east side — is the Gate of Initiating Good Omen, which is the western end of the first transverse alley of the West Six Palaces. The area outside the West Six Palaces is not perfectly symmetrical with the eastern route, a result of Qing-era renovations, especially during the Qianlong reign.

Walking east through the Gate of Initiating Good Omen, you enter the first transverse alley of the West Six Palaces, and ahead is the Hall of the Supreme Pole. Turning back to face the Gate of Initiating Good Omen and walking west to the end brings you to the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health, behind the Palace of Longevity and Health. In the early Ming, the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health was called the Palace of Complete Splendor, and after renovation during the Jiajing reign it was renamed the Palace of Fully Secured Safety. This palace also served as quarters for former Ming imperial consorts; during the Longqing era, Lady Chen, an honorable concubine of the Jiajing Emperor, lived here. But there were exceptions. During the Tianqi reign, the wet nurse of Emperor Xizong (Zhu Youxiao), Madam Ke, once dwelt here. By convention, Ke should have lived in the West Second Residence, but Zhu Youxiao made an exception and let her stay in the Palace of Fully Secured Safety, and even married her off to Wei Zhongxian. Wei and Ke divided their tasks: Ke was responsible for destroying the inner palace consorts, which resulted in Zhu Youxiao having no sons, and he eventually passed the throne to his younger brother, the Chongzhen Emperor, Zhu Youjian. Ke lived in the Palace of Fully Secured Safety until Emperor Xizong’s death; after she moved out of the palace she was captured by Chongzhen, flogged to death in the laundry house.

In the early Qing, the Palace of Fully Secured Safety was abandoned and unused. During the Kangxi reign, Yinreng, the crown prince, was held here under house arrest after being deposed twice, and died here in the second year of the Yongzheng reign. After Yongzheng succeeded, he established an official school in the Palace of Fully Secured Safety — a kind of imperial academy for royal sons. In the sixteenth year of Qianlong (1751), in order to hold the sixtieth birthday celebration for Empress Dowager Chongqing, the school was moved out, and the Palace of Fully Secured Safety was renovated and renamed the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health. Qianlong erected a temporary three-story stage behind the front hall, the Hall of Spring Celebration, and the emperor and empress dowager watched performances from the rear hall, the main hall of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health. Ten years later, for her seventieth birthday, the temporary stage was no longer adequate, so a permanent three-story grand theater was built. This grand theater should have been similar to the Pavilion of Pleasant Sounds in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, but was built earlier. During the grand birthday ceremony, Qianlong arrived early in a sedan chair to the sound of drums and music, waiting for the Empress Dowager at the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health. The music stopped only after she arrived, and the two began eating fried dough sticks and drinking soybean milk. Then followed the customary ‘ninefold celebration’ theatrical routines; around nine or ten o’clock, snacks like steamed cornbread were served. At two or three in the afternoon, the evening meal began, with wine this time, lasting until four when the tables were cleared — all accompanied by grand opera. Nowadays, at big company annual galas, the tradition of eating while watching performances is learned from old Qianlong; those who can’t afford troupes let employees themselves sing and dance on stage. After the banquet, the ministers withdrew first by side doors, while Qianlong led the princes in escorting the Empress Dowager to the gate of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health. Then Qianlong took his sedan chair home; when he was out of sight, the remaining princes scattered like birds.

In the fourth year of the Jiaqing reign (1799), after Qianlong died, the Jiaqing Emperor demolished the three-story grand theater in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health, imposing nationwide austerity on entertainment — fewer operas, fewer songs. Now, inside the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health stands a five-bay hall facing north, rebuilt from the makeup house after the theater was torn down in the Jiaqing period. After Jiaqing’s death, the Daoguang Emperor arranged for Jiaqing’s Consort Ru to live in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health, turning it into a retirement home for former consorts. During the Xianfeng reign, Consort Ru moved to the Palace of Longevity and Health, and some imperial concubines and ladies of the Daoguang Emperor, such as Consort Jia, were settled here. The last to die, in the sixteenth year of the Guangxu reign, was Consort Jia. After the Tongzhi Emperor’s grand wedding, both Empress Dowager Ci’an and Empress Dowager Cixi were to move back to their original Palaces of Accumulated Purity and Eternal Spring, respectively. It is said that during the renovation of the Palace of Accumulated Purity and the Palace of Eternal Spring, Empress Dowager Ci’an rested briefly in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health, and Empress Dowager Cixi rested briefly in the Palace of Longevity and Health. Today the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health serves as the library of the Palace Museum and is closed to visitors; I don’t know if it will ever be vacated, restored, and opened.

East of the eastern wall of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health, in a position corresponding to the Long Eastern Corridor on the eastern route, there is a north–south side lane. Following it north leads to a temple behind the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health. This temple inside the imperial palace is not called a temple — it is the Hall of Illustrious Splendor, which underwent major repairs in 2011. Why do I say it’s a temple? Inside the Forbidden City there are many places for worshipping Buddha, not just one large or small shrine; even the Palace of Earthly Tranquility has a place for shamanic rites. But only the Hall of Illustrious Splendor here has a mountain gate, so it qualifies as a temple. Although it has a mountain gate, it could not have a bell and drum tower; even if built they would be useless, because the emperor forbade striking bells and drums. Past the mountain gate stands a Gate of Illustrious Splendor, but there are no statues of heavenly kings inside, so it cannot be called a Hall of Heavenly Kings. After passing through the Gate of Illustrious Splendor, a raised path leads directly to the main hall behind, the Hall of Illustrious Splendor, which is five bays wide and three bays deep. Midway along the path stands a Qianlong stele pavilion. The presence of a Qianlong stele pavilion on the path recalls the one on the path beyond the Gate of Harmony at Yonghe Temple. The Hall of Illustrious Splendor has a single-eave hip roof of yellow glazed tiles, which is quite special on this western outer court route.

In the Ming dynasty, the Hall of Illustrious Splendor was called the Hall of Abundant Blessings and was already an imperial Buddhist temple, housing Tibetan Buddhist-style statues, commonly referred to as ‘Western Buddhist images.’ During the Yuan dynasty, Phagpa, the fifth patriarch of the Sakya school, was honored as Imperial Preceptor by Kublai Khan, and Tibetan Buddhism began spreading widely in the interior. By the early Ming under Zhu Di, it was the early period of Tsongkhapa’s founding of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, and Tsongkhapa was already in close contact with the Ming central authorities. Although Ming religious policy prioritized Confucianism and used Buddhism and Daoism as auxiliary, it did not reject them and was open to Tibetan Buddhism. Zhu Di once invited Lama Halima to the capital and honored him as Imperial Preceptor. So it’s entirely plausible that Zhu Di enshrined Western Buddhist images in the Hall of Illustrious Splendor. Later, the Qing dynasty further venerated Tibetan Buddhism, so retaining the Western Buddhist images here would not have been an issue. However, the Hall of Illustrious Splendor is currently closed, and I’m not allowed in, so I couldn’t thoroughly investigate the images there.

The most famous miracle associated with the Ming dynasty was Empress Dowager Li, mother of the Wanli Emperor, who claimed to be an incarnation of the Nine-Lotus Bodhisattva. After the Wanli Emperor’s grand wedding, Empress Dowager Li withdrew from the Palace of Heavenly Purity and moved into the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility. After that, she took Buddha worship as her mission — unceasing worship as long as she lived. She built the Pavilion by the Stream in the Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility and caused nine lotus blossoms to bloom in the pond beneath. She also planted one tree on each side of this Hall of Illustrious Splendor — two in total — calling them Nine-Lotus Bodhi trees. Coming from a maid’s background, she had a humble, direct understanding of Buddhism; that pond and these two trees were her realization of ‘A single flower is a world; a single tree is a bodhi.’ The bodhi tree is a type of fig, fond of growing in the tropics, with wild specimens in Nepal. It can survive in South China, but not wild — only under cultivation. North of the Yangtze, it can’t survive even when cultivated. Years ago, during a visit to China, Nehru gave Chairman Mao a sapling cultivated from the very tree under which Shakyamuni attained enlightenment; it was planted at the Beijing Institute of Botany and is said to have survived — maybe in a greenhouse. Tests show the two ‘bodhi trees’ at the Hall of Illustrious Splendor are a kind of linden tree called kang-duan (Tilia mandshurica). This tree has a nickname, ‘bodhi tree,’ and is often planted in temples in northern China. So the two Nine-Lotus Bodhi trees have been famed ever since, and even the Qianlong Emperor called them bodhi trees; by the Qing period they had multiplied to seven. The Hall of Illustrious Splendor became well known inside and outside the palace because of these two trees, giving some spiritual solace in their later years to the former consorts quartered in the rear palace.

Walking west from the Gate of Initiating Good Omen you enter a side lane. At the end stands the Palace of Tranquil Longevity and Health. Halfway along are three glazed-tile flush-wall gates; this is the Gate of Spring Splendor, called the Gate of Coagulated Splendor in Ming times.

On the palace wall outside the Gate of Spring Splendor, you can see a patch where the bricks are exposed. During the Ming dynasty, the outer walls of the Forbidden City were not plastered — the bricks were left bare. The walls here are not the outer city wall but a ‘palace wall,’ which is plastered and painted red on the outside. To make the plaster last, hemp fibers were sometimes mixed in. At the top, glazed tiles are corbeled out to create eaves, capped with glazed tiles forming a wall hat, with a ridge on top and animal ornaments at the ends. This section of exposed brick seems to have been deliberately stripped of its plaster to show the core.

This intersection is guarded by sentries and they won’t let me through; I can only gaze at the Gate of Spring Splendor from afar. If I could pass, I could enter the Gate of Spring Splendor to see the largest Buddhist chapel in the imperial palace, the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers, the tallest building on the western route of the Forbidden City. Standing in the courtyard of the Hall of the Supreme Pole, you can glimpse a corner of the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers’ roof. From the northwest corner of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, you can see the upper story of the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers and also the White Pagoda in Beihai Park.

Viewed from a distance, the roof of the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers is quite peculiar, reminding me of the roofs of the Hall of Pristine Wisdom at the Xiangshan Zhaomiao Temple and the Hall of the Wheel of the Law at Yonghe Temple. This type of roof is called a golden roof; it’s not glazed tile but gilded copper tiles, and all the fittings are copper gilded with gold. The highest-level Tibetan Buddhist temples and halls all have such golden roofs, like the Potala Palace in Lhasa.

To facilitate governing Mongolia and Tibet, Qing emperors promoted Tibetan Buddhism. Hong Taiji granted the Bazhou Living Buddha the title of Nomun Khan Living Buddha, Emperor Shunzhi honored him as the State Preceptor Chechen, and the Kangxi Emperor appointed the Changkya Living Buddha as State Preceptor. At the suggestion of the third Changkya Living Buddha, the Qianlong Emperor decided to build a mandala shrine inside the palace and chose the site inside the Gate of Coagulated Splendor. It is said that this was the location of the Three Great Halls of Mystical Merit, a Daoist temple built by Zhu Di in the early Ming; the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers stands where the front hall was, with the Middle Hall, the Hall of Precious Splendor, and the Rear Hall, the Hall of Ultimate Mystery behind it. In the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers was completed — a three-story square pavilion with three bays on each side, a portico in front, and covered corridors on all four sides; the portico has a rounded-ridge hip-and-gable roof. The lower two stories of the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers are covered with glazed tiles, and there is a mezzanine between the first and second floors. The third story is a pointed-roof pavilion with a Tibetan-style finial and a Qing-style inverted bowl stupa as the ridge ornament. Including the mezzanine, the pavilion actually has four levels. On the four diagonal ridges of the roof are gilded running dragons, and flying dragons decorate the eave corners. The interior of the pavilion is arranged according to the four divisions of Vajrayana Buddhist practice. The first floor is the Kriya (action) wisdom stage; in the center is a gilt-bronze statue of Shakyamuni Buddha, flanked by the main Buddha of the Kriya division, Amitayus. Behind the shrine stand three famous small purple sandalwood pavilions with double-eave roofs, enclosing three cloisonné enamel mandalas. These three mandalas are the only existing cloisonné enamel mandalas in the world, peerless treasures absent even in Tibet. The mezzanine is the Carya (performance) virtue stage, housing nine gilt-bronze Buddha statues, with the Resplendent Bodhi Buddha in the center, flanked by buddha-mothers and vajra deities. The second floor is the Yoga division, with five gilt-bronze Buddha statues; the main Buddha is Vairocana. The topmost attic is the Anuttarayoga division, enshrining three bronze-gilt ecstatic union statues. In those days, the Changkya Living Buddha participated in the planning, reviewed the designs, and supervised construction, so the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers fully conforms to the doctrines of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. It was originally intended to imitate the mandala hall of Tholing Monastery in Tibet, but that monastery has deteriorated over time and is no longer intact; so this pavilion is the most complete four-division Vajrayana Buddhist hall in China today. This chapel in the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers had no resident monk and did not admit outsiders; it was Qianlong’s personal private Buddhist chapel. Don’t be misled — old Qianlong paid homage to everything: Tibetan Buddhism, Han Buddhism, Mahayana, Hinayana, heavenly deities, the spirits of emperors, Confucius, Mencius, the Cheng brothers, Zhu Xi, and all manner of Buddhas, sages, and gods; yet no one really knows what he believed in his heart.

The rear hall behind the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers is the Hall of Precious Splendor, also a Tibetan Buddhist shrine. The Hall of Precious Splendor is not large: three bays wide and one bay deep, with doors in both the front and rear middle bays making it a through passage; the side bays have short walls and windows, and there is a rear portico. It has a single-eave hip-and-gable roof of yellow glazed tiles. There’s no raised platform, but in front are two prayer-flag pillars on either side and an incense burner at the door. This should be the original Ming-era Hall of Precious Splendor that survived; Ming temples often had rear porticos attached to the main hall, like the main hall of Zhihua Temple in Beijing. According to inner court records, this Hall of Precious Splendor was repaired in the eleventh year of the Daoguang reign (1831). Behind the Hall of Precious Splendor, a straight passage leads to the Hall of Central Uprightness behind it, and between the two halls stands a Pavilion of Fragrant Cloud. The Hall of Central Uprightness and the Pavilion of Fragrant Cloud were destroyed by a fire during the Republican era, leaving only their platforms. The Hall of Precious Splendor still stands, enshrining Buddha statues and painted thangkas, all Tibetan Buddhist — that is, Western Buddhist images. According to Ming records, during the Chongzhen period, the Hall of Central Uprightness was located on the site of the Longqing-era Hall of Exalted Virtue, and in the early Ming, the Hall of Exalted Virtue was called the Hall of Ultimate Mystery. This Hall of Ultimate Mystery and the later Hall of Exalted Virtue served as the Ming imperial three-pure-ones temple, dedicated to the Celestial Worthy of Primordial Beginning, the Celestial Worthy of Spiritual Treasure, and the Celestial Worthy of the Way and its Power.

Inside the Gate of Spring Splendor, this lama temple held regular activities — that is, Buddhist rituals — during the Qing period. We ordinary folk seize any pretext to celebrate a festival, even the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. On festivals we eat dumplings, mooncakes, or glutinous rice balls — sweet stuff. Monks don’t crave food; they seize a pretext to hold a festival too, and when they do, they perform rituals. So during the Qing dynasty, lamas were constantly holding activities here at the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers and the Hall of Central Uprightness, and the emperor would come to light incense and the like. After the Qing fell, the activities ceased, and the place fell into neglect. But many fine things remained, including records and objects. These later proved immensely useful. In 1995, relying on the detailed records kept by successive central governments conferring titles on the Panchen Lamas, and on descriptions of the golden urn, specialists from the Palace Museum provided crucial information to a special envoy sent by the State Council to the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa to preside over the Golden Urn drawing ceremony. This identified the six-year-old boy Gyaincain Norbu as the reincarnation of the tenth Panchen Lama. The golden urn used was bestowed by the emperor in the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong (1792). There are two such urns: one in Jokhang and one in Yonghe Temple. The Yonghe Temple’s gold-and-gem-studded urn has been publicly displayed.

Behind the West Six Palaces and the Hall of Central Uprightness, the Ming dynasty had the Five Western Residences of the Qianqing Palace, symmetrical to the Five Eastern Residences behind the East Six Palaces, also quarters for imperial sons. The crown prince lived in the Palace of Quiet Delight; other princes scattered here and there, in these Five Residences, and also in the Three Southern Residences. The early Qing continued this practice. During the Kangxi period, after the crown prince Yinreng was deposed, the emperor had him seized from the eastern Palace of Quiet Delight and taken to the western Palace of Fully Secured Safety. From then on, the Qing dynasty no longer publicly named a crown prince. In the fiftieth year of Kangxi (1711), the household of Prince Yong (later the Yongzheng Emperor) gained a precious son, named Hongli. In the sixtieth year of Kangxi, the emperor chanced upon this grandson and greatly took a liking to him, saying, ‘This grandson I’ll raise in the palace for my amusement.’ Although Prince Yong was reluctant in his heart, he knew this was a signal from Kangxi. Sure enough, the next year Prince Yong, against the odds, ascended the throne. Not long after, Yongzheng installed Hongli in the Palace of Quiet Delight and also wrote Hongli’s name on a piece of paper, tossing it behind the ‘Upright and Brilliant’ plaque in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. By custom, a prince after his grand wedding should move outside the palace, but Yongzheng made Hongli and his consort, the Lady Fuca, move into the Second Residence of the Five Western Residences of the Qianqing Palace within the palace — a clear hint to Hongli. A few years later, Yongzheng enfeoffed Hongli as Prince Bao of the First Rank and named the Second Residence the ‘Hall of Joyful Benevolence.’ After Hongli ascended the throne as the Qianlong Emperor, the Second Residence of the Five Western Residences became the Dragon’s Lair. Qianlong would no longer let anyone else live there, lest the occupant presume to be a hidden dragon. He also merged the First, Second, and Third Residences and rebuilt them into the Palace of Multiple Splendors, making it a memorial hall for his princely residence. The name ‘Multiple Splendors’ (Chonghua) derives from the ‘Canon of Shun’ in the Book of Documents: ‘This indicated that Shun could continue Yao, valuably doubling his splendor of culture and virtue.’ The character ‘zhòng’ should actually be read as ‘to value,’ but everyone pronounces it as ‘chóng,’ meaning ‘double’ or ‘multiple.’ Because this palace subtly implied that Qianlong possessed the merits of Emperor Shun, the emperor didn’t dare write an inscription when it was completed; only forty-eight years into his reign did he boldly compose the ‘Record of the Palace of Multiple Splendors,’ acknowledging, ‘To match the resplendence of the ancient emperor — how can it be easily spoken of?’

Follow the West Second Long Lane through the middle of the West Six Palaces north to the end, and you reach the Gate of a Hundred Sons. Exiting the Gate of a Hundred Sons brings you to an east–west transverse alley; turn right and you immediately see the Gate of Multiple Splendors of the Palace of Multiple Splendors.

According to its original layout, the Palace of Multiple Splendors has three courtyards. The front courtyard’s main hall is the Hall of Venerating Respect, five bays wide and three bays deep, with a single-eave hip-and-gable roof of yellow glazed tiles. The Hall of Venerating Respect served as the ritual hall of the Palace of Multiple Splendors; when Hongli was named Prince Bao, he inscribed a plaque reading ‘Hall of Joyful Benevolence,’ which is said to still hang inside. The main hall of the second courtyard is the Palace of Multiple Splendors, five bays wide and one bay deep, with a single-eave gable roof of yellow glazed tiles, flanked by east and west side halls. This was Hongli’s sleeping chamber; the east warm chamber was the living room, the west warm chamber the bedroom, and also the bridal chamber of his grand wedding. The main hall of the third courtyard is the Pavilion of Azure Clouds, five bays wide and one bay deep, with a single-eave gable roof of yellow glazed tiles. This was Hongli’s activity room; he read books and studied culture in the east warm chamber, where a plaque reading ‘Eternal Spring Study’ hangs. In the eleventh year of Yongzheng, the emperor bestowed on Hongli the title ‘Layman of Eternal Spring,’ after the Immortal Lodge of Eternal Spring in the Old Summer Palace where Hongli lived at the time. After ascending the throne, Qianlong built a study wherever he resided, often naming it ‘Eternal Spring Study.’ The very first Eternal Spring Study was in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, with a plaque also inscribed in the first year of Qianlong. Imitating the ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ and forming a poetry society, every New Year’s Day Qianlong would summon grand secretaries and Hanlin academicians to link verses in the Palace of Multiple Splendors. Poetry composition in the Palace of Multiple Splendors became one of the Qing court’s New Year’s programs, only gradually ceasing in the Xianfeng period.

After the death of Empress Fuca, Qianlong kept her former residence, the Palace of Eternal Spring, exactly as it was during her lifetime, forbidding any other consort to live there. And in the Palace of Multiple Splendors, he preserved the bridal chamber, including the large wardrobe that held Empress Fuca’s dowry. Every New Year’s Eve, the Qianlong Emperor would go to the Palace of Eternal Spring to pay homage to the empress. After retiring, he moved all of Empress Fuca’s personal belongings from the Palace of Eternal Spring to the Palace of Multiple Splendors, and thereafter every New Year’s Eve he came here to honor her memory.

When Qianlong remodeled the Second Residence, he also took over the First Residence of the Five Western Residences — the three-courtyard compound east of the Second Residence. Renovated, the First Residence was called the Studio of Pure Fragrance; its front hall was converted into a south-facing stage, and on the east wall of the Studio of Pure Fragrance is a gate leading to the Imperial Garden. A smaller stage was built inside the rear hall of the Studio of Pure Fragrance, making this group of stages the earliest in the imperial palace. The Palace of Multiple Splendors didn’t just swallow the First Residence; it also took the Third Residence, which was turned into the kitchen for the Palace of Multiple Splendors. Today the Palace of Multiple Splendors is closed to the public, probably to prevent visitors from seeing how well Qianlong and Empress Fuca got along — eating that ‘dog food’ might cause couples to fight when they get home.

Incredibly, this former ‘dragon lair’ of Qianlong actually had a resident in the late Qing. It is said that during the Guangxu reign, Consort Jin of the Tongzhi Emperor lived in the Palace of Multiple Splendors, known as Dowager Consort Jin, and she even made medicinal pills in the east warm chamber to give away. In the thirteenth year of the Republic (1924), Feng Yuxiang launched the Beijing coup, abrogated the preferential conditions for the Qing court, and expelled Puyi from the Forbidden City. At that time, Consort Yu of the Tongzhi Emperor was still living in the palace, called Dowager Consort Yu. Dowager Consort Jin and Dowager Consort Yu only then moved out of the palace and into the home of Princess Rongshou, daughter of Prince Gong. I don’t know whether Princess Rongshou had just passed away or died shortly after they arrived. A few days after the two dowager consorts moved out, Puyi was also dragged out of the Hall of Mental Cultivation by Feng Yuxiang’s men and escorted out of the palace, moving to Prince Chun’s mansion to seek refuge with his own father.

Looking west from the gate of the Palace of Multiple Splendors, the door to the side lane is locked, but over the wall you can see the pointed roof of a pavilion in the western courtyard.

That courtyard is the Palace of Established Happiness and its garden. Following westward from the Palace of Multiple Splendors should originally be the Fourth and Fifth Residences of the Five Western Residences — in other words, the Palace of Established Happiness took over the Fourth and Fifth Residences. The construction of the Palace of Established Happiness occurred in two steps. The first step, in the sixth year of Qianlong, was to relocate the Fourth and Fifth Residences to the side of the Dongchang. The Ming-era Dongchang was on the north side outside the Eastern Prosperity Gate, meaning the Fourth and Fifth Residences were moved outside the imperial palace. All the Five Western Residences were thus transformed; in fact, the Five Eastern and Western Residences most likely weren’t altered only this once. Research suggests that in the early Ming, there were actually seven residences on each side of the Qianqing Palace. The Imperial Garden at that time only contained the Hall of Imperial Peace, and on each side of the Hall of Imperial Peace were two residences where princes lived. In the fourteenth year of the Jiajing reign (1535), two residences on either side of the Hall of Imperial Peace were torn down, and many Daoist priests were brought in to handle matters of feudal superstition. Later, in the eleventh year of the Wanli reign (1583), those Daoists were thrown into jail, and pavilions and terraces were built on both sides of the Hall of Imperial Peace, making the garden behind the palace more pleasant and comfortable. However, whether there really were seven eastern and seven western residences in the early Ming, and how two of them disappeared — there’s no solid evidence, so the question remains open.

Besides occupying the land of the Fourth and Fifth Residences of the Five Western Residences, the Palace of Established Happiness extended south all the way to the side lane outside the Gate of Spring Splendor, past the Palace of Longevity and Health and the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers. At that time, this was an ‘empty strip’ — a long, narrow patch of vacant land. The corresponding area on the eastern route was the storage area of the Imperial Household Department. What buildings stood on this strip during the Ming period? There are no records to check. In the seventh year of Qianlong (1742), the Palace of Established Happiness was built mainly so that during busy state duties, one could steal a moment of leisure and have a place to stroll, and also to hide where no one could find him — a place to ‘take a respite from weariness.’

The south side of the Palace of Established Happiness is the Gate of Established Happiness, also a glazed-tile flush-wall gate. The Gate of Established Happiness is aligned side by side with the Gate of the Palace of Accumulated Happiness, meaning the Palace of Established Happiness did not fully utilize that ‘empty strip.’ The West Six Palaces consist of three rows of courtyards; the Palace of Established Happiness only occupied the northernmost courtyard. From the Gate of Established Happiness to the southernmost palace wall at the end of the empty strip is still quite a distance, and on that palace wall there is only a Gate of Spring Splendor leading to the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers; the southern end of the strip is closed off. There stands a small hall called the Hall of Extended Blessings, right between the Hall of the Supreme Pole and the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers. It is not open now and cannot be seen from outside. Following the southern palace wall north leads to the front lane of the Gate of Established Happiness; flanking the lane are two five-bay groups of buildings. North of them, facing south, is the Gate of Extended Blessings; enter it and you reach the Hall of Extended Blessings. The Hall of Extended Blessings is three bays wide and one bay deep, with a covered corridor in front and a single-eave rounded-ridge hip-and-gable roof of yellow glazed tiles; there are five animal ornaments on the diagonal ridges. Behind the hall is the Gate of Abundant Virtue; the area between the Gate of Extended Blessings and the Gate of Abundant Virtue forms the small courtyard of the Hall of Extended Blessings. ‘Extended blessings’ means lasting good fortune; Emperor Jianwen of Liang once wrote, ‘By relying on the Dharma one attains peace; accumulating goodness extends blessings.’ Every Start of Spring, Qing emperors would bring their retinues here to perform spring rites and pray for blessings. Among the people, the spring sacrifice falls on Qingming Festival and is for ancestor worship. In the palace, the spring sacrifice was for blessings. According to Zhou ritual, of the four seasonal sacrifices by the Son of Heaven, ‘the spring one is called yuè (月).’ Guanzi says, ‘Conduct the spring sacrifice, carry out long-awaited prayers, use fish as offerings and malt wine, calling each other together’ — the purpose of the spring sacrifice was to pray for a bountiful harvest this year. To whom did the Qing emperors offer the spring sacrifice in the Hall of Extended Blessings? There is no record; it’s unverified. According to Zhou ritual, the spring sacrifice was to the Five Sovereigns: Yellow Emperor, Zhuanxu, Emperor Ku, Yao, and Shun. The proper way to reach the Hall of Extended Blessings was to come through a flush-wall gate on the east wall of the Pavilion of Rain of Flowers to the front of the Gate of Extended Blessings; on the east wall in front of that gate was another flush-wall gate leading to the Hall of the Supreme Pole. If you exit through the Gate of Abundant Virtue, directly north is the Gate of Established Happiness; on its east wall is the Gate of Perpetual Happiness, the western end gate of the second transverse alley of the West Six Palaces and the main entrance to the Palace of Established Happiness. When the Hall of the Supreme Pole and the Palace of Eternal Spring were later merged, it was absorbed into the Palace of Eternal Spring.

Entering the Gate of Established Happiness, the main hall of the first courtyard is the Hall of Observing the Heavens, three bays wide and two bays deep, with a single-eave rounded-ridge hip-and-gable roof of green glazed tiles with yellow trim, and covered corridors front and back. The rear covered corridor of the Hall of Observing the Heavens connects to a veranda surrounding the second courtyard. Behind the Hall of Observing the Heavens is a raised platform leading straight to the main hall of the second courtyard, the Palace of Established Happiness. The Palace of Established Happiness is the principal hall of the complex, five bays wide and three bays deep, with bracket-set beams and a single-eave rounded-ridge hip-and-gable roof of yellow glazed tiles with green trim, surrounded by covered corridors. The central bay has a throne; the side bays are divided by clipped-panel partitions, all black lacquer with gilt tracing — quite exquisite. The west side bay is a Buddhist chapel.

Behind the Palace of Established Happiness stands the pavilion we glimpsed earlier over the western courtyard wall from the Gate of Initiating Good Omen lane — called the Pavilion of Gentle Breeze; this is the third courtyard. The Pavilion of Gentle Breeze is a three-bay square pavilion with a double-eave pointed roof, purple glazed tiles with blue trim, a gilded inverted-bowl ridge finial, and white marble balustrades all around.

Behind the Pavilion of Gentle Breeze is a solid courtyard wall, in which is built a single-bay arched festooned gate. Beyond it, a covered veranda encloses the fourth courtyard. The main hall of the fourth courtyard is the Studio of Quiet Contentment, five bays wide and three bays deep, with bracket-set beams and a three-part continuous single-eave rounded-ridge hip-and-gable roof. It has covered corridors front and back, the front one connecting to the surrounding veranda. The Studio of Quiet Contentment was the sleeping quarters of the Palace of Established Happiness, implying ‘when the mind is quiet, the body is content.’ Early on, although Qianlong didn’t say so explicitly, he intended, upon the death of Empress Dowager Chongqing, to sleep here in mourning, or ‘observing the rites.’ In the first month of the forty-second year of Qianlong, the Empress Dowager watched lanterns in the Old Summer Palace and passed away in the Immortal Lodge of Eternal Spring where Hongli had lived in his youth. During his mourning, Qianlong did not stay in this Studio of Quiet Contentment. After building the Palace of Established Happiness, Qianlong also had two small courtyard buildings constructed in the Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility — the previously mentioned Lodge of Purity and the Hall of Prolonged Life. After Empress Dowager Chongqing’s death, Qianlong said, ‘South of the Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility I built a few simple rooms, so that if the Empress Dowager were unwell, they would serve as a place where I could personally tend her day and night; in the first month of the ding-you year, they were used as my shàn cì.’ ‘Shàn cì’ also implies mourning, but more concrete, meaning ‘to dwell in a lean-to, sleeping on straw and resting my head on a clod of earth’ — roughly the level of sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall. This may have been because the coffin of Empress Dowager Chongqing was placed in the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility after being returned from the Old Summer Palace, so Qianlong intended to keep the mourning vigil for a number of days in the Lodge of Purity of that garden. When it actually happened, Qianlong wanted to go, but his ministers stopped him in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, so he didn’t.

According to Chinese architectural convention, at the very back of the Palace of Established Happiness there should be a rear protective building. When construction of the Palace of Established Happiness began in the seventh year of Qianlong, there was no plan for a rear hall; it was added later, in the twenty-second year of Qianlong: the Huiyao Tower behind the Studio of Quiet Contentment. The Huiyao Tower is seven bays wide and one bay deep, with two stories. A Chinese-style courtyard must always have a building at the very back, symbolizing that the compound leans against a tall mountain; when the north wind blows, this building shields the compound. Without such a rear building, no matter how powerful the owner, he would be like a tiger stranded on flatland, without good fortune. For a rear protective building to exert its full feng shui power, Buddhist statues must be enshrined inside, with the Dharma’s protection to shield the compound without fail. The Huiyao Tower indeed housed Buddha statues; it was a Buddhist chapel. Such chapels typically have statues on the ground floor and sutras stored on the upper floor. The Huiyao Tower was a Six-Class Buddha Tower like the Tower of the Buddhist Canon in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, but was built earlier, so it is a somewhat simpler version.

By custom, a wealthy household must have a rear garden. Since Qianlong intended to steal a half-day’s leisure here, he certainly had to build a garden. The plot for the Palace of Established Happiness was too small; there was no room to build a garden behind the Huiyao Tower. So Qianlong built a garden west of the Studio of Quiet Contentment — this is the famous Garden of the Palace of Established Happiness, one of the four gardens in the Qing palace: the Imperial Garden, the Garden of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility, the Garden of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, and the Garden of the Palace of Established Happiness. The central structure of the Garden of the Palace of Established Happiness is the Pavilion of Extended Spring. From old Republican-era photos, we can see it was a square two-story pavilion with five bays on the first floor and three on the second, with a mezzanine. On the first level, there were covered corridors all around; on the second level, projecting balconies; and above, a pointed roof. To the east, north, and west, the pavilion was embraced by various halls and studios; to the south, a rockery with layered stones, planted with trees, flowers, and grass. The Garden of the Palace of Established Happiness does not take up much space, nor does it have many buildings. Though compact, it doesn’t feel crowded; seasonal flowers and trees complement a variety of pavilions and halls, crafted with exquisite care. Qianlong placed and hung all sorts of precious treasures he had collected throughout the Palace of Established Happiness and inscribed plaques, couplets, and poems everywhere — this was his personal favorite retreat.

After Qianlong passed on, his son, the Jiaqing Emperor, packed all the treasures of the Palace of Established Happiness into boxes and sealed them, reportedly filling every hall. Afterwards, the Palace of Established Happiness remained empty; no one ever came to live there. After the Qing fell, Puyi had no state affairs to manage in the palace; he studied and had little else to do. He roamed around the inner court, and thus discovered that many valuables from previous reigns had been sealed up in the Palace of Established Happiness. Puyi ordered an inventory and catalog. By then, his staff could no longer be called eunuchs but weren’t regular laborers either — I call them ‘palace workers.’ Halfway through the inventory, they realized these treasures were not only splendid but also light and easy to carry off. One midsummer night in 1923, a fire broke out in the Garden of the Palace of Established Happiness, completely destroying the garden and burning down the Studio of Quiet Contentment to the east and, next door to the west, the Hall of Central Uprightness and the Pavilion of Fragrant Cloud. In one stroke, all the treasures were gone, and even the half-finished catalog was lost. Subsequently, the palace workers involved in the inventory gradually resigned, one after another, and went home. It was noticed that after they left, they each found a female neighbor and set up house together like Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke, and rumor has it they all bought houses and land. In 1999, a Hong Kong cultural heritage foundation provided four million US dollars and signed an agreement with the Palace Museum to rebuild the Garden of the Palace of Established Happiness. The reconstruction was completed in 2006. After reconstruction, the Palace of Established Happiness is permanently closed to the public, reserved exclusively for hosting VIPs and holding private salons. It is said that in 2018, the pianist Wu Muye held a signing ceremony there to join Sony Music.

Every place in China has a Temple of the City God. ‘City’ means city wall; ‘moat’ is the city moat. The City God Temple enshrines the local protector deity. The Beijing City God Temple is dedicated to Yang Jisheng, the famous remonstrating official of the Ming Jiajing reign, who was framed and executed for submitting a memorial exposing the ‘five evil doings and ten major crimes’ of Grand Secretary Yan Song. The imperial palace initially had no City God Temple; sacrifices were always made at the Capital City God Temple next to today’s Beijing No. 8 Middle School, a temple established in the Yuan dynasty. One morning in the fourth year of the Yongzheng reign (1726), Yongzheng — perhaps after a nightmare the previous night — issued an imperial order to build a City God Temple inside the palace. Embarrassed to make a big deal of it, he had it built in the northwest corner, right under the corner tower and against the city wall, an extremely remote spot belonging to the Qian (Heaven) position of the Eight Trigrams, which governs water; it is where the inner Golden Water River enters the palace. At the front is a three-bay mountain gate, and behind it a three-bay temple gate. Beyond the temple gate, a raised path leads straight to the five-bay main hall on a platform, with three-bay side halls on each side. The main hall is dedicated to the City God of the Forbidden City. Each year on the emperor’s birthday (the Wanshou Festival) and on an auspicious day in autumn, the minister of the Imperial Household Department would perform sacrifices on behalf of the emperor, accompanied by offerings of meat and vegetarian dishes. This area is now closed to the public; it houses the Palace Museum’s Research Department. Inside, there are several white-flowering pear trees that bloom every year, along with fruit trees like black date persimmon.

At this point, everything currently open in the Forbidden City has been seen, and most of what cannot be seen has been mentioned. In addition to entering the palace ten times with an annual pass, I also came twice more by purchasing regular tickets. Because of the pandemic, the 2020 annual pass, after optimization by the Palace Museum, was extended to be valid until April 30, 2021. But to prevent us from overly enjoying the privilege, the newly rearranged Ceramics Gallery in the Hall of Martial Valor opened to the public on May 1, 2021, so I paid out of my own pocket to see a display of pots and vases. Later, I again paid my own way to visit the Palace of Abstinence, which was closed during the pandemic, and on behalf of stamp collectors outside the palace, viewed some Forbidden City-themed postal stamps.

Visiting the Forbidden City is an arduous undertaking: entering at the Meridian Gate, exiting at the Gate of Divine Prowess, plus the steps outside the palace — it’s impossible to get back home without logging more than ten thousand steps in a day. When you get tired, besides the many benches in the Forbidden City, you can sit on the steps of any hall.

Every time I tour the palace, I have lunch at the Forbidden City Restaurant; its beef noodles are good but quite pricey. Oh, by the way, a friend once asked how the columns of ancient buildings are fixed to the ground. I took a photo of the specially displayed remains of the well pavilion in the Palace of Longevity and Health, showing that there are holes beneath and in the middle of the column base stones. These holes can accommodate fixing pins — a type of mortise-and-tenon structure.

The Forbidden City was completed in the eighteenth year of the Yongle reign of the Ming dynasty (1420), more than six hundred years ago. The Palace Museum was established in the fourteenth year of the Republic (1925), nearly a century ago. From a glorious imperial palace to what common Beijingers in 1949 called ‘a heap of ruined temples,’ it has witnessed China’s history from strength to decline. The Forbidden City Museum of New China, from ‘a heap of ruined temples’ to its current restored splendor, has also witnessed the history of China rising from poverty and weakness to stand tall and grow strong. This, the greatest royal palace in the world and a World Cultural Heritage site, will also bear witness to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

A supplement to this serialized travelogue will be published irregularly. I’m leaving this tail end solely because some restoration projects in the Forbidden City are not yet complete, such as the very important Hall of Mental Cultivation and the Hall for Ancestral Worship. The Hall of Mental Cultivation project is dragged out with no end in sight. The Hall for Ancestral Worship appears nearly restored but is still not open, probably because the beam and lintel painting inside is being done. Besides these, previously long-closed areas may reopen after restoration, such as the Hall of Southern Fragrance and the Palace of Multiple Splendors. If the Palace Museum continues to vacate offices within the palace, it’s possible some areas will be restored and allow me to visit, like the Hall of Heart-to-Heart Transmission. When that happens, I will continue to publish new travelogues to share what I see and learn with you all.

Thank you all for your generous reading.

(The End)