Dragon Throne

The Chinese characters on the board above the throne read 正大光明 (Zheng Da Guang Ming), which has various translations including “Fair-dealing and Upright” or “Just and Honorable”.

The dragon was the imperial crest on royal monuments, and displayed on the Emperor’s robes.

[7] When European and American military forces pushed their way into the Peking after the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, they were the first men from the West to appear in the presence of the Dragon Throne since 1795, when Isaac Titsingh and Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest were received with grace and ceremony by the Qianlong Emperor.

[10] The process of accession, the ceremonies of enthronement and the act being seated on the Dragon's Throne were roughly interchangeable.

In much the same sense as the British Crown, the Dragon Throne became an abstract metonymic concept which represented the monarch and the legal authority for the existence of the government.

The Dragon Throne of the Emperor of China , pictured here in the Palace of Heavenly Purity , was erected at the center of the Forbidden City , which was itself regarded as the centre of the world. The series of gates and passages a visitor had to pass through before reaching the emperor was intended to inspire awe.