History of the Forbidden City
[7] The pillars of the most important halls were made of whole logs of precious Phoebe zhennan wood (Chinese: 楠木; pinyin: nánmù) found in the jungles of south-western China.
Such a feat was not to be repeated in subsequent years – the great pillars seen today were rebuilt using multiple pieces of pinewood in the Qing dynasty.
[9] The floors of major halls were paved with "golden bricks" (Chinese: 金砖; pinyin: jīnzhuān), baked with clay from seven counties of Suzhou and Songjiang prefectures.
[12] In April 1644, rebel forces led by Li Zicheng captured it, and Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming dynasty, hanged himself on Jingshan Hill.
[13] However, he soon fled before the combined armies of former Ming general Wu Sangui and Manchu forces, setting fire to parts of the Forbidden City in the process.
[14] By October 1644, the Manchus had achieved supremacy in northern China, and prince regent Dorgon proclaimed the Qing dynasty as the successor to the Ming.
[16] In addition, signs and name plates were made bilingual (Chinese and Manchu),[17] and the main part of the empress's official bedchamber, the Hall of Earthly Tranquility, became a Shamanist shrine.
[19] In 1900 Empress Dowager Cixi fled from the Forbidden City during the Boxer Rebellion, leaving it to be occupied by forces of the treaty powers until the following year.
However, under an agreement signed between the Qing imperial house and the new Republic of China government, Puyi was allowed, in fact required, to live within the walls of the Forbidden City.
Before it began, a fire consumed the gardens of the Palace of Establishing Prosperity (建福宫) where the bulk of the Qianlong Emperor's collection of art works was stored.
[26] Meanwhile, the Japanese army captured the Forbidden City in Beijing, but were only able to remove a few large bronze tubs and a few pieces of cannon.
[27] In the late 1940s, with the Kuomintang losing the Chinese Civil War, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the artifacts from the Forbidden City and the National Museum in Nanjing to be moved to Taiwan.
Over the next two decades various proposals were made to raze or reconstruct the Forbidden City to create a public park, a transport interchange, or "places of entertainment".
[29] The Forbidden City suffered some damage during this period, including the dismantling of the throne in the Hall of Middle Harmony, the removal of name tablets from several buildings and gardens, and the demolition of some minor gates and structures.
[31] The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 by UNESCO as the "Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties",[32] due to its significant place in the development of Chinese architecture and culture.
[22] While effort has been made to prevent the commercialisation of the palace, a variety of commercial enterprises exist, such as souvenir shops and photography stands.
Some commentators, such as influential Phoenix TV host Luqiu Luwei, have further questioned the whole practice of renting out premises in the Forbidden City as retail space.
[37] In 2005, IBM Corporation and the Palace Museum announced a joint project to build a World Wide Web-based virtual model of the Forbidden City and associated sites in Beijing.
[39] On the 5 November 2024, 100 years was marked since the expulsion of the last Emperor of China, Puyi, from the palace by republican forces, led by Feng Yuxiang.
