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ACC China DB Forbidden City

The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City was an imperial palace used from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty, serving as the primary residence for the emperor and his court during these two regimes. Located in Beijing, China, it is now a UNESCO site and a museum with an extensive collection of artwork and artifacts from the Ming and Qing periods.

Layout[]

The Forbidden City is a palace complex shaped as an immense rectangle with the main buildings positioned along a central axis. The rectangular perimeter is formed by a wall and its moat, and at each of the four corners is an enormous watchtower. It is partitioned between two zones: the outer court and an even more restrictive inner court. Its main gate is the Meridian Gate situated at the southern end in front of Tian'anmen Square.[1] From this gate, there is the first court and then another gate called the Gate of Supreme Harmony, which leads to the most iconic area at the heart of the palace,[1] the Hall of Supreme Harmony.[2] Deeper into the palace is the Gate of Heavenly Purity, the primary entryway to the inner court, which can also be accessed by three other gates. With 980 buildings, legend has it that it contains 9,999 rooms. Symbolism played a role in this number and a substantial one in the naming, colours, decorations, architecture, and layout of the palace.[1]

History[]

The Forbidden City was built at the beginning of the 15th century to serve as the primary residence for the imperial family of the Ming dynasty and as the epicentre of government affairs. Heavily fortified, it was more than just a residence and was designed to offer them protection from those who would threaten their lives.[1] Unknown to most of its residents, the Forbidden City was built atop or near ruins of the First Civilization.[3]

Apart from the Emperor of China and his relatives, the emperor's concubines lived there as well, and they were strenuously guarded by the eunuchs to ensure that they could not bear offspring with other men.[1] Some concubines who were children, like Shao Jun and Zhang Qijie, were essentially raised in the Forbidden City.[4][5] On the other hand, the Zhengde Emperor preferred a life of leisure outside the confines of the Forbidden City[6] while his successor, the Jiajing Emperor, refused to live in it entirely so as to avoid his duties as ruler.[7]

Shadow war in the palace[]

The negligence of the Zhengde Emperor allowed the group of eunuchs known as the Eight Tigers to influence the government from behind-the-throne. As the leaders of the Chinese Rite of the Templar Order, the Eight Tigers were locked in a shadow conflict against the Chinese Assassins who were also based in the Forbidden City. Since the Zhengde Emperor had left behind no heirs, there was a brief interregnum as the government decided upon his successor.[8] Having recently identified the Assassin Mentor to be the official Wang Yangming, the Eight Tigers seized upon this moment of uncertainty to expunge the Assassins from the capital.[9]

By chance, the concubine Shao Jun discovered this plot and alerted Yangming,[9] who organized an attack first,[10] but the Templars still prevailed, and they enacted their extensive and brutal purge, which saw countless Assassins, associates of the Assassins, and innocent sympathizers or dissidents executed by lingchi. The surviving Assassins withdrew from the Forbidden City with their allies, including Shao Jun, who was subsequently recruited as an Assassin in her own right.[10]

Several years later, the Templars exploited the Great Rites Controversy to hunt the remaining Assassins.[11][12] Before leaving Beijing, Shao Jun sneaked back into the Forbidden City to visit her childhood friend Qijie, hoping to help whisk her away to freedom. Because Qijie by then was rising in the concubinage hierarchy and saw an opportunity to even become empress, she was unwilling forsake the life of the palace, so Shao Jun could only bid farewell to her.[13]

In 1530, the Tigers Zhang Yong and Qiu Ju used Zhang Qijie, now empress, to set a trap for Shao Jun in the Forbidden City. They had the empress issue a secret message to Shao Jun alleging to have information on the whereabouts of Zhang Yong for her counter-hunt. The Assassin not only trusted her former best friend's word but also returned out of fear that she would need to rescue concubines whose assistance to her could potentially have been discovered by the Templars.[14] Although Shao Jun fell right into the trap, she slew Qiu Ju in personal combat, a furious duel that started a fire across the palace. Zhang Yong fled the inferno with Shao Jun following after, and both successfully escaped with their lives.[15]

Post-Ming period[]

The Forbidden City remained standing and in use throughout the Ming dynasty, and when the Qing conquered China and established their capital in Beijing, they appropriated it as their imperial palace in turn. In the present-day, the palace has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been converted into a museum displaying artifacts collected from the Ming and Qing periods.[1]

Behind the scenes[]

The Forbidden City features in the 2015 spin-off game Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China as a playable level in a few memories. The English name for the palace, the Forbidden City, is a calque of its Chinese name Zǐjìnchéng (紫禁城, literally 'purple forbidden city').

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