October 10: Palace Museum Opens (1925)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who are preserving historic buildings and artifacts.
History Note
Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor, ruled over the Ming dynasty of China from 1402 to 1424. The grandest project undertaken during his reign was a huge palace complex in Beijing, the Ming capital city. The complex included residences for the royal family, shrines for worship, and great halls for ceremonies. No one could enter the palace complex without the emperor’s permission. Therefore the Chinese people called it the Forbidden City.
Those who designed the Forbidden City positioned and aligned its buildings according to the Chinese art of placement called feng shui. The Chinese believed that proper placement created balance and harmony in the environment and contributed to a positive attitude among the people living and working there. To the Chinese, the north was the source of cold winds and enemies. Therefore, they built the complex to face south.
Every element of the project, including the colors used and the number of doors, bridges, statues, and ornaments on the roof, had meaning. The library of the Forbidden City was constructed with a black roof, which symbolized water to protect the books from fire. During the Ming Dynasty, only the emperor used the color yellow. The yellow roofs of the buildings symbolized his power, as did the golden brick floors which paved its halls.
To protect the emperor from enemies, workers built a moat 175 feet wide and a wall more than thirty feet tall. The wall is about twenty-eight feet thick at the bottom and about twenty-one and a half feet at the top. The slant of the wall made it difficult for potential invaders to climb. A lookout tower stands at each corner of the outer wall.
One hundred thousand skilled craftsmen and one million laborers worked from 1407 to 1421 building the Forbidden City. Historians and scientists today can learn about the techniques used to build the palace complex by studying the written records, drawings, and models that the Ming dynasty preserved.
The Forbidden City was home to emperors of the Ming and then the Qing dynasty, which began in 1644. Some of these emperors added to the complex. Today it has 9,000 rooms in 1,000 buildings, plus courtyards, marble terraces, and formal gardens. It is the world’s largest palace complex and the largest collection of preserved wooden structures in the world.
The Qing dynasty ended in 1911 and China became a republic. On October 10, 1925, the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City complex opened to the public. For the first time in 500 years, everyday people were invited to explore the art and architecture inside.
Palace Museum, Beijing, China. Photo by RK istock / Shutterstock.com.
Learn More
This is a promotional video for the 100th anniversary of the Palace Museum.
Find more resources at Homeschool History.
