◎Zhu Zuxi (Famous Historical and Geographer)

紫禁城位於北京老城內城的正中央。它既是封建帝都的象徵，也是整個北京城規劃建設的核心。紫禁城佔地約72萬平方米，有各種形式的宮殿9000餘間。其建築形式包括宮、殿、樓、閣、亭、榭、廳、堂、廊、廈、門、廡等，錯落起伏，疏密有致，且多為土木結構，黃琉璃瓦蓋頂，青白石作基座，飾以金碧輝煌的彩畫，在宮殿的規劃建設上，它集中體現了我國在古代都城規劃上的理論、技術和藝術，是一個完全成熟的典型，是中國古代的“營國之最”。

The rhythmic beauty of the spatial sequence

Since ancient times, ancient Chinese architecture, with wooden frames as the main structure, has created a corresponding floor plan and appearance. This is to take the "room" as a unit, form a single building, and then form a courtyard, and then form various forms of groups, and combine them in a balanced and symmetrical way along the axis, forming the artistic effect of "making temple wings" described in the "Book of Songs". And it is these courtyards that are layered and combined, which set off the Taihe Hall built on the white marble pedestal with a height of more than 35 meters and a height of 0 meters to make it more solemn and magnificent, wide and majestic.

This is a kind of complex architectural community composed of simple and repetitive basic units, which is rich in changes in strict order, and seeks unity in changes, reflecting a kind of overall beauty, balanced beauty, and rational beauty.

When people travel in a certain spatial sequence, they always have to enter from one space to another according to a certain axis direction or a certain spatial layout order, and only after walking through this spatial sequence can they get a general impression of it. This is exactly what architectural planners hope to express through the length of the distance between buildings, the size, shape, volume, color, etc., as well as their intention in the arrangement of spatial sequences. We call this kind of intention "ingenuity".

Imagine, we go north from Zhengyang Gate, enter the original Daqing Gate, pass through the "Thousand Steps Corridor" on both sides, cross Chang'an Avenue and Jinshui Bridge, enter Tiananmen Square, Duanmen Gate, and Wumen Gate, and then pass through the Taihe Gate, and walk through the three halls of Taihe, Zhonghe and Baohe held up by the five rainbows and jade steps in the door; Then pass through the Qianqing Gate, after the three palaces of Qianqing, Jiaotai, Kunning, enter the Imperial Garden, go out of the Shenwu Gate, climb the Wanchun Pavilion of Jingshan, look to the north, the drum tower, the bell tower is in sight...... This central axis, which is about 4500 meters long, runs through more than ten spaces of different sizes, organizing three halls, three palaces, and six courtyards in the east and west. The architectural ensemble composed of a series of gatehouses, pavilions and plaza spaces fluctuates in a slow and rapid rhythm, making the people who step into it also jump and jump.

"Climax" is an indispensable and central part of the artistic structure. It can arouse people's emotional resonance and give the work a vivid aesthetic feeling. It is the focal point of the artistic conception of the whole work. The arrangement of the architectural space sequence and climax of the Forbidden City is not only unique, but also a series of secondary spatial sequences continued after the appearance of the "climax", until after the Bell and Drum Tower, it was divided into Andingmen and Deshengmen on the east and west sides as the end. And this is the embodiment of our Chinese philosophy - "the aftertaste is still there" or "the meaning is still unfinished", that is, the passion that swells up in the "climax" gradually calms down under the secondary sequence of "desire to break the will", which makes people have endless aftertaste.

Mr. Liang Sicheng once commented on the "Old City of Beijing": There is no second in the world with such a bold overall layout of buildings and such a scale to deal with space!

The beauty of architectural scale and proportions

When people appreciate the beauty of architecture, they not only care about its image, proportion, color and decorative art, but also care about the proportions contained in it. This is because the three-dimensional spatial scale and partial proportion of a building determine the beauty of the building itself, and the combination of several buildings into a courtyard, or the combination of several groups of buildings into a building group, requires the spatial scale and proportion of the buildings combined with each other. The architectural composition on the central axis of the Forbidden City is to use the contrast of the size of the spatial volume, the contrast of shape, or the regular change from small to large to highlight the climax, or herald the arrival of the climax. The visual changes and changes created by the use of contrasts, due to the novelty brought about by the sudden changes, are more obvious than the effects that the builders were looking for.

The architectural beauty of the Forbidden City lies not only in its image, silhouette, color and decorative arts, but also in the combination and proportions of the architectural spaces.

The scale of the three-dimensional space of a building and the proportion of its parts determine the beauty of the building itself. You see, for example, the plane scale between the end gate and the noon gate is 618 meters in depth and 0 meters wide in the street, forming a 0:0 narrow and long royal street; The depth of the Taihemen courtyard is 0 meters, but the width is 0 meters. In this way, a wide plane is formed, and the ratio of length to width is 0:0=0.0, which is also the most beautiful ratio of area. It is very close to the "golden ratio" used in modern times. Also, the total length from Daming Gate (Qing Gai Daqing Gate) to Wansui Mountain (Qing Gai Jingshan) is 0 li, and the length from Daming Gate to the center of the courtyard of Fengtian Temple (Qing Gai Taihe Temple) is 0.0 li, and the ratio of the two is 0.0:0=0.0. This is exactly what is known as the "golden ratio" in modern times.

Any artwork has the best effect when the most important part is placed on the 618.0 part of the entire work, and the architectural layout in the Forbidden City does it!

Not only that, but our ancient builders also used the floor to raise the main part to accentuate the climax. In architectural practice, the staircase or staircase is connected to the high and low floors, and its pointing indicates the emergence of "climax". It is also an effective means of setting off the climax. The three major halls of the Forbidden City, the reason why they stand on the white marble pedestal of 3.0 meters high is so, and it is three up and three stops, the towering posture of the Taihe Palace, is in the gradual ascending - first see the top of the palace, and then walk to the body of the palace. It is precisely because of this that it is more and more "heavy" and daunting!

The overall beauty of the color design

In architectural art, the color, texture, brilliance, etc. of the building together form an expression that conveys the beauty of the building, and through their joint action on the form and morphology of the building, it forms people's visual aesthetic perception of the overall image of the building. Different colors will give people different psychological feelings, and thus produce different feelings and associations. The Forbidden City uses the role of color in architecture to achieve the ideal effect of visual aesthetics.

In Chinese history, the earliest uses were black, white, earth red, and ochre. Red is the earliest popular color, which gives people a festive, upward, warm, and progressive effect. In the slave society, blue, red, white, black, and yellow were regarded as representatives of the five square colors of east, south, west, north, and middle, and wood, fire, metal, water, and earth. In feudal society, yellow symbolizes sacredness, authority, and solemnity, and is also a symbol of wisdom and civilization, so it has become the color of the emperor's royal family.

The Forbidden City of Beijing in the Ming and Qing dynasties is topped with a large area of yellow glazed tiles, and the palace walls and eaves of the palace area are all red walls, red pillars, and green lower shoulders, which look like a sea of yellow glazed glass from afar, and then the building is covered with brilliant colors with standardized color paintings, forming a rich and harmonious artistic effect. What is even more rare is that around the Forbidden City, there are also hutongs as the backbone, strung into a large area of vast and low courtyard houses with a unified shape and gray as the keynote. When the height of summer comes, the green shades in these courtyards are combined into a vast emerald green ocean, which makes the golden "sea of palaces" more majestic and majestic. The planning of a city makes such a bold planning and design in the layout of the whole city, and forms an ideal artistic effect, which is unique in the history of urban planning in the world.

Joseph Needham, an Englishman who wrote "A History of Science and Technology in China", summed up the evaluation of modern architects on the old city of Beijing and said: China's concept is very far-reaching and extremely complex. Because there are tens of millions of buildings in one composition, and the palace itself is nothing more than a part of the whole city with its walls, streets, etc., a larger organism...... This architecture, this great general layout, has long been at its highest level. It combines a deep sense of humility with poetry to form an organic pattern that no culture can surpass.