You are the april day of the world

Chapter 42 The layout on the shore of the Qianshan lake is mainly the cloud-dispelling hall, the promenade and the stone boat. (2)
The Drum Tower is a large building with a solid brick platform on the first floor and three door openings for issuing coupons.There are five wooden buildings with double eaves across the top, and the overall outline emphasizes the horizontal shape.The Bell Tower is not far behind the Drum Tower. It is an upright building made of bricks and stones; the towering platform on the lower floor has only one door opening for issuing coupons on each side.The bell pavilion on the platform is also a gate for issuing coupons on each side.All make people have the impression of majestic and solid standing.In contrast, the two towers of bell and drum form a harmonious and beautiful combination.The wise construction workers in the early Ming Dynasty and the masters who "made patterns" at that time were so simple and bold to create their own three-dimensional signs of the city center, full of the extraordinary style of the Chinese nation.

The bell, the west side of the Drum Tower overlooks Shichahai and Houhai.These two "seas" are inseparable from the history of Beijing.They and the North Sea, the Central Sea, and the South China Sea form a system of five lakes and swamps.

When the "Dadu" was built in the middle of the twelfth century, the Beihai and Zhonghai were included in the palace garden (there was no South China Sea at that time), and the Shichahai and Houhai remained in the urban area.At that time, there was a waterway from Shichahai via the current Beiheyan, Nanheyan, Liuguo Hotel out of the city to Tongzhou, and connected to the canal.The grain transported from the south of the Yangtze River is unloaded at Shichahai, where the sails and masts are very lively, and its importance is exactly the same as our Qianmen Station today.In the Ming Dynasty, there was a problem with the water source, and the water transportation only reached the eastern suburbs, and Shichahai lost its status as a transportation terminal.What is especially rare is that there is no wall outside it to block it from the city, which is in line with the layout of the most ideal urban park in modern times.

There were originally ten Buddhist temples around the sea, so it got the name "Shicha".These ten temples have long been abandoned.In the late Qing Dynasty, it was surrounded by teahouses, taverns and juggling venues.However, the lake was gradually silted up. Although there were fragrant lotuses in summer, the water quality was polluted, and the breeding of mosquitoes had threatened the health of the people.After liberation, the people's own government first dredged the city's waterway system, dug deep the Shichahai Lake, built stone banks to make it a piece of clear running water, and changed the small lake on the west side into a swimming pool that can accommodate 4000 people.For two years it has become a favorite place for working people in summer.With the reflection of weeping willows, you can see the Bell Tower and Drum Tower from across the bank. It has truly become a scenic spot in the capital.And this scenic area is still under construction.

In the city as a whole, from Di'anmen to Bell, Drum Tower and Shichahai are the foundation of the best scenic spots in the north of the city.Now the top of the Drum Tower is the People's First Cultural Center, and the Xiaohai is a swimming pool, which is next to Beihai.This beautiful environment is even more moving when viewed from the bell and drum tower.Not only that, the scenic area of ​​the capital is focused on lakes and swamps, and the connection of waterways will become necessary.If Shichahai is developed, it may be connected with Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace by Jinshui River in the future.In that way, people will be able to take a boat from Shichahai to the Summer Palace through the beautiful western suburbs during the holiday.

Lama Temple

The Lama Temple in the northeast corner of Beijing is the largest Lama Temple in Beijing for more than [-] years.Lamaism is a religion worshiped by the Mongolian and Tibetan ethnic groups, but this monastery has always been very famous because of its magnificent architecture and magnificence of Buddha sculptures, so people who visit the capital often come here to visit.This group of majestic large buildings is a religious architectural type created by Chinese construction workers in the past to adapt their traditional architectural structure technology to the needs of Lamaism, just as Chinese workers used their own traditional methods and national characteristics. Solve the needs of Muslim mosques, or Christian chapels the same.All of this monastery is an artistic creation that meets special practical requirements. Among the cultural relics in the capital, it is a group of architectural heritage that cannot be ignored.

Lama Temple used to be the mansion of Yongzheng Yinzhen in the Qing Dynasty when he was a prince.In [-] it was converted into a Lama Temple.

The grand layout of Lama Temple is compact and orderly, all run through by a north-south central axis.From the southernmost stone archway to the "Liulihuamen" is a "royal road", which is also like a small square.There are more than a dozen rows of monk's rooms facing south on both sides, which are the dormitories of lamas.

From Liulihuamen to Yonghemen is a front yard, which is shaded by ancient locust trees. There are bell towers and drum towers at the left and right corners of the south, two octagonal pavilions with double eaves on the left and right, and Yonghemen is in the middle of the north. .The Yonghe Gate is very large and has only been repaired and decorated.From here, there are three large courtyards and five main halls in the north.The main hall in the middle of the first courtyard is called Lama Temple. There is a stele pavilion and a beautifully carved copper incense burner on the front center line. The supporting halls on both sides surround the two sides of the one behind it. The scale is extremely grand.

The most noteworthy building in the whole temple is the Falun Hall in the second courtyard, followed by the Wanfo Tower behind it.Their format is very special.The main body of Falun Hall is seven main halls, but there are five "holding buildings" at the front and back of it, making the plane a cross shape.There are five small pavilions protruding from the tiled roof of the hall, one in the middle of the main ridge, two on the left and right of the front slope, and two on the left and right of the back slope.In the middle of the tile ridge of each small pavilion stands a Lama pagoda.Due to religious requirements, the Vajra Throne Pagoda of the Wuta Temple is cleverly organized in this way on a purely Chinese-style hall, which has become a special example in Chinese architecture.

The Wanfo Building is behind the Falun Hall. It is a two-story pavilion with double eaves.In the middle of the pavilion, there is a five-foot-high Maitreya Buddha statue, which passes through the three-storey well, and the head of the Buddha statue is under the roof of the uppermost floor.It is said that the entire image is carved from a single piece of sandalwood.What's more special is that there are two two-storey pavilions on the left and right of Wanfo Tower. The upper floors of these two pavilions are connected with the main pavilion by inclined corridors - so-called flying bridges.This is a common format in Dunhuang Tang Dynasty paintings, and it is rare to have such a painting preserved today.

The Suicheng Hall in the northernmost part of the Lama Temple has seven rooms, and the left and right buildings also have seven rooms, all of which are two-story pavilions. In our recent construction, we need to refer to the traditional style of buildings in our country. In a multi-story building, many inspirations can be obtained.

Forbidden City
The Forbidden City in Beijing is now the Palace Museum in the capital.The Forbidden City building itself is the most important historical relic in the museum.It combines the magnificence of form, the perfection of engineering and the solemn order of layout to become a group of the most outstanding and brilliant architectural monuments in the world.It is the crystallization of the wisdom and diligence of the working people in our motherland for many years, and it has incomparable historical and artistic value.The whole palace is composed of two parts: "Former Dynasty" and "Inner Court".Surrounded by city walls, there is a moat under the wall. There are turrets at the four corners of the city, and there are gates on each side: the south is the Meridian Gate, and the magnificent gate tower is called Wufeng Tower; the north is called Shenwu Gate; The whole group is collectively referred to as the "Forbidden City".Looking at any corner of the red walls, yellow tiles, palaces, and turrets across the river, it is magnificent and beautiful.

The three main halls in the middle of the former dynasty are the focus of the front part of the palace, with three floors and a majestic structure, which is a masterpiece of architectural shape.On the east side is the Wenhua Hall, and on the west side is the Wuying Hall. These two groups are juxtaposed with the Taihe Gate from east to west, setting off the left and right, forming the pattern of the front part of the three halls.

The inner court is the part where the feudal emperor and his family lived and worked.Because it is the so-called living place of the emperor, it emphasizes "supremacy" by relying on many strict layouts and appearances.Therefore, the layout of the inner court still adopts a left-right symmetrical format, and the layout symbolizes the stars in the sky and so on.For example, in the middle of the inner court, the two palaces of Qianqing and Kunning symbolize heaven and earth, and the hall in the middle is named Jiaotai, which means "heaven and earth Jiaotai".The east and west gates in front of Qianqing Palace are named Rijing and Yuehua, which symbolize the sun and the moon.

The northernmost hall in the imperial garden at the back, the Qin'an Hall, also enshrines the tablet of "Xuantian God".The Palace Museum calls this part the "Middle Road", which is the continuation of the central axis of the former palace and a section of the central axis of the whole city.

There are two long roads on both sides of the "Middle Road", each with six palaces, and every three is a road, with a north-south road in the middle.The twelve houses symbolize the twelve stars.There are five side-by-side courtyards on each side of them, which are called East Wusuo and West Wusuo, which also symbolize the meaning of the stars.

The twelfth palace is the residence of the "concubines" and "princes" of the inner palace family members.The twelve palaces and the "Three Back Halls" in the middle are the core of the second half of the Forbidden City.Now the museum calls the East and West Palaces the "East Hall" and "West Palace", which are opened in turn on a daily basis. The West Sixth Palace was once rebuilt, and a hall was built between Chuxiu and Yikun to form a group.Between Changchun and Taiji, a hall was added to form a group, and the layout changed slightly.The Yanxi Palace in the East Six Palaces was unsuccessful in rebuilding the "Crystal Palace" in consideration of Western styles.

The buildings beyond Sanlu are relatively irregular.There are two main ones: one is on both sides of the central axis, the south end of the East and West Roads, and the palace in front of the Zodiac.To the west is a group of Mental Cultivation Hall, which is located in the east between the "Outer Dynasty" and "Inner Court", and is the actual daily living place of the feudal lord.Roughly symmetrical with it on the east side of the central axis are the Zhai Palace and Fengxian Hall.The relationship between these two groups and the Qianqing Palace is equivalent to the relationship between Wenhua, Wuying and the Hall of Supreme Harmony.The other type is a palace with a larger core and periphery than the zodiac.These palaces were built for the residence of the queen mother of the feudal lord.Each group has the front hall, the back bedroom, surrounding corridors, side halls, palace gates, etc.To the west are Cining, Shoukang, Shouan and other palaces.Among them is a group of Buddhist temples, Yuhua Pavilion, which are extremely large in scale.Collectively referred to as "Outer West Road"."Outer East Road" in the east

There is only a group of Ningshou Palace with a huge scale that runs straight from north to south.It was originally the residence of Kangxi Xuanye's mother. Later, Qianlong Hongli handed over the power to his son and retired to live here. Many elaborate and beautiful pavilions and gardens were added, so it is called "Qianlong Garden".It is the most special and extravagant building group outside the core of the Forbidden City, and it is a representative work of the increasingly cumbersome court taste in the Qing Dynasty.

Although there are thousands of households and dense buildings in the back of the Forbidden City, they are still in an orderly layout.In addition to the central axis, the buildings on the east and west sides are also based on several north-south axes.The streets outside the building complex formed by each axis form a slender north-south lane.

The south ends of the main Dongyi Changjie and Xiyi Changjie are the "Left Inner Gate" and "Right Inner Gate" leading to the outer court, which are the main lines of communication between the inner court and the former court.

In addition to these "palaces" and "temples", there are many service units in the Forbidden City, such as Shangsi Courtyard, Imperial Dining Room, various warehouses and guards on duty.However, the prestigious "South Study Room" and "Military Aircraft Department" and other places where the prime minister and ministers work are actually just a few verandah houses next to the Qianqing Gate.The Military Aircraft Department is not as good as a row of stables in the Shangsi Courtyard!The feudal emperor cruelly drove the working people to build palaces for him, pampered him, and enjoyed all kinds of ostentation, but even the military ministers who treated him were still like slaves.Such facts can be reflected by the architecture and layout of the Forbidden City.All the buildings in the Forbidden City are the most abundant historical materials.

published in
1952 "New Observation" No. 1~11

(End of this chapter)