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beibei |
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Tian’anmen( the Gate of
Heavenly Peace), is located in the center of Beijing. It was first
built in 1417 and named Chengtianmen( the Gate of Heavenly
Succession). At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was seriously
damaged by war. When it was rebuilt under the Qing in 1651, it was
renamed Tian’anmen, and served as the main entrance to the Imperial
City, the administrative and residential quarters for court
officials and retainers. The southern sections of the Imperial City
wall still stand on both sides of the Gate. The tower at the top of
the gate is nine-room wide and five –room deep. According to the
Book of Changes, the two numbers nine and five, when combined,
symbolize the supreme status of a sovereign.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Tian’anmen was the place where
state ceremonies took place. The most important one of them was the
issuing of imperial edicts, which followed these steps:
1) The Minister of Rites would receive the edict in Taihedian( Hall
of Supreme Harmony), where the Emperor was holding his court. The
minister would then carry the decree on a yunpan( tray of cloud),
and withdraw from the hall via Taihemen( Gate of supreme Harmony)
2) The Minister would put the tray in a miniature longting( dragon
pavilion). Beneath a yellow umbrella and carry it via Wumen(
Meridian Gate), to Tian’anmen Gate tower.
3) A courtier would be invested to proclaim the edict. The civil and
military officials lining both sides of the gateway beneath the
tower would prostrate themselves in the direction of the emperor in
waiting for the decree to the proclaimed.
4) The courtier would then put the edict in a phoenix-shaped wooden
box and lower it from the tower by means of a silk cord. The
document would finally be carried in a similar tray of cloud under a
yellow umbrella to the Ministry of Rites.
5) The edict, copied on yellow paper, would be made known to the
whole country.
Such a process was historically recorded as “ Imperial Edict Issued
by Golden Phoenix”.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties Tian’anmen was the most important
passage. It was this gate that the Emperor and his retinue would go
through on their way to the altars for ritual and religious
activities.
On the Westside of Tian’anmen stands ZhongshanPark( Dr. Sun
Yat-sen’s Park), and on the east side, the Working People’s Cultural
Palave. The Park was formerly called Shejitan( Altar of Land and
Grain), built in 1420 for offering sacrificial items to the God of
Land. It was opened to the public as a park in 1914 and its name was
changed in 1928 to the present one in memory of the great pioneer of
the Chinese Democratic Revolution.
The Working People’s Cultural Palace used to be Taimiao( the Supreme
Ancestral Temple), where tablets of the deceased dynastic rulers
were kept......
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