History of the Forbidden City

I'm so glad you've joined me on Lights Out Library tonight. If you'd like to listen ad-free and unlock bonus episodes, then please consider joining our Patreon. There is a link for it in the episode description. Now, a quick word from our sponsors before tonight's story begins. Hello everyone, I'm Olympia. Thank you for being here with me. This wonderful place called Lights Out Library. And I have a great story to tell you. In the heart of Beijing stands the largest palace left by Imperial China. In its 20 centuries of history, For 500 years, emperors ruled the most populated state in the world behind its walls, almost never leaving the city within the city. Thousands of rooms, gardens, pavilions, walls, and towers are all organized to glorify and protect the emperors of China. not just from men but from gods and spirits too this palace was not only designed to showcase the power of the emperors who connected themselves to the order of the universe but was also an attempt to approach earthly perfection tonight we are going to explore the pavilions, the temples, the gardens and discover what life was like behind these walls that most people would never be allowed to cross. Along with it, we will explore the history of the last 500 years of the Chinese emperor. From its times of glory and isolation under the Ming and Qing dynasties to its decay and humiliation in the 19th century, with the Opium Wars or the Boxer Rebellion, and finally to its fall at the beginning of the 20th century, at the time of Puyi, the last emperor. So, welcome to the Forbidden City. Before we begin, just a quick note. If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support it, or simply get more from it, we do have a Patreon page. Patreon is a platform that lets listeners support projects they care about directly. And it also gives you access to ad-free listening on your favorite podcast apps. Our lowest tier starts at $3.50 a month, but everyone gets access to the same content. we believe people should contribute what they want or what they can and that nothing should be kept behind unnecessary barriers because the world is a better place when the sun shines for everyone on Patreon you'll find exclusive episodes early releases as a thank you and the option to listen to or download all episodes with or without background sounds We've included links to Patreon as well as to different listening platforms in the episode description, so you can choose whatever works best for you. But before we dive deep into our story, let's take a moment together to prepare for our journey ahead. If you'd like, gently close your eyes and let your daily concerns drift away. Find a position that feels natural and cozy. Perhaps make small adjustments until you're perfectly comfortable. Now, draw in a deep, nourishing breath, and as you release it softly, notice how your body responds. Feel the warmth flowing from your neck down through your shoulders, melting away any tension. Let your facial muscles become soft, your jaw loose, your fingers naturally open, and your legs completely at ease. And as you settle into this peaceful state, my voice will be your gentle companion as we begin our exploration together. And now that you are ready, let's push the doors of the Forbidden City. the capital of china pei-ching is a gigantic metropolis with more than twenty-two million people the equivalent of florida or all of scandinavia living in the same urban area at its centre in one of the rare spaces that have been preserved from decades of urbanization from highways and skyscrapers stands an ensemble of hundreds of buildings and thousands of rooms it is separated from the rest of the city by high walls and gates forming a perfect rectangle surrounded by a wide moat behind the walls the place has stayed frozen in time for centuries with its perfect symmetry its majesty its layout where every single building every name every courtyard and garden speaks of power balance and eternity this palace which is so large that the term city suits it better was always intended to be out of this world out of reach over five centuries it has seen twenty-four different emperors of china from two dynasties it has seen revolutions invasions and behind its walls intrigues and traumas unfolded destinies were blighted or fulfilled the same ceremonials were repeated decade after decade until imperial china crumbled in the twentieth century and new masters took control of the most populated country in the world the history of peijing is long and tumultuous it dates back over three thousand years peijing was a capital before the first unification of china which happened in the third century b c Before this unification, Beijing had already been the capital, the capital of lesser ancient states called Chieh and Yan, the capital of the Qing dynasty. That first unified China and created the imperial institution was Ching in the West. For the first millennium of imperial rule, Beijing was a provincial city in northern China, but already an important one. There were bigger cities in the south, and its population fluctuated, but it reached several hundred thousand people in the first millennium of our era. This was more than any other city in Europe or in America at the time. Between the 10th and 13th centuries, China was fragmented again, and Beijing fell to peoples who came from the north, from beyond the Great Wall, regions that correspond to Mongolia and Manchuria. It didn't invade all of China. but they occupied the north for a long time and turned Beijing into a capital again, the capital of two successive states called the Ao and Jin. Then rose an invading force like China, and the world had not seen in a long time. The Mongol Empire, the Jin states along with their capital were among the earliest conquests. Contrary to former nomadic invaders who had crossed the Great Wall, the Mongols didn't stop in the north. They conquered all of China and they established a new imperial dynasty, the Yuan, that lasted for almost a century. The Mongol Empire had become so large and shaken by succession feuds that it broke up into several entities, the most populated and wealthiest by far being China. The new Chinese empire placed itself in the continuity of its predecessor. Just with emperors of Mongol origin, it is one of them, Kublai Khan, who moved the capital to a place called Kabalik or Dadu, just in the center of modern Beijing, and it became the main center of the Yuan dynasty, the new capital of China from 1279 onward. From the moment the Mongols made Beijing the capital for all of China, it remained the capital except for two interludes one in the 14th century and one in the 20th century but the city didn't have its modern name yet it had changed names several times over the centuries and it was finally called Beijing meaning the northern capital as opposed to Nanjing the southern capital in the 15th century. After the fall of the Yuan, the Mongol dynasty, and the rise of the new one, the Ming, the last Yuan emperor lost control of the country when revolts of several warlords erupted in various provinces. The Yuan were blamed for bad harvests, for labor and over-taxation, and also for being foreigners. It didn't come from the dominating ethnic group in China, the Han. Among those warlords, one called Zhu Zhuanzang conquered the city of Nanjing, the southern capital, where he founded a new dynasty, the Ming. It took him years, but he vanquished his rivals. To make his imperial ambitions known, he sent an army to capture the Yuan capital, Dadu, on the site of present-day Beijing. The first decades of the Ming were tumultuous, with a series of succession crisis until the very beginning of the 15th century, with the accession of Yangle, a new Ming emperor who imposed his will. Yangle moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing again and ordered the complete transformation of the new capital in 1403. The remains of the Yuan capital were mostly eliminated and a large perimeter called the Imperial City was created, where palaces, temples, offices and gardens were erected. At the heart of this Imperial City, a new palace that would surpass in size and splendor anything in China had ever known, the Forbidden City. No effort or spending was spared to turn it into a symbol of power and perfection. The construction lasted fourteen years, and more than a million workers took part in it to level the ground, dig moats, erect walls, and bring precious materials from all over China. the floors were paved with golden bricks brought from Suzhou in the east the wood elements included whole logs of precious woods from the jungles of the southwest and marbles were extracted in northern China when it was completed in 1420 the complex looked almost like today There would be minor alterations in the following centuries, but it was already the model of perfection that its founder had envisioned. It was larger than any other old palace in the world, 72 hectares, surrounded by large moats and high walls, laid out with a sense of perfect symmetry. It had four gates, one for each cardinal point, the main one being the southern gate that communicates with Tiananmen Square nowadays. legend appeared that the Forbidden City had 9,999 rooms just one short of 10,000 which would be a figure of heavenly perfection that humans should not try to reach on earth in reality it is a bit less but still more than 8,000 rooms spread out in many pavilions, halls, palaces, and temples. Visitors passing through the main gate, the southern gate, could only be struck by its size. It served both as a stronghold and as a ceremonial space, more than merely a gate. It is a massive rectangular tower with smaller towers on the sides and five entrances to the complex. Passing this gate implied following strict rules. Only the emperor could use the central gate. The imperial family entered through another gate to the left and the ministers or officials to the right. Then they would cross three main courtyards, One with an artificial river with beautiful carved stone bridges Then the largest courtyard so large that thousands of people could stand inside in front of the emperor's main palace, the Pavilion of Supreme Harmony. It used to be the place where the emperor received senior officials in foreign delegations, where important ceremonies were celebrated, like the advent of new emperors, weddings, the Chinese New Year or declarations of war. This pavilion was for centuries the very center and symbol of imperial power in China from where the lives of tens of millions of subjects could be decided. The pavilion is raised several meters above the courtyard, with a basement made of whole layers of marble. Staggered, imposing staircases led to the entrances, ornamented with eighteen bronze ships. They represent the 18 national provinces of the time, and the terraces of the marble basement are ornamented with different bronze animals, like cranes and turtles, that are symbols of domination and longevity. The interior of the palace is organized around a main hall with a high roof supported by 72 pillars and rich decorations and symbolic motives throughout. The doors and windows are richly ornamented and clouds and dragons appear across the ceiling. Two dragons are shown playing with a pearl. the dragons are made of glass and painted with mercury the pearl was supposed to be able to detect usurpers to the throne if someone who was not the legitimate emperor sat on the throne the pearl would come down and hit him dead the throne itself is located right in the centre of the room on a platform high enough to insure that the courtiers and visitors in the room would always stay at the level of the feet of the emperor the throne is made of sandal-wood and richly decorated with dragons and gold symbols that give it an aura of mystery and solemnity beyond the pavilion of supreme harmony where the emperor presided over great ceremonies lies another courtyard and to the north of it stands yet another hall the pavilion of preserved harmony ming emperors used it to change clothes before or after going to the pavilion of supreme harmony and in the following dynasty the ching this pavilion also became a place for banquets when there were less important celebrations like the marriage of a princess or when the emperor desired to entertain high officials or governors of provinces at the end of the eighteenth century this pavilion also became the place where the final phase of the national examination took place this was an old chinese tradition many titles fortunes and privileges were hereditary but the recruitment of high-ranking administrators and bureaucrats was open and as meritocratic as possible there was a system of competitive examination and coming out on top of this national examination that took place every year was an honor and an open door to responsibilities and a spectacular rise in social standing from seventeen eighty nine the emperors began to honor every year the ten first candidates selected by reading the papers they had submitted, and this took place in the Pavilion of Preserved Harmony. There was yet another throne hall in this succession of spectacular courtyards between the two main pavilions I just described, and perfectly aligned with this symmetrical layout stands the Pavilion of Middle Harmony. This one is a bit smaller, but still 580 square meters, that is nearly 6,250 square feet, and served as a resting place when the emperor organized ceremonies in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. this alignment of buildings with its perfect symmetry and spectacular display of power was entirely intentional it was designed to impress and reinforce the emperor's legitimacy faced with such a display who could doubt that the man at its center was the rightful master of the empire From the magnificence of the buildings to the very strict code of conduct that everyone was supposed to observe in ceremonies, it was all about creating legitimacy and reinforcing power, but there was yet another dimension that we will explore later. From the layout of the buildings to the details in the decoration and the statues, the Forbidden City was charged with symbols and a form of spirituality. It was also designed to be watched from the heavens by the gods and to please them. It was conceived to protect the ruler from any bad spirit or influences, we'll come back to that later as well and also continue our exploration because the outer courtyards that we just saw are hardly a fifth of the Forbidden City but for now let's return to the history of China and what happened with the Ming Dynasty I mentioned that the Emperor Yangle moved the capital to Beijing from Nanjing, and the Forbidden City was completed during his reign, which ended in 1424, four years after the inauguration of the new complex. Jiang Le is one of the major emperors in the history of China, not only for these decisions and for solidifying the Ming dynasty, but also because he made a number of reforms that left China more prosperous and better defended. He ordered the restoration of canals. He imposed the primacy of the imperial examination, which brought a bit more social mobility, and maybe more importantly, a recruitment of the bureaucracy based on competence rather than privilege. Also under his reign, China started exploring the seas 70 years before the first long-haul exploration journeys of European navigators. these Chinese expeditions were led by an explorer and scholar called Zhang Ha and he reached the Indian Ocean and as far as Arabia and the east of Africa but in the following decades the successors were way less outward looking and China was already such a big empire with by far the largest population in the world that it became increasingly closed on itself and uninterested in what happened beyond its immediate neighbors. Still, the 15th and 16th centuries were a period of relative prosperity, reflected in the flourishing of Chinese literature, painting, poetry, music, opera, and a wide range of crafts and luxury goods. The Ming period marked a high point in the production of fine arts and craftsmanship and high society, though a small minority adopted a highly refined and luxurious lifestyle. The population increased even though the bureaucracy was powerful and a census was organized regularly. Numbers can only be estimated. But most historians place it between 160 and 200 million people by the middle of the 17th century. At the time, first half of the 17th century, China had around 28% of the world's population, a bit more than today, even though the country was not as large. It was followed by the Mughal Empire in India, with 20% and then far behind the Spanish Empire, including Portugal at the time, and all of their possessions in America, at just 5%. after that there were countries with three to five per cent of the world's population like the ottoman empire the holy roman empire but it was not a unified state france and the tokugawa shogunate empire so looking at the history of the world there is no denying that in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century china under the ming was probably by far the largest power in the world but a great power that was almost uninterested in exploring and projecting its might or its trade network beyond east asia and one that saw itself as the middle kingdom the center of the civilized world the beacon of culture and at the time there was probably some truth to it but china would soon realize that its position was not secured forever in the first half of the seventeenth century the ming dynasty began to decline after two centuries of uncontested supremacy not because of the intrusion of foreign european traders in the seventeenth century china was still unbothered by them and actually benefited from the contacts that european navigators had established the first to arrive were the portuguese followed by the spanish and the dutch and then the english and the french europeans were very interested in trading with china chinese products already were or became very popular in europe from tea to porcelain to silk china was largely self-sufficient and unwilling to trade for other things than precious metals the difficulty of europeans to sell things to china would be one of the reasons behind the opium wars in the nineteenth century to force the importation of opium upon china i will tell you about this later in the story so in the seventeenth century international trade provoked an influx of precious metals especially of silver in china and a new wealthy class of chinese traders appeared thanks to these contacts with the europeans selling products to these foreigners was something the ming had no problem with as it also filled their coffers through taxation it may have helped prolong the ming dynasty another consequence of these contacts also rather positive for china was the introduction of new crops new plants to the country via the mechanism called the columbian exchange named after christopher columbus one of the greatest treasures found in america was not necessarily gold it was the discovery of new crops like maize tomatoes and potatoes that were highly productive potatoes alone probably saved millions of people from starvation from famine in the following centuries in all the regions where this new plant was introduced and that included china so at this point in the seventeenth century europeans were not seen as a big threat they were just too few and too far away to be a danger of any kind they were just cautiously restricted to islands near Guangzhou, Canton in the south. Like Macau, where the Portuguese had a trading post to prevent them from introducing their ideas or religions, but they were treated like other foreigners. All foreigners were explicitly unwelcome to mainland China, with the exception of a few embassies. What really caused the fall of the Ming is a series of internal reasons. There was a new economic collapse, floods, and epidemics that happened by the middle of the 17th century. This made rebellions appear among peasants who could no longer pay their taxes and feed themselves. At the same time, a threat was forming in the north beyond the Great Wa. Rise of the Manchu Manchuria was populated by nomadic tribes. They were unified at the beginning of the 17th century, and they formed a state that initially collaborated with the Ming before turning against them, as they became well aware of their weaknesses in sixteen thirty eight the manchu invaded korea an old ally of the Ming dynasty and open warfare with China began The Chinese armies had at the same time to repel the Manchu, whose leaders had adopted the name Qing, the Qing dynasty, and fight against rebellions internally. In the 1640s, the Ming state disintegrated, armies refused to fight, and a large revolt led by an ex-soldier called Li Zichung marched on Beijing unopposed. In 1644, the city fell to this rebel army and the seventeenth Ming Emperor hanged himself on a tree in the imperial garden outside the Forbidden City. The leader of this rebellion, who now styled himself as the Prince of Shun, seized the throne and proclaimed himself the ruler of a new dynasty, very much like the first Ming Emperor had done almost 300 years before. But this one didn't last. The Manchus saw the opportunity and prepared to cross the Great Wall to invade the north of China. They received the help of the border general who knew Beijing had fallen and the Ming era was now probably over. Faced to the north by a giant Manchu army, and to the south by the rebel army of the new dynasty who were both coming for him he sided with the manchu opened the gates and joined forces with them it didn't take long for the manchu to capture peijing and eliminate the remains of this rebellion the third emperor of the ching shunzhu was proclaimed ruler of china and installed in the forbidden city the ming were not entirely destroyed though they still had bastions in the centre and the south of china with several pretenders who were princess with royal blood collectively they were called later the southern ming and they put up a fight from various regions for eighteen years until sixteen sixty two when the last bastion of resistance was eliminated the ching dynasty another dynasty of invaders like the mongols centuries earlier was now in control of china and it lasted until the end of the chinese empire in nineteen twelve with initially a few highs and then a lot of lows for this dynasty in the history of china a new dynasty generally led to a change in capital but not this time the ching also ruled over manchuria extending the empire to the north which gave peijing a more central position the city had been the centre of ming power for a long time and with it it had gained immense prestige and so had the forbidden city the ideal tool to impose and showcase their imperial ambitions and to be accepted was to follow the etiquette the codes the symbols of power of the previous dynasties and take over the forbidden city this is why the capital stayed in peijing for the most part the ching kept up all the codes and ceremonials of the previous dynasty they only made minor alterations to the forbidden city for example the names of some of the pavilions were changed and details or the functions of a few buildings were modified over the centuries but as the function of the forbidden city was to suggest the eternity and the celestial origin of the empire it didn't need to change much now let's resume our exploration of the complex i mentioned earlier the outer courtyards where impressive buildings were created to perform official public ceremonies and showcase the imperial institution beyond the last of these pavilions to the north the pavilion of preserved harmony begins the area reserved for the personal use of the emperor it is smaller but still contains three main magnificent pavilions ordered to respect the symmetry of the ensemble the palace of heavenly purity the emperor's bedroom followed by the smaller pavilion of union and peace where the empress sometimes held ceremonies for various occasions such as her birthday and finally the palace of earthly tranquillity the private apartments of the empress beyond these constructions began a garden that served as a private refuge for the imperial family Everything in the garden was thought to suggest harmony and tranquility. It contains twenty small buildings of different shapes that harmonize with trees, rock gardens, flower beds, and sculptural objects such as statues or incense burners. It is a sumptuous example of Chinese garden design, which to the north ends finally with the gate, a door, the northern gate of the Forbidden City. This was the perimeter where emperors lived. There were spacious and luxurious buildings, an army of servants, gardens, rooms for every need. but they were prisoners of the forbidden city and their lives from their accession to their death was a constant move on a north-south axis from the more impressive buildings to the south where they went to participate in ceremonies or announce decisions to their private apartments and gardens to the north where they spent the rest of their lives they would almost never leave the forbidden city not even see what was outside of it the high buildings and walls limited their horizon to what was finally a small perimeter on either side of it to the east and to the west are two areas with the density of smaller pavilions that were dedicated to palace life there were palaces for concubines kitchens countless bedrooms offices and smaller courtyards that make these areas of the complex look like a small town within the walls of the forbidden city to the south and again on either side of the outer courtyard are areas with guard-houses armories and all sorts of pavilions libraries temples offices and more gardens emperors were obviously powerful but in such a closed environment where all they knew about the outside world was filtered through administrators and official mail the reality of their power was questionable it is unclear whether they could be aware of what really happened in their empire and there was always the risk that the influential courtiers could manipulate them around the emperors was a group of palace administrators often eunuchs that in some periods especially under the ching when emperors became weaker would gain considerable influence and power by obtaining the emperor's trust or by acting on their own of course they also competed and fought for influence turning the forbidden city into a microcosm of court politics often with a cut-throat atmosphere these dynamics were not unique to the chinese imperial court other empires and kingdoms had their share of intrigues as well one can look for example to the ottoman court at topkapi palace in istanbul during the same period or to the courts of europe but the closed environment of the forbidden city the creation of a space like no other literally separated from the rest of the world were little ever changed and which remained largely impervious to events beyond its walls magnified these dynamics when the chinese regime became decadent long before its fall it is unclear to what extent the emperors even understood it in their segregated life where the rest of the world was just a bunch of maps and every piece of information was coded in diplomatic language and adoration for their persona decadence happened let's see what the ching did while in power if you look at a map with chinese frontiers from the installation of the ching dynasty in sixteen forty four to the end of the nineteenth century you could easily conclude that china did very well in the period it expanded and indeed the ching were conquerors that gave china frontiers that resembled its modern frontiers they added manchuria to the chinese empire because it is where they came from and they successfully eliminated the remnants of ming resistance then in the eighteenth century they considerably expanded to the north and to the west annexing neighboring territories such as mongolia in the north and thibet in the southwest in the second half of the eighteenth century while major events were unfolding elsewhere in the world such as the seven years war and the american and french revolutions the ching launched military campaigns towards central asia alongside these conquests the introduction of new crops and an economic recovery after the turmoil that followed the fall of the ming led to renewed population growth It surpassed 300 million in the 18th century and reached 400 million in the 19th century. Around 1850, about one in three human beings on the planet was a subject of the Chinese empire. Probably the moment when China weighed the most in world demographics. but population growth was actually a big challenge to the dynasty as it maintained the constant risk of famine. After a high point in the late 18th century the Qing began an irreversible decline due to first this uncontrolled demographic growth to corruption that thrived in a country too large to be properly administered due to internal revolts, the reluctance of the elite to change anything in their mindsets, as they still deeply believed in the superiority of the Chinese ways and also the rise of challenges from abroad. The regime was already weakened internally in the 19th century when European powers led by Great Britain increased their pressure and meddling into Chinese affairs. Earlier I mentioned that in the 17th and 18th centuries, China had a large trade surplus with other nations and that European traders had a hard time finding products that the Chinese would be interested in buying. One appeared in the late 18th century and soared in the 19th century, opium. In India, the British East India Company had begun to cultivate opium that was sold to private traders who transported it to China. Opium had been known for a long time in China, where it was used in small doses as medicine. But in the 18th century, the new practice of smoking opium as a recreational drug increased dramatically. It was made illegal in China because addiction was spreading, but this didn't stop the demand from rising. Countless clandestine establishments appeared where people spent hours lying, smoking opium in a state of stupor. this reached every level of chinese society not just the rich as opium was relatively affordable as a drug and by the eighteen thirties this trade represented already thousands of tons annually as opium would not legally enter china it was sold to smugglers and the east india company was barely hiding its activity it sent opium to its warehouses in the regions of canton the ching emperor resolved to stop this illegal trade partly out of concern for the moral decay of opium addicts and partly because of the outflow of silver because it had grown so much that china was in the process of losing its trade surplus Chinese troops blockaded the warehouses and managed to seize the stocks to burn them. As a reaction Great Britain sent first a small fleet and then troops to retaliate and demand reparations for the losses plus the guarantee of future security for trade at this time the technological level of the chinese army had become obsolete compared with the guns of the royal navy which could bombard ports and use its superior ships in firepower to inflict a series of defeats on the ching empire already in a weak position internally the ching had little choice but to sign for peace and accept a treaty that ceded the island of hong kong opened several ports to free trade with british merchants and imposed war payments this peace treaty with the european nation was just the first of several that have been called the unequal treaties because in fact they were more like decrees through which foreign nations forced china to open its trade give them territories and lift restrictions on the sale of their products the following year france obtained the same conditions and ten years later a second opium war erupted this time with a coalition of britain france and russia so britain was in hong kong and malaya france had begun meddling in the affairs of vietnam just south of the chinese border and russia was now present in the pacific and east asia with big ambitions and a long frontier with the north of china another treaty was imposed opening more ports legalizing totally the opium trade and granting traders and missionaries the right to travel without restrictions within china but as its application was not fast enough a franco-british expedition marched on peking in eighteen sixty they occupied the forbidden city and sacked the old summer palace a complex of palaces outside the limits of the imperial city of beijing the perimeter at the centre of which the forbidden city is located the emperor had to flee to avoid the supreme humiliation of being captured the sack of the summer palace in eighteen sixty still has repercussions nowadays because a lot of artifacts including ancient unique works of art ended in french and british museums or even in private collections and china has demanded their return since the twentieth century after the second opium war european powers kept pushing they obtained concessions in various cities the largest ones in shanghai on the east coast of china there were now british french german russian and american concessions in the last years of the nineteenth century european empires had basically established zones of influence between themselves that shared chinese territory and where they would not compete and maybe one day turned these zones into colonies the south to france the middle to great britain and germany and the north to russia but this was the height of the european meddling in china because the days of the ching were accounted in eighteen ninety five japan attacked china to expand its influence in korea it was victorious despite efforts in china to modernize the army in eighteen ninety nine a rebellion against foreigners and imperialism known as the boxer rebellion erupted in china out of the control of the dynasty the throne was occupied by an empress dowager zi shi who normally control the ching empire but in reality her powers beyond the walls of the forbidden city were fragile as the administration was extremely corrupt and the army unable to repel enemies because she was close to being overwhelmed by the rebellion in china and in response to reports of an upcoming invasion by foreign powers chih-she supported the rebellion that a coalition of foreign powers was fighting on chinese soil this time even more countries had joined the banquet on top of the countries i mentioned before japan the u s a italy and austria-hungary had all joined the coalition this alliance of eight nations brought troops to china defeated the imperial army and once again marched on peking to capture it ending the Boxer War in a bloodbath. This episode actually had the consequence of discouraging European powers to colonize China directly, because they had seen how hard it would be to control a country with such a large population, and they concluded that it was in their interest to keep the ruling dynasty and deal with it. but internally the ching and the imperial system were now deprived of credibility the fall happened in nineteen eleven nineteen twelve chishi had died in nineteen o eight after appointing a two-year-old boy kuyi as a successor to the throne the world had completely changed outside the walls of the forbidden city europe and america were propelled by industrialization and new technologies they were more prosperous and powerful than ever inventing a new world in which china with its conservatism and inability to change or put up a fight was not expected to be anything else than a satellite the forbidden city was nothing else than an outdated faade for an empire that had already crumbled it had lost its grip on the country in nineteen eleven most provinces rejected ching rule and they formed a republic with its capital in nanjing a few months later in nineteen twelve an imperial decree was issued bringing about the abdication of the child emperor puji he was six at the time but the forbidden city was not deserted yet china was now a republic not the communist republic it became later after the victory of the communist revolution this would happen decades later after the second world war but for twelve years poohy was allowed to stay in the private area of the forbidden city and this is where he grew up almost as an emperor without a country surrounded by servants and a scottish preceptor until he finally had to leave in nineteen twenty four and the last moments of the forbidden city as an imperial palace indeed puyye didn't disappear he was placed by the japanese on the throne of a puppet state they created in manchuria and after the second world war he went through re-education in communist camps was released and published an autobiography if you want to know more about him i strongly suggest you watch a movie from the eighties called the last emperor it is magnificent and there are scenes filmed in the forbidden city that will give you a sense of what life could be like behind these walls before and after the collapse of imperial china earlier in the story i mentioned that the forbidden city was also filled with symbols and meaning from its layout to its decoration all of this can be seen in peking to-day it was turned into a museum and large parts of the forbidden city are open to the public as for the architectural layout i already mentioned that the city followed a very strict rule of symmetry when the emperor took his palace on one of his thrones he sat on the central axis of the forbidden city this symmetry extended even to each individual pavilion there are almost no curves except for smaller decorative elements everything is drawn in a rectilinear way to express the order the regularity that the emperor represented the ancient chinese also saw the universe as made of four main components four main spaces the heavens the earth the sun and the moon in the inner courtyard these elements are present the emperor lives in the palace of celestial purity as he was associated with the god of heaven the empress associated with the earth resides in the palace of earthly tranquillity and the side doors on either side of the courtyard were dedicated to the sun and the moon the presence of these elements was expected to symbolically favour the stability of power and the elements were also associated with their respective cardinal points the roofs are ornamented with multiple mythical animals that brought protection phoenix lion celestial horse bull monkey seahorse real or fantastical animals are also present everywhere in bronze and marble statues each of them with a specific meaning there are turtles that symbolize immortality unicorns for wisdom lions for power colors are also important and two of them dominate in the forbidden city red and yellow red was and still is a lucky color in chinese tradition it represents stability strength and prosperity the gates the walls multiple buildings were painted in red yellow was the imperial color emperors dressed in yellow for ceremonies and their portraits always show them wearing this color in the forbidden city it is the color of most roofs certain numbers are also repeated even though it is not always sure that this was intentional i mentioned the four components of the universe and there is also the number five that represents elements water fire earth wood and metal depending on the function of the pavilions these elements were more or less represented in the building materials and the ornaments because each of them was associated with different characteristics fire with the emperor water with the empress metal with martial arts and wood with knowledge and culture the number nine also comes back often in the number of animals on roofs or in decorative elements i mentioned that the last emperor abdicated in nineteen twelve he was sick so in reality others took the decision but he was allowed to stay in the inner court the sector dedicated to the emperor's private life for twelve more years in nineteen twenty four there was a coup and he was evicted after that china was plunged in a state of instability in civil war for twenty-five years and the situation worsened in the nineteen thirties when a japanese invasion began the war against japan suspended the civil war for several years and when it resumed at the end of the second world war the communist faction won and established the people's republic of china on almost all the territory almost because the main opposing party kuo ming dung took refuge in taiwan China still claims Taiwan as part of its territory that, in its view, is occupied by a rebellion. And this is the origin of the animosity between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. A lot of countries around the world, including all of Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, and Russia don't have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but they keep informal contact with it and recognize the Taiwanese passport as a valid travel document. Parts of the treasures of the Forbidden City are actually in Taiwan, as they were taken by the Kuomintang before it lost continental China. But the majority is displayed in the Forbidden City itself, which receives millions of visitors every year. So this is all for tonight. I hope you enjoyed the story and don't hesitate to watch The Last Emperor. You won't regret it. But for now, you may let go and fall into a restful sleep. Or if you're not sleepy yet, you may pick another story from my ever-growing library. And until we meet again, good night. Sleep well.