Brief Description
Seat of supreme power for over five centuries (1416-1911), the
Forbidden City in Beijing, with its landscaped gardens and many
buildings (whose nearly 10,000 rooms contain furniture and works of
art), constitutes a priceless testimony to Chinese civilization during
the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty in
Shenyang consists of 114 buildings constructed between 1625–26 and 1783.
It contains an important library and testifies to the foundation of the
last dynasty that ruled China, before it expanded its power to the
centre of the country and moved the capital to Beijing. This palace then
became auxiliary to the Imperial Palace in Beijing. This remarkable
architectural edifice offers important historical testimony to the
history of the Qing Dynasty and to the cultural traditions of the Manchu
and other tribes in the north of China.
Brief synthesis
As the royal residences of the emperors
of the Ming and Qing dynasties from the 15th to 20th century, the
Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang
were the centre of State power in late feudal China. The Imperial Palace
of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing known as the Forbidden City
was constructed between 1406 and 1420 by the Ming emperor Zhu Di and
witnessed the enthronement of 14 Ming and 10 Qing emperors over the
following 505 years. The Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty in Shenyang
was built between 1625 and 1637 by Nurgaci for the Nuzhen/Manchu
forebears of the Qing Dynasty, which established itself in Beijing in
1644. Also known as Houjin Palace or Shenglin Palace, it was then used
as the secondary capital and temporary residence for the royal family
until 1911. The Imperial Palaces of Beijing and Shenyang were inscribed
on the World Heritage List in 1987 and 2004 respectively.
The Forbidden City, located in the
centre of Beijing is the supreme model in the development of ancient
Chinese palaces, providing insight into the social development of late
dynastic China, especially the ritual and court culture. The layout and
spatial arrangement inherits and embodies the traditional characteristic
of urban planning and palace construction in ancient China, featuring a
central axis, symmetrical design and layout of outer court at the front
and inner court at the rear and the inclusion of additional landscaped
courtyards deriving from the Yuan city layout. As the exemplar of
ancient architectural hierarchy, construction techniques and
architectural art, it influenced official buildings of the subsequent
Qing dynasty over a span of 300 years. The religious buildings,
particularly a series of royal Buddhist chambers within the Palace,
absorbing abundant features of ethnic cultures, are a testimony of the
integration and exchange in architecture among the Manchu, Han,
Mongolian and Tibetan since the 14th century. Meanwhile, more than a
million precious royal collections, articles used by the royal family
and a large number of archival materials on ancient engineering
techniques, including written records, drawings and models, are evidence
of the court culture and law and regulations of the Ming and Qing
dynasties.
The Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty
in Shenyang while following the traditions of palace construction in
China retains typical features of traditional folk residences of the
Manchu people, and has integrated the architectural arts of Han, Manchu
and Mongolian ethnic cultures. The buildings were laid out according to
the “eight-banner” system, a distinct social organization system in
Manchu society, an arrangement which is unique among palace buildings.
Within the Qingning Palace the sacrificial places for the emperors
testify to the customs of Shamanism practiced by the Manchu people for
several hundred years.
Criterion (i): The Imperial Palaces represent masterpieces in the development of imperial palace architecture in China.
Criterion (ii): The
architecture of the Imperial Palace complexes, particularly in Shenyang,
exhibits an important interchange of influences of traditional
architecture and Chinese palace architecture particularly in the 17th
and 18th centuries.
Criterion (iii): The
Imperial Palaces bear exceptional testimony to Chinese civilisation at
the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, being true reserves of
landscapes, architecture, furnishings and objects of art, as well as
carrying exceptional evidence of the living traditions and the customs
of Shamanism practised by the Manchu people for centuries.
Criterion (iv): The
Imperial Palaces provide outstanding examples of the greatest palatial
architectural ensembles in China. They illustrate the grandeur of the
imperial institution from the Qing Dynasty to the earlier Ming and Yuan
dynasties, as well as Manchu traditions, and present evidence on the
evolution of this architecture in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Integrity
Since the collapse of the Qing dynasty,
much attention has been paid to the conservation of the property. The
designated property area includes all elements embodying the values in
the creativity, influence, historic evidence, and architectural
exemplar, with the historical scale, architectural types, and other
components, as well as the techniques and artistic achievements of
Chinese palace buildings after the 15th century, particularly in the
17th to 18th century, well preserved. Various embodiments of the court
culture in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the features of the
lifestyles of and the exchange and integration between the Manchu and
Han peoples have been well retained. The buffer zone protects the
spatial positions of the complexes in the cities and their settings.
Authenticity
The Imperial Palaces of the Ming and
Qing dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang, particularly the Forbidden City,
genuinely preserve the outstanding embodiment of Chinese hierarchical
culture in the layout, design and decoration of the building complex.
The highest technical and artistic achievements of Chinese official
architecture, conveyed by wooden structures, are preserved in an
authentic way, and traditional craftsmanship is inherited. Various
components of the Palaces bearing witness to the court culture of the
Ming and Qing dynasties are retained, reflecting the lifestyle and
values of the royal family of the times. The Imperial Palace of the Qing
Dynasty in Shenyang genuinely preserves the historical arrangement of
Manchu palace buildings, the style and features of local buildings and
information on the exchange between Manchu and Han nationalities in
lifestyle in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Protection and management requirements
The Imperial Palaces of the Ming and
Qing Dynasties have been well protected in the past century. After the
collapse of the Qing dynasty, the two palace complexes were declared by
the state as the Palace Museums in 1925 and 1926 respectively. In 1961,
they were among the first group of the State Priority Protected Sites
designated by the State Council, and were repaired and protected
according to the conservation principles of cultural relics. As a
result, all the main buildings and majority of ancillary buildings have
remained intact. Based on the strict implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage issued Regulations Concerning the Management of the Palace Museum
in 1996, and the people’s government of Beijing Municipality demarcated
an area of 1,377 hectares as the buffer zone of the Imperial Palace in
2005; in 2003, the people’s government of Shenyang City issued the Regulations on the Protection of the Imperial Palace, Fuling Tomb and Zhaoling Tomb of Shenyang.
All of these laws and regulations have detailed prescription on the
protection of the settings of the Imperial Palaces, providing legal,
institutional and managerial guarantee to the maximal protection of the
authenticity and integrity of the property, and ensuring a better
safeguarding of this outstanding cultural heritage site for all human
beings.
In future, integrated protection of the
values of the Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties will be
conducted through implementing and improving the conservation management
plan, adhering to the conservation principle of minimal intervention,
and improving the scientific and technological measures, so as to ensure
the sustainable protection of the authenticity and integrity of the
property. All the regulations concerning the protection and management
of the Imperial Palaces should be strictly implemented, and the number
of tourists, especially in the Forbidden City, should be effectively
controlled, so as to reduce the negative impact on the property. The
protection of the setting should be strengthened, especially that of the
Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty in Shenyang. The needs of the
stakeholders should be coordinated to maintain the rational and
effective balance between the protection of the Imperial Palaces and the
development of tourism and urban construction. The research on
interpretation and promotion should be enhanced to better showcase the
scientific, historic and artistic values of the Palaces to tourists from
home and abroad and provide spiritual enlightenment and enjoyment to
people, in order to give play to the social and cultural benefits of the
Imperial Palaces in a reasonable way, and promote the sustainability of
the protection of the Imperial Palaces within the context of the
development of the cities.
Long Description
The Imperial Palaces bear exceptional testimony to Chinese
civilization, being true reserves of landscapes, architecture,
furnishings and objects of art, as well as containing exceptional
evidence to the living traditions and the customs of shamanism practised
by the Manchu people for centuries. They illustrate the grandeur of the
imperial institution from the Qing dynasty to the earlier Ming and Yuan
dynasties, as well as Manchu traditions, and present evidence on the
evolution of this architecture in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Lying at the centre of Beijing to the north of Tiananmen Square, the
Forbidden City was the Imperial Palace during the Ming and Qing
dynasties. Now known as the Palace Museum, it is rectangular in shape
and is the world's largest palace complex, covering 74 ha. The curtain
wall has a gate on each side and there are towers at each of the four
corners, affording views over both the palace and the city outside.
The Forbidden City is an extremely formal place: it is almost
symmetrical and hierarchically arranged so that all the important
buildings run down the centre, north-south. The Hall of Supreme Harmony,
the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony, which
comprise the outer palace where the Emperor exercised his supreme power
over the nation, and the Hall of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Union and
the Hall of Earthly Tranquillity, comprising the inner palace where the
imperial family lived, stand in a line from south to north on the
central axis. In keeping with geomancy, the main gate is in the south
and the northern side is 'protected' by the artificial Coal Hill. The
buildings of the Forbidden City fully embody the artistic features and
style of ancient Chinese palace architecture, and can be called a
masterpiece in Chinese, even world, architectural history.
In 1406 the Ming dynasty Emperor Zhu Di ordered the construction of
an imperial palace: its construction began in 1407 and was completed in
1420. The stone needed was quarried from Fangshan, a suburb of Beijing:
for 20,000 peasants to be able to move an enormous stone cylinder in
winter, engineers created a huge ice path by pouring liquid water on the
frozen soil, and thousands of horses pulled the stone across the ice to
the centre of Beijing. Wood was even more difficult to move. Giant
trees in Sichuan province were felled for the main halls, but it was
found that they were too large to move. Workers had to wait until
torrential rains washed the logs into rivers, where boatmen steered them
into the Grand Canal, from where they were floated north to Beijing and
towed into the palace grounds.
The Imperial Palace of the Qing dynasty in Shenyang consists of 114
buildings; it contains an important library and testifies to the
foundation of the last dynasty that ruled China, before it expanded its
power to the centre of the country and moved the capital to Beijing.
This palace then became auxiliary to the Imperial Palace in Beijing.
This remarkable architectural edifice offers important historical
testimony to the history of the Qing dynasty and to the cultural
traditions of the Manchu and other tribes in the north of China.
Work began on building the palace in 1625 and it was completed in
1636. Although considered to be a miniature of the Forbidden City in
Beijing, the Shenyang Palace by comparison is smaller in scale. The
Manchurian influence behind its construction also shows a departure in
style from its predecessor. The main architecture on the central axis is
the Chong Zheng Dian, where the Emperoro attended to his political
affairs (this is where Juchen was renamed Manchu). Behind are Feng Huang
Lou (Phoenix Tower) and Qing Ning Gong (Palace of Celestial Peace) in
which he and his concubines lived. Da Zheng Dian (Hall of Great Affairs)
is the main building on the east axis. In front of the hall there are
eight pavilions where the Manchurian tribal lords gathered to discuss
state affairs and for other important ceremonies.
Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC
