Is there really 9999.5 rooms in the Forbidden City?

Located in the center of Beijing, the Forbidden City (the predecessor of the Palace Museum) is the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. It has the largest and most complete ancient palace complex in the world. Every visitor to the Forbidden City will be dazzled by its huge number of buildings. Since ancient times, there has been a folk saying that the Forbidden City has 9999.5 rooms.

Many people believe that 9999.5 rooms symbolize the supremacy of the ninth five-year plan of the emperor. In ancient China, numbers were divided into positive and negative numbers. Odd numbers were positive and even numbers were negative. 9 is the extreme number of Yang numbers, that is, the largest singular number, so the ancient emperors associated themselves with 9 in order to express their dignity; 5 is the yang number in the middle, which means all the spaces in the east, west, south, north and middle. The combination of numbers 9 and 5 forms a mark with a specific meaning, that is, "Ninth Five Year Supreme". So, apart from cultural factors, is it correct to say that there are 9999.5 rooms in the Forbidden City? The answer is no.

In the field of ancient architecture, the space enclosed by four columns is called "a room". Since the Forbidden City was built in the early Ming Dynasty, its ancient buildings have gone through the stages of expansion in the Ming Dynasty, war damage in the late Ming Dynasty, reconstruction in the Qing Dynasty, and renovation after the founding of New China. Therefore, the number of ancient buildings in the Forbidden City is not constant in different historical periods. For example, the total number of houses in the Forbidden City during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty was about 8300, the total number of houses in the late Ming Dynasty was about 20000, and the total number of houses in the Qing Dynasty was about 10000.

The Forbidden City complex was officially started in 1417, and it took only three years to complete. It has been in good condition for nearly 600 years. Such a rapid and high-quality construction project can reflect the scientificity of planning, organization and construction technology of large palaces in ancient China. The reasons are mainly reflected in the following aspects.

The scientificity of material reserve. The materials for the construction of the Forbidden City mainly include wood, stone, brick and tile. The preparation of these construction materials actually began in 1406. The Nanmu wood needed for the construction of the Forbidden City is from the remote mountains and forests in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou, the stone materials are from Dashiwo Village, Fangshan, a suburb of Beijing, the bricks are from Linqing, Shandong, and Lumu, Jiangsu, and the glazed tiles are from Liuliqu Village, west of Beijing. These materials have been used for 11 years. In order to ensure the construction progress and the cleanness of the huge construction site, when the palace was first built in the Ming Dynasty, off-site processing was adopted, which is the prototype of the factory construction of modern architecture.

According to the historical records of Beijing, "A Study of the Past Stories under the Sun", at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of Works set up Shenmu Factory, Big Wood Factory, Taiji Factory, Black Kiln Factory, Glaze Factory and Quarry around the Forbidden City. Among them, Shenmu Factory and Big Wood Factory are the places for storing wood, Taiji Factory is the place for processing wood components, Black Kiln Factory is the place for firing green tiles, Glass Factory is the place for firing glass components, and Quarry is the place for preliminary processing of stones collected and transported. The materials are fully prepared and stacked around the Forbidden City, which is conducive to the rapid and orderly development of the project.

Scientific personnel organization. During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, many people participated in the construction of the Forbidden City. The Ming History · Food and Goods Annals described the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing in the whole Ming Dynasty as follows: "In the early Ming Dynasty, there was a great deal of labor service. They built temples, palaces, Quemen, and royal palaces in Beijing and Beijing, picked wood and pottery walls, and made works by craftsmen." These craftsmen were divided into soil works, stone works, wood works, tile works, oil decoration works, color painting works, paper-cut works, and building materials, The orderly connection and ingenious collocation between different types of work are important guarantees for the smooth progress of the project.

In addition to 100000 craftsmen, there are nearly one million workers involved in the construction of the Forbidden City. Such a large number of construction personnel are flexibly distributed in the space of the Forbidden City. The construction personnel and different types of work do not interfere with each other, and the construction of each palace is carried out in an orderly manner, which makes the project progress fast and smoothly. This undoubtedly benefits from the scientific organization and management of personnel.

Scientific construction technology. The ancient buildings in the Forbidden City use wooden components as the core stress skeleton of the building. In terms of installation technology, each wooden member is connected by mortise and tenon, that is, two interconnected wooden frames, one end of which is made into a mortise, the other end of which is made into a corresponding mortise, and the mortise is inserted into the mortise to form a whole connection. The installation mode of mortise tenon connection is not only one of the main manifestations of ancient buildings in China different from western buildings, but also means that craftsmen only need to assemble wooden beams on site, which not only has fast installation speed, but also has good construction quality and strong seismic capacity, reflecting the scientificity.

The ancient buildings in the Forbidden City have experienced more than 200 earthquakes for 600 years, and the palace buildings have never collapsed. Another important scientific expression of the construction technology of the ancient buildings in the Forbidden City is the stylized building installation method. Although there are tens of thousands of ancient buildings in the Forbidden City, the style of these buildings is fixed, and the roof form is nothing more than a form of hard mountain, hanging mountain, Xieshan, roof, and Zanjian roof. The ancient buildings in the Forbidden City are installed by these five roof forms in a large and small combination way, just like several special mold making, with a sense of large-scale programmed production technology.

Although the statement that the Forbidden City has 9999.5 rooms is not correct, it can reflect the large number of ancient buildings in the Forbidden City. Moreover, these ancient buildings can be built within three years. From the perspective of scientific construction, they can reflect the wisdom and superb skills of ancient craftsmen in China. (The author is a research librarian of the Palace Museum)