Power Presentation In The Forbidden City

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The Power Presentation in the Architecture of China in 200BCE and 15th Century China has a long and complicated history. Therefore, it was certain that the ways of power presentation in architecture would vary from its earlier period to its later period. The best choice to compare these varies would be the two imperial cities—Han WeiYangGong Site and The Forbidden City since they were the center of the extreme power at the periods. The first difference was about the central concept, presented by the scale and the functions. In 200 BCE, Han Dynasty just founded. The emperor commanded his chancellor to built a new imperial city to indicate his contribution and power(Ban, ca.CE74). The new imperial city--Han WeiYangGong Site constructed …show more content…

Therefore, the rule of power expression was simple as well. A book listed all the essentials rules to indicate power-- the house of empire should be square shape, divided functionally, south facing, upper than the ground, and arranged along with the astrology(ZhouLi, n.d). The constructor of Han WeiYnagGong Site followed this rules, and built a series of major palaces on the central axis to emphasis the monarch and used it to rank hierarchy(Liu, 1995). The use of central axis also helped to provide a private area, since only selected people could pass all the palaces and gates to reach the rear parts of the city(Liu, 1995). This structure worked out well, so that it became to the basic structure, and used in all the imperial cities every after(Liu, …show more content…

According to the remain paintings and records, The city was mostly in materials original colors, and partially painted in red and black (Li, Wu, and Lu, 2014). Red represent fortune and importance, was exclusive for the empire to use on the architecture(Li, Wu, and Lu, 2014). In the Han WeiYangGong Site, red was used on the Dougong (the supporting brackets above the columns), columns and girders, to show it was the emperor’s belonging(Ban, ca. CE74). Tiaoism patterns, paintings, and statues were also used to indicate the royal power(Liu, 1995). Emperor and the symbols of emperor repeatedly appeared since he was considered as the son of God, and other paintings and decors mainly appeared as a symbol of blessing(Liu,

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