The Forbidden City: A Short Story

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596 years ago the Chinese people triumphed because the grand Forbidden City had been finished. As the Emperor Yongle strode into the luxurious palace, he felt powerful. Just as he was getting used to his new silk bedcovers and new polished and vividly colored throne, one of his most respected scholars came up to him. “Yes, what is the problem?” the Emperor said in a thunderous voice. “The gods talked to me last night, and I have a prediction of a fire. The exact dates of the fire are on this piece of paper…. What are you doing, sir?” “Take this fool to the deepest dungeon! I will have no lies in my palace! My palace has a moat, a wall and guard towers protecting it, and NO ONE WILL BURN IT DOWN!” …show more content…

The Emperor Yongle still felt unsettled, though. One of his most trusted scholars had lied to him. Or maybe it wasn’t a lie… Less than 10 months later, lightning struck the three greatest ceremonial halls and burnt them to a crisp. The throne was nothing but ashes. The weird thing is, the scholars predictions were accurate to the second…The Emperor Yongle moved out of the Forbidden City and died 3 years later in a deep depression.
The halls weren’t rebuilt until 2 centuries later, but the cycle of burning the Forbidden City to a crisp and rebuilding happened many times in the course of the coming …show more content…

He moved the capital city from Nanjing to Beijing (Previously Beiping), and the construction of his palace started in 1466. The Ming dynasty ended in 1644 when Li Zicheng and the Manchus took over. In total, including Emperor Yongle, 24 Emperors lived in the Forbidden City. From all this, you can tell that everybody wanted to rule over China. Some were so eager that they killed their own family and joined the enemy. Very few people were allowed in the Forbidden City. The Emperor’s immediate family, concubines, and eunuchs were allowed inside the walls. Eunuchs cared for the children of the palace, guarded the harem, and acted as spies. Several respected foreigners were allowed inside the walls too. Two of them were Matteo Ricci and Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest. Matteo was let in for his knowledge of science, and Andreas was let in for diplomacy. The last group of people who were let in was the officials. They gathered inside the walls from 3-5am with their silk robes. Normal Chinese people couldn’t even approach the gates, let alone get into the Imperial

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