Page:Peking the Beautiful.pdf/36

 The Forbidden City

ITHIN the crenelated walls of old Peking we find to-day four distinct cities: the Tartar or Manchu City on the north; the Chinese City in the south; the Imperial City in the center of the Manchu City; and in the innermost heart of them all the Purple or Forbidden City, the one-time home of the emperor and his court From the marble terrace of the lofty White Dagoba one can get a most delightful view of the Forbidden City, with its acres of yellow tile gleaming like gold in the sunlight. This vast palatial domain is surrounded by six Chinese miles of massive pink walls, with a charming pavilion on each of the four comers, and a mammoth gateway on each side. The whole is surrounded by a broad moat The great doors of this mysterious Forbidden City have been closed to the public for centuries, and before the establishment of the Republic, sew from the outside world were permitted to enter its gilded halls. "What poetic suggestion in the very name of the city," exclaims Miss Bredon,"-a Forbidden City reserved for the Son of Heaven! The dignity of such a conception compels respect, doubly so when we consider all it represented the profound reverence paid to the Sovereign by the people of a great empire, the immense spiritual power in his hands, the tradition of his divine descent, the immemorial dignity of his office. To have seen this Forbidden City therefore is to have seen something much more wonderful than noble buildings, and to enter it is to feel the pulse of the ancient civilization which throbbed as mightily in the eighteenth century as ever in that dim past whereof these palaces them selves, though already old, are but a modern record" The approach to the Forbidden City is magnificent indeed. Splendid gates dot the wide imperial avenue as it leads from the great Ch'ien Mên, past the Legation Quarter, into the Imperial City. The huge T'ien An Mén, shown on the extreme right of the photo, guards the southern wall of the Huang Cheng. "Between the t'ien An Mên and the Du Men lies the outer part of the Forbidden City, subdivided by the Tuan Mén," the second from the right The third structure is the famous Wu Men, or Meridian Gate. This huge fortress is the "official entrance to the Forbidden City, and is the grandest of all the palace gates." The T'ai Ho Mên is next in line, and leads directly into the great Court of Supreme Harmony. Beyond, in all their glory, stand the three principal throne halls. These mag nificent buildings are known as the San Ta Tien, and are arranged on a high marble platform, one behind the other. The first is the gigantic T'ai Ho Tien, or Throne Hall of Supreme Harmony: the second is the Chung Ho Tien; and the third is the Pao Ho Tien, which formerly was used as an imperial examination hall. The space immediately behind these until recent months has not been open to the public, having been reserved as a home for the deposed Manchu emperor and his court