Page:Peking the Beautiful.pdf/92

 Within Forbidden City Walls

FALL the fine approaches to temples and palaces within the valls of the Capital, none can compare in grandeur with the in pressive entrance to the San Ta Tien. These celebrated Throne Halls, raised high on their massive marble terraces, stand one behind another on a single platform facing the south, and occupy the most honored position within the walls of the Purple City. If one would appreciate the vastness and the glory of this Imperial approach, he must take the route (now ordinarily closed to the public) which the great emperors of China always used in their pilgrimages to and from the Forbidden City. Passing through the central archway of the lofty Ch'ien Mên-along the broad, paved avenue, a half mile or so in length - through all the intervening gateways, we at last reach the manmoth for tress which opens directly into the sacred precincts of the "palace of the Son of Heaven." Though ordinarily closed, the massive portals of the Wu Men are now opened to allow out passage, and we soon find ourselves on " ground as unapproachable in the past to the ordinary mortal as the sacred soil of Lhasa or Mecca" This first Imperial courtyard, so vast in its dimensions, is paved all over with marble flagstones, and serves as a fitting approach to the beautiful Throne Hall of Supreme Harmony in the grand cour d'honneur beyond. "How great and imposing," exclaims Miss Bredon, "are these vast spaces whose every stone recalls a mighty pastIn breadth of composition, in opulence of color, in nobility of architecture, how fittingly these palaces prove that the mighty Yung Lê and son, and his son's son, magnificently reigning, con manded the builder, the carver, the painter, to erect and adorn dwellings more haughty than any which had been known of old !" In order to appreciate the grandeur of these Imperial palaces, one must mount the ramparts of the giant Wu Mên, from whose lofty terrace this remarkable photograph of the Forbidden City was taken. In the foreground is the pretty outline of the canal, with its pillared balustrades and marble bridges. Beyond these, and fronting the palace gateway, are two huge bronze lions. Towering above the quardians of the gate, and surmounting a broad marble terrace, rise the lacquered pillars and stately walls of the T'ai Ho Mên, the Gate of Supreme Harmony. And beyond all these, lifting its massive double roof of "golden" tiles above the surrounding palaces and temples, can be seen the greatest piece of Chinese architecture in all the land—the glorious T'ai Ho Tien, or Throne Hall of Supreme Harmony. The upper portion of the richly sculptured marble terrace is just discernible above the roofs of the nearer buildings, while the palace is shown almost entire--its massive form sharply outlined against a clear sky, while the rich coloring of pillars and eaves is softened and idealized by distance.