How difficult is it to transport golden nanmu, which is more expensive than gold, from the mountains to the Forbidden City?

Golden nanmu is a very precious wood. Shi Jun, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote in "Inscribed on the nanmu of Guangfu Temple in Bazhou": "This wood is grown in Yuzhang, and it is the only one in Bazhou at present." The Forbidden City, as the royal palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, used a large amount of golden nanmu as a material for building houses and carving furniture, doors and windows. Just imagine.

The Forbidden City is the only well-preserved royal palace in my country. It is also called the Forbidden City and is the essence of ancient Chinese palace architecture. Whenever people visit the Forbidden City, they are all amazed by its solemnity and majesty. Those exquisite furniture and exquisitely carved doors and windows fully reflect the elegance and splendor of royal craftsmanship.

▲Forbidden City Photography

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A large amount of wood is used in the Forbidden City, all of which are sourced from the southwest region. Therefore, a lot of manpower and material resources were spent on transporting these timbers from the southwest to Beijing. This is because when the Forbidden City was first built, the only designated wood was golden nanmu.

The earliest record of the use of golden nanmu can be found in "Warring States Policy", and its use as building materials began in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Golden nanmu is the finest building material, mainly due to its extraordinary properties. Compared with other woods, golden nanmu is more resistant to corrosion and insect infestation, and it also has a special fragrance. Because this kind of wood is not easy to deform, it has a long service life. In Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica", it was said that golden nanmu: "The smell is very fragrant, and it is a good material for beams, pillars, utensils, and building materials." Moreover, golden nanmu has another unique feature, that is, its fine texture Exquisite, there are thin gold threads in the wood grain. When viewed in a bright place, it twinkles faintly and is very charming.

▲Golden nanmu texture

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However, before the Ming Dynasty, golden nanmu was not widely used. There are two main reasons. On the one hand, the distribution range of golden nanmu is very small, mainly in a few areas in southwest China. Ma Weidu once said that a golden nanmu tree only cost 1 tael of silver. However, because of the difficult and long distance, the cost of transportation, and the manpower and material resources, the price of it soared after arriving in the capital, comparable to gold; on the other hand, because The growth cycle of golden nanmu is very long, and it takes at least about 200 years from seedling to mature. These two reasons also make golden nanmu "rare and expensive", so the price is high.

In the Ming Dynasty, the royal family particularly loved the preciousness of golden nanmu, so it became the exclusive wood used in the palaces and mausoleums of the Ming Dynasty royal family. From this time on, golden nanmu was used on a large scale. logging. As the imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty, the Forbidden City naturally became the place where golden nanmu was consumed the most. In the Ming Dynasty, there were three large-scale logging operations of golden nanmu, the main purpose of which were to build or repair the Forbidden City.

▲Golden nanmu

The first large-scale logging of golden nanmu was during the Yongle period. This time, it took more than 10 years to harvest golden nanmu. The wood was used to build the Forbidden City. During the Jiajing period, in order to repair and rebuild the three seriously damaged palaces, Emperor Jiajing ordered that golden nanmu be cut down again on a large scale and transported to the capital. Later, Emperor Wanli ordered the third logging of golden nanmu in order to repair the palace and build his own Dingling Tomb. Due to these three large-scale logging operations, by the Qing Dynasty, the mining and transportation costs of golden nanmu were even greater. Rulers who still loved golden nanmu had to buy it from the private sector or replace it with other woods.

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Behind the exquisite wood carvings and furniture of the Forbidden City, countless workers and grassroots officials paid a huge price. It is an extremely arduous journey to transport golden nanmu wood to Beijing. Just looking for the wood can take months or more than a year. Once the wood is found, a mountain factory will be built to cut it down. Laborers in mountain factories may work for several years, and wild beasts and miasma in the forest are a constant threat to their lives. Experts say that in addition to these dangers, after the felling is completed, the wood must be transported to the river by manpower. This process is very difficult. In order to transport them, workers need to cross high mountains, build bridges in mountain streams, and use fiber ropes to drag them. In places with difficult mountain roads, if they are in danger, dozens or hundreds of people will be injured or killed. It can be said that behind every piece of wood, there are countless human lives.

▲The wood workshop in the late Qing Dynasty

After the wood was transported to the river, it was transferred to the Yangtze River by waterway, and finally sent to Beijing through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The entire process relied on manpower . It often takes four or five years from the search for golden nanmu to transportation to Beijing. The whole process not only consumes a lot of manpower and material resources, but also places a heavy burden on the people along the way. During the Wanli period, Wang Dewan of the Ministry of Industry and Kuang Shangjin, the censor, said in their memorials to the emperor: In order to cut down and transport these golden nanmu, nearly a thousand people died in one county, and more than 100,000 people died in the whole province. Hence death.

The royal family’s demand for golden nanmu was a disaster for the local people. During the Kangxi period, Emperor Kangxi realized the suffering that this behavior brought to the people, and because the cost of using large amounts of golden nanmu was too high, he issued an order to stop harvesting golden nanmu and replace it with pine wood. After that, the use of golden nanmu was gradually reduced in the Forbidden City.

▲Portrait of Emperor Kangxi

Conclusion

The reason why ancient rulers were criticized by later generations for their large-scale construction projects was because behind those magnificent palaces were ordinary people Their hard work, blood and tears. In order to supply the various needs of the ruling class, the people at the bottom have devoted their time, labor and even their lives. In these hard labors, the working people also burst out with unparalleled wisdom. It is truly worthy of respect and learning by future generations.