What are the legends and stories about the Forbidden City in Beijing?

1. Ming Shizong: One emperor defeated three queens

The Forbidden City is a super luxurious palace, and the Kunning Palace dedicated to the queen's residence is one of them. The original intention of Kunning Palace is tranquility, but in the history of Ming and Qing dynasties, three queens died in Kunning Palace.

(1) Empress Chen: Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty and Emperor Jiajing, a man of good face and a believer in gods and ghosts. This Queen Mother, his aunt, chose a queen for him, Queen Chen. After all, Queen Mother Zhang was his aunt, so she was naturally a little worried. She suspected that she was a spy planted around him, and he didn't like her very much. Later, Empress Chen became pregnant with his child. While chatting with Empress Chen, she fell in love with the maid serving beside her and made out with the maid in front of her. Queen Chen was very angry and pushed the palace maid down to shame the Emperor Jiajing. Emperor Jiajing kicked her without saying a word. Queen Chen had a miscarriage and died.

(2) Queen Zhang: The queen who was conferred by the palace maid has never been pregnant. Emperor Jiajing got a folk treasure, Ganoderma lucidum. Queen Zhang was afraid that it was something dirty, so she helped the emperor test the medicine. As a result, she got food poisoning, so she advised the emperor not to eat it. The emperor refused to listen, got angry and was thrown into the cold palace. Empress Zhang continued to be sick and angry in the cold palace, and she was so angry that she died.

(3) Empress Fang: Emperor Jiajing dotes on a concubine, Concubine Duan. It is said that I stayed here that night, but late that night, more than a dozen maids were tortured to death because the emperor made elixirs of menstrual blood from the maids, and they tried to strangle him, but failed. Queen Fang took the opportunity to kill Concubine Duan on the pretext that what happened in Concubine Duan's room was unclean. Emperor Jiajing became angry when he learned about it. Later, there was a fire in Queen Fang's palace, and Jiajing ordered not to save her, and she was burned alive.

2. Guangxu hugged the queen and cried in the wedding night

Emperor Guangxu was not the biological son of the Empress Dowager Cixi. Cixi was very domineering. Guangxu could not do anything. In order to control him, Cixi Marry his niece, Yehenala (Queen Longyu) to him. Guangxu didn't like her, so the marriage almost didn't happen. There was a rule for the emperors of the Qing Dynasty to get married. They had to go through five gates before getting married, and then they had to stay in Kunning Palace for two days. Before the wedding, there was a fire in the Forbidden City and the Gate of Supreme Harmony was burned down.

Guangxu was so proud that Cixi didn't want to delay her wedding, so she asked craftsmen to make a paper paste according to the original Taihe Gate style. On their wedding night, the more they thought about Queen Longyu, the angrier they became and she burst into tears. Queen Longyu also felt uncomfortable, and the more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she became. The two of them looked at each other speechless, with thousands of tears in their eyes, and cried all night long.

3. Yin and Yang Road in the Forbidden City

The Western Sixth Palace in the Forbidden City is where the emperor’s concubines lived. It is located on the left side of the central axis and corresponds to the Eastern Sixth Palace. The Sixth Palace in the West mainly includes Chuxiu Palace, Yikun Palace, Yongshou Palace, Xianfu Palace, Changchun Palace and Taiji Palace. The palace road between the West Sixth Palace, Fengxian Palace, North Fifth Palace and Ningshou Palace is habitually called the East Tongzi Road. It is said that the eunuchs and maids in the palace can only be carried out of the palace through this road after death. , so many supernatural events happened here, so this road is also called the Yin and Yang Road.

So what is Onmyodo? To put it simply, at night when the moon is shining in the sky, on the ground with tall towers and long corridors, there will be two interfaces, one yin and one yang (actually, part of it is moonlight, and the other part of moonlight is blocked by the wall, forming a wall. shadow). According to legend, the yang side is where palace people walk, and the yin side is where demons and ghosts walk.

4. Zhenfei Well in the Forbidden City

In the thirteenth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1887), Emperor Guangxu had no choice but to "select" Empress Longyu and Concubine Jin, under the intimidation of Empress Dowager Cixi. After Concubine Zhen, he was always estranged from Empress Longyu, the niece of the Empress Dowager Cixi, but gradually fell in love with Concubine Zhen, who was kind, intelligent and clever. Because Concubine Zhen politically sympathized with and supported Emperor Guangxu's reform actions, while she was favored by Emperor Guangxu, she was also extremely hated by the Queen Mother of the West.

In the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1898), Empress Dowager Cixi used a conspiracy to cause the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, and once again took over the power. After that, Empress Dowager Cixi confined Concubine Zhen in a small courtyard behind Jingqi Pavilion because she didn't like Concubine Zhen. The cold palace where Concubine Zhen was confined was in a small courtyard in the garden at the southeast corner of the palace. It was completely isolated from outsiders. All her eating, drinking and sleeping were under the supervision of eunuchs. Concubine Zhen was losing weight day by day. Her sister Jin Concubine sometimes secretly sends some clothes or a few words, which makes Concubine Zhen feel a little warm.

In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing. Empress Dowager Cixi took Emperor Guangxu, who had also been under solitary house arrest, and fled to Xi'an. Before leaving, she did not forget to murder Concubine Zhen. She ordered the second manager to release Concubine Zhen from the small courtyard behind Jingqi Pavilion, and ordered Concubine Zhen to throw herself into a well on the grounds that "Concubine Zhen is young and foreigners will not be insulted when they enter the city."

5. Xuanyuan Mirror in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City

There is a two-meter-high square platform on the front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. On the platform is the golden throne where the emperor sits, with six tall mirrors on both sides. Panlong golden pillar. Right above the Jinluan throne is carved an exquisite and vivid dragon, with a large upside-down copper ball hanging in the dragon's mouth - this is the legendary Xuanyuan Mirror. According to legend, it was cast by the Yellow Emperor in ancient times and represents the legitimacy of the throne.

The magic is that it is said that when a fake emperor sits on the Jinluan throne, the Xuanyuan Mirror will automatically activate its mechanism, and hundreds of kilograms of copper balls will fall down, smashing the fake emperor into flesh. mud! Therefore, no one dared to sit on the emperor's throne, fearing that the Xuanyuan Mirror would reveal that he was a fake and activate the mechanism.