| The imperial palace is considered as the very core of the Chinese architectural history at all time throughout the history of feudal society for three thousands in China. In itself the palatial architecture is not only the living house of emperors, but also an important representation of the Chinese traditional etiquette. Furthermore, it is the centre of imperial power of Ancient China. Evolution of the palace architectural form not only reflects the reforms of architectural styles and technique, but also is an attribute of the imperial power changes in Ancient China. Therefore, we can thoroughly and systematically research on changes of separation of the premier power and the monarchic power through an analysis of the evolution of the palatial architecture form itself. At the same time, we can also figure out the true reasons for layout changes of the palace architecture in historical changes of the social culture system.It is believed that the system of "San Chao Wu Men" in palace architecture has already been established in ancient times. From palace building in pre-Qin Dynasty, with the extension of the longitudinal space of palace, the palace complex gradually developed into palace architecture pattern of " Qian Chao Hou Qin and Mian Chao Hou Shi". The change of the building layout in the longitudinal direction not only was attributed to the functional development, but also met the requirements of the Chinese traditional etiquette system.As one of the most important place of three courts, the outer court became the key link between Palace City and Imperial City. It has also become the significant place of the royal ceremonial activities in the ritual. The outer court plays an important role in discussing official business when the emperor summoned cabinet ministers to the court. In this paper, we focus on the early space form of the outer court, their development, and the characteristics of pattern in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.In this paper, the author tries to discuss the historic development of the system about the outer court in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The preliminary research was done on the architectural form,main building characteristics and the functional layout of the central government offices of the outer court of the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In addition, the royal ceremonial activities and its etiquette function of the outer court of the Forbidden City are briefly discussed. Finally, we try to reveal its functional and spatial characteristics of defense, ceremony and administrative management as "the place of administrative order".The thesis is divided into seven chapters.In Chapter One, the author firstly introduces the current study situations of our country and abroad, explains the research purpose and the research approach.In Chapter Two, the origin of the pattern and function of the outer court about the "San Chao Wu Men" system was studied. The development of the architectural form and its function of the outer court in the ancient capitals of past dynasties were reviewed briefly in the article.In Chapter Three, it is defined the boundary and function of the outer court of the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Tiananmen gate and T-shaped Square have been discussed and researched, including the layout features, defense arrangement and spatial scales, etc.In Chapter Four, mainly based on the system of the feudal imperial power, we discussed the changes of the architectural layout at the central government offices of the outer court in some detail. We not only explored the heritage and development of the central government offices, but also tried to find out the underlying causes of building layout formation in the evolution of the separation of powers between the emperor and premiers in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.In Chapter Five, we emphatically discussed the ceremonies of the outer court of the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. We have induced that damingmen gate, chengtianmen gate and T-shaped Square can play a significant role in the ceremony system by studying the ceremonies of the outer court.In Chapter Six, the image restoration was made to the outer court in the south of chengtianmen gate. The important buildings constructed entirely of wood, such as damingmen gate, the Thousand-step Corridor have been qualitatively discussed. By setting up the virtual model, we also restored and recreated the spatial impression on above areas.The Seventh chapter summarizes the whole dissertation and gives some directions for further research.It is considered that the system of "Gao Men" and "Ku Men" hadn’t been established in the Taiji Palaces of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Daming Palace of Tang Dynasty and Bianliang Palace of Northern Song Dynasty yet. However, the longitudinal "San Chao Wu Men" pattern in both palaces of Nanjing in Ming Dynasty and Beijing in Qing Dynasty have been built.The outer court of the Forbidden City in Ming Dynasty was located between the damingmen gate and chengtianmen gate, but its spatial pattern didn’t indiscriminately imitate the doctrine out of the book "Zhou li". T-shaped Square of the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties characterized of combining "Heng Jie" street in front of Tang Chang’an Palace with "Zong Jie" street of the Dongjing Bianliang Palace in the south of Northern Song Dynasty.Due to T-shaped square in front of chengtianmen gate is more closed, the exchange and contact between the emperor and a large number of ordinary people have been cut off basically.In comparison with the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, the power of the emperor in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing was at the height unprecedentedly. A short or long walk from the imperial decision center directly reflected the power relationships of the central government conferred. The building of T-shaped Square of Beijing Palace in the Ming and Qing Dynasties separated officials from people in space. Moreover, it formed the precise boundary line between the Forbidden City Imperial City and inner city in activities and psychological deterrence. With extending the outer court of the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the distance between Imperial City and inner city, the Emperor Guard of honor had to walk more longer than before along the square. All of this also reinforced the supremacy of the imperial authority with mystery and majesty.The Imperial Thousand-step Corridor, as the symbol of the outer court of the Forbidden City, stretched over the palace buildings. As the most significant part of the outer palace court, it was not only the centre of the ceremonies, but also an important place where the central government offices located. It aimed to forged links between the emperor and the prime ministers, whereas it divided the power between the emperor and the ministers in space. At the same time, it also played an irreplaceable defense role in the history due to its heavily-fortified mansion. Therefore, it suggested that the outer court of the Forbidden City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties perfectly established a link between "Emperor Ministers and People" on the central axis of Beijing. Keywords: Beijing of Ming and Qing Dynasties, outer palace court, architectural form,... |
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