forbidden city(紫禁城)

(in front of the meridian gate)

ladies and gentlemen:

i am pleased to serve as your guide today.

this is the palace museum; also know as the purple forbidden city. it is the largest and most well reserved imperial residence in china today. under ming emperor yongle, construction began in 1406. it took 14years to build the forbidden city. the first ruler who actually lived here was ming emperor zhudi. for five centuries thereafter, it continued to be the residence of23 successive emperors until 1911 when qing emperor puyi was forced to abdicate the throne .in 1987, the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization recognized the forbidden city was a world cultural legacy.

it is believed that the palace museum, or zi jin cheng (purple forbidden city), got its name from astronomy folklore, the ancient astronomers divided the constellations into groups and centered them around the ziwei yuan(north star). the constellation containing the north star was called the constellation of heavenly god and star itself was called the purple palace. because the emperor was supposedly the son of the heavenly gods, his central and dominant position would be further highlighted the use of the word purple in the name of his residence. in folklore, the term ”an eastern purple cloud is drifting” became a metaphor for auspicious events after a purple cloud was seen drifting eastward immediately before the arrival of an ancient philosopher, laozi, to the hanghu pass. here, purple is associated with auspicious developments. the word jin (forbidden) is self-explanatory as the imperial palace was heavily guarded and off-explanatory as the imperial palace was heavily guarded and off-limits to ordinary people.