China´s Forbidden City | Full Documentary

the forbidden city in the heart of beijing once the residence of the all-powerful emperors of china still the greatest palace ever built its story begins with one man's [Music] he took power in the middle kingdom by force and he savagely suppressed anyone who dared question his god-like claim to dominance the forbidden city was the symbol of his absolute power a secret universe of infinitely repeated rituals the eunuch juan ann was the principal architect his master plan was based on laws that were hundreds of years old he left nothing to chance every detail had ritual significance [Music] how could he construct this gigantic palace complex in just three years judy's vision of a sacred palace had been made reality but his life's work carried the seeds of its own destruction [Music] [Music] at the end of the 14th century a.d a victorious chinese army came riding out of the steps to the north of the empire [Music] it had dealt the mongols an overwhelming defeat and expelled the nomadic warriors who had ruled over china for more than a hundred years [Music] the man responsible for freeing china from foreign domination was a brilliant general prince judy a member of the ming dynasty china's new royal family his great victory has won him both respect and power beiping the north is pacified is the name he confidently gives his home city [Music] no one could guess that a great palace will soon be built here that will be the center of a global empire for fame and honor are not enough for an ambitious soul like judy but his residence of bei ping is just a provincial outpost the mongols used it as their capital when they ruled over the middle kingdom but it's anything but a city of splendor and the new capital of the ming dynasty is almost two thousand kilometers away nanjing the southern capital is far from the insecure northern frontiers this is where judy's father has established the ming dynasty as the emperor's fourth son judy has no prospect of ascending to the throne in nanjing they decide the young prince should devote himself to a military career at the age of nine he is cast out alone into the forest without food or shelter it's up to him to survive judy learns to track animals set traps and at the right moment to strike [Music] it's an education that marks his personality for life in the loneliness of the mountains he learns to trust only himself to press home his advantage with determination and without conscience he has learned to take his destiny into his own hands as he approaches the age of 40 judy has achieved nearly everything his father had set out for him [Music] you're here once more a fortune teller begs to be admitted his predictions will reinforce ambitions the judy has kept well concealed [Music] the fortune teller flatters the prince when they're alone he makes his prophecy your majesty has the aspect and the bearing of the sun of heaven you move like a dragon and you strike like a tiger there is no doubt you are the true son of heaven the true ruler over humanity [Music] an attractive prospect and an invitation to high treason [Music] for the throne of heaven is not vacant the legitimate monarch is now the emperor jan wen in nanjing he alone has the mandate of heaven that means he can count on the loyalty of his officials not only that judy's sons are kept as hostages at the emperor's court but now emperor jan wen makes a catastrophic mistake he gives judy's sons permission to return to their father in bei ping the gates of his palace are open he says they may leave [Music] it's meant as a sign of confidence in the mighty prince but it's interpreted as weakness it's the opportunity judy has been waiting for [Music] in the year 1402 he gathers a million soldiers before the gates of nanjing three years have passed and he has repeatedly defeated the emperor's forces in battle but he's powerless before the great walls of the capital instead of exhausting his forces in a long siege judy resorts to bribery he exploits the greed of corrupt courtiers the traitors are paid for their troubles and the gates are opened the capital has fallen without a fight [Music] judy's soldiers pillage nanjing for days on end breaking into palaces and sacred temples countless buildings are burned down to their foundations the population are defenseless before them eroding hordes but judy cannot savor his triumph the emperor jan wen has disappeared without trace did he die in the smoldering rubble of his palace rumor pursues rumor they say he escaped through a secret passageway this fear will pursue zhudi throughout his life that jan wen is alive and will one day take his revenge [Music] on the 17th of july 1402 judy is proclaimed emperor of china but most of january's officials refused to acknowledge his authority some even refused to kowtow the traditional gesture of humility at court they say the stain of the usurper will be on judy for a hundred generations [Music] as emperor judy has taken the name young lay eternal joy but now he encounters immediate and open opposition the highest official responsible for preparing imperial edicts provokes uproar at court [Music] he refuses outright to serve the new ruler his loyalty is due only to the legitimate emperor john when he alone has the mandate of heaven according to the principles of the ancestors by seizing the throne yongle has breached these eternal principles but the new emperor knows the principles of the ancestors too and the crime the official is committing is high treason the official will admit to only one crime that he did not advise the legitimate emperor soon enough to destroy the usurper [Music] condemns the traitor to the cruelest of punishments he must die the death of a thousand cuts the official is not the only man who must pay for his principles with his life consumed by mistrust of the educated and highly respected civil service young lay orders a terrible purge and it's not just the officials themselves who suffer young lay punishes their families too the victims number in their tens of thousands this inhumane campaign secures yongle's place on the throne but the official's words will pursue him like a curse for in spite of his military upbringing yongle shares the traditional values of the officials he can find no rest his conscience plagues him he won his mandate with violence and with terror it is undeserved and he is afraid of the toppled emperor jan when what if he is still alive what if he is planning revenge does he still have supporters who will stop at nothing to kill young lay [Music] young lady decides to withdraw to his old residence of bei ping he will call it beijing the northern capital and as a sign of his power he will build the greatest palace the world has ever seen the forbidden city an image of heaven on earth and an unmistakable political statement this overwhelming demonstration of architectural might will dispel forever any doubts about the legitimacy of his [Music] rule [Music] wastes no time armies of workers start by pulling down the old mongol palaces in his new capital city of beijing the responsibility for the design planning and execution of this epic making project falls to a man named ruan ann he's an excellent architect and a eunuch has broken another taboo by appointing a castrate to such high [Music] office only a few years before yongle's father had banned eunuchs from all government positions and put the empire's administration in the hands of the learned officials [Music] but young lay doesn't trust the officials he needs the eunuchs as his loyal administrators he surrounds himself with a court of castrates ready to carry out his orders unquestioningly [Applause] this has happened before in china many emperors exploited the dependency of the eunuchs who were despised outside the palace for the mutilation which deprived them of their manhood they were principally used as servants and gods of the imperial harem but young lay appoints them to positions of power creating a rivalry with the traditional officials [Music] young lay encourages systematic spying mistrust and favoritism the proximity of the eunuchs to the emperor his heir the empress and of course the concubines led to political alliances and even conspiracies in which the eunuchs were directly involved this happened many times in chinese history the results are often referred to as eunuch disasters because of the murders and factional infighting that followed a communist most eunuchs were prisoners of war castrated to humiliate them castration was a familiar part of chinese culture surgeons were so proficient that only two of every hundred victims died as a result of the operation eunuchs couldn't expect any sympathy you stink like a eunuch was a popular insult eunuchs had great difficulty passing water [Music] the only chance of achieving a position of respect in spite of their mutilation was a career at the imperial court this was the route chosen by ruan un a vietnamese prisoner of war his appointment as chief architect of the forbidden city is the chance of a lifetime for ruan and an almost impossible challenge he has access to the top experts in classical chinese architecture but his task is not just to build a magnificent palace it is to create an earthly image of heavenly order even today it takes time to grasp the principles behind ruan anne's master plan the profoundest beliefs of a century's old culture are reflected in every detail of the architect's plan [Music] for the whole capital city of bay the whole capital city of beijing is composed of a series of squares in the center is the forbidden city that is surrounded by the imperial city then comes the city of beijing the square-shaped courtyard reflects the chinese belief that the earth is square and heaven is round and as a heaven is wrong the imperial palace was considered to be the center of the earth it is with the pole star and the pole star was considered to be the center of heaven the forbidden city consists of the outer court used for ceremonial and official purposes and the inner court where the emperor and his family lived lift the three big halls in the outer court are duplicated on a smaller scale in the inner court at the inner court [Music] while ruan and struggles with the complex philosophies of chinese architecture he must also satisfy the whims of his employer a historical anecdote tells of the pressure under which he's working [Music] young lay has ordered four towers to be built along the city walls he has already rejected several designs life is hanging by a thread the emperor has lost patience with the architect if he cannot provide an acceptable design by the next day he will be executed [Music] the architect sets to work on new designs in vain [Music] in those days unlike many others kept a caged sicada to chinese ears their chirping is a kind of music [Music] but even this fails to lift his spirits he resigns himself to his fate he promises that he will build him a bigger cage so he will be comfortable when his master is gone [Music] ruan notices that the cicada has left marks on the sandy floor of his cage he uses them as the inspiration for the design of the promised new cage according to legend the emperor young lady personally visits the architect's hut the next morning [Music] fate is sealed in the long night he has designed nothing but the sikada's cage [Music] but the emperor compliments the architect on his fine design he will leave ruan ann's head on its shoulders it still seems to be of some use if this story is true those four corner towers of the forbidden city must be the only structures in which coincidence played any role in every other respect the palace complex is symbolism set in stone every palace and courtyard contains the figure 9 or a multiple of it for this highest single digit number is reserved for the emperor on each roof nine mythical creatures keep evil spirits at bay nine times nine ornaments adorn the palace gates nine dragons decorate the wall that separates the outer courtyard from the apartments of the imperial family [Music] the roof of the throne room the hall of supreme harmony is supported along its length by nine gigantic columns and the throne of the sun of heaven in the center of the world is guarded by nine dragons the forbidden city has 9 999 rooms they say for 10 000 rooms are reserved for heaven alone today restorers in the forbidden city have inherited the works of their forefathers in the year 2010 the purple city as it's known for the color of its walls will shine with a new splendor the second dominant color is yellow the yellow of the carvings and tiles on the roofs yellow two was reserved for the emperor no ordinary mortal was allowed to use the colour on pain of death then as today just two manufacturers were granted a license to make the carvings in the roof tiles time seems to have stood still here though machines have made some of the work a little easier the ornaments on the palace facades are still carved by hand even today artists have to practice for years on simple designs before being allowed to carve an imperial dragon [Music] the formula for the glaze applied to the roof tiles after the first firing is known only to the master of the factory it's guarded like a state secret passed on from master to master for generations the firing temperature that makes the imperial lacquer shine so brightly is of course a secret too the palaces of the forbidden city are covered with 150 000 roof tiles and yet historical sources say that the entire complex was completed in only three years between 1417 and 1420 it was made possible by the fact that behind the complex numerological symbolism the actual construction of the buildings could hardly be simpler [Music] the fact that the forbidden city could be built in only three years because a very simple method was used used in the process and this method has been used in china since ancient times on a stone base wooden columns are erected on which the roof is laid and the roof and the columns are connected all these components are stacked together without a single nail all these parts are manufactured before building begins and on the site all these components just have to be put in place one after the other in time all weight-bearing elements of the palaces are made of cedar wood which is easy to transport and to work but also very strong the columns can support far heavier loads than steel and have endured the seasonal changes between heat and cold for centuries without distortion [Music] did not invent this prefabricated building system this process was already used in china in the first millennium before christ it's recorded in old writings the brilliantly simple construction technique isn't the only reason all the buildings were completed so fast ruan and superb organization also played a role [Music] even before any scaffolding was erected all the building materials were gathered on gigantic lots and pre-finished according to precise standards for 13 years an endless stream of the highest quality materials flowed into the capital city from every corner of the empire [Music] the marble for the foundations came from quarries about a hundred kilometers from beijing the cedar and other hardwoods came from the mountains of the southern provinces they were floated down to the coast and transported from there to the grand canal that linked the yangtze river to the capital [Music] parts of this canal had already existed for 2400 years and in the 12th century it was extended to reach beijing at one thousand eight hundred kilometers it's the longest man-made waterway in the world at first the canal was used to supply the capital with rice which wouldn't grow in the harsh northern climate but now on the emperor's orders every ship sailing to the capital must carry an extra load of bricks destined for the forbidden city historians believe that more than 2 million tons of bricks took the canal route to beijing [Music] five layers of bricks were laid on the squares of the forbidden city alone a hundred thousand men mostly convicts labored from sunrise to sunset on this gigantic building site at night they were locked in cans heavy wooden collars to stop them escaping the collars only came off when they were working the work continues a pace ruan is more than satisfied with the progress thousands of stonemasons and plasterers begin decorating the marble terraces artists cover the beams of the palace roofs with gold leaf [Music] faces one further challenge in the middle of the stone steps that one day the emperor and only the emperor shall ascend there is still a great hole today it's filled by a giant sculpted marble slab how do you transport 300 tons of marble to the forbidden city [Music] the quarry is 80 kilometers from beijing in winter when icy winds from the northern steps sweep through the gorges the temperature can drop to -20 degrees [Music] centigrade this merciless cold torturing the thousands of labourers in the quarries is a godsend to ruan [Music] he has hundreds of wells dug at regular intervals along the route their water is poured over the frozen earth and the colossus of marble can slide down an 80 kilometer skating rink from the mountains to the capital beijing [Music] an official request an audience with the emperor [Music] twenty years have passed since yonglei first ordered the construction of the forbidden city twenty years in which thousands of people have been sacrificed to his vision and the resources of the empire have been plundered a number of officials have composed a memorandum detailing the enormous strain on the treasury lee is its principal author [Music] young is dependent on the support of his scholars and officials the son of heaven has learned of their concerns for the well-being of their emperor and of the empire and he orders the official to speak openly and without fear takes the emperor at his word he reveals his deepest concerns for almost his entire reign emperor young lay has been solely occupied with the construction of the forbidden city [Music] incalculable sums have been spent hundreds of thousands of farmers have been forced from their land to work on the construction site day and night in many provinces people are starving eating tree bark and grass or selling their wives and children to survive the emperor is provoking the anger of heaven and beg forgiveness at his father's grave it is the only way to avert disaster otherwise the emperor's great works will not endure [Music] is it politics or superstition that makes emperor yong lei lock up li shim yen in the dungeons of the forbidden city his official has prophesied disaster the judgment of heaven young lay's greatest fear [Music] for an emperor has to answer to nothing and no one but heaven itself every year at the altar of the temple of heaven he prays for rich harvests and the china be spared floods and tempests the chinese believe that natural disasters are a heavenly signal that the emperor has upset the harmony of the universe but yongle is convinced that the completion of the forbidden city has finally legitimized his rule and has guaranteed the mandate of heaven for the ming dynasty for eternity at the temple of heaven the emperor makes an offering of incense this is the only time in the year that his knees touch the ground like the pole star immovable in the heavens young lay is now enthroned at the center of the world and this can be seen in coded form in the forbidden city itself if we raise the center point of the north-south axis along which the most important buildings are aligned we can see that the sequence of buildings does indeed follow a strict hierarchy the closer the buildings are to the center of the north-south axis the nearer they are to heaven at the most southerly point is the gate of heavenly peace the entrance to the imperial city the center of the three principal halls the hall of perfect harmony is closest to heaven its ground plan forms a perfect square it is the center of the world the place where heaven and earth meet the eunuchs of the night watch strike the hour [Music] it is three o'clock two hours before sunrise officials in eunuchs take up their positions in front of the hall of supreme harmony each has his place according to rank [Music] in spite of all the activity absolute silence reigns throughout the square conversations or other signs of disrespect are punishable by imprisonment for ours the imperial court awaits the son of heaven [Music] [Applause] the emperor's day begins just before sunrise with an ever-changing ritual governing a state without ritual is like plowing without a plowshare they say for the forbidden city is the architectural expression of cosmic harmony the constant repetition of unchanging ritual permits this cosmic order to be [Music] maintained [Music] but young is consumed by a single thought is jan wen his predecessor still alive in the forbidden city surrounded by a court of devoted eunuchs he can feel safe [Music] [Music] tasters check that his daily breakfast of boiled swallows nests is not poisoned [Music] the same goes for his midday and evening meals in each case exactly 99 dishes are presented to the emperor for his choice [Music] january never does return to tear off yongle's dragon robe and avenge himself the fate of the deposed emperor will never be known it is the year 1421 youngley's star is shining brighter than ever [Music] he is at the peak of his power after more than 20 years on the throne all this time he's been working to erase the stain made by his violent takeover through a strict application of the traditional rules and rituals he has tried to win back the support of his officials after executing thousands of them at the beginning of his reign [Music] at the vast audiences in the forbidden city no one now refuses to kowtow before him as they did at his coronation in nanjing yongle commissions a gigantic literary work containing the accumulated knowledge of more than a thousand years of chinese history young lay himself writes the forward in order to rule the world our wise forefathers created civilization based on ritual moral values and education the military tyrant has become an intellectual despot [Music] stretches aching limbs after hours on his knees perhaps he recalls the words of confucius rulers and the ruled are like wind and grass the grass must bend when the wind blows but can this gigantic work weighed down with symbolism with actors endlessly repeating the same performance really be made for eternity for the world beyond the limits of this closed universe has not stopped turning [Music] i know if you the ming dynasty had a decisive political weakness the founding emperor and his successor increasingly treated dynastic problems as though they were family problems that no longer needed to be discussed at court and this of course meant that the autocratic tendencies of the rulers were exaggerated so that the well-being of the dynasty and its very fate depended more and more on the individual political competence of the emperor the first structural defects of the system became apparent poverty spread throughout the country to escape it one had to be able to afford the education necessary to become an official or one became a eunuch [Music] farmers who couldn't feed their families castrated their sons and sent them to the capitol where they might find a position in the palace [Music] the world outside the purple walls is threatened with chaos [Music] [Music] [Applause] although self-mutilation is a punishable offence and the intake of eunuchs into palace service is strictly regulated the imperial court is forced to open its doors to remain in control of the [Music] situation in yonglei's time three thousand eunuchs live permanently in the forbidden city at first one hundred are admitted every year after an embarrassing procedure designed to check that no potent individuals slip into the army of castrates over the years the flood of eunuchs into the forbidden city reaches astonishing proportions hundred years later at the beginning of the seventeenth century there are seventy thousand eunuchs in the halls and squares of the forbidden city these mutilated and despised men become a significant element of power for only imperial service offers the prospect of influence and wealth some of them like have skills that let them contribute to the well-being and glory of the empire but mostly they paralyze the empire's center of power with their plots and attempts to feather their own nests until nothing can be done [Music] yongle's work was not after all built for eternity [Music] forgotten in his prison cell the official leashim yen hopes he may soon be released perhaps he was mistaken in his warnings but hardly is the forbidden city completed and his somber prophecy comes true when the first lightning bolts strike it really does seem as though heaven has withdrawn its mandate from yonglei just as the official predicted the storm of that summer night finds the forbidden city's weak point its splendid roofs are supported by wooden beams the great work of architecture and cannot withstand the fury of heaven the three principal halls the center of the world fall victim to the flames young lay stands before the ruin of his life's work the ming dynasty will survive 13 more ming emperors will sit on the dragon throne but the fire is an omen of the faith that will eventually befall the empire [Music] 1644 frozen in splendor and ritual paralyzed by intrigues and betrayal the dynasty falls the chinese people groan under the burden of taxation and yet the imperial coffers are empty [Music] as the rebellious population crowd round the walls of the forbidden city the last ming emperor chooses to commit suicide on the coal hill overlooking the roofs of the imperial city he hangs himself by his silken sash as he watches his capital burn [Music] just one of the seventy thousand eunuchs stays at his emperor's side and accompanies him on his last journey but the forbidden city will survive the downfall of the ming dynasty [Music] the manchu a powerful tribe from the steps will soon take over the middle kingdom with new rulers on the dragon throne the chinese empire will survive until 1911 and with it this unique edifice the forbidden city [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: hazards and catastrophes

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Id: FEFlNShlCFU

Length: 52min 43sec (3163 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 31 2020