LEONARD NIMOY: Here, on Ancient Mysteries, enter a forbidden
palace in China. Probe the secret
world of passion and perversity conceived in a
dream and doomed by a curse. It's one of the stories
of the ages, one of the ancient mysteries. Before we unlock the future, we
must find the keys to the past. I'm Leonard Nimoy, join
me and open the door to Ancient Mysteries
beginning now, here on A&E. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY: Beijing,
the capital of China. At the heart of this
modern metropolis stands an ancient palace. It is so enormous, it
is a city unto itself. Its very name inspires awe
and fear, the Forbidden City. 250 acres of
sequestered splendor, 800 buildings, 10,000 rooms. For 500 years it served as
home to two dynasties and 24 emperors. It was forbidden
to all, except them and the members of their court. Even today, some chambers
remain strictly off limits. The secret world
which thrived here remains an enigma to this day. MORRIS ROSSABI:
The Forbidden City captures the imagination because
of the mysteries enveloping it. What we don't know about life
as it was lived by the emperors, the concubines, the eunuchs,
it must have been spectacular. FREDERICK WAKEMAN:
It was, I suppose, our version of Hollywood,
New York City, Palm Beach, and Howard Hughes
rolled into one. LEONARD NIMOY: What secrets lie
behind these forbidding walls? What clandestine tales of
intrigue, murder, and mayhem have taken place here? Anyone caught trespassing to
probe these ancient mysteries faced an unspeakable death. Pass through the portals of
time where death once awaited, as we unlock the elusive
secrets of the Forbidden City. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY: December
3, 1908, a 2-year-old boy woke to find himself the all
powerful ruler of 300 million subjects. Even at his tender age,
his authority was absolute. His name was Puyi, the
last emperor of China. Surrounding him was the
grandeur of the Forbidden City. In a child's eyes, it was
an overwhelming pageant of sparkle and color. PUYI: Whenever I
think of my childhood, my head feels with
a yellow mist. Everything was yellow. This color was used exclusively
by the imperial household, and made me feel that
I had a heavenly nature different from that
of everybody else. Puyi, the last Emperor of China. LEONARD NIMOY: The Forbidden
City, as Puyi knew it, is gone forever. The people of China, barred
from its gates for 500 years, are now welcome here. They seek answers to the
same baffling questions asked by their ancestors, what
happened within these walls? Are ancient rumors of unrivaled
passion and perversity true? Where is the treasure said to
have vanished from the palace storehouses? Is there truth to the legend
that the last ruling family to live here was
doomed by a curse? For five centuries,
the Forbidden City remained as unknown
to the outside world as the most distant star. The only certainty,
indescribable power resided here. MICHAEL NYLAN: I think both
Chinese and Western scholars and the average tourist are
fascinated with the Forbidden City because it's
hard for us to imagine so much power concentrated
in one single place. I think we're also fascinated
because of all the things we don't know. And so the imagination can leave
mysteries around the palace life. And we'll see here the
famous Hall of Supreme Harmony. That's where each emperor-- LEONARD NIMOY: Today the
curious can freely explore here. But not so long ago, to tread
here was to invite death. Even so, the lure of the
unknown was too strong for some to resist. One intruder's fate
became a dire warning to all who dared follow. The trespasser, an
unemployed cook. His plan, to kill the emperor. Unseen by palace guards,
he breached the wall. He was awed by the
palatial wonders he beheld. With stealth and luck, he
maneuvered to within a few feet of his target. But before his sword
could strike home, the emperor's
sentinels subdued him. When asked to give
an account of himself, he was somewhat incoherent. But he talked about
the frustrations of living in poverty right
outside all of the splendor of the Forbidden City. At that point, they said,
well, if you were frustrated, why didn't you commit suicide? Why did you enter into
the sacred precincts? And he said, well, what good
would it do to commit suicide? I could go down in history if
I managed to breach the walls of the Forbidden City. LEONARD NIMOY: As
with all intruders, the cook was condemned to death. The standard form of execution,
a barbaric nightmare aptly called the death
by a thousand cuts. MICHAEL NYLAN: The idea was to
take small schools of flesh one by one from the body, leaving
the internal organs functioning for as long as possible. So that the person would
be conscious of each and every slice. LEONARD NIMOY: Why was
the penalty for intrusion so severe? The answer may lie in that the
Forbidden City was believed to be unspeakably sacred. As the home of the emperors,
it could be nothing less. To the people of imperial
China, their emperors were divine beings,
the sons of heaven. They were the cosmic pivots in
which the divine and mankind became one. The Chinese believed
that their palace home was the center of all things. FREDERICK WAKEMAN: It's the
navel of the Chinese world. This is where the
cosmos centers itself by dint of having the
sun of heaven in there. And much of that aura
still resides there. When you see the Forbidden
City, you see Chinese emperors. You see imperial power. LEONARD NIMOY: The visual
impact of the Forbidden City lies partly in its enormity. Its majestic focal point is
the Hall of Supreme Harmony. 45 minutes before dawn, the
emperor ascended the steps to his majestic throne. As the seat of
immeasurable power, this spot marked the nucleus
of the Forbidden City. Here, with a nod of
his head, the emperor directed the
destiny of millions. To enjoy serenity, he retreated
to the Qian Long garden. This pavilion served
as a favorite haven for the emperor and his guests. Cups of wine floated
along this channel. Wherever a cup stopped,
tradition obliged the nearest person to compose a poem. If a poem displeased
the emperor, the punishment was to drink
all the wine in one swallow. In the Hall of
Mental Cultivation, the emperor retired
to his bedchamber. On his order, a concubine
was brought before him. But even here, the
emperor's private life was not entirely his own. A eunuch servant
was always near. Every act of the
emperor, even lovemaking, was a matter of official record. FREDERICK WAKEMAN: We
know how the eunuchs would carry the concubine
for the night in and deposit her
with the emperor and then record very
carefully the length of sexual intercourse,
how many times. All of these for historical
record that's been kept. LEONARD NIMOY: Such historical
records are a key tool for modern scholars. Slowly, the Forbidden City is
beginning to yield its secrets. How did it all begin? Who conceived and built
the Forbidden City? LEONARD NIMOY: The Forbidden
City is the largest palace complex in the world. It is a unique blend of
the stately and the serene. Who created this majestic city? According to legend, it
was conceived in one man's unforgettable dream. The man was a 14th
century Buddhist monk. His name is unknown One night, he experienced
a dream of such clarity, he was unsure he had
even been asleep. In his dream, he stared into a
strange darkness that suddenly filled with blinding beauty. Before his eyes was
a glorious city. The vision seared itself
into the monk's memory. Near the end of the turn of
the 15th century, it is said, the monk passed
word of his dream to one of China's most
notorious figures. His name was Yung Lo. His apt nickname,
the Black Dragon. He was a cruel yet
brilliant prince, burning with ambition, who
plotted to seize the throne. Obsessed by the
monk's dream, Yung Lo set out on a daring
mission to realize it. In 1402, Yung Lo and
his rebel warriors stormed China's
capital, Nanjing. They overpowered
the Imperial Army and forced the emperor to flee. The Black Dragon
brazenly declared himself the new emperor of China. His first priority was to
construct the monk's shining city. But did such a monk
actually exist? Could a more mundane explanation
lie at the heart of Yung Lo's obsession? In order to draw
attention away from the fact that he was not a
legitimate successor, he had to engage in spectacular
projects of all sorts in order to persuade the
Chinese populace that he was, in fact, a legitimate ruler. LEONARD NIMOY: Could
the Forbidden City have been Yung Lo's strategy to
win the recognition he craved? His first order of business was
to select a construction site. He chose Beijing, and
declared it the new capital. In 1404, Yung Lo began
to marshall the manpower and resources he required. Not since the construction
of the Great Wall 1600 years earlier had
China witnessed such a monumental endeavor. The raw materials for
the building of the city were scattered all over China. It was one of the
most mammoth projects that the Chinese
state ever undertook. The logistics of this effort
must have been spectacular. LEONARD NIMOY: 500,000 workmen
toiled 15 years realizing Yung Lo's dream. They manufactured 100 million
bricks, 200 million tiles. The far flung jungles of Sichuan
supplied the finest timbers. Transported by river, trees
took as long as four years to reach Beijing. The quarries in
the distant hills supplied the finest marbles. The largest single piece
is this carved walkway. 50 feet long and 10 feet
wide, it weighs 200 tons. It is so vast, Yung Lo's workers
have to transport it here in winter, sliding it along
a natural highway of ice. Elsewhere around the
globe at this time, other cultures were immersed in
their own monumental efforts. In Portugal, seafarers
were sailing off to explore the coast
of West Africa. In Peru, the Inca were fitting
huge stone blocks together with exacting detail. And in Nigeria, artisans
of the Edo kingdom were perfecting the
art of bronze casting. In 1424, the Forbidden
City was nearly completed. In Yung Lo's eyes it possessed
a transcendent beauty worthy of the Son of Heaven. But in a bitter irony,
the Black Dragon never entered the finished palace. Just before its completion,
he ventured to Mongolia on a military expedition. He died there, never to
behold his master work in its full glory. Six centuries later, that
glory still radiates. The Forbidden City
endures as the fulfillment of the prophetic
vision of one man, and a monument to the
driving energy of another. The architects who
designed it are said to have imbued it
with magical powers. LEONARD NIMOY: In
Beijing today, architects look to the Forbidden
City for inspiration. Though it is six centuries
old, in one sense, it is regarded as a
model of modern design. It is the crowning achievement
of a time honored art called feng shui. Feng shui is the art
of imbuing architecture with spiritual harmony. In China today, most
people would never dream of buying a home without
first consulting a feng shui master. They are said to radiate with
a mystical energy called chi. In China, we need to remember
that everything is animate, everything is composed
of chi, so things that we think of as inanimate
objects, such as a table or a rock, a river stream, may
in fact be pulsing with chi. LEONARD NIMOY:
The concept of chi has dominated the thoughts
of ancient architects for centuries. Their challenge? To build structures in which
this crucial energy would flow most harmoniously. If chi is channeled
effectively, they believe it will have a positive
effect on the people who live or work there. 600 years ago,
the Forbidden City presented feng shui masters
their greatest challenge. Could they design a palace
with a harmony worthy of the Sons of Heaven. Their lofty goal compelled them
to remold the entire landscape. MICHAEL NYLAN:
According to feng shui, the ideal geomantic site
has mountains at the back. And Beijing is very flat. It's at the northern end
of the North China Plain. What they had to do was
construct a mountain at the back of the
imperial palace. And they did that, and
that's called Coal Hill. LEONARD NIMOY: The
looming grandeur of Coal Hill ensured that
positive chi energy could not escape the Forbidden City. Much of that energy is said
to flow in the man-made Golden River. Its waters were designed to flow
gently so that the chi could never escape its banks. Every nuance of design here
reflects a profound concern with channeling
invisible cosmic forces. The Forbidden City endures
as feng shui's masterpiece. But the harmonious forces of
nature imbued here are fragile. They are easily disrupted
by human strife. On one historic day in 1644,
utter chaos reigned here. By sunset, the mighty Ming
dynasty would crumble. The disaster was the result
of the Ming Emperor's self-indulgence. For 200 years they financed
their lavish lifestyle by imposing crushing taxes. Inevitably, China's impoverished
masses rose up in protest. Beijing exploded in turmoil, and
a massive rebel force marched toward the Forbidden City. FREDERICK WAKEMAN: When word of
that came back to the emperor, he realized the end had come. As he sat and reflected
on this, he began to drink and he began to
drink more heavily. Until finally,
intoxicated, he decided he would kill his his
his women in order to keep them from the
lecherous hands of the rebel. He tried to do so but
couldn't couldn't succeed. He actually cut off the arm
of one of his daughters. LEONARD NIMOY: Though
crazed by panic, the emperor gathered
his senses long enough to write a final message. CHONGZHEN: My virtue is small,
and therefore, I have incurred the wrath of heaven. Chongzhen, the last emperor
of the Ming dynasty. LEONARD NIMOY: As insurgents
breached the palace gates, the emperor scaled Coal Hill,
also known as Prospect Hill, to survey the full
scope of the disaster. It's an interesting irony
because on ritual occasions, the emperors would always
climb Prospect Hill in order to survey the kingdom and
sort of appreciate the peace and wealth of the people. But on this
occasion, the emperor climbed Prospect Hill really
to see the capital city falling to the rebels and seeing
the end of the Ming regime. LEONARD NIMOY: On this
spot, the despondent emperor hung himself. With his death, a mighty
dynasty came to an end. But the Forbidden City would
live on as the seat of power for another, the Qing. Even so, the Qing
emperors are said to have lived in fear
of a curse uttered just before their reign began. In 1912, as we will
see, that curse may have brought
down the Qing regime. But until that fateful
day, these walls would shield countless tales
of mayhem and perversity. The key players, the
castrated eunuch servants. LEONARD NIMOY: For 500
years, peasants peering up at these towering
walls posed questions which persist to this day. What was happening in
the Forbidden City? What exotic secrets were being
shielded from their view? Until recent decades,
the people in China knew nothing more
than who dwelt here. The emperors, their concubines,
and their eunuch servants. But now, scholars are piecing
together the incredible facts. The fairest among the
players in this secret drama were the concubines. Their sole purpose was
to provide the emperor unbridled bliss. Unmatched luxury awaited any
girl inducted into the harem. Every three years,
hundreds of candidates presented themselves to
the imperial household. MORRIS ROSSABI: Interestingly
enough, it was often the palace women, rather than
the emperor, who evaluated concubines and decided
who would become a concubine. According to one
story, for example, they would often sleep overnight
with a concubine to determine, not only their beauty, but also
whether they snored at night, and whether that would interfere
with the emperor's sleep. LEONARD NIMOY: Having won a
place in the Forbidden City, a concubine was pampered
beyond her dreams. But for many, the
palace became a prison. When her youth and
beauty faded, she was doomed to a
life of loneliness. Having shared the bed
of the Son of Heaven, she could never be
touched by another man. Here, in the garden
dispossessed favorites, she strolled aimlessly. Her only pastime, to count
the hours, days, and years till death granted freedom. [oriental music playing] LEONARD NIMOY: But the
story of one concubine reveals even the youngest
and most fair would often meet with tragedy. Against her will, she entered
the Forbidden City in 1746. She was the prize of a military
invasion in Central Asia. Her name is lost to history. But she wore a perfume so
seductive it gave her renown as the fragrant concubine. When the emperor, Qianlong,
first laid eyes upon her, he instantly fell
under her spell. The fragrant concubine,
however, refused to submit to his advances. This merely increased
the emperor's passion. But it ignited the rage of his
mother, the Empress Dowager. He tried to seduce her in
many ways but she never yielded. Eventually, because
of her stubbornness, the Empress Dowager obliged
her to either yield or die. LEONARD NIMOY: The fragrant
concubine courageously stood her ground. The Empress Dowager
ordered her execution. The emperor rushed to save her. But he was too late. He found her body hanging from
a rafter by a silken cord. Accounts are unclear as
to what happened next. But some believe the
heartbroken emperor buried her in a secret site in
the Forbidden City. Does the fragrant concubine lie
somewhere beneath the palace grounds? The secret of the
grave's location would have been entrusted
to the forbidden city's most shadowy figures, the eunuchs. They serve as harem
watchdogs, menials, and spies. Over the centuries, they
become indispensable. As many as 3,000 populate
the palace at one time. FREDERICK WAKEMAN:
The extent and size of the eunuch
establishment, I suppose, is probably the most
astounding factor when you think about the
way the palace was operated. And there was actually
a flourishing industry in castration to make
it possible for men to have their sexual
organs removed and then go to
work in the palace. LEONARD NIMOY: Thousands,
lured by the mischievous of the Forbidden City, flocked
to Beijing's castration clinic. There they submitted
to a harrowing surgery, in this way only could their
fidelity to the emperor be assured. Apparently, the young
man was made to smoke opium as an anesthetic. And then he was seated
on a chair with a hole. And finally, the testicles
would be cut off by the surgeon in one stroke of a sharp knife. Now very few people
survived that operation. In fact, only 50%
survived the operation. Owing to shock or hemorrhage
or infection and so forth. LEONARD NIMOY: Why would any man
risk such an agonizing death? Only to spend the rest of his
life as a mutilated servant. MORRIS ROSSABI: Becoming a
eunuch was a way of obtaining power and wealth. You sort of castrated your
way to the top, so to speak. Some of the eunuchs reaped
considerable rewards from their positions
at the court. Some became the wealthiest
among the wealthiest individuals in China. LEONARD NIMOY: The amount of
riches eunuchs could seize was limited only by their
ambition and cunning. Their incessant schemes made
the Forbidden City a crucible of conspiracy and intrigue. Could the eunuchs be
responsible for one of the most notorious
thefts of this century? In 1923, a disastrous
fire of unknown origin swept through the
imperial storehouses. Thousands of priceless
treasures were lost, gold statuettes, exquisite
handcrafted furnishings, silk robes worn by the
emperors themselves. But was their disappearance
due to fire or theft? Accusations rose that
the eunuchs deliberately set the blaze. Their motive? To destroy evidence that
they had been pilfering the storehouses for 50 years. Did the eunuchs commit
a wanton act of arson? If so, what became of the
priceless treasures they had stolen? PAMELA CROSSLEY: There were
fragments of it carried away, taken to points in Europe. And now in the United
States, some in Japan. A lot in Taiwan. Some of it went to
the bottom of the sea in ships that sank attempting
to take the traders away. It's very difficult to
be able to reconstruct how large this treasure was,
what it might have been worth, what it even contained. LEONARD NIMOY: The enormity
of the eunuchs' crime is impossible to calculate. The notorious dimension
they lend the Forbidden City remains a key part of
its enduring mystique. The secret world
which thrived here would last for five centuries. But early in the 20th century,
it crumbled into obscurity. What brought about
this tragic end? LEONARD NIMOY: In 1644, China
witness a dawn of a new era. Command of the empire passed
to a new ruling family. They call their dynasty Qing. And like the Ming
emperors before them, they wielded their power behind
the walls of the Forbidden City. Their reign extended
to the 20th century. But they were destined
to meet a tragic end. Legend holds their
demise was the result of a 300-year-old curse. The curse was uttered in 1619. At that time, the
tribes of Manchuria, soon to form the Qing regime,
were embroiled in war. Their enemy? A tribe called the Yehe, led
by a daring warrior, Prince Gintaisi. FREDERICK WAKEMAN:
When they attacked this neighboring
prince, he refused to come down from his protected
tower, and they set it on fire. And while the flames
were leaping around him, he is said to have
shouted down the curse, your house will fall because
of the house of Yehe. LEONARD NIMOY: The
prince specified that the instrument of his curse
would be a woman of his tribe. Was this an idle threat or
a genuine prophecy of doom? The Manchu emperors
of the Qing dynasty chose not to tempt fate. For 200 years, they
deliberately took no concubines from the Yehe tribe. Their caution was rewarded. Their dynasty flourished. But in 1853, the memory of
the curse appeared to fade. A 17-year-old Yehe
girl was allowed to enter the imperial harem. Her name was Cixi. Beneath her innocuous
exterior was a ruthless woman of greed and cunning. Three years after she arrived
in the Forbidden City, she began to gain
the power she craved. One key achievement
made it all possible, Cixi bore the
emperor his only son. From that position
of strength, giving birth and continuing the
family line, she had herself moved up to become the principal
empress through a variety of ploys, intrigue, deceit. LEONARD NIMOY: With an unmatched
gift for political maneuvering, Cixi became the most
powerful figure in China. For the next 50 years,
she enforced her will through child rulers, who were
nothing more than her puppets. Women were not supposed
to rule in China. So Cixi Taihou had to rule
always with the fiction that she was simply
acting as regent until the boy emperors were
fully competent to assume the reins of power. LEONARD NIMOY: All
that mattered to Cixi was her own power and pleasure. Her extravagance convinced
many that the curse was taking effect. Under her rule, China suffered
a steady and disastrous decline. By 1908, anarchy and
revolutions swept the land. On her deathbed, Cixi had one
final chance to save the empire by naming a worthy
successor to the throne. But she chose her 2-year-old
nephew, Puyi, in a vain attempt to retain her power. Four years later,
the empire collapsed. Was this the result
of China's inability to cope with the sweeping
changes of a modern world? Or was it the fulfillment
of a sinister curse? Whatever the case, the Forbidden
City's centuries of glory were over. But one last tragic act was
still to play itself out. The leading character? Puyi, the last emperor. At seven, he was
forced to abdicate. But was allowed to live in
the Forbidden City until 1925. At 19, he sought
exile in Manchuria. In the 1930s, he was forced
by invading Japanese forces to act as the ruler of
their puppet government. In 1945, he was captured
by the Russian army and imprisoned in Siberia. 15 years later, he was
pardoned and allowed to return to Beijing. The man once regarded as a
living god ended his days as a humble gardener. He died in obscurity in 1967. His former home, and home
to 23 emperors before him, has been opened to
the public since 1949. The Chinese, barred from
its gates for 500 years, revel in exploring its majesty. But even now, some chambers
in the imperial city are strictly forbidden. Inside, dwell communist China's
most powerful heads of state. FREDERICK WAKEMAN: I
remember the first time, in Peking, in the early
'70s, walking down the street outside, not even
knowing where I was in Beijing, and seeing this gate
heavily guarded. And going up with all the
temerity of a foreigner and saying, what's in here? And the guard, looked
at me in saying, the chairman lives here. And I was just completely
thrilled in my own way by that. LEONARD NIMOY: From Chairman
Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping, the Forbidden City
has remained a nucleus of inaccessible power. This legacy of
restriction seems not to dampen the Chinese people's
fascination with the Forbidden City. They embrace it as a symbol
of their rich heritage. Paradoxically enough,
the people today in the People's
Republic of China take great pride in
the Forbidden City. Here is an area that was
taboo that they couldn't enter in traditional times. But it's an area
that is beautiful, it's spectacular, and shows
what the Chinese people can do. And so it contributes greatly to
nationalism among the Chinese, and to a feeling of self
pride and self-worth. LEONARD NIMOY: Their
object of pride has endured for five centuries. Sadly, however, the
Forbidden City's days now appear to be numbered. The causes? Heavy tourist traffic,
Beijing's thick pollution, and inadequate
resources to restore it. PAMELA CROSSLEY: I was very
struck by my own experience when I was working in China
because each day was just part of the job of maintenance men
to brush up the little pieces of the Forbidden City that had
fallen off during the night and sweep them up
and throw them away. The future of the Forbidden City
as an architectural treasure is uncertain at best. LEONARD NIMOY: Even if the
Forbidden City would someday cease to be, its
mystery will endure. Its gates may be open,
but its secrets persist. What bizarre incidents of
intrigue remain unknown? What incredible secrets
did the emperors, eunuchs, and concubines take
to their graves? The answers are
beyond our grasp, lost to the winds of history. In this sense, the Forbidden
City forbids us still. [music playing]
