Is the Earth Emblem of the I Ching, the Master Plan of the ritual structure of the Forbidden City in Beijing?
In the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Heaven, Earth, Sun and Moon Altar were located in the directions in which in the Emblem of the Earth
the hexagrams with twice the trigram Heaven, Earth, Fire (Sun Fire) or
Water (lunar forces) have their place. (South is in the Emblem of the Earth above, North is in the Emblem below, East at the left and West at the right.)
In the Emblem of the Earth the South-North axis is connecting Heaven and Earth. In the Forbidden City Beijing on the South-North axis the Altar of Heaven and the Altar of Earth were situated. The East-West axis in the Earth-Emblem connects Fire and Water, in the Forbidden City on the East-West axis the Altar of the Sun and the Altar of the Moon had their place. Furthermore on the South-North axis in the Forbidden City the Halls of Supreme Harmony, the Palaces of the Highest Purity and the Hall of contact with Heaven and Earth are located.
The connecting line between the hexagrams with twice the trigram
Heaven resp. Earth is in the I Ching (Circle of the Early Heaven) one of
the two lines of Supreme Harmony and Highest Purity.
The second of these two lines is the East-West axis,
which in the Earth-Emblem connects the hexagrams with twice the trigrams Fire resp. Water. In the Forbidden City in Beijing, the East-West axis connected the Sun Altar and the Moon Altar.
On the South-North axis of the Forbidden City the buildings have
properties that are the same as those of the South-North axis and the East-West axis of the Emblem of the Earth in the I Ching. These two lines namely have the properties of Supreme Harmony
and Highest Purity. Buildings with these properties are on the
North-South axis of the Forbidden City the Gate and the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Mean Harmony, the Gate of Heavenly Purity, the Palace of Heavenly Purity and the Palace of the union of Heaven and
Earth. (See Figure).
Halls and Palaces on the South-North axis in the
Forbidden City bear the names of the properties of
the South-North axis of the Earth Emblem of the I Ching.
The arrangement of the Altars in the Forbidden City is also in agreement with the structure of the Earth Emblem in the I Ching.
In the Forbidden City the official cult of the archaic Chinese
found his last expression says the Sinologist Frank Fiedeler in his book „Yin and Yang, The cosmic pattern in the Chinese culture „. Built in the Ming-Dynasty (1368 -1644) the ritual structure of the Forbidden City goes back to the forms of ritual of the Zhou dynasty (1050-256 BC), as far as these were handed down.
The ritual structure of the Forbidden City with its
Imperial Halls and Palaces roots therefore as well as the I Ching in the Chinese Antiquity.
To this day, the two axes in the Forbidden City are still the central axes of Beijing. In rectangular form the walls of the area have a length of 960 m South to North and 750 m East to West. Their directions of the walls correspond to the directions of the square of the Earth Emblem
the length of the enclosed area is larger, however, as its
width.
The Forbidden City has an area of 720 000 square meters,
72 times 10 000. The number 72 is something special.
In Chinese culture it is mainly the product of 9 (provinces)
and 8 (directions) and thus also perfect as fortunate. (In old Europe, the number of countries and languages in the world was generally assumed to be 72.) As popular symbol appears the number 72 also in other links.
Confucius for example is said that he has had 72 students.
Originally the 72 is a cosmic number.
The four hexagrams with twice the trigrams Heaven, Earth, Fire or
Water, have in the Emblem of the Earth their place in the four main directions. They have their place there where in the Circle of the Early Heaven the trigrams are located from which they are composed.
In respect to their significance and their geographical location these four hexagrams correspond to the Altars of the Forbidden City in the South, North, East and West. From them, however, today only the
Temple of Heaven in the South is available. The other three were transformed after the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911.
The sacrificial Altar of the Heaven was in the Temple of Heaven in
South of the capital – in the Earth Emblem that is above, where the hexagram with twice the trigram Heaven has its place. The Earth Altar was in the North, where in the Emblem of the Earth the hexagram with twice the trigram Earth has its place. (In ancient Chinese Maps South is above, North, down, East at the left and West at the right.)
The Altar of the Sun was in the East, the Altar of the Moon in the West of
the Forbidden City. This is in the ritual book Liji explained by the fact that the Morning Sun rises in the East, while the Moon after his
disappearance every month appears again at the Western evening sky.
The Altar of the Sun was in the Forbidden City, therefore, where in the Emblem of the Earth is the hexagram with twice the trigram Fire
Fire also means the Sun. The Moon Altar was there
where in the Emblem of the Earth the hexagram with twice the trigram Water has its place.
To the trigram Water lunar forces are assigned.
The Altars of Heaven, Earth, Sun and Moon were there where in the
Emblem of the Earth the hexagrams with the trigrams of these names are to be found. The color of the temple of Heaven located in the South is blue, the Earth-Altar in the North had a yellow color, the Sun Altar in the East was red and the Moon Altar in the West was white.
The big Heaven victim advised the Emperor to the winter solstice
at the longest night of the year, the big Sacrifice for the Earth was on the day of Summer solstice. The date for the offering to the Sun was the
Spring Equinox, the time for offering to the Moon, the equinox in the fall.
The South-North axis in the Emblem of the Earth is the visual equivalent
of the hexagram pair 11/12 with the meaning of peace and stagnation or Harmony and disharmony. In it combine the trigrams
Heaven and Earth. It represents the two solar cycles of the end of summer in the first year.
The East-West axis in the Emblem of the Earth is the pictorial representation of the hexagram pair 63/64 with the meaning „before and after completion“. In it the trigrams Fire and Water are combined. It represents the two solar cycles of the autumnal equinox in the 3rd year.
The emperor and his entourage moved at the equinoxes
on this axis to the Altars of the Sun and the Moon to offer their sacrifices.
Great Harmony and great Purity exhibit of all 32 hexagram pairs only these two pairs of hexagrams 11/12 and 63/64. (The definition of High Purity will still be given.)
When the emperor in the course of the year these four great places of sacrifice in the four cardinal directions visited, he did this
for the maintenance and renewal of Harmony between Heaven, Earth and Man. To perform the great sacrifices, he moved with his entourage to the
Solstices on the South-North axis and to the Equinoxes on the East-West axis.
For the winter Solstice 1748, the „procession“ as Painting on a seventeen-meter-long role is noted.
Because the South-North axis connects Heaven and Earth
and balances Harmony and Disharmony
it is more important and has more „holiness“ as the
East-West axis, especially since the emperor was regarded as the Son of Heaven and the Empress as representing the Earth.
In the pavement of the South-North road the central axis is marked. The emperor was carried over it in a Litter. For mere mortals it was forbidden to go there.
The most important buildings of the Imperial Palace are in the following listed. (see Figure 2):
After the Gate of Supreme Harmony follows,
the Hall of Supreme Harmony, then
the Hall of Middle Harmony and
the Hall of the Preservation of Harmony.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony was to be the center of the Forbidden City. It is the highest and largest building there. Here the emperor was enthroned on his dragon throne.
The sloping ridges of building roofs are decorated with a line of statuettes. The number of statuettes represents the status of the building. The Hall of Supreme Harmony has 11, the only building in the country to be permitted this in imperial times.
The Hall of Middle Harmony was the geometric center of the Forbidden City.
Here, the emperor made arrangements for the big ceremonies in the Throne Room.
After the Hall of the Preservation of Harmony
follows on the South-North axis
the Gate of Heavenly Purity, then
the Palace of Heavenly Purity and
the Hall of the Union of Heaven and Earth.
The Palace of Heavenly Purity was originally the
Residence of the Emperor.
The Halls and Palaces on the South-North axis of the Forbidden City bear names with the most important properties of the corresponding axis in the Earth Emblem of the I Ching. These properties are the Supreme Harmony, the Highest Purity and the Touch of Heaven and Earth.
Therefore and because the arrangement of the four Altars of the Forbidden City corresponds with hexagrams in the Emblem of the Earth of the I Ching there is much evidence that the Earth Emblem of the I Ching is the Master Plan for the ritual structure of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
The Imperial Palace is in the traditional worldview of the Chinese
Center of the Chinese empire and the center of the world in general.
The Imperial Palace was a mirror image of the cosmos, the place where Heaven and Earth Meet and Yin and Yang penetrate each other harmoniously. The Emperor was compared with the Polar Star, that immovable in his place stands and on the path of all the stars aligned.
As the Emperor the Heaven the active force Yang
represented, so the Empress stood for the Earth and the receiving
Yin force. When Emperor and Empress came together
the two forces, Heaven and Earth, merged into one unit and
created Harmony. The residential houses in Northern China were
as the preferred site of the Forbidden City in South-North direction
aligned. The main building as the Palace of Supreme
Harmony was built at a central location on the South-North axis.
They wanted to ensure in this way that the Main building and its occupants were given as much Sun as possible. When in ancient times human pairs in China and elsewhere in the spring in the fields as part of a fertility cult combined, so they performed as the Son of Heaven and his Wife the sacred marriage between Heaven and Earth and created so Harmony for themselves and their fields.
Ultimately, Harmony and Purity is applied on a smaller scale and less perfect for every yard and every field that according to the structure of the Earth Emblem is aligned.
Is the ancient Chinese view of the world with their quest for Harmony and
Purity today only history? I think not. It is now not only limited to China, but their roots have with the Tao Te Ching, the I Ching, and finally with feng shui, the art of geomancy, spread over large parts of the world. When Joseph Needham in his book „Science and Civilization in China“
Geomancy regards as a pseudo-science, as not long before
acupuncture was seen, he recognizes but their positive impact in the following point: „… the Geomancy seems always to have a very aesthetic moment. Therefore, the beauty of the situation comes from so many
farms, houses and villages in China.“
This beauty of the situation, certainly not limited to the
„Aesthetic moment“ is good at any time and for any place of the
World.
