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The Palace Museum - Meridian Gate And Square

The Magnificent Wumen Gate

The Meridian Gate, is the south gate of the Forbidden City, and is the main gate of the Forbidden City. It consists of one front tower and the two protruding arms together. Because of the phoenix wing-shaped five buildings, it's also called "Five Phoenix Turrets". The square in front of the Meridian Gate was once the venue for important ceremonies and celebrations in the Forbidden City.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the city of Beijing was bounded by walls, divided into four layers from outside to inside: the Outer City, the Inner City, the Imperial City, and the Forbidden City, The Meridian Gate (Wumen 午门) is the royal sanctuary – the south gate of the Forbidden City.

The ancients believed that the north is “Zi (子)”, and the south is “Wu (午)”, so the south gate of the Forbidden City was named “Wumen, The Meridian Gate”. The other three gates of the Forbidden City are Gate of Divine Prowess (Shenwu Gate 神武门) in the north, as well as the East and West Glorious Gates (Donghua and Xihua Gate 东华门, 西华门). The Meridian Gate has the largest scale and highest rank among the four gates.

Across Tiananmen (the original south gate of the Imperial City) and then through the Upright Gate (Duan Gate 端门), you can see A Majestic and Solemn Wumen right in front of you. The gate was built In the 18th year of the Ming Dynasty (1420), it has a Tower with Double-Eaved Hip-and-Gable Roof sitting in the middle, and two protruding arms of swallow-wing towers on left and right, surrounding the square in the center, with two pavilions at the north and south ends of the swallow-wing towers. Because of the phoenix wing-shaped five buildings, it’s also called “Five Phoenix Turrets”.

There are five arches on the walls of The Meridian Gate: from the south side of the front of the Meridian Gate Square, you can only see the middle three arches, but if you look back from the Gate of Supreme Harmony (Taihe Gate 太和门), you can see all the five arches in the gate. This is because the two side arches on the south side of the Meridian Gate is not opened in the front, but located downstairs the swallow-wing towers, more hidden and not easy to find.

Manywhere Trivia:
The many arches in the Meridian Gate weren’t designed to solve the traffic problem, there were strict restrictions on who could go through which gate, and if you made a mistake, you could face execution.

The arch in the middle is called “Imperial Road Arch”, exclusively set for the emperor. But there are still two exceptions: in the Emperor’s wedding day, the Empress can go through this arch into the Palace by sedan, and the top three winners of imperial examinations can go through this arch from the Palace, to show the emperor’s favor. The west arch is for the nobles and royal family members, while the east arch is for officials. The two side arches should only be opened on important occasions.

The old saying “Beading outside the Meridian Gate” is actually a misunderstanding. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the public execution site in Beijing is located in Xisi and Caishikou. The Meridian Gate Square is only the place for the Ting-Zhang Penalty, which is the royal sticking punishment for ministers who offend the emperor. Also, the most important ceremonies for the royal family were always held here at The Meridian Gate Square.

Nowadays, the Meridian Gate Square is the main entrance to the Palace Museum, and every day the square is filled with visitors waiting to buy tickets to enter the Forbidden City. The Meridian Gate Tower has also become one of the Galleries in the Forbidden City.

Through the Meridian Gate, across a big square, there is the main gate of the outer Court, Gate of Heavenly Purity (Qianqing Gate 乾清门). Let’s continue our exploration in the next chapter…

The Palace Museum - Gate of Supreme Harmony And Square

Taihe Gate and Square

Taihe Gate was the main gate leading to the Three Great Halls area, where the Ming Dynasty emperors used to gather for the government. There is a square in front of Taihe Gate, where the Jinshui River crosses the square from west to east, and the Jinshui Bridge over the river is opposite to the Outer Jinshui Bridge in front of Tiananmen Square.