雙語科技百科(工程建築) 第82期:故宮
Theln perial Palace
The Imperial Palace, also known as the Forbidden City, was the imperial palace of emperors in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Located at the centre of Beijing, it was built in the 4th year of the reign of Emperor Yongle (1406) in the Ming Dynasty, and completed 14 years later ( 1420) ; it boasts a history of more than 570 years. There were 14 emperors in the Ming Dynasty and 10 emperors in the Qing Dynasty who had been enthroned and ruled here. The Forbidden City, rectangular in shape and 720,000 square meters in size, owns 9,999 and a half rooms, the floor space of which is about 160,000 square meters. The palaces are surrounded by the purplish-red walls 3 ,400 meters long, and a moat 52 meters wide and 4.1 meters deep. At the middle of the four walls stands a gate tower respectively: the Meridian Gate in the south, the Godly Prowess Gate in the north, the Donghua Gate in the east and the Xihua Gate in the west, and at each of the four corners stands a tower. The whole Forbidden City looks like a strongly fortified castle. It is composed of two parts, the outer palace where the emperors held grand ceremonies, discussed state affairs with high-ranking officials and exercised their powers, and the inner palace where emperors conducted routine government affairs and empresses, concubines, princes, princesses resided, amused them- selves and worshipped gods. There are over 920, 000 pieces of valuable historical relics stored in the Imperial Palace. It is the largest and most complete ancient wooden architectural complex among the existing ones in China and in the world.
故官是明清兩代的皇宮，又稱紫禁城。位於北京市中心，建於明永樂四年(1406)，完成於明永樂十八年(1420)，距今已有570多年的歷史。先後有明代14位皇帝和清10位皇帝在此相繼登基執政。紫禁城平面呈長方形，佔地72萬平方米，有殿字樓閣9999間半。建築面積約16萬平方米。紫紅色的宮牆長3400米。四面正中設城門四座，上建城門樓閣，南爲午門，北爲神午門、東爲東華門、西爲西華門，城垣外環繞寬52米、深4.1米的護城河，四隅各建一座角樓，猶如壁壘森嚴的城堡。宮殿分前後兩部分，前爲外朝，是皇帝舉行大典，召見羣臣，行使權力的場所。後爲內廷，是皇帝日常處理政務和帝后、嬪妃、皇子、公主居住、遊玩、奉神之處。故宮保存有大量珍貴文物，達92萬件以上，是中國也是世界上現存規模最大、最完整的古代木結構宮殿建築羣。
