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Documentary, China's Forbidden City: The Center of the World, Part 1
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00:00The Forbidden City. In the heart of Beijing, once home to China's all-powerful emperors, it remains the greatest palace ever built.
00:13The result of one man's vision.
00:18His name was Xu Di.
00:21Xu Di was a warrior, an absolute dictator. He seized the Middle Kingdom by force and savagely suppressed anyone who dared question his godlike claim to dominance.
00:34The Forbidden City embodied that control, a secret universe of endless ceremony.
00:40The eunuch, Ruanan, was its principal architect. He based his plan on ancient laws, leaving nothing to chance. Each detail had ritual significance.
00:59With the cooperation of China's master masons, builders and designers, this enormous palace was built in only three years.
01:10Bringing Xu Di's vision to reality with miraculous speed.
01:16But its near perfection harbored fatal flaws.
01:40As the 14th century AD was ending, a victorious Chinese army rode in from the steps at the empire's northern edge.
01:57It had dealt the Mongols an overwhelming defeat and expelled the nomadic warriors who had ruled over China for more than a hundred years.
02:08It was Xu Di's father, Xu Yuang Xiong, who liberated China and became emperor.
02:21The victory made the Ming Dynasty China's new royal family, earning the clan respect and power.
02:27The new emperor renames his home city, Beiping, Northern Peace.
02:35No one can imagine that soon Beiping will boast a great palace, the centre of a global empire.
02:43Prince Xu Di's ambition demands a monument.
02:48Historically, Beiping has been a provincial outpost.
02:58When they ruled the Middle Kingdom, the Mongols made it their capital.
03:03But it is hardly splendid.
03:05And China's official capital is nearly 1200 miles south, far from the unstable borderlands that nurtured the Mings.
03:22Xu Di is as far from Nanjing, the capital, as he is from China's throne.
03:27This is where Xu Di's father has established the Ming Dynasty.
03:32As a fourth son, he has no prospect of ruling.
03:36His family decides the prince will be a soldier.
03:45Folk tales say the Mings cast Xu Di out into the wilds without food or shelter, in a brutal test of survival.
03:52He is only nine years old.
04:03The boy learns to track and trap prey.
04:09And, when the moment is right, to strike.
04:15His unsentimental education marks Xu Di for life.
04:18Deep in the mountains, the boy learns to trust only himself, to pursue his goals relentlessly and without conscience.
04:29He will control his destiny, or die trying.
04:33This destiny eludes Xu Di until he's nearly 40.
04:46He has achieved nearly everything his father has set out for him.
04:48But Xu Di wants more.
04:58A fortune teller begs an audience.
05:01His predictions will rouse ambitions Xu Di has kept to himself.
05:04The seer flatters his host.
05:23In private, he offers a prophecy.
05:26Your majesty has the aspect and the bearing of a son of heaven.
05:33You move like a dragon, and you strike like a tiger.
05:38There is no doubt you are the true son of heaven.
05:39The true ruler over humanity.
05:41An attractive prospect, and an incitement to high treason.
05:42An attractive prospect, and an incitement to high treason.
05:43An attractive prospect, and an incitement to high treason.
05:45The throne of heaven has an occupation.
05:49What the throne of heaven has the eigentlich of the King, and the likes of the King.
05:50On the throne of Earth.
05:51It is the degree of the King.
05:53There is no doubt you are the true Son of Heaven.
05:55The true ruler over humanity.
05:57An attractive prospect, and an incitement to high treason.
06:02attractive prospect and an incitement to high treason the throne of heaven has an
06:14occupant the legitimate monarch shu di's nephew only the xi'an wan emperor has
06:22the mandate of heaven that means he can count on the loyalty of his officials
06:28not only that the xi'an wan emperor hold shu di's sons hostage insurance against treachery but the
06:39xi'an wan emperor makes a catastrophic mistake he frees shu di's sons the palace gates are open he
06:48says the youths may return north to beiping the xi'an wan emperor means his gesture as a show of
06:57confidence instead shu di sees weakness it's the opportunity he's waited for
07:09in the year 1402 he gathers a million soldiers before the gates of nanjing three years have
07:16passed and he has repeatedly defeated the emperor's forces in battle but he must employ his cunning and
07:22military genius to win entry into the great city instead of exhausting his forces in a long siege
07:34shu di resorts to bribery every courtier has his price
07:40shu di's bribes makes the traitors rich
07:50and they throw open the capitol's gates
07:59the capital falls without a fight
08:20shu di's soldiers pillage nanjing
08:28for days on end breaking into palaces and sacred temples. Countless buildings
08:34are burned to the ground. The population is defenceless before the marauding hordes.
08:51But Xu Di's triumph rings hollow. The Jian Wang Emperor disappears without a trace.
08:59The smouldering rubble of his palace may contain his corpse or not.
09:05Xu Di is tormented by the rumour that the emperor escaped through a secret passageway.
09:11This fear will haunt Xu Di throughout his life.
09:15That the Jian Wang Emperor is alive and will one day take his revenge.
09:20On the 17th of July 1402, Xu Di proclaims himself Emperor of China.
09:33Most of the Jian Wang Emperor's officials refuse to acknowledge Xu Di's authority.
09:37Some go so far as to refuse to kowtow, the traditional gesture of courtly humility.
09:48They say the stain of the usurper will be on Xu Di for a hundred generations.
09:58As emperor, Xu Di takes the name Yongle, meaning eternal joy.
10:11As he ascends the throne, he encounters immediate and open opposition.
10:17Feng Shorue, the preparer of imperial edicts, provokes an uproar.
10:21He outright refuses to serve Yongle, declaring loyalty only to the true Jian Wang Emperor.
10:38The Jian Wang Emperor alone has the mandate of heaven according to ancestral principles.
10:43By seizing the throne, Yongle violated those edicts, Feng Shorue says.
10:50But Yongle also knows the ancestral laws.
10:55And under them, his critic is committing high treason.
11:03The official admits only to one failing,
11:06that he was too late to advise Jiang Wang to kill his treacherous uncle.
11:13Not him.
11:17Yongle condemns him to the cruelest punishment.
11:21Death by a thousand cuts.
11:23The official is not the only man who must pay for his principles with his life.
11:41The official is not the only man who must pay for his principles with his life.
11:45Suspicious of China's educated and respected civil servants,
11:53Yongle orders a terrible purge.
11:57Not only bureaucrats, but their families also perish.
12:00Yongle's victims number in the tens of thousands.
12:17This inhuman campaign secures Yongle's place on the throne.
12:21But the official's words will haunt him like a curse.
12:25Yongle believes in traditional values and superstitions.
12:44He can find no rest.
12:46His conscience plagues him.
12:48He won his mandate with violence and with terror.
12:51It is a throne of blood.
12:55And still he fears the toppled Jian Wang emperor.
12:59His nephew may still live.
13:01And even if he is dead,
13:02he may still have supporters who will stop at nothing to kill Yongle.
13:06To suppress his misgivings,
13:12Emperor Yongle withdraws to Beiping.
13:14He will rename it Beijing, the northern capital.
13:20Emperor Yongle wastes no time.
13:24An army of labourers levels the old Mongol palaces.
13:29His new capital, Beijing, will be a transformation.
13:32The task of managing the designing and building of the Forbidden City goes to Ruanyang,
13:41a skilled architect and eunuch.
13:45None of his kind has ever held so high in office.
13:48Historically, eunuchs have been central to China's government,
13:52a sterile priesthood of middle managers unfettered by family ties.
14:05Only a few years before, Yongle's father had banned eunuchs from all government positions
14:11and put the empire's administration in the hands of the learned officials.
14:14Yongle doesn't trust the officials.
14:24He needs the eunuchs as his loyal administrators.
14:27He surrounds himself with a court of castrates ready to carry out his orders without question.
14:34They were principally used as servants and guards of the imperial harem.
14:37The proximity of the eunuchs to the emperor, his heir, the empress and of course the concubines,
14:46leads to political alliances.
14:49And Yongle gives them true power, making them rivals to the bureaucratic class.
14:59His confidence extends so far that a eunuch admiral,
15:02Shenghe is entrusted with the exploration of new lands to extend Chinese presence throughout Asia.
15:18The emperor encourages spying, favoritism and paranoia.
15:24He is playing with fire.
15:32Castration was a familiar part of Chinese culture.
15:37Many of Chinese eunuchs began as prisoners of war,
15:41castrated as an act of deliberate humiliation.
15:46Surgeons were so proficient that only two of every hundred victims died as a result of the operation.
15:53A eunuch's only chance at respect is a career in court.
15:57The Ming dynasty was famous for the influence of the eunuchs on political affairs.
16:04For Ruan An, a Vietnamese prisoner of war, Xu Di's confidence changed the course of his life.
16:18Ruan An has the cooperation and participation of all China's leading designers.
16:23For Yongle to name him the Forbidden City's chief architect is an honor and an almost impossible challenge.
16:33But he must do more than build a magnificent palace.
16:37He has to create an earthly image of heavenly order.
16:40Even today, Ruan An's master plan is layered with depth and nuance.
16:56Every detail of the design reflects his adopted culture's most profound values.
17:02The whole capital city of Beijing is composed of a series of squares.
17:13In the center is the Forbidden City, and then the city of Imperial, then the city of Beijing.
17:21The square-shaped courtyard reflects the Chinese belief that the earth is square and the heaven is round.
17:30The imperial palace was considered to be the center of the earth, which is aligned with the polar star.
17:39And the polar star is considered to be the center of the heaven.
17:43The Forbidden City consists of the old court for the ceremonial and official purposes,
17:49and the inner court where the emperor and his family lived.
17:53The three big halls at the old court are duplicate at a small scale at the inner court.
18:00While Ruan An struggles with the complex philosophies of Chinese architecture,
18:15he must also satisfy the whims of his master.
18:17A historical anecdote tells of the pressure under which he is working.
18:29Yongle wants four towers at the Forbidden City's corners.
18:34Already, he has rejected several of Ruan An's designs.
18:45The emperor has lost patience.
18:57Ruan An's life depends on his next set of drawings.
19:01Unless Ruan An produces an acceptable design by tomorrow, he will die.
19:07Ruan An sets to work, but not alone.
19:20Imitating his masters, he keeps a pet cicada.
19:25To Chinese ears, the insects chirping is a kind of music.
19:28But the chittering chorus doesn't lift Ruan An's spirits.
19:33He resigns himself to his fate.
19:36Sure that his life is over, he promises the cicada a big cage to enjoy when Ruan An has paid the price for failure.
19:44Watching his pet for the last time, Ruan An notices the cicada has left marks on the sandy floor of his cage.
19:59They inspire his sketch for the new cage that he will never see built.
20:03According to the tale, the next day, the emperor himself visits.
20:16Ruan An embraces his destiny.
20:39The night is gone, and he has designed only a cricket cage.
20:42Examining the sketch, Yongle compliments his architect.
21:05He pronounces the new tower design perfect.
21:08Ruan An still seems to be of some use.
21:10His life is spared.
21:18If this story is true, the Forbidden City's corner towers are the only of its elements created by coincidence.
21:28In all other respects, the palace complex is symbolism set in stone and wood.
21:33Each building and courtyard contains the figure nine, or a multiple of it.
21:41This highest single digit number is reserved for the emperor.
21:47On each roof, nine mythical creatures fend off evil spirits.
21:52Nine times nine ornaments adorn the palace gates.
21:59Nine dragons ride the wall separating the outer courtyard from the imperial family's apartments.
22:04The roof of the hall of supreme harmony, or throne room, rests on nine gigantic columns.
22:19And the throne on which sits the sun of heaven, at the center of the world, has nine dragons to guard it.
22:27The Forbidden City has 9,999 rooms, they say, for 10,000 rooms are reserved for heaven alone.
22:35Today, restorers in the Forbidden City practice their ancestors' trades.
22:50The purple city, as it is known for the color of its walls, gleams with new splendor.
22:56The second dominant color is yellow, the yellow of the carvings and tiles on the roofs.
23:09Yellow, too, was the emperor's alone.
23:12No ordinary mortal was allowed to use the color.
23:26Then, as today, just two manufacturers were granted a license to make the carvings and the roof tiles.
23:38Time seems to have stood still here, though machines have made some of the work a little easier.
23:44The formula for the glaze applied to the roof tiles after the first firing is known only to the master of the factory.
24:02It is guarded like a state secret, passed on from master to master for generations.
24:14The firing temperature that makes the imperial lacquer shine so brightly is, of course, a secret, too.
24:28The palaces of the Forbidden City are covered with 150,000 roof tiles,
24:33and yet historical sources say that the entire complex was completed in only three years,
24:38between 1417 and 1420.
24:44It is made possible by the fact that behind the complex numerological symbolism,
24:49the actual construction of the buildings could hardly be simpler.
24:59The fact that the Forbidden City was built only in three years' time,
25:04is because a fairly simple method was used in the process.
25:09And this method has been used in China since ancient times.
25:14On the stone base, wood columns are set upon which lay the roof.
25:21And the roof and the column are connected by the wood supporter, which is called dough gum.
25:27All these components are stick together without a single nail.
25:31All these components were produced before the beginning of the construction.
25:39And on the side, all these components just have to be set up in time.
25:45All weight-bearing elements of the palaces are made of cedar wood,
25:52which is easy to transport and to work, but also very strong.
25:57The columns can support far heavier loads than steel,
26:00and have endured the seasonal changes between heat and cold for centuries, without distortion.
26:05When he adopts this pre-fabricated building system,
26:19Ruanan is embracing a process used in China since the first millennium BC.
26:25Ancient writings record its details.
26:27Technique isn't the only reason the buildings take shape so quickly.
26:39Ruanan is a superb manager.
26:52Long before scaffolds go into place, Ruanan gathers all the materials.
26:56On gigantic lots, workers prefabricate components according to strict standards.
27:02For 13 years, from across the empire,
27:05the highest quality materials stream into the Emperor Yonglu's capital.
27:14Marble for the foundations comes from quarries nearly 60 miles away.
27:19The cedar and other hardwoods come from the mountains of the southern provinces.
27:24They are floated down the coast and transported from there to the Grand Canal,
27:29that links the Yangtze River to the capital.
27:36Parts of this canal had already existed for 2400 years.
27:41But Emperor Yonglu calls for a massive rebuilding of the canal,
27:45connecting the production-rich regions of China to Beijing, his new capital.
27:49At 1100 miles, it's the longest man-made waterway in the world.
27:59Once, the canal supplied Beijing with rice, which won't grow in the harsh northern climate.
28:06Now, on Emperor Yonglu's order, every barge bound for the capital carries an extra cargo of brick
28:12with which to build the Forbidden City.
28:14Historians believe that more than two million tons of bricks travelled to Beijing by canal.
28:20Five layers of bricks are laid on the squares of the Forbidden City alone.
28:39100,000 men, mostly convicts, labour from sunrise to sunset on this gigantic building site.
28:45At night, they are locked in Kongs, heavy wooden collars that make escape impossible.
28:56The collars come off only when they are working.
28:58The work continues swiftly.
29:05Ruanan is more than satisfied with the progress.
29:09Thousands of stonemasons and plasterers begin decorating the marble terraces.
29:15Artists cover the beams of the palace roofs with gold leaf.
29:28But Ruanan faces one further challenge.
29:32In the middle of the stone steps that one day the Emperor and only the Emperor shall ascend,
29:38there is still a great hole.
29:42Ruanan imagines it filled by a giant sculpted marble slab.
29:47Though this would be an artistic triumph,
29:49the engineering challenge would be transporting the 300-ton slab of marble.
30:01The piece comes from a quarry 50 miles from Beijing.
30:06In winter, winds off the steps sweep through the gorges, dropping the temperatures below freezing.
30:19Although this merciless cold tortures the thousands of labourers in the quarries,
30:26it inspires Ruanan.
30:27He orders hundreds of wells dug along the route the slab must take.
30:49And as if on a 50-mile ice rink, the slab skates from the mountains to the capital, Beijing.
31:20An official requests an audience with the Yongle Emperor.
31:35Nearly two decades have passed since the Emperor conceived of the forbidden city.
31:43Decades that have sacrificed thousands of people to his vision.
31:49and the Empire's resources have been plundered.
31:54A number of officials have documented the huge strain on the Treasury.
32:01Li Shemeyan is its principal author.
32:09The Emperor has learned of the officials' concerns for the well-being of the Empire.
32:19Li Shemeyan is its principal.
32:20Li Shemeyan is its principal.
32:23The Yongle Emperor trusts him as a loyal servant.
32:26And he urges Li Shemeyan to speak freely.
32:38The official takes the Emperor at his word.
32:41He reveals his deepest concerns.
32:43For nearly his entire reign, Emperor Yongle has been solely occupied with the construction of the forbidden city.
32:58Incalculable sums have been spent.
33:01Hundreds of thousands of farmers have been forced from their land to work on the construction site day and night.
33:06In many provinces, people are starving.
33:11They are eating tree bark and grass or selling their wives and children to survive.
33:16Li Shemeyan warns the Emperor he is provoking the anger of heaven.
33:21He pleads with him to return to the former capital city of Nanjing
33:25and beg forgiveness at his father's grave.
33:28It is the only way to avert disaster.
33:32Otherwise, the Emperor's great works will not endure.
33:51Yongle acts immediately.
33:58He has Li Shemeyan thrown into a dungeon deep in the palace for prophesizing disaster,
34:03the Emperor's greatest fear.
34:28It is the only way to return to the temple of heaven.
34:34An emperor answers to nothing and to no one, only heaven itself.
34:40Each year at the temple of heaven, he prays for rich harvests and to spare China from storms and floods.
34:48The Chinese believe heaven sends tempests to signal that an emperor has upset the harmony of the universe.
34:54Yongle is convinced that the completion of the Forbidden City has finally legitimized his rule
35:03and has guaranteed the mandate of heaven for the Ming dynasty for eternity.
35:13The eunuchs of the night watch strike the hour.
35:20It is three o'clock, two hours before sunrise.
35:24It is three o'clock, two hours before sunrise.
35:31Officials and eunuchs take up their positions in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
35:36Each has his place according to rank.
35:54The emperor's day begins just before sunrise, with a never-changing ritual.
36:01They say governing a state without ritual is like plowing without a plowshare.
36:18For the Forbidden City is the architectural expression of cosmic harmony.
36:23The constant repetition of unchanging ritual permits this cosmic order to be maintained.
36:30The symbol is just the highest.
36:41In 1421 Yongle's star shines more brightly than ever.
36:4620 years on the throne have brought him to the peak of his power.
37:02He has adhered strictly to tradition,
37:05trying to win the loyalty of officials alienated by the bloody purge that began his reign.
37:10The warrior has become a capable planner, a patron of arts and literature,
37:20an expander of China's horizons.
37:31One of his greatest accomplishments is the codifying of more than 1,000 years of Chinese history.
37:40He creates the world's first encyclopedia, numbering more than 11,000 volumes.
37:48He himself writes the foreword.
37:50In order to rule the world, our wise forefathers created civilisation based on ritual, moral values and education.
38:01From the warrior, an intellectual has emerged.
38:05But Yongle's mode of governing, braided with symbolism and repetition, may not be as permanent as he thinks.
38:12It was a decisive political weakness of the Ming dynasty that the founding emperor and his successor Yongle increasingly treated dynastic problems
38:34as though they were family problems, that no longer needed to be discussed at court.
38:45And this, of course, meant that the autocratic tendencies of the rulers were exaggerated.
38:49So that the well-being or woes, the very fate of the dynasty, depended more and more on the individual political competence of the emperor.
39:01In Yongle's own time, the first structural defects of his system become apparent.
39:13Poverty spreads throughout the country.
39:16To escape it, one has to be able to afford the education necessary to become an official, or one becomes a eunuch.
39:24Starving farm families castrate their sons and send them to Beijing, hoping the boys might find positions in the palace.
39:41Beyond the purple walls, chaos threatens.
39:54China outlaws self-mutilation and strictly regulates acceptance of eunuchs into government service.
40:12But to retain control, the court is forced to open its doors.
40:24In Yongle's time, 3,000 eunuchs live in the Forbidden City.
40:36At first, officials admit 100 each year.
40:40Once they check to see that no potent individuals slip into the army of castrates.
40:44Over the years, a flood of eunuchs into the Forbidden City reaches astonishing proportions.
40:57200 years later, at the beginning of the 17th century, there are 70,000 eunuchs in the halls and squares of the Forbidden City.
41:05Depised everywhere but here, these half-men become a power base drawn by the prospect of influence and wealth.
41:26Let's go.
41:35Some, like Ruanan, have skills they can wield to advance the empire.
41:45But mostly, the eunuchs plot and scheme, and their infighting gradually paralyzes the government.
41:57Their influence shows that Yongle's power is not eternal after all.
42:05They are not eternal after all.
42:08The eunuchs in the city is not eternal after all.
42:12Languishing behind bars, Li Xia Mei An yearns for freedom.
42:17Perhaps he was wrong.
42:21But workers had hardly completed The Forbidden City when his prophecy of disaster comes true.
42:27When the lightning strikes, heaven really does seem to have withdrawn its mandate from Yongle, as Li Xia Mei An warned.
42:35The summer storm finds the Forbidden City's weak points.
42:54Its splendid roofs are supported on wooden beams.
42:57Ruanan's masterpiece cannot withstand Heaven's Fury.
43:23The city's three principal halls, the center of the world, go up in flames.
43:30Yongle stands before his life's work now in ruins.
43:35But the Ming Dynasty will survive.
43:37Thirteen more Ming Emperors will occupy the Dragon Throne.
43:42But the fire predicts the empire's eventual fate.
43:53In 1644, frozen in splendor and ritual, paralyzed by intrigue and betrayal, the dynasty totters.
44:01The Chinese people groan under the burden of taxation, and yet the imperial coffers are empty.
44:11As rebels encircle the Forbidden City, the last Ming Emperor walks the coal hill overlooking
44:17Yongle's achievement.
44:24Yongle stands for a long time.
44:31Watching his capital burn, he uses a silken sash to hang himself.
44:36At the end, only a single courtier, a eunuch, accompanies the Son of Heaven as he dies.
44:49But the Forbidden City will survive the downfall of the last Ming Dynasty.
45:03Soon, the Manchu, another powerful tribe from the steppes, will conquer the Middle Kingdom.
45:10With new rulers on the Dragon Throne, China's empire will carry on until 1911, when the Forbidden City enters a new era.
45:19One that is still evolving, and from which a powerful, ever-new China will emerge.
45:25Now let's define if the war should be first contained when He gets Canada to meet again.
45:37And the story can lead to still harvesting away from the land inlay.
45:40Then rejoin the Rosoham and its dyes of the Wilson.
45:43Unless in any onlar of the war should be the last one worse.
45:46Come?
45:48Visit your pardon that atenkplanetaniperisday.
45:54You
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