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Documentary, China's Forbidden City: The Centre of the World, Part 1
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00:01The Forbidden City. In the heart of Beijing, once home to China's all-powerful emperors, it remains the greatest palace
00:10ever built.
00:12The result of one man's vision.
00:17His 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
00:30dared question his godlike claim to dominance.
00:34The Forbidden City embodied that control, a secret universe of endless ceremony.
00:42The eunuch, Ruanan, was its principal architect. He based his plan on ancient laws, leaving nothing to chance. Each detail
00:53had ritual significance.
00:58With 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.
01:15But its near perfection harbored fatal flaws.
01:47As the 14th century AD was ending, a victorious Chinese army rode in from the steps at the empire's northern
01:56edge.
01:59It had dealt the Mongols an overwhelming defeat and expelled the nomadic warriors who had ruled over China for more
02:07than a hundred years.
02:14It 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.
02:30The new emperor renames his home city Beiping, Northern Peace.
02:36No one can imagine that soon Beiping will boast a great palace, the centre of a global empire.
02:44Prince Xu Di's ambition demands a monument.
02:49Prince Xu Di's ambition.
02:54Historically, Beiping has been a provincial outpost.
02:58When they ruled the Middle Kingdom, the Mongols made it their capital.
03:02But it is hardly splendid.
03:06And China's official capital is nearly 1,200 miles south, far from the unstable borderlands that nurtured the Ming's.
03:21Xu 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.
03:31As a fourth son, he has no prospect of ruling.
03:36His family decides the prince will be a soldier.
03:45He is a soldier.
03:45Folk tales say the Ming's cast Xu Di out into the wilds, without food or shelter, in a brutal test
03:51of survival.
03:56He is only nine years old.
04:02The boy learns to track and trap prey.
04:08And, when the moment is right, to strike.
04:14His unsentimental education marks Xu Di for life.
04:20Deep 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.
04:41This destiny eludes Xu Di until he is nearly 40.
04:45He has achieved nearly everything his father has set out for him.
04:55But Xu Di wants more.
04:58A fortune teller begs an audience.
05:01His predictions will rouse ambitions Xu Di has kept to himself.
05:20The seer flatters his host.
05:24In private, he offers a prophecy.
05:33The seer flatters his host.
05:42The seer flatters himself.
05:43Your majesty has the aspect and the bearing of a son of heaven.
05:48You move like a dragon and you strike like a tiger.
05:53There is no doubt you are the true son of heaven, the true ruler over humanity, an attractive
06:02prospect and an incitement to high treason.
06:12The throne of heaven has an occupant, the legitimate monarch, Shu Di's nephew.
06:20Only the Xi'an Wan Emperor has the mandate of heaven.
06:24That means he can count on the loyalty of his officials.
06:28Not only that, the Xi'an Wan Emperor holds Shu Di's sons hostage, insurance against treachery.
06:38But the Xi'an Wan Emperor makes a catastrophic mistake.
06:44He frees Shu Di's sons.
06:46The palace gates are open, he says.
06:49The youths may return north to Beiping.
06:54The Xi'an Wan Emperor means his gesture as a show of confidence.
06:58Instead, Shu Di sees weakness.
07:03It's the opportunity he's waited for.
07:09In the year 1402, he gathers a million soldiers before the gates of Nanjing.
07:15Three years have passed, and he has repeatedly defeated the emperor's forces in battle.
07:20But he must employ his cunning and military genius to win entry into the great city.
07:31Instead of exhausting his forces in a long siege, Shu Di resorts to bribery.
07:38Every courtier has his price.
07:47Shu Di's bribes makes the traitors rich.
07:57And they throw open the capital's gates.
08:02The capital falls without a fight.
08:26Shu Di's soldiers pillage Nanjing for days on end, breaking into palaces and sacred temples.
08:32Countless buildings are burned to the ground.
08:36The population is defenceless before the marauding hordes.
08:51But Shu Di's triumph rings hollow.
08:54The Xi'an Wang Emperor disappears without a trace.
08:59The smoldering rubble of his palace may contain his corpse, or not.
09:05Shu Di is tormented by the rumor that the emperor escaped through a secret passageway.
09:11This fear will haunt Shu Di throughout his life, that the Jianwen emperor is alive and will
09:18one day take his revenge.
09:25On the 17th of July, 1402, Shu Di proclaims himself emperor of China.
09:32Most of the Jianwen emperor's officials refuse to acknowledge Shu Di's authority.
09:40Some go so far as to refuse to kowtow, the traditional gesture of courtly humility.
09:47They say the stain of the usurper will be on Shu Di for a hundred generations.
10:03As emperor, Shu Di takes the name Yongle, meaning eternal joy.
10:11As he ascends the throne, he encounters immediate and open opposition.
10:16Feng Shou Ru, the preparer of imperial edicts, provokes an uproar.
10:29He outright refuses to serve Yongle, declaring loyalty only to the true Jiang Wang emperor.
10:37The Jiang Wang emperor alone has the mandate of heaven according to ancestral principles.
10:44By seizing the throne, Yongle violated those edicts, Feng Shou Ru says.
10:50But Yongle also knows the ancestral laws, and under them, his critic is committing high treason.
11:02The official admits only to one failing, that he was too late to advise Jiang Wang to kill his treacherous
11:10uncle.
11:17Yongle condemns him to the cruelest punishment, death by a thousand cuts.
11:40The official is not the only man who must pay for his principles with his life.
11:49Suspicious of China's educated and respected civil servants,
11:52Yongle orders a terrible purge.
11:56Yongle orders a terrible purge.
11:57Not only bureaucrats, but their families also perish.
12:11Yongle's victims number in the tens of thousands.
12:16This inhuman campaign secures Yongle's place on the throne.
12:21But the official's words will haunt him like a curse.
12:39Yongle 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.
12:58His nephew may still live, and even if he is dead,
13:02he may still have supporters who will stop at nothing to kill Yongle.
13:09To suppress his misgivings, Emperor Yongle withdraws to Beiping.
13:15He will rename it Beijing, the northern capital.
13:20Emperor Yongle wastes no time.
13:24An army of labourers levels the old Mongol palaces.
13:28His new capital, Beijing, will be a transformation.
13:34The task of managing the designing and building of the Forbidden City goes to Ruanyang,
13:40a skilled architect and eunuch.
13:44None 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
14:10and put the empire's administration in the hands of the learned officials.
14:21But Yongle doesn't trust the officials.
14:23He needs the eunuchs as his loyal administrators.
14:27He surrounds himself with a court of castrates,
14:30ready to carry out his orders without question.
14:33They were principally used as servants and guards of the imperial harem.
14:40The proximity of the eunuchs to the emperor, his heir, the empress,
14:44and of course the concubines, leads to political alliances.
14:49And Yongle gives them true power, making them rivals to the bureaucratic class.
14:58His confidence extends so far that a eunuch admiral, Sheng He,
15:03is entrusted with the exploration of new lands to extend Chinese presence throughout Asia.
15:18The emperor encourages spying, favouritism and paranoia.
15:23He 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.
15:58The 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.
16:25For Yongle to name him the Forbidden City's chief architect is an honour 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.
16:47Even 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.
17:07The whole capital city of Beijing is composed of a series of squares.
17:14In the centre is the Forbidden City, and then the city of the 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 centre of the earth, which is aligned with the polar star.
17:38And the polar star is considered to be the centre 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 holes at the old court are duplicated at a small scale at the inner court.
18:10While Ruan An struggles with the complex philosophies of Chinese architecture,
18:14he must also satisfy the whims of his master.
18:23An 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.
18:49The 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.
19:12Ruan An sets to work, but not alone.
19:20Imitating his masters, he keeps a pet cicada.
19:24To Chinese ears, the insects chirping is a kind of music.
19:29But 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
19:41when Ruan An has paid the price for failure.
19:50Watching his pet for the last time,
19:53Ruan An notices the cicada has left marks on the sandy floor of his cage.
19:58They inspire his sketch for the new cage that he will never see built.
20:12According to the tale, the next day, the emperor himself visits.
20:36Ruan An embraces his destiny.
20:38The night is gone, and he has designed only a cricket cage.
20:46Ruan An embraces his destiny.
20:46He's got his fellow sword in the oldめ.
20:48The 1930s.
20:48The 19th century.
20:49It is a plan.
20:50gösterged.
21:00He is in the future.
21:01Examining the sketch, Yong Le compliments his architect.
21:05He pronounces the new tower design perfect.
21:08Ruan An still seems to be of some use.
21:11His life is spared.
21:18If this story is true, the Forbidden City's corner towers are the only of its elements
21:23created by coincidence.
21:27In all other respects, the palace complex is symbolism set in stone and wood.
21:36Each building and courtyard contains the figure nine, or a multiple of it.
21:41This highest single-digit number is reserved for the emperor.
21:46On 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
22:10apartments.
22:13The roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, or throne room, rests on nine gigantic columns.
22:20And the throne, on which sits the Son of Heaven, at the center of the world, has nine dragons
22:26to guard it.
22:28The Forbidden City has 9,999 rooms, they say, for 10,000 rooms are reserved for Heaven alone.
22:45Today, 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.
23:02The 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
23:31the roof tiles.
23:38Time seems to have stood still here, though machines have made some of the work a little
23:43easier.
23:54The formula for the glaze applied to the roof tiles after the first firing is known only
23:59to the master of the factory.
24:01It is guarded like a state secret, passed on from master to master for generations.
24:15The firing temperature that makes the imperial lacquer shine so brightly is, of course, a secret,
24:21too.
24:27The palaces of the Forbidden City are covered with 150,000 roof tiles, and yet historical
24:34sources say that the entire complex was completed in only three years, between 1417 and 1420.
24:43It is made possible by the fact that behind the complex numerological symbolism, the actual construction
24:50of the buildings could hardly be simpler.
24:59The fact that the Forbidden City was built only in three years' time, this is because a very simple method
25:06was used in the process.
25:08And this method has been used in China since ancient times.
25:13On the stone base, wood columns are set upon which lay the roof.
25:20And the roof and the column are connected by the wood supporter, which is called dogom.
25:27All these components are stuck together without a single nail.
25:33All 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.
25:48All weight-bearing elements of the palaces are made of cedar wood, which is easy to transport and to work,
25:55but also very strong.
25:57The columns can support far heavier loads than steel and have endured the seasonal changes between heat and cold for
26:04centuries without distortion.
26:15When he adopts this prefabricated building system, Ruanan is embracing a process used in China since the first millennium BC.
26:24Ancient writings record its details.
26:35The technique isn't the only reason the buildings take shape so quickly.
26:41Ruanan is a superb manager.
26:51Long before scaffolds go into place, Ruanan gathers all the materials.
26:56On gigantic lots, workers prefabricate components according to strict standards.
27:01For 13 years, from across the empire, the 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 that links the Yongce River to
27:30the capital.
27:36Parts of this canal had already existed for 2400 years, but Emperor Yonglu calls for a massive rebuilding of the
27:44canal.
27:45Connecting the production-rich regions of China to Beijing, his new capital.
27:50At 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 with which to
28:13build the Forbidden City.
28:15Historians believe that more than 2 million tons of bricks travelled to Beijing by canal.
28:34Five 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.
28:46At night, they are locked in Kongs, heavy wooden collars that make escape impossible.
28:55The collars come off only when they are working.
29:03The 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.
29:27But Ruanan faces one further challenge.
29:32In the middle of the stone steps that one day the emperor and only the emperor shall ascend, there is
29:39still a great hole.
29:42Ruanan imagines it filled by a giant sculpted marble slab.
29:47Though this would be an artistic triumph, the engineering challenge would be transporting the 300-ton slab of marble.
30:00The peace comes from a quarry 50 miles from Beijing.
30:06In winter, winds off the steps sweep through the gorges, dropping the temperatures below freezing.
30:20Although this merciless cold tortures the thousands of labourers in the quarries, it inspires Ruanan.
30:45He orders hundreds of wells dug along the route the slab must take.
31:00Workers soak the frozen earth.
31:06And 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.
31:34Nearly two decades have passed since the emperor conceived of the forbidden city.
31:42Decades 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.
32:01Lisha Mayan is its principal author.
32:09The emperor has learned of the officials' concerns for the well-being of the empire.
32:23The Yongle emperor trusts him as a loyal servant, and he urges Lisha Mayan to speak freely.
32:38The official takes the emperor at his word.
32:41He reveals his deepest concerns.
32:47For nearly his entire reign,
32:49Emperor 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.
33:08In many provinces, people are starving.
33:11They are eating tree bark and grass, or selling their wives and children to survive.
33:16Li Shia Mayan warns the emperor he is provoking the anger of heaven.
33:21He pleads with him to return to the former capital city of Nanjing and beg forgiveness at his father's grave.
33:29It is the only way to avert disaster.
33:32Otherwise, the emperor's great works will not endure.
33:51Yongle acts immediately.
33:57He has Li Shia Mayan thrown into a dungeon deep in the palace for prophesizing disaster, the emperor's greatest fear.
34:06Day 19
34:07Day 19
34:07Day 19
34:07Mayan
34:07Day 19
34:07Day 19
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
34:43and to spare China from storms and floods.
34:48The Chinese believe heaven sends tempests to signal
34:51that an emperor has upset the harmony of the universe.
34:57But Yongle is convinced that the completion of the Forbidden City
35:01has finally legitimized his rule and has guaranteed the mandate of heaven
35:05for 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.
35:31Officials and eunuchs take up their positions in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
35:36Each has his place according to rank.
35:56The emperor's day begins just before sunrise, with a never-changing ritual.
36:07The emperor's day begins just before sunrise, with a never-changing ritual.
36:12They say governing a state without ritual is like ploughing without a ploughshare.
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.
36:40In 1421, Yongle's star shines more brightly than ever.
36:5720 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.
37:14The 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 a thousand years of Chinese history.
37:40He creates the world's first encyclopedia, numbering more than 11,000 volumes.
37:48He himself writes the forward.
37:51In order to rule the world, our wise forefathers created civilization based on ritual, moral values and education.
38:00From the warrior, an intellectual has emerged.
38:04But Yongle's mode of governing, braided with symbolism and repetition, may not be as permanent as he thinks.
38:14Outside this closed system, the world still turns.
38:25It was a decisive political weakness of the Ming dynasty that the founding emperor and his successor Yongle increasingly treated
38:33dynastic problems as though they were family problems.
38:39That no longer needed to be discussed at court.
38:45And this, of course, meant that the autocratic tendencies of the rulers were exaggerated.
38:53So that the well-being or woes, the very fate of the dynasty, depended more and more on the individual
38:59political competence of the emperor.
39:07In 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
39:23a eunuch.
39:28Starving 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.
40:05China 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.
40:31In 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.
40:51Over 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
41:04of the Forbidden City.
41:14Despised everywhere but here, these half-men become a power base drawn by the prospect of influence and wealth.
41:38Some, 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.
41:58Their influence shows that Yongle's power is not eternal after all.
42:02ульт on the cast, as to the moment there is of course not eternal.
42:12Longuishing behind bars, Lisha Mayan 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
42:33as Lisha Mayan warned
42:50The summer storm finds the Forbidden City's weak points
42:54its splendid roofs are supported on wooden beams
43:04Ruanan's masterpiece cannot withstand heaven's fury
43:23the city's three principal halls the center of the world go up in flames
43:28Yongle stands before his life's work now in ruins
43:34but the Ming dynasty will survive
43:3713 more Ming emperors will occupy the dragon throne
43:41but the fire predicts the empire's eventual fate
43:53in 1644 frozen in splendor and ritual
43:56paralyzed by intrigue and betrayal
43:59the dynasty totters
44:01the Chinese people groan under the burden of taxation
44:04and yet the imperial coffers are empty
44:11as rebels encircle the Forbidden City
44:13the last Ming emperor walks the coal hill
44:16overlooking Yongle's achievement
44:27watching his capital burn
44:29he uses a silken sash to hang himself
44:35at the end
44:36only a single courtier
44:38a eunuch
44:39accompanies the son of heaven
44:41as he dies
44:57but the Forbidden City will survive
45:00the downfall of the last Ming dynasty
45:03soon the Manchu
45:05another powerful tribe from the steppes
45:08will conquer the middle kingdom
45:09with new rulers on the dragon throne
45:12China's empire will carry on until 1911
45:16when the Forbidden City enters a new era
45:19one that is still evolving
45:21and from which a powerful ever new China will emerge
45:26the probable One China will cause
45:27and the at-永.
45:27the 18-10-9-35
45:30the 17-10-9-35
45:31the A-永.
45:42the 18-10-36
45:44the 18-16-36
45:44The 19-13-39
45:45the 18-10-36
45:45the 18-40-36
45:46the 18-30-40-37
45:47the 18-14
45:54You
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