| History |  |
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During the Ming Dynasty, this hall was the residence of the empresses. After the rebelle peasant army, led by Li Zicheng, captured Beijing in 1644. Emperor Chongzhen's empress hung herself in this hall. The two rooms on the eastern side were imperial birdal suites. The Eastern Warm Chamber was the wedding Chamber, entirely painted in red except the floor, and decorated with "Double Xi" two Chinese characters, "Xi" , when put together, means "joy", a symbol of happiness and fertility.
In the Qing Dynasty, the Emperor and Empress only spent their wedding night in the Eastern Warm Chamber of this palace. The next day or 2 days after the wedding night, they would move to the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Ironically, only three emperors (Kangxi, Tongzhi and Guangxu) out of the thirteen emperors in the Qing Dynasty held their wedding ceremonies here. The Last Emperor Puyi didn't like the wedding chamber and expressed his discontent in his famous autobiography "From Emperor to Citizen".
But the wedding for the representatives of Heaven was really very extravagant. When Emperor Guangxu had his wedding, he spent 5.5 million taels of silver, which would have been enough to provide food for 3.6 million peasants for a whole year.
The four rooms on the western side are the sacrificial shrines where there are ring-shaped pits for holding statues of gods and cauldrons for cooking sacrificial meat. The rooms enshrine statues of Sakyamuni, the Goddess of mercy, Lord Guan and other Mongolian gods.
The Manchurians believed in a religion that required the slaughter of four pigs a day as sacrifices, and the table and the big vats to the left were used for sacrifices to the Kitchen God. In the late Qing Dynasty, due to a shortage of funds, only one pig was killed each day as a sacrifice. |
| Description | |
The hall symbolizes Manchu architectural style with its gate on the eastern side rather than in the middle. It was renovated in 1798. It is nine bays wide and three bays deep. This hall has double eaves and a widian (thatched hall) style roof covered with yellow glazed tiles.
Traditionally, Qian Qing Gong (Palace of Heavenly Purity) and Kun Ning Gong were where emperor and empress slept. "Qian Qing" and "Kun Ning" mean that the "sky is clear, and the earth is peaceful", implying that the emperor would rule the country forever. |
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