Forbidden City Roof Figures

Double eave hip roofs were the classiest roofs in the empire reserved for the top imperial buildings.

Forbidden city roof figures. An estimated 1 million laborers worked to complete the structure. Dragons and other animal ornaments crown the roofs of most of the forbidden city s main structures. Their ridges are decorated with all manner of clay figures and the more important the. A common myth states that there are 9 999 5 rooms but it is not supported by survey evidence.

Forbidden city chinese pinyin zijincheng or wade giles romanization tzu chin ch eng imperial palace complex at the heart of beijing peking china commissioned in 1406 by the yongle emperor of the ming dynasty it was first officially occupied by the court in 1420 it was so named because access to the area was barred to most of the subjects of the realm. The roof shape of the forbidden city s most important buildings also had significance. The people erected images of the prince on their roofs mounted on a chicken unable to fly down to the ground below and with a son of the chinese dragon called a chīwěn 鸱吻 at his back to prevent. Besides the furniture in these rooms contain number 9 and 5 such as nine dragon screen nine dragon chair eighty one nails on one door roof has five ridges nine mythical animals on one roof ridge the nine dragon screen consists of 270 blocks and the forbidden city has 999 5 rooms etc.

They can be seen in front of palaces on the eave ridges and stone terraces. Mythical animals on the roof. There are not a few mythical animals in forbidden city including dragon phoenix lion elephant turtle qilin xiezhi and so on. Ceramic animals on the roof.

The forbidden city occupies 720 000 sq m 7 750 000 sq ft over three times larger than the louvre palace in france. These are often made of glazed ceramic and form an outward marching procession. Multiple gables with decorations. Yellow was the emperor s color.

Yellow tiles and stately roof shapes only the imperial buildings of the forbidden city were permitted to have yellow tiles. These mythical animals are characteristic of chinese architecture among them are a phoenix a lion a celestial horse and a sea horse suanni the dragon lion the dragon kiss yayu the dragon fish douniu the bull and xingshi the monkey. One of the most beautiful parts of the forbidden city s architecture is its roofs and their eaves. Yán shòu or walking beasts 走獸 走兽.

Animal decorations on the eaves. Imperial roof decoration of a minor building at the forbidden city. It has more than 90 palace quarters and courtyards 980 buildings and over 8 728 rooms. Chinese imperial roof decorations or roof charms or roof figures 檐獸 檐兽.

Dūn shòu were statuettes placed along the ridge line of official buildings of the chinese empire.