北京故宮英文導(dǎo)游辭

　　(In front of the hall f Preserving Harmony)

　　this is the Hall of Preserving Harmony. During the Qing Dynasty, banquets were held here on New Year` s eve in honour of Mongolian and Northwestern China` s xingjiang princes and ranking officials. The Emperor also dinned here with his new son-in-law on the wedding day. Imperial examinations were also held here once every three years. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were three levels of exams: the county and prefectural level, the provincial level and national level. The national exam was presided over by the emperor. The civil service exam in ancient China started during the Han Dynasty. It served the purpose of recruiting Confucian scholars to the ministers and high officials. During the Tang and Qing dynasties reinstituted and ancient system. Once every three years, three hundred scholars from all over the country came to Beijing and took exams for three day and night. This system was abolished in 1905.

　　(Behind the hall of preserving harmony)

　　this is the largest stone carving in the palace . It is 16.73 meters long, 3.07 meters wide and 1.7 meters thick .It weighs about 200 tons. The block was quarried in Fangshan County, roughly 70 kilometers away. To transport such a huge block to Beijing, laborers dug wells along the roadside half a kilometer apart, and used the groundwater to make a road of ice in the winter. Rolling blocks were used in the summer. In 1760, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty ordered the carving of the existing cloud and dragon design in place of the old one which dated back to the Ming Dynasty.

　　Note : From here, the tour can be conducted via three different routes: a western route(Route A), a central route (Route B) or an eastern route (Route C) .The commentary for each follows.

　　Route A

　　Ladies and Gentlemen:

　　You have seen the three main halls of the Forbidden City. Now I ` d like to show you around the hall of mental cultivation and the imperial garden . The hall of mental cultivation is situated is in the western part of the innermost enclosure and is symmetrical to Fengxian (enshrinement of forebears) Hall in the east. This hall was built during the Ming Dynasty. IT is a H-shaped structure consisting of an antechamber and a main building .The hall is surrounded by corridors. In front of the hall is the Office of Privy Council.

　　Before Emperor Kangxi of Qing the Dynasty came to power the Hall of Heavenly Purity served as the living quarter of the emperors. Emperor Yongzheng chose to live in this hall and attended to every day state affairs from here .For the sake of protecting cultural relics, this hall is not open to the public .You can have a look at the inside from the door. The central hall was the audience chamber where the emperor read memorials, granted audience to officials and summoned his minsters for consultation. The western chamber of the hall was where the emperor read reports and discussed military and political affairs. The hall consists of many inner rooms and is decorated with images of Buddha and miniature pagodas. On the screen wall there hangs a picture of two emperors in the Han costume. In a southern room there three rare calligraphic scrolls, hence the name of the room “Sanxitang” (Room of Three Rare Treasures) . The room on the eastern side is of historical interst because it was here that Empress Dowager Cixi usurped power and made decisions on behalf of the young emperor . A bamboo curtain was used to separate them .

　　Empress Dowage Cixi was born in 1835 in Lu` an Prefecture of shanxi province. She` s of Manchurian nationality and her father was a provincial governor from south China. When she was 17 years old ,she was selected to become a concubine of Emperor Xianfeng and moved into the Forbidden City. She gave birth to a son when she was 21years old and was made a concubine the following year. When the emperor passed away in the summer of 1861, her son ascended the throne and title of Cixi, meaning “Holy Mother” was conferred upon her and she became the Empress Dowager. In that same year Empress Dowager Cixi carried out a count coup d` etat and ruled behind the scenes with another empress dowager, Ci` an, for 48 years. She passed away in 1908 at the age of 73. It was in reference to this situation that the term “attending to state affairs behind a bamboo curtain” developed .In 1912 , Empress dowager Longyu declared the abdication of the last Qing emperor Puyi. They were allowed to remain in the Forbidden City for the next 13 years .The royal family was forced to move out permanently in 1924.