“故宮”中英雙語導游詞（完整版）

When you look up the building in the Forbidden City, you can see mythical animal statues on the eaves of each building. Originally, there used to be big wooden nails on the roof to prevent the tiles from sliding down. Later they were replaced by glazed tiles, which were shaped into mythical animal statues for better beautification. They are symbols of auspiciousness and peace, and people believed that they are capable of subduing fire and warding off evil spirits.

Inside of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, you can see the gilded caisson ceiling high above the throne with a magnificent sculpture of a curling dragon playing with a huge pear was called “Xuanyuan Jing”， representing orthodox succession.

This hall is supported by 72 giant columns inside. In the old days, the traditional way of the Chinese to calculate a “room” is that: a square enclosed by four pillars was treated as one “room”， so the hall can be said to have 55 “rooms” in total. The six columns inside are gilded and painted with coiled dragon amidst clouds, and the rest are painted red.

The emperor's throne is placed on the dais in the center, and carved in cloud and dragon patterns and gilded. On both sides of the throne are a pair of elephant-shaped incense burners symbolize universal peace and two incense burners shaped as a mythical animal 9,000 kilometers per day and speaking all the languages of nearby kingdoms. Around the throne stand a pair of bronze cranes and in front of the dais is four cloisonné incense burners. The floor on the ground is paved with “Gold Bricks”， specially made in Suzhou.

The Hall of Middle Harmony is a square-shaped hall with a single pyramidic roof standing behind the Hall of Supreme Harmony. This was the place where the emperor would take a short rest before he went to the Hall of Supreme Harmony for grand ceremonies. Every year before the emperor went to the Altars and Temples, the emperor would receive and read the sacrificial address here.

Before the emperor went to the Altar of Agriculture for offering the sacrifice, the seeds intended for spring sowing and the ploughs were examined here, just to show the concern of the emperor for agriculture.

According to the rule, the imperial genealogy should be revised every ten years. The ceremony of presenting the genealogy to the emperor for revision and approval would also be held here.

Now, we come to the Hall of Preserving Harmony, the last of the three front halls.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, on each New Year's Eve and the 15th day of the lunar moth, banquets would be held to entertain the civil and military officials and the princes and envoys of the Mongolian nobles and other nationalities. To celebrate the princess's marriage, the emperor would incite the bridegroom and his father as well as their relatives who served for the imperial government to a banquet.

The Imperial Palace Exam was held here once every three years in the Qing dynasty.

Just behind the Hall of Preserving Harmony, there is a big Marble Rampcarved with mountain cliffs, sea waves, clouds and nine dragons. It is 16.57 meters long, 3.07 meters wide and 1.7 meters thick, and weighs about 250 tons.

題三：后廷中路(乾清門至神武門)

The Gate of Heavenly Purity, where emperors from Kangxi to Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty sat on the throne hearing reports and making decisions, is the main gate of the Inner Court.

In front of the Palace of Heavenly there is a small miniature gilded pavilion standing on the east is called Jiangshan Pavilion, representing the integrity of the country; the one on the west is called Sheji Pavilion , the God of Land and Grain, a symbol of bumper harvest in agriculture.

The first of the three back palaces, the Palace of Heavenly Purity was where the 14 emperors of the Ming and the first two emperors of the Qing Dynasties lived and handle the daily affairs. It was used as an audience chamber for receiving envoys from vassal states who presented their tributes to the emperor. Here was also the place for holding the mourning service for the deceased emperor. The famous “banquet of thousand aged people” was held twice here in the Qing Dynasty. The three famous events took place here. They are “the red pill” event, the “palace coup in 1542” and the event of “moving from this palace.”

The plaque inscribed by the first Qing Emperor Shunzhi, hangs over the throne in the palace and reads, “Be Open and Aboveboard.” It enumerates with modesty, the qualities an ideal Son of Heaven should possess. Beginning in the Qianlong's reign, for reasons of security the name of the successor to the throne was not announced publicly, as it had been preciously, but was written instead on two pieces of paper, one kept on the emperor's person throughout his reign, and the other placed in a small box that was stored behind this plaque. The box was opened only when the emperor passed away.

The Palace of Union and Peace was the place where the empress held the important ceremonies and her birthday celebration. The empress usually received greetings from the concubines, concubines, princes and princesses on her birthday celebration.

In the Qing Dynasty, the ceremony for examining the tools of picking mulberry was held here one day before the empress went out to offer the sacrifices on the altar for silkworm in spring.

In 1748, Emperor Qianlong kept twenty-five imperial seals in this hall, symbolizing the imperial power of the emperor. Twenty-five was regarded as a heavenly number for the reason of that: if we plus the total odd numbers of one, three, five, seven and nine together, that is twenty-five which means the imperial authority from the heaven and also indicates the Qing dynasty could rule the country for at least twenty-five generations.

The Water Clock is placed on the west side of this building. It is a time-measure, made by the manufacturing office of the Qing Dynasty based on the Western mechanic theory. On the west of this building, there is a 5.6-meter-high large western chiming clock.

There is a plaque hung in the center of this hall, with two Chinese characters “Wu Wei” inscribed on it.

The palace of Earthly Tranquility was used as the residence for the empresses during the Ming and early Qing dynasties. During the Qing dynasty, the western chamber became the wedding chamber for the emperor.

The Imperial Garden is located on the north-south axis almost at the north-south axis almost at the northern end of the Forbidden City. It is rectangular in shape, 90 meters long from north to south and 130 meters wide from east to west, with an area of over 11, 700 square meters.

The Hall of Imperial Peace is the main building in the Imperial Garden and also the only religious building built along the central axis. It is a Taoist temple and inside the hall the statue of the King of Xuan Wu used to be enshrined.

There are four pavilions built on left and right of the Hall of Imperial peace, two on each side, representing the four seasons of the year. Near the north gate in the Imperial Garden, the Imperial View Pavilion stands on an artificial hill of rocks. The rockery is called “Collecting Elegance Hill”。 In the old days, the emperor would climb up the hills to celebrate the Double Ninth Festival every year in this way.

題四：故宮后廷外東路(寧壽全宮)

In the Outer Eastern Palaces there is a group of buildings called the Whole Palace of Tranquil Longevity. In the Qing Dynasty, they were the living quarters for Emperor Qianlong after his abdication. Emperor Qianlong was the 4th emperor of the Qing Dynasty. He was the only emperor who decided to abdicate after he ruled the country for 60 years. He offered the power to his son, who was 37 already. This place was originally built for the retired emperor Qianlong to live, but later Empress Dowager Cixi lived here before and after her 60th birthday.

This group of building in the Outer Eastern Palaces is independent of the other parts of the Forbidden City. But actually it is a miniature Imperial Palace. The general plan for the buildings here was exactly the same as the buildings on the central axis. The main buildings in The Whole Palaces of Tranquil Longevity, from south to north are the Hall of Imperial Supremacy(皇極殿)，the Palace of Tranquil Longevity(寧壽宮)，the Hall for Cultivating Character(養(yǎng)心殿)，the Hall of Joyful Longevity(樂壽堂) and the Pavilion of Sustained Harmony(頤和軒)。 Emperor Qianlong's Garden which served as the imperial Garden, is located on the east. Now these halls served as the Exhibition of Treasures.

The Exhibition of Treasures(珍寶閣)

The Exhibition of Treasures is located at the Outer Eastern Palaces of the Forbidden City. Although there were 2,972 boxes of treasures shipped to Taiwan before 1949, there are still countless and priceless treasures of the imperial family on display here. Most of the collections here are the cultural relics that used to be in the imperial court of the Qing Dynasty. The main treasures on display are: the imperial seals, ritual musical instruments, jewelry of the empress and imperial concubines, gold, peals, gems, ivory, coral, agate, textiles and embroideries, articles for everyday use. These treasures represent the high artistic skill of Chinese handicrafts as well as the luxurious life of the imperial family.

Now I would like to in traduce some treasures for you. First one is the Gold Pagoda. Gold Pagoda is a Tibetan style pagoda, which is 147 centimeter high and made of gold of more than 100 kilos in weigh. The whole pagoda was used to keep the remains of Qing Emperor Qianlong's mother's fallen combed hair. It was made by Emperor Qianlong who wanted to commemorate his deceased mother.

Second, the Jade Carving of Dayu Harnessing Floods(大禹治水玉山)

This big piece of jade carving is named “Dayu Harnessing Floods”。 Dayu was a great leader of the Xia Dynasty. On the surface of this piece of jade carving, there are figurines doing manual labor with tools. It is 2.24 meters high and weighs about 5tons. This huge piece of jade was quarried in Xinjing, northwest of china. It was first transported to Beijing and then shopped to Yangzhou, south of China, for carving. The whole process took 10 years altogether for mining, transporting and carving. It is the largest piece of jade carving in China today.

Third, Ivory Mat(象牙席)：

The ivory mat is really a rare treasure on display in the Exhibition of Treasures. It is 2.16meters long,1.39 meters wide, and woven with tiny piece of ivory filaments. After being softened in some kind of chemical agents, the tusk, was peeled into filaments of less than 3 milimeter thick, thus demonstrating the high artistic level of historic Chinese handicrafts. Five ivory mats were made during the Qing emperor Yongzheng's reign, but only three of them have remained till today.