The Forbidden City, built between 1406 and 1420, is described on the website of UNESCO as embodying ‘the traditional characteristic of urban planning and palace construction in ancient China’....Show moreThe Forbidden City, built between 1406 and 1420, is described on the website of UNESCO as embodying ‘the traditional characteristic of urban planning and palace construction in ancient China’. Religious, philosophical and ideological symbolism abound in the Forbidden City, from the representation of cosmology in the assignment of halls and palaces according to the concept of yin and yang, to the nine by nine grids of door bolts on the gates, the Chinese pronunciation of ‘nine’ being a homonym of ‘everlasting’. What this thesis attempts to do is rebuild the ideological identity of the early Ming dynasty as it is expressed in the Forbidden City architecture through texts and images, and to see whose identity is being expressed.Show less
