Tiananmen

Overview

Tiananmen, literally "Gate of Heavenly Peace," is a famous gate located in the center of Beijing, China. It is situated at the northern end of Tiananmen Square, one of the largest public squares in the world. Tiananmen has served as the main entrance to the Forbidden City, the imperial palace of China's emperors, and has witnessed numerous significant historical events throughout Chinese history. The gate is an iconic symbol of China and represents the transition from traditional imperial China to modern China.

History

Yuan Dynasty

Throughout China's thousands of years of civilization, eight dynasties established their capitals in Beijing: Yan, Former Yan, Great Yan, Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing. Each dynasty constructed distinctive ancient buildings in Beijing, but it was the Yuan Dynasty that had the earliest indirect influence on the construction of Tiananmen.

In 1267, Kublai Khan built Dadu, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty. The south gate of the Dadu Imperial City was called Lingxing Gate, located in the area of today's Wumen Gate. Between Lingxing Gate and Lizheng Gate, there was a "T"-shaped semi-enclosed imperial square. Later, the Ming and Qing Dynasties basically followed this site for their imperial square and built Tiananmen in the middle.

Ming Dynasty

In 1368, the Ming Dynasty was established with Zhu Yuanzhang as its founder (Emperor Hongwu). Dadu was renamed "Beiping" (Northern Peace). The Ming rulers demolished the Yuan Dynasty's imperial palace to eliminate the "aura of the previous dynasty." Later, Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, became emperor and renamed Beiping to "Beijing" (Northern Capital) in 1403.

In 1406, Emperor Chengzu of Ming dispatched officials to supervise the collection of timber and bricks, and mobilized craftsmen, soldiers, and civilians to begin preparatory work for constructing Beijing. In 1417, large-scale construction of Beijing officially began, and Kuai Xiang was selected to enter the capital and became the main designer of Tiananmen.

In 1420, Chengtian Gate was completed. This gate was an important structure in the Imperial City, completely imitating the Chengtian Gate in Nanjing. It served as the main gate to the Forbidden City and was the earliest version of Tiananmen. Its shape was similar to the later Tiananmen, but its scale was smaller, consisting of a three-story wooden archway with yellow tiles and flying eaves, vermilion paint, and golden nails.

In 1457, the gate was destroyed by fire after being struck by lightning. In 1465, it was rebuilt under the supervision of Minister of Works Bai Gui, designed and led by Kuai Xiang.

In 1644, Li Zicheng entered Beijing and burned the nine city gates of Beijing. The upper part of Chengtian Gate was completely destroyed, leaving only five gate openings.

Qing Dynasty

In 1644, after deciding to make Beijing its capital, the Qing Dynasty immediately began repairing the Beijing palaces. The Qing rulers placed special emphasis on strategies of "peace" and "harmony" to ensure the "long-term stability" of their rule. In addition to other measures, they also made significant changes to the names of the city gates.

In 1651, Emperor Shizu of Qing (Aixinjueluo Fulin) ordered large-scale reconstruction on the ruins of Chengtian Gate, rebuilding it according to its original appearance from the Ming Dynasty. The plaque on the gate was inscribed in three languages, directly translated from Manchu as "Gate of Heavenly Peace." Later, the plaque was changed to two languages, Manchu and Chinese, with the Chinese characters in regular script reading "Tiananmen" (天安门), meaning "to receive the mandate of heaven and govern the country with peace."

In 1688, Emperor Kangxi ordered large-scale repairs and expansions of Tiananmen, basically maintaining the form of the reconstruction during Shunzhi's reign. White marble railings and panels were added around the base of the Tiananmen tower, carved with patterns of lotus vases and other designs.

In 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, looting and bombarding Tiananmen.

Republic of China

After the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty, the Forbidden City and Tiananmen were taken over by the Beiyang Government. The plaque on the gate retained only Chinese characters, changing from two languages (Manchu and Chinese) to one language (Chinese).

After 1912, the thresholds of Chang'an Left Gate and Chang'an Right Gate were successively removed. The eastern and western Qianbulang corridors within Zhonghua Gate, the eastern and western three gates, the palace walls on both sides, the eastern and western Gongsheng Gates and their adjacent imperial city walls were all demolished. This not only opened up east-west passages in front of Tiananmen, making Chang'an Street a thoroughfare running east-west, but also created a "T"-shaped square in front of Tiananmen.

People's Republic of China

From August 9-14, 1949, to prepare for the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China, the First Session of the Beiping Municipal People's Representatives Conference unanimously decided to renovate Tiananmen and Tiananmen Square. The Beiping Municipal Department removed accumulated pigeon droppings, weeds and other dirt from the Tiananmen tower over the years, and made simple repairs to damaged bricks, tiles, doors and windows.

On October 1, 1949, Mao Zongdong (Mao Zedong) solemnly proclaimed from the Tiananmen tower: "The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China was established today!"

In 1952, the Fourth First Session of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress decided to carry out more comprehensive repairs to the Tiananmen tower. In June of the same year, the renovation work began. The main work included replacing damaged doors and windows and some rotten beams, repainting the roof beams and ceiling caissons, and removing three unexploded cannon shells from the wooden beam on the west side of the tower. 1318 border lights were added to the roof of the tower's main hall, and a toilet was built on each side of the tower, with an elevator added at the entrance of the northwest corner platform.

In 1956, the northeast corner wing and cracked, dislodged corner beams of the Tiananmen tower were repaired, and the parapet handrails were extended. To ensure the absolute safety of Tiananmen, from August to September 1957, relevant departments installed lightning protection facilities around the top after a comprehensive inspection of the tower's lightning protection project.

In April 1966, Xingtai earthquake occurred, and the strong earthquake waves affected Beijing, causing more damage and deformation to the tower. As the Tiananmen tower was a place where central leaders often visited, the management authorities were very concerned. Beijing Municipal Government repeatedly reported to the central government orally or in writing, requesting to rebuild Tiananmen, but there was no clear reply from the high-level authorities for a long time.

In early March 1968, Beijing Municipal Government specially mobilized 14 technical cadres and veteran workers to form an inspection team to conduct a comprehensive "health check" on the tower for nearly half a month to ensure the building safety of the Tiananmen tower for the May Day Festival that year. The inspection results showed that among the middle hall's golden pillars, one pillar was completely rotten, and another was half rotten. Six of the eight five-frame beams that bear the roof load had broken. In addition, there were numerous other deformations and decay. Beijing Municipal Government decided to adopt a thorough solution. They quickly sent the inspection report and more than a dozen on-site photos of the tower to the high-level authorities. After seeing the materials, several central leaders realized the seriousness of the problem and agreed to rebuild, selecting the third of the three proposed plans, which was to completely demolish the existing gatehouse and red wall base and rebuild it on the original site with reinforced concrete structure.

Beijing Municipal Government planned to start construction after the National Day in 1968 and immediately began preparations in all aspects. However, some large wooden columns imported from abroad could not be supplied that year. The lack of materials in key parts forced the reconstruction project to be postponed, so it was not until after the National Day in 1969 that the reconstruction project could be restarted.

From December 15, 1969, to before May 1, 1970, Tiananmen underwent large-scale reconstruction. The Tiananmen tower was originally of wooden structure, and many parts had problems and safety hazards. The State Council and Beijing Municipal Committee decided to demolish the old tower and rebuild it according to the original scale and architectural style. After reconstruction, the total height of Tiananmen was 34.7 meters, 83 centimeters higher than before, basically maintaining the form built in the eighth year of Shunzhi's reign (1651). However, during this reconstruction, the "dragon pattern" on the yellow glazed drip edges and tile ends was changed to "sunflower pattern," and the original large-spot gold rotating color painting was changed to golden dragon and seal color painting.

In 1980, a major renovation of the Tiananmen tower was carried out according to the design requirements of 9-level seismic resistance.

In 1984, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the National Day, the Tiananmen tower was repainted and redecorated. The color paintings in the tower's hall were changed to "dragon grass and seal" and "round dragon ceiling" paintings. The external eaves color paintings changed the "lotus" painted during the Cultural Revolution to "golden dragon and seal" color paintings. In the same year, relevant technical departments conducted key inspection and remote measurement of the tower's lightning protection facilities, added lightning protection downleads, and considering the many electrical lines such as colored lights, broadcast news, and movies on the tower roof, the colored light cable lines were taken separately, led out from the top of the roof, and lightning arresters were installed.

On January 1, 1988, it was opened to the public.

In 1991, 238 sets of立面泛光照明设备 (facade floodlighting equipment) were installed on the Tiananmen tower.

In 1992, to celebrate the successful convening of the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, 14 radiating light beams were installed on the tower.

In 1994, to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Tiananmen and the red palace walls on both sides were extensively repaired and repainted. New-style large red lanterns replaced the old ones, and the tower's carpets and murals in the hall were replaced. The red lacquered wooden columns and diamond lattice windows in the hall were all oiled and decorated.

In 2009, the Tiananmen tower underwent renovations to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China. This renovation project mainly focused on repainting and redecorating beams, columns, roofs and other parts.

Before the National Day in 2011, Tiananmen underwent routine enclosure construction. Through the construction, workers checked whether the main part of the Tiananmen tower had cracks, water leakage and other problems, and then made repairs. In addition, the exterior walls of the Tiananmen tower and the east and west red walls were repainted.

In 2012, to welcome the National Day and the convening of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the red walls of the Tiananmen tower were repainted.

From May 2 to June 6, 2013, with the approval of the Beijing Municipal People's Government, the Tiananmen Area Management Committee implemented a "glazed tile roof weeding, clearing and maintenance project" on the Tiananmen tower. The courtyard ground was paved and transformed to solve problems of anti-slip and damage.

On June 12, 2018, the renovation plan for the Tiananmen tower and platform was approved by the National Cultural Heritage Administration, and the formal construction began on June 15, 2018. It was expected to reopen by the end of April 2019 and be fully completed by the end of May.

On June 13, 2023, the Tiananmen tower reopened to the public, requiring real-name reservation one day in advance.

Key Information

Cultural Significance

Tiananmen has profound cultural significance in Chinese history. As the main entrance to the Forbidden City, it symbolized the transition between the common world and the imperial realm, representing the power and authority of the emperor. The name "Tiananmen" (Gate of Heavenly Peace) reflects the traditional Chinese belief that heaven's mandate is essential for a peaceful and prosperous nation.

The gate has been the backdrop for numerous significant historical events. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, emperors would pass through Tiananmen when departing for important ceremonies or returning from imperial sacrifices. The gate's architectural features, including its nine-bay width and five-bay depth, reflect the imperial symbolism of "nine" (the highest single-digit number) and "five" (the center of numbers), representing the emperor's supreme authority.

Modern Status

Today, Tiananmen remains one of China's most important national symbols and a major tourist attraction. The gate continues to be used for state ceremonies and official functions. The portrait of Mao Zedong that hangs above the central gate opening has become an iconic image, symbolizing the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The gate undergoes regular maintenance and renovation to preserve its historical integrity. In recent years, modern facilities such as elevators have been added to improve accessibility while maintaining the traditional appearance. Tiananmen is carefully managed to balance its role as a historical monument with its function in contemporary Chinese political and cultural life.

References

1. Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman. "Chinese Imperial City Planning." University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

2. Spence, Jonathan D. "The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895-1980." Viking Press, 1981.

3. Wang, Daocong. "The Forbidden City: Center of Imperial Power." Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2005.

4. Clunas, Craig. "Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China." University of Hawaii Press, 2004.