Tiananmen

Tiananmen , literally the "Gate of Heavenly Peace", is a famous monument in Beijing, the capital of People's Republic of China. It is a widely used national symbol. First built during the Ming Dynasty in 1420, Tiananmen is often referred to as the front entrance to the Forbidden City. However, the Meridian Gate is the first entrance to the Forbidden City proper, while Tiananmen was the entrance to the Imperial City, within which the Forbidden City was located. Tiananmen is located along the northern edge of Tiananmen Square.

History

The gate was originally named Chengtianmen , or "Gate of Accepting ", and it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. The original building was first constructed in 1420 as an exact replica of a gate in the form of paifang of the imperial building in Nanjing with the same name and hence inherited the name Chentianmen. The gate was damaged by lightning in July, 1457, and was completely burnt down. In 1465, Chenghua Emperor ordered Zi Gui , the minister of Engineering Ministry to rebuild the gate, and the design was changed from the original paifang form to the gatehouse that is seen today. It suffered another blow in the war at the end of Ming Dynasty - in 1644 the gate was burnt down by rebels led by Li Zicheng. Following the establishment of the Qing Dynasty and the Manchu conquest of China proper, the gate was once again begun to be rebuilt in 1645 and was given its present name in 1651 when the construction completed six years later. The Tiananmen gate was reconstructed again between 1969-1970. The gate as it stood was by then 500 years old, and had badly deteriorated, partly due to heavy usage in the 1950s-60s. As the gate was a national symbol, then-Premier Zhou Enlai ordered that the rebuilding was to be kept secret. The whole gate was covered in scaffolding, and the project was officially called a "renovation". The rebuilding aimed to leave the gate's external appearance unchanged while making it more resistant to earthquakes and featuring modern facilities such as an elevator, water supply and heating system.

Meaning of name

The name of the gate, Tiān'ānmén 天安門, is made up of the Chinese characters for "heaven," "peace" and "gate" respectively, which is why the name is conventionally translated as "The Gate of Heavenly Peace". However, this translation is somewhat misleading, since the Chinese name is derived from the much longer phrase "receiving the mandate from heaven, and stabilizing the dynasty." . The name of the gate, ''Abkai elhe obure duka'', lies closer to the original meaning of the gate and can be literally translated as the "Gate of Heavenly Peacemaking." The gate has a counterpart in the northern end of the imperial city, Dì'ānmén 地安门 , which may be roughly translated as the "Gate of Earthly Peacemaking".

Description

The building is 66 meters long, 37 meters wide and 32 meters high. Like other official buildings of the empire, the gate has unique imperial roof decorations.

In front of the gate are two lions standing in front of the gate and two more guarding the bridges. In Chinese culture, lions are believed to protect humans from evil spirits.

Two stone columns, called ''huabi?o'' - each with an animal on top of it - also stand in front of the gate. Originally, these installations were designed for commoners to address their grievances by writing or sticking up petitions on the columns. However, the examples in front of the Imperial City were purely decorative and instead connoted the majesty of the imperial government.

Because of the gate's position at the front of the Imperial City, and historical events that have taken place on , the gate has great political significance. In the 20th Century this means the gate has frequently been decorated with portraits of objects of veneration. In the early years of the People's Republic, on special occasions the gate was hung with portraits of Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong, , , , and , with pride of place reserved for Sun Yat-sen.

Since the death of Mao in 1976, the central gate has had a portrait of Mao Zedong towering over it, while the western and eastern walls have had giant placards; the left one reads "Long Live the People's Republic of China" , while the right one reads "Long live the Great Unity of the World's Peoples" . The right placard used to read "Long Live the Central People's Government" , and both placards are written in simplified Chinese instead of traditional Chinese characters. The phrasing has significant symbolic meaning, as the , like the palace itself, was traditionally reserved for Emperors of China, but is now available to the common people.

The reviewing stands in the foreground are used on International Workers Day and on the National Day of the People's Republic of China.

In front of the stands is the palace moat, still filled with water but now containing decorative illuminated fountains.

In ancient times, the Tian'anmen is the third gate encountered when entering Beijing. After the Qianmen, the , stands the Tian'anmen. Proceeding further inward, the next gate is the 'Upright Gate' , identical in design to the Tian'anmen; behind it is the southern entrance of the Forbidden City itself, known as the Meridian Gate.

The Tian'anmen is featured on the emblem of the People's Republic of China.