Prince Gong’s Mansion is known as the most luxurious mansion in China. Where is the glory?
Its first owner was Xiao Shenyang, who was known as the "first corrupt official in the Qing Dynasty". A "Ji Xiaolan" made the whole country remember the name of this corrupt official Xiao Shenyang. At that time, he was alone and there were more than 10,000 people.
Gong invited a group photo on the platform
Prince Gong’s Mansion is located on Qianhai West Street, Shichahai, Beijing. This is a magnificent multi-courtyard with a red painted door inlaid with golden studs symbolizing the prince's identity.
The palaces of the Qing Dynasty were basically built around the imperial palace, concentrated in the Shichahai area, and Prince Gong’s Mansion is the best-preserved palace of the Qing Dynasty and the one closest to the imperial capital. It takes less than 5 minutes to ride a horse from the east gate of Wang Mi to the north gate of the imperial city.
After the palace palace was built, from Qianlong to the Seven Emperors, historians say that there is only one Prince Gong’s Palace, which contains half of the history of the Qing Dynasty.
The entrance to Prince Gong’s Mansion
Since the palace was built, it has been in the same layout as today, and the layout is basically the same as that of the Prince’s Mansion. It is divided into three roads: east road, west road and middle road. The east and west roads are for residences and the middle road is for ceremonies.
After Emperor Jiaqing defeated Xiao Shenyang, he was sentenced to 20 death sentences, one of which was a luxurious golden nanmu house.
Golden nanmu is used in places where small Shenyang residences exceed the system. As far as the courtyard of Fuxi Road-Xijinzhai is concerned, its platform is two feet eight inches high and has seven halls, which have been prescribed by the prince (the maximum number of royal halls is nine).
There are two fairy buildings on each of the east, west and north sides of the main hall, all separated by golden nanmu partitions. The window panes on the partition are cut out with extremely thin blue silk, and the skirt is inlaid with exquisite carvings. This kind of decoration can only be used by the royal family.
The layout of this fairy tower is exactly the same as that of Ningshou Palace in the Forbidden City.
Photo of the west gate of the garden of Prince Gong's Mansion
The third owner: Prince Gong rebuilt the palace
After Prince Gong failed to seize the throne, his official career experienced several ups and downs. He was not reused by Emperor Xianfeng. In 1861, Cixi joined Prince Gong in launching the Xinyou coup, was promoted to the eighth minister, and entered the political stage.
In 1884, Cixi relieved all the duties of providing a small house in the big house, and the small house was replaced by a small building. Originally thinking about the world, he was ready to show off his talents, but he could not escape the life of his most helpless minister. When he was at his most depressed, he rebuilt Wang Mi Garden, where he escaped the hustle and bustle.
Prince Gong’s Mansion Garden covers an area of about 27,000 square meters and is divided into multiple courtyards on East Road, West Road, and Middle Road. The entire garden is surrounded by six mountain dragons, two mountains each in the east, west and south. There is a mountain behind the middle road called the Zhonglong.
This garden was built during the Tongzhi period, integrating Jiangnan gardens and northern architecture, combining Western architecture with Chinese classical gardens. It is the essence of a garden that combines north and south and east and west.
He carefully created more than 40 garden landscapes and personally named the garden "Cui Jin Garden".
Today's Prince Gong's Mansion is a national 5A-level scenic spot, priceless, proving that the Qing Dynasty changed from prosperity to decline. Now ordinary people can get a glimpse of its style