Renovation of the Forbidden City
By YANG RUICHUN

Bernardo Bertolucci's film, The Last Emperor, drew its Western audience into a mystic, grandiose, oriental palace that was the Forbidden City, leaving them awestruck at the portrayed image of life as it had been within its confines. Since opening to the public, the imperial palace has maintained its status as one of the most frequented tourist destinations. Its legacy, as site of the rule and residency of 24 Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasty emperors over a period of some 500 years, and the splendid heritage of Chinese history and culture it represents, has been a consistent and compelling source of fascination.

The largest extant ancient imperial palace, the Forbidden City continues to attract large numbers of visitors. In 2001 alone, eight million tourists, domestic and overseas, went to see the Palace Museum, as it is now known.

In late March 2002 overall refurbishment of the imperial palace was formally launched. "This project is expected to bring about a significant change to the Palace Museum by 2008," Jin Hongkui, deputy director of the Cultural Relics Protection Department under the State Cultural Relics Bureau, stated. "Visitors will then see a splendid complex of ancient buildings that look neither worn-out nor brand-new."

One aspect of this colossal renovation project is the plan to construct an underground exhibition hall, where the one million artifacts currently kept in palace underground storage vaults will go on display. This plan is a source of controversy among archaeologists and experts on ancient architecture. They dispute the validity of an underground exhibition hall, and have expressed deep concern that it might cause damage to the original layout and distinctive features of the palace. They demand a higher degree of protection for this priceless facet of human heritage.

A Plan Shelved for Five Years

The plan for an underground exhibition hall was first conceived in 1994. It was to be located beneath the present Shangsi Courtyard, near Donghua Gate, the eastern entrance to the Forbidden City.

This courtyard was once site of the imperial stables. Today, apart from a screen wall, nothing remains of the original ground-level structures, making it the largest area within the imperial palace available for development. In 1998 the palace administration commissioned the Beijing Reconnaissance, Research and Design Institute to conduct a survey of the site. The survey reported: "The earth on this site is evenly layered, solid, and capable of withstanding great weight. No untoward geological traits have been found. Construction on this site will least affect the foundations of nearby ancient structures."

The objective of the exhibition hall is to resolve the double-edged requirement of protecting and exhibiting cultural relics - one that has long plagued the palace administrator. The palace contains a collection of nearly one million cultural relics, yet only one percent of them is on exhibit. The majority of artifacts are stored away in a cellar.

Past and current administrators of the imperial palace have all suffered the same headache -- that palace conditions are ill suited to exhibiting ancient relics. The protection and exhibition of ancient architecture and cultural relics each carries its own specific requirements. Installation of a fire- and burglar-prevention system, and modern exhibition equipment that maintains a constant temperature and level of humidity within the palace's ancient wooden halls, is no easy matter. Some exhibits, such as silk and paintings, which are easily damaged by ultra violet rays, require precisely controlled exhibition conditions. Paintings and calligraphic works can normally be displayed for no longer than 30 days, as many ancient upholstery items, such as curtains, bedding, and chair covers in the palace halls, have faded badly as a result of exposure to sunshine.

In an effort to solve this problem, cultural relic experts have suggested the construction of a museum especially to house the palace's precious collection. As current conditions do not permit construction at ground level, an underground exhibition hall seems the most rational solution. On being interviewed in 1998, Tan Bin, vice president of the Palace Museum, stated that it was only by opening a modern exhibition hall that the original features of the Forbidden City could be both preserved and exhibited. If this plan could be accomplished, the Palace Museum, he declared, "...will be able to remold itself, allowing this museum of some 70 years' standing finally to rank with top-class modern museums of the world."

At one international conference, Ieoh Ming Pei, designer of the Palais du Louvre underground exhibition hall, remarked to a Palace Museum relics expert that sooner or later the Palace Museum would have to follow the example of Le Grand Louvre.

Although the concept of an underground exhibition hall seemed to many a reasonable solution, the plan was not implemented in 1998, but shelved.

Pros and Cons

It is reported that the shelving of the plan was the result of objections from cultural relic protection experts and architects, both outside and within the Palace Museum. The main argument was that the plan would affect the original structure of the imperial palace, and might also damage ground level structures. "The original structure of the imperial palace should be preserved in its entirety," insisted a veteran Palace Museum expert, who would prefer to remain anonymous.

One important consideration when planning the construction of an underground hall is that of keeping ground-level structures intact. According to this anonymous expert, however, such a project would be bound to cause damage. This would not necessarily be perceptible at ground level, but would inevitably cause overall structural alteration.

In the view of many cultural relic experts, the site of the palace itself constitutes a part of this cultural relic, and so also merits protection. Any earth works on the site must therefore be reversible. Wang Shiren, former president of the Beijing Ancient Architecture Research Institute, is of the opinion that any new exhibition hall should be built above ground, using light materials, so that when not in use, it may be dismantled with ease, and the site restored to its original state. He points out that an underground hall is, for better or worse, entirely irreversible.

There are, however, others that doubt underground construction at the Shangsi Courtyard will actually affect these ancient buildings, as the courtyard is now almost flat, and quite a distance from other palace buildings. Wang Shiren, Fu Qingyuan, chief engineer of the China Cultural Relics Research Institute, and several other ancient architecture experts maintain that the imperial palace foundations comprise a complete structure of rammed earth and wall bricks that provides strong support for the entire palace structure above ground. That the imperial palace has survived earthquakes, during which none of its buildings ever collapsed, is largely attributed to its foundations.

Li Xuewen, a renowned expert on ancient architecture, elaborates on the underground brickwork of the palace in his book The Purple Forbidden City. As it was being built, Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty had a deep ditch dug around the palace, in order to prevent enemies from digging tunnels through to it. Bricks fired in Shandong's Linqing were used to fill in this ditch, and lapped in block bond. Finally, cement made from glutinous rice porridge and lime water was poured over, sealing the brick work into a whole.

The late Shan Shiyuan, ancient architecture expert, once compared the imperial palace to a piece of jade, saying that any alteration would inevitably damage its entirety.

Other experts disagree. Zhang Kegui, director of the Ancient Architecture Department of the Palace Museum, holds that the traditional view of the foundation of the palace being a whole structure is not accurate. Reconnaissance has shown that the foundation of a particular structure, or a group of structures, is in conformity with the structure, or structures, concerned. The foundation layout of the palace, therefore, varies according to its different buildings, as does its load capacity.

The latest information from the Palace Museum is that the underground exhibition hall "will in no way affect" nearby buildings. The launching of the renovation project last March has apparently demonstrated that this assertion has prevailed over that of 1998 that "construction at the site will least affect the foundations of nearby ancient structures."

Renovation has now begun in earnest. Disagreement still exists, and worries linger as to whether or not, after renovation, the palace will retain its original look and ethos. The projected description of a new Palace Museum by an official from the State Cultural Relics Bureau is, however, optimistic: "The new Palace Museum will be of an appearance that concurs as completely as possible with the original appearance of its palace halls and buildings. Visitors will be able not only to admire the magnificent ancient architecture and gorgeous imperial collection, but also to see how the imperial dynasty operated, and what life was like inside and outside the court. The Palace Museum will no longer be simply a relic specimen, but an organic cultural entity." (Source: China Today)

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