With 98 buildings to make up a combined 1,614,600 square feet, the Forbidden City is often considered the world's largest palace. Since the reign of the last emperor of China, Puyi, the Forbidden City has served as the Palace Museum. Prior to its conversion to a museum, the palace housed the extended imperial family and its servants.
The entire layout of the palace was designed to follow Confucian ideology and simultaneously reinforced hierarchy within the palace walls. For example, the structure of each building followed the instructions of Yingzao fashi, an eleventh-century manual detailing appropriate building designs to correspond with each social rank. Furthermore, the Forbidden City is divided into an inner and outer court, or the northern and southern halves respectively. This division drew distinct lines between the public and private spheres, and, consequently, male and female life. The outer court belonged to the realm of state affairs, including imperial receptions and religious rituals, so only men were allowed to access it.
The inner court was reserved for the imperial family. It is made up of three main palaces: the emperor's Palace of Heavenly Purity, the empress’s Palace of Earthly Tranquility, with The Hall of Celestial and Terrestrial Union lying in between. A total of six identical, walled palace compounds line either side of these three major palaces, with three on each side to form the shape of K'un “☷." In ancient Chinese philosophy, K'un symbolizes mother and earth. In the context of the inner court, K'un serves as a reminder of the expected roles of women occupying the palace. However, during her reign, the empress dowager Cixi renovated the Palace of Eternal Spring and the Palace of Gathered Elegance, thus reducing the original six palace compounds into four. This renovation metaphorically implied the lessened control of Chinese patriarchal authority at the time.
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