Tribute to a 600-year-old history book

THE YEAR 2020 MARKS THE 600TH ANNIVERSARY of the Palace Museum, which served as a palace for the Ming and Qing dynasty rulers. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang takes us through a brief tour of its 600-year history:

In 1406, Zhu Di, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), ordered the construction of a royal palace in Beijing, his new capital. Fourteen years later, the palace was ready.

After Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), abdicated in 1912 and moved out of the palace in 1925, the palace was opened to the public and came to be called the Palace Museum (Forbidden City).

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Palace Museum underwent repairs. Each brick of the museum, spread across 720,000 square meters, thus echoes the history of 600 years. Even a blink-and-you-miss red tile on the roof has been witness to major events.

The Palace Museum is like a history book, replete with both sweet and bitter pages. Every invasion left its indelible mark on it. In 1860, Beijing was occupied by the Anglo-French expeditionary army; in 1900, it was again occupied by the joint forces of eight imperialist countries.

The Palace Museum's biggest dome came crashing down in 1937, when it was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army. During the eight years it was occupied, there is historical evidence to show the Japanese army pillaged more than a ton of copper items from the palace to make bullets and cannons.

In the civil war that followed, Beijing was liberated, sparing the Palace Museum further damage.

Today, the Palace Museum is one of the busiest museums, and displays more than 1.8 million antiques, and receives some 17 million visitors every year.