Duanmen Gate and Ritual System

In his poem "The Pardon at Duanmen", Guo Xiangzheng, a poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote: "The purple air of Duanmen is thick, and the curtains are rolled up to let out the gentle breeze of orchid musk. The stars surround the emperor's throne, and the sky is clear and blue, and the umbrella reflects the dragon's face in the sun." It can be seen that Duanmen is a symbolic image of the emperor's palace, and it also symbolizes an important dividing line between the inside and outside of the palace. In the eyes of the people, Duanmen is the external symbol of the imperial palace, which also implies its inherent ritual attributes as a building outside the imperial city. Duanmen is located between Tiananmen and the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City. It, together with the Meridian Gate, Tiananmen and the Thousand-Step Corridor on both sides, forms two courtyards with a strong sense of depth, which become the leading etiquette sequence for entering the palace. The oppressive and contracted spatial atmosphere formed by the heavy gates and high walls forms a sharp contrast with the Taihemen Square that suddenly opens up behind the Meridian Gate, highlighting the majesty of the emperor. In addition to its role as a symbol of the imperial palace, in the architectural concept of "three courts and five gates", Duanmen was located on the south side of the ancestral temple and the altar, corresponding to the position of the "warehouse gate", so it also assumed the ritual function of storing the emperor's ceremonial weapons. This function evolved into the function of part of the imperial palace arsenal in the Qing Dynasty. The ritual attribute of Duanmen symbolizes the strict hierarchy in the imperial city during the feudal society of my country, and is the material embodiment of Confucian ritual thought. Therefore, Duanmen has become one of the most symbolic ritual buildings in the outer court of the imperial city, so it can also be called "Yimen". During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Duanmen was full of houses, totaling 100. According to records, these houses were the six departments, namely the offices of the six ministries of history, household, ritual, military, criminal justice, and engineering, also known as the "six department corridors".