Safeguarding 9,999 Rooms of the Forbidden City from Fires for Centuries

Fire is the greatest threat to the famous landscapes in China due to its many wooden structures.

Safeguarding 9,999 Rooms of the Forbidden City from Fires for Centuries

Throughout history, the 9,999 rooms of the Forbidden City (Beijing, China) have always faced the hidden danger of fires everywhere, from thousands of torches illuminating the palace to the risk of lightning strikes during rainy weather. Therefore, the Imperial Palace needed a simple yet effective fire prevention and control system centuries ago.

Part of that system is 308 buckets made of iron or copper. A large bucket can hold up to 3,000 liters of water. Every day, palace officials had to change the water in the buckets to ensure there was no foul odor, according to China Plus.

Historical records from the reign of Emperor Qianlong mention gold-plated buckets with a diameter of 1.66 meters, weighing nearly 1.7 tons. Casting these buckets cost over 500 taels of silver (one tael is about 50 grams), with an additional 3 kilograms of gold plating on some buckets. To this day, 18 gold-plated buckets are still placed in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, Hall of Preserved Harmony, and the Gate of Divine Might, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

Varieties of vases come in various sizes and designs. Products during the Ming dynasty feature natural shapes, simple hoops attached on the outside. Meanwhile, designs during the Qing dynasty have a round shape with a small mouth, lion head handles intricately sculpted.

In winter, the ponds in the Forbidden City all freeze, officials must find ways to prevent the water vases from sharing the same fate. All bronze vases are placed on a pedestal with a hole in the middle, courtiers burn charcoal inside to boil the water.

Ancient people also had tools to spray water in the right place. Nowadays, firefighters use hoses to spray water, but in ancient China, fires were extinguished in high or distant places using 'jitong'. This device has two ends. When fighting fires, water is poured into one end of the 'jitong' and the other end is pushed, causing the water to shoot up.

By order of Emperor Kangxi, a military unit named 'Jitong' was established with the responsibility of firefighting. In 1905, the 'Jitong' unit was renamed the fire brigade with a scale of 100 to 200 people, according to CGTN.

Under the Ming and Qing dynasties, over 20 major fires occurred in this area. All shared a common characteristic. The Tiananmen Gate acts as a boundary, fire only burns inside or outside. The reason is Tiananmen Gate overlooks a 30m wide road, separating the two areas, preventing fire from spreading through the city gate.

The two walls at the East Flowery Gate and West Flowery Gate of the Forbidden City also serve as barriers. The towering walls evoke the structure of wooden houses with rafters, columns but are actually built of stone.

Patterns on wooden objects serve not only decorative purposes but also seal and protect items within the palace. Each painted layer serves a specific purpose, while patterned paper pieces are used to safeguard the surfaces of individual objects.

The Forbidden City, built 600 years ago, still poses challenges for Chinese people to move between palaces in case of fire, and it's impossible to install fire hoses in this historic structure. Despite advanced firefighting equipment such as fire trucks, robots, ancient fire prevention methods are still in use.

According to Tiểu Bảo/Vnexpress

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Reference: Travel guide Mytour