故宮前朝(中路：太和門(mén)至保和殿)

　　Entering the Meridian Gate, there are five marble bridges on the Inner Golden Water River, shaped like a bow. The five marble bridges just look like five arrows reporting symbolically to heaven. The five bridges were supposed to represent the five virtues preached by Confucius-benevolence, righteousness, rite, intelligence and fidelity.

　　Across the Inner Golden Water Bridge, we get to the Gate of Supreme Harmony. During the Ming and early Qing dynasties, here was the place where the emperor gave his audience, accepted documents from his ministers and made decisions here. There are two bronze lions guarding in front of the Gate of Supreme Harmony. The male lion was usually put on the left, playing with an embroidered design ball, which is said to show the emperor's supreme power. The other one on the right is the female lion, playing with a lion cub with its left paw symbolizing prosperity of the royal family's offsprings.

　　Across the Gate of Supreme Harmony , we come to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Here the emperor held grand ceremonies such as the emperor's enthronement ceremony, the wedding ceremony, dispatched generals to the battles, and the emperor received the successful candidates of the imperial examination etc. Also, the emperor held grand feasts each year on New Year's Day, Winter solstice and his own birthday.

　　The Hall of Supreme Harmony is 35.5 meters high with double layered roof that represents the highest construction rank of all. Now, let's ascend the stairs and move on to look at articles in display on two sides of the hall. On the top layer of the terrace stands a sundial on the east an imperial grain measure on the west. The sundial is an ancient time measure or a time-measuring apparatus used in the old days. The sundial tells the time by seeing the shadow of the metal pin on the sundial, which has an inclination angle of 50 degrees with the graduation on it. The grain measure was used as the national standard measure in agriculture in the old days. Both the grain measure and the sundial were symbols of the emperor's justice and rectitude.

　　There are two pairs of incense burners in the shape of bronze dragon-headed tortoises and bronze cranes placed on each side. They are both symbols of longevity.

　　When you look up the building in the Forbidden City, you can see mythical animal statues on the eaves of each building. Originally, there used to be big wooden nails on the roof to prevent the tiles from sliding down. Later they were replaced by glazed tiles, which were shaped into mythical animal statues for better beautification. They are symbols of auspiciousness and peace, and people believed that they are capable of subduing fire and warding off evil spirits.

　　Inside of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, you can see the gilded caisson ceiling high above the throne with a magnificent sculpture of a curling dragon playing with a huge pear was called “Xuanyuan Jing”， representing orthodox succession.

　　This hall is supported by 72 giant columns inside. In the old days, the traditional way of the Chinese to calculate a “room” is that: a square enclosed by four pillars was treated as one “room”， so the hall can be said to have 55 “rooms” in total. The six columns inside are gilded and painted with coiled dragon amidst clouds, and the rest are painted red.

　　The emperor's throne is placed on the dais in the center, and carved in cloud and dragon patterns and gilded. On both sides of the throne are a pair of elephant-shaped incense burners symbolize universal peace and two incense burners shaped as a mythical animal 9,000 kilometers per day and speaking all the languages of nearby kingdoms. Around the throne stand a pair of bronze cranes and in front of the dais is four cloisonné incense burners. The floor on the ground is paved with “Gold Bricks”， specially made in Suzhou.

　　The Hall of Middle Harmony is a square-shaped hall with a single pyramidic roof standing behind the Hall of Supreme Harmony. This was the place where the emperor would take a short rest before he went to the Hall of Supreme Harmony for grand ceremonies. Every year before the emperor went to the Altars and Temples, the emperor would receive and read the sacrificial address here.

　　Before the emperor went to the Altar of Agriculture for offering the sacrifice, the seeds intended for spring sowing and the ploughs were examined here, just to show the concern of the emperor for agriculture.

　　According to the rule, the imperial genealogy should be revised every ten years. The ceremony of presenting the genealogy to the emperor for revision and approval would also be held here.

　　Now, we come to the Hall of Preserving Harmony, the last of the three front halls.

　　In the Ming and Qing dynasties, on each New Year's Eve and the 15th day of the lunar moth, banquets would be held to entertain the civil and military officials and the princes and envoys of the Mongolian nobles and other nationalities. To celebrate the princess's marriage, the emperor would incite the bridegroom and his father as well as their relatives who served for the imperial government to a banquet.

　　The Imperial Palace Exam was held here once every three years in the Qing dynasty.

　　Just behind the Hall of Preserving Harmony, there is a big Marble Rampcarved with mountain cliffs, sea waves, clouds and nine dragons. It is 16.57 meters long, 3.07 meters wide and 1.7 meters thick, and weighs about 250 tons.