Good morning, I am going to explore a documentary on the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was considered one of the grandest palaces built and it was the vision of one man. The run time for this episode is 52:42.
The Forbidden City is in the heart of Beijing and was home to the Emperors of China. It was the vision of one man who seized power and this city was a show of his power. He was a despot who seized power by force and he would ruthlessly stamp out anyone who opposed him. It was the grandest palace ever built and it was built in three years under the direction of a brilliant mind. It was home to endless and repeated rituals. However, even as the walls were built the seeds of its destruction were also sown. The city’s roots begin with a successful general riding back after defeating the Mongols. The Mongols ruled China for a hundred years and were expelled. Zhu Di was a brilliant general and a member of the Ming Dynasty. This victory has won him honor and respect. He was an ambitious man and destined for a military career as the fourth son of the emperor. Zhu Di begins his military training young and learns that he can only trust himself. At age forty he has achieved all the ambitions his family laid out for him, now what? History would remember him very differently. Eventually, he marches to the capital and rises against the emperor. He exploits the greed of corrupt courtiers. The men are well paid and the gates of the capital are open. The man makes himself the Emperor of China. The capital is ransacked and the population is helpless to defend themselves against the pillaging. The deposed Emperor disappears without a trace. Did he die? Or did he survive to take his revenge? The new emperor takes the throne anyway. Zhu Di is seen as a usurper by a few officials, which makes them reluctant to serve him. One brave official stands up against the new emperor and is sentenced to death for his opposition. There are more that follow as the new emperor purges the government officials. Not even the officials’ families are spared in this purge. The new emperor secured his position with blood. He endures many a sleepless night and moves the capital to a new city: Beijing. It is here that the new Emperor will demonstrate his power by building a grand palace. It is here that Zhu Di wants to show that he has the mandate of heaven. Work begins immediately by tearing down the old palaces to build the new palace. A brilliant architect is appointed. His name was Kuai Xiang. The only problem is that the architect was a eunuch. Normally eunuchs were forbidden from government offices, but no more under the new emperor. Many eunuchs are appointed to positions in the new emperor’s government. Eunuchs were often prisoners of war and were used as servants and guards. Nobody respected eunuchs or even liked them. In fact, they were the butt of insults and made fun of. It would have been a shock to established government officials to accept a eunuch in their ranks. However, they had the trust of the emperor. This architect was no different and had to please a paranoid emperor. How could this architect please the emperor? Will he lose his life building a city? Will the Emperor be satisfied with the design? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more. Wow and woah the beginning of this documentary really laid out the roots of the Forbidden Palace under General and Emperor Zhu Di. The story of Kuai Xiang was also interesting especially how the four towers were designed. This episode really goes into how and why the city was built. I also really appreciated seeing the efforts that were made to restore and take care of the Forbidden City in the modern world. The historian’s contributions were very well done as well as the recreations. This is a very well-produced documentary on the Forbidden City and would be something that I would show to a history classroom.
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The purpose of this blog is to share information on what can be used in a classroom, private school, or home school setting as well as serve as a portfolio of my personal and professional work. The reviews are my opinions and should be treated as such. I just want to provide a tool for teachers to select documentaries for their classrooms. |