Beijing Forbidden City (Kangxi Era)

Timeline

1. 1406–1420Beijing · BeijingIn 1406 (Yongle 4), the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di ordered a new palace city built on the site of Yuan Dadu; after fourteen years and the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of craftsmen and laborers, it was completed in 1420 (Yongle 18). The capital moved to Beijing the following year, making the Forbidden City the power core of the Ming Empire and laying the political pattern of Beijing as imperial capital for the next five centuries.
2. 1644–1661Beijing Forbidden City · BeijingIn 1644 Qing forces entered the pass; the Shunzhi Emperor moved the capital to Beijing and took up residence in the Forbidden City. While preserving the Ming palace layout, the Qing court adapted interior spaces and ceremonial procedures in a Manchu-Han synthesis, and added a lecture area at the Wenhua Hall in the northeast corner of the palace city, gradually establishing a distinct Qing imperial ritual system.
3. 1669–1680Beijing Forbidden City · BeijingIn 1669 the Kangxi Emperor cleverly captured the powerful minister Oboi and began truly governing in person. In the 1670s, using the Forbidden City as his political axis, he fully implemented the system of daily court audiences at the Gate of Heavenly Purity, rebuilding imperial control over the bureaucracy. At the same time large-scale repairs to the Three Great Halls were undertaken (the Hall of Supreme Harmony was rebuilt in 1695 into its final form in a preparatory period), and court Confucian education was promoted, inviting Han and Western missionary scholars to lecture, making the Forbidden City the core of imperial governance balancing civil and military arts.
4. 1673–1681Beijing Forbidden City · BeijingThe Revolt of the Three Feudatories broke out in 1673; Kangxi directed operations from the Forbidden City, centrally commanding the eight-year suppression campaign. After pacifying the Three Feudatories in 1681, Beijing's status as the sole political center of the Qing became unshakable, and the Forbidden City's symbolic authority and administrative functions reached their peak. Kangxi then began large-scale construction of detached palaces such as Yuanmingyuan and Changchunyuan, but the Forbidden City remained the sole venue for the empire's highest ceremonial rituals.
5. 1912Palace Museum, Beijing · BeijingThe Qing emperor abdicated in 1912, ending the Forbidden City's imperial functions. The Palace Museum was established in 1925 and the palace city opened to the public. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1987, becoming China's most-visited museum, attracting over ten million visitors annually, and is one of the most important material symbols of the continuity of Chinese civilization.