Tian\' anmen

The southern entry of the imperial city

Tian' anmen is a strengthened door which belonged to the long avenue which, while arriving of the south, carried out to the prohibited City. The entry itself of the field of the imperial city was Zhonghuamen (中华门, the Door of China), also called Daqingmen (大清门, the Large Door of Qing), which was destroyed in 1954 and which was with the current site of the mausoleum of Mao Zedong, to approximately 700 m in the south of Tian' anmen. The entry itself of the imperial palace (i.e. prohibited City) is, it, to approximately 600 m in the north of Tian' anmen, it acts of Wumen (午门, the Door of the South).

Does Tian' anmen or Carry Tian' anmen?

The name of this door is written in Chinese characters simplified 天安门, and in traditional characters 天安門. Its transcription in Hanyu pinyin is Tiān' ānmén; and according to the system Wade You IEN Year Men. The three characters mean, in the order, " ciel" , " paix" and " porte". This name of " carry peace of the ciel" be opposed to that of the northern door of the imperial city, called Di' anmen (地安门, the " Carry Peace terrestre"). In addition, Tian' anmen has its name associated by tradition with a longer formula: " to receive a celestial mission, to establish peace in the pays" (in Chinese: 受命于天, 安邦治国), kind of slogan political of the Qing dynasty.

It is inaccurate, or more precisely redundant, of speaking about “the door Tian' anmen”, because men (门/門) means “door”. Most correct would be, in the ideal, of speaking about “door Tian' year”, as one says “the bridge of the Golden delicious Spoils” in connection with the Golden Spoils Bridge , but the expression “carries Tian' anmen” entered the uses.

History of the building

According to the agency Xinhua, the popular official news agency of China, Tian' anmen which one can currently see is a counterpart, realized in great secrecy in 1969 on a directive of Zhou Enlai, Prime Minister for the time, which would have completely made rebuild the whole of Tian' anmen, under pretext of renovation works.

The Xinhua agency evokes the multiple damage which the door had undergone, because of the wars but also of a bad maintenance which had let the structure even of the building be dilapidated with the three century old wire of existence.

The door of celestial Peace was initially called the Servir door the Sky (承天门, Chengtianmen), built in 1417 during the work ordered by the emperor Yongle of Ming. It was about a building out of wooden, which seriously was damaged by the lightning in 1457 and was repaired in 1465. In 1644, at the time of the attack against Beijing by the Li Zicheng rebels which were going to mark the end of the Ming dynasty, the door was burnt.

It is in 1651, under the Qing dynasty, that the door was rebuilt with its current aspect, and accepted the name of Tian' anmen in Chinese, its name as mandchou being Abkai elhe obure duka .

A monument in charge of symbols

Tian' anmen is a monument very symbolic system, which was the place of the contact between the imperial sphere and the people, then one of the privileged places of the political life of the Chinese Republic and the Popular republic. The building is represented on the blazon of popular China.

The building carries symbols characteristic of the Chinese imperial capacity, in particular by decorations of angles of the roof, which comprise alignments of ceramics characters (immortal overlapping a phoenix, then nine mythical animals, followed by a dragon) formerly absolutely reserved for the buildings raising directly of the emperor.

Since 1976, the door is decorated of an immense portrait of Mao Zedong, below the balcony since which it had, in 1949, proclaimed the Popular republic of China. It is currently one of the last portraits of Mao to be publicly exposed in China. Above the balcony of Tian' anmen is the national blazon.

On both sides of the portrait, are two immense banners, one, on the left, being marked “Lives the Popular republic of China” (中华人民共和国万岁, in pinyin: Zhonghua renmin gongheguo wansui ) and the other, on the right, proclaiming “Lives the great union of the people of the world” (世界人民大团结万岁, in pinyin: Shijie renmin da tuanjie wansui ). This last banner took in 1950 the place of another, whose slogan was “Sharp the popular central government” (中央人民政府万岁, in pinyin: Zhongyang renmin zhengfu wansui ).

Big events

The Door of Celestial Peace, because of its symbolic system role of platform from where the capacity is addressed to the people, was, under the dynasties Ming and Qing, the place since which were made the important official announcements. At the 20th century, it is since Tian' anmen that in 1911 was announced the abdication of the last emperor of the dynasty Qing, Aisin Gioro Puyi, and that was proclaimed, on October 1st, 1949, the Popular republic of China.

Internal bonds

Place Tian' anmen

Manifestations of the place Tian' anmen

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