紫禁城为什么叫紫禁城？
Why is it called the Forbidden City?
Name: ________________ Date: ________
如果你在北京问路：“紫禁城怎么走？”很多人会想一想，然后笑着说：“你是说故宫吧！”同一个地方，为什么有两个名字？“紫禁城”里的“紫”和“禁”，到底是什么意思？
先说“禁”。这个字很好懂，就是“不许进去”。明清两代，这里是皇帝住的地方，四周有高高的城墙，城墙外面还有一条宽五十多米的护城河。普通老百姓别说进去，连靠近都不行。只有皇帝的家人、大臣、太监和宫女等等，才能出入。所以，这座城是一座“禁城”。
再来看“紫”。很多人以为，这是因为宫里的墙是紫红色的。其实，这个字和天上的星星有关。古代中国人认为，天上的星星也分成不同的区域，北极星附近的一片星空叫“紫微垣”，是天帝住的地方，所有的星星都围着它转。皇帝叫自己“天子”，也就是天帝的儿子，那么他在人间的家，当然也要用上这个“紫”字。于是，“紫”和“禁”放在一起，就成了“紫禁城”。
这座宫殿是明朝的永乐皇帝让人修建的，从1406年开始，到1420年建成，前后用了十几年，据说动用了上百万名工人。在这以后的将近五百年里，一共有二十四位明清两代的皇帝在这里生活和处理国事。
关于故宫，还流传着一个说法：它一共有九千九百九十九间半房子，因为只有天帝的宫殿才能有一万间，皇帝不敢超过。这个说法很有意思，可惜并不是真的。根据调查，故宫保存下来的建筑有九百多座，房间有八千八百多间。
1912年，清朝结束了。不过，最后一个皇帝溥仪又在宫里住了十几年，直到1924年才被迫离开。第二年，也就是1925年，故宫博物院正式成立，这座“禁城”第一次向老百姓打开了大门。“故宫”的意思是“过去的皇宫”，这个新名字，正好说明了它身份的变化。
今天，故宫每年要接待上千万名游客，是世界上最受欢迎的博物馆之一。当年老百姓连靠近都不敢的地方，现在只要提前在网上预约，买一张门票，谁都可以走进去。
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 紫 | zǐ | purple; violet |
| 代 | dài | on behalf of |
| 四周 | sìzhōu | all around; surroundings |
| 宽 | kuān | wide; broad; width |
| 老百姓 | láobǎixìng | ordinary people; common folk |
| 墙 | qiáng | wall |
| 天上 | tiānshàng | in the sky; in heaven |
| 古代 | gǔdài | ancient times; antiquity |
| 区域 | qūyù | area; region; district |
| 围 | wéi | to surround; to encircle |
| 修建 | xiūjiàn | to build; to construct |
| 据说 | jùshuō | it is said; reportedly |
English (for the teacher)
Ask the way in Beijing: “How do I get to the Purple Forbidden City?” Many people will think for a moment and then say with a smile, “You mean the Gugong, right?” Why does one place have two names? And what do the “purple” and “forbidden” in Zijincheng actually mean?
Let’s start with “forbidden”. This one is easy: it means “no entry”. Under the Ming and Qing it was where the emperor lived, surrounded by high walls, and outside the walls ran a moat more than fifty metres wide. Ordinary people couldn’t go in, or even come near. Only the emperor’s family, ministers, eunuchs, palace maids and the like could come and go. So this city was a “forbidden city”.
Now for “purple”. Many people assume it’s because the palace walls are purplish red. In fact the word has to do with the stars in the sky. People in ancient China believed the stars were divided into regions too: the patch of sky around the North Star was called the Purple Enclosure, the home of the Emperor of Heaven, and every star turned around it. The emperor called himself the Son of Heaven, the son of that heavenly emperor, so naturally his home on earth had to carry the same word “purple”. Put “purple” and “forbidden” together and you get the Purple Forbidden City.
The palace was built on the orders of the Ming dynasty’s Yongle Emperor, begun in 1406 and finished in 1420, more than a decade of work that is said to have used over a million labourers. In the nearly five hundred years that followed, twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing lived and ruled the country here.
There’s also a popular story that the palace has 9,999 and a half rooms, because only the palace of the Emperor of Heaven could have ten thousand, and the emperor did not dare to go beyond that. It’s a nice story, but sadly it isn’t true. According to surveys, the palace has more than nine hundred surviving buildings with over 8,800 rooms.
In 1912 the Qing dynasty came to an end. Even so, the last emperor, Puyi, lived on in the palace for more than a decade, until he was forced to leave in 1924. The next year, 1925, the Palace Museum was officially founded, and for the first time this “forbidden city” opened its gates to ordinary people. Gugong means “the former palace”, and the new name says exactly how its role had changed.
Today the palace welcomes more than ten million visitors a year, making it one of the most popular museums in the world. A place ordinary people once didn’t even dare go near is now open to anyone who books online in advance and buys a ticket.