Palace(宫 Gong)

The Chinese word for “palace” is gong which, however, may refer to anyone of several different things.

In the earliest Chinese writings it meant no more than an ordinary house. After the founding of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), gong came gradually to mean the group of buildings in which the emperor lived and worked.

From about the same time, the Chinese palace grew ever larger in scale. The Efanggong (or Epanggong, according to the purists) of the First Emperor of Qin , according to an authoritative source , measured “5 li (21/2 km) from east to west and 1000 paces form north to south”.

The Weiyanggong of the Western Han Dynasty (206B.C.-25 A.D.) had ,within a periphery of 11 kilometers ,as many as 43 halls and terraces .The forbidden City of Beijing ,which still stands intact and which served as the imperial palace for both Ming and Qing emperors (1368-1911) ,covers an area of 720,000 square meters and embraces many halls ,towers, pavilions and studies ,measured as 9,900 bays . It is one of the greatest palaces still existing in the world. In short, the gong grew into a veritable city and is often called gongcheng (palace city).

Apart from the palace, other abodes of the emperor are also called gong. So , the Yiheyuan Park used to be the Summer Palace ; the Mountain Resort at Chengde and the Huaqingchi themal spa near Xi'an were both xinggong or “palace –on –tour” .Then there is another type of gong called zhaigong, where the emperor prepared himself with ablution and abstinence before he offered sacrifice at a grand ceremony. There is one such zhaigong on the grounds of Beijing' Temple of Heaven.

Inside a great gong, certain individual buildings may also be called gong. The Qing emperors used to live at Qianqinggong (Palace of Heavenly Purity) in the Forbidden City, whereas the living quarters of the empresses were at Kunninggong (Palace of Female Tranquility).

The imperial concubines of various ranks inhabited the six gong or palace quadrangle on either side of the central axis of the Forbidden City. When the monarchs of there spouses died, they were buried in digong (underground palaces).

The name gong is also used for religious buildings of great dimensions. The Potala in Lhasa is a gong to the Chinese; the lama temple of Beijing is Yonghegong. The temples of Taoist priests are generally called Sanqinggong (palace or triple purity).

For thousands of years in old China, the word gong was reserved exclusively for naming imperial and religious buildings. With the passage of time and political changes, many of the old gong have been opened to the general public for sightseeing. Furthermore, a number of buildings have been named gong or palace.

For instance, Taimiao of the ImperialAncestralTemple in Beijing has been renamed the “Working People's Palace of Culture”. On West Chang'an Jie, a comparatively new building serves as the “Cultural Palace of National Minorities”. Similar gong or palaces have been built in many cities of the country for the cultural .scientific and recreational activities respectively for workers, youth and children.