Yellow Tiles and Vermillion Walls

The imperial palaces in Beijing are graces with yellow-glazed tiles and vermillion walls because they looked pleasant and reflected the wealth, dignity and authority of the emperors.

The tiles are generally glazed yellow, green, blue and black. Yellow-glazed tiles were for the exclusive use of roofs of palaces, mausoleums, gardens, temples and other imperial structures. Yellow was chosen as the total color and a symbol of dignity because in the “five elements” theory (gold, wood, water, fire, and earth), yellow is in the center of the universe. In the imperial garden, such as the summer palace, however, roofs are covered with tiles of different colors.

Only the houses which the emperor lived or administered state affairs are covered with yellow-glazed roofs, while the houses for officials feature green-glazed roofs, and scenic buildings and commoners' dwellings are covered with black-glazed tiles. However, non-imperial buildings some times also featured yellow-glazed roofs, such as the Confucian Temple and the Lord Guan's Temple, because of the fact that the Chinese emperors had worshiped Confucius as duke for the propagation of culture and the Qing emperors decorated lord Guan as “Emperor Guan”.

All the buildings in the imperial palace are supposed to have their roofs covered with yellow-glazed tiles. The exception, however, is the nation library (Chamber of Literary Profundity), whose roof id decorated with black-glazed tiles because black is the color of water. The hall of prayer for Good Harvests in the Temple of Heaven id covered with a blue tiled roof to symbolize the color of the sky. It is clear that the color adopted for the Chinese ancient structure have symbolic meanings.

The appeal of the yellow-glazed roofs is supplemented with the vermilion color of the walls. By Chinese tradition red is the color for festivities, and that is why even today the lanterns and streamer used during holidays and festivals are mostly red color. The imperial buildings are decorated with yellow tiles and vermilion walls with the man date of the royal family.

During the Ming and Qing, yellow-glazed tiles could be used for imperial palaces, the mausoleums for emperors and those temples and altars built in compliance with the order of the emperors. Those who violated the rule could be sentenced to death.