Work
Forbidden City
Explore in the Atlas →The Ming and Qing imperial palace, completed under the Yongle Emperor, encodes Confucian cosmology and absolute authority in a strictly axial, hierarchical sequence of courtyards and halls.
Power Ritual Settlement
Details
- Type
- Building
- Location
- Beijing, China
Classifications
- Holder
- Communal intergenerational
- Source of authority
- Revelation cosmologyAncestry
- Subject
- Human centred
- Cosmological orientation
- Cardinal axesAxis mundi
- Political position
- Hegemonic
- Degree of codification
- Highly codified
- Mode of transmission
- ApprenticeshipText drawing
- Knowledge type
- Relational embodied
- Epistemic cluster
- East asian
Connections
- exemplifies Chinese Classical Architecture
Sources
- Geremie R. Barmé. The Forbidden City. Profile Books, 2008.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (World Heritage List 439). UNESCO, 1987.
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "Forbidden City." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/work/forbidden-city/. Accessed July 17, 2026.