Reporter Ren Yifang/Beijing Reporter
Speaking of mainland legends, there are really no end to the number, "ETTODAY" specially planned the first episode of urban anecdotes, taking you to see the legend of the Forbidden City with a history of more than 600 years. The Forbidden City, which has gone through the Ming and Qing dynasties, is full of mysteries, among which the most curious should be the "1992 tourists collective collision incident", witnessing the palace women dressed in Qing Dynasty costumes walking through the red wall, and someone has taken a strange picture. The reporter of "Ettoday" of Eastern Sen New Media also actually visited the red wall of the "collective ghost" at that time, which just happened to be heavy rainy weather, what did tourists see at that time? Solve the puzzle for you.
▲ In the early years, the gatekeepers of the Forbidden City heard the palace women crying and sighing at night. (Schematic map/ reporter Ren Yifang post-shooting)
With a history of more than 600 years, the Forbidden City is the largest and only surviving palace complex in the world. Over the past hundred years, many strange legends have been naturally extended through the Ming and Qing dynasties. According to the older generation of Beijing population, the Forbidden City originally had left-behind people, but there were often late-night ghost collisions, such as guards who heard women sighing and crying in the middle of the night, and even often saw people wearing palace women and eunuch costumes dangling in the palace.
▲ Legend has it that under the red wall of the Forbidden City, "Palace Lady Apparitions" appeared, and tourists thought they were dazzled. (Photo/ Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
Tourists in the Forbidden City collectively collide with evil spirits
Regarding these strange legends, the Forbidden City has repeatedly clarified that they are fictional novels, except that "the 1992 Forbidden City tourists collective collision incident" has always been a mystery. The reporter of "Ettoday" of Eastern Sen New Media also actually visited the place where the "collective ghost" was in that year, and it just happened that it rained heavily that day, but there was no lightning and thunder.
When the reporter walked to a certain big red wall in the Cixi West Sixth Palace Group, after years of repeated maintenance, the bright red paint was still slightly mottled, forming a strong contrast in the dark rainy day. In the afternoon of heavy rain, there are few tourists, and when no one passes by, a person standing alone for a long time can also feel the cold and lonely atmosphere.
However, compared with the day in 1992, there were quite a lot of tourists, and the Forbidden City was suddenly shrouded in thunderstorms, and people were looking for eaves to hide from the rain. Suddenly, there was a big flash of lightning in the sky accompanied by thunder, and all the tourists could not believe the scene in front of them, it was too magical!
▲ The red palace wall paint material in ancient times contains iron tetroxide, which can conduct electrical energy with video function. (Photo/ Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
A whole row of palace women dressed in Qing Dynasty costumes crossed, walking slowly under the red wall with no expression on their faces. At that time, some tourists used their cameras to capture supernatural moments, and at the same time, the images of the palace ladies quickly disappeared. The incredible news spread immediately, causing the "atheistic" mainland government a headache, so it adopted scientific insights to dispel superstition.
According to the research of relevant scientists, tourists seeing palace women is a kind of "visual temporary storage". The main reason is that the red paint material of the palace wall contains iron tetroxide, if the lightning just conducts the electrical energy down, it happens that there are palace women passing by, and the palace wall has the function of a traditional videotape. When the "heaven, time and place" lightning appeared again, under the release of a certain amount of energy, the figure of the palace woman stored in the red wall was replayed, and tourists thought that they had seen the "palace woman apparition".
▲ Legend has it that the "Chuxiu Palace" where Cixi lived had mischievous ghosts who carried away the fierce firefighters. (Photo/ Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
Who is the prank of "Chu Xiu Gong"?
Although it sounds incredible, the "apparition of the palace maid" under the scientific explanation is not impossible. But when it comes to the ghost story of the Forbidden City, the "Chuxiu Palace" where Cixi lives is said to be full of yin and spirit. The reporter of "Eastern Sen New Media ETtoday" visited the place, and the "Chuxiu Palace" environment was quiet and retained the original appearance of the wooden building, and the old objects such as jewelry boxes, vases, and cushions used by Cixi were displayed in the palace.
Back in the 1980s, there was a garrison fire brigade in the Forbidden City. One summer, several firefighters finished a fire drill at the "Chuxiu Palace" and slept directly on the floor of the Cixi Grand Hall. At 2:00 a.m., a team member was awakened by a cool breeze and found himself sleeping in the corridor outside, and walked back to the main hall to rest in a daze.
Until the next morning, the firefighter woke up and found that he had been "carried" outside, and in a fit of anger, he asked his comrades, "Is he playing a prank?" Everyone replied, "No one is playing a trick at all, and when you wake up in the morning, you will sleep in the corridor outside!" Afterwards, the more the firefighter thought about it, the more hairy it became, and no one dared to sleep in the "Chuxiu Palace" anymore.
▲ The last death of eunuchs and palace women in the Qing Dynasty, the Forbidden City "Yin and Yang Dao" sued the vicissitudes of the court. (Photo/ Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
Don't go near the "Yin-Yang Path"
The Forbidden City has a total of 999 rooms, only a small part of which is open to the public, and the rest are not open to the public. Among them, the Qing Dynasty belongs to the West Sixth Palace where Empress Dowager Cixi lived the most stories, rumors that there are many souls of the dead, wandering between the palace walls of the West Sixth Palace, and there will be female ghost apparitions around three o'clock in the morning, of course, these legends cannot be verified.
However, there is a place in the Forbidden City called "Yin yang dao", and it is said that eunuchs and palace women must be carried out from this side after death, so that the emperors and nobles can avoid anger, and naturally many supernatural events have been derived. "Eastern Sen New Media ETtoday" reporter visited the "Yin and Yang Road", under the refraction of rainy days, a silver and white belt appeared under the towering two red walls, but it looked like a bright road, not so gloomy.
As for, what is the origin of the "Yin-Yang Dao" that everyone is curious about? After nightfall, the high walls of the Forbidden City rise, and the ground in the middle of the narrow and long passage will appear on the ground with moonlight on one side and shadows blocked by the wall on the other, forming "two interfaces of one yin and one yang". According to ancient legends, the yang side is the living people walking in the palace, and the yin side gives demons and ghosts a corridor. The historical anecdotes that have been handed down by word of mouth by folk have been impossible to verify, and the Forbidden City has repeatedly clarified that they are all fabricated stories, but they have added to the mysterious color of the Forbidden City.
After crossing the Yin-Yang Road, visitors will walk to the corner tower outside the city wall to take photos and punch cards. (Photo/ Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)