Tour the East Hall of the National Museum After the First Fifty Years

Heavy wooden posts and cross-beams, painted yellow; ornamented with blue, red, and gold bosses; spaces partially filled with red and gold flowers; eaves supported by carved beams; exterior ridge poles of open green and gold scroll-work, having large blue and red dragons at each ends; two roofs, one above the other, for protection from weather. Height, 25 feet 7 inches; width, 2l feet.

A broad gateway for carriages and sedan chairs, flanked by two smaller ones for foot passengers.

If gateways of this kind open directly into a temple or a Mandarin's Yamun, they stand side by side. If, as is usually the case, there is an open courtyard in front of the main building, the large one is in the center and the smaller ones in the sides of the surrounding wall. Such gates may also be erected to commemorate distinguished individuals, or they may be built by influential persons to commemorate their parents. Some are put up in honor of women who have distinguished themselves by their chastity and filial duty, or to widows who have refused a second marriage. Permission to erect them is granted by the Emperor, and is considered a high honor.

These gates stood at the entrance to the Chinese section of the International Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, and the inscriptions have special reference to that occasion. The roofs are corrugated after the fashion of Chinese architecture. The florid coloring is another peculiarity of Chinese architectural ornamentation. With the Chinese, colors have marked significance; thus yellow is the imperial or royal color; red the felicitous color; white the emblem of mourning, etc. Since these gateways emanate directly from the Emperor, the predominating color is yellow.

Inscriptions on Central Chinese Gateway

The large gilt characters on the shield near the top, read downwards according to the rule of Chinese literature, are Ta Tsiny Knob, (Great Pure Kingdom,) the name given to the Empire of China by the ruling dynasty.

The horizontal row of characters on the principal lintel, read from right to left according to rule, are Fub Guys T'ien Pao, (Beautiful things, the prized objects of the Heavens,) the last two characters being a term of Buddhistic origin and refer to heaven in the very highest, grandest sense.

The inscription on the first right-hand post, read downward, means " The splendor of the display of articles collected from the eighteen provinces (of China) may even surpass Nature;" that on the opposite post, "The establishment of this great and prosperous exhibition indicates the maintenance of friendly relations," those on the extreme left hand post are, "This pair of scrolls was composed by Li Kwai of the Kiang Su Province;"and "The agent was Sun Sin Kiang of Ningpo City." The extreme right hand inscription is "The lucky day of the first month of the second year of the Emperor Kiang Su."

Return to start of the East Hall of the National Museum in 1886