Construction
In the Yuan dynasty, Beijing was known as Dadu, and the Imperial City formed the centre of the city. In 1368, the Ming armies conquered Dadu, and changed its name to "Beiping" (the two characters meaning "north" and "peace" or "pacified"), with the capital moved to Nanjing. Because the Imperial City was untouched by battle, most of the Imperial City survived the war; however, in 1369, the Hongwu Emperor ordered that the Imperial City be demolished.
In 1370, the Hongwu Emperor's fourth son Zhu Di was created Prince of Yan, with seat in Beiping. In 1379 he built a princely palace within the Yuan Imperial City.
In 1399, Zhu Di launched a coup d'état and ascended to the throne to become Yongle Emperor in 1402. In 1403, the name of Beiping was changed to Beijing (literally "the Northern Capital"), and in 1406 a plan was drafted to move the capital to Beijing.
In 1406, construction of the Forbidden City began, copying the layout of the existing palaces in Nanjing. The new imperial palace was placed to the east of the Yuan palace, in order to place the Yuan palace in the "White Tiger" or "Kill" position in feng shui. Also for feng shui reasons, earth dug up from construction of the moat were used to construct Jingshan Hill to the north of the imperial palace.
On the basis of the Yuan Imperial City, the area was expanded to encompass the lakes of Zhongnanhai and Beihai and a significant area beyond.
Read more about this topic: Imperial City, Beijing
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