Female Space in the Forbidden City
H. Lai (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
Sabina Tanović – Mentor (TU Delft - Teachers of Practice / A)
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Abstract
In the feudal society of ancient China, women's social status had always been inferior to men. Especially with the spread of Neo-Confucianism, abstinence thought became the mainstream. It emphasized the " Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues ", suppressed women's status, making women gradually become men's vassal. This relationship was also reflected in the design of the royal palace. As the largest royal palace in China, which has a history of more than 500 years, spanning two dynasties, the Forbidden City is a typical example. Taking the female space of the Forbidden City as the research object, this paper analyzes the female activities in the inner court space, restores the scenes of women's daily life, and investigates the architectural space and components related to women. I hope to arrive to a sort of categorization of space that can be informative of how architecture was used to maintain social hierarchies.