Hall of complete harmony, The word complete harmony which indicate “neutralization” means that everything needs to be impartial and just right to make the relationship between the parties to be harmonious. The intention is to promote the “moderation of the mean.”
The hall of complete harmony is 19 meters high and has a square shape. On the base of the three halls of supreme harmony, complete harmony and preserving harmony, there is a drain outlet with a dragon’s head shape. When it rains, the drain head sprays water together to form a landscape of “Thousand Dragons Spurts Water”. After the Revolution of 1911, Emperor Qing was still in the harem. Yuan Shikai intends to restore the monarchy and announce himself as the emperor, He change the interior and exterior decoration of the three main palaces and make them as his offices. The Manchurian inscription on the plaque in which the name of the temple was written was removed and the Chinese characters moved to the middle.
Two gold four-legged unicorns were placed on the both sides of the throne.Those are mythical animal and no such kind of animal real existed.The Chinese legend shows it can walk 18,000 miles in a day, and also able to predict the things happen in remote, They were placed on both sides of the emperor’s throne,symbolizes the wisdom of monarch, and at the same time it is used for burning sandalwood. The copper aromatherapy furnace placed on both sides of the platform of the hall is used for heating by charcoal fire. In the Qing Dynasty, people use a kind of red wood charcoal for heating, it is can be burnt for a long time, ashes is in white color but not explosive. There are also two sedan chairs on the both side of throne, which was used by the emperors of the Qing Dynasty for transfer in the court.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the function of hall of complete harmony was basically the same, that is, for the emperor to take rest before the grand ceremony held in the hall of supreme harmony. The emperor usually accepts petition from the high officials who host celebrations, and then attends the celebrations at the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
In addition, during the spring festival of the altar of agriculture, the emperor firstly go to the hall of complete harmony to read the wishing article and inspect the farming tools used for the cultivation, Same practice takes also before participating in worshiping ceremony in the Temple of Heaven, Temple of earth,Altar of Land and Grain, and the ancestral temple.
In the Qing Dynasty, the royal family tree was compiled every seven years. After the completion of the compile work, a ceremony will be held at the hall of complete harmony and submitted the new edition to the emperor for review. When the empress dowager was given her imperial title, the emperor also went to the hall of complete harmony to read the planned memorial. Sometimes the emperor summoned officials in this hall or give food here.
