The Story of the REAL Yanxi Palace: A Cold Palace of the Forbidden City

One of the most famous palaces of the Forbidden City today was actually not a place anyone ever wanted to live in. Hi everyone, I'm Amy. Today, we're going to explore the history of the real Yanxi Palace, also known as the Palace of Prolonging Happiness, and uncover why it was anything but. In the C-drama, Story of Yanxi Palace, the Yanxi Palace is the home of Wei Yingluo, a character based on the real historical counselor Lin. And in Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace, it was where Empress Nana lived before becoming Empress. But what if I told you that based on historical records, the real counselor Lin and Empress Nana probably never lived in the Yanxi Palace at all? And in both C-dramas, it was clear that Yanxi Palace was not the best place to stay. It was treated as the palace of counselors who were not favored or cast aside. But the real Yanxi Palace was much worse than just not a great place to stay. In fact, it was believed by many to be cursed, plagued by unexplained fires and misfortune. It was one of the most avoided palaces in the entire Forbidden City. It was a place that was in everything but name, a cold palace of the Qing Dynasty. The Forbidden City as we know it today was built in the Ming Dynasty and remained the imperial palace through the Qing Dynasty. Its outer section was reserved for ceremonies and government. But past the three great ceremonial halls was the inner court, the private world of the emperor and his consorts. At the center of the inner court were the emperor's personal quarters, and flanking those quarters, arranged symmetrically on either side, were two groups of six palaces each, the west six palaces and the east six palaces. Together, these twelve palaces served as the primary residences for the imperial consorts. And of all twelve palaces in the east and west six, Yanxi Palace sat at the very edge. If you've watched the drama, you might imagine Yanxi Palace as a quiet but dignified residence, with all the signs of luxurious palace life. And that would be kind of right. The real Yanxi Palace was built in the same plan and style as the other five palaces in the east six palaces, two courtyards, one behind the other, a main hall with additional side halls, topped with yellow-glazed tiles, and enclosed within high red walls. Yanxi Palace was built in 1420 during the reign of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty, making it one of the very first palaces of the Forbidden City. It was initially called Changshou Palace, the Palace of Longevity. It was later renamed Yanqi Palace, the Palace of Extended Happiness. And during the Qing Dynasty, it finally became Yanxi Palace, the Palace of Prolonging Happiness. Longevity and happiness, every name it was given promised something wonderful. But a palace is more than just its design and name. The Yanxi Palace sat in the far southeast corner of the east six palaces, and right outside was the Cangzheng Gate. This was an important service gate for the east six palaces, used by eunuchs, kitchen workers, maintenance crews, and other palace staff. This created an interesting environment for the residents of the Yanxi Palace. Instead of the quiet elegance of the inner palaces, its residents probably woke each morning to the clatter of carts and the voices of workers passing by. And there was something else important about the location of a palace. The location of the palace that you lived in was basically your rink made visible. The closer a palace sat to the center of the Forbidden City, the more prestigious it was. The most favored consorts could even have an entire palace to themselves. The least favored were pushed to the edges and packed together, sharing courtyards and hallways with other women who had also failed to hold the emperor's attention. For example, during the Qing Dynasty, when Emperor Daoguang's consort Jing was promoted to the rink of imperial noble consort, she was moved from the outer Yonghe Palace to the inner Zhongcui Palace. This brought her much closer to the emperor's quarters, and she got the entire palace to herself. So this meant that the location of the Yanxi Palace at the far edge of the East Six Palaces was actually not the best place to be. The Yanxi Palace was never officially designated as a cold palace, but for the women who lived there, that label would have changed nothing about their daily lives. There are not that many records of the consorts who lived in Yanxi Palace, and that alone tells us a lot. The records that do survive seem to tell the same story. Yanxi Palace was often home to consorts who had fallen out of favor or were no longer important enough to attract much attention from the court. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, the primary resident of the Yanxi Palace was Consort Wan of the Chen clan. She held the title of Ping, a mid-level rank in the consort hierarchy. In theory, that title came with a specific standard of living, a defined number of attendants, a certain quality of daily provisions, and a level of silk and furnishings befitting her rank. But the household records showed that she often received provisions closer to those of a much lower rank. She still carried that title, but her treatment no longer seemed to have matched the status that rank was supposed to bring. And later, during the reign of Emperor Daoguang, the primary resident of Yanxi Palace was Consort Tian of the Fuca clan. Before Emperor Daoguang took the throne, she had been one of his cefujing, a secondary consort in his princely household. And after he became emperor, she was elevated to the imperial rank of ping, a fairly typical starting position for former cefujing. But she was never promoted again, not once across the entirety of Emperor Daoguang's long reign. She bore no children, received no new titles or ranks, and appears in the records only in passing for routine rituals and banquets. While the emperor's favor and attention circled through the other palaces, Consort Tian stayed exactly where she was for over 20 years. And she was not alone. At its most crowded, Yanxi Palace held four or five other consorts alongside Consort Tian. And these consorts appeared to have been demoted or disciplined at some point during their time in the inner court. Yanxi Palace was not a dungeon, and the consorts were not chained or starved. They simply lived in a corner that no one looked at, receiving their stipends, but little attention and even less favor, growing older in rooms that were a little too close to the servants' gate and a little too far from the emperor. Every day would have been the same as the last, and the next day would be the same as today. In a previous video, I described the Shangyang Palace of the Tang Dynasty as a place where consorts were quietly abandoned and removed from history. This is not so different from the reality of Yanxi Palace. Many of the consorts who lived in Yanxi Palace were eventually forgotten and in many ways effectively abandoned. And then on the night of May 22, 1845, Consort Tian was shaken awake by screaming. The air outside was thick with smoke. Through the windows, the courtyard was glowing orange. Eunuchs were shouting. She scrambled to dress with the help of her attendants. But by the time they reached the door, the way out was already a wall of fire. Within two months of that night, Consort Tian had died. Qing archives record that she passed away and was later buried in the Mudong Mausoleum. However, the records do not state her cause of death. Because of the timing, some historians have speculated that she may have been injured in the fire and later passed away from those injuries. But no primary sources confirms this. The fire that likely killed Consort Tian was catastrophic. But surprisingly, it was not the first fire and it wouldn't be the last. Across the entire history of Yanxi Palace, a period of time over 500 years, the palace caught fire more often than any other residential palaces in the Forbidden City. Some accounts claim that it caught fire over a hundred times. A palace catching fire is bad for obvious reasons, but it was also considered to be deeply inauspicious. The vast number of fires at Yanxi Palace started some dark rumors that the palace itself was cursed. And many of the fires could not be explained. Some were traced to the kitchen stoves, or to lamps, or to sparks carried in by workers passing through the nearby service gate. But others seemed to start without any apparent cause at all. They simply began, as if the palace itself had decided to burn. According to one popular story, a feng shui expert was eventually brought in to examine the site. After studying the position of Yanxi Palace within the layout of the Forbidden City, the expert reportedly concluded that the palace occupied an inauspicious position. The site was aligned with fire in the elemental circle, and no amount of rebuilding would change the underlying nature of the land. The palace was, according to this reading, built on ground that was cursed to burn. There was no imperial edict or record confirming this curse, but the story took hold. Some historians describe Yanxi Palace as a place of bewildering mysteries, and some modern visitors to the site describe an inexplicable feeling when visiting. Some folklore associates the West Palaces with wandering spirits and unexplained sightings. But Yanxi Palace appears to be haunted by something different. There are no ghosts here. Just a place where things kept going wrong, for reasons that nobody could ever fully explain. When Emperor Daoguang demanded answers after the devastating fire of 1845, his investigators told him the blaze had started from kitchen stoves and spread because of weak security near Cangzheng Gate. But Emperor Daoguang pushed back. This was not the first time. Why did Yanxi Palace keep catching fire? The answer he received was not an answer at all. The fire had been happening since the Ming Dynasty, and they don't know why it kept happening. And even the investigation's official explanation did not really make sense. The proximity to Cangzheng Gate was a reasonable theory, but several other palaces were nearby as well, and none of them kept catching fire. The wooden structures of all of the palaces made fire a general risk across the Forbidden City. But it was Yanxi Palace alone that seemed unable to escape it. After the fire of 1845, Emperor Daoguang wanted to rebuild, but the empire was struggling. The treasury was strained, northern China had suffered severe drought, and the money simply was not there. In 1855, under Emperor Xianfeng, Yanxi Palace caught fire yet again. Minimal repairs were made. And then in 1872, during Emperor Tongzhi's reign, plans to rebuild Yanxi Palace were proposed again. But then the proposal was shelved again. For the next several decades, Yanxi Palace sat at the edge of the East Six Palaces as a ruin, surrounded by intact, functioning palaces full of living consorts. Many women in the East Six Palaces would have passed its empty gate on their way to the gardens. Countless eunuchs would have walked past its scorched walls on their morning routes. It was a burned-out courtyard, silent and empty. Like a wound, the palace chose not to treat. In 1909, construction finally began on the Yanxi Palace site. But this was not a restoration. The plan was to tear out the remains of the old palace entirely and replace it with something the Forbidden City had never seen, a three-story, western-style building. Constructed over a pool of water, the decree was technically from the new Emperor Puyi. But Emperor Puyi was three years old. The project was championed by Empress Dowager Longyu, who personally gave the building its formal name, Lingzhaoxuan. But the name that more people would know the new palace by was Shuijinggong, the Crystal Palace. According to legend, the decision to build a water palace on this specific site was based on traditional Chinese Wuxing theory, a system of five elements. In this theory, water overcomes fire. And after centuries of fires that nobody could explain, the idea was to fight the curse with its elemental opposite. Some accounts even suggest that the choice of western-style architecture was part of the same logic. In a five-element system, the western direction corresponds to the element of metal, which generates the element of water. So a western-style water palace would provide two layers of protection, water to directly overcome the fire, and the metal association of west to continuously generate more water. We don't know if this was the real reason behind building the Crystal Palace, but it is a popular theory that many people believe today. The planned design of the Crystal Palace was unlike anything else in the Forbidden City. The walls were designed to incorporate large glass panels with water-filled inner layers where live fish would swim. The ground floor was planned with glass floors so that you could look down beneath your feet and see fish moving through the pool below. Water would be drawn from the Yuchuan Mountain and channeled into a pool surrounding the entire building. The main building was designed with nine rooms per floor, doors on all four sides at the ground level, a surrounding corridor, and three-story hexagonal pavilion at each of the four corners. In 1910, Empress Dowager Long Yu even ordered the installation of electric heaters, electric fans, and electric lighting. But by that time, the Qing Dynasty was out of money. Construction crawled forward, underfunded and understaffed. And then in 1912, the Qing Dynasty ended and the Crystal Palace was never finished. But the palace's story didn't end there. Many of the remaining household members, including the former empress and consorts, would continue to reside in the Forbidden City until around 1924. And the Forbidden City would be established as the Palace Museum in 1925. But even then, disaster still would not leave Yanxi Palace alone. In 1917, during the warlord Zhang Xun's failed attempt to restore the empire, Republican forces bombed the Forbidden City from the air. Damage was limited, but the north section of the unfinished Crystal Palace was hit and destroyed. Thankfully, that would be the last disaster to hit Yanxi Palace. Fingers crossed. In the years that followed, the courtyard around the abandoned Crystal Palace grew wild with weeds. But the women who remained within the Forbidden City found a quiet use for the space. Large wooden tubs were placed among the overgrown stones, filled with water and stocked with goldfish. There is a photograph from this period that has survived. In it, a woman stands in the courtyard of what remains of Yanxi Palace, surrounded by these wooden tubs, looking down at the fish. She is believed to be Consort Jin, one of the consorts of Emperor Guangxu. Her expression is subdued. Her clothing is plain. There is nothing left of the life that a consort was supposed to live. The Crystal Palace was designed to be a magical aquarium palace. But the fish ended up in wooden buckets in a courtyard full of weeds. Watched over by a woman, the empire had left behind. In 1931, the Palace Museum converted Yanxi Palace into storage and research space. The unfinished Crystal Palace still stands at its center today. Its exposed iron frame and carved marble, surrounded by red two-story buildings that now house ceramics and calligraphy labs. In 2005, Yanxi Palace opened to the public for the first time, hosting the full exhibition for the famous painting Along the River during the Qingming Festival. And then in 2018, two C-dramas changed everything. Story of Yanxi Palace and Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace aired that summer. And Yanxi Palace became one of the most visited spots in the entire Forbidden City. Millions of tourists lined up to see the palace where Wei Yingluo supposedly lived. A Palace Museum staff member, when asked about the sudden crowds, reportedly said that Yanxi Palace had previously been one of the more remote palaces. And historically, it was not very well-liked because it was, you know, cursed. Most of the consorts who lived at Yanxi Palace were forgotten in their own time. But 600 years later, their palace is the one that everyone remembers. That's it for this one. If you enjoyed today's topic, don't forget to like and subscribe. Thanks again for watching and I'll see you in the next one.