Middle Palace

The Middle Palace (中宮, trjung-kjung) is a palace in the Themiclesian capital city Kien-k'ang, the principal residence of the Empress-consort (皇后, ghwang-gogh) of Themiclesia. When the empress played a more active role in politics, it was also her centre of activities. The palace, enclosed in several layers of walls, occupies 1.85 km² in the Citadel and is situated to its west. Today, much of the palace is occupied by the offices of the Ministry of Technology or open for public viewing, though central sections are closed.

Etymology

The Shinasthana word trjung (中) represents a windsock on a pole. The meaning of "middle, centre" is derived from the observation that the pole remains central relative to the movement of the windsock, though it has been inbued with philosphical and moral meaning, in addition to the positional meaning. Words such as trjung (忠, "integrity, loyalty") and trjung (衷, "conscience") are its derivatives. Additionally, trjung (中) can also be used as a stative (ntrjung, "to meet, accomplish") or causitive (′trjungh, "to be central [in seniority, particularly amongst siblings]"). In its use in "Middle Palace", however, most scholars accept that it is named for its central location in the citadel, opposing the "North/Back Palace" (pek-kjung), the monicker of the Hên-lang Palace, where the Emperor resides.

The word kjung (宮) is a ideo-graphical compound consisting of a roof glyph over two overlapping squares, meaning a residence that is enclosed by walls. The duplication and overlapping of the squares has disputed meaning, though some scholars point out that early glyphs have non-overlapping squares instead, indicating that the overlapping may be a calligraphic artifact. In almost every use its meaning can be translated as "walled compound", and since Themiclesian palaces are canonically walled structures, it is used to refer to palaces in most contexts. In the very most archaic laws, sometimes private residences can be called kjung, though this has been discontinued as early as the 1st c. CE.

History

The precise construction date of the Middle Palace is not known and a subject of debate in historical and archaeological research. The Ran-lang Collection (蘭陽簡), a trove of administrative rules of the pre-unification Tsjinh state dated to the 1st c. BCE, mentions a "middle palace", but it has not been shown that the name unambiguously refers to the current Middle Palace. It was a common practice for ancient scribes to describe palaces not by name but by relative position; there was sometimes a fixed "centre", while other times it may have been fluid according to context. Particularly during the earlier phrase of the Tsjinh state, some palaces had specific names but were still mentioned by position. For example, the Hên-lang Palace was referred to both as the "east palace" and "north palace", and the word "north" could also mean "rear". Nevertheless the palace seems to have existed in its present position since 245, since a travel journal dating to that year provides that "the Middle Palace is southwest of Hên-lang Palace".

Archaeological evidence shows that the outermost layer of the palace walls, which are 8 m thick at the base and 5 at the top, date to the 4th century. The inner core of the wall may be older, having been reinforced at later times. The second layer of walls date to the early 6th century, while the third again dates to the 4th. This agrees with historical records that a new set of walls were added around that time. While the second set of walls were added piecemeal in the Hên-lang Palace to enclose the growing circle of bureaucratic buildings surrounding the Palace Hall, they appear to have been added in a single effort in the Middle Palace, perhaps in imitation of the former. The Middle Palace was the queen-consort's residence throughout the Tsjinh, Sungh, and Rjang dynasties.

When the restored Meng monarchy arrived in Themiclesia in 543, the Middle Palace was vacated by the queen of Rjang for Empress-consort Gwidh of Emperor Ngjon, who was initially not used to living in a palace by herself, the custom in Chŏllo being to share a single palace between emperor and empress. As a result, a new hall, Hên-lang Hall (顯陽殿), was built in the emperor's seat for her; this remains the empress' apartments when she visits the emperor's palace today. By the reign of Emperor Ngjon's successor, who was married to a Themiclesian princess at the aristocracy's behest, the Middle Palace had resumed as the empress' proper residence.

Geography

Layout of the Middle Palace (c. 2019)

Outer sections

The Middle Palace is situated along the west wall of the Citadel of Kien-k'ang. The palace forms a neat rectangle, longer on the east-west axis, enclosed by walls measuring about 1.6 by 1.36 km, longer on the east-west axis. The enclosed area is 2.176 km², making it the second largest palace in the Citadel, just behind Hên-lang Palace. The palace's walls are 8 m thick at the base and 5 at the top, made from rammed earth, protected with stone and clay bricks, and surfaced with ochre and vermillion coloured plaster. The palace's north walls define the west segment of the Latitudinal Avenue, which also forms the south bound of the Hên-lang Palace. The Middle Palace's south borders the Gwreng-hljunh Palace, the residence of the Empress-dowager. The outer walls are broken by two primary gates and six access gates, which are primarily used today, as in antiquity, for deliveries. The two primary gates are located on the east and south walls and feature watchtowers and an elaborate gatehouse. The section of the walls under which the gateways are opened are thickened to 16 m at the base and 12 m at the top. Each gatehouse has three gateways, each of which is barred by sets of outer and inner doors. There is a superstructure on the gatehouse, a three-layered pavilion, an exact copy of those of the Hên-lang Palace. The grounds outside of the second layer of walls are today inhabited by the Ministry of Technology and its subordinate offices, as well as the headquarters of the National Post. There is also a rather large set of buildings reserved for visiting diplomats and other officials, today managed by the Cabinet Office.

Inner sections

Roughly to the northwest of the outer walls, a second set of walls has been added to protect the bureaucratic offices in service to the empress in the 6th century. This was first done in the Hên-lang Palace, but it spread to virtually every other palace since then, as the number of wall layers was viewed as reflective of the inhabitant's status. As the empress was the emperor's peer, Queen-consort Muk or her successor Rjeng ordered the construction of a second set of walls around the bureaucratic departments. While this set of walls had no particular name, it has since been named the srêng-gron (省垣), translated as "official walls", and the gates upon it the Carriage Stopping Gates, as vehicles were barred from proceeding further into the palace. Today the srêng′-gron demark the public sections of the palace from the restricted, though visitor tours are available (see below). There is a small compound directly adjacent to the southern srêng′-gron that houses the Visitor Centre. Within the srêng′-gron are the buildings of bureaucracies that serve the empress. In modern times, especially since the Pan-Septentrion War, the number of bureaucrcats in her service has dropped dramatically, many of whom were expressly appointed as sinecure analogues to the emperor's officials. The vacated buildings were either destroyed during aerial bombing at the Battle of Kien-k'ang between 1940 – 1941 or fell into disuse after then. Since the Central Bank's offices were destroyed during the battle, some buildings were haphazardly restored to usable condition in 1946 for the Bank's operations, though it has since moved into better accommodation in 1952. The Central Bank's legacy still name the northeast district of the area within the srêng′-gron.

Palace hall

In the northeast of the srêng′-gron lies the Palace Hall (前殿), which refers to the raised dais. In early Menghean and Themiclesian palatial architecture, the palace was a large complex that contained offices, foundries, workshops, prisons, workers' dormitories, and many other facilities. To delimit the residential area of the monarch from these, it was often placed on a raised hill, which later turned into a raised platform, constructed solidly out of rammed earth. In many Menghean palaces, the dais could exceed 10 m in height, which, combined with its other dimensions, required a truly monumental amount of labour to erect. For her limited population, Themiclesia could not muster the same amount of labour, having to settle for a dais 2 – 3 m instead, and the earlier the shorter the daises tended to be. However, once completed with proper drainage, it required comparatively little maintenance and protected the buildings on it from water damage and fires that often spread from foundries and kitches. The dais in the Middle Palace measures 2.85 m in height, about the same in the Hên-lang Palace, though it is shorter and narrower.

The Palace Hall is latitudinally divided into a front and rear section. The front section is populated with the Tjaw-tek Hall, the main ceremonial hall of the palace. In pre-modern times, the Empress held court here for her officials once a month, fulfilling much the same purpose as the emperor's court, though in modern use it has become considerably rarer. The Tjaw-tek Hall measures 92 by 48 m and is the largest historic building, by floor area, in the Middle Palace. It has 14 bays on its longer axis and 7 on the shorter. The hall is covered with a single hip roof with slightly curving eaves. Architectural features indicate that its design was probably finalized during the 5th or 6th century. The Tjaw-tek Hall has burned down several times in history, usually promptly rebuilt. A corridor encircles the front section of the Palace Hall, terminating at the east and west ends of the hall. This corridor's outer walls are built up directly from the edges of the dais, 2 m thick. The southern limit of the dais is punctuated at its centre by the Gate of Justice (含章門, gem-tjang-men), which itself is a sizeable building at 60 by 28 m. Similar but smaller gates appear east and west of the front section of the Palace Hall, called Gate of Brilliance (彌光門, mji-kwang-men) and Gate of Wisdom (永智門, gwjêng′-trjêgh-men). The rectangular area enclosed by the corridors and the Tjaw-tek Hall is where assemblies meet to greet the empress.

Middle enclosure

The rear section of the Palace Hall is called the Middle Enclosure (中禁中, trjung-krjimh-trjung). It is accessed from the front section through two small doors flanking the Tjaw-tek Hall. Before the modern period, males needed explicit permission to enter this area, as it was thought improper for males to meet the empress in the privacy of her own quarters. This rule does not apply to the front section. Within the confines of the Middle Enclosure, the Themiclesian empress conducts her quotidian activities, whether holding smaller courts to discuss and make decisions over her household, to appoint and review officials, or other leisurely diversions. The building where she lives is called the Hall of Perpetual Light (永光殿). It sits on a smaller dais and is likewise enclosed by a set of corridors.

Symbolism

Nevertheless, on the empress' birthday, all female administrators and her officials in the capital city customarily meet to greet her and give presents, in the same way as male bureaucrats do for the emperor. This function of unifying the females bureaucracy and the wives fo male bureaucrats has been extensively discussed by feminist scholars in such influential works as Themiclesian Women's World (1952), which presents the female bureaucracy as a strong, albeit imperfect, parallel to the male bureaucracy.