The Forbidden City
Beijing China
2014

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City

The Forbidden City is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing.

https://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/forbidden-city/

To represent the supreme power of the emperor, given from Heaven, and the place where he lived being the center of the world, all the important gates and halls of the Forbidden City were arranged symmetrically on the north-south central axis of old Beijing.

Heaven was thought to be Polaris (the North Star), the only seemingly stationary star in the northern sky, and the Forbidden City's layout points its visitors straight at "Heaven".

The Forbidden City is the largest and most complete complex of ancient wooden structures in the world.

The main frames of all buildings were built with high-quality wooden beams and columns, including whole trunks of precious Phoebe zhennan wood from the jungles of southwest China.

Forbidden City carpenters used interlocking mortise and tenon joints to build its great palace buildings "harmoniously", without nails. Nails were considered violent and inharmonious.

The lion is strong and powerful so it is often placed in front of the house or gate to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck and blessing. Lion statues are also common in the Forbidden City, with seven or eight pairs all together, which are generally a male and a female. The male's paw often presses a ball, symbolizing the unity of the world, while the female's paw presses a cub, symbolizing an endless offspring of the royal family.

The lion statues in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City are made of bronze, with fine workmanship. They are the largest pair of bronze lions in the Forbidden City and the only pair without golden gilt. Each lion has 45 buns on its head, representing the supreme dignity of the emperor in Chinese context. The ears were pricked up, which means that the emperor should listen more to the opinions of his ministers and the instruction of the god.

The lion statues in front of the Gate of Heavenly Purity (Qianqingmen), the main gate of the Inner Court where the royal families lived, have drooping ears, which warned the concubines in the inner court to listen less and discuss less about the state affairs. It also warned officials should bow and scrape to the emperor.

There is also a pair of gilt bronze lions in front of the Palace of Tranquil Longevity (Ningshougong), where the concubines of the previous emperor lived. Their ears droop and their eyebrows cover the eyes, implying that the concubines should not interfere in politics and not listen or see those affairs.