China Forbidden City’s red gates with golden door nails subject to rules regarding number, colour

Visitors to the Forbidden City in China’s capital city might find it hard to ignore its magnificent red door, but there is more to the entrance than its beauty.The golden door nails not only neatly line up, they were exclusive to the royal family and cannot be seen everywhere in China.In the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1912) dynasties, door nails were a symbol of hierarchy, and are bound by strict rules.Firstly, the number of door nails must be odd because in traditional Chinese culture, odd numbers stand for yang, or the light, and even numbers stand for yin, or darkness.A man looks at two women in traditional attire at the red gates of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Photo: XinhuaNine is the biggest of odd number under 10, so it became exclusive to the emperor, symbolising the supreme power and divine authority.In the Forbidden City, the gates are painted red, which is a colour of solemnity and prosperity. The major gates are adorned with 81 gilded door nails, arranged in a strict nine by nine grid.However, the Donghua Gate, or East Prosperity Gate, has only 72 door nails.There are a few interpretations behind this exception.One is that it was a “ghost gate” where the coffins of emperors, such as the Qing dynasty’s Shunzhi, Jiaqing and Daoguang, left the Forbidden City. Using an even number of door nails was a gesture to distinguish death from life.A crowd of tourists gathers on a visit to the Forbidden City during a May Day holiday. Photo: ReutersAnother is that the Ming Dynasty’s last emperor, Chongzhen, was believed to have fled from the Donghua Gate before hanging himself from a tree when his dynasty fell.Further ReadingAs a result, when the Qing dynasty rebuilt the gate, they removed a row of door nails, as a punishment for its failure to protect the regime.A third theory is that the east is the direction of wood, and the element wood is believed to restrain the earth element in Feng Shui theories. Making the number of door nails even was believed to be an effective way to remove the wood’s power.Only the emperor was allowed to use 81 door nails.A wide shot of the Forbidden City captures the full splendour of the famous site. Photo: Eugene LeeIn the Qing dynasty, princes’ mansions should use 63 door nails and their sons 45.Dukes and lords were also allowed to install door nails, using the numbers 49 and 25 respectively. They should also only use door nails made of iron. Ordinary people were not allowed to use door nails.The rules were also meticulous about the colour of the doors.In the Qing dynasty, red doors were only allowed for the royal family and officials. Rich people could paint their doors black but ordinary people were not allowed to paint their doors.The earliest documentation of door nails dated back to the Northern Wei dynasty (386-535).In fact, door nails were not just for decorative purposes. As many gates were huge and integrated multiple wood boards, the door nails also functioned as reinforcements.They were designed into the cute, round shape out for aesthetic purposes. Because they are hollow, in the Song dynasty (960-1279), they were nicknamed “floating bubbles”.Today’s custom of visitors touching the door nails also stretches back into history.Traditional Chinese doors with brass lion head door knockers and ornamental studs. The number of studs represent the status of the owner. Photo: ShutterstockIn the Ming Dynasty, women also had the tradition of touching the door nails with their eyes closed, while they were out in the evening of the 16th day of the first lunar month.That day was one of the few dates when ancient women were allowed to go out at night.Strolling in that evening was also named “walking away illnesses.” Women believed that by touching the door nails, good luck would fall on them.Some also believed that touching door nails would bring them a son, as the Chinese for “door nail”, men ding, is homophonic to the word that means “a male in the family”.They believed that the higher the door nail they touched, the better luck they would achieve.