Kublai Khans Mythical Great Palace Foundations Found
June 14, 2016. In Xandu did Cublai Can build a stately Pallace, encompassing sixteen miles of plaine ground with a wall, wherein are fertile Meddowes, pleasant Springs, delightfull streames, and all sorts of beasts of chase and game, and in the middest thereof a sumptuous house of pleasure, which may be moved from place to place. Samuel Purchas, Purchas his Pilgrimes, 1625.
The wonders of the Great Palace of Kublai Khan, as described in the 13th century tales of the Venetian traveler Marco Polo, have inspired much romantic writing on Asia, from Samuel Purchas 1625 description of Xandu above to the opium-dream-founded stately pleasure dome of Samuel Taylor Coleridges Kubla Khan, A savage place! as holy and enchanted, As eer beneath a waning moon was haunted, By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
Chinese cultural authorities announced that the foundations of the Yuan Dynasty (1279 to 1368) palace of Kublai Khan, thought for centuries to be located north of Beijing, were unexpectedly discovered beneath Beijings Forbidden City during excavations to upgrade the Forbidden Citys outmoded underground power and fire-extinguishing systems. The crew repairing utilities found a 3 meter thick rammed earth and rubble foundation buried beneath Ming and Qing dynasty construction.
Institute of Archaeology deputy director Wang Guangyao reported that the foundations are similarly constructed to known Yuan foundations in the ruins of Zhongdu. Their size could support a great hall as large as that described by Marco Polo, which he said capable of holding 6,000 people for a dinner.
Polo described the Summer Palace as the greatest that ever was:
It is gilt all over, and most elaborately finished inside. It is stayed on gilt and lackered columns, on each of which is a dragon all gilt, the tail of which is attached to the column whilst the head supports the architrave, and the claws likewise are stretched out right and left to support the architrave. The roof, like the rest, is formed of canes, covered with a varnish so strong and excellent that no amount of rain will rot them. These canes are a good 3 palms in girth, and from 10 to 15 paces in length. They are cut across at each knot, and then the pieces are split so as to form from each two hollow tiles, and with these the house is roofed; only every such tile of cane has to be nailed down to prevent the wind from lifting it. In short, the whole Palace is built of these canes, which (I may mention) serve also for a great variety of other useful purposes. The construction of the Palace is so devised that it can be taken down and put up again with great celerity; and it can all be taken to pieces and removed whithersoever the Emperor may command. When erected, it is braced against mishaps from the wind by more than 200 cords of silk.
Forbidden City officials say that further excavation will be difficult and probably sporadic, since the building above the site is also an historical monument. In the past, Chinese officials have tended to de-emphasize the Yuan rulers and their culture as a non-Chinese aberration, but the discovery certainly establishes a powerful continuity between the Yuan and the Ming and Qing. The Yuan Palace may also lie along the Central Axis of Beijing, believed by some Chinese to be the citys sacred backbone. Further excavation will be required to determine whether the Yuan Palace will be included along that axis with the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party leadership compound.
