4 pieces
There are more than 800 couplets in various palaces in the Forbidden City. Among them, the most famous one is the "Upright and Bright" plaque hanging in the Qianqing Palace. The above four characters were inscribed by Shunzhi, the first emperor after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs. The words come from "The Book of Changes·Dazhuang": "The great one is upright. The love of heaven and earth can be seen in the uprightness." "The Book of Changes·Lu" "Rightness" "Zhongzheng" means being upright, selfless and aboveboard. Kangxi highly praised his father's calligraphy as "the structure is beautiful and surpasses ancient and modern times", and he imitated the four-character calligraphy on stone. What is hanging now is Emperor Qianlong's imitation again, and he used the rubbings to make this plaque. On the plaque is " The words "Guangyunzhibao" and "Treasure of the Supreme Emperor" are used. The reason why this plaque is important is not only because it was inscribed by Shunzhi, but more importantly, there is a "building storage box" behind this plaque that determines the fate of the country's heirs. At that time, Yongzheng, in view of the fierce competition among the princes in the later years of Kangxi, invented the unprecedented method of secretly establishing the heir. That is to say, the emperor did not publicly appoint a crown prince during his lifetime, but secretly wrote out the document of choosing the crown prince in duplicate, one of which was placed next to the emperor; the other was sealed in the "Jianshu Box" and placed behind the "Upright and Bright" plaque. . After the death of the emperor, Minister Gu Ming took down the "building storage box" together, checked it with a copy kept secretly by the emperor, and announced the heir to the throne after verification. The four emperors Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Xianfeng all ascended to the throne according to this system.