who was the architect of the forbidden city
History of the Forbidden City The site of the Forbidden City was situated on the Imperial city during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. After the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty moved the capital from Beijing in the north to Nanjing in the south, and in 1369 ordered that the Yuan palaces be razed. His son Zhu Di was created Prince of Yan with his seat in Beijing. In 1402, Zhu Di usurped the throne and became the Yongle Emperor. He made Beijing a secondary capital of the Ming empire, and construction began in 1406 of what would become the Forbidden City.[3] The Forbidden City's plan was designed by many architects and designers, and then it was examined by the Emperor's Ministry of Work.[4] The chief architects and engineers include Cai Xin,[4][5] Nguyen An, a Vietnamese eunuch,[6] Kuai Xiang, Lu Xiang and others.[4]
The Theatre The Mayor and Corporation of London banned plays in 1572 as a measure against the plague, not wanting to attract crowds of strangers. In 1575 they formally expelled all players from the city.[1] This prompted the construction of playhouses outside the jurisdiction of London, in the liberties of Halliwell/Holywell in Shoreditch and later the Clink, and at Newington Butts near the established entertainment district of St. George's Fields in rural Surrey.[1] The Theatre was constructed in 1576 by James Burbage in partnership with his brother-in-law, one John Brayne, (the owner of the Red Lion)[2] on property that had originally been the grounds of the dissolved Halliwell Priory (or Holywell). Brayne had advanced Burbage the money needed to build The Theatre, and in return, Brayne received a portion of the profits and owned some of the property (Burbage married Brayne's daughter Ellen in 1575).[3] The Theatre was in Shoreditch, beyond the northern boundary of the City of London and outside the jurisdiction of civil authorities, who were often opposed to the theatre. This area in the "suburbs of sin" was notorious for licentious behaviour, brothels and gaming houses. A year later the Curtain Theatre was built nearby, making the area London's first theatrical and entertainment district.[4] "When Burbage and Brayne mortgaged The Theatre, Brayne had just recently resolved another fight with one of his brothers-in-law over a different mortgage" [5] Brayne and Burbage had never written a contract, which eventually led to many quarrels concerning who spent what on getting The Theatre started.[6]