有著一座座古井在紫禁城內。明清兩朝的文獻記載，宮廷內的古井是皇帝日常生活的重要之物。
《神州大地》系列 總第 5 集：「宮內滿佈井溝 — 每杯水皆從外運入 | 神州 05」是本集影片的完整圖文轉錄，可逐字閱讀，也可前往影片頁觀看對應畫面。
在故宮內有井溝。
明清史料中，宮內的井溝一一記錄：有的被描述為「甘甜可飲」；
有的則被記載為「破井」。
城內水源豐富
城牆外側還有一個
濠池，然而皇宮的廚房每天
所需的水源卻是從城外運來的
為何?
從井頭說起
明代的劉若愚寫了一本叫做《卓中志》的
書，記錄了皇宮的運作。
它提到數個井: 一個在小石橋東邊,"甜甜的適合喝"; 一個在萬曆年間開挖的,"甜得極了。 "
井也有不同的職能。
故宮博物院的研究館長周倩，曾經描述井為宮廷的"主要供水來源, "
既供飲水又供消防用途。
關於消防，劉若愚在同一本書中補充了一句：內金水河被留給火災，因為“倚賴井水取水，能夠救多少呢？”大清宮內的掃除、灌溉和清洗都取自這些井水。
有一口水井獨立於其他水井之外:
在心修齋的大廚井。
順治八年 — 1651 年 — 一項規矩被制定:
每年十月，必須在大廚井前祭祀井神。
故宮博物院的官方網站描述這口井的水為
"清潔,
甜美且冰冷。 "
誰在照顧這些井? 可以確認的是
修復，非每年清淤。
位於嘉德殿右翼西側的八角井曾經在
1626年被清掃過一次。 之後味道還是沒有改變，左中志只是寫道：
「一個真正的淪陷的井水。 」
每年都有固定的一項例行公事：三月廿四日，宮廷的水道清理，銅水缸打掃並重新灌入剛剛取出的新水。
每年都要把每個井挖掘乾淨
因為我們找不到明朝的
記錄中有明確的規則
所以宮中的井並不是全部
都不可飲用
有些可以喝
有些井已經填滿
至於這點
記錄中各有不同
為什麼要離開城門去找水呢？
當時的人們把城市的水情記
下了。
明代的徐崇，在《暖書有備》
中說道： " 首都的井水大多鹹苦
難以入口。
李時珍在《本草綱目》中指出：
城市的水井靠近溝渠和下水道，垃圾渗透進入水源，水質變得鹼性。
清代有一位在《燕京雜記》中的匿名作者寫道：
京城的水口感最差。
王允，先前在元朝所寫：
水源遍佈於人口密集的地區，水質多為鹹水；井中發現的好水，百井中不過一二個。
這些記述描述的是北京全城，而非紫禁城內的井水。 現代對鹹味的解釋源自
現代研究中的地下水化學，而不是當時的記錄
。外牆外的水線
並不是清朝的發明。
至元二十八年,
元朝郭守敬建議將長城內的白浮泉水引流:
水流西轉北城之北方，然後南轉入城於西水關。《元史》水利志中記錄了這條水道。
元朝還開挖了一條金水河
，將玉泉山的水引入皇城和宮殿
中。當時有個規定：不許在金水河
裡洗手。 一道1322年的詔書記載
當初創建皇帝時期，
在金水河洗手是被禁止的" — 當時，
人們已經用它灌溉馬匹。
後來的白府線斷裂了。
明朝修建了昌平的皇陵後
朝廷討論再次疏浚後
認為「水流逆向西邊
過祖陵，很可能不合適，」
所以沒有修理。
1471年又派出一隊人
再次調查後也得出相同的結論。
一旦白富氏停息，玉泉山的水便成為京城的主要來源。
清朝的皇宮也從那裡取水。
玉泉山的水為何名聲遠播？乾隆十六年（1751年），皇帝曾著文：《玉泉山下天下第一泉記》。
同年的一道詔令上
載有這一句話：「品嘗了名泉後，
我認為這一座泉水是天下第一。」
他所評定的不是味道，
而是重量。
方法在文章中有記載：
「用銀錘比較」
同樣的銀錘灌入不同的水源，
灌滿後再稱重，
輕的排名第一。
玉泉山的水：一斗
济南的白玉泉：一两二两六
长江的金山泉：一两三两六
回泉和虎跑泉：一两四两六各
清涼山、白沙、虎丘、西山的雲光寺
和清涼山的水一兩一分，雲光寺
和白沙的水也一兩一分。這篇文章
又多了一行：雪水比玉泉的輕三兩，但
「不能常備。」
這就是乾隆自己所列的清涼山
水的價格清單。 To judge water today, we use
chemical analysis, not weight.
How did the water get into the
palace? By land. The carts loaded water
at Jade Spring Mountain, came in through
Xizhimen Gate, then entered the palace by
the Gate of Divine Might.
One record says that after Puyi abdicated,
the carts bringing Jade Spring water still
came through the Gate of Divine Might
every evening. Xizhimen has a nickname:
the Water Gate. The name does not
come from a sluice for diversion
it comes from the water carts all
using that gate. In the old barbican,
the archway carried a white marble carving
of water ripples, called "the Xizhimen water
pattern. " It is gone today.
Diversion took a different route: the Inner
Golden Water River entered the palace by
the sluice west of the Gate of
Divine Might and left by the sluice
south of the East Glorious Gate.
That comes from a public statement in 2016
by Shan Jixiang, then director of the
Palace Museum. One cart, one sluice.
Two entirely different routes.
Who ran it? In the Qing,
the Imperial Household Department.
The office in charge was the Neiguangling
Office, also called the Zhangguanfang Office.
In the twenty-second year of Kangxi a
cart depot was set up under it,
managed by four officials.
How many people? Here there are two
accounts. One says the Zhangguanfang Office had
four thousand nine hundred and fifty subordinate
attendants — but that is the whole office,
not water carriers only.
The other says water carrying fell to
the Imperial Kitchen, with one hundred and
three men on the duty.
Both accounts are cited.
For the number of men whose sole
duty was carrying water, we found no
primary record. How much water came in
each day, or each year — likewise not
found.
There is one more thing we could
not find. In the Qing there was
a work called the Palace History.
Two of its chapters record daily expenses,
allowances and offerings in the palace.
Milk, tea, vessels, ice chests — each listed
item by item. Water is not there.
Another work, the Collected Regulations of the
Palace, sets out the daily allowances from
empress dowager down to the lowest-ranked consorts.
It has no entry for water either.
On the Palace Museum''s own website,
the emperor''s daily allowance is said to
include "twelve jars of Jade Spring water. "
That figure carries no archival citation.
Another set of numbers circulating online
fifty jars for the emperor, twenty-five for
the empress dowager, twenty for the empress,
two for a maid — we could not
trace, and it does not match the
twelve. How the water was divided up
after it reached the palace, we found
no primary record for either.
Water had another form in the palace:
ice. Ice was cut in more than
one place. The archives and the Collected
Statutes of the Great Qing record the
waters used: the Tongzi River around the
Forbidden City, the Jingshui or Imperial River,
and the Lotus Pond at Longwangtang.
In the early Qing, ice was cut
as far away as the Tongzhou channel;
after 1754 Tongzhou was dropped and more ice
was cut on the Imperial River each
year. The ice was stored in icehouses
outside the Longzong Gate.
The Collected Statutes record: "within the Forbidden
City, five icehouses, storing twenty-five thousand blocks"
each block a foot and a half
square. Four icehouses still stand in the
palace today. Ice was not only for
the palace. In the ninth year of
Shunzhi a rule was set: every year
from midsummer until the start of autumn,
the princes, the ministers and the censors
all received ice.
Ice was collected on a ticket.
The Board of Works issued ice tickets,
and the holder came to collect.
Not only people inside the palace either.
Outside the ten city gates, and at
the four memorial arches east and west,
fourteen official summer-broth stations were set up
for soldiers and civilians.
The system was interrupted in the middle:
suspended in 1674, restored in the Qianlong reign.
So "the Qing issued ice throughout" is
not accurate. It stopped once.
That spring, the one Qianlong weighed at
one liang — what of it today?
The springs of Jade Spring Mountain stopped
flowing completely in 1975. Beijing''s plan for treating
groundwater overdraft, covering 2023 to 2025, still lists "accelerating
ecological restoration of the Jade Spring Mountain
and Baifu Spring areas" as a task
that is, as of that plan,
it has not recovered.
The water Beijing drinks has changed source.
Guanting Reservoir began supplying water in 1954,
and stopped supplying Beijing''s domestic water in 1977
as quality declined. Miyun Reservoir was completed
in 1960; from 1982 it stopped supplying Hebei and
Tianjin and went to Beijing alone.
In December 2014, the middle route of the
South-to-North Water Diversion began delivering water to
the city. The " Finest Spring Under Heaven"
stele still stands beside the spring at
the southern foot of Jade Spring Mountain.
Jade Spring Mountain is used today by
a state institution and is not open
to the public.
What became of the stored ice?
Of the four icehouses still standing in
the palace, three have become restaurants and
one a storeroom. The area is a
visitor service zone now.
When did the water carts stop?
The Beijing water company was approved in 1908
and began supplying in 1910; its stated range
ran "inward as far as the Forbidden
City. " Whether it ever actually supplied the
palace has two accounts.
One says it did.
The other, from the recollection of an
old employee of the works, says the
pipe into the palace served firefighting only:
it entered from the East Glorious Gate,
ran about three hundred metres, and ended
at the Wenchang Pavilion — and the palace
still drank water delivered by cart.
The exact year the carts stopped,
we could not find.
The latest marker is 5 November 1924, when Puyi
left the palace. Jade Spring''s water was
still there then: a survey in 1928 still
recorded eight springs. What stopped was the
system, not the source.
Back to the question at the start.
There are wells in the palace.
Some of their water could be drunk,
some could not; the wells were sacrificed
to, and repaired. That the city''s water
was unpleasant is written down by the
people of the time.
Qianlong used a silver measure to place
Jade Spring''s water first on a list
he drew up himself.
So every day water carts came into
the city: from Jade Spring Mountain,
in through Xizhimen, in through the Gate
of Divine Might. Who managed it,
how many men, how much came in
each day — the offices can be traced;
the figures mostly cannot.
Once the water reached the palace,
part of it became ice, stored outside
the Longzong Gate and handed out on
tickets in summer. This way of moving
water ran from the Yuan, when Jade
Spring was diverted into the capital,
all the way to 1924.
And the water of Jade Spring Mountain
where did that come from?
Shenzhou: China''s Living Heritage.
The transcript and bibliography are at sylogs.com.
▶ 觀看本集影片（含畫面與地圖）：A palace full of wells — and every cup of water carted in from outside | Shenzhou 05