一場大雨落在太和殿前廣場，雨點擊中三層白玉階梯。
《神州大地》系列 總第 4 集：「一場大雨，1,142 塔頭：故宮的水去哪兒了？ | Shenzhou 04 (Short clip)」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。
一場大雨落在太和殿前廣場上
。
雨點落在三層白石台階上，一千一百四十二個雕刻的石頭龍頭突然同時噴水起來。雨停了。水繼續向南流動，沿著地面的坡度流動，通過鋪路下的排水管，流入城市東南角的河流中。 一個城市
像這樣的城市，如何讓水離開，
並防止木頭燃燒？
六百年來，這個城市一直在做兩件事情：
把水排出，
並防止火焰燒起來。
水流的路徑，隱藏在屋頂上,
在地底下，
以及石頭管道之中，層層疊疊。
防火的防禦措施變成了
庭院中的水缸、
大廳之間的牆壁和
輪班巡邏的守衛們。
兩人在一處相遇。
用來扑滅火焰的水桶
從把雨水帶走的河流中取出。
宮殿的屋頂被覆蓋著
用玻璃瓦片鋪成的屋脊。
雨水落在瓦上，沿著瓦脊流下，滴落在屋檐下。
那是第一層。
第二層是地面。
宮內的庭院不平整：
中間比兩側高，北面比南面高。
靖難門附近的土地海拔約在46公尺以上海平面；
近於午門，約四十四公里。
由北而南，整個城市
輕微傾斜下去。所以水
不需要抬起和沒有水泵。
它自己往南流動。
在太和殿前的廣場，是最明顯的例子。
中央的儀式坡道，寬兩點二公尺，是廣場
的最高線。
水流
東西流過它，注入兩旁的
敞開的溝渠。
那些溝渠是敞開的石頭溝渠。
當它遇到一座平台或建築時，水流
通過石頭的溝渠底下。記錄中稱那個溝渠
為溝眼。過了溝眼
它變成一個蓋著的排水溝 — 被埋葬,
無法看到。
排水系統分級：分支排水管收集
庭院的雨水，主排水管收集分支的雨水，
最後都匯流至內金水河。
從屋頂到河流，
這系統不需要任何電力。
白玉的三層下方
第一三個廳的底座
刻有一千一百四十二個石刻的石龍頭。該數字是故宮博物院自己的出版數字。
當雨水達到某一程度時，水會從欄杆下的開口流入水頭，然後從水頭的嘴巴噴出。人們稱之為一千條水龍吐水。水頭並非裝飾品，它們是最接近遊客的水溝系統的一部分。
修築水路只是
開始。水路能否持續運作，
取決於是否有人持續清理。清、
明兩朝都要求宮廷內的水道
定期疏浚。清朝時大多在每
年三月進行。誰負責呢？
明朝則是由燈油局（即燈油
廳），燈油廳是二十四局之一。
清朝時，宮內府的宮務局
負責皇室日常生活的管理工作
。
燃料局的主要工作是負責宮內的柴炭
供應工作
。
挖沙不是燃料局的職責 — 這是它
的另一個額外工作
。
後來的名稱也不是從一開始就有的
。 在順治皇帝時期，該處仍被稱為燃料處；至康熙十六年（1677年），該處被更名為宮內工程處，改為建築部門。因此，水利工程的負責權一直由原設於供應木柴的燃料處負責。 清朝最後一次大規模的開墾開始於光緒十一年四月，1885年，耗時兩年。它清除了金水河內河約兩千一百公尺的淤泥，並清除了約八千公尺的水道和排水溝，修復了河堤和十五座橋樑。
我們找不到的一件事是:
哪一條規定對於未能進行河道整治而處罰的規定,
以及違反這規定時的處罰。
在目前公開的摘要中,
那篇文章的內文並未被提及。
我們找不到它。
所有的水流都匯入一條河流:
內金水河。
它的源頭位於城市之外,
在玉泉山。
它經過什刹海和北海，
經西北水關進入宮殿，沿西牆南行，
在武德門前轉東，橫過太和門廣場，
於太和門東側的南水關出宮殿。
總長約為兩公里。
那條河上有三種工作。
第一，作為主要的下水道:
全市的水都被導向那條河上。
第二，作為消防用的水源:
宮殿內發生火災時，最近的水源往往就是那條河。
第三，作為運輸路線:
一些用於建造宮殿的大木材和石頭，都是沿著那條河運來的。
三個工作碰撞在一起。
要挖河渠，你不能同時抽水;
要漂木材，河水裡的淤泥必須先清除;
哪一個先行，怎樣安排，最後都還是回到同一辦公室桌上。
必須用水來對付火焰。
但從河流到火灘需要時間，所以水先移到庭院裡。
水罐很大 — 鐵和青銅。它們有好幾個名字：和平水罐、吉祥水罐、門海。
根據《大清會典》記載，皇宮曾經擁有三百零八個水罐。
今天還有二百三十一個,
其中十八個是金銅製的。
最高等級的金銅製的大缸
分別立在太和殿和保和殿兩旁,
以及天壇門外。內殿和長街上,
還有一些較小的銅或鐵大缸。
One vat stands about one point two
metres high, about one point six metres
across, and holds roughly three thousand litres.
The water in the vats was managed
by the Imperial Household Department.
Early each morning, servants drew water from
the palace wells and filled the vats,
load by load.In winter, the water
freezes. So after the first light snow,
eunuchs wrapped the vats in padded covers
and put the lids on; and on
the marble base under each vat a
brazier of charcoal was set, burning day
and night until the following spring,
at the first stirring of insects.
The Guangxu edition of the Collected Statutes
wrote this into regulation: from the first
day of the eleventh month to the
thirtieth of the first month, servants burned
charcoal under the vats, one man to
three vats; from the first day of
the second month to the thirtieth of
the tenth, each vat was topped up
twice a month. Keeping the water warm
was one component of the system:
the water had to be usable at
any moment.
The Forbidden City is a city of
wood. Wood burns.The record is clear.
In 1421, the nineteenth year of Yongle,
lightning struck the three great halls and
burned them; rebuilding finished in 1441.
In 1557, the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing,
lightning struck them again and the fire
spread to the Meridian Gate; the work
was done five years later.
In 1597, the twenty-fifth year of Wanli,
fire struck once more, and the rebuilding
was finished in 1627. The most detailed account
is from the third day of the
twelfth month, 1679, the eighteenth year of
Kangxi: a fire started in the western
kitchen, spread past the Rear Right Gate
and the Middle Right Gate, and ran
along the connected side galleries to the
Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The hall burned to ash.
Afterwards, six people connected with the fire
were executed by strangulation.
The rebuilding took a long time to
prepare. From 1682, the twenty-first year of Kangxi,
timber was collected in the provinces and
bricks and tiles were stockpiled; the actual
work began thirteen years later.
Ground was broken on 25 February 1695, the thirty-fourth
year of Kangxi; the work finished on
18 July 1697, the thirty-sixth year, at a cost
of more than two million taels of
silver.All of the craftsmen were hired,
organised by the officials supervising the work;
the Ministry of Works and the Imperial
Household Department watched the schedule together.
When the rebuilding was done, one thing
in the palace had changed: the side
galleries flanking the Hall of Supreme Harmony
were rebuilt as brick walls.
Wood had burned, so brick and stone
were used to hold fire back from
the next hall. Eighty years later,
in the Qianlong period, the Wenyuan Pavilion
was built to hold the Complete Library
of the Four Treasuries.
It was placed deliberately on the north
bank of the Inner Golden Water River:
if fire came from the south,
the first thing it met was the
river.And the vats were only one
item. In 1723, the first year of Yongzheng,
a fire watch was set up,
with a hundred men picked from the
guards for night duty.
In 1727, the fifth year of Yongzheng,
eight water pumps were fixed as standard;
by 1815, the twentieth year of Jiaqing,
thirty-one western-style pumps stood at posts across
the palace. Water, equipment, people, and the
building''s own firebreaks — all four in place
at once is what makes it a
system.
More than ninety per cent of the
rainwater still goes through the old channels;
what modern hands have altered is under
ten per cent.Every spring, summer and
autumn, the Palace Museum clears silt,
working area by area; the whole complex
comes round in four to five years.
The old schedule left by the Ming
and the Qing is still followed:
weed in spring, fill in summer,
clear the leaves in autumn, cut the
ice in winter.In summer, seventy-two vats
in closed areas are filled, about two
thousand litres each, as the first bucket
of water when a fire starts.
In winter, holes a metre square are
cut in the ice on the Inner
Golden Water River and the moat every
twenty metres, and re-cut every three days.
The palace has its own firefighting force
as well. The special station of the
Tiananmen area fire and rescue detachment divides
the complex into one hundred and twenty-six
courtyards — one plan for each — and can
reach any corner in three minutes.
Then is the saying "the Forbidden City
has not flooded in six hundred years"
correct? Shan Jixiang, a former director of
the Palace Museum, explained it publicly in 2016:
the ground is high in the north
and low in the south, and with
the network of open and covered channels,
"however heavy the rain, there is no
problem of standing water".
On the other side, the monitoring department
of the same museum has described another
part of the record publicly: the historical
documents do contain entries on standing water.
In April 1885, the eleventh year of Guangxu,
water stood "from one foot to several
feet" in places between the East Glorious
Gate and the West Glorious Gate.
In 2023, the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility
took on water during a heavy storm
and recovered after the drains were cleared;
what had blocked the covered drains was
plastic bottles, plastic bags, towels and clothing.
The museum''s administrative office puts it this
way: a more accurate version of "no
standing water for six hundred years" is
"even when water stands, it drains away
quickly".Both accounts are here.
Which one is closer to the facts
is yours to judge.
Water falls on the roofs, reaches the
ground, passes from the open channels into
the covered drains, then into the river
and out of the city.
What moves it is the slope,
the graded channels, and people who kept
clearing them. Wood burns, so the palace
brought in vats, kept men on duty,
stored equipment, and used brick walls to
separate one hall from the next.
Keep the water where it belongs,
and fire does not take hold.
And where does the water itself come
from? Every drop inside the walls was
carried in from outside them.
That is another line.
This is our reading, not the record
itself. The full transcript is at sylogs.com.
▶ 觀看本集影片（含畫面與地圖）：One storm, 1,142 stone dragon heads: where does the Forbidden City''s water go? | Shenzhou 04 (Short clip)