Water Vat

In the courtyards of palaces and imperial gardens of China water vats are seen standing not far from the main buildings. In their time they were filled with water against the emergency of a fire. In winter they were covered and wrapped around with quilts and, when necessary, heated from below with charcoal to prevent the water from freezing. There were in the old days 308 such vats in the Forbidden City of Beijing; now only a little over 200 arc counted.

The water vats were not only fire fighting installations but part of the adornments that made up imperial magnificence. In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) they were mostly made of iron or bronze, but they became much more elaborate and finely made in the Qing (1644-1911), being of gold-plated brass and adorned with rings and side knobs in the form of animal heads.

These water vats fall into different grades. Flanking the front of such important halls as Taihedian (Hall of Supreme Harmony), Baohedian (Hall of Preserving Harmony) and Qianqingmen (Gate of Heavenly Purity) are huge vats, each weighing 3,392 kilograms and measuring 1.6 meters in diameter. Near less important buildings, the vat weighs 2,166 kilo­grams and measures 1.28 meters. Still less important pavilions and towers have iron or bronze vats of yet smaller sizes.

Visitors to the Old Imperial Palace today can no longer see the gold-plated brass vats as they were in their time. This is because the gold plate was scraped off with bayonets by troops of the Eight-Power Allied Forces which invaded China in 1900.