Abstract:
Emperor of Gao of the Tang Dynasty made a significant breakthrough in ceremonial construction in his reign. After a successful ceremony of sacrifices of heaven and earth, he actively promoted the discussion on the establishment of the imperial ceremonial palace and relevant etiquette, and successively put forward the blueprint of the “nine halls” and the architectural form of the imperial ceremonial palace. The establishment of the imperial ceremonial palace didn’t merely mean institutional construction but involved very complicated implications of realistic politics. Thus promotion of construction of the imperial ceremonial palace one of Emperor of Gao’s important measures to remove the remaining influence of the reign of Zhenguan so as to establish his own political image, which revealed, in a way, his political psychology to attempt to exceed the accomplishments of his ancestors. However, in the late days of his reign, owing to more and more violent struggle over power between him and Wu Zetian, Emperor of Gao could spare little mind to construction of institutional construction. This was the primary cause for failure of establishing the imperial ceremonial palace in his reign.
