Although located to the west of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Mental Cultivation doesn’t belong to the Six Western Places. The front hall was the place for the emperor to deal with state affairs and to receive ministers. The rear hall was the emperor’s chamber. In the ancient times, this building structure was called "Front Court and Rear Bedroom”.
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Originally, the Hall of Mental Cultivation was just built as a temporary rest room for the emperor. Later, it became the long-term living place of eight emperors in the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911) from the time of its renovation by Emperor Yongzheng. It is said that, after Emperor Kangxi’s death, Emperor Yongzheng didn’t live in the Palace of Heavenly Purity, which had been the chamber of the former emperors from the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), to show his respects to his father. Emperor Yongzheng moved to the Hall of Mental Cultivation instead. Another saying says that Emperor Yongzheng chose to live in the simple furnished Hall of Mental Cultivation in order to be an economical emperor. However, it turned into the bedroom of the emperor and became more and more luxurious. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were over 780 pieces of furnishings in the hall. The Hall of Mental Cultivation used to be a temporary living place for the concubines too.
The east warmth chamber of the Hall of Mental Cultivation was the place where the two queen dowagers in the late Qing Dynasty attended state affairs behind the curtain. In ancient China, the empress or the queen mother would help to handle state affairs if the new emperor was too young.
The bigger room in the west warmth chamber of the Hall of Mental Cultivation was for the emperors to call in the grand ministers of state to talk about military matters. To avoid secrets being heard by others, three wooden walls with space in between were set outside the room to safeguard the military secrets. The smaller room in the west warmth chamber was especially built by Emperor Qianlong. Passionately fond of calligraphy, Emperor Qianlong stored three rare treasures of calligraphy in the room. The room thus is also called “Sanxi Hall” (Three Rare Treasure Hall). At present, two of the three treasures are stored in the Palace Museum, and the other one is in the Palace Museum of Taipei.
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