Gate of Divine Prowess

The Gate of Divine Prowess, also called the Gate of Divine Might, is the northern gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. It is known in Chinese as Shenwumen. The gate was built in 1420, in the eighteenth year of the reign of the Yongle Emperor, and was originally named the Black Tortoise Gate. The name changed after the Kangxi Emperor, whose birth name contained the character xuan, came to the throne, because that character then became a naming taboo. As the back gate of the palace it served palace workers, and women sent into the palace to be considered as concubines also entered through it. The gate has a similar name to the Xuanwu Gate Incident of the Tang dynasty, but that coup did not take place here, since the Tang capital was Chang'an.