Zhonghuamen urn

Zhonghua Gate, the South Gate of the capital of Ming Dynasty, is the best preserved gate in Nanjing. The construction of the urn city is magnificent and complex. The city is divided into two layers, with four gates. There are 27 caves for storing soldiers, which can store 3000 soldiers. It is the largest urn in China.

The old gate pass is now covered with green jade. In front of us are the magnificent city walls, the weathered and exfoliated City bricks on hand, and the overgrown road under our feet. Walking on such a city, we can't help but have the illusion of crossing time and space.

Zhonghuamen

synonym

Zhonghua Gate urn city generally refers to Zhonghua Gate (Nanjing Zhonghua Gate (Nanjing city wall gate))

Zhonghua Gate, formerly known as Jubao gate, is one of the thirteen gates of Ming Dynasty Capital in Nanjing city wall. It is located at the south end of Zhonghua Road, Qinhuai District, Nanjing City, facing south. It is the largest existing gate in China and an outstanding representative of ancient defensive architecture. It occupies an important position in the history of wall architecture in the world. It is also the best preserved, most complex and largest fortress urn in the world "The world's first Urn" said. The layout of Zhonghua Gate is neat and its structure is unique. It is an important material for studying ancient Chinese military facilities. It plays an important role in military, history, culture and urban construction history.

Zhonghua Gate is a kind of inner urn gate with the shape of "Mu". It is second only to Tongji gate in scale. It has three inner urn gates with four gate walls. Each gate has an "Mu" shaped structure. Each gate has a double iron clad gate and a gate that can be started up and down. There are bolt slots in it, which are used to close the gate with wooden bolts. The main city gate is divided into three layers, with 27 caves for Tibetan soldiers, which can hold more than 3000 soldiers. In front of and behind the Zhonghua Gate, the inner and outer Qinhuai River flows from east to west. It connects Changgan bridge in the South and Zhenhuai bridge in the north. It is the traffic throat of the south of the old city of Nanjing. The East and west of the old gate, bounded by Zhonghua Gate, has been a prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River since ancient times.

Zhonghua Gate was built in the period of Yang and Wu. It was the South Gate of Jiangning mansion, the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty, and Jiankang mansion, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. Ming Hongwu two to eight years (1369-1375) on the basis of expansion, known as jubaomen. In 1931, the national government changed its name to Zhonghua Gate, which was inscribed by Chiang Kai Shek on the eve of the Double Tenth Festival, and the east gate and the west gate of Zhonghua were added on both sides to meet the traffic demand. In January 1988, it was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit and a part of the Qinhuai scenery belt of Confucius Temple. In November 2012, Nanjing, as the leading city of the project of "Chinese Ming and Qing Dynasty city wall", the Nanjing Ming city wall where Zhonghua Gate is located, was included in the preparatory list of China's world cultural heritage.

Historical evolution

From 1369 to 1375, it was built on the site of Jiangning mansion, the capital of Southern Tang Dynasty, and the South Gate of Jiankang mansion, the capital of Southern Song Dynasty. Qinhuai River runs from east to West in front of and behind the gate. It connects Changgan bridge in the South and Zhenhuai bridge in the north, which is the throat of traffic in the south of Nanjing old city.

In 1931, the national government changed the name of jubaomen to Zhonghuamen. In 1982, it was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council.

In August 1366, yingtianfu city was rebuilt and a new palace was built in the south of Zhongshan. This was the first phase of the project, which was completed in September 1367. The second phase of the project, from 1369 to 1373, focused on building a new city and extending the old city northward to the riverside. The third phase of the project continued until December 1386, when "new Houhu city" was built to build Jubao, Sanshan and Tongji The city gate, Houhu city and main streets are important.

In the early Ming Dynasty, when building jubaomen, the Imperial Court adopted a strict inspection system to ensure the quality of city wall bricks. The names of Brickmakers and supervisors were printed on the sides of each brick. Once unqualified products were found, they were immediately investigated for responsibility. This was the first quality tracking system adopted in the world. It was not until the industrial revolution in Europe and other western countries two or three hundred years later that it was improved use. Because there is a strict quality tracking system and it can be strictly implemented, the inner walls of yingtianfu, including the wall tiles of jubaomen, are of excellent quality. Despite the changing dynasties, the Taiping Rebellion and the Anti Japanese War, jubaomen, or Zhonghua Gate, is still well preserved until 600 years later.

During the period of the Republic of China, in order to meet the needs of road modernization and reconstruction in Nanjing, the national government opened the east gate and west gate of Zhonghua Gate on the East and west sides of the original jubaomen, which could meet the traffic demand of cars from south to North at the same time. The plaque on the main building of Zhonghua Gate is inscribed with three words "Zhonghua Gate", which was inscribed by Chiang Kai Shek.

After 1949, Zhonghuamen was occupied by Nanjing municipal maintenance team and Qinhuai District civil air defense. In March 1979, the then Nanjing Revolutionary Committee decided to set up Zhonghuamen management office to complete the relocation and reconstruction of the urn. February 16, 1980 (Spring Festival), open to the outside world.

In 1995, combined with the reconstruction of Zhonghua Road and Yuhua Road, Nanjing Municipal People's government built Zhonghua Gate Square near the main building of Zhonghua Gate, with an additional green area of nearly 10000 square meters, erected a number of high pole lighting palace lamps and lawn lamps, and built Zhenhuai East Bridge and Zhenhuai West Bridge. The construction of Zhonghuamen square and Zhenhuai East and West bridges has improved the traffic conditions and beautified the surrounding environment of Zhonghuamen historic site.

In 1957, Zhonghuamen was listed as a cultural relic protection unit in Jiangsu Province.

Layout structure

Zhonghua Gate is 118.5 meters wide from east to west and 128 meters long from north to south, covering an area of 15168 square meters. The first gate is 21.45 meters high. The main building of the inner urn is composed of the main building gate of Zhonghua Gate and two to four auxiliary gates. Each gate has a double wooden gate and a Qianjin gate which can be started up and down. Only the gate slot and gate position remains. There are 13 zangbing caves at the top and bottom of the urn, and 14 zangbing caves at the bottom of the left and right horse roads, which can store military supplies and ambush soldiers in wartime. More than 3000 soldiers can be stationed at the same time, and the daily necessities for soldiers can be stored.

There are 11.5 meters wide and 86.1 meters long raceways built on the East and west sides of Zhonghuamen urn. The raceway is steep and broad, which leads directly to the top of the main city gate. It is a fast way to transport military supplies to the city in wartime. Generals can also ride horses to the head of the city. The main building of Zhonghuamen gate, the auxiliary building of Zhonghuamen gate and the wall of the urn connected on both sides constitute the main building of the urn in Zhonghuamen gate.

The main gate of Zhonghua Gate, the first gate, is 21.45 meters high, with three floors of upper, middle and lower. The upper floor was originally built with a veranda style double eaves and tile top, which was destroyed in December 1937 when the Japanese invaders attacked Nanjing. Now there are only the remains of the platform foundation. The middle floor is made of brick and stone, with seven Tibetan soldier caves in a row. The middle floor is the Wengcheng corridor, with three Tibetan soldier caves on each side. The second to fourth auxiliary gate of Zhonghua Gate is a two-story structure with wooden tower on the top and masonry structure on the bottom.

Zhonghua Gate is built with huge stone strips as the gate foundation and large wall bricks. The adhesive is made of glutinous rice juice, lime and tung oil, which is very solid. Each brick is about 40-50 cm long, 20 cm wide, 10 cm thick, and each weighs 15-20 kg. It is very difficult to control the firing technology of the wall brick of Zhonghua Gate. The production of the wall brick is undertaken by 125 counties, including the capital industry department, the capital garrison, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and the capital in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The capital should be Tianfu After firing, the bricks were transported to the capital by the Yangtze River waterway to ensure the supply of building materials.

The inner urn of Zhonghua Gate, a Tibetan military facility, played a very important role in ancient cold war. In case of strong attack by the enemy, the enemy soldiers can be put into the city gate to play hard to get, and then close all the city gates to cut the enemy into three sections and annihilate them respectively, just like the legend of "catching turtles in a Urn". Because the urn of Zhonghua Gate is inside the city wall, this magnificent gate tower is called "the urn inside Zhonghua Gate". Not only that, there is also a cangbing cave in the urn, which can accommodate thousands of people. The 700 meter horse road is quite grand. The generals of the Ming and Qing dynasties can ride their horses directly to the gate of the city, which is very convenient.

Architectural features

Inscriptions on City bricks

According to a preliminary estimate, the Ming City Wall in Nanjing cost hundreds of millions of bricks. City bricks are generally 40-45 cm long, 20 cm wide and 10-12 cm thick. As the city bricks come from all over the world, the clay properties of the materials are also diverse (clay, sand, kaolin, etc.). Most of the bricks have inscriptions, at least one word (or a symbol or mark), but more than 70 words. This is not only a major feature of Nanjing Ming city wall, but also an important part of the historical and cultural heritage value of Nanjing Ming city wall. Because of the lack of historical records and the tireless textual research and supplement of the inscriptions on the bricks by cultural relic workers or interested people in recent decades, it is not clear which area the bricks used in the Ming city wall of Nanjing depend on to provide the accurate data: the bricks used in the Ming city wall of Nanjing come from the vast areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River District, which includes the government, prefecture and county of Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hunan and Hubei provinces, as well as nearly 200 units such as military health, research institutes and the Department of business repair of the Ministry of industry. According to historical records, the bricks and stones of the Ming city wall were not fired in Nanjing, but were jointly undertaken by 148 counties and 32 prefectures across the country

Chinese PinYin : Zhong Hua Men Weng Cheng