Changmen

Changmen

Changmen (CH ā ng m é n) is the west gate of Suzhou ancient city, leading to Huqiu. Changmen, as can be seen from the prosperous picture of Gusu in Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, the inner gate of changmen is near changmen Street (today's Xichong city), and there is a tower on it, similar to Panmen tower. The outer gate is close to the suspension bridge, and the urn is rectangular. In the urn, there is another set of city, and two Tongzi gates in the South and North. South tongzimen leads to Nanxin Road, North tongzimen leads to North Wharf.

Traffic information

You can take bus No. 31, 54, 501 and get off at "changmenhengjie" station

Name allusion

Changmen is one of the eight gates of Suzhou City, located in the northwest of the city. "Chang" means to communicate with the weather, indicating that the state of Wu will be blessed by the gods and will become stronger and stronger day by day. Because Wu wanted to destroy Chu, the gate was facing Chu, so it was also named broken Chu gate. It was named after the people of Chang family who lived here. It is the prosperous place of Chang family.

business zone

The more important reason for changmen's popularity is that it was once the most prosperous commercial district in Suzhou during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It includes Nanhao Street (now Nanhao Street), Shangtang street and Shantang street, which radiate outside the city, and changmen Street (now Xichong city) inside the city. Parallel to these streets, there are outer city river, inner city river, Shangtang River (ancient channel of Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal) and Shantang River (leading to Huqiu) converging here from five directions.

During the reign of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty, the famous paintings Gusu prosperous picture and flourishing age breeding picture all show the grand gathering of merchants on the ten mile long street from changmen to Fengqiao at that time. At that time, there were tens of thousands of shops in all walks of life. In his journey to the south, sun Jiagan of the Qing Dynasty described changmen as follows: "there are mountains of goods, pedestrians and flowing water, and there are four signboards, as bright as clouds and brocade."

At the beginning of a dream of Red Mansions, it is said that "changmen is the most prosperous and romantic place in the world of mortals." Tang Yin's poem "changmen Jishi" in the Ming Dynasty wrote: "the paradise in the world is Wuzhong, among which changmen are better at being male. Green sleeve three thousand upstairs and down, gold million water west east. The dialect of Siyuan is different. If a painter is asked to paint, he should say that painting is difficult. "

Therefore, changmen became the synonym of Suzhou at that time. In the early Ming Dynasty, the population from southern Jiangsu moved to northern Jiangsu on a large scale. These immigrants all claimed to come from changmen, Suzhou.

In May 1860, Li Xiucheng, the loyal king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, attacked Suzhou. Xu Youren, the governor of Jiangsu Province, and Ma Dezhao, the commander-in-chief of Jiangsu Province, successively issued three orders to burn down the commercial areas outside the city, so as to consolidate the city defense: "first order people to wrap up, second order migration, and third order arson". As a result, the once bustling changmen business district and Fengqiao Hanshan Temple suddenly turned to ashes, and hundreds of thousands of Suzhou citizens fled to the Shanghai concession.

When people once wrote "Gusu AI": "the Qing army came in a hurry, and the gate of the city could not be closed for three days. Fujun ordered to burn houses, and thousands of households outside the city turned into ashes. Athletes should be raised to face, abandoned armour accumulation such as hills After the war, the economic center of Suzhou had been replaced by Shanghai, so changmen business district only recovered on a small scale, and its status was even inferior to Guanqian Street in the city.

historical information

Changmen, one of the eight gates of Suzhou City, was built in the spring and Autumn period. The spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue recorded: "those who set up the gate of Chang are like the gate of heaven, connecting the gate of Chang and closing the wind." So it is also called changhemen. He Lu led his army out of this gate to go on an expedition to the state of Chu. He expressed his determination to defeat the state of Chu, so he called changmen "breaking the Chu gate". During the Warring States period, Wu belonged to Chu and was renamed changmen. In ancient times, changmen pavilions were magnificent, and many poems were sung about them.

Jin Luji's "Wu Chaoxing" says: "Chang gate he e'e, Feige across the wave, chongluan Chengyou pole, back to Xuan Qiqu a" In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were three buildings on the door, which were very spacious. Su Shunqin wrote poems on it. According to the sequel to Wujun tujing, this gate was originally written with Li Yangbing's seal script, but it was abandoned in jianyanzhong (1127-1130) of the Southern Song Dynasty. In 1254, Zhao ruli was rebuilt. After the reconstruction of changmen city building at the end of Yuan Dynasty, the title "jinchangmen" was inscribed, while "the people of Wu have been calling changmen for a long time, so it can't be changed quickly, and its name is just as it used to be.".

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng built the moon city according to the Soviet Union, and at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, he added the water gate and built the gatehouse with the title of "Qi Tong Chang He". After liberation, it was demolished because of the need of municipal construction. Changmen area has always been prosperous and bustling. Since the completion of the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty, it has become a waterway hub and material distribution center in the south of the Yangtze River. In Tang Dynasty, Bai Juyi wrote a poem: "when you look around at the gate of changmen, you begin to feel that the state is strong and popular.". Especially in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, merchants gathered and shops were numerous, which was praised as "the most prosperous and romantic place in the world of mortals" by Cao Xueqin in a dream of Red Mansions.

According to Qianlong's "Suzhou Fu Zhi" and "the prosperous picture of Suzhou", changmen is built with an urn city (i.e. moon city), lumen is adjacent to the suspension bridge in the west, changmennei street in the East (today's Xichong city); shuimen is adjacent to Julong bridge in the West and Shuiguan bridge in the East. Today, there are dozens of shops in Yuecheng street between the gate of Xichong city and the suspension bridge. After the urn was destroyed in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom war, it was rebuilt into a small moon city. In 1927, xiaoyuecheng was demolished and built into changmen square. In 23, in order to improve the traffic, changmen was demolished and the Roman city gate similar to Jinmen was rebuilt. It was completed in 25. After reconstruction, the middle gate is 9 meters wide and 9 meters high, which is a roadway; the doors on both sides are 2.5 meters wide and 4 meters high, which are sidewalks. In 1958, when the city gate was demolished, the steel bars were taken away for use, and the city bricks were used to build a small blast furnace. After the "Cultural Revolution" in 1966, the city walls continued to be demolished. In 1982, the original city gate north to the city wall along the river and the soil foundation were all piled up and leveled, and the No.4 bus platform, driving lane and departure station were built. The existing black brick arch on the south side of the small arch is 60cm wide and 36cm in relief. It is a continuous pattern of 12 × 12cm raised square corners. On the green bricks, there is the word "Gu Wei's inscription", each brick is 29.5 × 9.5 cm. The shaft of the gate is made of iron, which is still embedded in the wall of the remnant arch. In the early 1950s, shuimen still had a wooden gate. In the 1960s, there were still bluestone arches. Today, there are only bluestone diamond walls.

Enclosure

Gu Jun

"Wu Chao has his own history. Please start from changmen." This is the first sentence that Lu Ji mentioned Suzhou in Wu Chao Xing. Wu Zixu began to build the capital of Wu like heaven and earth. Changmen is the first gate of this city, which witnessed the vicissitudes of Suzhou for more than 2500 years. In the near future, a brand new picture of Suzhou's prosperity will be displayed.

Can the newly restored changmen really restore the face of history? What is the significance of such a large-scale restoration project in this era when the gates and walls are no longer used as barriers? This can not but lead us to think more deeply about modernity and tradition, protection and development, history and future.

memory

At the east end of the suspension bridge, only half of the gate in the shape of moon hole is left, and the decadent city wall is luxuriant with weeds. When the weather is fine, there are often some old people with white hair sitting lazily in the sun at the root of the city. In Suzhou, if you want to ask where the gate is, Suzhou people will often tell you whether it is "new gate" or "old gate"? New changmen has almost become synonymous with Shilu business district, but what about "old changmen"? It's here, the original terminal of bus No.4.

It is said to be "old" because the site of ancient changmen is here. In the past years, changmen tower was built here and destroyed, destroyed and built, and changed several times. Compared with the 2500 year history of changmen, although it is not old, it has left us the last legacy. At the same time, it also left a bitter and stupid history.

In 1934, in order to improve the traffic, the authorities demolished the changmen city gate tower left over from the Qing Dynasty and rebuilt changmen city gate in the Roman style of Jinmen. The middle of changmen, which was completed in 1936, is a roadway, and a side door with a width of more than 2 meters is added on both sides of the middle door as a sidewalk. Soon after, the Anti Japanese war broke out and Suzhou fell. In the old Suzhou album, there is an old photo recording the scene of changmen at that time. Under the huge advertisement of "Laodu eye medicine" at the gate of the city, there stands a Japanese sentry with live ammunition. The whole picture is filled with an atmosphere of horror and humiliation.

Until the early 1950s, the city walls of Suzhou were basically connected. From the stone steps on the north side of the land gate of changmen, you can walk northward to pingmen, and southward to xumen through the Golden Gate Tower. In 1958, the whole country launched the "great leap forward" movement, and the ancient city of Suzhou was doomed. All the water and land gates of changmen were destroyed, and the City mud and bricks were dug down to build a small blast furnace to make steel. The reason is ridiculous. It is said that the ancient city brick is extremely resistant to high temperature. Besides, it is useless to keep the wall which no longer bears the defensive function.

Decades later, we plan the restoration of the city gate again, and the past is hard to recall.

History is connected, and life will continue. What is the planned changmen like today? How can it connect with that section of broken wall? The headquarters of Suzhou ancient city landscape protection project gave the answer.

Suzhou garden design institute is responsible for the design of the restoration scheme of changmen gate and city wall. In 2002, entrusted by Suzhou Municipal Planning Bureau, they started to work out the planning of the western section of the ancient city landscape protection project. The changmen node is the key section of the planning and design of the western section. In May 2003, the Institute carried out a further detailed design for the restoration of changmen gate, and they protected it with cultural relics

Chinese PinYin : Chang Men