Quzhou ancient city wall

Quzhou ancient city wall

Quzhou ancient city wall is a large-scale defense facility reflecting the traditional architectural style of Ming and Qing Dynasties. National key cultural relics protection units (announcement time: May 25, 2006). At present, it is difficult to determine when the preserved Quzhou City Wall was built without clear records in historical records. However, a more unified view is that the brick and stone city wall was officially built in Quzhou after the Tang Dynasty. According to the Quzhou Fu Zhi written by Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, "Quzhou was built in the fourth year of Wude of the Tang Dynasty (621)"

brief introduction

According to the five elements annals of the Tang Dynasty, Quzhou was destroyed by the flood in the 11th year of Yuanhe (816) There must be a city if there is a silhouette, because since ancient times, the silhouette has been dependent on each other. Tang Cui Geng's the story of women's mansion says: "the city of Qu is built on the towering ridge of Guishan mountain", which is also very positive. Therefore, it can be inferred that the first construction of the city wall of Quzhou, as a government, was after the establishment of the county government in the fourth year of Wude in the Tang Dynasty, and its site should be centered on Guifeng, zhengrongling, which is today's Fushan. Before that, as the seat of the county-level government, there should have been a city wall, but first, the scale of the city wall would not be very large. Second, the city wall was abandoned due to the expansion of the city after the establishment of Quzhou in the Tang Dynasty. The present city walls are basically consistent with those built in the Tang Dynasty. Since the Tang Dynasty, the city walls have been built, expanded, and preserved so far. It can be said that it is a "vestige of the Tang Dynasty" with a long history. In December of 1120, the second year of Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty, the fangla uprising army captured Quzhou. In the second year, the sheriff was up to Guifeng to build the old city. According to the annals of Xi'an County written by Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty, "the city wall is one Zhang six feet five inches wide, one Zhang one foot wide, and four thousand and fifty steps back.". There are six gates, and each building gate is built above the city. In the East, Yinghe; in the south, Lixian It is also called Tongyuan, now Guangyuan The common name is shuitingmen, which is named Chaojing, Yongqing in the north, Fushi in the north, Gongchen in the present; Xiaonanmen, which is called Qingjiang, Qianhu in the past, Kuixing in the past, Tongxian in the past, and Keshan in the past; xiaoximen, which is called Hefeng, Liyan in the past, and Tongguang in the present. " In the north, East and south of the city, there is water diversion from Junhao, and in the west, there is Qujiang River. Since then, there are high walls around Quzhou, and there are haos outside the walls, forming a complete city.

According to the records of Gaozong in the history of the Song Dynasty, "in the 14th year of Shaoxing (1144), the four prefectures of Yan, Xin, Jian and Qu were built." The city wall was washed down by the flood, and the sheriff's forest was waiting to be repaired. According to the five elements annals of the history of the Song Dynasty, "in May of the third year of Jiading (1210), there was a heavy rain in Yan, Qu, Wu and Huizhou, and many people drowned. This is a record of Guo in Tianlu city." One fifth of Quzhou City was destroyed. The prefect Sun Tzu Zhi took the relief money from the imperial court as his capital, and the secret court sent the general of the palace department to take part in the battle of repairing the city. After Sun Tzu Zhi left his post, Qi Kui, the sheriff, built the city wall and said, "there are two feet in 530. When the battlements of the buildings meet, they will grow stronger." In the 11th year of Jiading (1215), Wei Baowen, the bodyguard of the group, made liumen City Tower glow with a new look.

More than 100 years later, in 1355, Boyan suddenly became a governor. He built a new town along the former site of Zicheng, and went back to Jiuli 30 steps. He also went to Yinghe, Tongxian, Xianyuan, Gongchen, the four gates of which were surrounded by Yuecheng, and rebuilt six stories above the six gates.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was repaired several times. According to Kangxi * "Quzhou Fu Zhi", "Jiaqing" Xi'an county records, and "Quxian county records" of the Republic of China, it is recorded that "Hongzhi has already finished (1499) Shen Jie, repairing the city walls, and leading the stone chamber weir into the water, and the water around the city is still dry." Jiajing Gengshen (1560) prefect Yang Zhun added. During the 38th to 43rd years of Wanli (1610-1615), the prefect Hong Xianruo rebuilt the chaojingmen tower destroyed by fire. In 1622-1623, gongchenmen tower was rebuilt. "Zhang Wenda, the governor of Gengchen (1640) of Chongzhen County, built the city and Junhao, erected five qiaolou, built forty-three shacks and two thousand four hundred and twenty-five earth walls." Thus, throughout the Ming Dynasty, the city walls of Quzhou were established and the foundation of tiequzhou was established.

During the 210 years from 1648 to 1916, the city wall of Quzhou was repaired more than 20 times. In a sense, the construction history of Quzhou City Wall is also the development history of Quzhou City, which reflects the rich content of politics, economy, culture, folk custom and so on.

General situation of the city wall

The complete city wall is divided into four layers, namely "capital city", "imperial city", "palace city" and "Waiguo". Because Quzhou is not the royal family, the ancient city wall of Quzhou has only "palace city" and "Waiguo". The big city wall has eight gates, the medium city wall has six gates, and the small city wall has only four gates. Quzhou, as an important transportation hub in Western Zhejiang, has six Gates: East Gate, north gate, big west gate, small west gate, big south gate and small South Gate.

At present, the Great South Gate, the small South Gate, the great west gate and the east gate have been repaired and preserved. The restored gates are still made of blue and black stone bricks. Some of the walls are covered with herbs such as Parthenocissus, which basically preserve the true features of the gates. Some of the characteristics of the gates of Quzhou can be seen clearly. For example, the xiaoximen urn is an open space between the outer wall and the inner wall or the gate. In this way, the soldiers can open the outer gate to lure the enemy in, and then close the outer gate. The inner and outer walls and the walls on both sides form an urn like structure. At this time, destroying the enemy is like catching a turtle in the urn. This design fully embodies the wisdom of the working people. It also reflects the ancient military thought and war strategy and tactics from one side.

Because of its superior geographical location, Quzhou is the gateway of Western Zhejiang and the throat of Fujian and Jiangxi from the coastal areas. It has a very important strategic position. It has been a military town and a must fight place for military strategists since ancient times. It is located in the east gate above Guifeng and zhengrongling (namely Fushan), also known as "tiequmen." The fangla uprising, the Huangchao uprising, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, and the Northern Expedition army's attack on Sun Chuanfang's department were all frustrated here and could not be attacked for a long time. Therefore, the gate is also known as the "tiequ gate". In particular, Shi Dakai, the wing king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Li Shixian, the emperor of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, led their troops to besiege Quzhou several times, the longest of which lasted for half a year. However, because the walls were high and strong, it was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and they came back to Quzhou at the expense of their troops. Most of the Quzhou City walls are about five meters high, with smooth walls and two meters wide, which are convenient for cars and horses to walk. "The towering mountain is abrupt, Liu Yu is horizontal and hazy, the staff is searching for the old army, and the moss and stone path is inclined." These lines of poems by Wang Rongjun, a man of Qing Dynasty, fully show that this is a dangerous place for garrison troops to defend the city.

In addition to the above characteristics, the city wall also plays the role of stationing troops and storing grain, which reflects the original intention of building the city wall in ancient times and serves for war. But due to the development of science and technology, the change of people's concept and the progress of the times, the function of the city wall is gradually weakening and losing its original value.

Literary works

After the founding of the people's Republic of China, the ancient city wall of Quzhou, which reflects the rich history, has a large number of art works. Among them, Quzhou, the hometown of Zhou Xun, Zhejiang, is the most famous one, which is a member of China Museum Association, a national first-class artist, the first person to paint the former residence of Chinese celebrities in China, and a famous painter Mr. thumb.

Address: Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province

Longitude: 118.875305

Latitude: 28.93966

Chinese PinYin : Qu Zhou Gu Cheng Qiang