Weiyang Palace site in Chang'an city of Han Dynasty

Weiyang Palace site in Chang'an city of Han Dynasty

Weiyang Palace site of Han Chang'an city is located in Xi'an menli, southwest of Han Chang'an City site in Weiyang District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province.

Weiyang palace is the main palace of the Western Han Dynasty, the political center and national symbol of the Han Dynasty. It was built in the seventh year of emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty (200 BC) and built by Xiao He, an important Minister of Liu Bang. It was built on the basis of Qin zhangtai. It is located in the southwest corner of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty. It is also called the Western Palace because it is in the west of anmen street in Chang'an city. Since the completion of the Weiyang palace, the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty have lived here, becoming the center of the Han Empire for more than 200 years. Weiyang palace is the administrative place and forbidden court of eleven dynasties, including Western Han Dynasty, Xinmang Dynasty, Eastern Han Dynasty, Western Jin Dynasty, former Zhao Dynasty, Former Qin Dynasty, later Qin Dynasty, Western Wei Dynasty, Northern Zhou Dynasty, Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty. It has existed for 1041 years. It is the palace with the most dynasties and the longest existence in Chinese history.

Weiyang palace is the eastern starting point of the silk road. In the second year of Jianyuan (139 BC), Zhang Qian received Emperor Hanwu's mission to the western regions in Weiyang palace, and started a vigorous journey of digging the sky. It shows the development level of Oriental civilization at the eastern end of the Silk Road, and witnesses the dual starting point value of time and space in the development of Han Chang'an City on the silk road. Weiyang palace is six times as large as the Forbidden City in Beijing, with pavilions, pavilions, mountains and rivers. Its architectural form has a profound impact on the later palace buildings and laid the basic pattern of palace buildings in China for more than 2000 years.

On March 4, 1961, the Weiyang Palace site in Chang'an city of Han Dynasty was announced as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

On June 22, 2014, at the 38th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting held in Doha, Qatar, the Weiyang Palace site in Han Chang'an city was successfully included in the world heritage list as one of the sites in the "Silk Road: road network of Chang'an Tianshan corridor" jointly applied for World Heritage by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Historical evolution

Chang'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, where the Weiyang palace is located, is the political, economic and cultural center of the whole country, as well as a famous international city. Weiyang palace, as the "public Palace" of the Han Empire, is the most important building in Chang'an city of the Han Dynasty, which has an important influence on the capital system of ancient China. It has become one of the most famous imperial palaces in ancient China because of its longest use time and far-reaching influence on later generations. In 1956, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (the predecessor of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) formed the Han Chang'an City team and started the Han Chang'an City archaeological work. From 1961 to 1962, a preliminary exploration was carried out in the weiyanggong area. Since the 1980s, the team has carried out comprehensive archaeological exploration and key excavation of the Weiyang Palace site.

In spring and autumn of 1980, the jiaofangdian building site (No.2 building site of Weiyang Palace) was investigated and drilled.

In the spring of 1981, it was reexamined. From October to December 1981 and from February to May 1982, large-scale excavation of the site was carried out.

From March to May 1983, additional excavations were carried out

. The No.2 site of Weiyang palace is 180 meters west of daliuzhai village, Weiyang Township, Weiyang District, Xi'an city. It is 330 meters north of the front hall site of Weiyang palace and 275 meters south of tianluge site.

From April to June and October to December 1980, the sites of area a and B of the front hall (No. 1 building site of Weiyang Palace) were excavated.

From December 1985 to January 1986, and from September 1986 to May 1987, the central government building site (No. 3 building site of Weiyang Palace) was excavated

. The site is located 100 meters to the east of lujiakou village, weiyanggong Township, Weiyang District, Xi'an City, 880 meters to the northwest of weiyanggong front hall site and 105 meters to the west of weiyanggong West palace wall.

From September 1987 to May 1988, the architectural site of Shaofu (or the government office under its jurisdiction) was excavated

. The site is located in the southwest of kejiazhai village, weiyanggong Township, Weiyang District, Xi'an City, 400 meters away from the front hall site of weiyanggong in the southeast, and 350 meters away from the second building site of weiyanggong (jiaofangdian site) in the East.

From October 1988 to April 1989, the architectural site of the southwest corner of the palace city (No. 5 of Weiyang Palace) was excavated. It is located in the north of cheliu village, Sanqiao Town, Weiyang District, Xi'an city.

In addition, during the decade of the 1980s, the layout of Weiyang palace was comprehensively explored, and some palace gates, walls and roads were partially excavated.

Architectural pattern

The overall layout of the Weiyang Palace site is rectangular, surrounded by walls.

There are three main roads in the palace city. Two parallel East-West roads run through the palace city, and a north-south road runs through the middle of the palace city. The two east-west trunk roads divide Weiyang palace into three regions: South, middle and North.

The main buildings in Weiyang Palace are front hall, Xuanshi hall, greenhouse hall, Qingliang hall, Qilin hall, Jinhua hall, Chengming hall, gaomen hall, Baihu hall, Yutang hall, Xuande hall, Jiaofang hall, Zhaoyang hall, bailiangtai, Tianlu Pavilion, Shiqu Pavilion, etc., totaling more than 40.

The front hall is the most important main building of Weiyang palace, which is located in the center of the whole palace, surrounded by other important buildings. On the north side of the front hall is Jiaofang hall, where the queen lives; on the north side is Tianlu Pavilion, the earliest national library in China, and Shiqu Pavilion, the earliest national archives in China; on the west side of the front hall are the central government office, Shaofu and other royal government offices; on the southwest side of the front hall are the Imperial Palace Chiyuan District, with cangchi and Jiantai.

According to historical records, there is a Sima gate on each side of Weiyang palace, and there are que outside the east gate and the north gate, which are called the East Que and the North que. At that time, the princes came to the East que, while the scholars went to the North que.

Archaeological remains

In the 1980s, the archaeological excavation and research of Weiyang palace achieved fruitful academic results. It tried to excavate the auxiliary building sites of the front hall, Jiaofang hall site, Shaofu palace building site, central government building site and palace turret building site, and produced tens of thousands of cultural relics.

Palace wall site

Weiyang palace is nearly square, surrounded by palace walls, which are 8-10 meters wide, 2150 meters long in the East and West, and 2250 meters long in the north.

The palace city is 8800 meters in circumference and covers an area of 5 square kilometers, accounting for about one seventh of the capital area.

Simamen site

Weiyang palace is surrounded by a palace gate, called Sima gate. The East Sima gate is the main gate of the Imperial Palace, and the northern gate is where the princes pay homage to the emperor and the emperors go in and out of the palace city. Civil and military officials, palace elites and dignitaries enter and leave the palace from the North Sima gate. The East and North simamenwai built tall que Lou, which is the famous East Que and North Que in the Han Dynasty. Simamen in the West and South are rarely used. The four simamen sites have been explored and their locations have been determined. The East Sima gate is located in the southeast of daliuzhai village, and the West Sima gate is in the middle of lujiakou village. The East and West Han Dynasty road to the north of the front hall is just connected with the East and West Sima gate. Nansima gate is 850 meters west of the southeast corner of Weiyang palace. From the gate road to the north, there is an 8-meter-wide north-south road leading into the palace. It is 1300 meters to the east of the northwest corner of Weiyang palace and 60 meters to the northeast of tiangongluge site, namely beisimamen site. Inside the gate, there is a 10 meter wide South-North road leading to the east of QianDian.

In addition to the four Sima gates, there are more than a dozen "ye gates" in Weiyang palace. They are specially built for some people to enter and leave the imperial residence. For example, the studio gate built 800 meters west of the North Sima gate is a gateway for all kinds of craftsmen in the studio to enter and leave the imperial palace.

Shiquge site

Shiquge site is located in the northwest of Weiyang palace, 45 meters south of the North palace wall and 500 meters east of the West palace wall.

Shiquge is a high platform building popular since the Warring States period. The central main building foundation still exists. The existing rammed earth foundation is 7 meters high, with the bottom of 60 meters from east to west and 50 meters from north to south. The whole building site covers 115 meters from east to west and 120 meters from north to south. Taiji Zhoushi corridor.

Tianluge site

Tianluge site is 520 meters to the east of Shiquge site, 720 meters to the north of QianDian, 60 meters to the North palace wall and 35 meters to the South North Road of Han Dynasty connecting beisimamen. Tianlu Pavilion is also a high platform building, its scale is slightly smaller than Shiqu Pavilion.

The existing tianluge platform is 6-7 meters high, with a square bottom and a side length of more than 20 meters. There are also corridors around Tianlu Pavilion. The site is 55 meters from east to west and 60 meters from north to south.

Cangchi site

There is a low-lying area in the southwest of Weiyang palace, where cangchi was located. Cangchi is 700 meters east of Xigong wall and adjacent to Nangong wall in the south.

Archaeological investigation shows that the cangchi site is about 500 meters long from north to South and 400 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of 196000 square meters. Cangchi water is introduced from the gate of Zhangcheng by the water outside the city, which is called "open channel" after entering the palace. The exploration of the old open channel is basically clear: the channel water flows into cangchi from west to East, and then flows from cangchi

Chinese PinYin : Han Zhang An Cheng Wei Yang Gong Yi Zhi