Wupailou

Wupailou

Qianmen Street is located in the central axis of the capital, starting from Jianlou, Zhengyangmen in the north and the intersection of Tiantan Park in the south.

Historical evolution

Ancient history of wupailou

Wupailou in the south of Zhengyang Bridge

, is the common name of Zhengyang archway, because its modeling form is five rooms, six columns and five floors. When it was completed in 1439, it was a wooden structure. Six columns were all through the sky columns (also known as chongtian columns). Each column had a pair of pilasters. Each room had two forehead imitations. There were hollowed out flower boards in the imitations. The top of each floor was supported by a bucket arch. The fifth floor had four slope roofs. The front of the main room was inlaid with a plaque of "Zhengyang bridge", and there were small stone animals carved on the pole clamping stone.

The urn was demolished in 1915. There are three stone arch bridges on the moat to the south of Jinlou, named Zhengyang bridge.

Wupailou

Because of its wood, it was burned many times in Wanli of Ming Dynasty, Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, Daoguang of Qing Dynasty and Tongzhi of Qing Dynasty. The biggest one was the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, when the boxers burned the "laodeji" which sold foreign medicine. The fire spread to the wupailou under the Zhengyang gate. Later, the archway was renovated several times. When Yuan Liang was mayor in 1935, he told the story that the wooden columns of the East Fourth and West Fourth archways and the fifth archway were rotten. Then the East Fourth and West Fourth archways were demolished and rebuilt into reinforced concrete structure according to the original shape. However, the fifth archway of Zhengyangmen was not demolished, and the basic structure of the fifth archway remained unchanged. Because the concrete increased the bearing load, the pilaster was cancelled, which was a combination of Manchu and Han The Manchu language has also been removed from the fue of Zhengyang bridge.

Modern history

In the 1950s, Beijing's plan was to learn from the Soviet Union in an all-round way, emphasizing the need to build Beijing into a city of production and give priority to the development of heavy industry. As the people's capital overlaps with the ancient feudal capital, according to the concentric and coaxial reconstruction plan of the old city, the Zhonghua Gate, Qipan street, the East-West Qianbu corridor and the East-West three gates in the front of the imperial city on the central axis were first removed, followed by the Qianmen five archway. Wupailou was finally demolished in 1955 because of obstructing traffic. In this way, only the city gate and arrow tower were left. Nevertheless, people can still see it from time to time in old photos and commemorative films.

The first reconstruction

In 2001, according to the shape of the old archway, Zeng Shen rebuilt the fifth archway in the south of Qianmen archery tower, but it was of reinforced concrete structure. And considering the impact on traffic, four of the six columns of the archway are suspended, 6.5 meters from the ground, so it was once called "false five archway". The imitation wupailou was demolished not long ago.

Second reconstruction

In May 2008, the reconstruction project of Qianmen Street started in full swing, and wupailou was renovated

. The renovation was carried out in strict accordance with historical photos and written records, and rebuilt in situ according to the original sample and technology. After more than six months of intensive construction, wupailou was basically completed and made its debut. After more than six months of renovation, the fifth archway of Zhengyang bridge first appeared on December 23 with the renovation of Qianmen Street. The "five rooms, six columns, five floors" wooden archway with the top of the column echoes with Zhengyang gate, so that we can find a sense of history that we haven't seen for a long time. In the near future, the plaque in the middle of the fifth archway will be written with three characters of "Zhengyang bridge".

Historical story

The predecessor of pailou

Pailou used to be an important building on the streets of Beijing. It decorated and set off the beauty of the city. In the late Qing Dynasty, the wooden pailou across the streets included Qianmen waiwu pailou, dongjiaomin Lane pailou, xijiaomin Lane pailou, donggong'an Street pailou, Ministry of justice Street pailou, East Chang'an Street pailou, West Chang'an Street pailou, Dongdan pailou, Xidan pailou, Dongsi pailou (4) There are four archways, namely, Xisi archway (4 Ying), imperial temple archway (2), dagaoxuan archway (2), beihaiqiao archway (2), Chengxian Street archway (2) and Guozijian archway (2). There are two archways in front of the street, one is opposite to the grand hall, and the other is the archway of the fire temple in front of the drum tower. During the period of the Republic of China, Dongdan archway and Xidan archway were demolished, and some archways were rebuilt into concrete structure.

In May 1952, Beijing began to plan to demolish the archway, which was raised by Shouguang of the traffic management department of the Public Security Bureau. They believe that traffic accidents are frequent near the archway on the street, and the archway affecting the traffic is the main cause of traffic accidents. They suggest that the road maintenance engineering office of the Construction Bureau remove the archway.

Remove the twists and turns

Wu Han, vice mayor of Beijing, took up the task of explaining the demolition work. Liang Sicheng and Wu Han had a heated argument. Liang Sicheng believes that the city gate, archway and archway constitute the unique landscape of the ancient streets in Beijing. The city gate is the close view of the main streets, and the numerous archways and archways turn the monotonous and straight streets into orderly and rich space, which has the same effect as the sculptures, triumphal arches and obelisks in the western urban streets. They are beautiful embellishments and symbols in the market, and can be used as reference materials The construction of traffic roundabout should be reasonably planned and retained. According to Wu Liangyong's recollection, Liang Sicheng once said to Zhou Enlai in front of Wu Han and Xue Zizheng, Secretary General of the municipal government, "I have opinions on these two leaders. They don't attach importance to the protection of city buildings."

In order to preserve more valuable archways, glazed palace doors and other ancient buildings in the old capital, Mr. Liang and Comrade Wu Han, who called himself the "reformist" at the expanded state council office meeting, were red in the face. I remember that once Comrade Wu Han stood up and said, "you are an old conservative. In the future, high-rise buildings will be built everywhere in Beijing. Will not you be surrounded by high-rise buildings Chicken cages and birdhouses have no cultural relic appreciation value! " The anger made Mr. Liang cry on the spot. On August 20, 1953, Wu Han presided over a meeting to discuss the protection of cultural relics and buildings in Beijing. Xue Zizheng, Liang Sicheng, Hua Nan Shang, Zheng Zhenduo, Lin Huiyin, Luo Zhewen, ye gongchuo, Zhu Zhaoxue and others attended the ceremony.

Zheng Zhenduo said: "if it is necessary to demolish it, it is best to contact the administration of social and cultural undertakings in advance. It is up to the central government to decide. It should not be rude."

Lin Huiyin proposed that "the protection of cultural relics and new buildings are unified. To protect the old is to preserve the fine tradition for the new buildings. "The nine gates of Beijing are symmetrical. If they are destroyed, they will not be the original foundation. Another example is that the temple of heaven only preserves the hall of praying for the new year, and the demolition of others is not the way to preserve cultural relics. ". She thinks that the preservation of residential buildings is also an important aspect: "art has always had two traditions, one is palace art, the other is folk art, the latter includes some houses and stores, some of which are very good. How to preserve these is very important."

Liang Sicheng pointed out in his speech, "the development of Beijing is to develop on the basis of historical formation, and it is necessary to preserve the style of a beautiful city formed by history. Some units (such as public security, transportation and economic departments) have one sidedly considered "the capital should play an exemplary role in the protection of ancient buildings, and it is necessary to be cautious."

He took out the experience of the Soviet Union and proposed that "in the construction of Moscow, ancient buildings should be preserved as far as possible in principle.". He also ridiculed the destruction of cultural relics and buildings with the idea of "private ownership of land". It seems that Beijing authorities have the idea of "private ownership of land". They love to demolish and build within their own scope, and they don't consider the whole at all

However, Wu Han replied: "experts' opinions should be respected in handling the case, but experts can't think that their opinions must be realized." After the meeting, the archways were preserved, relocated and demolished, that is, those in the park and temple could be preserved; all the archways on the street were relocated or demolished except four in Chengxian street and Guozijian. Under this historical background, wupailou was finally demolished in 1955 because of obstructing traffic.

Wupailou will return to the common people's view in 2008, but this is a pity after all. At that time, Lin Huiyin scolded Wu Han: "what you will rebuild in the future is at best a fake antique!" This is a pity for Liang Sicheng or Lin Huiyin, and also makes people think deeply about the protection of cultural relics.

Related Ballads

Beijing folk songs

My brother has the money to build a western style building, which is the wupailou in Qianmen. There is a gold plaque on the floor, which says "Wo Wo tou".

Qianmen folk

1. The height of Qianmen building is three, six, six, ten, nine.

2. Tricycle, really fashionable, do not step on the pedal. Visit Qianmen, the Forbidden City, and PanTao palace outside DongBianMen.

3. There are a lot of cars in Beijing. They run all over the street. The tram goes around the city and the train goes to Qianmen station.

4. Moon shoes, Mid Autumn Festival, eat moon cakes, for rabbit, wear new socks, change new shoes, with grandma, pull sister, go to Qianmen to go shopping.

Address: Qianmen Street

Longitude: 116.397994

Latitude: 39.897008

Chinese PinYin : Wu Pai Lou