Imperial City site of Southern Song Dynasty

Imperial City site of Southern Song Dynasty

The imperial city site of the Southern Song Dynasty is a key cultural relic protection unit in Zhejiang Province.

It is located in Songcheng Road, the east foot of Fenghuang in the south of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province.

After Zhao Gaozong of Song Dynasty established the capital of Hangzhou, he built forbidden court in the former site of Zhouzhi of Northern Song Dynasty. It starts from fengshanmen in the East, West to the West foot of Fenghuang, tiaozhuwan in the South and wansongling in the north, with a radius of 4.5 km.

In May 2020, it will be included in the first batch of "Zhejiang cultural imprint" list.

History of the Imperial City

The imperial city site of the Southern Song Dynasty is a key cultural relic protection unit in Zhejiang Province. It is located in Songcheng Road, the east foot of Fenghuang in the south of Hangzhou. There are three gates in the city, Lizheng in the south, hening in the north and Donghua in the East. In the Imperial City, the palaces are towering and dazzling. There are more than 130 halls, halls and pavilions, including Jinluan hall, chuigong hall, Xuande hall, Funing hall, qinzheng hall and retro hall. In addition, there are magnificent imperial gardens up to the top of Fenghuang mountain. In the 14th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1277), due to the delay of the fire among the people, it was burned up and became a ruin in the Ming Dynasty. At present, there are military houses, Hangzhou cigarette factory and other large-scale buildings and civilian houses on the site, and the state cultural relics department is conducting archaeological excavation. There are many stone carvings and stone scenes in Fenghuangshan imperial garden, which is planned to be the "Imperial Palace Site Park of Southern Song Dynasty".

Layout of the Imperial City

The inner part of the imperial city can be divided into two parts: the inner part and the outer part. The palace city is divided into Chaohui District, houshu District, Houyuan District, intrauterine Service District, Donghuamen palace District, and cining palace district; outside the palace city are beigongmen, Donghuamen Service District, Donggong District, Neifu yamen District, and so on. According to the latest frame and calculation of Hangzhou authorities, the comprehensive protection project of the imperial city site of the Southern Song Dynasty has four ranges: Qiantang River in the south, Qingchun Road in the north, Zhonghe (deshougong site) in the East and Hupao road Nanshan Road Jiefang Road Yan'an Road in the West. Compared with the initial coverage, there is one more Deshou Palace site, and the total area has been expanded from 13.8 square kilometers to 14.1 square kilometers.

The core block, namely the imperial city site of the Southern Song Dynasty, covers an area of about 500000 square meters, starting from the eastern foot of Mantou in the East, to Fenghuang Mountain in the west, to Songcheng road in the south, and to wansongling road in the north.

Chaohui District

The location has been basically confirmed by archaeological data. The longer part of the front end is juxtaposed with the vertical arch hall and Daqing hall. The longer rammed earth platform behind Daqing hall is due to the rear hall and Yanhe hall. After the death of the Song Dynasty, chuigong hall was used as Baoguo temple. Maybe Daqing hall had been destroyed at this time, so Yanhe hall was used as xiaoxianlin temple. In fact, it was arranged according to the axis of two roads.

The total length of the front end of L-shaped rammed earth abutment is 112 meters, of which the westward protruding part is 46 meters. According to the documents, the chuogong hall and Daqing hall are in the same shape and juxtaposition, that is, they are located in the front of L-shaped rammed earth platform, and the West protruding part is chuogong hall. From front to back, the L-shaped rammed earth platform is Daqing hall, houdian hall and Yanhe Hall (the houdian hall was rebuilt in Xiaozong's time), which is in line with the pattern of "three halls" in the Imperial Palace, such as Taihe hall, Zhonghe hall and Baohe hall. According to the literature, the L-shaped rammed earth platform is supposed to be the back sleeping area, namely Funing palace and Kunning palace.

Back bedroom

There are two rammed earth on the axis behind the main rammed earth platform of Daqing hall. According to the literature, it should be Funing palace area. Funing palace was changed into Zunsheng temple in Yuan Dynasty. Zunsheng temple has white tower and Wangjiang Pavilion. According to the diaries of Ke hang written by Guo Yi of Yuan Dynasty, the gate of Zunsheng temple and the pavilion of watching the river by popular clouds. Overlooking the Qiantang River. According to the author's tour route, first you will visit Prajna temple, then you will visit Zunsheng temple, from north to south, so Zunsheng temple is on the North Gaogang. It is inferred that the rammed earth and the northern section are the main area of Funing palace.

Donghuamen palace area

Donghuamen palace is mainly used by the emperor to meet ministers alone. The main hall is Xuande hall. "Xianchun Lin'an Zhi" records Zhou Bida's "Xuande Dian Ji": the east of the unique Dian and the forbidden Huan is named Xuande. Xuande hall was an important activity place in the reign of emperor Xiaozong. Zhou Bida recorded: "at noon, I entered the Donghua gate and passed Xuande hall. Then I went to the stadium, which was called Shuitang from the lobby. On the left was Furong Pavilion and on the right was lingxu Pavilion." After the death of Song Dynasty, this group of buildings became Xingyuan temple with Furong Pavilion as the center.

Intrauterine service area

That is, the houses on both sides of the road from beigongmen to chuigong hall. There are imperial kitchens, imperial wine storehouses, imperial medicine institutes, neidongmen department, and artifact institutes. According to the records of Nandu palace and menglianglu, the whole area should be located on the west side of the mountain.

Historical records

The imperial city of the Southern Song Dynasty began to be destroyed soon after the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, the former site of the imperial city was used as five Buddhist temples, and five temples were basically destroyed at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. There are no complete descriptions and drawings of the location and pattern of the Imperial City in the literature of the Song Dynasty, but only a few notes in various historical materials. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, some people had begun to study the imperial palace of the Southern Song Dynasty, including Xu Yikui, Gu Yanwu and Zhu Peng.

Intrauterine topography

In ancient China, cities were built on earth and water, just like heaven and earth, and the location of imperial cities was more like "Xing Sheng" and "Wang Qi". The imperial city of the Southern Song Dynasty is located at the eastern foot of Fenghuang, and its layout is based on the mountain, which is a classic of this traditional site selection. Zhao Yanwei, a Song Dynasty man, said: "the so-called Fenghuang Mountain in Yuhang is the front mountain of the main entrance of Da neili in Lin'an Prefecture. The mountain rises from the northwest and ends at this point. It is divided into two wings. The second one is the prime minister's office, the third one is the temple, the fourth one is the government, and the last one is the Chaotian gate. " According to Zhao Yanwei, the left armpit of Fenghuang mountain, "there is a mountain package behind" should refer to Bapanling, the second refers to wansongling, the third refers to Ruishi mountain, and the fourth refers to Wushan mountain.

In front of Bapanling in the east of Fenghuang mountain, there is a small mountain connected with Fenghuang mountain, namely Wuya mountain. The small mountain opposite to Wuya mountain and Bapanling mountain is called "Mantou mountain". The circuitous mountain pattern of "Mantou mountain" should be "Fenghuang Mountain in the east of Fenghuang Mountain" as mentioned in the book of Hu Shan Bian LAN. There is a slow link between Bapanling and Mantou mountain. Wuya mountain, Bapanling and Mantou mountain are like two arms, encircling a flat area, which is the core of the imperial city of the Southern Song Dynasty. The axis of rammed earth platform found in archaeological exploration is basically parallel to the ridge line of Wuya mountain and Bapanling mountain, and coincides with the axis in the middle, which proves the inevitable connection between the site selection of the imperial city of Southern Song Dynasty and the terrain from one side.

Boundary and scope

Referring to the capital map and imperial city map recorded in Xianchun Lin'an annals, Zhao Yanwei said: "the so-called Phoenix Mountain in Yuhang is the front case mountain of the main entrance of Da neili in Lin'an mansion." the south wall is located at the foot of Phoenix Mountain. On the spot survey, looking west from the warehouse yard of the Military District, we clearly see two mountains as shown in the imperial city map.

The gate found at the end of the song city road coincides with the location of the Chaoma courtyard and the back door of the palace recorded in the southwest corner of the imperial city map. Therefore, the south wall of the imperial city should be along the song city road. The brick road is one of the passageways in the imperial city. There is more than one large ramming earth platform. The second and third ramming earth platforms form an obvious axis relationship with the east part of the first ramming earth platform. The axis basically coincides with the central axis between Mantou mountain and Wuya mountain, which is supposed to be the main central axis of the imperial city. Therefore, the junction of the axis and the city wall (Songcheng Road) is likely to be Lizhengmen.

The northwest wall was built along the ridge of Bapanling mountain, and the rammed earth wall remains exposed on the ground. The reason why the city wall starts from the ridge is to avoid the erosion caused by the confluence of the mountain. The city wall goes down along the ridge instead of a straight arc (as inferred by the archaeological survey of Lin'an Imperial City in Southern Song Dynasty in Hangzhou). As shown in the imperial city map, the city wall has a South inclined acute angle in the northwest corner, which does not conform to the general ramming law. However, from the perspective of topography, this corner is after the city wall reaches the foot of the mountain along the ridge, not only to leave space between the north city wall and wansongling ancient road, but also to make the city wall orthogonal to the imperial street. Wansongling ancient road on the north side of the city wall has been an important road connecting the north and south of Hangzhou since ancient times. According to menglianglu, "wansongling is on the Yamen mountain of Diansi, and on the Xiling of xiaorenfang outside the gate of hening, pine trees are planted along the road. Today, the official and folk houses in the imperial residence are high and low, row by row, and most of them live on the top.". It can be seen that wansongling ancient road is not included in the imperial city. "Menglianglu" also records: "the name of neimenmen is hening Outside the gate, there are hundreds of officials, with red branches on the left and right. On the left, there is a gate, and on the right, there is the waiting courtyard and the guest provincial four square hall It can be known that there are still a lot of buildings outside the gate of hening, so the north wall should be located in the south of wansongling ancient road, the north of traditional Chinese medicine warehouse site, and the center of Fengshan new village. The location of the north gate should be the junction between the city wall and the drum tower, the Yujie site in yanguanxiang and the city wall.

Some scholars believe that the location of the imperial city should include the area to the east of Zhonghe river. If so, the wall found may be the location of the palace wall. However, referring to Professor que Weimin's research on the Hangzhou canal, before the Southern Song Dynasty, Yanqiao River, or Zhonghe River, was connected with Qiantang River through Longshan gate and Zhejiang gate. Longshan gate was near the Baita at the present gate. After the founding of the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, because Longshan river was close to the inner city, it was forbidden to transport boats. Zhejiang gate was the main waterway connecting Qiantang River, Therefore, it is impossible to be included in the imperial city. The Longshan river was close to the inner city, and was blocked by boats. The Dragon protection pool in the literature may be formed by the deposition of this channel. From this we can see that the scope of the imperial city is limited to the west of Zhonghe river. The distance between the Zhonghe River and the east wall is about 240 meters. It remains to be seen whether there is a wall in this space

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