city moat

city moat

Moat, also known as Hao, is defined as the river around the city wall dug by hand. In ancient times, it was used for defense. It was a river dug by hand in ancient times to surround the whole city, Imperial Palace, temple and other main buildings. It has the function of defense and can prevent the invasion of enemies or animals.

There are more moats in China and the world. The most typical cities are Nanjing, Xi'an, Jingzhou, Xiangyang, Chongqing, Hengyang, Changde, Ganzhou, Jishui, Yaotian, etc.

Moats have been built around the world in ancient times, including Beijing Forbidden City, Xi'an Ming city wall, Nanjing Ming city wall, Jingzhou Ancient City wall, Jinan moat (Jinan Ring Park), Xiangyang moat, Taiwan Hsinchu ancient city, Zuoying old city, Yizai Jincheng, Japanese ancient cities such as Matsumoto City, the Imperial residence of Edo (today's Tokyo), and castles and palaces in European countries There is a moat. Many castles in Europe have wooden bridges that can be raised on the moats to facilitate access and prevent the enemy from entering.

Concept definition

Moat, also known as Hao, is a trench dug by hand in ancient times around the whole city, palaces, temples and other major buildings, and then water is poured into the moat to form an artificial river. As a barrier of the city wall, moat has a defensive function. On the one hand, it can maintain the safety of the city, on the other hand, it can prevent siegers or animals from entering. This is the ancient people's wonderful use of water in defense means.

Among the moats in the world, the width of Xiangyang moat is the largest. According to historical records, as early as the Song Dynasty, its average width was more than 180 meters, and the widest part was more than 250 meters. It can be called the first city in China.

The moat around the Forbidden City was built in 1420, the 18th year of Yongle in Ming Dynasty. The width of the river is 52m, and the revetment is built with stones. It is firm and steep, also known as Tongzi river. The river flows from the northwest to the southeast to the Yuhe river. Lotus roots were planted in the river in Qing Dynasty. The annual income was used in the palace. The rest were sold and kept in FengChen court for reserve. The moat has a history of 580 years. In 1999, the moat was treated. The revetment was renovated and the river bottom was paved with square bricks, making the river more solid.

Moats everywhere

Beijing Moat

Among the four walls of Beijing, Andingmen and Deshengmen are the strongest. The base and top of the walls are thicker than those of the other three walls, and the bricks on the inside and outside walls are much thicker. When Beijing was rebuilt in the early Ming Dynasty, it was for the sake of guarding against the counter attack of the Northern Yuan forces, facing the enemy and adapting to frequent wars. The ring railway was built in 1915. The tracks were almost laid close to the wall. Because of the need of railway transportation safety, the outer side of Beijing city wall is well protected. The outer wall of the city wall in the west of Deshengmen is tall and strong, and almost half of the brick is not damaged, and the grass is hard to grow. The inside of the city wall was originally equipped with a high fence, and there was a special person on duty.

Beijing moat: outer moat, inner moat, imperial moat and Imperial Palace moat.

In ancient city defense system, if there were walls, there would be moats. The moat in Beijing is not a backwater. It has upper source (Yuquan, baifuquan, Miyun) and flow direction (connecting Zhuanhe, Jinshui, Bahe, Tonghui and Liuhai from northwest to Southeast). It is an important part of the water system in Beijing. The moat water is flowing, and sometimes its velocity is very high. This is because there are many gates and dams built on the moat to regulate water flow and control flow velocity. I grew up on the Bank of Deshengmen moat. At that time, this section of moat was deep and wide, with a large reed pond (later built as "Taiping Lake") on its north side. The north moat flows from west to East through the Songlin gate on the west side of Deshengmen Jianlou. There are three steps (each step is more than 1 meter high) 50 meters below the sluice. The water flows from the upper to the next, forming a drop of 4 to 5 meters. The river flows to the bottom of the archery tower, pounding the strong bridge piles and making a huge roar. The water level below the Songlin gate is like a mirror. As soon as it reaches the steps, the river rushes down like a runaway wild horse, forming a waterscape under the arrow tower of Desheng Gate.

Xi'an Moat

Xi'an Moat has a history of more than 600 years. In the first month of the seventh year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1374), Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Feng Sheng, the Duke of the Song Dynasty, to "build a city in Shaanxi". That is to say, the city wall of Xi'an was built on the basis of the original imperial city of Sui and Tang dynasties. At the same time, with the outward movement of the city wall and the expansion of the scale of the city, the moat was also extended. After excavation, the moat of Xi'an in Ming Dynasty is located 20-60 meters outside the city wall. The moat is 2 Zhang deep (6.4 meters); the moat is 8 feet wide (2.56 meters). The moat encircles the city for one week, with a total length of 4500 Zhang. Compared with the circumference of the city wall of 4302 Zhang, the moat is 198 Zhang long. Along the moat, a moat wall with a height of 6 feet (1.92 meters) and a thickness of 2 feet (0.64 meters) was built, which forced the moat from the outside and sandwiched the moat from the inside, so as to enhance the defensive combat capability of the moat. In the early Ming Dynasty, in addition to the moat outside Xi'an City, a moat around the city was also built outside the inner city (brick wall) of qinwangfu city.

The Donghao Lane on the east side of the moat square in the new city is known as the old moat inside and outside the palace. During the Qing Dynasty, the moat was deepened, widened and dredged many times. In 1656, Chen Jixin, governor of Shaanxi Province, repaired the city walls of Xi'an and dredged the moat. In the first year of Kangxi (1662), governor Bai Rumei and governor Jia Hanfu dredged the deep river to sanzhang, 9.6 meters. In September of 1737, the second year of Emperor Qianlong's reign, Cui Jixing, governor of Shaanxi Province, dredged the Longshou canal and Tongji canal to bring water into the trench because of the blockage of the diversion channel. Especially in 1781, Bi Yuan, the governor of Shaanxi Province, dredged the moat completely. The moat was deepened by four feet, with a width of six feet (19.2 meters) on the surface and three feet (9.6 meters) on the bottom. Only this project cost more than 8000 Liang. Since then, general mu teng'a of Xi'an in 1863, Tongzhi Wang Wa in 1896, governor Wei Guangtao in 1898 and governor Shengyun in 1903 dredged the moat and poured water into the moat.

Nanjing moat

The moat around the Ming city wall of Nanjing (only the eastern section of the Taiping gate was not built outside the wall), is an important part of the Ming city wall of Nanjing. The total length of the existing moat of the city wall is 31.159 kilometers. The widest distance between the city wall and the moat is 334 meters, and the narrowest is 9 meters.

The source of the moat comes from Qinhuai River, Qingxi River, Jinchuan River, Xuanwu Lake, Qianhu lake and Pipa Lake. After dredging and excavating the river course outside the city wall, the moat leads the river into Haohe. The broad moat water surface sets off the tall and strong Nanjing city wall, which makes the invading enemies look daunted.

Jingzhou moat

Jingzhou, in history, especially in the period of the Three Kingdoms, left a lot of ink. To some extent, the history of the Three Kingdoms can be regarded as the history of Wei Shu Wu's struggle for hegemony around Jingzhou. The ancient city of Jingzhou still has a complete moat

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Xiangyang moat

Xiangyang is located in the middle of China. According to the research of historians, from north to south in China, the surface water of Xiangyang is suddenly abundant. However, the northern people who are only good at land war but not good at water war often look at the water and sigh when they are in Xiangyang, a military town, during the southern invasion. The smart Xiangyang people gradually realized the function of water in city defense, so the moat was widened and dug deep again and again in the gap between wars.

According to historical records and textual research, Xiangyang moat is one of the widest moats in China. One of the reasons why Xiangyang moat is so wide is the long history of Xiangyang. Xiangyang scholar Yan Aihua pointed out in his book Xiangfan customs history that Xiangyang in history was the hub of several important land and water transportation lines in ancient times. Due to its unique geographical location, Xiangyang became an important town in the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period.

During the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the vassal states in Xiangyang were successively destroyed by Chu. In order to resist the South Korean invasion, Chu set Xiangyang, which had important strategic and traffic significance, as the "North Tianjin garrison" for military defense. At that time, Xiangyang became the north gate of the state of Chu, and a channel connecting the state of Chu with the emperor of Zhou, Zheng, Jin, Wei and other vassal states. Yicheng (now Yicheng city), which is only tens of kilometers away from Xiangyang, was once the capital of the state of Chu. After the unification of the six states, the Qin Dynasty abolished enfeoffment and established counties. Xiangyang was divided into Nanyang County (Jiangbei) and Nanjun county (Jiangnan) with Hanjiang River as the boundary. In the 13th year of Jian'an (208 A.D.), Cao Cao occupied Xiangyang and divided it into Nanjun and Xiangyang Jun, which started from then on.

In the long years after that, although the feudal dynasty was replaced by the rise and fall, and the establishment and name of the administrative divisions were also changed, Xiangyang was always the governing place of the state, county, government, road and road. Xiangyang is one of the regions with the longest history and culture in China, and has always been a regional political, economic and cultural center. Therefore, the width of the moat is the largest in the world.

Yue Fei, a famous anti Jin general in the Southern Song Dynasty, regarded Xiangyang as "the basis of restoring the Central Plains"; Gu Zuyu, a famous scholar in the Qing Dynasty, analyzed and compared the different positions of Xiangyang, Wuchang and Jingzhou in Huguang situation in his book the summary of history reading Fang Yu. The conclusion is that "Xiangyang is the most important town in terms of the world; Wuchang is the most important town in terms of the southeast; Wuguang is the most important town in terms of Huguang

Chinese PinYin : Hu Cheng He