Xi'an ancient city wall

Xi'an City Wall scenic area is located in the central area of Xi'an, which is rectangular. It is the most complete existing ancient city wall building in China. It has a history of 1400 years since Sui and Tang Dynasties. There are four gates: East Changle gate, Xi'an dingmen gate, South Yongning gate and North Anyuan gate.

The city wall of Xi'an was built on the basis of the imperial city of Tang Dynasty. The city wall is surrounded by Xi'an city. It is as solid as gold and has extraordinary momentum. Climbing the tower, you can not only overlook the scenery of Xi'an, but also ride a bicycle on the tower to watch the wonderful performance.

Xi'an city wall

synonym

Xi'an ancient city wall generally refers to Xi'an city wall (national key cultural relics protection unit)

Xi'an city wall, also known as Xi'an Ming city wall, is the largest and most complete ancient city wall in China

It is the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units and national AAAAA tourist attractions

. In a broad sense, Xi'an city wall includes Xi'an Tang city wall and Xi'an Ming city wall, but generally refers to Xi'an Ming City Wall in a narrow sense.

Xi'an Ming city wall is located in the central area of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. The wall is 12 meters high, 12-14 meters wide at the top and 15-18 meters wide at the bottom. The outline is a closed rectangle with a circumference of 13.74 kilometers. People in the city wall are used to call it the ancient city area, covering an area of 11.32 square kilometers. The famous bell and Drum Tower in Xi'an is located in the center of the ancient city area.

There are four main gates of Xi'an city wall: Changle gate (East Gate), Yongning gate (South Gate), Anding gate (West Gate) and Anyuan gate (North Gate). These four gates are also the original gates of the ancient city wall. Since the Republic of China, in order to facilitate access to the ancient city area, a number of new gates have been opened. So far, there are 18 gates in Xi'an city wall.

On March 4, 1961, Xi'an city wall was announced by the State Council as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

At the 2018 Northwest China Tourism Marketing Conference and tourism equipment exhibition, Xi'an city wall was shortlisted in the list of "100 wonders of Northwest China".

Historical evolution

Xi'an city wall is the largest and most complete ancient city wall in China.

The existing city wall is a Ming Dynasty building, with a total length of 13.7 kilometers. It was first built in 1370 (the third year of Hongwu) and completed in 1378 (the eleventh year of Hongwu). It was built on the basis of the imperial city of Sui and Tang Dynasties under the guidance of the Ming Taizu's policy of "building walls high, accumulating grain widely and slowly becoming king". At that time, it was the official city of Xi'an. Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of Ming Dynasty, canonized his second son Zhu Xian as the king of Qin Dynasty. The city was large-scale and strong because of the combination of vassal and government. In addition, the city was repaired and built many times in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it is still well preserved.

At the beginning of 2004, the city wall road project of Hanguangmen section in Xi'an city was constructed. Entrusted by the relevant departments, Shaanxi Institute of ancient architecture design (now Shaanxi Institute of cultural heritage) carried out archaeological investigation on the exposed section of the city wall. It was found that the structure of the city wall was complex and the time span was from Sui and Tang Dynasties to modern times.

According to statistics, the city wall section can be divided into five periods from early to late. Namely:

Sui and Tang Dynasties: the existing section is close to triangle;

At the end of Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties, the old city wall was thickened from 1.5 meters to more than 2.5 meters, and the top was also increased by nearly one meter;

Song and Yuan Dynasties: the supplementary layer is located in the center of the Ming city wall section, with dark brown soil, dense texture, and a small amount of bricks and tiles;

Ming and Qing Dynasties: all the walls of the former city wall were built inside, that is, the present Xi'an city wall;

The modern repair layer is mainly reinforced by the relevant departments in Xi'an in the early 1980s.

Built in Sui Dynasty

Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty, first lived in Chang'an city of Han Dynasty. But at that time, Chang'an City in Han Dynasty was dilapidated and narrow with serious water pollution, so it was decided to build another new city on the south slope of longshouyuan in the southeast.

In the second year of kaihuang (582), the construction of Daxing palace opened the prelude to the construction of Daxing city. Under the leadership of Yu Wenkai, it took only nine months to build the palace city and the imperial city.

In the third year of kaihuang (583), the Sui Empire moved to Xinjing. Because Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty was granted the title of Daxing Gong in his early years, the city was named Daxing City, and the palace city was named Daxing palace.

In the ninth year of Daye (613), Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty used more than 100000 people to build Waiguo city outside the palace city and the imperial city. So far, the overall pattern of the city was basically formed, which was inherited by the later Tang Empire.

Changan City of Sui Daxing and Tang Dynasty is 9721 meters wide from east to west, 8652 meters long from north to south, 36.74 kilometers long in circumference, with a total area of 84 square kilometers. It is the largest capital city in ancient China.

Construction in the late Tang Dynasty

In 618, the first year of Wude, Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, Li Yuan established the Tang Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the capital of Chang'an was established, and Daxing city was renamed Chang'an city. Daxing palace was renamed Taiji palace.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an city suffered great damage because of the war. Han Jian, the Jiedu envoy of Youguo army stationed in Chang'an, rebuilt Chang'an city because it was not easy to defend.

Han Jian abandoned the outer city and palace city of Chang'an City, and only retained the Imperial City, which was called Zicheng, for repair. The former imperial city had three walls in the East, South and West, and a wide street in the north, which became the boundary between the imperial city and the palace city. In this renovation, the south wall of the palace city was used as the north wall of the sub City, which was connected with the East and west walls of the imperial city. As a result, the original imperial city became a strong city surrounded by tall walls on all sides, and the three gates of the Imperial City, Zhuque, Anfu and Yanxi, were closed, and the Xuanwu Gate was opened to the north for defense. The reconstructed Chang'an city is called "new city". The perimeter of the new city is 9.2 kilometers, only one fourth of that of the original Chang'an city. At the same time, an inner city was built inside the city as the area where the government was located, and a small city was built outside the East and west walls to serve as the governing place of Danian county and Daan county (which were later restored to Chang'an County and Wannian county respectively). This new city only has the nature of a military town.

After five dynasties of later Tang Dynasty, later Jin Dynasty, later Han Dynasty, Later Zhou Dynasty, Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty, the name and construction system of Chang'an city changed many times, but the scale of the city wall did not change. That is to say, from the end of Tang Dynasty to Song Dynasty, Chang'an city at that time was only the imperial city of Sui and Tang Dynasty, reflecting the gradual decline of Chang'an city.

Yuan dynasty

In the Yuan Dynasty, the scale and distribution pattern of Fengyuan Road City (known as anxifu city in the early period) were basically similar to those of the previous dynasties, except that the construction of Anxi palace was started in 1273, and it was built in the northeast of the city near a high and flat place of Huhe River, with an area of about 0.3 square kilometers. Marco Polo, an Italian traveler, once praised it in his travel notes for its high walls, magnificent palace, surrounded by rivers, lakes and springs, and troops, which are suitable for hunting.

It can be seen that the scale of the "new city" wall Han Jian majored in changed little in the Five Dynasties, Song Dynasty, Jin Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty. It was followed by jingzhaofu city in the Northern Song Dynasty and fengyuanlu city in the Yuan Dynasty.

Reconstruction of Ming Dynasty

As early as before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang conquered Huizhou, a hermit named Zhu Sheng told him that he should "build walls high, accumulate grain widely and become king slowly". Zhu Yuanzhang adopted these suggestions. In March 1369, General Xu Da led his troops across the river from Shanxi to Shaanxi. The yuan general fled and occupied Fengyuan City. Soon, the Ming Court changed Fengyuan road to Xi'an government, which was the beginning of Xi'an's name.

After the unification of the whole country, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered all prefectures and counties to build cities. In 1374, the city wall of Xi'an began to be built and completed in 1378.

Zhu Yuanzhang thought that "the mountains and rivers in the world are only the middle of the Qin Dynasty, which is dangerous and solid". He attached great importance to the status of Xi'an. Hu Ziqi, the imperial censor, wrote a request to move the capital to Xi'an. In August of the 24th year of Hongwu (1391), Zhu Yuanzhang sent Zhu Biao, the crown prince, to visit Xi'an

He made his second son Zhu Xian king of the Qin Dynasty, and he ruled Xi'an.

At that time, it was very popular to build cities in the Ming Dynasty. Most of the walls of many large and medium-sized cities preserved in China were built at that time. Up to now, there is still a popular saying among the people in Guanzhong: "the pig (Zhu) in the Han tombs and the Tang pagoda circles.". The Ming city wall of Xi'an was built on the basis of the old city of Tang Dynasty under the leadership of Pu Ying, the governor of Xi'an. According to documents, the West and south walls of Xi'an built in the Ming Dynasty were extended by using the walls of the former imperial city of Tang Dynasty, while the East and North walls were expanded and newly built.

The location of qinwangfu city determines the development direction of Xi'an city. In the early Ming Dynasty, the palace of King Qin was built in the northeast corner of the old city of song and Yuan Dynasties. Based on the construction guiding principle of "Qin used Shaanxi to govern Taiwan", the wall and moat of Fengyuan Road City in Yuan Dynasty were fully utilized in the north and east to reduce the engineering quantity. This site selection basically determines the expansion direction of the city, and its purpose is to protect the Lord Qin's residence in the big city. The consideration of how to place the Lord Qin's residence near the city center determines the specific scale of the East and North expansion of the city.

The city of Xi'an in the Ming Dynasty finally formed a pattern with the palace of the king of Qin as the center, and the two cities matched each other. The palace city of the king of Qin in the Ming Dynasty, also known as the palace city of the king of Qin, is the palace city of the king of Qin in Xi'an in the Ming Dynasty. The city wall of the palace of the king of Qin is divided into two parts: the inside and the outside, and the shape is a vertical rectangle from the north to the south. In addition to the palace of the king of Qin, there are also many prefectures and generals' offices in Xi'an, together with all kinds of government offices, which account for most of the area of the city. The rest of the city is still mixed with temples, Taoist temples, schools and shops. In order to meet the needs of the development of Commerce and trade, in the late Ming Dynasty in the East, West, South, north gate has all

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