Yijiangmen

Yijiangmen

Yijiangmen is a new gate of Nanjing city wall in the Ming Dynasty and the Republic of China. It is located in the northwest section of the city wall in Gulou District of Nanjing City, between the two mountains. The famous Zhongshan Avenue, Zhongshan North Road, enters Nanjing city from here. It is an important passage connecting Nanjing city and Xiaguan Wharf (now Zhongshan wharf).

In 1921 (the tenth year of the Republic of China), the city wall was cut open, and it was a single hole gate. It is the main road for Zhongshan wharf and Xiaguan railway station to enter the city. Han Guojun, director of the Civil Affairs Department of Jiangsu Province, was in charge of the construction. He was from Taizhou. Taizhou was called "Hailing" in ancient times, so it was named Hailing gate.

In July 1928 (the 17th year of the Republic of China), the national government changed the name of Hailing gate to Yijiang gate. In 1929, in preparation for the Fengan ceremony, it was changed into a three hole, multi span and multi arch compound gate, which was the first three hole gate in Nanjing. In April of the same year, Dai Jitao, President of the examination institute of the national government, inscribed the plaque of "yijiangmen".

On April 23, 1949, the Chinese people's Liberation Army won the battle of crossing the Yangtze River and entered the urban area of Nanjing from yijiangmen. In 1984, Deng Xiaoping wrote an inscription on the upper floor of the city and built it into a memorial hall for the victory of crossing the Yangtze River. In April 2009, the Dujiang victory memorial was rebuilt in another place.

Historical evolution

Yijiang gate in Nanjing was originally a gate hole dug on the city wall for the convenience of entering and leaving the city, which was called Tucheng gate.

The Republic of China was founded in Nanjing in 1912. With the economic development of the eastern region of China and the connection of railways, a large number of goods were transferred by railway to Xiaguan. All the goods of waterway wharf and railway enter the city from Jiangning Road, Xiaguan riverside wharf and yifengmen. Because there is not enough coastline along the main road, and other areas can not be used due to traffic barriers and low-lying terrain, the goods passing through are not smooth into the city. To this end, people from all walks of life appeal to raise funds to build roads and open up new markets.

In 1914, Jin Ding, deputy to Xiaguan commercial port Bureau, first proposed that in order to prosper the shoreline of Xiaguan wharf, more city gates should be opened, depressions should be filled, roads should be built, and traffic restrictions should be broken. This proposal was generally supported by Xiaguan business circles.

In May 1914, with the support of Han Guojun, who was then the civil affairs chief of Jiangsu Province, the local authorities of Nanjing broke the wall on the southwest wall of yifengmen, took soil from bazishan in the gate to build the road from the gate to the riverside wharf, and filled the xiaonanhe (now Rehe Road) to form a base of 27000 square meters. A new gate was opened, which shortened the journey from Xiaguan River to the city.

In March 1915, the gate was completed, and the total project cost 15000 yuan. Later, xiaonanhe base was sold at a price of 47000 yuan to fill the project cost. This project shortens the process route, facilitates the terminal traffic, and promotes the development of Xiaguan port. It is said that when Xiaguan commercial port Bureau opened the gate, because Han Guojun was from Taizhou (Han Guojun was from Hai'an at that time, Hai'an belonged to Taizhou), Taizhou was called "Hailing" in ancient times, and the gate of Nanjing was named "Hailing gate". It is recorded in the volume of "new Jing Bei Cheng": "(Han Guojun) restored a gate to the west of Yifeng gate. Han Taizhou people, hence the name "Hailing gate."

In July 1928, the national government ordered to change Chaoyang Gate to Zhongshan Gate, Yifeng gate to Xingzhong gate, hailing gate to Yijiang gate, Shence gate to Heping gate, Fengrun gate to Xuanwu Gate, Jubao gate to Zhonghua Gate and Zhengyang gate to Guanghua gate.

In 1929, in order to welcome Dr. Sun Yat Sen from Beiping Xishan Biyun Temple south of lingkui Fengan Zhongshan, yijiangmen single arch was changed into three arch. In April of the same year, Dai Jitao, President of the examination institute of the national government, inscribed the plaque of "yijiangmen". Yijiangmen was an important channel for Xiaguan to enter the city. During the period of the Republic of China, the three gate tickets of yijiangmen were installed with thick wood doors, and there were checkpoints to check pedestrians and vehicles.

In 1930, a tower was built on Yijiang gate.

In 1937, when the Japanese attacked Nanjing, yijiangmen tower was destroyed. The Japanese army once carried out a terrible killing in this area. After that, the Red Cross collected the remains of the victims and buried them together here. Now there is a memorial in the hydrangea park.

After the victory of the Anti Japanese war in 1945, the reconstruction of yijiangmen tower began and was completed in 1946.

On April 23, 1949, the main force of the people's Liberation Army (PLA) landed from Xiaguan and entered Nanjing through yijiangmen. On that night, it occupied the presidential palace in Nanjing to commemorate the victory of the PLA in crossing the Yangtze River.

On April 23, 1984, the Nanjing Municipal People's government decided to build the crossing victory Memorial Hall on the yijiangmen tower. Comrade Deng Xiaoping wrote the name of the hall.

In April 2009, yijiangmen memorial hall was rebuilt in another place. After many repairs, yijiangmen tower is in good condition.

City building construction

Yijiangmen tower was built in 1930. Haida Morrison, a famous Australian female photographer, took a large number of precious photos in Nanjing in 1930s, including the old ones in the construction of yijiangmen tower. Unfortunately, only seven years later, this building with the architectural style of the Republic of China completely disappeared in the Japanese artillery fire.

In 1937, when the Japanese attacked Nanjing, yijiangmen tower was completely destroyed. Volume 10 of the collection of historical materials of Nanjing Massacre quotes the recollection words of Japanese yoshizuke Terada in the photography class running under the fire to prove: "the beautiful watchtower (yijiangmen) was also destroyed in the air raid or shelling, even the shape could not be seen!" The so-called "beautiful watchtower" here refers to yijiangmen tower.

Soon after the victory of the Anti Japanese war in 1945, the reconstruction project of yijiangmen tower began and was completed in 1946.

There are historical records of the renovation of yijiangmen during the period of the Republic of China. In September 1930, Zhao Zhiyou, director of Nanjing Municipal Works Bureau, submitted a report to the municipal government on the renovation of yijiangmen: the preliminary budget required 200000 pieces of urban bricks. The cost of City brick is 1 cent per piece, which costs 2000 yuan in total. The project is contracted by Chunyuan Jinji construction plant and the expansion plan is designed. On the right is the police inspection office, and on the left is the police inspection office. The middle of the three gates is the fast lane, and the two sides are the slow lane with sidewalks. The contract period is 50 days. If it is overdue, it will be fined 30 yuan per day. If the project is completed in 90 sunny days, 5 yuan will be fined per day. The guarantee period of Chengmen is 330 years. The budget is 24294.15 yuan, and the actual package price is 23000 yuan.

In the process of expansion and renovation, the design scheme has been changed several times and additional funds have been added, which also shows the difficulty of the project. On November 19, 1930, the Municipal Public Works Bureau reported to the municipal government that it decided to increase the depth of the gate and thicken the footings "in order to be solid and strong", and the depth of the gate hole increased from 6.1 meters to 17.20 meters. The estimated cost of labor and materials increased from 23000 yuan to 58062.72 yuan. Payment will be made in 14 instalments. The required bricks are to be taken from Zhongshan Mentao City, and the demolition cost is expected to be 13600 yuan. The second contract was signed on April 1, 1931.

On June 2, 1931, the Municipal Bureau of public works submitted another document of the municipal government: due to the lack of solid soil foundation, it is planned to change the second floor into steel reinforced cement, which requires an additional budget of 21914.72 yuan. On June 20 of the same year, the director of municipal works reported to the mayor: "the rate of demolishing the city bricks of Zhongshan Mentao city is small, and the city wall is covered with soil, so the quality is not suitable for yijiangmen. Therefore, the Bureau has contracted another contractor to demolish the city bricks in Xiaodongmen, and the freight near yijiangmen is less, which can save about 10000 yuan.". On September 30 of the same year, the Municipal Bureau of public works wrote to the mayor: "Jun ordered that a city building be built above the gate of the city, so as to strengthen the view. The proposed budget is 36625.33 yuan, and 35800 yuan will be paid for the contract after actual negotiation. " The contract stipulated that the project should be completed before October 5, 1931, with 13 instalments.

After a year of intensive construction, on October 26, 1931, the director of works submitted a petition to the mayor for acceptance. There is a paragraph in the petition worth noting: "both projects have been completed successively. Except for the temporary suspension of sporadic projects of the city building due to military reasons, the completion reports and final accounts of all the city gates and squares will be completed and sent together after the completion of the city building.

It can be seen from here that the city building is not completely completed for the military reason. What does "Military" mean? We can get the answer from the official letter of the Nanjing special executive committee of the Kuomintang to the municipal government on November 22, 1932, requesting the completion of the yijiangmen tower report: "this project is contracted by Chunyuan Jinji construction factory under the former director of Ma. When the project was completed, it was suitable for the national calamity, that is, it was garrisoned by the military and police, so that the interior floor and wall painting could not be completed. "

In December 1937, when the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, yijiangmen tower was destroyed.

After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, yijiangmen tower was rebuilt on March 14, 1946. Nanjing Municipal Works Bureau has formulated detailed construction rules, which mainly include:

（1） Scope of work: (a) reconstruction of a city building. In addition to the original steel reinforced concrete beams and columns, the rest are reconstructed according to the design drawings. (b) the guard rooms on both sides were repaired from the ground floor to the upper floor, and new doors, windows, floors, stairs and walls were made.

（2） It will cost 480 million yuan. The reconstruction of yijiangmen tower was completed on September 28, 1946. The Works Bureau invited the municipal government to carry out the acceptance on October 20. Two days before the acceptance, the Works Bureau painted the lower part of the word "consolidate peace" in front of yijiangmen battlements with new paint and joint. On November 20, 1946, he was the mayor of Nanjing

Chinese PinYin : Yi Jiang Men