Pingyao ancient city wall

Located in Pingyao County in the middle of Shanxi Province, Pingyao City Wall is one of the four most intact ancient city walls in China.

The city wall is square, with a total length of 6157m and a height of about 10m. The inside and outside of the city wall are stacked with soil and bricks. There are two carriages on the wall in parallel. On the top of the wall, there are some anti enemy facilities, such as watch holes, perforations, crenels and so on. There was a moat around the city wall, which played a significant role in protecting the people.

The best way to appreciate the ancient city wall is to walk or ride around the city, or climb up the city wall (the whole distance is 6 kilometers, the place under the city wall is not very close, just walk for an hour or two), touch the traces of the years, and admire its majestic demeanor in silence.

Pingyao City Wall

synonym

Pingyao ancient city wall generally refers to Pingyao City wall

Pingyao City wall, located in Pingyao County in the middle of Shanxi Province, is one of the four most intact ancient city walls in China. In 1988, the Pingyao City Wall was announced by the State Council of the people's Republic of China as one of the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units. In 1997, Pingyao ancient city, including Pingyao City wall, was listed on the world heritage list.

Pingyao ancient city is an ancient county with the most complete preservation in China. It is an outstanding example of traditional Chinese cities in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the development of Chinese history, it shows a complete picture of extraordinary cultural, social, economic and religious development.

Cultural relics protection

Pingyao is called "ancient pottery" in history. In the spring and Autumn period, the capital of China was set up here. In the Han Dynasty, jingling county was set up and jingling city was built. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was named Pingyao and built a city. In the third year of Hongwu (1370) of Ming Dynasty, the outer wall was bricked. Pingyao City Wall has many horse faces, beautiful shape and complete defense facilities, which is the only one in the history of Chinese city building. It can be regarded as the world's best city building technique and excellent materials. It is a precious material for the study of ancient Chinese city building system.

Pingyao City wall, announced by the State Council of the people's Republic of China as a national key cultural relics protection unit in 1988.

Historical evolution

The beginning of Pingyao City can be traced back to the period of King Xuan of Zhou at least. It is said that it was built by Yin Jifu, an important minister at that time, when he was stationed in the army. The existing city wall was rebuilt on a large scale on the basis of the old city of the Western Zhou Dynasty in 1370. After dozens of repairs, it still retains the style of the early Ming Dynasty. It is one of the precious materials for studying the construction of ancient Chinese cities. In the late Qing Dynasty, as a financial center of China, it had a great influence.

Pingyao is a square city with a perimeter of 6163 meters. The south city wall is built along with the meandering of Zhongdu River, and the other three sides are surrounded by straight lines. The wall is 8-10 meters high, 8-12 meters thick at the bottom and 3-6 meters thick at the top. The wall body is rammed with plain soil, the straw is laid in layers as the tie bar, the outer wall is wrapped with lime brick, the top is plastered with green brick, and the drainage channel is set inside.

There are six gates in the wall around the city, two in the East and two in the west, one in the north and one in the south. The gates are staggered. The urn is built outside the gate. The inside and outside of the gate are plastered with stones. There are two original towers on the gate.

There are platforms at the four corners of the city wall. One turret was built in the past, but now the turret is lost. Kuixing tower and Wenchang Pavilion were built in the southeast corner of the city wall. On the gate of the east wall, there is still Yin Jifu's commanding platform. On the inside of the city wall, a horse road was built. The outer wall of the city wall was divided into 71 blocks, with one enemy tower on top, one wooden board on the middle and arrow holes on the outside. On the city wall, the female wall is 0.6 meters high and the battlements are 2 meters high.

Pingyao City was built in accordance with the principle of "adjusting measures to local conditions and using dangerous materials to control plug". It has a simple style, attaches importance to defense, and is famous for its excellent workmanship and materials. The plan of the city is square, and the southern wall is built along the Zhongdu River, so it is slightly winding. The wall is about 12 meters high, with an average width of 3.5 meters and a circumference of 6.4 kilometers. There is a moat outside the wall with a width and depth of 4 meters. The inside of the wall is made of earth, the outside is covered with lime, the top is paved with green bricks, and the inside is provided with a raceway and an internal drainage channel. There are six gates and gatehouses on the wall, and one turret is built at each corner. One turret is built every 50 meters. There are 72 gates and more than 3000 crenels in total. It is said that the design is based on Confucius' 3000 disciples and 72 sages.

It is well preserved

However, except for the gate and the crenels, most of them were damaged. Among the six gates, there is one in the north and one in the south, and two in the East and two in the West. Outside the East and West gates, there are attached urn cities, which are shaped like the head, tail and four feet of a tortoise, and the layout of the streets in the city is similar to that of a tortoise, so it is called "tortoise city".

In the southeast corner and East Gate of Pingyao City wall, there are Wenchang Pavilion (now no longer exist), Kuixing tower and yinjifu dianjiangtai. Part of the south gate wall collapsed in 2004 and was rebuilt in 2005. In addition, most of the other walls are well preserved, and they are the four best existing ancient city walls in China, along with Xi'an city wall in Shaanxi Province, Jingzhou City Wall in Hubei Province and Xingcheng city wall in Liaoning Province.

Introduction to scenic spots

The existing buildings in the city of Pingyao include: Jin Jianwen temple, Dacheng hall, Yuan Jianming, the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Town God's Temple, and the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the banks, the banks, the pawnshops, the cloth houses, the tobacco shops, the trade houses and the houses. In 1986, the State Council of the people's Republic of China announced it as a national historical and cultural city.

Wengcheng

Built outside the gate of the small city, also known as the moon city, to enhance the city's defense capabilities. "Shoucheng" records: "the urn outside the city is round or square. Depending on the terrain, the height and thickness of the city, and so on, only a side door, left and right as they please The orientation of the Wengcheng gate and the big gate of Pingyao ancient city are mostly at an angle of 90 degrees (except for the south gate and the Lower East Gate). Even if the enemy breaks through the Wengcheng gate, there is a defense of the main gate. Because of the narrow area in Wengcheng, it is not easy to launch a large-scale attack, which delays the enemy's attack speed, and the garrison on the top of the wall can shoot from high to low in all directions, giving the enemy a fatal blow It's called catching turtles in a jar.

gate tower

Built on the top of the city gate, it was sometimes called "Qiao Lou" in ancient times. There are six towers in Pingyao City wall, which were built in Ming Dynasty. They were rebuilt in 1703. The tower is 16.14 meters high, 13.72 meters wide and 10.04 meters deep. The shape is simple and elegant, and the structure is dignified and steady. The city tower is an exquisite and beautiful high-rise building on the top of the city wall. It is an important high-altitude defense facility for a city, usually climbing to look out, and commanding by the general in wartime.

watchtower

The floor sculls built on the four corners of the city wall are mainly used to make up for the weak defensive link at the corner of the city wall, so as to enhance the defensive ability of the whole city wall. Turrets refer to the "xiadielou" in the northwest corner and the "qiyuelou" in the northeast corner. Ruiai building in the southwest corner and ningxiu building in the southeast corner.

The Stage of Appointing Commander

It is located on the top of the city wall between the upper east gate and the Lower East Gate, and is now a high brick platform. It is said that after King Xuan of Zhou ascended the throne in 827 B.C., he sent general Yin Jifu to lead his troops to the northern expedition of yaoyu. After successive victories, he was ordered to garrison troops in today's Pingyao, build more walls, train soldiers and order generals to practice martial arts. In the middle of Ming Dynasty, gaozhen temple was built to commemorate the achievements of Yin Jifu. During the maintenance of the city wall in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the "gaozhen Temple" was connected as a whole. It was a broad platform on the top of the city. When you climb up and look far away, you will feel relaxed and happy. The poem says: "the terrace is 100 feet, the county is even, and Ji Fuxun is in front of the battlements. As the grass has been blocked for a long time, the Dragon flag is afraid to set out in the new year.

city moat

That is, around the city of HaoGou. In order to defend against the invasion of foreign enemies, ancient people dug trenches around the settlements, and the resulting strip highlands inspired people to build walls. The formation of Chenghao can be regarded as the result of taking soil on the spot when the city wall was first rammed. Haonei pool of water, into a river, has become an insurmountable line of defense, "only the city surrounded the people, only the pool surrounded the city", "pool" is the "city" barrier, it is often called "moat". The suspension bridge is a wooden bridge across the moat. The outward end of the bridge deck is tied with ropes. The bridge deck can be hoisted at any time through pulleys and winches to break the road.

Three collapses

In less than two years, Pingyao ancient city wall, a 600 year old world cultural heritage, collapsed three times in succession. The collapse occurred in the morning of March 5, 2006, originated from a crack that had been found for a long time, and there are still many such cracks on the ancient city wall.

In 2004, 2005 and 2006, these three years became the "collapse year" of Pingyao ancient city wall. On October 17, 2004, a section of 17 meters long, 3 meters thick (the total thickness of the city wall is 5 meters) and 10 meters high outer city wall suddenly collapsed, and thousands of blue city bricks with a history of 100 years fell to the ground one after another. On September 22, 2005, the exposed rammed earth and parapet inside the two sections of the city wall fell off in a large area. On the morning of March 5, 2006, the exposed rammed earth layer inside a section of the city wall fell off.

After the collapse of the ancient city wall in 2004, Shanxi Provincial Bureau of cultural relics ordered Shanxi Institute of ancient architecture protection to conduct field survey on the collapsed part of the city wall, prepared the repair plan, invited experts from China cultural relics information consulting center to conduct on-site demonstration on the repair plan, and completed the repair of the collapsed part of the city wall in 2005 according to the design plan approved by the State Bureau of cultural relics. However, there is not only one dangerous situation in the 6000 meter wall. Apart from the part that collapsed in 2004, there are many cracks and holes in many places.

In July 2005, Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of cultural relics, made a special visit

Chinese PinYin : Ping Yao Gu Cheng Qiang