Nanjing city wall

Nanjing Ming Dynasty wall

synonym

General guide of Nanjing city wall

The Ming Dynasty city wall of Nanjing includes the palace city, the Imperial City, the capital city and the Waiguo city of yingtianfu (Nanjing), the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Today, it mostly refers to the well preserved capital city wall, which is the longest, largest and best preserved ancient city wall in the world. The Ming city wall of Nanjing was first built in 1366 of the Yuan Dynasty and completed in 1393 of the Ming Dynasty. It lasted for 28 years. It used one ministry, three guards, five provinces, 37 prefectures, 162 counties, a total of 280000 migrant workers and about 350 million bricks to complete the layout of four city walls.

The Ming Dynasty city wall of Nanjing was built on the basis of Kangcheng in the Six Dynasties and Jinling City in the Southern Tang Dynasty, according to the direction of mountains and water system. Gain the benefits of mountains and rivers, empty the potential of rivers and lakes. Qinhuai River is a natural moat in the south, Zhongshan Mountain in the East, Houhu Lake in the north and Xina stone city in the north, forming a three-dimensional military fortress with unique defensive characteristics. Among them, the capital city wall is 35.3 km long, which is still 25.1 km long. It is the largest city wall in China and the largest city wall in the world. It has been selected as the world's largest city wall by the World Records Association. The Waiguo city wall outside the capital city is more than 60 km long, covering an area of more than 230 square kilometers

It is the highest in the history of the world.

The Ming Dynasty city wall of Nanjing was built in the sea. It was a model of the combination of Chinese ethical system and nature. It was also an outstanding representative of the ancient capital construction. Its city building technology reached the peak in the history of Chinese city building, and it was a model of East Asian city building technology

. As a masterpiece of ancient Chinese military defense facilities and wall construction technology, its historical value, ornamental value, archaeological value, architectural design, scale, function and other aspects can not be compared with the wall at home and abroad. It is another macro structure after the great wall of China.

It was listed as a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangsu Province in October 1956, a national key cultural relic protection unit in January 1988, and listed in the preparatory list of China's world cultural heritage in November 2012 as the leader of the project of "Chinese Ming and Qing city walls".

Historical evolution

Nanjing Ming city wall is the largest, longest and most authentic ancient city wall in the world.

In 1353, Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the suggestion that general Feng should use Jinling as the capital. Three years later, he attacked Jiqing (now Nanjing) and renamed it yingtianfu.

In 1357, Zhu Sheng put forward the proposal of "building walls high, accumulating grain widely, and being king slowly", which officially started the construction of Nanjing Ming city wall. The southern capital of Ming Dynasty was built and expanded on the basis of Jiankang City, the capital of Six Dynasties, and Jinling City of Southern Tang Dynasty. It is connected with stone city in the East, Qinhuai River in the south, and Xuanwu Lake in the north, including the capital of Nanjing in the past dynasties. It is not only the largest city wall in China, but also the largest city wall in the world.

In the 26th year of the Yuan Dynasty (September 1366), yingtianfu city was rebuilt, and a new palace, Nanjing Palace Museum, was built to the south of Zhongshan (Zijin Mountain). This is the first phase of the project.

In September 1367, the first phase of the project was completed.

In the second year of Hongwu (1369) of Ming Dynasty, the second phase of the project was started, mainly to build a new city and widen the old city northward to the Yangtze River.

In the sixth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, the second phase of the project was completed, and the third project started immediately.

In the 19th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (December 1386), the third phase of the project was completed, and the main gates of jubaomen, sanshanmen, Tongjimen, Houhu city and main streets were built.

In 1390, after the construction of the capital was completed, Zhu Yuanzhang, together with other ministers and princes, visited Zhongshan to observe the shape of Nanjing city. Zhu Di, the fourth son of the emperor, raised the potential concern that "the cannon on Zijin Mountain should be aimed at the Forbidden City". At the same time, Yuhuatai in the South and Mufu mountain in the north of Nanjing remained outside the city, which was extremely unfavorable to the defense of the capital. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the construction of Waiguo city wall to make up for the deficiency of the capital city wall. The brick parts of each section of Waiguo add up to about 40 Li, and the outer earth city is about 8-10 meters high and 6-8 meters wide.

In 1393, the four walls of the Ming City Wall in Nanjing were completed.

In 1402, the fourth year of Jianwen reign of Ming Dynasty, the Ming city wall of Nanjing faced the crisis of war damage for the first time. "When Yanbing arrived at the gate of Jinchuan, zhusui, the king of the valley, and Li Jinglong opened the door to accept it, and the capital was lost.". This time, the city wall of Ming Dynasty escaped a disaster.

Matteo Ricci, an Italian missionary who arrived in Nanjing three times in the middle of the Ming Dynasty and the middle of the 16th century, said: "this city surpasses all other cities in the world.". He recorded in the notes of Matteo Ricci in China that the local people told a story: two people rode in opposite directions from the city, and it took a whole day to meet each other. The scale of Nanjing city wall can be imagined.

During the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing was "the fundamental place of its ancestors and the place of the southeast General Assembly". The central government attached great importance to the city walls. There were more than 40 records about the large-scale maintenance of the city walls in the Ming record alone. Especially when Hou Lixian of Fengcheng, who had great experience in repairing the city, was on guard in Nanjing, the repair of the Nanjing city wall was quite complete.

During the Qing Dynasty, Nanjing, as the seat of Liangjiang governor and the political and military center of southern China, although the protection of Ming city wall was weakened. However, it is still in the era of the combination of cold weapons and hot weapons, and the Nanjing city wall is still in the state of maintenance. Wu Jingzi, a writer of the Qing Dynasty, once lived on the Bank of the Qinhuai River in Nanjing for many years. He wrote in the scholars' unofficial history that "Nanjing is where emperor Taizu built the capital. The inner gate is 13, the outer gate is 18, the city passes through 40 Li, and there are more than 120 Li along the city". He clearly records the origin and scale of the Nanjing city wall.

In 1892, the gate of Shence gate in Nanjing was restored and rebuilt in the style of Huai'an mansion. The size of the gate is smaller than that of the Ming Dynasty. It is divided into upper and lower floors, with double eaves resting on the top of the mountain. Both of them are repaired with city bricks.

In 1908, a grassland gate was built between Qingliangmen and Dinghuaimen in the west of the city to meet the needs of transportation.

In 1908, duanfang, then governor of Liangjiang and Minister of Nanyang trade, held a Nanyang Trade Association. To facilitate Chinese and foreign visitors to visit Xuanwu Lake, a gate was built on the wall near the meeting place. Before the completion of the project, duanfang was transferred away. Next year, he succeeded Zhang Renjun, the governor general. Because Zhang Renjun was born in Fengrun, Hebei Province, he was named "fengrunmen".

In 1911, in response to the Wuchang Uprising, Xu Shaozhen led the Jiangsu Zhejiang allied forces to attack Nanjing from Chaoyang Gate, and the urn of Chaoyang Gate was destroyed.

In the second year of the Republic of China (1913), Yuan Shikai sent the Beiyang army to recapture Nanjing city and attack Chaoyang Gate and other important places with heavy artillery. The next day, Nanjing city was destroyed.

In 1921, with the support of Han Guojun, the then civil affairs chief of Jiangsu Province, to prosper the shoreline of Xiaguan wharf, the construction of the wall on the southwest of yifengmen was started. From bazishan in the gate, the road from the gate to the riverside wharf was built, and xiaonanhe (now Rehe Road) was filled up to form a base of 27000 square meters. A new gate named "Hailing gate (now Yijiang gate)" was opened, thus shortening the journey from Xiaguan River to the city.

In 1927, after the national government established the capital of Nanjing, it proposed that the whole city wall and foundation of Nanjing would be sold for auction to meet the needs of the construction of the new capital. It was strongly opposed and denounced by the cultural circles. Xu Beihong and others published articles in newspapers for criticism, but the city wall was spared.

In July 1928, the national government changed the name of the city gate of Nanjing in order to rectify the atmosphere of the capital. Chaoyang Gate is Zhongshan Gate (in memory of Dr. Sun Yat Sen's achievements), Yifeng gate is Xingzhong gate (in the sense of rejuvenating China), hailing gate is Yijiang gate (because Chengmen is near the Yangtze River), Shence gate is Heping gate (in the sense of world peace), Fengrun gate is Xuanwu gate (in the sense of Chengmen is near Xuanwu Lake), Jubao gate is Zhonghua Gate (in the sense of Zhonghua), Zhengyang gate is Guanghua gate (in the sense of Guangfu Zhong) Hua Zhiyi). In the same year, the national government rebuilt the single hole Chaoyang Gate into the three hole Zhongshan Gate. The inner urn had been demolished, but the outer urn was still in use.

In 1930, Zhang Qiyun analyzed in the geographical environment of the capital that the reason why the city wall was not demolished was that "the cost of demolishing the city wall with bricks is too great, and the gain is not worth the loss". Of course, it is not so simple. From 1930's to liberation, it was the inherent value of military defense that contributed to the preservation of Nanjing Ming city wall.

In 1931, the national government broke the wall and opened the way to the north of Nanjing at the intersection of Central Road and Ming city wall, 500 meters to the west of Shence gate. In the same year, in order to meet the needs of road modernization and reconstruction in Nanjing, East and West Zhonghua gates were opened on the East and west sides of Zhonghua Gate to meet the traffic demand from south to north.

In 1933, in order to open up Hanzhong Road, Sanquan gate, a new western style archway, was built on the city wall. The gate was named Hanzhong Gate, which is between Qingliang gate and Hanxi gate. In the same year, in the original Ming Dynasty

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