Dinghuaimen

Dinghuaimen

Dinghuaimen gate is one of the thirteen gates of Ming Dynasty Capital in Nanjing city wall. It was originally named ma'anmen gate. It is located at the east end of Dinghuaimen street in Gulou District of Nanjing City, on the East Bank of Qinhuai River, facing the West.

Dinghuai gate is a single hole gate, with a gate ticket, about 8 meters high and 6 meters wide. There is a layer of stone arch ticket on the outside of the gate, above which is the brick arch ticket. Outside is the mouth of the Sancha River, where the Qinhuai River enters.

Dinghuaimen was built in the early years of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty. It was named ma'anmen because it was close to Ma'anshan in the city. In the seventh year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1374), the Qinhuai River was flooded. In order to ensure the stability of the Qinhuai River, ma'anmen was renamed dinghuai gate, and it was built with thousands of households. In the 23rd year of Daoguang (1843) of the Qing Dynasty, due to the deposition of the outer Qinhuai River, dinghuai gate was stopped. In 1958, the movement of demolishing the city spread to Nanjing. Dinghuai gate was demolished, and the place name is still used today.

Historical evolution

In the early years of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, dinghuai gate was first built, initially named ma'anmen.

In the seventh year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1374), the Qinhuai River was flooded. In order to ensure the stability of the Qinhuai River, ma'anmen was renamed dinghuai gate, and it was built with thousands of households.

In the 23rd year of Daoguang (1843) of the Qing Dynasty, due to the deposition of the outer Qinhuai River, dinghuai gate was stopped.

In 1954, Hui Yuyu, then mayor of Nanjing, asked Nanjing Municipal Bureau of works to open four gates, including dinghuai gate and Zhongfu gate. At that time, the damage of dinghuai gate was very serious, and many city bricks fell off. Therefore, Nanjing Urban Construction Bureau thought that dinghuai gate had no reserved value and suggested to demolish it.

In 1958, Dinghuaimen was demolished by Nanjing Municipal People's government, and its place name is still in use today.

On September 2, 2015, Dinghuaimen site was discovered due to the rapid reconstruction project of model West Road. From the east side of Dinghuaimen bridge to gupinggang section, the archaeological site is close to a small section on the east side of Dinghuaimen bridge in east-west direction. The archaeological site can be seen that there is a relatively complete base, the size of the brick is consistent with the brick on the existing Ming city wall, and the North-South trend. There are also some big pebbles. To the south of the archaeological site is the entrance to Dengcheng at the north end of dinghuai gate. No matter from the geographical location, or from the site, it should be the foundation of Dinghuaimen city wall. The gate was originally on this location.

Layout structure

Dinghuaimen is located in the north of Qingliangmen, in the west of gupinggang. Dinghuai gate is a single hole gate, with a gate ticket, about 8 meters high and 6 meters wide. There is a layer of stone arch ticket on the outside of the gate, above which is the brick arch ticket. Outside is the mouth of the Sancha River, where the Qinhuai River enters.

Legends and anecdotes

Longjiangbao shipyard

Shortly after ma'anmen was renamed Dinghuaimen, shipyards from Zhili (now Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai), Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan and Guangdong provinces all moved here to form longjiangbao shipyard, the largest royal shipyard in the world at that time.

According to the records of Longjiang shipyard, Bao shipyard is located in Zhongbao village, Sanhe River, Hexi. Its scope is "Chenghao in the East, mintangdi of Qinhuai garrison in the west, nonglangfang base of yifengmen in the northwest, Youwei barracks base in the south, alfalfa land of Nanjing military headquarters and bozhangtian of Pengcheng in the north". It is 138 feet wide from east to west and 354 feet long from north to south. It covers an area of more than 500000 square meters. Six hundred years ago, the river branches here were crisscross and the reeds were connected to the sky, and the terrain was open and straight to the Yangtze River. Thirty thousand craftsmen worked meticulously, opened seven ponds (docks), and built more than 200 wooden sailboats with huge displacement.

According to Gu Qiyuan of Ming Dynasty's "Hakka redundant words · treasure shipyard", the eldest captain is 44 Zhang and 4 feet, and the width is 18 Zhang; the middle captain is 37 Zhang and 15 Zhang It was here that these huge treasure ships with displacement of more than 1000 tons left the factory. They accompanied the eunuchs of Sanbao to go through the stormy waves of seven voyages to the West. Finally, they returned home uninjured and full loaded, and returned to China. At the same time, China's superb shipbuilding technology has also left a deep impression on the world. In 2005, baochuanchang ruins park was completed.

The story of Granny Shi

Outside the dinghuai gate in Nanjing, there used to be a stone mother-in-law nunnery, which is full of incense all year round.

During the Hongwu Period of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Di, the Minister of rites, had a maid named ruiniang. Unlike those maids who can only do rough work, she is kind, intelligent and proficient in poetry. Chen Di likes her very much and regards her as her own daughter. In the fourth year of Jianwen (1402) of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, the king of Yan, launched the "Jingnan battle" to seize the throne. His old ministers were slaughtered one after another, and Chen Di, the Minister of rites, was not spared. At the critical moment, Rui Niang secretly hides Chen Zhu, Chen Di's seventh son, who is only five months old, so that the Chen family will not be destroyed.

Rui Niang is commensurate with Chen Zhu's mother and son. She hides everywhere and is determined to bring Chen Zhu up. After taking shelter at dinghuai gate near Qinhuai River, Rui Niang came to Xishuang village, Zou County, Shandong Province. In her eyes, to Mencius hometown is more conducive to survival and education, Chen Zhu here will be able to get good development. But Zhu Di knew about it. Maybe he was ashamed that Emperor Yongle didn't kill all of them. "He was merciful and pardoned, and sent to Dengzhou.".

Rui Niang was diligent in running her family and strict in teaching her children. She died in Chenghua, but her virtue has been handed down. The common people regard her as the ancestor of the weak children, and regard her as a kind God to ward off evil, send good luck and bring down good fortune. In Dinghuaimen of Nanjing, Xishuang village of Zou County, and Shidao village of Penglai County, where Rui Niang lived, the nunnery of mother-in-law Shi was built to worship the statue of mother-in-law Shi. It is said that if the child is in poor health and always gets sick, the mother will come to the statue of mother-in-law Shi with her child in her arms, kowtow to her and recognize her as the godmother. It is said that in this way, the child's body will be strong. Unfortunately, with the passage of time, the stone mother-in-law nunnery outside dinghuai gate no longer exists.

Related gates

Address: Dinghuaimen street, Gulou District, Nanjing

Longitude: 118.74795374697

Latitude: 32.0694842625

Chinese PinYin : Ding Huai Men