Chang'an City site of Han Dynasty

Chang'an City site of Han Dynasty

The Han Chang'an City site is located in Daxing West Road, Weiyang District, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province. For more than 200 years in the Western Han Dynasty, this city has been the political, economic and cultural center of the whole country.

The city wall covers an area of 36 square kilometers, including Jianzhang palace and other sites, with a total area of 65 square kilometers.

Han Chang'an City has 9 urban areas, 160 lanes, wide streets, neatly arranged. The main street can be paralleled by 12 carriages, and the roadside is planted with locust, elm, pine and cypress, with dense shade. At its peak, the city had a population of about 300000. Changle palace, Weiyang palace and Jianzhang Palace are the three most famous palaces in Chang'an city of Han Dynasty.

The site of Chang'an City in Han Dynasty is the starting point, birthplace and decision-making place of the ancient Silk Road. It has the reputation of "East Chang'an, West Rome". Together with the ancient Rome City, it is the earliest international metropolis in the world. It was the largest city in the world at that time. It is the longest used capital in ancient China, with the largest number of capital dynasties and the richest relics.

Chang'an City site of Han Dynasty is the material material for the world to understand ancient Chinese culture. The site of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty is not only the product of the long-term accumulation and sublimation of Chinese traditional culture, but also closely related to ancient Chinese philosophy, religious concepts, political system, economic development level, culture and art, construction technology and many other aspects. From the site of Chang'an City in Han Dynasty, we can see the social life, ideology, culture and art, economic level and so on. It is of great significance to the understanding of ancient Chinese civilization.

On March 4, 1961, the Han Chang'an City site was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

In June 2014, Weiyang Palace site in Chang'an city of Han Dynasty was listed in the world heritage list as the starting point of "Silk Road: road network of Chang'an Tianshan corridor".

Historical evolution

Urban history

The site of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty was rebuilt on the basis of the Xingle palace in the Qin Dynasty. From then on to the end of the Han Dynasty, Chang'an city was in constant development.

According to various statistics, after the fall of the Western Han Dynasty, Chang'an City in the Western Han Dynasty had eleven dynasties and regimes: Xinmang, the Han Dynasty (Liu Xuan), Chimei emperor Liu Penzi, Xiandi of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Huidi of the Jin Dynasty, Qianzhao, qianqin, houqin, Western Wei, beizhou and Sui. After the construction of Daxing city in the Sui Dynasty, Chang'an City in the Western Han Dynasty was included in the forbidden court.

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archaeological excavation

The archaeological work of the Han Chang'an City site began in 1906 when the Japanese zulixilu made an archaeological investigation of the Han Chang'an City site. Since then, Chinese scholars have also made some investigations on the Han Chang'an City site. The systematic and planned archaeological work on the Han Chang'an City site began in 1956.

In 1956, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (renamed as the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1977) formed the Han Chang'an City team, which carried out a long-term, systematic, large-scale and planned archaeological exploration and excavation of the Han Chang'an City site, and initially revealed the layout structure of the Han Chang'an City, including some important gates, palaces, arsenals, official offices, ancestral temples, States, temples, temples, etc A large number of historical relics have been found in the site of Biyong and zuofang, the site of Shanglinyuan and its Kunming pool.

From 1956 to 1957, the city gates and walls of Chang'an City in Han Dynasty were surveyed. On this basis, archaeological excavation of the Han Chang'an city gate Xi'an, Ba gate, Zhi gate and Xuanping gate sites. From 1957 to 1960, in order to cooperate with the capital construction project, large-scale archaeological excavation was carried out on the ancestral temple, sheji and Biyong architectural sites in the southern suburb of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty.

In the early 1960s, the archaeological exploration of the main roads, Weiyang palace, Changle palace, GUI palace and Jianzhang palace in Chang'an city of Han Dynasty was carried out, and significant academic achievements were achieved.

In the mid-1970s, the extensive development of farmland infrastructure made the Wuku site in Chang'an city of Han Dynasty face the situation of being destroyed. From 1974 to 1978, salvage archaeological exploration and excavation were carried out on the Wuku site.

In the 1980s, comprehensive archaeological work was carried out on the site of Weiyang Palace: from 1980 to 1982, the front hall site of Weiyang palace was excavated, and the Jiaofang hall site of Weiyang palace was excavated; from 1985 to 1986, comprehensive archaeological exploration was carried out on the site of Weiyang palace; in the latter half of the 1980s, the palace wall and gate sites were excavated, and the central official office site of Weiyang palace was excavated The site of Shaofu or its official office, the site of the southwest turret of the palace city. From 1987 to 1988, the Changle Palace site, Dongshi and Xishi sites were explored.

In the first half of the 1990s, the pottery kiln, brick kiln, smelting and casting, and coin making sites in Chang'an city of the Han Dynasty were explored and excavated, and then the site and scope of the North Palace were studied through field archaeology. From 1997 to 2001, the archaeological exploration and excavation of Guigong site were carried out.

In 2002, the focus of archaeological work on the Chang'an City site of the Han Dynasty turned to the Changle Palace site, and six large-scale architectural sites have been excavated. In addition, the archaeological exploration on the Jiaolou site of Chang'an City in Han Dynasty and the capital site of Chang'an City from the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Northern Dynasties reveals the layout and shape changes of Chang'an City as the capital after the Western Han Dynasty.

Since the 21st century, archaeological investigation and trial excavation have been carried out on the Shang Lin Yuan site and Kunming pool site near Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty. The "jingshicang" site related to Han Chang'an City, the storage site of the Western Han Dynasty in Fengxiang, the storage site of the Western Han Dynasty near the former site of Hanguguan, the palace of Shanglinyuan and the site of coins and bridges, the "civilian" cemetery in the eastern suburb of Han Chang'an City, which belongs to the "cemetery" of the capital city, and the imperial tombs in the north and southeast of Han Chang'an City have been explored and excavated respectively, and important academic achievements have been made Fruit.

Site features

overview

There are many rivers such as Wei, Jing, Ba and Feng around the Chang'an City site of Han Dynasty. The large-scale historical environment includes Qinling Mountains in the South and Weibei tableland landscape system in the north. Thanks to the protection of the dynasties and the masses in the site area, it has been preserved for more than 2200 years. It is the capital site of the ancient unified empire with large scale, rich relics, clear pattern and relatively complete preservation.

 

The main buildings in the city are Changle palace, Weiyang palace, Guigong palace, Beigong palace, Mingguang palace, armory, etc. There is Jianzhang palace outside the west wall of the city, and there are ritual buildings in the south of the city.

 

City walls, turrets and gate sites

The Han Chang'an City site is located in the northwest suburb of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province (weiyanggong Township, Hancheng Township and liucunbao Township in Weiyang District). According to the surveying and mapping data of the Han Chang'an City site, the plan of the Han Chang'an City site is nearly square, the perimeter is 25014.83 meters, and the total area is 34392202 square meters. The East, West, South and North walls are 5916.95m, 4766.46m, 7453.03m and 6878.39m respectively. The cross section of the city wall is trapezoidal, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. The width of the bottom of the city wall is about 16 meters, and the existing maximum is about 10 meters. Inside and outside the city wall, there are harvests, with an inclination of 11 degrees. The wall is made of rammed earth. The rammed earth is pure, hard, and the rammed layer is clear. It is generally 7-8 cm thick. The traces of stick, rope and splint in the city wall are obvious. The city wall was rammed in sections and the walls were staggered. At 20-30 meters outside the city wall, there are moats 40-50 meters wide and about 3 meters deep.

 

There are turrets at the four corners of the city wall, which are built outside the four corners of the city wall. The Northeast turret foundation is 36 meters from east to west and 27.7 meters from north to south. The South and north sides of the turret foundation are respectively connected with the east wall and the north wall. The passageway for climbing the turret is set inside the turret. The passageway is north-south, adjacent to the east city wall in the East and north to the north city wall in the north. It is 10.6 meters long from north to South and 4.9 meters wide from east to west. Through drilling and trial excavation, it is shown that the inner side of the foundation site of Southwest Jiaolou is straight with the inner side of the south wall and the west wall, 28 meters from east to west and 20 meters from north to south. The ruins outside the site were destroyed.

 

There are 12 gates in Chang'an City, with 3 gates on each side. Each gate has 3 gateways, each of which is about 8 meters wide and 16 meters deep. The 12 gates are of different sizes. The gates opposite to the Changle palace and Weiyang palace, such as Bacheng gate, Fuang gate, Xi'an gate and Zhangcheng gate, are magnificent in construction. The gate is about 52 meters wide in front and 14 meters wide in partition wall. The width of other gates is about 32.4 meters, and the width of the gateway partition wall is 4 meters. On both sides of Xuanping gate and basheng gate on the east side of Chang'an City in Han Dynasty, there are rammed earth bases protruding outward. Taking xuanpingmen as an example, the rammed earth base protruding from the outside of the gate site is 13.8 meters from east to west, 11.7 meters from north to south, and the residual height is 8.2 meters. The Qingming gate, which belongs to the east gate of Chang'an City in Han Dynasty, is not well preserved, so the rammed earth base protruding from both sides of the gate no longer exists. In the south, North and west of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty, none of the above remains have been found.

 

The gate structure of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty is basically the same. There are many foundation stones and pilasters on both sides of the gate. The two walls of the gate are vertical. The gate should be a "arcade style" building. There are also houses inside the gates, which should be used by guards.

 

Chinese PinYin : Han Zhang An Cheng Yi Zhi