Gulou Park

The drum tower is located in the center of Nanjing. Built in the 15th year of Hongwu of Ming Dynasty, it is the capital of Ming Dynasty, with grand scale and momentum. It was originally used to tell the time day and night. Sometimes it was also used as a place to meet the king and receive the imperial edict. The drum tower is divided into upper and lower floors. The lower floor is built in the style of a city tower, 9 meters high. The red wall is towering, the cornice is windward, and there are three gates in the middle. Before and after the connection, there is the title of "changguan Pavilion". Now the drum tower has been turned into a Drum Tower Park, which has become a resort for people to look up and enjoy the style of the ancient city. In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Kangxi visited Siwang on his southern tour. In the following year, local officials built a monument on the base of the drum tower and renamed it "stele tower", so it is called "Ming drum Qing monument".

Nanjing Drum Tower

synonym

Drum Tower Park generally refers to Nanjing Drum Tower

Nanjing Drum Tower, located on the drum tower post in the center of the Ming City Wall in the center of Nanjing, was built in 1382, the 15th year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty. It was the time reporting center of the old Nanjing city. It was also an important building to urge the civil and military officials to work hard, remind the people to work hard, welcome the king in the capital, receive imperial edicts, select concubines and other major celebrations. It was an important building and symbol of the capital of the Ming Dynasty, as well as an ancient official building in China It is the representative of brick building.

The drum tower in Nanjing is opposite to the bell tower in Nanjing. In Ming Dynasty, the drum tower was large-scale and of high standard, but it was destroyed because of the war. In Qing Dynasty, only the city tower was left. In 1684, during Kangxi's southern tour, the drum tower went to Siwang, built a stele, and changed its name to "stele tower", which has been preserved until now. In 1923, it was opened as Nanjing Drum Tower Park. In 1928, it was opened as Nanjing Drum Tower Park Five main roads meet here to form a traffic hub around the island.

On August 30, 1957, the people's Government of Jiangsu Province announced that the drum tower in Nanjing was a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangsu Province

On October 16, 2019, the State Council announced Nanjing Drum Tower as a national key cultural relic protection unit.

Historical evolution

In 1365, Zhu Yuanzhang set up a eunuch in Nanjing. Liu Ji was the first Eunuch in Ming Dynasty. The next year, the Ming Dynasty city wall in Nanjing began to be built. According to historical records, "Shangming Jibu new palace was built in the sun of Zhongshan Therefore, it has built a new city of more than 50 Li. Nanjing Ming city wall has 13 gates inside and 18 gates outside. The existing Nanjing Ming city wall is yingtianfu, the capital, and the drum tower is built in the center of the city.

In 1382, the drum tower was first built in Nanjing. Zhu Yuanzhang built the drum tower as a time reporting organization in order to unify the time in the whole city, which was specially controlled by the officials in charge of time reporting.

During the Qing Dynasty, the drum tower in Nanjing only left a city palace. It was not until Emperor Kangxi's southern tour that local officials built a stele on the base of the drum tower and renamed it "stele tower". Therefore, the drum tower is known as "Ming drum Qing stele".

During the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, the bell tower was destroyed, leaving only the sleeping bell. Later, it was moved to the Big Bell Pavilion. At the same time, the tower of the drum tower did not exist, leaving only the city platform. On the first day of November in the 23rd year of Kangxi (1684), Emperor Kangxi came to Jiangning in order to cure the Yellow River and rectify the administration of officials. On the second day of the lunar new year, he boarded the drum tower platform to have a panoramic view of Jinling. Before returning to Beijing on the fourth day of junior high school, Kangxi repeatedly admonished the officials to "clean themselves, love the people, abide by the law, arouse the turbid and exalt the clean, and sympathize with the seclusion of the people.". In 1685, Wang Xinming, governor of the two rivers, and other officials carved the Oracle stone and set up a "caution stele" in the middle of the city platform of the drum tower. In order to protect the stele, they built a building on it. Therefore, the Drum Tower of Nanjing in the Qing Dynasty is also called the stele tower. Because Kangxi once ascended the city platform of Drum Tower, the rebuilt Drum Tower was named "changguanlou".

After the war of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the late Qing Dynasty, it was repaired and rebuilt again. The rebuilt building is the main hall with a column base Corridor around it.

In 1923, Nanjing Drum Tower was established as Nanjing Drum Tower Park. In August 1928, Zhongshan Avenue was built. Five main roads, Zhongshan North Road, Zhongyang Road (Ziwu Road), Zhongshan Road, Huanghe Road (today's Beijing East Road) and Beiping Road (today's Beijing West Road), intersected here to form a traffic hub around the island. Zhongshan Avenue also went south to Xinjiekou. In October 1928, Nanjing Park Management Office was established, and Gulou Park belonged to it. At one time, there was a Observatory in Gulou. Later, it was used as the temporary office of the central astronomical research institute. After the completion of the Zijinshan Observatory, the observatory moved out. In 1930, an office of Gulou Park was set up, which was also in charge of Qingliangshan Park and Jimingsi park. In July 1935, a children's entertainment park was built. At the end of the 26th year of the Republic of China (1937), after the Japanese invaders occupied Nanjing, the puppet government set up the Gulou Park office, which was also in charge of Mochou Lake, Wutai Mountain, Qingliang mountain and street trees. In May 1946, the national government established the Drum Tower Park Management Office in Nanjing.

After the liberation of Nanjing in 1949, the Gulou Park was managed by the garden squadron of the general relief corps, and was renovated and afforested. He also served as a lookout for the fire department. In 1958, the park covers an area of 2 hectares, with green space area of 0.8 hectares and nursery area of 0.5 hectares. The Gulou Park Management Office was established under the leadership of the greening team of Gulou District Urban Construction Branch Bureau, with more than 10 employees. The management scope includes the greening maintenance and management of Gulou square and its surrounding areas, and is responsible for the greening layout and flower display of Gulou square for major festivals. On October 1, 1959, the 10th anniversary of the national day, Gulou Park was officially opened to the public.

In 1966, when the Cultural Revolution began, the park was closed to the public and was seriously damaged. Most of the cultural relics and antiques were lost, and all the staff were incorporated into the green team of Gulou District. The park became the headquarters of "cultural attack, military defense" and then the headquarters of "civil air defense". After the "Cultural Revolution" catastrophe, most of the park's indoor cultural relics and antiques were lost. The rest was also severely damaged.

On September 11, 1974, the Nanjing municipal government began to restore the Gulou park. With the approval of the Nanjing municipal government, the "leading group of Gulou Park" was established to be responsible for the restoration of the Gulou Park, including the Gulou, the West Pavilion of the Gulou (Le Zhi ting), the Gulou square and the surrounding greening, with 15 staff. On February 18, 1976, the drum tower pedestal collapsed seriously due to the "civil air defense works", and the pedestal cracked and sank from top to bottom in the southwest.

On September 30, 1979, the renovation project of the drum tower was completed; on October 1, 1979, the Drum Tower Park was reopened.

In 1983, the "Drum Tower Range Rover" was rated as the "new Jinling 40 scenes".

In 2003, the Drum Tower Park, as one of the landmark buildings in Nanjing, became the hot spot of public selection again.

Architectural features

pattern

Nanjing Drum Tower, covering an area of 9100 square meters, is divided into upper and lower floors. The lower floor is built in the form of a city tower, which is 9 meters high. The red wall is towering, the cornice is facing the wind, and there are three gates in the middle. Before and after the connection, there is the title of "changguan Pavilion". The superstructure is divided into the central hall and the East and West halls, with water dripping directly outside the pedestal. Compared with the other 13 existing Ming Dynasty official brick building platforms, the bottom length of the Ming Dynasty drum tower platform is smaller, and the bottom width is the smallest. The upper part is 43.8 meters long and 22.6 meters wide. Because Nanjing Drum Tower is built on huangnigang, it has relatively high terrain, so it can create the visual effect of flat buildings with a smaller volume.

characteristic

The designer of Nanjing city wall is Liu Bowen. In order to reflect Zhu Yuanzhang's ruling position of "divine power", he designed the Nanjing city wall as a combination of the big dipper and the South dipper, which is a central axis running through the whole city. The direction of this axis is "northwest southeast". Nanjing City in Ming Dynasty is divided into two parts: "the South dipper" and "the North dipper".

The orientation of the drum tower is parallel to the central axis of the Ming Dynasty. From the map of the Ming Dynasty, the drum tower and the bell tower are on one side of this central axis, and the orientation of "northwest southeast" is exactly the same as the central axis. The location of the bell tower and Drum Tower in Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty also had a mystery. They were about the same distance from Chaoyang Gate (Zhongshan Gate), Yifeng gate and Jubao gate (Zhonghua Gate), which could be regarded as the central position of the city at that time. It can be seen that the orientation of Nanjing Drum Tower in Ming Dynasty was actually determined by the shape of Nanjing city wall. The irregular shape of Nanjing city wall is not the common square or rectangle of ancient city wall, which makes the axis of Nanjing city wall impossible to be north-south. The "northwest southeast" central axis of the city forms the strange layout and orientation of the drum tower in Nanjing, and also reflects the special meaning of the city planning of Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Cultural relics

gate tower

The existing wooden structure of Nanjing Drum Tower with three bays in the middle and double eaves on the top of the pedestal was built in 1684. There are big drum, small drum, cloud plate, o'clock, four teeth stick, copper pot drip, three eyes drawing angle in the upper wooden structure hall, which are used to tell the time day and night, welcome the king, select the imperial concubine, and receive imperial edicts.

Chengtai

The lower part of the tower is a tower type pedestal, with three coupons in the middle, connecting front and back, for people to walk; one stone step on the left and right ends of the front wall of the pedestal is built for people to go up and down, and one Pavilion on the top of the terrace is built with Xieshan canopy to prevent rain and water from pouring down; two leaky windows are opened in the front, middle and front of the pedestal for natural lighting and ventilation.

Stele of caution

Kangxi

Chinese PinYin : Gu Lou Gong Yuan