City, also known as city wall, the "city" in the word refers to the city wall, which is an ancient military defense building in East Asian countries such as China and South Korea. In order to protect people's lives and property, city building is a tradition in East Asian countries; compared with European countries, East Asian city walls are generally larger in scale. ?Cities can be divided into prefecture-level, county-level, department-level, fort-level, etc. according to different levels; generally speaking, the higher the level, the larger the scale, and the official buildings configured are also different.
City Structure
City Wall
The city wall is the main line of defense of the city and also defines the scope of the city. Most of the materials are locally sourced, with bamboo and wooden fences being the main ones in the early stages. After development to a certain level, earth, stone, bricks and other materials are used for the walls. ? Battlements: small concave and convex brick walls on the female wall, with a perforation in the center. ? Parapet: a waist-high low wall on the outer wall. ? External wall: the wall outside the city. ? Horse path: The surface of the city wall is paved with bricks. ? Middle fill: the fill between the inner and outer walls. ? Inner wall: the wall on the inside of the city.
City Gates
The number of city gates is determined by the administrative level or scale. Usually there are 8 gates in the prefecture and 4 in the county. Usually located in the east, west, south and north. ? City gate tower: The tower on the city gate base can be divided into pavilion type and bunker type. City Gate Base: The base of the city gate tower. City gate hole: the tunnel leading in and out of the city gate. Wengcheng: A city wall surrounding the city gate, also known as "Moon City".
Forts
Cities usually set up forts at strategic points or corners of the city wall to increase defense. ? Cannon hole: A large perforation left on the female wall to facilitate the extension of the cannon barrel. Gun emplacement: The ground where the cannon is placed.
The streets and facilities in the city
The basic facilities and construction in the city include government offices, streets, temples, schools, farmland, etc. The roads in the city are mainly streets connecting the city gates in each direction. ? Yamen: the official agency for city administration and military garrison. Academy: the cultural and educational facilities of the city. Confucian Temple: A temple dedicated to Emperor Wenchang or Confucius. Wu Temple: A temple dedicated to Guan Gong or Yue Fei. City God Temple: A temple dedicated to the City God, the patron saint of the city.
Current Situation
Cities are mostly located in the central areas of modern cities, which conflict greatly with modern urban planning, so most of them have been demolished. At present, there are only ruined walls or isolated city gates left to pay tribute to.
Characteristics of ancient city architecture
Most of the early cities in China were built with earth. After the Ming Dynasty, city walls in various places began to be covered with bricks on a large scale. Therefore, for most of the ancient Chinese history, the city looked yellow and bare. As early as the Shang Dynasty three thousand years ago, China's ancestors had already mastered the technology of block building. The so-called version building means that when building a wall, two wooden boards (blocks) are sandwiched together. The width between the two boards is equal to the thickness of the wall. The outside of the board is supported by wooden pillars. Then the space between the two boards is filled with soil and built with a pestle ( Pound it tightly, and then remove the planks and pillars to form a wall. ? In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the technology of block building was greatly improved. The hanging block tamping method was widely used, that is, wooden sticks were passed through the plywood on both sides, fixed with ropes to straighten, and the middle was filled with soil and tamped. "The Book of Songs" said " The rope will be straight, and the version will be reduced to carry it." This is the method mentioned. The city wall built with this block-building technology is stronger than before, so the protective slopes on both sides of the old method can be eliminated, thereby making the wall more difficult to climb. At that time, some city walls were built with adobe (the size of a single piece of adobe is about 1 meter × 0.4 meter × 0.2 meters), which was staggered up and down to increase the density and strength of the wall. ?Since the Spring and Autumn Period, Chinese cities have been using this simple earth construction method. Nearly two thousand years later, the famous Yuan Dadu (Beijing) city wall is still built of rammed earth. This kind of earth-built city wall does not look good and is not very strong. Especially if it rains, it will be damaged by rainwater erosion. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, the Tongwan City built by Helian Bobo of the Xia Kingdom during the Sixteenth Kingdom of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (reigned from 407 to 425) is a miracle in the history of earthen architecture. Tongwan City used the "steamed earth city building" method, which is to mix glutinous rice juice, white powder soil, sand and hydrated lime and ram it together. Although it is an earth city, it has a texture as hard as stone and is as resistant to destruction. Legend has it that General Chigan Ali, who was in charge of the construction, had very strict requirements, almost cruel. He ordered people to inspect the built city walls with iron picks. If the picks penetrated even an inch, the craftsmen would be killed immediately and their bodies filled inside the walls. Under this crazy high-pressure policy, Tongwan City, which took six years to be built, has extremely good construction quality. "It is strong enough to sharpen a sword and an axe," and is completely comparable to modern cement. ?Of course, this is just a special case. Most earthen city walls can only be taller, larger, and thicker to ensure their firmness and strength. For example, Linzi, the capital of Qi State more than 2,000 years ago, had a wall width of 20 meters, and Ying, the capital of Chu State, had a wall thickness of 14 meters. In the era of cold weapons, such thickness and its ability to withstand blows are reassuring. In addition, for the sake of safety, outside the tall and thick city walls, there are wide and deep artificially dug trenches parallel to the city walls (which can also be filled with river water to become a moat). In large capitals, the trenches surrounding the city are usually 30 meters wide and 4 to 5 meters deep. ? However, Tucheng also has the advantage of Tucheng, that is, it is easy to repair.
For example, during the Anshi Rebellion, when Li Guangbi was guarding Taiyuan, the rebel general Shi Siming's army was approaching. It would be too late to reinforce the 40-mile radius of Taiyuan City, so he led the soldiers and civilians to dig trenches outside the city, and ordered people to dig trenches outside the city. Hundreds of thousands of adobe bricks were made from the soil, and the forts were built with adobe bricks. Wherever they were damaged, they were repaired with adobe bricks. ? From the perspective of military defense, the construction of ancient Chinese cities can be described as exquisitely laid out and full of institutions. On the top of the tall city wall, there is a continuous concave and dented low wall built on the outside, called battlements, also known as crenellations. There are crenels on the top for archery and observation, and there are ventilation holes on the bottom to protect the wall. The inner low wall is called the female wall, also known as "the parapet". It is generally lower than the crenel and serves as a guardrail to prevent soldiers from falling when walking back and forth. In addition, roads around the city and roads to climb the city are also built inside the city walls. ? There is a city tower in the center of each gate of the city wall. This is an exquisite and beautiful high-rise building on the top of the city wall. You can climb it for a lookout on weekdays, and the general will take command during war. It is an important high-altitude defense facility for the city. On the outside of the tall wall, at certain intervals, there will be a section protruding from the outside of the wall, which is the horse face (also known as the enemy platform, pier, and wall platform). There are two types of horse noodles: rectangular and semicircular. They are named because they look like a long and narrow horse face. The horse face is used to interact with the city wall, eliminate blind spots under the city, and attack the enemy from three sides from top to bottom. Its general width is 12 to 20 meters, protruding from the outer surface of the wall by 8 to 12 meters, and the spacing is 20 to 250 meters (usually 70 meters). This is in line with the record in Song Dynasty's "City Guarding Record: City Guarding Secrets" written by Chen Gui of the Song Dynasty: "In the old style, a horse face was built at sixty paces. It jumped out of the city without losing two feet. The width and width vary depending on the location. Look straight at the corners of the city from both sides. There are buildings above them. "In the era of cold weapons, this distance was just within the effective range of bows and arrows. ? In order to enhance the defense and war capabilities of the horse face, watch towers are generally built on the horse face, where troops can be stationed and observed, and weapons can be stored, so that the defensive performance of the city wall can be maximized. During wartime, you can not only use the characteristics of its convex shape and tall building to watch the enemy, observe the enemy's situation, and prevent the enemy from bypassing the city to attack the city; you can also rely on the cross fire from the front and between the left and right buildings to snipe the enemy at any time. Points and lines are connected to form a tight high-altitude firepower network, which is an important part of the city wall defense project. In addition, each of the four corners of the city wall has a tower and oar, which is called a corner tower. The turret is oriented at an angle of 135 degrees to the big wall. The height and volume of the turret are between that of the city tower and the watchtower. It is mainly used to make up for the weak defensive links in the blind corners of the city wall, thereby enhancing the defensive capabilities of the entire city wall. . During wartime, the defenders in the turret had a commanding position and a wide field of vision, allowing them to monitor and defeat attacking enemies from various angles. ? From the perspective of military offensive, the weakest link of a city is naturally the city gate. Therefore, the designers of the city will naturally increase their protection and strengthen their defense capabilities. Smaller cities usually have hanging gates or suspension bridges, while larger cities have urn walls. Wengcheng is a small city built outside the city gate, also called Yuecheng. It is a small city specially designed to protect the city gate. "Wu Jing Zong Yao First Collection: Guarding the City" records: "The urn outside the city may be round or square. Depending on the terrain, it is as high and thick as the city, but one door is left open, and the left and right are as they see fit."? The enemy broke through the Wengcheng gate and the main city gate defense. Due to the narrow space inside the Wengcheng, it was not easy to launch a large-scale attack with troops, which slowed down the enemy's attack speed. The defenders on the top of the city wall could shoot from a high position and attack the enemy in all directions. To strike with fatal blows is as the saying goes: to beat a dog behind closed doors and to catch a turtle in an urn. "The Book of Songs·Zheng Feng·Out of the East Gate" says: "Out of the gate, there is a girl like a girl." "闉阇" refers to Wengcheng. It can be seen that as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the city's city defense technology had reached a fairly complete level. The three-dimensional city defense pattern composed of city walls, towers, moats, horse faces, watchtowers, turrets, and urns, etc., was basically mature and finalized during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and continued until the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Existing famous ancient cities
Jiangling City, also known as? Jingzhou Ancient City? One of the ancient cities of the Ming Dynasty, it was listed as a "National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit" in 2006. ?The ancient city of Xingcheng has gone through more than 570 years of vicissitudes. During the Battle of Ningyuan in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Nurhaci, the founder of the Qing Dynasty, was hit by a Hongyi cannon and was seriously injured. He died soon after returning to Shengjing. A Kuixing Tower was built in the southeast corner. The east, west, south and north streets in the city intersect in a + shape. In the very center of the ancient city, there is a majestic Bell and Drum Tower. It flies in the air and corresponds to the four city gate archery towers. It looks majestic and majestic. Ningyuan Ancient City, The ancient city of Ningyuan was the largest military town outside the Pass in the late Ming Dynasty. The famous "Ningyuan Victory" in history happened here. If you come to Xingcheng today, the first thing you will see when you leave the train station is the statue of Yuan Chonghuan standing in the middle of the square in front of the station. Looking at the ancient city of Xingcheng, judging from its shape and layout, the architecture of the city walls, towers, and urns, as well as the Hongyi cannons erected at the crenellations of the city walls, it is not difficult for us to imagine the scene of the battlefield filled with gunpowder smoke at that time. ?
The ancient city of Xi'an. The capital of Shaanxi Province and the transportation hub of the northwest region. Xi'an was known as Chang'an in ancient times. It was the ancient city with the longest history among the seven ancient capitals. Starting from 1027 BC, 12 dynasties including the Western Zhou Dynasty, Qin Dynasty, Western Han Dynasty, Western Jin Dynasty, Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty established their capital here, which lasted 1160 years. ?Xi'an is a famous historical and cultural city at home and abroad. Together with ancient Rome, Athens, and Cairo, it is known as the world's four major ancient civilization capitals. It has a history of 3,100 years.
Xi'an was the national political, economic and cultural center during the heyday of feudalism, and was the starting point of the Silk Road leading to Central Asia and Europe. ?Xi'an has a wide variety of places of interest left over from ancient times and preserved to this day, and enjoys the reputation of "Museum of Natural History". The natural and cultural sceneries including the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the First Emperor of Qin, the ancient city walls, the forest of steles, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the four major sites of Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang dynasties shine with the splendid spiritual wisdom of ancient Chinese history and culture. ?The ancient city of Xi'an, where the capitals Fengjing and Haojing began to be built during the Western Zhou Dynasty, are located on both sides of the Feng River in the west of Xi'an today. The actual location of Xianyang, the capital of Qin, was on the banks of the Wei River north of present-day Xi'an. Chang'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, was located on the east bank of the Bo River between the capital of Qin and present-day Xi'an. The Sui Dynasty built another capital city south of Longshou Plain and renamed it Daxing. The Tang Dynasty renamed Chang'an, and the capital moved eastward to build a new city, namely Chang'an City in the Five Dynasties, Song and Yuan Dynasties. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Xi'an City was built on the basis of the Tang Imperial City. ?The land of Guanzhong with Xi'an as the center is like a huge historical museum, showing the world the most glorious chapter in Chinese history with a large number of precious cultural relics and relics. There are many places of interest near Xi'an: the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin; 13 mausoleums of Western Han emperors, of which Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's Maoling is the most majestic; 18 imperial mausoleums of the Tang Dynasty, of which the Zhaoling Tomb of Li Shimin and the Qianling Mausoleum of Li Zhi and Wu Zetian are the most majestic. There are also Lishan Mountain and Huashan Mountain which are famous both at home and abroad. The ancient city wall of Xi'an was first built in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. It was built on the basis of the original imperial city of Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty. It is the most complete ancient city wall existing in my country. The city wall is rectangular in plan, with a circumference of about 12 kilometers, a height of 12 meters, a top width of 15 meters, and the walls are all covered with green bricks. There are turrets at the four corners of the city wall. There are 16 city gates in total, and a main city gate on each side. There are parapets built inside and outside the top of the city wall, and there is a moat surrounding the city wall.
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