The city wall, the outline of an ancient city, represents the "appearance" of the city in a sense.
Just like we often say that Xi'an is the Sifang City, Suzhou is the great city of Helv, and Beijing is the Forty-Nine City, these most intuitive adjectives form our basic impression of this city.
If we give it cultural connotation, then we can say that it is a continuation of the cultural context, a "three-dimensional park around the city" and an urban landscape. The city wall represents the magnificence of the city;
If we discuss the practical value of the city wall, there will be issues such as whether the city wall still needs to exist because of its role in ancient and modern times, the contradiction between its existence and urban traffic, etc. Caught in controversy;
And if we think about the meaning of the city wall, the definitions from "cultural heritage" and "cultural protection units" limit everyone's thinking.
In fact, the city wall defines the scope of the ancient city, and the ancient city carries Chinese culture.
Just as we recall Chang'an of the Tang Dynasty, Bianliang of the Song Dynasty, etc., what we actually like is the appearance of the city within the city wall.
So to Nanjing, what is the city wall?
01. The tiger sits on the dragon's plate
The location of Nanjing is mainly based on the Yangtze River, and its development in the past dynasties is also inseparable from the Yangtze River.
The Nanjing Camp used the two natural moats of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River to defend against incoming enemies from the north. Therefore, the Yangtze River has also become Nanjing's natural defense barrier.
Nanjing is located in the valley basin of the Yangtze River. Among the surrounding mountains, Zhongshan is the highest with an altitude of 448 meters.
The rest are surrounded by Jiangjun Mountain, Niushou Mountain, Fangshan Mountain, Shogun Mountain, Qinglong Mountain, etc.
Long-term sedimentation and land creation, coupled with the diversion of rivers and shrinking lakes... Nanjing's waters have also been changing.
The Mochou Lake, Xuanwu Lake, Qinhuai River Channel, or the Yangtze River embankment we see today are actually manifestations of the interdependence of cities and water bodies.
This kind of landscape pattern made the ancients describe the city of Nanjing as "a dragon crouching and a tiger sitting on top". The rhetoric used to describe Nanjing, "dragon on the pan and tiger on the throne", has been attracting batches of emperors to settle there for thousands of years.
This is one of the sayings about the tiger sitting on the dragon's plate. It means that Zhongshan and Shitou Mountain (Qingliang Mountain) are dragons and tigers. Although I dare not say what the "Feng Shui" is, the location of Nanjing is indeed It is the most unique among the many cities along the Yangtze River.
The site selection of the ancient city follows the principle of having the yin and yang in the back, with mountains on the back and water on the side. Looking from a distance, Nanjing has a large river plain, but the shape of the city nearby requires all the elements to be met:
In the north there are Zu Mountain and Xingfu Mountain
The main mountains cover Zhoushan and Jilong Mountain one by one
In the east there are Qinglong Mountain and Zhongshan Mountain
In the west there are White Tiger - Stone Mountain
Surrounded by the Qinhuai River in the south
Across the water, there is Case Mountain - Jubao Mountain
In the distance, there is Chao Mountain - Niushou Mountain
A piece of land in the center of these mountains is the approximate location of the city.
Nanjing's site selection in the past dynasties basically followed this layout without major changes.
It wasn't until Zhu Yuanzhang started large-scale construction that no palace was built on the original site of the Six Dynasties. Instead, a piece of land at the foot of Zhongshan Mountain on the east side was chosen, which is where the Forbidden City in Nanjing is today.
In general, the location of Nanjing City is both a historical accident and an inevitability determined by the natural environment.
The Chinese people’s understanding of the capital has formed a unique Eastern thinking through the ups and downs of each generation.
02. The appearance of masonry
Counting from the "Yue City" and "Jinling Yi" in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, Nanjing has a history of more than 2,400 years of city construction.
Starting from Soochow in the Three Kingdoms, the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen, and even later the Southern Tang, Ming, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the Republic of China all established their capitals here.
We often describe Nanjing as the "ancient capital of six dynasties" and "the city of ten dynasties". These names are derived from these dynasties.
Unfortunately, compared with other northern capitals, the dynasties that established their capital in Nanjing did not last long, and most of them ended in collapse. Therefore, these past events of Nanjing are difficult to trace on the surface.
As soon as the city sites overlapped, the new dynasty replaced the old dynasty.
First of all, the large-scale urban construction since the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the urbanization process since the founding of the People's Republic of China have also caused the traces of the previous dynasties to disappear in the long river of history.
The Nanjing City Wall we call today began on a large scale in the Ming Dynasty.
"Build walls high, accumulate grain widely, and become king slowly."
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang started to build the Nanjing city wall with this set of guiding rules on his way to the country. Our existing Nanjing city wall structure was basically finalized when Nanjing was building the city in the early Ming Dynasty.
Nanjing City, which was reorganized by Zhu Yuanzhang, can be roughly divided into four levels inside and outside: the palace city, the imperial city, the capital city and the outer city.
Among them, Miyagi Imperial City can be roughly understood as the royal sleeping area. The outer city is mostly built with rammed earth to complete the defensive function of Zhongshan.
The Nanjing City Wall we refer to today mainly describes the Nanjing Capital City Wall.
The city wall of Nanjing built in the early Ming Dynasty can reach 35.3 kilometers in circumference, and the city wall has thirteen gates and external links:
The thirteen gates in the Ming Dynasty are: Jubao Gate, Tongji Gate, Zhengyang Gate, Chaoyang Gate, Taiping Gate, Shence Gate, Jinchuan Gate, Zhongfu Gate, Yifeng Gate, Dinghuai Gate, Qingliang Gate, Shicheng Gate, Sanshan Gate.
If you judge each section of the city wall according to its orientation, it can be divided into several sections:
The first is the Nancheng Jubaomen section, which was the main entrance to the main urban area of ??Nanjing in the past, connecting the inner and outer Qinhuai The river communicates up and down.
The first is Sanshan Gate and Tongji Gate, which connect the inlet and outlet of the Qinhuai River and serve as the intersection of water and land on the left and right sides of Nanjing City.
The city gates that communicate with the Qinhuai River inside and outside are each built in the shape of a boat, with a water gate connected upstream and downstream, serving as the main water and land communication channel in Nanjing.
One is the Shicheng Gate, which stretches from Qingliang to Dinghuai Gate, and is combined into the Stone City. Following the mountain trend, it forms the eastern barrier of Nanjing.
The first one is Yifeng Gate and Zhongfu Gate in Lion Mountain, which explores the northeastern corner of the Yangtze River from Nanjing City. It serves as the main strategic defense point to protect the northern part of Nanjing.
One is from Shence Gate to Taicheng, and from Jiuhua Mountain to Taipingmen. It is the defense of northern Nanjing and is also a section of the city wall connecting Xuanwu Lake.
The first is Zhengyang Gate and Chaoyang Gate, which contains the main palace center of the Nanjing Forbidden City inside and connects the southern sacrificial area and Zhongshan Mausoleum area outside.
In terms of the size of the city gates, Jubao, Sanshan, Shicheng, Tongji and Zhengyangmen are the most grand, and no expense is spared in materials.
Nanjing is different from other cities in that the main city gate of Nanjing, the Wengcheng, opens inside (Zhengyang Gate opens inside and outside) and does not face outwards. Therefore, the highest level of the city wall is actually the outermost side.
There are caves for hiding soldiers under the city platform. For example, there are twenty-seven caves for hiding soldiers at the main city gate of Jubao Gate, which can hide more than 3,000 soldiers.
Each of the main city gates in Nanjing has a three-story urn (Zhengyang Gate is guessed to have two inner and one outer, and Shicheng Gate has two inner urns), and the unique ship-shaped inner urn gate has also appeared. The four walls of the wall are completely different from the previous city wall styles.
In contrast, the layout of other city gates is relatively simple. They are mainly single-layer arched door openings on the city wall, and most of them serve to communicate internal and external traffic.
Most of the city wall sections were constructed according to the terrain, either to enclose the mountains, to take advantage of the situation to climb on, or to be directly surrounded by rivers, adapting to local conditions.
In the Stone City, the city wall was built along the stone cliff, taking advantage of the natural situation;
If it encountered a large lake or swamp, it would be covered with boulders or logs under the soil to stabilize it. The role of the foundation;
The city walls were built high on the plains to make up for the lack of defense on the plains;
The city walls and the river network also complemented each other, and the links were intertwined, which can be said to be quite mature. building concept.
What’s more worth mentioning is that the city wall of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty used a huge amount of bricks.
Huge amounts of city bricks came from major prefectures, counties and garrisons in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. More than a hundred departments, including the Ministry of Industry's Maintenance Department, organized manpower to burn them.
It can be seen from this that the burning of the Nanjing Ming City Wall was not just local income, but a large-scale engineering project undertaken by the whole country at that time.
And in order to ensure the quality of the city bricks selected, this large-scale project also requires local officials, garrisons, organizers (General A, Jia Shou, Xiao Jia), and brick-making potters to put their own His/her name is engraved on the brick so that the brick maker can be held accountable after construction.
Due to the different selections and calligraphy of inscriptions in different places, the Nanjing City Wall can also be called a calligraphy collection.
Where the etiquette should be followed, the place is regular, and where it should be practical, there is ingenuity to be found. It can be seen that Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty has broken away from the established laws of the past dynasties, becoming more practical and seeking innovation.
This also established the main appearance of Nanjing’s current ancient city. This change lasted for more than 600 years.
03. The current situation is constantly changing
However, Nanjing has not remained unchanged since its construction in the Ming Dynasty.
The first is the Jingnan Campaign in the early Ming Dynasty. After Zhu Di seized power, he moved the center of state power from Nanjing to Beijing. After Nanjing became the capital, there was basically no new construction.
Perhaps it is precisely because of the changes in the center of power that the Nanjing Palace City gradually became vacant, and the city walls slowly lagged behind the development of the city and began to fall into disrepair.
Until the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, when China was in turmoil, Nanjing's urban structure was gradually broken. The Ming Forbidden City became the headquarters of the Eight Banners, and the city wall also overflowed with the population, becoming more in need of internal and external communication.
In the Qing Dynasty, a new Caochang Gate and Fengrun Gate (today’s Xuanwu Gate) were opened to facilitate residents’ internal and external activities.
The hierarchical order of the four-layered city since the Ming Dynasty was broken, and Nanjing finally transformed from an imperial capital into a large city in the south of the Yangtze River, a stronghold for merchants.
During the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also established its capital in Nanjing. Due to the construction needs of the Tianwang Palace, the last remaining remains of the Ming Palace were demolished and building materials appropriated, and Nanjing was renamed "Tianjing".
Afterwards, in the fierce battle between the Qing army and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, many important buildings in the city were destroyed, and Nanjing City suffered another round of heavy damage. So much so that in Nanjing we see today, even wooden buildings from the Ming Dynasty have become extremely rare.
During the Republic of China, Nanjing was also the capital. At this time, Nanjing's city wall began to become a traffic obstacle and a shackle for urban development amid the rapid changes in transportation and population overflow.
Therefore, during the Republic of China, Hailing Gate (now Yijiang Gate) and Wuding Gate were opened, Chaoyang Gate was changed to Zhongshan Gate, Hanzhong Gate and Central Gate were opened, Jubao Gate was changed to Zhonghua Gate, and Xinmin Gate was opened. , Yuhuamen...
The gradual development of cities and the gradual emergence of new means of transportation mean that the traditional city wall defense system is no longer suitable for the construction of new cities. This series of renovations also shows that the Nanjing City Wall gradually needs to face a huge problem - preservation and disposal.
During this period, the Japanese invasion of China was also well known to everyone. During the battle to defend Nanjing, the city wall of Nanjing was severely damaged. After that, something happened in Nanjing that the Chinese will always remember. Massacre.
The days of war and the massacre of civilians have left this city with an indelible historical memory for the Chinese nation forever.
Nanjing, Nanjing.
The history of this city has reached this point and has been closely tied to the rise and fall of the entire nation.
Now that modern history has accumulated to this point, what new changes will Nanjing, which is riddled with holes, usher in?
04. The history of history will last forever
"The tiger sitting on the dragon's plate is better than the past, and the world is turned upside down and generous."
Since its construction in the early Ming Dynasty, the Nanjing City Wall has gone through more than 600 years. However, after the founding of New China, the Nanjing City Wall has entered another door of history in the game of old and new.
On April 23, 1949, the People's Liberation Army captured Nanjing and Nanjing was liberated.
However, after liberation, the growing demand for urban development and industrialization made the relationship between city walls and urban roads more acute.
Issues such as traffic detours, urban land, urban building materials, etc. are stimulating people's nerves: Does New China need this antique from six hundred years ago?
Beijing, Nanjing, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Jinan, Kaifeng and many other cities are facing the same problem. Under such sharp contradictions, in the land of New China that is full of waste and waiting for development, The fate of many city walls came to an end.
In Beijing, only the Zhengyang Gate, Deshengmen Archery Tower, and the inner southeast corner tower section of the city wall were left, and the rest were almost completely demolished; Changsha, Wuhan, Luoyang, and Taiyuan all transformed the remaining city walls into spacious avenue.
The “city ring road” and “crossroads” we are familiar with gradually replaced the functions of the city wall and participated in a new round of urban development.
Most of the city walls were razed and most of the moats were filled in.
In this round of large-scale urban transformation, Nanjing lost important Wengcheng such as Sanshan Gate, Tongji Gate, and Zhengyang Gate. Of the thirteen city gates built in the early Ming Dynasty, only the gods remained. The remains of Cemen, Qingliangmen, Zhonghuamen and Shichengmen.
Until now, the Nanjing City Wall has been the lucky one among the Ming and Qing Dynasty City Walls in the country.
The city wall is still completely preserved at about two-thirds of its original length. There are only a few important city gates and ship-shaped urns, but very little remains.
Therefore, every time I write about the city wall, it is very controversial, as if everyone must compete with each other. Beijing said it was a pity, Xi'an said it was complete, Nanjing said it was true, and so on.
But there is really no need to fight. After the large-scale urban industrialization development in the last century, city walls have become a "rare thing".
In fact, there is no right or wrong choice in history, and urban development will eventually face large-scale transformation, and there is no guarantee that those whitewashed walls and black tiles will not be replaced by high-rise buildings.
Therefore, who wins and who loses in this dispute between the old and the new can only be left to future generations to comment.
And the history we can see should be protected and cherished. Their existence is evidence of our staggering journey more than a thousand years ago, and they also represented the glory of an era.
We should be in awe of the buildings of our ancestors. In fact, the city walls and ancient buildings can maintain a unified overall style precisely because they are restricted by the feudal order.
Whether this kind of unity is a remnant of the old era is not yet known, but it is a unique look of Chinese cities and a Chinese characteristic that distinguishes it from the forest of nations in the world.
Time is also an insurmountable limit for human beings, and the stories on this land are always superimposed layer by layer according to time.
Perhaps the Nanjing City Wall will continue to remain in the history books of China in its current appearance forever.
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References:
Wang Yanyan, "Research on the Protection and Construction of Nanjing Ming City Wall Heritage Corridor"
Fu Xiaoyu , "Exploration on the Protection of Ancient City Walls in China"
Wang Yi, "Research on Nanjing Urban Space Creation"
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Copy Editor丨Yu Han
Drawing and editing丨Yuhan
Modeling and rendering丨Yuhan
Picture source
Xie Yuhan
Special thanks
Nanjing City Wall Museum
Nanjing City Wall Protection and Management Center