Watching TV today and seeing the stolen murals of many ancient buildings in Shanxi, I feel sad that excellent cultural heritage may not exist, and this cannot be copied, and our cultural protection must be strengthened. In fact, there are too many such things, because the sense of cultural protection is not strong, we are bent on urban construction, but unconsciously do not know how many precious cultural relics have been damaged.
It is about to be 2017, and 600 years ago, in 1417, a major project in Beijing, the "National Gate", was officially completed.
In 1958, the Zhonghua Gate, to the north is the Monument to the People's Heroes
Daming Gate is located in the south of Tiananmen, north of the Inner City Zhengyang Gate, (on the south side of the current Monument to the People's Heroes, around the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall), is the outer gate of the imperial city of the Ming and Qing dynasties, because it is the south gate of the imperial city, it enjoys the status of "national gate", also known as "the first gate of the imperial city". Ming Chengzu Zhu Di ordered the university scholar to solve the title of the door union, the book said: "Sun and moon light and heavenly virtue, mountains and rivers Zhuang Emperor Residence".
As the outer gate of the imperial city, of course, it is very grand, with a single eaves on the top of the mountain, a masonry structure, a south-facing five niches, a three-pass in the middle, a heavy ridge of cornices, and a yellow glazed tile roof. In front of the Daming Gate is a small square square, which is a "heavenly street", commonly known as "chessboard street". There are 110 east-west Langfang on the left and right between the north side of the gate and Tiananmen, called the "Thousand Steps Corridor", and there are 34 north-facing Langfang, that is, even look at the ridge.
The name of Daming Gate changed with the change of dynasties, the Qing Dynasty changed its name to Daqing Gate, and after the Xinhai Revolution, it was renamed Zhonghua Gate. This gate is the symbol of the national gate of the Ming and Qing dynasties, except for the empress dowager and the emperor can come and go at any time, no one can walk without permission, and the empress can only enjoy it once on the day of the big wedding. Some emperors only ascended the throne after marriage, and the empress at this time could not go through this door. The Tongzhi Emperor's empress Arut clan was brought in by the Great Qing Gate, and it is said that she said, "How can I say that I was also brought in from the Great Qing Gate", which caused Cixi to feel inferior and hit her heart.
In 1902, Cixi and Guangxu returned to Luang to enter the Great Qing Gate
The national gate plaques of the Ming and Qing dynasties were made of stone. After the victory of the Xinhai Revolution, it was decided to rename the Great Qing Gate to "Zhonghua Gate". In the early morning of October 9, 1912, the old plaque engraved with the words "Great Qing Gate" was removed and prepared to be turned over and reused, but it was found that there were already three words "Daming Gate" behind the plaque, so he had to rush to make a plaque of "Zhonghua Gate" written by Wang Yeqiu of Jingzhao Yin.
This "national gate" has gone through ups and downs and is a precious historical witness of the Chinese nation, how did it get torn down step by step?
At the beginning of the founding of New China, the original shape of the Tiananmen area was preserved, the Zhonghua Gate still existed, and the left and right gates on Chang'an Avenue were still intact. At that time, Chang'an Avenue was very narrow, only 15 meters wide, and many people believed that these two gates hindered traffic and hindered the parade, and they should be widened first. In August 1952, the Beijing Municipal People's Congress of All Walks of Life was held to discuss the demolition of the chang'an left gate and the right gate of Chang'an on both sides of Tiananmen.
The reason for the proposed demolition is recorded in the archives: "Every year hundreds of thousands of people and majestic troops are here to be inspected by Chairman Mao. But before the gates could be demolished, they impeded such an important activity in traffic. During the holiday parade, the military flag had to bow its head after passing through three doors, and the comrades of the People's Liberation Army were particularly angry. The crowd looked forward to going to Tiananmen Square to see Chairman Mao, but the procession sometimes couldn't pass through three gates until the afternoon, and they couldn't see the leader..."
Liang Sicheng had a heated argument with many members at the meeting, but it was useless, and his proposal was considered to "affect the interests of the people and the construction of the capital", and was eventually demolished by collective vote.
Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin inspected the ancient building
Since then, the construction of new Beijing has been changing with each passing day, mainly starting gradually with Tiananmen Square as the center, and the construction of Beijing has been accompanied by the demolition of the original ancient buildings. In 1958, Beijing completed ten major buildings in one year, known as a miracle in the history of architecture, Tiananmen Square needs to continue to expand, and many city walls and gate towers are within the scope of demolition.
Liang Sicheng was heartbroken and said at the meeting: "Every time a city tower is demolished, he wants to dig up a piece of my flesh; every time he peels off the city bricks of the outer city, it is like peeling off a layer of my skin; after 50 years, some people will regret it." At that time, Wu Han, vice mayor of Beijing, criticized Liang Sicheng: "You are an old conservative, and in the future, high-rise buildings will be built everywhere in Beijing City, and your archways and palace gates will not all become chicken coops and bird coops under the siege of high-rise buildings. Liang Sicheng cried bitterly on the spot.
In 1959, at the suggestion of Soviet experts, the Zhonghua Gate in Beijing was demolished, and it has since been presented forever in old photographs.
"If this ancient city can survive to this day, it will be the only historical and cultural city in the world that can be completely preserved, the grandest and most imposing, even today's Paris and Rome will be difficult to reach." Luo Zhewen, president of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society, once expressed such a view. But there is no regret medicine in the world, and some things can never be recovered once they are lost. I hope we can learn our lessons and try our best to protect the cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors!