Speaking of Chang'an Avenue, many people know "Ten Mile Long Street", in fact, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Chang'an Avenue was only from Dongdan to Xidan, and even to the Republic of China, the section before Tiananmen Had another name (Zhongshan Road). Because it is located in the key point of the imperial city, it is the Royal Road of Tianjie Street, although it is not long, but it is lined with a series of classic buildings such as Chang'an Gate, Chang'an Avenue Archway, and Three Gates, which can be described as spectacular and strictly forbidden to guard.
Volume XI of the "History of the Palace of the State Dynasty" during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty records: "The imperial city has four gates of Tian'an, Dong'an, Xi'an and Di'an, and the east of Tiananmen is the left gate of Chang'an, and the west is the right gate of Chang'an. ”
The Great Qing Gate after 1902
Photo by Chang'an Zuomen Gambo from 1918 to 1919
The Archway of East Chang'an Avenue in 1881
The right gate of Chang'an at the end of the Qing Dynasty
Archway of West Chang'an Avenue during the Republic of China
During the Republic of China, the archway on the south side of the left gate of Chang'an was "in the middle"
"Dragon Gate" and "Tiger Gate"
The Yudao Tianjie Street in front of Tiananmen Gate is in the shape of a T, and it runs south along the Thousand Steps Corridor to the Daqing Gate, and its east-west direction is Chang'an Avenue. It's all high-spec Dragon Tail Imperial Road. The Ming Dynasty's "Chang'an Ke dialect" says: Entering the Daming Gate (Qing Reform Great Qing Gate), the second is the Chengtian Gate (Tiananmen), before the Tianjie Street runs across the Chengtian Gate, its left is known as the East Chang'an Gate (Chang'an Left Gate), and its right is the West Chang'an Gate (Chang'an Right Gate).
Tiananmen square in front of this horizontal street, there is Chang'an left gate, Chang'an right gate across it, this section of the door, the Republic of China was called Zhongshan Road, outside the door is the east and west Chang'an Avenue, the Qing Dynasty here is not a thoroughfare, even the entire inner city has no east-west thoroughfare, Chang'an left gate and Chang'an right gate outside the door is not far from the east and west three doors, are the access control place, the three doors outside the door also erected Chang'an Avenue archway, there is engraved with Manchu and Han chinese "Chang'an Avenue" plaque, and there is a duty room guard, the Republic of China removed manchu, the east plaque is titled "East Chang'an Avenue", The plaque on the west side reads "West Chang'an Avenue".
In fact, as early as the Ming Dynasty, the tribute envoys of the Dongjiaomin Lane HuitongGuan entered the dynasty, that is, they took the East Chang'an Avenue, and a fold of the sixth year of Hongzhi also mentioned that the road outside the East and West Chang'an Gate was damaged, which hindered the passage and viewing of the envoys, and needed to be repaired urgently, and it was recommended to upgrade from the brick Yongdao to the stone road. This kind of Yongdao exists in the East Fourth and East Single Belts, and in the early days, rammed earth should be wrapped in large bricks to form a high Yongdao to facilitate cars and horses, and pedestrians take the dirt roads on both sides. From this recital, it can also be seen that the Ming Dynasty's ancestral capital beijing is only eighty years old, and this road of the forbidden land of the imperial city, "the bricks are mostly stolen by people, or broken for a long time, and the earthen streets are stored, and the side is several feet low, and when it rains heavily, the water becomes a river." ”
Judging from the old photos of the late Qing Dynasty on Chang'an Avenue in the east and west, there is still no stone road built outside the Chang'an Gate, and there is a good chance that it is "blocked by floating words", and it seems that it is not so easy to do some construction in front of the emperor's house. However, after all, it is still necessary to "strengthen the atmosphere of China and look at the world", if you enter the Tiananmen Square, you generally have to pass through the Archway of Chang'an Avenue, pass through three more doors, and then pass through Chang'an Gate before you can reach it. This strict access control left a deep impression on the foreign guests in Dongjiaomin Lane.
After 1860, Britain and France and other countries successively set up embassies in Dongjiaomin Lane, curious foreigners wanted to see the scene of Chang'an Avenue, before they reached the archway, they were drunk, so that when the Gengzi Incident occurred, they retaliated by wandering around the royal forbidden land, taking photos, and even sitting on the dragon chair to pose for photos, in fact, it was caused by the rebound brought about by this strictness. And once this mysterious feeling of deliberately creating and accumulating for thousands of years is broken, and the gold and jade of the Heavenly Dynasty are recognized, the gorgeous robe crawling with fleas is just the shroud of the dying ancient dynasty. But anyone who stands here in awe of civilization will utter a heartfelt admiration for this ancient, majestic, magnificent, and wise beauty.
The Chang'an Left Gate and Chang'an Right Gate, which span Chang'an Avenue, are called Dragon Gate and Tiger Gate respectively. Traditional culture often mentions "left green dragon, right white tiger", in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the temple test Zhang huangbang is the Chang'an left gate, which corresponds to the Yuelong Gate; the right gate of Chang'an is the opposite, every year before the frost falls, the autumn trial is held inside the door, the main life kills and robs, so it is the Tiger Gate.
Regarding the history of the Left Gate of Chang'an and the Right Gate of Chang'an, there are views that these two gates existed in the Yuan Dynasty, possibly the "Outer Yi Gate", with the Thousand Steps Corridor and Zhongshu Province inside, which were the gates of passage for officials living in the city. The Records of Emperor Ming Yingzong says: "In the first year of orthodoxy (1436), the left and right gates of Chang'an were repaired, and the tiles were damaged by the years and years", at this time it was only twenty years since the Ming Dynasty built Beijing, which is not a long time, and it is possible that these two doors existed before the Ming Dynasty. The north and south sides of the left gate of Chang'an and the right gate of Chang'an are connected to a section of the imperial city wall. The left gate of Chang'an and the right gate of Chang'an were demolished at the end of 1952, and the imperial city wall connected to the north side of the city was shifted to the east and west of the city in 1959, which should be adjusted to coincide with the construction of the outer viewing platform.
It is worth mentioning that from the old photos, the paintings of the chang'an left gate and the right gate of Chang'an are the same as the great Qingmen, which is a one-character fangxin Yawu ink spinzi color painting, the color painting of Beijing city at the end of the Qing Dynasty is very strange, according to the reason, Tiananmen Square is a dragon grass and seal color painting, and the former Great Qing Gate, Chang'an Left and Right Gate should be lowered to the first class, using the gold line large dot golden spindle color painting or ink line large point golden spindle color painting is more reasonable, but the color paintings of these doors are the lowest grade, not attached to the gold Yawu ink spinzi color painting, which may be related to their brick and stone material, and the gold is easy to peel off.
The little-known Gongsheng Gate and Gongsheng Bridge
About 500 meters outside the Chang'an Left Gate and the Right Gate of Chang'an, there are three gates in the east and west, which are located outside the south entrance of Nanchizi and Nanchang street, spanning Chang'an Avenue, and were demolished in 1950. The "Examination of the Old News under the Sun" says: "In the nineteenth year of Qianlong, a wall was added outside the East and West Chang'an Gates, and three gates were set up each." In 1913, in order to open Chang'an Avenue, the three gates of the east and west were converted into three-hole ticket gates with red walls and yellow glazed tiles on the small roof of the mountain, which is still called the three doors of the east and west. Inside the three east gates, at the foot of the red wall on the west side of the south entrance of the south pond, there is also a good sweet water well, which is recorded in "Heavenly Occasional News": "The water in the Jingshi well is bitter, and the residents drink it at the rate." If the tea utensils are not swabed for three days, they are full of water. The best of the wells, the inner city is only outside the Anding Gate (full well), the outer city is Yaojiajing, followed by the East Chang'an Gate (Note - should refer to the East Three Gates) Inner Well, and the second East Factory Hutong West Exit Outer Well, is inferior. "The location of this well, extrapolated from the old photographs, should be in the green space in front of the red wall here.
On the tall south wall between the left gate and the east three gates of Chang'an and between the right gate of Chang'an and the three gates of the west, the north entrance of East Gong'an Street (formerly Bingbu Street) and the north entrance of Justice Department Street (formerly Punishment Department Street) also have the East Gongsheng Gate and the West Gongsheng Gate. In addition, there are two bridges on the east and west sides of the Jinshui Bridge, facing the Sheji Altar and the Taimiao Temple, which are called Gongsheng Bridge.
Both the gate and the bridge are called gongsheng because they are for officials to pass. The word "Gongsheng" is derived from "Xunzi Bugou": "Gongsheng is bright, partial is born dark, duan is born of morality, deceit is born of congestion, honesty is born of God, and exaggeration is born of confusion." Of these six beings, the gentleman is cautious, and Yu and Jie are divided. The first two sentences were used as official proverbs in ancient times.
According to the Records of Emperor Ming Yingzong, in June of the first year of the orthodox era (1436), the East and West Gongsheng Gates were built at the left gate of Chang'an and the south of the right gate of Chang'an. Nearly five hundred years later, in 1914, two public gates were demolished. In 1916, a cement archway was built on the site of the original two public gates. The "Luzhong" archway was built near the original site of the East Gongsheng gate, and correspondingly, the "Gongshengmen" archway was built at the location of the West Gongshengmen. In 1950, the two arches were demolished together, and the stone plaque was stored by the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Ministry of Culture.
Not far from it, the East and West Chang'an Avenue archways have experienced the fate of demolition, relocation and demolition. The East Chang'an Avenue Archway was originally located on the west side of the south entrance of the present-day Wangfujing Street, and the West Chang'an Avenue Archway was on the east side of the South Exit of Fuyou Street, and the two arches were facing east and west, spanning Chang'an Avenue, with the same structure, both of which were three-room four-pillar three-story wooden structures. The columns are of the cupola type, but the middle column of the East Chang'an Avenue archway is higher than the West Chang'an Avenue archway. In the 1950s, after the trend of changing cement arches in the Republic of China, especially after the demolition of the Jingde Street archway in January 1954, these two arches are the few wooden street arches in Beijing that still retain their original form.
On August 18, 1954, the demolition of the East and West Chang'an Avenue archway began, and the demolition was completed on the 25th. The dismantled components are transported to the north gate of Taoranting Park for classification and preservation, and their wooden components are numbered and registered one by one, and the tiles are well preserved. In 1955, the two arches were re-established in Taoranting Park. In September 1971, the two arches were demolished. In 2011, Taoranting Park rebuilt two archways. These two arches are different in detail from the original East and West Arches of Chang'an Avenue, and the biggest difference is that the original archway is cut green edges for smouldering green cut tiles, rather than yellow glazed tile green trims. But after all, it is rebuilt, so that people can still glimpse their majesty.
Source Beijing Evening News
Author Li Zhe
Process Editor Wu Yue