Beijing, February 22 news The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is the world's longest mileage, the largest ancient canal, but also one of the oldest canals, together with the Great Wall, Qan'erjing and called the three great projects of ancient China, and used to this day, is a great project created by the working people in ancient China, is one of the symbols of China's cultural status.
The picture shows the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal - Beijing section (courtesy of the enterprise, issued by the Central Broadcasting Network)
Editor's Note:
The Grand Canal has a pivotal position in the city of Beijing, there is a saying in history that "beijing city is drifting", and the "Drifting Beijing City" planned and published by the Hanlin Cultural Development Center of the Grand Canal in Beijing has a detailed history of the canal. As the main traffic trunk connecting the north and south of China, the Grand Canal delivers the required materials to the capital, it can be said that "without the old canal, there is no old Beijing", at the same time, the canal has also bred many famous cities and ancient towns along the route. Today takes you into the old canal, old Beijing, the new story of the "Chongwen Gate".
The picture shows the "Jingmen Jiuqu Map" display data map (courtesy of the enterprise, issued by the Central Broadcasting Network)
In the new era, protect, inherit and make good use of the Grand Canal, let history flow to the future, and integrate cultural inheritance into the pulse of the times.
The "Nine Qu Map of Jingmen" and the "Ancient Transport Lookback Map" are exactly such cultural projects. The old Beijing City Gate has the saying of "Inner Nine Outer Seven Imperial Cities and Four Cities", "Jingmen Nine Qu Tu" is based on the Kangqian dynasty of Beijing City, with the traditional Chinese painting "work and writing" technique, artistically reproduced the six dynasties ancient capital of Beijing twenty city gate towers, showing the Qing Dynasty heyday (Kangqian prosperous) political, military, economic, cultural, architectural, sports, folklore and other aspects of the magnificent scene.
The picture shows the "Ancient Transport Lookback Map" display data map (courtesy of the enterprise, issued by the Central Broadcasting Network)
The three thousand miles of Caoyun customs can be seen from all sides, and the five thousand years of Chinese civilization are highlighted. Based on the detailed historical materials, the "Ancient Transport Retrospective Map" shows history from the cross-sectional angle of the history of the Ming Dynasty, starting from Dongbianmen and Tongzhou Ancient City, twisting south to the end of Yuhang, artistically reproducing the bustling scenes of shipping and river management, agriculture, handicrafts, industry and commerce, folk culture and other prosperous scenes that stretch for 1794 kilometers and are along both sides of the canal.
The two scrolls vividly depict the story of "the Grand Canal drifting to the city of Beijing" in the form of traditional Chinese paintings, which can be described as a "Map of the Qingming River" of old Beijing. The Grand Canal contains the secret of beijing's "drifting". Let us follow the guidance of the long scroll together, enter the old Beijing civilization, and crack the code of the middle way of civilization development.
Chongwen Gate is one of the nine gates of the Beijing Division, also known as the "Tax Gate"
Chongwen Gate, yuan called the civilization gate, commonly known as "Hade Gate", "Haidai Gate". Chongwen Gate is famous for the Zhenhai Iron Turtle in the Zhenhai Temple on the left side of the Urn City. In addition, the harshness of the Chongwenmen tax customs also makes foreign merchants fearful. The "Chongwen Iron Turtle" is famous throughout Kyoto. Take the wine car, outside the city is the wine road, most of the wine and wine of the year was transported from Zhuozhou and other places in Hebei Province, and it is natural to take the south road into Beijing. The liquor truck advanced to Zuo'an Gate in the outer city, and then to Chongwen Gate to pay taxes.
The picture shows the segmented picture scroll of "Jingmen Jiuqu Map" - Chongwenmen Appreciation (courtesy of the enterprise, issued by the Central Broadcasting Network)
The capital city of the Yuan Dynasty was made of rammed earth, also known as "banzhu", with a narrow lower width and a narrow upper part, standing majestically. Chongwen Gate began construction in 1267 (Yuan to Yuan 4 years) and was completed in 1276 (to the thirteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty). Because it was made of rammed soil, the problem of how to prevent rain from washing away the city soil was raised, and later Wang Qingrui of a thousand households suggested, "Weave with reeds, from the bottom up." It is covered with a reed curtain from bottom to top, like a person wearing a robe, referred to as reed city or a reed city, and a hadendy is set up outside the gate of civilization. The "Chronicle of Analysis" says: Every year, it is necessary to "collect the reeds to the city", reaching as many as "millions" (burdens). Today,the grass factory headlines in Chongwen District to Ten, the southern, northern and middle reed grass garden (formerly known as the reed garden) and other place names are related to the reed harvesting field of the Yuan Dynasty. Later, due to the dispute over the throne in the Yuan Dynasty, the defending side was afraid that the other side would attack the city with fire, so it withdrew the reed curtain.
In the seventeenth year of Ming Yongle (1419), the Chongwen Gate Was reconstructed, and the nineteenth year of Ming Yongle (1421) was completed. In the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty (1439), the urn city was rebuilt and added, renamed Chongwen Gate, taking the meaning of "civilization to build" and "its strong and civilized" in the "I Ching", which is the opposite of Xuanwu Gate. Chongwen Gate is both the door of the wine truck and the place where taxes are collected. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Beijing Division's tax gate was set up here to collect commercial taxes, and its tax revenue ranked first in the country, so it was also called "tax gate".
Chongwenmen experienced the ancient capital of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and it is located at the south entrance of the present-day Chongwenmen Inner Street, about 3 kilometers east of zhengyangmen. Its city floor is 5 rooms wide, about 39.1 meters wide, and the depth of the passage is 24.3 meters; the platform is 35.2 meters high, the heavy eaves of the building, the mountain-style city tower, the roof is a gray barrel green glazed tile eaves. Chongwen Gate is one of the nine gates of the Beijing Division, located in the southeast wall of the inner city, taking the meaning of "Wenjiao Yizun", which was called the Civilization Gate in the Yuan Dynasty.
Chongwen Gate is the easternmost of the three gates in The South City. The Ming Dynasty rebuilt the city of Beijing and changed the eleventh gate to the nine gates; although the location of the Wenming Gate was not moved, it was renamed Chongwen Gate. The Qing Dynasty continued to use this name to this day. In the seventeenth year of Ming Yongle (1419 AD), the southern city wall expanded 0.8 kilometers south, still opening the Civilization Gate, which was the hub of the passage of boats and cars, and was completed in the nineteenth year of Ming Yongle in 1421. In the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty, the urn city was rebuilt and added in 1439, and then demolished in 1968 due to the war between the Qing government and the warlords of the Republic of China.
The Chongwenmen "Tax Bureau" has a lot of income
After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, it followed the Ming system in urban construction. In order to adjust the income of the Manchu officials in Beijing, "the nine gates of the Beijing Division, all of which were taxed, were all under the Chongwen First Division" (see Ming Shixuan's "Relics of the Old Beijing"). At first, it was stipulated in the Household Tax Code that luggage was not taxed, "but foreigners often have taxable things, such as silk and satin cloth." Therefore, "levying private money as tax-exempt capital" and even "levying it even if there is no goods".
Qing Chen Kangqi's "Chronicle of Lang Qian" says: "Wujiang Lu Zhongcheng was seen by his majesty as a political envoy in Shandong, and the Guan officials (referring to the Chongwenmen Taxation Bureau) had asked for luxury, and the public could not be with them, but they were put on the outside and carried a servant forward, saying: 'I have a body and ears, what tax is!' 'When he enters, he borrows a mattress from the deceased, and returns the matter.' "When taxation is levied, there are many procedures, cross-examination is prepared, and the delay is long. In general, small traders also have to wait in line. Over time, the small traders came up with a way to put the tax money on the brim of their hats according to the amount of their goods, go to the gate, and the customs officer took the money and released it immediately.
The Qing Dynasty Zha Siyao once wrote a poem that said: "Nine disciplines and one specialty, the horse tracks and car dust are connected to each other." The envoys took their own flowers to pay taxes, and plundered the double money in the direction. "This money is privately owned by the officials. The Chongwenmen Tax bureau has a lot of income, and in order to prevent other officials from being jealous, it is called "offering fresh food" every March. Sending yellow croaker to the emperor and his ministers, and winter shoots and silver fish in October, became a disguised share of the booty. At that time, it was also stipulated that no "boiling pot" was allowed in the city, and all foreign liquor was sold by officially designated wine merchants, and eighteen were designated in Chongwenmen, which were uniformly collected and sold, and paid taxes uniformly, commonly known as "eighteen hotels".
At that time in the Qing Dynasty, the sign of selling liquor in Beijing had to be written "South Road Shochu", which means that I have been taxed, my wine is not pirated, of course, at that time, there was no property rights, which is a metaphor. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there is a painting called "Late Crossing of the Autumn River". Its picture is painted with liquor hoops, on which are written the words "South Road" and "Yujiu", reflecting this good trend of paying taxes by the whole people.
However, the liquor tax is very heavy, and the general small winemaking workshop, in order to make a living, often hangs a pig urine neck full of wine on the chest at night, and secretly climbs over the city wall to avoid paying high taxes. This is "bootleg". Bootlegging is very hard and dangerous. They pressed their backs against the city walls, pressed and grabbed each city brick with their feet and hands, "climbed" up little by little, and then used ropes to frame the body when they reached the city. The severe exploitation of the feudal rulers forced the people to seek a way to survive. Therefore, at that time, the Chongwen Tax Bureau was called a "ghost gate".
Chongwenmen has now become a gathering place for Beijing's top international resources
In the past, there was an iron turtle in the northeast direction outside the Chongwen Gate, the shape was very simple, it is said that there is a sea eye under the bridge of this section of the moat, so people use a turtle to suppress the sea eye and protect the peace of Beijing. In addition, the ancient rulers pursued harmony and unity in thought and form, paying attention to the "feng shui" in the middle of "Zhengyang", the left head was "Chongwen", and the right head was "Xuanwu", forming the famous "Front Three Gates" Street.
Chongwenmennei Street is located in the southeast of Dongcheng District. It starts from Jianguomennei Street in the north and Chongwenmen West Avenue in the south. Because it is located inside the Chongwen Gate, it is called. Chongwenmennei Street, known as Chongwenmenli Street in the Ming Dynasty. During the Xuantong period, it was called Chongwenmen Avenue, and there was no word "inside". After 1949, it was renamed Chongwenmen Street.
When it comes to Chongwenmen Street, it is necessary to mention Chongwenmen Christian Church. Located in Hougou Hutong on the east side of Chongwenmen Avenue Road, also known as Yasi Auditorium, it is the largest Christian church in Beijing. The whole church covers an area of 8246 square meters, the hall is divided into two halls, the main hall has more than 400 seats, the auxiliary hall has more than 300 seats, and there are gates in the middle that can be moved up and down, which can be separated or used together. The chapel is circular in shape and has a wooden double-storey umbrella structure, and the architectural style is extremely unique. The architecture of the church is quaint, the courtyard is lined with trees and the environment is beautiful. Mass is done every day in Chinese and Korean. U.S. President Bill Clinton came here to celebrate Mass when he visited China in 1998.
The picture shows the data map of Chongwenmen Christian Church (courtesy of the enterprise, issued by the Central Broadcasting Network)
Later, with the development of various work of the church, the Methodist Church successively built Tongren Hospital, Maternity and Infant Hospital, Huiwen Kindergarten, Huiwen Primary School, Huiwen Middle School, Muzhen Girls' Middle School, Nursing School, huiwen university (later merged with Yenching University) and Huiwen theological college (later renamed Beijing Theological College) around the chapel. The old city gate of Chongwenmen is long gone, but the culture it left to future generations still exists, and it has now become a gathering place for Beijing's top international resources. "Without the old canal, there would be no old Beijing." If you want to explore and understand the old canal, old Beijing, and new stories, please continue to pay attention to our exciting content in the next issue.
Sectional Scroll of "Nine Qu Diagram of Jingmen Gate" - Appreciation of Chongwen Gate Chapter:
About the Editors
(Courtesy of enterprises, issued by CCTV)
Gu Jianhua is a member of the 10th, 11th and 12th CPPCC Beijing Municipal Committee, and a member of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th CPPCC Committees of Tongzhou District, Beijing. Chairman of Beijing Grand Canal Hanlin Cultural Development Center, Director of Grand Canal Hanlin Folk Customs Museum, Director of Oriental Cambridge Hanlin Huaxin Education Group, Former Editor-in-Chief of China Net Grand Canal Channel.