The ancient capital of Beijing, officially named "Beijing", began in the first month of the first year of Yongle (1403), when Ming Chengzu Zhu Di "followed the system of Emperor Taizu Gao's capital" and changed Beiping to Beijing.
At that time, although Zhu Di intended to move the capital to Beijing, under the pressure of public opinion, he could only implement the two-capital system of Nanjing and Beijing in the name of emulating Taizu's "system of the middle capital".
The "Zhongdu" in the "System of Zhongdu", in Fengyang, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, was one of the three capitals in the early Ming Dynasty. Zhongdu Imperial City is the blueprint for the Forbidden City in Nanjing and Beijing, and is 120,000 square meters larger than the Forbidden City in Beijing. Unfortunately, the construction of the Ming and Zhongdu was boycotted after 6 years, and it was gradually annihilated and obscured, and even there are few traces in the main history.
Fortunately, Wang Jianying, a scholar who was well versed in Ming history and historical geography, discovered the city during the "Cultural Revolution" and found a "past life" for Beijing. With the advancement of archaeology, the rediscovered Zhongdu is becoming an important reference for the study of the city of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty.
Aerial view of the Imperial City of Ming and Zhongdu
01.
There is a broad imperial city in poor county
In 1969, in Huangnipu Village, Fengyang County, Anhui Province, a strange person came. On the desolate country roads, he was bare-chested, braving the cold wind or the scorching sun, and often ran for more than ten kilometers. The local villagers have probably never seen such a scene, nor have they heard of marathons, and often ask, "Is this person a bit nervous?" ”
The runner, Wang Jianying, is a descendant of a prominent family in Taicang, Jiangsu Province, the last graduate student of the Institute of History of Yenching University, and the editor of the History Editorial Office of the People's Education Publishing House. In the 1950s, he was seconded to the China History Museum as the head of the historical map team, which shows his profound knowledge.
Wang Jianying preached the history and culture of Ming Zhongdu in Fengyang
48 years old was the golden age for learning, but in the special era of the "Cultural Revolution", he was sent to the "May Seventh" cadre school of the Ministry of Education in Fengyang to participate in labor training.
Cadre school students write reviews every day, make explanations, accept criticism, and also do dirty and tiring work such as raising pigs. Others have this situation, it is inevitable that they will be decadent, but Wang Jianying is still running, boxing, and searching for the ancient world. He was an expert in Ming history, and naturally knew that this was Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, so he visited everywhere whenever he had the opportunity.
One day in the middle of summer, cadre school students gathered at the headquarters. Wang Jianying heard that not far from the county government, there is also an "old county town", which is the seat of fengyang county in the Qing Dynasty. There were actually two county towns in Fengyang, and Wang Jianying felt strange, so he took advantage of his free time in the afternoon to check it out.
The imperial city wall of the Ming Dynasty
Approaching the "old county town", he was immediately shocked by the majestic city walls. The exquisite white jade stone carvings on the Sumire Seat inside and outside the south gate of the city, and the huge dragon stone foundation in the city, made him stunned even more. Fengyang is a well-known poor county, how can there be such a majestic, gorgeous and exquisite "old county"?
Climbing the ruins of the broken wall at the south gate, he met an old farmer who was over seventy years old and inquired about the history of the city. The old farmer told him that when the Ming Dynasty was founded, it was necessary to build a capital here, and the military master Liu Bowen opposed it, and built a capital city without a capital, leaving this empty city.
The old man's words, Wang Jianying did not take it seriously. After three years of graduate school, he studied Ming history under Professor Deng Zhicheng, and if there was a capital city outside of Nanjing and Beijing, how could he not know?
After that, he often came here, but not to find the ancients, but to demolish the city walls. 1969 is the climax of the demolition of wall bricks, "old county" inside and outside, crowded, brick stacks from the root of the wall to the river, a corner of the wall bricks are not only very sought-after in the local area, but also exported to Shanghai. At that time, the newly built public and private buildings in Fengyang were almost all used in the kind of bricks that were 40 centimeters long, 20 centimeters wide, 11 centimeters high, and weighed 30 or 40 kilograms each, and the "May 7" cadre school was no exception.
Just after New Year's Day in 1972, the cadre school dismissed the trainees, leaving only a small number of people with "historical problems" and transferred them to the cadre school headquarters in Fengyang City, and Wang Jianying was also among them.
The headquarters of the cadre school in the Fourth Prison in Anhui Province, the brick wall is high and the yin is compelling, but Wang Jianying is fascinated by the surrounding wall bricks. Whenever he checked the gaps in the confession, he searched for words on the prison wall tiles and recorded them one by one.
He found that these bricks were engraved with the names of dozens of prefectures and counties in jiangxi, Huguang and other provinces and counties in the early Ming Dynasty, and some also had the names of officials and craftsmen. These place name bricks and personal name bricks were probably marked at that time in order to ensure quality and traceability and accountability. Such high-grade bricks are rare in Beijing, is it true that the waste capital in the mouths of the common people is really something? With doubts, Wang Jianying took the first step in inspecting Mingzhongdu.
This year, coinciding with the reopening of the China History Museum, he was temporarily transferred back to Beijing to once again preside over the map design, mapping and restoration work before the opening. The History Museum is only a stone's throw away from the Forbidden City in Beijing, and after work, Wang Jianying often wanders around the Forbidden City, and he finds that the noon gate of the Forbidden City is almost the same as the south gate of the "old county town". Comparing it more closely, we found that it was even more amazing:
I thought that the architecture of the Forbidden City in Beijing must be the most exquisite and luxurious in the country, and it was unparalleled. However, it was completely contrary to my subjective idea: on the South Gate of the Old County Town, there are continuous, very delicate and lively reliefs, with flying dragons, Xiangfeng, Qilin, Running Deer, Double Lions playing with hydrangeas, various flowers and patterns, while the Noon Gate in Beijing has only two ends with a little stylized pattern decoration, and the rest are all bare white stones.
The stone balustrades of the "Old County" are exquisite reliefs on both sides, and the stone railings of the Beijing Forbidden City are all light plates on both sides, without reliefs; the stone foundation of the "Old County" is a 270 cm square Panlong stone foundation, while the Beijing TaiheDian Stone Foundation is only 160 cm square, without any carving, And Fengyang's architectural components are even more exquisite than Beijing's, and the standard is high.
In early 1973, as an expert, he participated in the review of the "Historical Atlas of China" and took the opportunity to find the "Fengyang County Chronicle" compiled during the Qianlong period at Fudan University, which outlined the rise and fall of Mingzhongdu.
It turned out that the "old county town" of Fengyang was only the miyagi part of the Ming Capital. In the second year of Hongwu (1369), the 42-year-old Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict to make Linhao (Fengyang) the capital of Zhongdu and step up construction according to the system of the Beijing division. When the work will be completed, he suddenly ordered a strike. With the strength of the whole country, it took 6 years to build the city, and since then it has become a ruined capital.
Since then, through natural and man-made disasters, the Ming dynasty has gradually disappeared. In the Qing Dynasty, Fengyang County was once stationed in the imperial city of Zhongdu, and it was regarded as the county seat. 600 years later, not only the people of Fengyang do not know the title of "Zhongdu", but even the department in charge of the county's culture and cultural relics knows nothing about Mingzhong.
Through literature research, Wang Jianying found that the Ming and Zhongdu were once magnificent and luxurious, not only the imperial city, but also the triple city similar to Beijing; not only the palace, but also the Taimiao Temple, the Sheji Altar, the Circular Hill, the Fangqiu, the City God Temple, the Meritorious Temple, the Imperial Temple, and other altar temple buildings; not only the central official offices such as Zhongshu Province, the Metropolitan Governor's Palace, and the Yushitai, but also cultural and diplomatic institutions such as Guozixue, Huitongguan, and Guanxingtai; not only Jinshuihe and Million Warehouses, but also the residences and tombs of many founding heroes.
Stone carving of the Noon Gate of the Imperial City of Ming Dynasty
02.
One man recreates a city
Thinking of the heavy palace in those days, and then looking at the barren grass and grass now, Wang Jianying couldn't help but feel sad from it. He realized that if these treasures of the country were not investigated and studied and let them reappear in the sky, it would not be long before even the ruins would be destroyed.
In order to unveil the veil of Zhongdu, he reported to zhang jian, the head of the cadre school (later the director of the Central Institute of Educational Sciences). Mr. Zhang made an exception by agreeing that he could go out on Sundays and lend him a bicycle and a large tape measure that was three meters less. For many years after that, Wang Jianying still remembered this act of kindness, and he often said to his daughter Wang Hong: "Without the support of Comrade Zhang Jian, the book "Ming Zhongdu" could not have been written. ”
Since April 1973, a foreigner over 50 years old, with a thick Wu tone, has turned bricks everywhere, engaged in measurements, and inquired about the history and legend of Fengyang every time, which has become a local scene.
Wang Jianying measures the diameter of the stone foundation
Recalling his first impression of Wang Jianying, Chen Huairen, former deputy director of the Fengyang County People's Congress, once said: "I saw mr. Wang, who was covered in dust, carrying a camera and a water bottle, and was measuring the ruins of the Mingzhong Capital Chengtianmen with a leather ruler. Not far away was his broken bicycle, next to which was a fertilizer plastic bag filled with broken bricks and tiles. The local cadres mocked him behind his back, this person is a decentralized cadre of the 'May Seventh' cadre school of the Ministry of Higher Education, and there is something wrong with the nerves. ”
Although it looks like picking up rags, wang Jianying's research is of a high level. According to the traditional planning ideas of the capitals and palaces of successive dynasties, as well as the inheritance law of the architectural patterns of the three capital cities from the Ming Dynasty to Nanjing and Beijing, he conducted field investigations, examinations, and sealed proofs of the location, length and spacing of the zhongdu city walls, palaces and imperial tombs with the research attitude of "careful verification".
Lacking surveying tools, he circled the palace and the city walls, measuring the distance by the number of steps. If it is a large distance, he will tie a red rope on the wheel and measure the distance by counting the number of turns of the wheel. Later, it was found that the distances he measured using the earth methods of "measuring the distance of the step" and "measuring the distance of the bicycle" were completely consistent with the results measured with modern instruments.
During the National Day in 1973, the "May Seventh" cadre school organized left-behind students to visit and travel in Anhui. Wang Jianying took advantage of this time to go to all parts of the country at his own expense to search for historical materials in order to corroborate with the field visits in the past six months.
At that time, there was no search and copying equipment, and many important ancient books were not sorted out and published, in order to find useful materials in the massive literature, he soaked in the library rare book room and copied more than 20 materials, "which must be more than one meter high."
Wang Jianying's wife, Chen Yuxiu, recalled this passage:
At one point we lost contact, and I don't even know where he was, in Nanjing or in Shanghai? Stay at NTU Guest House or stay at a small hostel? Or have you returned to Fengyang Cadre School, riding a bicycle to nibble on dry food and pickles during the day to visit the members, and driving a night car at night to write his inspection report?
Near the Spring Festival, most of the cadres of the "May Seventh" cadre school returned to Beijing for the New Year, and still did not see any trace of Jianying. Moving without seeing anyone, not seeing anyone in the New Year, he seemed to have completely forgotten about me and the children.
Knowing Mo Ruo's wife, Chen Yuxiu knew, "He forgot himself", in that realm of selflessness, misfortune and criticism, compared with the shock and joy brought by discovery, what is the point?
Liu Jianqiao was the only cadre in charge of cultural relics and archaeology at the Fengyang County Cultural Center at that time, and he had heard of "Lao Wang" for a long time, but when he met, he met by chance.
At that time, Wang Jianying was climbing on the big wooden ladder, holding the "Imperial Tomb Inscription" in his hand, which was compared with the words on the Imperial Tomb Monument. The imperial tomb stele is 7 meters high, the inscription is vertical, and every time he looks at a line, he climbs up from the wooden ladder and climbs down once. A few back and forth, people in their 50s, already covered in sweat, shorts vests were all wet.
This scene touched Liu Jianqiao, and after several twists and turns, he seconded Wang Jianying to the Cultural Center to investigate and study the Ming capital full-time. Xia Yurun, who studied the Fengyang Flower Drum, met Wang Jianying at the Cultural Center at this time:
On that day, 39 degrees outside, there was no fan, no mosquito coil in the house, only one pair of pants, Mr. Wang, a wet towel draped over his shoulders, barefoot in the basin, was lying on the ping-pong table to write the manuscript of the "Mingzhong Capital City Examination". To prevent sweat from soaking through the paper, he put a dry towel under his right arm. The table and the floor were filled with books, materials, and maps, and from time to time he slapped the blood-sucking mosquitoes on his body with his left hand. This is the scene I saw Mr. Wang for the first time, and this picture is forever fixed in my mind, although it has been decades, it is like yesterday. Xia Yurun said.
From the hot summer to the middle of winter, Wang Jianying worked day and night to race against the demolition of the ruins: from 1973 to 1975, it was an eventful autumn of severe damage to the zhongdu city. Watching the bridges under the ground being torn down one after another, the wooden stakes under the Site of Xi'an Gate were hoisted up and piled up like mountains. He was worried, "worried that the materials had not yet been written, and the ruins had been demolished and stripped away."
Even on the most stressful days of writing a manuscript, he accepted anyone who asked him to introduce Mingzhongdu, no matter how far away he was, whether the time was sooner or later, or whether the weather was good or bad. As long as he heard that the water conservancy site in Chengxi Commune had started, he would take pictures and draw pictures, come up with policies to stop it, and tell about historical reform.
His persistence, seemingly useless, made the locals gradually change their attitude towards "broken bricks and tiles". When some cadres of the organs learned of the new discovery of the site, they immediately informed him and accompanied him to the discovery site; the dragon tiles and phoenix dripping water excavated by the members of the society on the site also took the initiative to give them to him.
In the spring of 1975, the "Examination of the Capital City of Mingzhong" was finally completed. Units with typewriters and typists in Fengyang County are willing to enter for him for free. Due to financial problems, only 150 copies of the manuscript were initially mimeographed, some of which were sent to relevant provincial, prefectural, and county departments and leaders, and part of which was brought to Beijing by Wang Jianying and sent to the State Administration of Cultural Relics, the Palace Museum, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, and other units and relevant experts and scholars.
Many experts stayed up late to read this pamphlet and were excited, and Shan Shiyuan, then vice president of the Palace Museum, commented: "The "Examination of the Capital city of Mingzhong" is really greater than the contribution of Xiao Xun's "Remains of the Forbidden City" to describe the palace room of the Yuan Dynasty, so that a Ming Dynasty that has been obscured and unknown has been resurrected. In the past, I always thought that the Forbidden City in Beijing was built according to the Nanjing Forbidden City, but now I have figured out that even the Nanjing Ming Forbidden City was rebuilt according to fengyang Mingzhong. ”
The sensation in the academic circles has also attracted the attention of the State Administration of Cultural Relics. On October 26 of the same year, the State Administration of Cultural Relics sent five experts, Yang Boda, Shan Shiyuan, Li Huaiyao, Wang Jianying and Xu Pingfang, to Fengyang to investigate, and highly affirmed the historical, artistic and scientific value of the imperial city and imperial tomb of ming and zhongdu. On March 10, 1982, the State Council announced the "Ming Zhongdu Imperial Ancient City and Imperial Tomb Stone Carvings" as the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
Generally speaking, the discovery and study of a city site is a huge systematic project, from discovery, survey, publicity, videography, research, mapping, writing research reports, to strive for national certification, often requires a team, several years of effort. However, Wang Jianying has achieved incredible results with his bare hands in an extraordinary historical period, without research funds, without surveying and mapping tools and instruments, and without partners, which is a miracle in itself.
"In the darkness, the history, archaeology, evidence, geography, cartography and other scientific trainings that my father had accumulated before seemed to have been accumulated and prepared for the purpose of finding, discovering, and studying the Ming and Zhongdu." Recalling his father's encounter with Ming Zhongdu in those years, Wang Hong sighed, "This is the luck of misfortune."
The State Administration of Cultural Relics sent five experts, Yang Boda, Shan Shiyuan, Li Huaiyao, Wang Jianying, and Xu Pingfang, to Fengyang to investigate
03.
Zhongdu missed the imperial throne
Many people know that the Ming Dynasty had two capitals, Beijing and Nanjing, but the Ming Dynasty is little known, and even shan Shiyuan, a Taidou-level expert, has been vague and unclear about it. Why?
Originally, the ancient emperors recorded "many books beautiful but not book thorns", and the Ming Dynasty's records, huidian, chronicles, inscriptions and other court classics seemed to be deliberately hidden, and few records of zhongdu palaces. During the Jingtai period, the Huanyu Tongzhi was revised, although there is a record that "the Zhongdu Palace is in the (Fengyang) Fucheng Long Live Shannan", but The Yingzong restored, and the Huanyu Tongzhi was also abolished.
Although the historical materials are few and scattered, the "Examination of the Capital City of Ming and Zhong" is quoted from the sidelines and exhausts all kinds of historical materials. Ning Xiao, a forbidden city scholar involved in the archaeology of the Ming-Zhongdu site in recent years, said, "It is difficult to imagine how Mr. Wang found these materials in a vast sea of books in an era when there was no computer retrieval technology." In recent years, although many scholars have studied Mingzhongdu, they have hardly found any new historical materials. ”
MingZhong capital triple castle
Through Wang Jianying's "Examination of the Capital City of Ming and Zhong", this forgotten city has regained its memory:
In September 1367, the new palace of King Wu was completed in Jinling. The following year, Zhu Yuanzhang took the throne in the new palace, that is, the emperor, and the name of the country was Daming.
At this time, the world has been decided, but the capital city is unresolved. Zhu Yuanzhang first gave his ideal capital, Kaifeng (汴梁), a false title of "Beijing", and personally surveyed and prepared to build the capital. However, the once prosperous city of Bieliang, which has endured many wars, has been "cut off from the population and accumulated into a mound of bones."
The day after Kaifeng was designated "Beijing", the general Xu Da captured the capital of Yuan and changed the capital to Beiping. After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, the political situation underwent tremendous changes, and Guanzhong, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Beiping, Nanjing and other places became the capital's optional options. Zhu Yuanzhang superficially consulted with his courtiers, but in his heart he had already made up his mind: abandon Nanjing, which had already been built in a similar way, and set the capital at his hometown of Linhao (present-day Fengyang).
His reason was that Linhao "before the river and after the Huai, there are dangers to be feared, and there is water to be watered", but in the final analysis, it is still "the hometown of the Holy Heart, and wants to live in Fengyang for a long time". Zhu Yuanzhang and his township party friends are mostly from a bitter background, and now that they have wealth and glory, they naturally want to return to their hometown.
Zhongdu was built according to the specifications of the capital, and the planning starting point was naturally extraordinary: the area of Waiguo City reached 50 square kilometers, which was equivalent to that of the Yuan Dynasty, while miyagi reached 840,000 square meters, which was 120,000 square meters larger than the later Forbidden City in Beijing. The whole city has 104 squares, all kinds of offices, altar temples, houses are available, and the layout construction can be said to be a high-end version of the later Beijing City.
Li Shanchang, who ranked first among the ministers, was the overall responsibility for the construction of Fengyang Zhongdu. Wang Zhi, deputy research librarian of the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, who presided over the archaeology of Mingzhongdu, said: "Zhu Yuanzhang often compares Li Shanchang to his own Xiao He, and Li Shanchang naturally knows the allusion of Xiao He's construction of Weiyang Palace, and will certainly do his best to please Zhu Yuanzhang in the construction of Zhongdu, which may be an important reason why the Imperial City of Mingzhong is extremely luxurious and luxurious." ”
In the construction of Zhongdu, wood not only "makes the world famous materials to Sisi", but also sends envoys to the vassal countries to "seek big wood"; the building wall is first based on white jade Sumiya seats or striped stones, and then the big city bricks are built on it; when masonry is built, lime, tung oil and glutinous rice juice are used as pulp, and the key parts are even "dissolved with pig iron"; all wooden buildings are "extremely luxurious", the paintings and embroidery are bright and dazzling, all the stone structures are "gorgeous and ingenious", and the carved patterns are exquisite.
A giant dragon stone foundation excavated from the mingzhongdu site
The laborers who built the capital were recruited from all over the country. According to Wang Jianying's research, there are nearly 90,000 craftsmen, 70,000 non-commissioned officers, nearly 200,000 immigrants, tens of thousands of criminals, 450,000 civilian husbands, and a total of nearly one million participants.
In the eighth year of Hongwu, six years after the construction of the Zhongdu Project began, Zhu Yuanzhang inspected the construction site for the second time, during which he issued a congratulatory message to heaven and earth. Zhu Wen first recalled a large period of the past and the glory days, and then exaggerated his hometown, and finally sighed about the project's "real labor and people's strength", fortunately, "the work will be completed, but the land after God is a reference", and the intention to move the capital has been very obvious.
Curiously, shortly after Zhu Yuanzhang returned to Nanjing, he suddenly ordered the "edict to strike the zhongdu gongzuo." The super project that has been full of national efforts has come to an abrupt end when it is about to be completed, why is this? The historical records are very vague.
The official narrative is that china spends too much money, which is not in line with the principle of thrift and thrift. Indeed, after Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, he has always flaunted frugality, every day for breakfast, just green vegetables and a bowl of tofu, and the bed he slept in was no different from that of a middle-class family. But at this time, the capital city has been almost repaired, and the money to be spent has almost been spent, and at this time, saying that the construction is stopped does not mean greater waste?
Wang Jianying found some clues from the words of various documents, and he believed that the "suppression of the town incident" was the fuse for the suspension of work in Zhongdu.
In order to rush the deadline, the minfu soldiers "have nothing to feed on the sick, and there is no return for death", and as a rebellion, they used paper puppets and other things to curse on the roof of the palace when Zhu Yuanzhang inspected them.
This incident cast a thick psychological shadow on Zhu Yuanzhang, and even two years later, he was "pressed by craftsmen and ended up in his heart." When he was offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, he specially repented: "When a servant seriously injures a man, he should have a priest, and the more he commits adultery, the more he feels, the more he feels, and the sin of this subject is inextricably punishable." ”
There are also some Ming historians who believe that the prevention of the Huaixi Group is the real reason for the suspension of work in Zhongdu.
Liu Bowen was the only one who opposed the establishment of the capital Fengyang, saying that "although Fengyang is an imperial hometown, it is not the land of the Son of Heaven", because of the "terrain Manyan". From the current point of view, Fengyang is close to the Huai River, prone to flood disasters, long-term floods have led to land salinization, low grain production, and is located in a hilly, non-traffic artery, it is indeed not suitable for the capital.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not listen to the advice at first, but in the eighth year of Hongwu, just three days after he returned to Nanjing from the capital, the news of the death of the retired old strategist Liu Bowen reached the capital. He was originally only a little sick, but after taking the medicine of Prime Minister Hu Weiyong, his condition worsened, and he lasted for a few months before driving to the west of the crane. Liu's death made Zhu Yuanzhang more and more jealous of the Huaixi Clique, if he arrived at his hometown, full of the relatives and friends of these heroes, wouldn't it be completely against the heavens?
After the boycott, the political status of Zhongdu declined, the economy was depressed, and a large number of people who were migrated by Zhu Yuanzhang lacked food and had to sing flower drums and flee the wilderness to survive.
Regarding the "strike of Zhongdu", Wang Zhi believes that "the archaeological excavations of the Ming and Zhongdu sites may provide a new perspective. Many details show that the completion of the Imperial City of Zhongdu is not as high as imagined, and the records of the project in the historical materials do not rule out that Li Shanchang falsely reported the progress. According to the engineering standards and construction speed at that time, it would be impossible to complete it in six years to make Zhongdu a mature capital. In this respect, 'to give up at the expense of labor' is not entirely an excuse".
A moat outside the Imperial City of Ming Dynasty
04.
Moving the capital to Beijing has many twists and turns
Stone statues in front of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Tomb
After the failure to return to the countryside and build the capital, Zhu Yuanzhang spent two years to complete the reconstruction of the Nanjing Palace. When it was rebuilt, many places followed the Zhongdu regulations, although it was relatively simple, it still had the atmosphere of the imperial capital.
He should have been at ease as emperor, but he still felt unsatisfied. Although Jinling is a tiger in the dragon pan, but the national fortunes are not prosperous; the new palace of the Wu King is "in front of the high and the back, the situation is not called"; the palace built by filling the lake is easy to accumulate water, and these shortcomings have made the elderly Zhu Yuanzhang overwhelmed.
In the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu (1391), Zhu Yuanzhang sent the crown prince Zhu Biao to patrol Shaanxi, with the intention of examining the possibility of moving the capital to Xi'an, but finally gave up due to Zhu Biao's early death. After the painful loss of his beloved son, Zhu Yuanzhang finally dismissed the idea of moving the capital.
At this point, the Ming Dynasty has been established for 31 years, the capital is swinging between Nanjing and Fengyang, and Bieliang and Xi'an are also seeded players. However, the once prosperous Capital of the Yuan Dynasty and Beiping, which was far away in the north, were never included in the emperor's vision, and became the "Bitter Sea Youzhou" in folklore.
Before Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, although it was the capital of the Jin and Yuan dynasties, it was not an ideal place to build a capital for the Ming court.
Who wants to put the capital city close to the mighty Mongol tribes? Who wants to put the capital city in a city that has been ruled by foreign races for more than four hundred years and has just been reclaimed? Who wants to put the capital city in a city with a deep Hufeng culture? Those who can make this choice, except for Zhu Di, I am afraid it will be difficult to find the second one.
Zhu Di wanted to move the capital for many reasons. Some people say that his Jiangshan was stolen, and he was an emperor in Nanjing, and his heart was uneasy. This is probably a bit of a small look at the Yongle Emperor, many times in the north to conquer Mongolia, "The Son of Heaven guards the gate of the country" is not a beautiful sentence for him. Perhaps, Kublai Khan, the founder of the Great Yuan Empire, was the goal he really wanted to surpass.
He was not on a whim, but from the day of the crisis, he had a clear plan. After ascending to the throne, he knew that moving the capital would cause great shock and resistance, so he used the pattern of boiling frogs in warm water to gradually calm down the power of resistance. This practice of "only doing and not saying" has made the issue of moving the capital to Beijing and the reconstruction of Miyagi, and since the Ming and Qing dynasties, there have been many vague and even conflicting statements.
As a symbol of the founding of the capital, when did the construction of the Forbidden City begin? History books such as the History of Ming say that it is "four years of Yongle", and for more than 300 years, historians have been convinced of this. However, in the process of studying Ming Zhongdu, Wang Jianying traced the root cause and came to the conclusion that "it began in the fifteenth year of Yongle", and pointed out that the "four years of Yongle" was only "to build Beijing" and did not start construction. His "Construction of Beijing in the Early Ming Dynasty Began in June of the Fifteenth Year of Yongle" impressed Qunru, and now this conclusion has been widely accepted and adopted by historians.
In the first month of the first year of Yongle (1403), Before Zhu Di could sit firmly on the throne, he changed Beiping to Beijing, calling it "Xingzai". In the same year, the rich families who moved to Zhili, Zhejiang and other places went to Beijing, sent Shangshu Songli of the Ministry of Works to the south to prepare large trees, and ordered craftsmen to assemble in Beijing the following year. In the fourth year of Yongle, the preparation work was ready, so why did the edict be issued at this time, but the construction did not start, but instead waited for another ten years?
Five years after Yongle, Empress Xu, the daughter of Xu Da, who had defended the city of Beijing for Zhu Di during the Battle of Jingnan, died. With this excuse, Zhu Di toured Beijing, and the emperor, who was less than 50 years old, unexpectedly chose the mausoleum in Changping, Beijing.
The prepared craftsmen and wood were all put into the construction of Changling, and at the same time, Beijing added ten health posts, harnessed the Grand Canal, and built the city walls. All of this is in preparation for the relocation of the capital.
By November 15, 14th year of Yongle, when Zhu Di officially announced the relocation of the capital, the ministers wanted to oppose it, but they were already powerless. Zhu Di began to build the Forbidden City, and many records indicate that the Yuan Dynasty may have been preserved until this year before it was "withdrawn and renewed" and completely demolished.
Fifteen years after Yongle, the West Palace in Beijing was built. Zhu Di left Nanjing, sat in the West Palace, and personally supervised the construction. Eighteen years later, the Forbidden City was completed. In the nineteenth year, various ceremonial buildings were also completed.
The Palace in Beijing is more spacious and magnificent than Nanjing, and although it does not meet the standards of Zhongdu, it is also an architectural wonder. The Fengtian Hall of the Forbidden City of Yongle Dynasty, in the location of today's Taihe Hall, but 1.5 times larger than the current Taihe Hall and 95 meters wide, would be the largest wooden hall in the world if preserved to this day.
On the first day of the first lunar month in the nineteenth year of Yongle (1421), the 62-year-old Zhu Di accepted the congratulations of the hundred officials at the newly built Fengtian Temple, and Beijing changed from "Xingzai" to "Jingshi", and carried out the relocation of the capital for nearly twenty years, which was finally completed.
From Zhu Yuanzhang's claim to the throne in Nanjing in 1368 to the completion of the Forbidden City in Beijing in 1420, in 53 years, the Ming Empire successively built three capitals of Zhongdu, Nanjing and Beijing, and built and rebuilt 4 palaces, including the West Palace of Beijing. The almost crazy construction of the capital city will exhaust the meager social wealth, and the resentment of the whole society will be triggered.
At this juncture, a mysterious fire ignited the Forbidden City, which had been built for less than 100 days, and the three halls of Fengtian, Huagai, and Zhensheng were reduced to ashes. Zhu Di, who had always been confident, was also very frightened, and had to issue a self-edict for the issue of building a capital like Zhu Yuanzhang.
Three years later, Zhu Di died on the way back from the Northern Expedition to Mongolia, and his son Zhu Gaozi turned Beijing into "Xingzai" and planned to "return the capital to Nanjing". After only a month, Zhu Gaozi died of illness, and his son Zhu Zhanji, who grew up in Beijing, did not restore the name of Beijing's Beijing master due to his father's last words.
When Zhu Di's great-grandson Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne, the foundation of Beijing as the capital was already strong. Therefore, Zhu Qizhen pushed the boat along the water, further improved the facilities in Beijing, and rebuilt the "three halls and two palaces". In September 1441, various official documents in Beijing removed the word "xingzai" and officially became the capital. At this point, the problem of the capital city that plagued the rulers of the early Ming Dynasty for more than 70 years was completely solved.
In the history of our country, there have been many cases of moving the capital, but there is only one example like the Ming Dynasty that can toss and turn. As the first capital city of the Ming Dynasty to embody the will of the emperor, its urban planning and architectural design had a great influence on the later reconstruction of Nanjing and the construction of Beijing.
Fengyang Drum Tower
05.
Beijing and China are mutual references
The dragon stone foundation excavated from the imperial city of Mingzhong
When it comes to the construction of Beijing City in the Ming Dynasty, there are countless folk legends, no matter which version, the beginning must be a sentence of "Bitter Sea Youzhou". It can be seen that after the yuan extinction, this former international metropolis suffered a heavy blow.
According to legend, Zhu Di sent his military master Liu Bowen and Yao Guangxiao to build the city of Beijing and suppress the evil dragon. The two of them competed secretly, but they invariably heard the childish voice of "draw according to me, draw according to me". Two people think, isn't this an eight-armed Nezha? As a result, back-to-back drawings of two identical drawings, both "Eight-Armed Nezha City".
Although this legend is widely spread, the city of Beijing was neither built by Liu Bowen nor yao Guangxiao, but was constantly transformed in the Ming Dynasty with the Yuan Capital as the prototype. Nezha's three heads, eight arms and two feet refer to the 11 gates of the Yuan Capital.
The planner of the Yuan capital was Liu Bingzhong, the "monk chancellor" under Kublai Khan. He is a figure of the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and can also be said to be a combination of Liu Bowen and Yao Guangxiao, and folklore probably comes from this. The Yuan Capital, founded by him, followed the wangcheng system of the Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji, and left valuable wealth to Beijing such as the central axis, hutongs, and the Grand Canal.
After conquering Dadu, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately sent Shangshu Zhang Yun of the Ministry of Works to survey and map the Dadu Palace and compile the "Beiping Palace Room Map". Obviously, this is in preparation for the construction of all.
"Archaeology has found that although Zhu Yuanzhang put forward the slogan of 'expelling Hu Yu and restoring China' and expressed his desire to restore the prestige of Han officials, the pattern of the city walls of the Ming Andzhong capital, the T-shaped square outside the imperial city, the layout of the Waijinshui River, and the palace shape system are all related to the inheritance relationship of the Yuan Dynasty." Wang Zhi said that the Ming and Zhongdu inherit the past and the future, which is a transitional form between the Song and Yuan dynasties and the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the capital city changes.
Although the Zhongdu Palace refers to the Yuan Dynasty, there are a lot of innovations. In addition to the main hall, two groups of courtyards were also set up on the east and west sides of the Wenhua Hall and the Wuying Hall, which served as the Prince's Eastern Palace and the Emperor's Convenience Hall respectively to adapt to the administrative model of the Ming Dynasty.
Stone carvings were excavated from the former imperial palace of the Ming Dynasty
Most notably, Ming and Zhongdu creatively transformed the traditional Chinese "three dynasties and five gates" system into a pilot zone, arranged in the south of the palace. Compared with the Yuan Capital, the distance between the Southern Gate of the Ming Dynasty and the South City Gate is twice as long, so it is possible to place the Duanmen, Chengtianmen, and Damingmen between the Noon gate and the Hongwu Gate. At the same time, the Taimiao Temple, which symbolizes the orthodoxy of the imperial family, was moved to the left of the Quemen Gate; the Sheji Altar, which symbolized the territory of the territory, was moved to the right of the Quemen. This layout, with a heavy wall and door, pushes the imperial authority on the central axis to the top.
Xu Pingfang, an urban archaeology expert, particularly reminded people to pay attention to the fact that at the location of the Daming Gate on this axis, there is also a wide east-west street, which intersects with the north-south axis, called "Yunji Street". This street connects the bell tower, drum tower and altar temple of Zhongdu City, which is like the prototype of Chang'an Avenue in Beijing today.
Wang Jianying analyzed that when Zhu Di was a teenager, he went to Fengyang twice to worship the imperial tomb and saw the process of building Zhongdu. In his youth, he went to Fengyang with his brother to teach martial arts training, where he lived for 4 years. Therefore, Beijing has absorbed a lot of the essence of the Ming and Zhongdu planning.
The Forbidden City, built under the supervision of Zhu Di himself, overlapped on the central axis of the Yuan Dynasty, but moved south, avoiding the unlucky "earth atmosphere" of the Yuan Forbidden City and closer to the transformed city center of Beijing. In Shan Shiyuan's view, the layout of the Forbidden City is similar to that of the Ming Dynasty, such as the Noon Gate, the Four Corners of the Forbidden City, the Three Great Halls, the Six Palaces of the East and The West, the Left Ancestral Right Society, and the Inner and Outer Jinshui River.
In the seventeenth year of Yongle, the southern city wall of Beijing expanded from the location of Chang'an Avenue to the present-day Qiansanmen Avenue, which greatly expanded the space in front of the palace, and the magnificent pilot area of Zhongdu was also transplanted, and even the names of Hongwu Gate and ChengtianMen were copied as they were.
Zhongdu Palace is in the south of Banzai Mountain, and there is no mountain in Beijing, so it is built as an earthen mountain, also known as Banzai Mountain. This mountain is today's Jingshan Mountain, which is the commanding height of the whole city and the center point of the diagonal line of the city on the plane. There are Rijing Peak, Yuehua Peak, around the Forbidden City in Beijing, although there are no mountains to name, and in the palace there is the Rijing Gate, which is symbolized by the Yuehua Gate.
In the south of the Yuan Dynasty palace, there is no east-west avenue, and after the "Yunji Street" in Zhongdu was moved to Beijing, it was renamed "Chang'an Avenue", although there were no bell and drum towers at both ends of the road, but the Dongdan and Xidan arches were built in the corresponding locations, thus creating the east-west axis of the city.
In the ninth year of Jiajing (1530), the ritual of dividing heaven and earth in the early Ming Dynasty was restored, and the Temple of Heaven and Earth was built, and its system and orientation were the same as those of the circular mounds and square hills of Fengyang Mingzhongdu. Although the Imperial Temple was built more than 100 years after Yongle built Beijing, the influence of the capital in the early Ming Dynasty can still be seen.
The ruins of the Noon Gate, Chengtian Gate, Waijinshui Bridge, and Hongwu Gate on the central axis of the Imperial City of Ming and Zhongzhong
06.
Anhui and the Forbidden City joint archaeology
Fengyang Noon Gate Ruins
Beijing and Mingzhong are two cities that learn from each other. In today's Fengyang City, the source of Beijing City can also be found.
In Fengyang City, a central axis runs through the north and south, and the locations of Hongwu Gate, Left and Right Thousand Steps Corridor, Daming Gate, Chengtian Gate, And Duanmen are still faintly recognizable, and some buildings have been restored. At both ends of Yunji Street, which is oriented from east to west, the bell tower and drum tower stand opposite each other. Fengyang Drum Tower was built for more than 600 years, after several vicissitudes, repeatedly abandoned and built, the foundation has been well preserved, the pillars on the base are neatly arranged, and the four large characters of "Wanshi Fundamental" on the door opening are said to be handwritten by Zhu Yuanzhang. The base of this drum tower is 72 meters long and more than 34 meters wide, which is 1.5 times the size of the later Drum Tower in Beijing and 2.5 times that of the Drum Tower in Nanjing.
Fengyang Ming Drum Tower
Around the Noon Gate of the Ming Dynasty, the heavy brick city wall is still about 1100 meters; on the white jade Sumire seat on the abutment of the Noon Gate, there are continuously inlaid reliefs, with a total length of 400 to 500 meters. These reliefs are 32 cm high and reach a depth of 3-5 cm. In contrast, the Noonday Gate Sumi Seat of the Ming Palace in Nanjing has only a small amount of floral ornaments embedded in it, with a depth of about 1 centimeter, and the rest are all glossy stones; the Noonday Gate stone sculpture in Beijing has only one flower ornament, and the image and size are almost the same as those in the Ming Dynasty.
Although the rest of the above-ground buildings in Ming Zhongdu no longer exist, the remaining ruins are basically preserved, including the city walls, city gates, moats, palaces, Jinshui River, buildings, roads, water conservancy facilities, etc. Now, in order to protect these sites, more than a dozen urban parks have been built in Fengyang City, with scenery everywhere and fragrance wafting everywhere.
Underground of the Ming and Zhongdu Forbidden Walls (equivalent to the Imperial City of Beijing), there are 137 rammed earth foundation sites that have been explored and discovered, and important relics such as rivers, wells, ash pits, roads, and kiln sites outline the basic layout of the building.
As ming and zhongdu became more and more famous, some geography and history lovers in Beijing went to Fengyang to find Beijing's "past life" as a niche game. Chang'an Avenue, Noon Gate, Donghua Gate, Xihua Gate, Corner Tower and many other titles give them a natural sense of intimacy.
The site of archaeological excavations in Mingzhongdu
However, just a few years ago, the ruins of the Imperial City of Mingzhong were still a "dirty old city". At the beginning of the 21st century, under the impact of the real estate tide, Mingzhongdu has reached a critical juncture of annihilation:
The ruins of the Taimiao Temple, the ruins of the Zhongdu City God Temple, the ruins of the Founding Heroes Temple, and the ruins of the Temple of the Emperors of the Past Dynasties have been sold to developers one after another; the ruins of Changchun gate have been bulldozed and roads have been built; the ruins of Hongwumen have been half eradicated and roads have been built; Dushan Mountain, where the ruins of the Observatory of the National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit are located, and the main mountain of Mingzhongdu, Phoenix Mountain, has been riddled with holes in the past few decades of opening mountains and taking stones.
2013 is a turning point, that year the Ming Dynasty Emperor's Ancient City National Archaeological Site Park project was approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and the Fengyang County Government also adjusted the "2010-2030 Fengyang City Master Plan" in a timely manner, the biggest highlight of which was to invest 1.38 billion yuan to move out of the 1308 households, 20 factories, 10 farms and 4 schools in the forbidden wall of Zhongdu.
As the history of Mingzhongdu was revealed in urban construction, in just a few years, fengyang people's awareness of the protection of the site increased rapidly: in order to protect the skyline of Mingzhongdu, the government lowered the height limit of the building; some of the ruins land that had been sold to developers was redeemed; various heritage parks were established; regulations for the legal protection of the mingzhongdu ruins will also be introduced this year... The city is gradually regaining its soul.
In December 2017, the Ming dynasty Emperor's Ancient City National Archaeological Site Park was successfully listed. What can be comforted to Wang Jianying is that the existing Mingzhong Imperial City Wall, including the Western Wall, the Western Half of the South Wall, and the relatively intact Noon Gate and Xihuamen Pier, with a total length of 1350 meters, have been declared a World Cultural Heritage Project, which has been inspected by experts, passed the preliminary examination, and is included in the "Preliminary List of China's World Cultural Heritage".
"The comprehensive protection and research of Mingzhongdu is gradually realizing Mr. Ming's last wish." Wang Zhi introduced that Wang Jianying mentioned 16 times in the "Ming Zhongdu Ruins Investigation Report" that exploration and excavation were needed to be verified. The Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Anhui Province started archaeological excavations in 2015, with the central axis as the core, and successively excavated sites such as the Former Dynasty Palace, Chengtian Gate, and Waijinshui Bridge. In 2017, the archaeological force of the Palace Museum also joined in, jointly carrying out systematic excavations of sites such as the Foreign Jinshui Bridge.
Brick rubbings were made at the excavation site of the Ming Zhongdu ruins
What was the earliest Fengtian Temple like? How many Jinshui Bridges are there in the Ming Dynasty? How many gates did tiananmen have in its infancy? Many questions have been answered in the excavations.
Excavations have determined that there are seven bridge foundations on the Waijinshui River, and the width of the bridges is greater than that of the corresponding Jinshui Bridges in Nanjing and Beijing, and the distribution of the bridge sites reflects the orderly hierarchical order. In addition, the joint of the tenon of the bridge foundation coupon stone was also found in many places with iron pieces or infusion of molten iron, which proved that what the historical data said was not false. Coincidentally, there are also 7 Waijinshui Bridges in the Forbidden City in Beijing, in addition to the 5 gates corresponding to Tiananmen Square, the Taimiao Temple and the Sheji Altar also correspond to a bridge.
The layout of the gate of Chengtianmen is very unique, "three openings are located in the middle of the city platform, and the two sides of the city platform are connected to the forbidden wall, and a partial gate is opened on each side of the city platform." Today's Beijing Tiananmen square is 5 door openings, Wang Zhi believes that the "3 + 2" door opening layout of Chengtianmen is the first time after the Tang Dynasty to arrange 5 door openings in the main gate of the second city of the capital, which may be the prototype of the pattern of the five door holes of Beijing Tiananmen.
Inside the heritage park, excavations of the former dynasty palace are underway. The palace base site has been excavated for many years, but the shape system has become "more and more complex", and it has been proved that the palace base is not the "middle" glyph seen on the surface, but closer to the "gong" glyph of the Yuan Dadu. However, "further work is needed to fully clarify the shape of the palace and its outbuildings".
From the Forbidden City to Fengyang, Ning Xiao felt that "this place can be more open." The archaeology of the Forbidden City in Beijing is cautious and cautious, and can only carry out "minimally invasive" excavations, generally stopping at the "face", that is, after discovering important brick surfaces, ground, and moving surfaces, they will no longer clean up downwards. Moreover, the archaeological excavation area is extremely small and difficult to have room for, and there has always been the embarrassment of "peeping leopard in the tube" and "blind people touching elephants". The archaeology of Ming and Zhongdu can be excavated, which has inspired the changes of the Palace in Beijing, the timing of construction, the construction process, and even philosophical ideas.
For the excavation of the Outer Jinshui Bridge in the Ming Dynasty, Xu Haifeng, director of the Archaeology Department of the Palace Museum, commented: "I did not expect that the excavation of the Outer Jinshui Bridge could see such a complete basic structure, and its layout was also very clear, and a good reference model was found for understanding the basic structure and construction process below the bridge deck of the Jinshui Bridge in the Forbidden City of Beijing." ”
Surveying and mapping of the excavation site of the Ming zhongdu site
Source Beijing Daily Chronicle WeChat public account | Author Sun Wenye
Editor: Zeng Jiajia Sun Wenye
Process Editor Tai Shaofeng