It was Qinshihuang the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty who unified
China into a centralized feudal monarchy in 221 BC. His dynasty was
to be short-lived but by the time of its fall in 206 BC it already
stood out as a milestone in the history of city development in
ancient China.
Qinshihuang's capital in what is now Xianyang in Shaanxi Province
was to set the scene for large-scale construction. His grand Epang
Palace was burnt down and now lives on only in the historical
records. But his mausoleum has lain all these years under an
earthen blanket waiting patiently to reveal its mysteries.
Following in the footsteps of the Qin came the Western Han (206
BC-AD 25), Eastern Han (25-220), Sui (581-618), Tang (618-907) and
Five Dynasties (907-960). They would each go on to build their own
much acclaimed capitals. They gave the world Chang'an in
present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, Luoyang that retains its name
in Henan Province and Jiankang in today's Nanjing, Jiangsu
Province.
Then during the Song (960-1279), Yuan (1279-1368), Ming (1368-1644)
and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, many notable cities with well
developed economies and cultures appeared in succession in the
valleys of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River and also in
coastal areas. There were:
political centers like Xi'an, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Nanjing
and Beijing
foreign trade ports like Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Chaozhou, Ningbo,
Yangzhou, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Shanghai
hubs of communication like Wuhan, Xuzhou, Shenyang, Zhangye, Wuwei
and Kashgar
ethnic political and cultural centers like Lhasa, Huhhot, Yinchuan
and Dali
scenic spots and historical sites like Guilin, Chengde, Anyang,
Dunhuang, Shangqiu, Qufu, Bozhou and Hui'an
cities like Jingdezhen, Zigong and Datong famous for the skills of
their craftsmen
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 many
ancient city sites have been systematically excavated. The
evolution of town planning across successive dynasties has been
revealed through the orderly arrangement of their streets, lanes
and compounds.
Cities of the Qin
A
whole new era of city construction had been ushered in with the
founding of the Qin Dynasty. According to the historical records,
its resourceful and far-sighted first emperor Qinshihuang set up 41
prefectures and over 1,000 counties covering the whole country.
This led in turn to the construction of large cities right across
the nation.
The discovery in 2002 of ancient Liye City in Longshan County,
Hunan Province has yielded important clues to the nature of this
dynamic upsurge in city building. A walled city site occupying an
area of some 20,000 square meters it has revealed three well sites
and various architectural features of these ancient times.
Cities of the Han and the Six Dynasties
In
2000 archaeologists brought Yanglingyi City back to the light of
day. It had lain undisturbed, sleeping below the ground for more
than 2,000 years. The thousands of cultural relics unearthed here
paint a picture of how it must have appeared in antiquity. Once
during the reign of Emperor Jing (188-141 BC) of the Western Han
Dynasty, it had been a key political center. Yanglingyi City
managed to survive for some five to six hundred years and in its
heyday it had a population of over 100,000.
A
wooden sluice gate found in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province in 2001,
turned out to be from the earliest urban drainage works ever found
in China. This example of early civil engineering dated back to the
days of the Western and Eastern Han.
Sacrificial altars came to light in 2000 in Nanjing the ancient
capital of the Six Dynasties (222-589). The way they were laid out
relative to the imperial palace was indicative of and a precursor
to the much later Temple of Heaven, Temple of Earth and Forbidden
City in the Beijing of the Ming and Qing dynasties. This reflects a
cultural consistency vested in the layout of the imperial capitals
as they evolved throughout China's feudal age.
Chang'an
Chang'an retained its position as the political, economic and
cultural center throughout the Western Han Dynasty. Many years of
careful archaeological excavations have revealed its regular
blueprint. It was laid out to a rectangular plan with twelve gates
opening onto eight east-west and nine north-south streets. The
palace area was initially situated in the southwest of the city but
would later expand beyond the confines of the city proper as it
grew to be much larger than the residential quarter.
The chessboard pattern evolved from the time of Jin (265-420) to
the Sui and Tang. Rudimentary versions of the layout appeared in
two other early cities both located in Linzhang, Hebei Province.
These were the Northern City of Yedu built in the Wei (220-265) and
the Southern City of Yedu, which spanned the Eastern Wei (534-550)
and Northern Qi (550-577).
As
a mature representative of the model, the Chang'an of the time of
the Tang Dynasty came complete with outer city, inner city,
imperial city, lanes and marketplaces. The inner city and the
imperial city were both situated in the north of Chang'an, orderly
lanes ran to either side of them and also to the south of the
imperial city. The two marketplaces were located to the southeast
and southwest of the imperial city.
The prosperity of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty relied heavily on
economic support from areas to the south of the lower reaches of
the Yangtze River. Emperor Yang (560-618) of the Sui Dynasty had
linked these territories to north China with the building of his
Grand Canal.
Towards the middle period of the Tang, nomadic peoples from the
north of China made large-scale incursions into the Central Plains.
This is the historical and geographical term referring to the
middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Beijing sitting as it
did astride the route to and from the hinterland, began to play a
key role both militarily and politically. In 1272 Kublai Khan the
first emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, officially established his
capital in Dadu. This would later be known as Beijing. And so
Chang'an came to be replaced as the country's political center.
Luoyang
Luoyang has long been known as China's "Underground Museum." Since
the remote Xia Dynasty (c.2100-1600 BC), Luoyang has played host to
no fewer than 13 imperial capitals spanning a period of over 1,600
years.
The recently uncovered palace entrance in use in Luoyang in the Wei
and Jin Dynasty displays a rich ceremonial flavor. Its shape,
structure and underlying architectural technology have shed new
light on the understanding of feudal China's characteristic
menque system. This featured city gates flanked by a
watchtower on either side.
Dongjing
City construction entered a new stage of development during the
Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). The capitals of previous
dynasties had their imperial cities located in a corner like the
Tang Dynasty Chang'an. But the capital of the Northern Song was to
set a new trend because Dongjing in today's Kaifeng city, Henan
Province, had its imperial city right in the center. And how better
to emphasize supreme imperial authority?
In
its heyday, Dongjing boasted a population of over one million while
contemporaneous London could claim just 50,000 or so.
According to the historical records, Dongjing had more than 6,000
stores open for business around the clock. Its biggest theatre was
said to accommodate over 10,000. The city presented a vast panorama
of prosperity with music and singing all through the night.
And this was one truly cosmopolitan city. People from Japan, Korea,
India, the Arab world and the Byzantine Empire poured in to engage
in trade or to pursue their studies. The Imperial College in
Dongjing was then the biggest university in all the world. It
attracted many students drawn from all parts of the country and
from abroad.
Dongjing marked a clear turning point. For the first time in
Chinese history, the capital had grown from a traditional seat of
government into an all-encompassing multi-faceted city.
The Festival of Pure Brightness on the River, a scroll by
the Northern Song painter Zhang Zeduan hangs today in the Palace
Museum of Beijing. It serves as a pictorial testament to the
historical flourishing of Dongjing.
Dadu
As
the Song gave way to the Yuan, open alleys gradually replaced the
previously enclosed lanes. A layout of double city walls standing
guard around a central imperial city began to take shape in the
Yuan Dynasty capital of Dadu, on the site of today's Beijing.
Years of archaeological surveys and excavations have shown Dadu was
regularly laid out in the Yuan. Its symmetrical arranged, east-west
alleys ran perpendicular to the axis of the main north-south
street. The Ming and Qing Dynasties that followed the Yuan retained
the essential features of this earlier town plan as they went on to
build Beijing City.
In
2002, a 600-year-old drain outlet was discovered at the base of
Dadu city wall. It offered important tangible evidence that not
only added to an understanding of the city's ancient drainage
system but also provided one more piece in the jigsaw puzzle of the
founding and development of Beijing City.
Hongjiang
In
2001, Hongjiang was rediscovered in southwestern Hunan Province.
This ancient port city was situated at the confluence of two
rivers, the Yuanjiang and the Wujiang. It first emerged in the
closing years of the Yuan, going on to develop into a thriving
commercial port linking five provinces during the Ming and Qing
dynasties.
Covering an area of nearly 100,000 square meters, ancient Hongjiang
had 15 old-style banking houses, 7 banks, 17 newspaper offices, 8
storehouses for tung oil, 10 grand guildhalls, 44 wharves, 30-odd
opium dens and 40 brothels. Together with numerous temples,
schools, trade fairs and official offices, they bear testimony to a
past prosperity. Today more than 380 well preserved ancient wooden
houses can still be found here.
According to the county archives, Hongjiang was famous for its
trade in tung oil, wood, opium and white wax. But it was not to
last forever. Hongjiang's prosperity faded away as water borne
trade was superceded by modern overland distribution networks.
Hongjiang has been recognized as a living specimen of embryo
Chinese capitalism.
(China.org.cn, translated by Shao Da, May 15, 2003)