There is a theory that when the emperor was building the city wall, he ordered the northwest corner to be built, but later the city wall collapsed. If it collapses after being repaired, it is considered to be God's will. There is also a legend that there is a big mountain called Buzhou Mountain in the northwest of Beijing. This has a certain meaning. Literally understood, it is very simple, that is, we do not want the construction of the city wall to form a square shape. Therefore, there will be a gap in the northwest corner of Beijing during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Every ancient city has a long cultural history and records countless popular stories. In the passage of time, although the rise and fall of countries are unpredictable, some ancient cities have left their own mark on the world with their tenacious vitality. In China, Beijing is naturally a famous city. Not only during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but also now, it is the capital of the Republic of China.
As such an important city, Beijing must be cautious in urban construction. However, people stumbled upon something strange. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beijing always lacked the northwest corner. Why? In fact, there is a secret hidden in it. It turns out that the designer did this on purpose.
Old Beijing has a long history. Although much of the city wall has disappeared, we can still see its majestic appearance in photos. The ancient city wall has a circumference of about 60 miles, a base width of 24 meters, and a wall height of 8 meters. They are all rammed earth walls built with boards. In ancient times, such walls were enough to defend against enemy attacks. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di usurped the throne and decided to move the capital to Beijing. At this time, it must be renovated. But strangely, he did not build the northwest corner.
Naturally, people were very curious about this issue, so they took out the map of Beijing at that time for comparison. At this time, it was discovered that there was no wall in the northwest corner, but the square wall became a polygon. You know, in ancient China, people believed in the saying that the sky is round and the earth is round. Therefore, when building the city, they were skeptical about the construction of squares and generally did not change because they were worried that the Feng Shui would be destroyed.
For this reason, people have put forward a hypothesis that when the city wall was built, the emperor ordered the northwest corner to be built, but later the city wall collapsed. The emperor ordered craftsmen to rebuild it, but the result was the same. The northwest corner collapsed again. At this time, the emperor naturally felt that something had happened, and he believed that this was God's will. From that time he demolished the northwest corner, which is what it is now known as.
Another theory is that it has a certain relationship with Beijing's topography. It is said that there is a big mountain called Buzhoushan in the northwest of Beijing. From the name of this mountain, we can find that it has a certain meaning. Literally, it's quite simple, we don't want the walls to be built in a square shape.
However, these statements are all speculation and have no historical basis. However, there is another view that is firmly believed by most people, that is, the northwest corner of Beijing is just a fault zone in the strata. In other words, if the city wall is built here, it may collapse due to natural causes before the enemy attacks. In order to prevent this from happening, the rulers naturally needed to modify their plans for building the city wall.