Beijing’s city gate
Beijing is undergoing rapid changes and no longer looks like it did in the past. The original city wall became a thoroughfare, and the city gates were only preserved as place names. Following the changes of the city gate, through the scrolls of history and the scrolls of memory, we can still vaguely hear the evening drums and morning bells of old Beijing, see the bright armor of the garrison, and feel the bloody wind of the changing times. The majestic city gates are dissipated in the air like time, intangible and invisible, but their existence cannot be ignored, just like the warriors written in the annals of history cannot be ignored.
There are 16 gates in the old city of Beijing, "nine inside and seven outside". Each of them has different names, uses and characteristics.
The Neijiu refers to the nine gates on the inner city. In clockwise direction, they are Dongzhimen and Chaoyang Gate on the east wall; Chongwen Gate, Zhengyang Gate and Xuanwu Gate on the south wall; There are Fucheng Gate and Xizhi Gate on the west wall; Desheng Gate and Anding Gate on the north wall.
The seven outer gates refer to the seven gates on the east city wall. In clockwise direction, they are Dongbian Gate and Guangqu Gate; Zuo'an Gate, Yongding Gate and You'an Gate on the south city wall; Guang'an Gate and Xibian Gate on the city wall.
Nine inner gates:
Dongzhimen, called Chongrenmen in the Yuan Dynasty. There is an iron tower outside the town gate and a stone statue of Lord Medicine inside. Cars that transport more wood.
Chaoyang Gate was called Qihua Gate in the Yuan Dynasty. The symbol is an ear of grain engraved on the gate of Wengcheng. It is the grain gate of Beijing, and many grain trucks carry it. Chaoyangmen is also called "Dumen", which means rest. The grain transported through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal enters the city through this gate and is stored in several large warehouses in Chaoyang Gate, so it carries many grain trucks. There is a temple related to the emperor built in its urn city, but there are only sacred tablets but no statues in the temple. Each of the nine gates in the inner city of Beijing has a temple, but Zhengyang Gate has two. Therefore, there is a saying that "nine gates and ten temples, one temple has no Shinto".
Chongwenmen was called Wenmingmen in the Yuan Dynasty, also known as Hadamen. The symbol is Zhenhai’s Chongwen Iron Turtle, which often uses wine carts. Chongwenmen is the "Jingmen", which means the door of light and prosperity. At the same time, it is probably the gate with the busiest flow of people and goods among all the gates in Beijing. Every day when the gate is closed, a bell will be rung to remind people who want to enter or exit the city gate. While other city gates are struck with a flat percussion instrument that sounds like "嘡". Therefore, there is a saying in old Beijing of "nine gates, eight bells and one clock". At the same time, the "clock" often spoken in old Beijing's colloquial language probably also comes from this. At that time, there were many brewing workshops in Daxing County, the southern suburbs of Beijing, and wine carts often entered the city through Chongwenmen, so there was a saying that "wine carts entered through Chongwenmen, and prison carts came out of Xuanwumen."
Zhengyangmen, called Li Zhengmen in the Yuan Dynasty, got its name from the "sun and moon are as beautiful as the sky" in Li Gua, and is also called Qianmen. The symbol is the golden Guandi Temple in Wengcheng. Each city gate in Beijing has a temple, but only the Zhengyang Gate has two, among which the Jinshenguan Master is the most efficacious. Zhengyangmen is the main entrance to the inner city. It was called Daming Gate in the Ming Dynasty and Daqing Gate in the Qing Dynasty. Except for the emperor, no one was allowed to enter or exit through the main entrance under the arrow tower, but could only use the side doors on the east and west sides. Therefore it is always closed tightly.
Xuanwumen was called Shunchengmen in the Yuan Dynasty. The symbol is the Xuanwu noon cannon that tells the time, and there are more prison cars. Xuanwumen was the "Gate of Death". At that time, most of the cemeteries in Beijing were in the Taoranting area of ??Beijing, so most mourners went out of Xuanwumen. In the Qing Dynasty, the execution ground was at Caishikou, and the vehicles escorting death row prisoners also went out of Xuanwumen.
Fuchengmen was called Pingzemen in the Yuan Dynasty. The symbol is a plum blossom carved on the wall of Wengcheng, which means more coal cars are used. Fuchengmen is also called "Jingmen", which means "justice". The coal produced in Mentougou in Xishan is an indispensable fuel in Beijing. This gate is the closest to Xishan, so coal trucks all enter the city through this gate. The symbol "plum" and "coal" have the same pronunciation. In old age, there is a saying that "the plum blossoms in Fucheng herald the warmth of spring".
Xizhimen was called Heyimen in the Yuan Dynasty. The symbol is that there is a stone with water patterns carved on the urn city, and there are many waterwheels. The water quality in Beijing is not good. The water used by the imperial palace comes from Yuquan Mountain. Every morning, water trucks enter the city from Xizhimen.
Desheng Gate, when the army returns home in triumph, it enters the city through this gate, often with troop vehicles. Deshengmen is also called "Xiumen", which means noble moral character. The troops of benevolence and righteousness must enter and exit through this gate, so many military vehicles enter and exit through this gate.
Andingmen is where the army sets out from the city. The treasure of the gate is Emperor Zhenwu, who often uses dung carts. Andingmen is also called "Shengmen", which means "abundance", so the emperor would go out from this gate to the Temple of Earth to pray for a good harvest.
The other eight city gates all have temples of related emperors built in the urns, but only the temple of Zhenwu Emperor is built in the Andingmen urn city, and Zhenwu Emperor has become the treasure of the gate. There are many dung dumps outside Andingmen, so most dung trucks come in and out through Andingmen.
Outer Seven Gates
Guangqumen, also known as Shawomen.
Guang'an Gate was called Guangning Gate and Zhangyi Gate in the Ming Dynasty.
The composition of city gates----city towers, arrow towers and barbicans
City towers There are towers above each city gate in the inner city of Beijing. These towers are located on a pier. , closely connected with the left and right city walls. There is an arched hole in the middle of the lower part of the pier, which is the city gate. There are two opposite doors at the door, covered with iron nails and with large copper-plated bubble nails on the front. There is a deadbolt behind the door.
The towers in the inner city of Beijing during the Ming Dynasty were built during the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty. Each tower has a double eaves on the top of the mountain, covered with gray tube tiles and trimmed with green glazed tiles. The towers are usually 7 bays wide and 5 bays deep, but there are also towers that are 3 bays deep, like the Chaoyang Gate. Fuchengmen is three rooms deep. The specific specifications of the towers in the inner city are not consistent. Generally speaking, Zhengyang Gate has the highest specifications and is the most spectacular among the towers. Chongwen Gate and Xuanwu Gate are slightly worse, Dongzhimen and Xizhimen are even worse, and Desheng Gate is slightly worse. , Anding Gate, Chaoyang Gate, and Fucheng Gate have the lowest specifications. Each tower has two floors, and the defenders can climb the tower and have a distant view.
The towers in the outer city are shorter than those in the inner city. The tallest one is the Yongding Gate located at the southernmost end of the central axis. The tower is about 20 meters high and has a double eaves on the top of the mountain. It is 7 rooms wide and 3 rooms deep, echoing the Zhengyang Gate. Next is Guangning Gate, now known as Guang'an Gate, which is just a little shorter than Yongding Gate. Guangqumen, Zuo'anmen and You'anmen are all single-eaves one-story towers on the top of a hill, with a height of only about 15 meters. The East Bianmen and West Bianmen are smaller in shape.
Arrow Tower There is also a tower directly in front of each city gate in Beijing, called the Arrow Tower. The shapes of each arrow tower are also different, and the one at Zhengyangmen is the most majestic. The city platform is about 12 meters high, with a double eaves resting on the top of the mountain, covered with gray tube tiles and trimmed with green glazed tiles. The south side is 9 rooms wide, and the north side is 7 rooms Baoxia. There are four-story arrow windows on the southeast and west sides. There are 52 holes on the south side and 21 holes on the east and west sides. The front door arrow tower is 38 meters high, 52 meters wide and 32 meters deep. meters, it is the tallest among the archery towers in Beijing. Among the nine gates in the inner city, only the front gate has a door opening under the arrow tower, and it is only for the emperor to enter and exit.
The shape of the watchtowers at the gates of Beijing's inner city is basically the same as that of the front door watchtowers. The front is a hilltop with double eaves, and there are five Baoxia rooms at the back. There are three rows of arrow holes below the double eaves on the front and one row of arrow holes above the double eaves.
The outer city archery tower is smaller in shape. There are two rows of arrow holes on the front of the Yongding Gate Archery Tower, with 7 holes in each row, and two rows of arrow holes on the left and right sides, with 3 holes in each row. There are 26 arrow holes in total. There is no building behind the arrow tower, only a door. The four gates of Guang'an, Guangqu, Zuo'an and You'an come next, with only 22 arrow holes. Dongbian Gate and Xibian Gate are the smallest, with only 8 arrow holes.
Wengcheng There are also city walls on the left and right sides of the arrow tower, and they are connected with the city walls of the inner or outer city, so small cities bulging outward are formed at each city gate. This is the Wengcheng. The plane shape of the barbicans includes square ones, like the barbicans at Dongzhimen and Xizhimen; there are also rectangular ones, like the barbicans at Zhengyangmen and Deshengmen; and there are semicircular ones, like the barbicans at Dongbianmen and Xibianmen. Other urns are basically square, but have arcs instead of right angles where two adjacent walls meet.
The urn city of Zhengyangmen occupies the largest area and is in the shape of a narrow rectangle from east to west. The other urn cities only have one gate. In addition to a gate under the arrow tower, the urn city of Zhengyangmen also has two doors on the left and right sides. opened a door.
The urn gates at each gate of the inner city have their own characteristics, that is, the urn gates on the same side of the city wall all open directly opposite each other. For example, the urn gate of Dongzhimen on the north side of the east city wall faces south, and the urn gate on the south side faces Chaoyang. The gate of the urn faces north, which makes it convenient for troops to move from one gate to another through the outside of the city. This is true for Xizhimen and Fuchengmen on the west wall, and Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen on the south wall. Zhengyangmen Urn City has gates on the east, south and west sides, with the exception of Desheng Gate and Anding Gate on the north wall. The gates of the two urn cities face east.
The barbicans in the outer city are smaller than those in the inner city, and two of them adopt a semicircular layout. The gates of the barbicans in the outer city are also different from those in the inner city, opening in the center below the arrow tower.
Abandoned city gates
There are 11 city gates in Dadu of the Yuan Dynasty, including three on each of the east, south and west sides, except for two on the north and three on the east. From the north to the south, they are: Guangxi Gate, Chongren Gate, and Qihua Gate; the three southern gates are Shuncheng Gate in the west, Wenming Gate in the east, and Li Zhengmen in the middle; the three west gates from north to south are: Suqing Gate, He Yimen and Pingzemen; the two northern gates are Anzhenmen in the east and Jiandemen in the west.
In the early Ming Dynasty, Xu Da presided over the reconstruction of the new city, abandoned the northern city wall of Yuan Dadu, and built a new city wall 5 miles to the south. The original Anzhen Gate and Jiande Gate on the northern wall were abandoned, and the east wall was abandoned. , the northernmost Guangxi Gate and Suqing Gate on the west city wall were therefore abandoned.
New city gates
Heping Gate, Jianguo Gate and Fuxing Gate were all added to the city wall during the Republic of China to facilitate transportation, but they are different from the original city gates. Big difference. They do not have city towers, arrow towers and urns. In fact, they only opened two arched holes in the original city wall to allow vehicles and pedestrians to pass.
Swedish scholar Xi Renlong once made a vivid metaphor for the city walls and gates of Beijing: "If we compare it (Beijing City) to a giant's body, the city gates are like the giant's mouth, and the city gates are like the giant's mouth. Breathing and speaking pass through this gate, where the pulse of life in the city is concentrated. Not only are there a large number of vehicles, pedestrians and livestock, but also people's thoughts and wishes, hopes and disappointments, as well as symbols of death or death. The procession of funerals and weddings of a new life. At the city gate, you can feel the pulse of the whole city, and the life and will of the whole city flow through this narrow passage. This pulsation gives Beijing this extremely complex city. Organisms follow the rhythm of life and movement." ("City Walls and Gates of Beijing")
On the one hand, the disappearance of Beijing's city gates has promoted the development of economy and transportation, but on the other hand, it has to make people saddened by history. The oblivion of monuments and architectural masterpieces. Nowadays, I can only imagine sitting in a car speeding along the Second Ring Road. The generals who guarded the city were patrolling the city walls; I can only imagine standing in front of Desheng Gate, climbing up and overlooking the city of Beijing!