My brother is incompetent. There has always been a problem I don't understand. Why do many people call Beijing 49 cities?

The former Beijing inner city was built in Ming Taizu 1370- 14 19. The inner city is about 24 miles in circumference and has nine gates. In the old Beijing dialect, "Four Nine Cities" are the four walls of the inner city and its nine gates.

Beijing city

□ Yuan Shang

Beijing is an ancient cultural capital with a long history. As early as BC 1000 years ago, the then Yan State built a city wall here, thus creating the history of Beijing city wall culture. With the evolution and development of history, the cultural connotation carried by the Beijing city wall has been continuously extended, changed and enriched.

The city wall marks the beginning of human civilization. When it comes to civilization, it is always inseparable from the symbols, bronzes, figures and classes of the city wall. The excavation of ancient civilization in China is all about the remains of the city wall, which shows the importance of the city wall to civilization.

The construction of the city wall not only reflects the level of people digging ditches and building walls, but also reflects the scientific and technological progress level of ancient bronze mining, metallurgy and casting. Only relatively advanced and developed city wall buildings can ensure the stability and development of urban life, which is the most appropriate core connotation of city wall "culture".

The shape of the city

In ancient Chinese characters, "city" refers to "city wall" on the one hand and "city" on the other. In the construction of ancient cities in China, most of them built city walls first, and then formed urban areas. The main function of the city wall is military defense. The wall of the capital is not only a fortification, but also a symbol of the ruling center. This is the cultural connotation of Beijing city wall, and it is also the biggest difference between Beijing city wall and other city walls. In the history of our country, the city walls are mainly rectangular, and the shape of Beijing is approximately rectangular.

Speaking of Beijing, there used to be four walls. In the center of the city, outside the palace is the Forbidden City. The walls of the Forbidden City are not ordinary people, so they are not walls in the general sense. Although they also represent a certain culture, that culture is too far away from our people. It is surrounded by a bigger wall, called the Imperial City. There is an inner wall with a circumference of 24 miles outside the imperial city, and there is also an outer wall in the south of Beijing.

The Forbidden City is surrounded by high walls in Miyagi, with a height of10m and a thickness of more than 6m. There is a moat outside the city, also known as Tongzi River. There are tall gatehouses in all directions in the city, with Wumen Gate in the south, Shenwu Gate in the north, Donghua Gate in the east and Xihua Gate in the west. If there is a city, there must be a door, otherwise it can only be called a wall, not a city wall. China's understanding of doors is different from that of westerners. Almost all the western-style buildings we often see are one door, and the rest are mostly small doors. Western culture is open, but the architecture is relatively closed and independent. In ancient China, from quadrangle buildings to urban buildings, they always took pains to build their own gates. China's traditional culture is relatively closed, but its architecture is relatively open.

The existing Imperial City of Beijing was built in the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty (1406- 1420). It is a brick wall with vermilion on the outside and yellow glazed tiles on the top. The gate in the south of the imperial city is called Daming Gate (changed to Daqing Gate in Qing Dynasty and Zhonghua Gate in Republic of China), with Dong 'anmen in the east, Xi 'anmen in the west, Bei 'anmen in the north and Di 'anmen in Qing Dynasty.

The former Beijing inner city was built in Ming Taizu 1370- 14 19. The inner city is about 24 miles in circumference and has nine gates. In the old Beijing dialect, "Four Nine Cities" are the four walls of the inner city and its nine gates.

Out-of-town, Ming Dynasty, the population outside Zhengyangmen increased. In order to prevent foreign invasion, Liu Bowen and others suggested that the Ming government build the outer city of Beijing at 1542. In the thirty-second year of Jiajing, Zhu wrote to suggest that it be repaired. In addition, the ancient cities in China had a "inner city and outer city" model of heavy city system. So Emperor Jiajing ordered large-scale construction to build the city wall. After working for a period of time, I found that my financial situation was tight. After Yan Song came down to inspect the construction site, he proposed to repair the south wall first, and then continue to repair other surfaces when he had money. Finally, the restored south wall of Beijing "turns east to north, connecting with the southeast corner of the city;" Turn west to north and meet the southwest corner of the city. The outer city project took ten months, and Beijing became a "convex" shape.

The history of this city

The ancient city wall of Beijing, the visible ruins of the city wall at present, only belongs to the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the ancient city wall has disappeared. The walls of the Ming Dynasty are the most magnificent, complete and solid.

The history of Beijing city walls originated in the late Shang Dynasty. At that time, Yan, thistle and other countries naturally grew in Beijing.

BC 1045 After the Zhou Dynasty was destroyed, the vassal was enfeoffed. King Wu took Ji's surname as Emperor Yao and Yan's surname as Zhao Gong. Later, when Yan became powerful, she annexed thistle and moved the capital to Ji Cheng. According to the discovered sites of Yan culture. It is divided into three parts: residential area, tomb area and ancient city area. As can be seen from the foundation site of the ancient city, it is rectangular, 850 meters long from east to west, 600 meters long from north to south, and the wall is about 4 meters thick, made of rammed earth. The wall is divided into three parts: the main wall, the inner wall and the slope protection. There are ditches and pools around the city wall. It should also be the earliest city wall in Beijing. During the Warring States Period, Ji Cheng, Yan Dou became a famous city.

During the Warring States Period, Yan was one of the Seven Heroes. According to legend, Yan Zhaowang built the Huang Jintai after he ascended the throne, recruiting talents from all over the world. Many talents from all over the world went to work in Yan State, and Yan State became strong. Later, Yan Zhaowang sent one of them, Le Yi, as a general, to crusade against Qi with a great army and defeated the Qi army. At the end of the Warring States Period, Wang Jian, a general of Qin State, led an army to attack Yan State, and Ji Cheng was occupied. From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Western Jin Dynasty, Ji Cheng has always been regarded as an important town in the north. In the Western Han Dynasty, Liang Wudi named his son Liu Dan the Prince of Yan. He built Wanzai Palace and Mingguang Hall in Ji Dynasty.

The wall of Jinzhongdu was expanded on the basis of Nanjing, Liaoning Province, and the way of expansion was to expand on the east, west and south sides respectively on the basis of the original city site. In a sense, Jinzhongdu is an upgraded version of Nanjing, Liaoning, and the battlements in Beijing are basically square.

It is said that hundreds of thousands of laborers were used at that time to expand Jinzhongdu and build the city wall. For the scene of building a city at that time, there is such a description: "People put a basket, and their left and right hands stand in a row, from Yuanzhou to Yan, and the empty basket enters the basket. People stopped the soil and finished it in a few days. " In A.D. 12 15, the Mongolian army invaded Zhongdu, and a fire burned for a whole month, which completely destroyed the Zhongdu city in Jinzhong. From the Yuan Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, there were traces of it, and almost all of it disappeared after Jiajing built the outer city. Nowadays, only around Fenghuangzui village, you can still see some intermittent mounds, which are the traces of the walls of Jinzhongdu.

The Yuan capital was not expanded on the basis of Jinzhongdu, and Jinzhongdu could not be expanded if it was destroyed like that. So people in the Yuan Dynasty had to start a new stove in the northeast of the old Jinzhong capital and build a new version of the new city. The shape of the new city is also rectangular, slightly longer from north to south and slightly shorter from east to west. The walls of the Yuan Dynasty were all made of rammed earth slabs, and the walls were reinforced with columns and cross bars. Such a city wall is easily washed away by rain in rainy days. In order to solve this problem, people used reeds and pipes to waterproof the top of the city wall. The new edition of this city is made up of a simple version of the city wall. No wonder it was demolished in the Ming Dynasty. There were eleven gates in the capital of the Yuan Dynasty. At present, the observatory on the south side of Jianguomen is the former site of the southeast corner building of Yuan Metropolis.

Ming Chengzu decided to demolish the existing capital of Yuan Dynasty and build a new official version of Beijing City. Its area is 62 square kilometers. It shrank the north wall of the Yuan Dynasty by 2.5 kilometers and pushed the South City to the front door. The names of the city gates are Zhengyangmen, Chongwenmen, Xuanwu Gate, Chaoyangmen and Fuchengmen. These names are still in use today, but the towers have disappeared. 1564 the outer city surrounded by the southern suburbs was built in the Ming dynasty, which is what people used to call the outer city of Beijing. By the Ming Dynasty, the center of the whole city moved south. Yongdingmen, the outer city gate, the starting point of the central axis. The whole city wall presents a balanced and symmetrical aesthetic pattern around the central axis.

After the Qing Dynasty made Beijing its capital, it did not make a new edition, but followed the model of the Ming Dynasty. Different from the Ming dynasty, it is only in the system of dividing the flag and the people into cities. The inner city is centered on the imperial city and divided into four corners by the Eight Banners. Two yellow flags live in the north: the yellow flag is located in Andingmen and the yellow flag is located in Deshengmen; Two white flags live in the east: the white flag is in Chaoyangmen and the white flag is in Dongzhimen; Two red flags live in the west: the red flag is embedded in Fuchengmen and the red flag is located in Xizhimen; The two blue flags live in the south: the inlaid blue flag lives in Xuanwumen, and the zhenglan flag lives in Chongwenmen. In the eighth year of Shunzhi (165 1), Chengtianmen was rebuilt and renamed Tiananmen Square.

19111June 10, the Revolution of 1911 broke out, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, and Beijing's history as the imperial capital of the feudal dynasty ended. Chinese Civilization, written at the beginning of last century, described the city walls at that time. The book says that the city of Beijing at that time was divided into an inner city and an outer city, both of which were surrounded by solid walls. At that time, the tourists who came to Beijing "decided to climb the city wall first". The author of the book was shocked by the growth of the city wall, praising the city wall of Beijing as "a real golden city with iron walls" and standing on the city wall "can best capture the grand view of Beijing".

Changes of cities

In the early 1950s, there was a debate about the protection of Beijing city walls. As a result, the ghost town faction gained the upper hand and the Beijing wall was destroyed.

There were two views at that time. One kind thinks that the city wall, as an ancient fortification, has completely lost its practical significance and value. On the contrary, its existence also hinders the development of the city. Another view is that the city wall is a relic of ancient culture and should be protected. As for the preservation method, Liang Sicheng suggested that the top of the wide city wall should be opened as a place for climbing and sightseeing, and then the moat outside the wall should be trimmed to green the banks of the moat. This proposal can be said to be a "three-dimensional park around the city", but unfortunately it was not adopted. Otherwise, we won't miss the wall of Beijing today.

Xizhimen, Dongzhimen, Xuanwumen, Andingmen, Yongdingmen and other 47 city gates, towers and watchtowers were demolished one by one, and now only three are left for people to watch.

Today's ruins of Beijing City Wall include the ruins of Zhongdu City Wall in Jin Dynasty and the "Yuandadu City Wall Ruins Park" in Fenghuangzui Village outside Guang 'anmen.

From the Yuan Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the capitals of several dynasties were built in Beijing, which not only reflected the unique aesthetic principles of China's capital architecture, but also reflected the aesthetic characteristics of Beijing as an imperial capital. The pattern of Beijing today was basically laid by the Ming Dynasty. "The central axis is symmetrical, gentle and open, with rich contours and orderly rhythm." Contrary to the archaeological situation, for Beijing, it is the city that survives, but the wall that best reflects the characteristics of the urban pattern is not.

The city wall is a systematic fortification in the agricultural era, which plays a very important role in stabilizing urban life and promoting urban development. As the capital, it is also a huge cultural symbol, a symbol of majesty and sacredness, and a symbol of the political, economic and cultural center at that time. The imposing manner of Beijing city wall is incomparable with other city walls.

However, despite great changes, the area centered on the imperial city is still relatively intact. The center of the imperial city embodies the unique cultural concept of "one China and four directions" in ancient China. "Left group and right house, the back leaf of Qian Chao" is the ideal model of traditional urban construction in China. "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji" said: "Artisans rule the country nine miles away, three doors away. Nine meridians, nine latitudes and nine tracks in junior high school. Zuo zu you she, facing the market outlook. The city is a lady. " On the left side of the imperial city is the ancestral temple, which is today's working people's cultural palace. On the right is the national altar, which is today's Zhongshan Park. In front of the imperial city is the imperial court, and behind it is the market. This pattern has been very accurate since the Yuan Dynasty.

Judging from the plane shape of Beijing, the city walls basically spread symmetrically along the central axis, which embodies a kind of balanced beauty. This beauty of balance is the embodiment of the beauty of moderation and harmony in ancient China, and it still leaves deep traces in today's old city.