China Capital Dictionary

Author: Chief Editor: Chen Qiaoyi
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-09-01
Features: ★32-page hardcover, published by Jiangxi Education Press ★Ancient Chinese capitals are the crystallization of the diligence and wisdom of the ancient Chinese people, and they are also fragments of ancient Chinese history, economy, and social conditions. Tan Qixiang's "Preface to the Seven Ancient Capitals of China" in "The Six Ancient Capitals of China" believes that in the 1930s of this century, academic works began to add Hangzhou to the "Five Ancient Capitals," making them the "Six Ancient Capitals." The first monograph published under the "Six Ancient Capitals" was "The Six Ancient Capitals of China" edited by Chen Qiaoyi, published by China Youth Press in 1983. Subsequently, the large-scale pictorial book "Magnificent Capital, Shining Splendor—The Six Ancient Capitals of China" with a preface by Chen Qiaoyi was published by the Taipei Jinxiu Publishing House in 1989. In the late 1980s, Tan Qixiang first proposed that Anyang should be included in the list of major ancient capitals. At that time, five television stations in Beijing, Xi'an, Henan, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang were organizing the production of the television series "The Six Ancient Capitals of China." In October 1988, the heads of the five television stations and the consultants of the series, Shi Nianhai and Chen Qiaoyi, went to Anyang for investigation and research, agreeing to include Anyang in the list of major ancient capitals of China. Thus, the name "Seven Ancient Capitals" emerged. Later, the television series "The Seven Ancient Capitals of China" was completed and began broadcasting domestically and internationally in 1990. The book "The Seven Ancient Capitals of China" edited by Chen Qiaoyi and preface by Tan Qixiang was published by China Youth Press in 1991; the same year, the large-scale pictorial book "The Seven Ancient Capitals of China (Chinese and English Editions)" with a preface by Chen Qiaoyi was published by Hebei Fine Arts Publishing House. (Chen Qiaoyi) The Medieval Urban Revolution This is the theory of urban development in Chinese history proposed by the renowned American sinologist G.W. Skinner in his edited large-volume collection "The City in Late Imperial China." The so-called "Medieval Urban Revolution" refers to a revolution in markets and urbanization that occurred in China from the late Tang Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty. The impact of this revolution extended to both major capitals and smaller towns. Its main features are: First, the regulation that each county must have one market and that the market must be located in the county seat was relaxed; second, the official market system declined and eventually collapsed; third, the fangshi system was abolished, replaced by a more flexible street layout, allowing trade and commerce to take place throughout the city or in the suburbs; fourth, some cities expanded rapidly, with thriving suburban commercial areas; fifth, a large number of small and medium-sized towns of significant economic importance emerged. Historically, the most important and distinctive feature of Chinese cities was the city wall. Before the "Medieval Urban Revolution," the political center, such as the imperial palace and the prefectural offices, were located at the center of the city wall. After the "Medieval Urban Revolution," this urban layout underwent significant changes. Taking the capital as an example, before the Northern Song Dynasty, the imperial palace was always located at the center of the capital, but capitals during the Northern Song, Southern Song, and early Ming Dynasty broke this pattern. Although the early and late Ming capitals of Beijing still centered around the imperial palace, the inner and outer cities and the surrounding areas all had developed commercial districts, making them completely different from the capitals of the Han and Tang dynasties. (Chen Qiaoyi) The History of Urban Development in Chinese Capitals In the modern sense, capitals evolved from large settlements at the centers of tribal confederations. To defend and protect their populations and wealth, tribal confederations built fences or walls around their settlements, gradually forming densely populated tribal centers. This was the birth of the capital. By the legendary era, China had already had capitals. The "Records of the Five Emperors" in the "Records of the Grand Historian" states that Shun "completed the city in two years and the capital in three." The "Works Chapter" of the "Shiben" records that Gun "built city walls." These records have been confirmed by recent archaeological discoveries. By the Xia and Shang dynasties, the scale of urban construction and facilities in Chinese capitals had reached a certain level. For example, the Zhengzhou Shang City ruins cover a total area of 25 square kilometers, with city walls, gates, palaces, large foundations, and handicraft workshops. By the Zhou Dynasty, urban construction had become institutionalized. In the early Western Zhou Dynasty, when the Duke of Zhou built the eastern capital in Luoyang, he adopted the layout of connected city walls and moats, which became the standard for later urban construction. It was not only adopted by the feudal states in the Central Plains during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods but also followed by the Qin capital of Xianyang and the Han capital of Chang'an. During the Western and Eastern Han dynasties, significant changes occurred in the urban system. Yang Kuan, in the preface to "The History of Ancient Chinese Capital Systems," believed that during this period, the orientation of the entire capital shifted from "facing west and facing east" to "facing north and facing south," and the layout of connecting the western city to the eastern moat or the southwestern city to the northeastern moat changed to a layout where the outer moats surrounded the central northern city area on three sides (east, south, and west). Later, the capitals of Luoyang during the Wei, Jin, and Northern Wei dynasties followed the layout of the Eastern Han Dynasty but made further developments. The Northern Wei Luoyang abandoned the structure of two palaces in the north and south and retained only the northern palace, building a symmetrical central axis with official offices neatly arranged on both sides of the palace gates. By the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an was completed with a north-south central axis passing through the imperial city and the outer city, featuring symmetrical streets and fangshi in a checkerboard layout on both sides, further developing and perfecting the "facing north and facing south" capital system of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The Tang and Song dynasties saw another major change in the urban system, shifting from a traditional closed system to an open one. Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou Dynasty made significant contributions to this. Adapting to the needs of the time, he added an outer city wall around the palace and state city, allowing residents to build houses along the streets and occupy one-tenth of the street width for planting trees, digging wells, and setting up shade sheds, further improving the daily lives, cultural, and recreational aspects of the capital's residents. The Northern Song capital of Dongjing developed on this basis, forming a three-tiered structure of the palace city, the inner city, and the outer city, with the palace city at the center and transportation throughout the city well-connected. Later, the capitals of Lin'an during the Southern Song Dynasty and those of the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties all followed this layout and made further developments. (Xu Jijun) City Walls of Capitals The hallmark and characteristic of Chinese capitals are the city walls built around the urban settlements. In general, city walls were also built around the settlements of ordinary cities. Professor Zhang Shengdao of the University of Hawaii's "The Morphology of Walled Capitals," a special essay included in G.W. Skinner's edited collection "The City in Late Imperial China," discusses this feature of Chinese capitals. According to the "Shuowen Jiezi," Volume 13: "City, to contain the people."