San Fu Huang Tu Annotation

Author: He Qinggu written
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-06-01
Features: Qin capital Xianyang and Han capital Chang'an were famous ancient capitals of China. Sanfu Huangtu is dedicated to the construction of Qin and Han capitals, with a focus on the Han capital Chang'an. It details the layout of Chang'an City and its surroundings, including palaces, pavilions, gardens, ponds, terraces, granaries, warehouses, bridges, cultural facilities, and ritual structures, in meticulous and comprehensive manner. It is an important historical document for studying ancient capitals, especially the Han capital Chang'an. Sanfu Huangtu, also known as Xijing Huangtu, is abbreviated as Huangtu, and its author is not named. The initial version of the book was compiled during the late Han Dynasty, as indicated by Sun Xingyan's preface, which attributes it to "a person of the late Han Dynasty." Miao Changyan's inscription dates it to the "Han and Wei period," while Chao Gongwu's "Record of Reading in Shang County" attributes it to the "Liang and Chen period." Chen Zhi believes the original book should have been completed in the late Eastern Han Dynasty or early Wei Dynasty. Although these views differ, they all cite the fact that Ru Chun, Jin Zhuo, and Liu Zhao used excerpts from the book as annotations. This basis, of course, is difficult to be entirely conclusive. Since these three annotators already cited the book for their annotations, it proves that the book was already in existence during their time.