Imperial Capital and Urban Life - Anthology of Architects

Author: Wang Shiren / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Beijing was the capital of the last imperial dynasty in China until the early 20th century, and it was also one of the most well-preserved imperial capitals in the world. The city gates and gate towers of Beijing are not only urban landmarks of the imperial capital but also carriers of various cultures, including imperial etiquette, mechanisms, city defense, living environments, and the myriad trades of the streets. To understand imperial capital culture, one must first start with the "gates" of the city. The city gates and gate towers of Beijing differ in type due to their locations and functions. Broadly speaking, some have both gates and gate towers, such as the main gate towers; some have gate towers without gates, such as arrow towers and corner towers; and some have gates without gate towers, such as the gates of the Imperial City. Most gates and gate towers are connected to walls, but there are a few exceptions, such as the End Gate of the Forbidden City and the East Anli Gate of the Imperial City.
Beijing was originally the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, known as Dadu, the third imperial capital built on flat ground after the Great Wall of Sui Dynasty's Daxing and the Tang Dynasty's Luoyang. The construction of Dadu began in the fourth year of Zhiyuan (1267), and it was named Dadu in the ninth year. The outer city was completed in the thirteenth year of Zhiyuan (1276), with three gates on the south, east, and west sides and two gates on the north, totaling eleven gates. The inner city, known as the Xiao Wall or the Red Wall for horse riders, had two gates on the south and north sides and one gate on each east and west side, totaling six gates. The central palace city had three gates on the south side and one gate on each east, west, and north side, totaling six gates. Corner towers were built at each corner of the outer and palace cities, totaling eight. In total, the Yuan Dynasty's Dadu had thirty-one city gates and gate towers. The outer city gates may have had arrow towers and gate barriers, but records are unclear about their quantity and form.
In the first year of Hongwu (1368), the Ming army captured Dadu and immediately shortened the northern city walls while demolishing the Yuan Dynasty's palace complex. In the seventeenth year (1419), the southern city walls were moved southward, and the new Imperial City and palace were completed in the eighteenth year. In the seventh year of Xuan (1432), the eastern Imperial City walls were moved eastward to the east of the Jade River. In the fourth year of Zhengtong (1439), all city gate towers and arrow towers were completed. In the thirty-second year of Jiajing (1553), an outer city wall was added on the south side. Four of the Ming Dynasty's city gates in Beijing were rebuilt on the original sites of the Yuan Dynasty's Dadu: Dongzhi Gate (Yuan Chongren Gate) on the east, Changyang Gate (Yuan Qihua Gate) on the east, Xizhi Gate and Yimen on the west, and Fucheng Gate (Pingze Gate) on the west.
The Qing Dynasty followed the Ming city layout, except that during the repairs of the Imperial City from the nineteenth to the twenty-fifth years of the Qianlong reign (1754–1760), the Imperial City in front of Tiananmen was extended east and west, adding two three-gate structures. Most of the city gates and gate towers in Qing Dynasty Beijing were preserved in their Ming Dynasty form, though many were renovated or rebuilt. However, they generally retained the Ming Dynasty design and could be categorized into five types:
First, the inner city gates, consisting of gate towers, arrow towers, and gate barriers, with gate openings between the gate barriers and gate towers. Arrow towers have no gates.
Second, the outer city gates, consisting of gate towers and arrow towers, with gate openings below the arrow towers. No gate barriers are present.
Third, the corner towers of the inner city (in L-shaped form), the square corner towers of the outer city, and the rectangular barrier towers at the intersection of the inner and outer cities—all are gate towers without gates.
Fourth, the Imperial City gates, which are single-story gate pavilions or three-gate structures, except for Tiananmen, which is a gate tower.
Fifth, the Forbidden City gates, all of which are gate towers. The four corner towers of the Forbidden City are ornate three-tiered hip-and-gable pavilions, where decorative functions far outweigh defensive ones.
The Qing Dynasty's inner city had nine gates, each with a gate tower, arrow tower, and gate barrier, except for Zhengyangmen, which had two gate barriers. The outer city had seven gates, each with a gate tower and arrow tower. Both the inner and outer cities had four corner towers, and there were two barrier towers at the intersection of the two cities. In total, there were fifty-two gate towers on the city walls.
The main gate of the Qing Dynasty's Imperial City was Daqingmen, with Tiananmen as its southern gate. Inside Daqingmen was a long "Thousand-Step Corridor" square, extending east and west in front of Tiananmen in a "T" shape, with Chang'an East Gate and Chang'an West Gate at both ends. From the nineteenth to the twenty-fifth years of the Qianlong reign, it was further extended east and west, with two three-gate structures added at both ends, known as Dong Sanzuo Gate and Xi Sanzuo Gate, or Dong Chang'anmen and Xi Chang'anmen. Additionally, there were two attached wall gates on this east-west Imperial City wall, known as Dong Gongsheng Gate and Xi Gongsheng Gate. These two gates were the main entrances for the central government offices of the east and west groups of civil and military affairs during the Ming Dynasty. The 1754 "Complete Map of the Capital" by Qianlong did not depict these gates, but they appeared in the appendix of the 1788 "Notes on the Imperial City" and were clearly illustrated as two attached lotus-patterned gates in the 1802 "Illustrated Scenery of the Tang Land" by Japanese scholars like Koda Tameyama. These gates may have been demolished in the early Qing Dynasty but were rebuilt during the 1760 expansion of the Imperial City, retaining the Ming Dynasty name "Gongsheng Gate." Their function was to allow officials from the offices on both sides of the Thousand-Step Corridor to enter the Imperial City more conveniently without having to detour to Dong and Xi Sanzuo Gates.
In the seventh year of Xuan, the eastern Imperial City wall was moved eastward, and a new Dong'an Gate was built. The old gate and the new gate were connected by Wang'en Bridge, with a barrier wall built on the bridge to form a passage. The old gate was converted into a three-gate structure after the wall was moved, known as Dong Anli Gate in the Ming Dynasty (popularly called "Wall Gate") and as "Three-Gate" in the Qing Dynasty. The western side of the Imperial City was Xian'an Gate, and the northern side was Beian Gate, which was renamed Di'an Gate in the Qing Dynasty. The Imperial City had twelve gates in total.
The palace city, or Forbidden City, had gate towers on all four sides and corner towers at each corner. The Meridian Gate was the southern gate of the palace city. Between the Meridian Gate and Tiananmen stood the End Gate. Qing Dynasty documents classified the End Gate as part of the Imperial City, but the author of "Notes on Yanjing" argued that it was the "main gate of the Forbidden City." His reasoning was that the Ming Dynasty's court offices were located between the End Gate and the Meridian Gate, and the area inside the End Gate was considered part of the palace's restricted zone, making it a gate for the palace. From a ceremonial perspective, since the southern gate of the Imperial City, Tiananmen, had Daqingmen as its main gate, the southern gate of the palace city, the Meridian Gate, could also have a "main gate" in the form of the End Gate.
Additionally, the two inner corners of the Meridian Gate had the Left Side Gate and Right Side Gate, which were sometimes recorded as palace city gates in some Ming and Qing documents. However, these two gates were actually part of the Meridian Gate. The Meridian Gate was normally closed, and officials entered and exited the palace city through the Side Gates. While they could be managed independently, functionally, they remained part of the Meridian Gate. The Forbidden City had five gates and four corner towers.
In summary, the Qing Dynasty's Beijing city had four layers of walls: the outer city, inner city, Imperial City, and Forbidden City, totaling seventy-three city gates and gate towers. In the past, when I counted the city gates of Beijing, I primarily relied on the 1754 "Complete Map of the Capital," excluding Dong and Xi Gongsheng Gates, for a total of seventy-one gates. See "Why Was Yongding Gate Rebuilt?" in Beijing Cultural Relics, No. 1, 2004, pp. 1–4.