Overview and characteristics of the central axis of Beijing and its impact on the construction of contemporary Beijing

The rhythmic central axis of charming Beijing city

——Li Jianping

I learned about the central axis of Beijing city when I was in college, and it was our teacher. It started with a story about the Qing Dynasty, which made me understand the central axis of Beijing city.

He said that during the Qing Dynasty, there was a foreign envoy who wanted to come to Beijing to see the emperor, but he had to kneel when he went to China to see the emperor. The foreign envoy said, "I don't want to kneel." Officials of the Qing Dynasty in China arranged a protocol ceremony and asked him to enter the imperial city of Beijing through the front door. After he walked in from the imperial city, what he saw was what we saw in the Qing Dynasty. The first existing gate is now at the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, which was called Daqing Gate at the time. So after he entered the imperial city, he found that the environment was different. When he entered Beijing, what were the characteristics of Beijing? It is a courtyard building with gray walls and gray tiles. The building volume is not very high. The streets and alleys are very neat. Beijing has been the capital since the Yuan Dynasty. The alleys are very neat. They are basically oriented east-west horizontally and vertically. The houses are all sitting. The north faces south and the alleys run east and west. It is a city with gray walls and gray tiles. But when he walked into the Imperial City, he noticed something different. Especially after walking in from the Daqing Gate, he noticed that the color was yellow glazed tiles and the red walls, and a road led him all the way to Tiananmen. The current Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was the gate of the Imperial City. After entering from this gate, there was an imperial road. Now if you go to Tiananmen Square, you can still see that there is a large strip in the middle of the square. A road paved with stones, facing the entrance road in the middle of Tiananmen. This is the road on the central axis. In ancient times, it was called the Royal Road, which is the road that the emperor walked. With this sight, you will suddenly see it after entering the imperial city gate. You lead to Tiananmen. Oh, when he saw Tiananmen, it was so nice, with yellow glazed tiles, red pillars, and red walls, but what was the building in front of it? The white Jinshui Bridge, the white Chinese watch, the white stone lions, against the blue sky and white clouds, oh, he realized that Chinese architecture is completely different from Western architecture, and is completely oriental, which is what we often call the big roof. , is palace style. When he walked through Tiananmen, crossed the Jinshui Bridge, and entered Tiananmen, he was faced with another building that was exactly the same as Tiananmen. This was Duanmen. After walking through Duanmen, he was faced with a square. After passing through Duanmen, he was faced with a square. The most beautiful one is the Meridian Gate. The walls of the Meridian Gate stretch out on both sides, like a giant stretching out his hands to welcome the incoming messenger. But there were not as many people in ancient times as there are now in the tall city walls. People were very small. Because there were so few people, you would be small in front of the tall city walls. He felt that this Chinese building was so good. So, he passed through the Duanmen and arrived in front of the Meridian Gate. The Meridian Gate welcomed the guests. Above it, someone was blowing trumpets and the bells and drums were ringing. In front of the Meridian Gate, there was a bell tower and a drum tower, and the bells and drums were ringing. After he passed through the Meridian Gate, he saw another Jinshui Bridge, which was the Inner Jinshui Bridge. The one in front of Tiananmen was called the Outer Jinshui Bridge. When he walked through the Jinshui Bridge before arriving at the Imperial City, he saw that the Emperor still had one more gate to go, and this gate was The door in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Taihe Gate. After entering the Meridian Gate of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, he noticed that on both sides, you see, if you go to the Forbidden City, there are no trees. If you don't plant trees, it will make the building more majestic, and it will make the building fully visible to you. He followed The official of the Ministry of Rites passed through the Gate of Supreme Harmony before he could reach the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The Hall of Supreme Harmony was built on a tall stone staircase with three floors. After he climbed up the stone steps, he said, "Oh, I have to kneel down." What I am kneeling on is not the Chinese emperor, but China has such beautiful buildings, such brilliant buildings, that I have to bow down to the ground, and bowing down means kneeling down. Well, from this point on I began to understand the central axis of Beijing. However, the story I told only tells a small part of the central axis.

We understand the central axis, so the first topic I talk about is the charm of the central axis. There is a painting in ancient China. Everyone may know it. Anyone who has been to Henan knows that there is a city in Kaifeng in Henan. Kaifeng was called Bianliang in ancient times. A painting called "Along the River During Qingming Festival" was sold in Bianliang city. Chinese painting is divided into long scrolls. This long scroll is the unique aesthetic of us Chinese people. I don’t know if there are any art practitioners here. Western painting is a viewpoint, but Chinese painting has multiple viewpoints. Chinese painting can tell a story. It can Express something completely. So I think I will first introduce the painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", and then we will understand the charm of Beijing's central axis.

This "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is a representative of Chinese scroll landscape paintings. What does it describe? During the Qingming Festival, people go to festivals, spring outings, and outings to participate in a series of activities. Then there are a few trees in the farthest distance, very sparse, and then you gradually feel that there are people and houses. It brings you from far to near, and then gradually moves towards prosperity and liveliness; here In the middle of the painting, he painted a Bian Bridge outside Bianliang City. It is an arch-shaped bridge. When you reach this bridge, the viewer will reach a climax. You have to look at this painting carefully. People were coming and going on the bridge, and the boat was going to cross the bridge. The people on the bridge told the people under the bridge to be careful not to let the boat touch the bridge. The people under the bridge, including the onlookers on the shore, were nervous so that the boat could cross. As you admire the bridge, you gradually become nervous and gradually reach a climax; after people cross the bridge, you continue to appreciate it as you enter the city. There is a city gate tower, and the atmosphere relaxes a little. After arriving in the city, he stopped painting, and the author only painted a short section. When I visited Kaifeng, I asked them, why? They said that the painting was not finished and that there was still a section at the end that they could not find. In fact, this is not the case. This is the charm of Chinese painting, that is, it leaves room for your unlimited imagination. Back then, Bianliang City was the capital of the Song Dynasty and was very prosperous. It is impossible for the author to paint all the prosperous things. He leaves you with unlimited space for imagination, from suburbs to small towns to Bianqiao, reaching the peak, and from Bianliang to Bianliang. The bridge goes down again, allowing you to have a gentle process, and then enter the city. After entering the city, I stopped painting. Let you imagine that it was so prosperous before entering the city, and how prosperous the city will be. This is Chinese painting, China Human aesthetic art.

So, let’s talk about the central axis of Beijing city. I will introduce its charm to you here. Because Beijing is currently repairing Yongding Gate. Everyone knows that Yongding Gate is being repaired. Why? It is the starting point of the southern end of our central axis. Let me introduce this central axis in contrast to the charm of our appreciation of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". If we go back in time to the Qing Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, there was no such convenient transportation at that time. Unlike the modern transportation now, people could only ride a horse or a sedan chair. When a foreigner enters Beijing by land, the first viewpoint that greets him is Yongding Gate. Yongding Gate has a city tower and an arrow tower. It is a city that makes you feel like you are entering the city. It gives you this feeling first. When you enter Yongding Gate, even though you have entered the city, what you feel is a very A wide road. We entered Yongding Gate back then. Recently we have to restore Yongding Gate. To the east of Yongding Gate is the Temple of Heaven and to the west is the Xiannong Altar. From the beginning, this central axis gives you the impression that the central axis is obvious and symmetrical on both sides, but there are not many buildings. In those days, there were not as many shops outside the altar as it is now. The two sides were very loose, just like the few trees at the beginning of our "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", which are sparse and sparse, allowing you to begin to feel the city. . When you walk in from Yongding Gate, the first viewpoint you encounter is the overpass. Everyone knows that there is an overpass in Beijing, but no one has ever seen this bridge, not even me. The overpass is a Luoguo Bridge. It is said that if you stand on the south side of the overpass, you cannot see the front door, and if you stand on the north side of the overpass, you cannot see the Yongding Gate. This will give you a small climax after entering the city; after walking down from this climax, you will see a A very prosperous street market, and it faces the majestic Qianmen of Beijing. In the Ming Dynasty, it was called Zhengyangmen. This is the Qianmen, and you can see the front door.

After crossing the overpass, the environment on both sides is different. It is no longer the kind of quiet temple with trees planted, but a long street market. The front door now does not have the ancient one. Width. We recently talked to their archaeologists and they said that Qianmen Street was very wide at that time. There was no road, but it was a dirt road and was very wide. There are shops on both sides of the road, such as Zhushikou and Qianmen Street, which make you feel lively. It is indeed different from the countryside when entering the city. We are about to enter the city, and what is in front of us? It’s the tall Qianmen Tower. What do you see facing you from this Qianmen Tower? There is a pair of big stone lions, and there is an archway in front of the stone lions. In our old Beijing at that time, it was called the Five Archways. Where to go? Go to Wupai Tower. In old Beijing, there was an archway in front of every city wall. Generally, there were three archways in a city wall with three bays. Only the five archways were in front of the front door. Now there is one archway in front of the front door. That was fake. For the convenience of traffic, it turned out to be It is floor-to-ceiling. Only after passing the archway can you see three large stone bridges. After the stone bridge, you will see large stone lions, which are very majestic.

After entering the front door, the first thing built is called the archery tower. Now the front door has the archery tower and the city tower. During the war, this archery tower was full of arrow holes. It was for those who were preparing to shoot arrows in the war. Behind it, you can only see it after entering the archery tower. When we got to the Qianmen Gate Tower, I said it was the largest. I said the tallest one was the Qianmen Gate Tower. After passing through the city tower, there was a square street called Qipan Street between the Qianmen and the current Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. It was square and neat. This Qipan Street formed a small square in front of the imperial city. On the central axis, it has There are towers and squares along the road, and it has very rich connotations. After arriving at this small square, if you look forward, you will see that the difference is that it is the Imperial City. We think that there is a climax from Yongding Gate through the overpass to the Qianmen. It feels like entering the city, but this climax does not retreat, and the Imperial City is coming soon. The city is a row of golden palaces. The leader is the Daqing Gate we just talked about. After the Republic of China, it was renamed Zhonghua Gate. The one built in the Ming Dynasty was called Daming Gate. We will introduce this gate to you later. Passing through this gate is Tiananmen. Just now we talked about Duanmen, Meridian Gate, and Taihe Gate. Then you can see the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe, the Hall of Baohe, and the three main halls of the Forbidden City. Behind them are the Three Palaces and the Qianqing Palace. Jiaotai Hall, Kunning Palace, and then the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City. At this line, when you climb Jingshan Mountain, you can feel that Beijing is the imperial capital, where the emperor lives. When you look down from Jingshan Mountain, you can’t see the palace, but only see a golden roof, just like we played A piece of music reaches its peak, just like we reach the Bian Bridge when appreciating a painting, so appreciating Beijing's ancient buildings reaches its peak at this point.

After walking down from the golden halls of the Forbidden City, you can go out of the Shenwu Gate to give you a buffer, and then to improve it, you can go up to the Wanchun Pavilion in Jingshan, which is the commanding heights of the city. The commanding heights of Beijing make you feel like the notes are coming up again, then coming down again. The place behind Jingshan is now called Jingshan Children’s Palace. It was called Shouhuang Palace back then, and it was also a large hall. This main hall is connected to the Wanchun Pavilion where you can slide down. After leaving Jingshan, there is another gate, the back gate of the imperial city. I just said that the front door is Daming Gate, and behind it is Di'anmen. After passing Di'anmen, there is a bridge called the Back Gate Bridge. Everyone who lives in old Beijing knows that after passing Di'an Gate and walking forward, there is the Back Gate Bridge. The structure of the Back Gate Bridge and the overpass are similar. After crossing the Back Gate Bridge, you will have a small ups and downs. Now the Back Gate Bridge is gentler because we are going to use modern transportation. Back then, it was also arched to let you cross a slope. Then you What did you see after crossing the slope? The tall Drum Tower, second only to the Qianmen Tower, is very majestic. After passing the Drum Tower, there is another tower 100 meters away - the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower is a little thinner and looks like our ancient seal, carved there with a click. The emblem of our Olympic Games this time is represented by a square seal, which is very firmly fastened to that place, like a piece of music that rises and falls, rises and falls, and is stopped at the bell tower. So what is left? Let's take a look. There is the Drum Tower in the front and the Bell Tower in the back. So what is around the Bell Tower and Drum Tower? It is a courtyard, with the movement on the central axis going from the drum tower to the bell tower. The bell tower ends like a powerful note, but it leaves people with infinite reverie, making the central axis movement disappear among these houses.

Many roads have been opened in Beijing, such as Liang-Guang Road, Ping'an Street, and some people proposed to connect them from Dongzhimen to Xizhimen. I said not to connect them. The ancients were designing this city. He feels that the Bell Tower leaves room for people's imagination. I want to say, what is the style of an ancient capital? Newspapers talk about protecting the style of the ancient capital every day. The style of the ancient capital in Beijing is made up of these blue-gray alleys and courtyards as the background, setting off the tall buildings on the central axis, like a majestic poem, like a poem. Song, then, these, together with the surrounding tall city walls, dotted with gardens, such as Beihai, royal palaces, and temples, form the style of an ancient capital. This style started from the foundation of the Yuan Dynasty, developed to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and reached its peak during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. .

After the Qing Dynasty arrived in Beijing and entered the customs, they did several things. We all know that after the Ming Dynasty occupied the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, they made great changes to the city walls and basically destroyed the imperial palace of the Yuan Dynasty. Well, then under the Jingshan Mountain today is the Imperial Palace of the Yuan Dynasty, which is equivalent to having such an important palace as our Hall of Supreme Harmony buried under the mountain. What is the purpose? You can't let your Yuan Dynasty society come back. The Ming Dynasty is about to establish its foundation. It plays such a role. Of course, this Jingshan was built very cleverly. It was not only used as a mountain to stabilize the former dynasty, but also served as a leaning mountain for the construction of the Forbidden City in the Ming Dynasty.

In ancient Chinese architecture, it is called "leaning on the back". Because the northwest wind blows in Beijing, it is better to have a mountain behind the building. The plants live in front of the mountain and face the sun. There are two golden water bridges surrounded by water in front. This is an ancient saying. It is a relatively good Feng Shui, and it creates a very good environment in which people and nature are very harmonious. So what happened after the Qing Dynasty came? It did not carry out large-scale construction like the Ming Dynasty. It did several things. One of them was to build five pavilions on Jingshan Mountain, which greatly enhanced the cultural landscape. It also built a white tower on Beihai, which are some landmarks for the city. of some buildings.

The artistic charm of the central axis is multi-faceted. What we are talking about today is just an appreciation from the perspective of music, from far to near, so the history of the central axis of the city is very long. So, why does Beijing have such a beautiful, musical and poetic central axis? It is the accumulation of 5,000 years of history of the Chinese nation. It is the style of the ancient capital of Beijing. Basically, it has passed through the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. We are now commemorating 850 years. It has been 700 years since the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. So this has been 700 years The year was the last glory of ancient Chinese city construction. In the early stage, cities such as Tang Chang'an, Xi'an, and Bianliang City were under construction, but where were all the architectural achievements concentrated in the end? Those concentrated in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties were concentrated in Beijing during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is our ancient urban architecture. As an ancient urban architecture in feudal society, it has reached its peak and is unique in the world. So many French experts said after they came to China, Beijing is not only yours, but also belongs to all mankind. You must protect Beijing well and don't regard Beijing as just your own. We French and Russians also feel this. It is the cultural heritage of mankind, and this is where the meaning lies.

Then I want to talk about the second topic, which is about the history of the central axis. When did this central axis begin? Through archaeological excavations, we discovered that we Chinese have this idea of ??a central axis, that is, the idea of ??having a center. The history is very long. How long is it? So it was 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. On what basis? The earliest piece of archaeological excavation is the goddess temple of the Hongshan Culture. What does the Hongshan Culture mean? In Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, there is a place called Hongshan on the outskirts of Chifeng. Relics of human activities more than 5,000 years ago have been discovered here. The first ones discovered at this time were jade articles. At that time, they were probably in an agricultural society, that is, transitioning from a stone tool society to an agricultural society, and they began to have some pottery and jade. And when studying China, China is a country of dragons, big dragons. The earliest dragon shape is also in the Hongshan Culture, which is a very simple dragon shape. What is currently discovered is called the Hongshan Culture. After continuous research on the Hongshan Culture in the past few years, it was later discovered that the Hongshan Culture is an intersection of northern and southern cultures in China. To the north, we reach the farming culture of the Central Plains, and beyond that. After arriving in Liaoning, you will find the mountain forest culture of the Northeast and the grassland culture of Inner Mongolia. It is a meeting point.

Where will Hongshan culture develop further? There is a county in the northeast called Jianping County, which is in the upper reaches of the Liao River. There have been major archaeological discoveries in this place in the past two years. So what was discovered among them? An ancient sacrificial place was discovered. This is the site of its altar. From north to south, it has round and square shapes, and they are strung together on an axis, on a center line. So archeology I was surprised to find out what? It is strikingly similar to the altars we have today like the Temple of Heaven! I don’t know if you have ever been to the Temple of Heaven. You have to enter the Temple of Heaven from the south gate, which is called Zheng. Walk from south to north. The first altar is called the Circle Qiu Altar. It is for worshiping heaven. There is a center stone in the middle. You stand in the center. , there is an echo when speaking, it is a round one; the Temple of Heaven is actually two altars, and the one that really worships the heaven is the Circular Qiu Altar. This circular altar, behind the Circular Qiu Altar is where the sacred artifact is placed, which is called Huangqiongyu. Even the courtyard with the echo wall is round; the ancients said that the sky is round and the earth is square. After passing through the Imperial Vault, you go north and there is a courtyard wall. After passing the wall, there is an avenue. Lead you all the way to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.

I don’t know if everyone pays attention to this when going to the Temple of Heaven? When you walk along this road, you can see the tree's pole. As you walk further in, you can see the height of the tree. In fact, the ancients created the artistic conception so that you can gradually become aligned with the sky. When you reach the north end, there is a passage below. Some people say that it is the earliest overpass in Beijing. There is a passage below it. The road actually gets higher and higher as you go, but you feel that it is flat. Didn’t you feel it? After walking through this avenue we call Haiman Avenue, you will find that the courtyard of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is square. So, what about the archaeological discoveries from 5,000 years ago that we just introduced? There are striking similarities on one axis, which shows that our culture has been in the same vein for 5,000 years. It is a relationship of inheritance, but its cultural connotation and architectural connotation have been continuously enriched. This is the earliest history that we understand the central axis.

So when was this central axis introduced into the city? Well, some archaeological discoveries have been made now. We see that this city is called Zhou Wangcheng, which is the palace city designed by "Zhou Li" based on the Zhou Dynasty. At that time, it was called the king, or the emperor, and the city where he lived What should it look like? Then during the Zhou Dynasty, a rule was made that the small square in the middle of the imperial city is the palace city. It is in the middle. This has not changed until now. Our Forbidden City is in the middle of the city, and the imperial city is a little larger than it. , then our city of Beijing is surrounded and nested layer by layer, with the imperial city in the middle. This idea was established in the Zhou Dynasty, and the imperial city is in the middle of the city. But what changes have occurred between the Zhou Dynasty city and our current city? At that time, it was important to have three gates on each side, and the roads should all face each other. It had nine longitudes and nine latitudes, both horizontally and vertically. Then who were they facing? Then put the imperial city in the middle. This is the earliest idea of ??building a capital in ancient times. This idea has been verified by many experts and is said to have originated from the Chinese well field system, because the Chinese well field system is made of squares, and the squares are constantly stacked together. This is the earliest idea of ??building cities in China, so many cities in China are square, and all planned cities are square. One of the biggest characteristics of Beijing is that it is planned first and then built. We all know that cities like Shanghai, Dalian, and Qingdao, if you come from here, you will find that the city depends on the terrain, the sea, and some rivers. Many cities are built along a river that passes through them. Beijing is not the case. The city of Beijing was planned first. It turned out to be an open space. The Jin Dynasty and Jin Zhongdu were not used. Jin Zhongdu is now located at Baiyun Temple in our south city, while Yuan Dynasty is all to the north and was planned on a flat land. The first idea of ??the planning was based on the idea of ??Zhou Wangcheng, which was a square city with the imperial city in the middle. But this kind of thinking changed after the Han Dynasty. The current archaeological excavation was during the time of Cao Cao. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao built a Ye city. In addition to every road facing the Ye city, it also had one road that was more Protruding, facing the imperial city, this is the earliest central axis used in the city.

What we see here is the Imperial Street in Kaifeng. This Imperial Street is actually a central axis. It turns out to be facing the Imperial City. A line brings you into the Imperial Street. A central axis, the buildings are all The building is on the central axis, and the two black ones are two rivers; Yuan Dadu has made another very big change. Yuan Dadu has changed. The Zhou Dynasty just mentioned has three gates on each side. What changes have occurred over time? It is a very important change to change the north side of the city wall from three gates to two gates. This very important change is to prevent the central axis from being connected, because the central axis comes from the front gate, and it is to According to the theory, there are three gates in the south and three gates in the north. It should be accessible through the imperial city in the middle. So starting from the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, we will examine the four gates on the north side of Jinzhongdu. It is quite chaotic. The capital of the Yuan Dynasty wanted to have a plan first. , it made a big adjustment during the planning. This adjustment was to build two gates at the north gate. One was called Anzhen Gate and the other was called Jiande Gate in Yuandadu. Now it is also called Anzhen Bridge and Jiande Bridge. The Ming Dynasty moved the city five miles south and still maintained this pattern. Two city gates were built, one was called Anding Gate and the other was called Desheng Gate. What did he create in this way? That is, the central axis from the south to the north is blocked. If it is not allowed to pass, it will result in a large area of ??residential buildings around the bell tower and a city wall to the north, a wide and thick city wall. Scholars who study city walls told me that the city walls in Beijing have different thicknesses. The walls in the north are taller and thicker. These are in line with Beijing’s natural environment. The northwest wind blows strongly in winter. Therefore, you can see that the Beijing Siheyuan Dabeifang is more High, right? It blocks the wind from the northwest.

Well, this change in Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty also affected the city of Ming Beijing. In another Yuan Dynasty, the buildings on the central axis were pushed all the way to the north. It is different from our Ming Beijing city. We just mentioned that the central axis ends with the Bell Tower and Drum Tower. Then look at the "Historical Atlas of Beijing" compiled by Hou Renzhi, where he pictures this very clearly. The northernmost part of it is a temple called Wanning Temple. There is a building in Wanning Temple called the Central Pavilion. This building is a temple. When Jinzhongdu was in Jinzhongdu, there was also a temple on its central axis, which is what we see now. Tianning Temple, go out to Xibianmen, its central axis is opposite a temple; what is a temple? It is a religion, and what is worshiped in it is God. Its original humanistic color is to lead the central axis to the end, leading to a religious god. The Ming Dynasty turned gods into humans.

This is the Bell and Drum Tower at the end of my central axis. What is the Bell and Drum Tower used for? Unlike the imperial city, it tells the time for the people and serves the people. It is surrounded by people and people. This also has a major change. What is the difference between the central axis of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty and the central axis of our previous dynasties in history? I think there are several important differences: First, the central axis of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty stretched the south side. I just mentioned that the total length is 8 kilometers, 7.8 kilometers to be precise. Why is it so long? It has greatly elongated the buildings entering the city of Beijing, from Yongding Gate to Qianmen, which means that it enters from the Qianmen, the main entrance of the city. Beijing has an extra outer city, and the outer city has lengthened the axis. , allowing you to appreciate the central axis and feel the central axis, allowing you to greatly lengthen it, which is a feature; secondly, the city of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty made a great contribution to the central axis, which is to make the central axis inherit the neat symmetry of ancient times , then after entering the central axis, as soon as you enter Yongding Gate, you will be given a symmetry. Here is the Temple of Heaven, here is the Xiannong Altar, when you enter Tiananmen, here is the Ancestral Temple, here is the Sheji Altar, which is the current Cultural Palace and Zhongshan Park. Neatly facing each other here, the Sheji Altar and the Imperial Ancestral Temple in the Yuan Dynasty are on both sides of the city, not right next to the central axis. You can see that the central axis is clearly neat and symmetrical, making it very obvious. Well, this central axis has affected the renovation of Tiananmen Square. We all know that during the renovation of Tiananmen Square, here is the Great Hall of the People and here is the Museum of History. You see, although these two buildings are Western, they have Some yellow glazed tiles absorb the characteristics of the Chinese nation. The most important thing is that they are placed neatly on both sides of Tiananmen Square, which means that the central axis is obvious and the two sides are neat and symmetrical. This is very important for our urban construction; in addition to inheriting the Yuan Dynasty, the central axis of the Ming Dynasty After the thinking of the times, the most important thing is that it built Jingshan. There were buildings on the original central axis, which were round. You can check the previous ones. There were no mountains on them, but mountains. So, this mountain has had a great influence on the design of our Olympic Park today. It is to dig lakes and build mountains. What is this ingenious thing? Making Jingshan become a commanding point in the city on the central axis not only increases the city's The content of the landscape and central axis has been greatly increased. The last change was to place the bell and drum towers at the end of the central axis. This is the 5,000-year historical evolution of the central axis, which finally formed such an outstanding and majestic central axis of Beijing city.

Whether you are working in Beijing or traveling to Beijing, you need to truly understand the city of Beijing. I think if you don’t understand the central axis, you definitely don’t understand Beijing.

When a foreigner enters Beijing by land, the first viewpoint to greet him is the Yongding Gate. We can see from the "Comprehensive Map of the Qianlong Capital" that there was no arrow tower at the front gate, but a city tower, and it was very short. This one is shorter. One person said that the outer city was built during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. Some people say that during the Jiajing period, there was a lot of construction work. Our Temple of Heaven, Earth Temple, Sun Temple, Moon Temple, including the big hanging hall next to Jingshan, the Imperial Ancestral Temple, all were overhauled. It was done during the Jiajing period; at that time, they were still facing war with the northern ethnic minorities and were harassed, so they built the city wall, and then they built the outer city. Of course, the outer city is relatively simple to build, but it is much worse than the inner city.

But through historical research, I found that it is not just this, that is, the ancient Chinese city building has the ancient Chinese hierarchical system, which runs through every step, not only the registration of people and people, but also the registration of every place. We are very particular about this level and hierarchy. Later, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, we rebuilt the Yongding Gate. During the repair, we did not let it exceed the inner city. At that time, we had money and we did not let it exceed the inner city. Then the tower of Yongding Gate is not from the Ming Dynasty. The tower we are restoring now is from the Qing Dynasty. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty had a feeling that the Yongding Gate was very important.

As mentioned earlier, it is the starting point of the southern end of the central axis, and it is also the symbol of entering the city of Beijing. Therefore, when Emperor Qianlong was building this tower, he specifically proposed to make it higher than other outer cities. But at the same time, It was also told that it should not be the same as the inner city tower, but should be lower than the inner city tower, so it should be thinner and shorter than our front gate tower. This is the regulation, and it must reflect this hierarchy.

This is a planning diagram. You can see a little bit about the arrow tower and the city tower nearby. What are we planning? It is the symbol of the south central axis of Yongding Gate. It is surrounded by roads on both sides. There is a square behind the tower and a square in front. That road is Qianmen Street. Then look at these two sides, after entering the tower, there is a dark color, which is the Temple of Heaven and the Xiannong Altar. To restore its large forests is to restore the original environment and atmosphere when we entered the central axis. This is Yongding Door.

This picture is a picture of an old overpass. It is the only picture of an overpass that I have seen so far. Then a TV series was compiled in the previous paragraph, saying that there is no bridge in the overpass, but in fact there is a bridge in the overpass. In ancient times, this overpass was made of white marble, with railings, and was an arched bridge. There is water under the bridge, clear water, and boats can pass through this water. In the early years, boats could pass through, so where is the overpass facing? It goes from south to north to the front door, so the emperor worships heaven from here. When it comes to the emperor offering sacrifices to heaven, the bridge the emperor has to walk through is called an overpass. This is a way of saying it.

So when we were offering sacrifices to heaven, when the emperor was walking across the bridge, the people were watching from a distance, with the emperor's flag hanging above him and a guard of honor in front of him. It was very spectacular to pass by the overpass. Moreover, the overpass is in the shape of a bow pot. Walk across it and then go to the west gate of the Temple of Heaven. Now there are more gates in the Temple of Heaven, including the North Gate and the East Gate. There used to be no gates in the north. I just mentioned that the north is in a climate like Beijing. In a climate like the north, tall walls are generally needed in the north. The west gate is straight. The emperor went through the west gate to offer sacrifices to heaven. The west gate is on the central axis and goes right past the overpass. It turned out that one of them was studying Beijing altars. They were surprised to find that the door of the Temple of Heaven faced west and the door of Xiannong Altar faced east. These two doors faced the central axis. The door of the Temple of Earth is also facing the west, facing the central axis, and facing this. Then the door of the Temple of Moon should face the east, and the door of the Temple of Sun should also face the west. In this way, the doors of all the altars should face the central axis. The central idea of ??the ancients and the imperial idea of ??the emperor are very strong, and they are all facing the middle.

So, the overpass is such a bridge, and it is basically similar to the architectural decoration of the back door bridge we see now. If you go to the Houmen Bridge, you can still see traces of the ancient bridge. It was white marble back then, but now it is very gray and very black. But there is indeed a bridge underneath. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Beijing built a section called a tram, which happened to be right outside the front door. From Qianmenwai Street, this bowbow-shaped bridge, an arched bridge, is inconvenient for traffic. In ancient times, it didn't matter whether horses or sedan chairs were used, so the bridge was lowered. When the main road was expanded in the 1930s, the bridge was completely demolished. , the railings are gone, so only the place name of the overpass is left. We now know that there is an overpass missing on the central axis, but this has not been planned yet.

Then this is the "Comprehensive Map of the Capital" of the Loudongzi of the Qianmen Tower. It was painted during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. You can see that this urn city is much larger than the one just now. In this circle of the city, the tall one in the back is the city tower, and in front is the arrow tower, the Qianmen arrow tower. So why is the front door called Qianmen? Because it is in front of the imperial city, it is the gate in front of the imperial city, so the common people call it Qianmen, Daqianmen. In fact, its scientific name is Zhengyangmen. Before the Yuan Dynasty, this main gate was called Lizhengmen. The city gate of the Yuan Dynasty was at today's Tiananmen Gate. Before the Yuan Dynasty, the south city wall was in today's Chang'an Street generation. The Ming Dynasty moved the city one mile south, so there were two small buildings inside the arrow tower at the front gate. Just in front of the city tower, these were two small temples. During the war, when people wanted to attack the city, you could easily attack and enter the city gate by just bombing the city wall with a cannon. For the sake of safety, it built a circle of urns, which was built to strengthen its defense in war.