Questions about the East and West·The Rhythm of Beijing丨Looking at the central axis and why Beijing became Beijing

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　　Beijing is one of the cities with the most world cultural heritage in the world. Beijing’s historical and cultural heritage tells the world the city’s heritage and connotation, and also demonstrates the continuity and extension of Chinese civilization. China News Service's "East-West Question" specially launched the "Beijing Rhythm" series, which tells the stories of the discovery, research, protection and development of cultural heritage sites such as Beijing's Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site, Xiannong Altar, Beijing's Central Axis, the Grand Canal, and Shougang Park. You can appreciate the charm of this historic and cultural city as an ancient capital and feel the thickness and warmth of Chinese culture. Please stay tuned.

　　China News Service, Beijing, February 3: Title: Looking at the central axis and why Beijing became Beijing

　　"China News Weekly" reporter Zhang Xinyu

　　From Yongding Gate and Zhengyang Gate at the southern end, through the outer city, inner city, imperial city, and palace city of the ancient capital Beijing, and then to the Bell and Drum Tower in the north, it is the central axis of Beijing with a total length of about 7.8 kilometers.

In 2023, the 16-meter-long central axis sand table was displayed at the "Brilliant Central Axis" exhibition at the Capital Museum in Beijing. Photo by Yi Haifei

　　In Beijing, the place where you can best feel the central axis must be high up in the old city. Standing at the Wanchun Pavilion in Jingshan Park, you can see that the core buildings of the Forbidden City are arranged in sequence along the central axis, and the buildings on both sides are symmetrical along the central axis. Climbing the 69 steps of the Drum Tower and looking south from the second floor, you can see the Jingshan Wanchun Pavilion that echoes in the distance. You can also clearly see an axis in the center of Beijing, with blue brick and gray tile buildings scattered on both sides of the central axis.

Forbidden City and Wanchun Pavilion in Jingshan Park. Photo by Tomita

　　Since Liang Sicheng proposed the concept of Beijing's central axis, Chinese scholars have traced how Beijing's central axis came into being and how it changed, looking for answers to the question "Why did Beijing become Beijing?"

The ideal model for capital city construction

　　Zhu Zuxi, an 85-year-old Beijing historical geography research expert, took the first lesson at Peking University when Hou Renzhi, then director of the Department of Geology and Geography of Peking University, gave a report on "The Origin and Changes of Beijing" to freshmen at the "Orientation Meeting". When Hou Renzhi talked about Beijing's urban planning and construction achievements, he first mentioned "Zhou Li·Kaogong Ji" because it depicts the ideal model of capital construction in ancient China.

　　The layout of the capital city in "Zhou Li·Kaogong Ji" is as follows: "The craftsmen run the country, with a square of nine miles, and three gates on the side. There are nine longitudes and nine latitudes in the country, and nine tracks in the warp. The left ancestor and the right society face the market, and the market faces Yifu. "That is, the palace city is the center of the city's planning. It is located in the city. The palace is planned according to the front dynasty and the back bedroom. The ancestral temple and the shrine are symmetrically placed on the left and right sides of the outer dynasty. The north and south lines of the palace city are the city's central axis. In front of the center line There is a palace and a market behind it.

　　Wang Gang, a librarian at the Beijing Institute of Literature and History and president of the Beijing Ancient Capital Society, told China News Weekly that "Zhou Li·Kaogong Ji" has always influenced the construction of ancient Chinese capitals. In the ideal capital construction blueprint, there is a central axis.

　　Regarding the first capital with a central axis in ancient China, the historical and archaeological circles have different answers. Some historians believe that Yecheng during the Cao Wei Dynasty was the first capital with a central axis, more than 1,700 years ago. In the book "Looking at China from Archeology", archaeologist Wang Wei said that archaeological excavations and research have proved that the Summer Palace more than 4,000 years ago was not only located in the center of the capital, but also the layout of multiple palaces in the palace city has shown "The central axis is prominent, the two wings are symmetrical", and the front and rear courtyards are neatly arranged.

　　The urban planning concept of the central axis has appeared in ancient Chinese capitals thousands of years ago, and there is no objection to it.

In 2023, "Reading the Central Axis between the Lines—Beijing's Central Axis Special Document Exhibition" was held by the Beijing Capital Library. Photo by Hou Yu

Origin of Yuan Dynasty

　　After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty occupied most of the area north of the Yangtze River. After King Hailing seized the imperial power, he moved the capital to Yanjing and renamed it Zhongdu, making Beijing the capital of a generation of dynasties that lasted for the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Jinzhong Capital has the first central axis in the history of Beijing Capital, starting from Fengyi Gate, the south gate of Jinzhong Capital, to Tongxuanmen, the north gate of Jinzhong Capital, in the north, with a total length of about 9 miles.

　　Wang Gang said that the first central axis of Beijing appeared in Jinzhong Capital. The current central axis of Beijing was located in the capital of the Yuan Dynasty. After the Yuan Dynasty destroyed Jin, a new site was selected in the northeast to build the capital of the Yuan Dynasty. In Wang Gang's view, it was not until Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty that the rulers for the first time turned into reality the model mentioned in "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji" of "left ancestors and right society, facing the future market", and built an unprecedented the central axis of the capital.

On April 26, 2023, foreign friends discussed with Beijing citizens how to dance the "ribbon dragon" under the Bell and Drum Tower. Photo by Tian Yuhao

　　During the construction of Yuan Dadu, the bell and drum towers were placed in the center of the city, which had never been seen in previous capital models.

　　The four seasons and twelve months of the year, and the twelve hours every day, are all displayed by beating drums and ringing bells. Placing bells and drum towers in the center of the city means that the planners of Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty integrated the activities of the universe-or all things. The law of operation - put it in the center.

　　In the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial city was placed south of the bell and drum towers, in the center of the south of the city. The Imperial Ancestral Temple was placed on the east side of the imperial city, in line with the "left" position in "Zuozu Youshe", and the Sheji Altar was placed on the west side of the imperial city, symmetrical with the "right" position of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Shopping malls are located around the clock and drum towers in the center of the capital, as well as near the streets and city gates of various transportation hubs.

　　After Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing, the entire city of Beijing moved southward. The Imperial Ancestral Temple and the Altar of Sheji were moved from both sides of the imperial city to the front of the imperial city. However, the central axis design was still strictly retained, forming an axially symmetrical architectural layout pattern. Most of the buildings along Beijing's central axis that people see today were basically built during the Ming Dynasty.

　　The Qing Dynasty inherited the overall pattern. During the Shunzhi and Kangxi periods, large-scale repairs and reconstructions were carried out on national ritual buildings such as palaces, altars and temples in the central axis area. During the Yongzheng period, the restoration of the Shouhuang Palace in Jingshan was mainly completed, while during the Qianlong period, the reconstruction and construction of palaces such as Chonghua Palace were completed, and ritual buildings such as the Temple of Heaven were expanded and repaired. This is also the last large-scale construction stage for Beijing’s Central Axis.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, Circular Mound, Echo Wall and Zhai Palace in the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Photo by Tomita

　　Written in the 32nd year of Qianlong's reign (1767), "Poetry for the Spring Festival of Students in the Capital" started from Zhengyangmen Street and went from south to north to Jingshan, depicting the appearance of the central axis of the capital after snow. The painting shows the emperor visiting the Queen Mother, courtiers and officials entering the palace to pay respects, and the busy traffic on Qianmen Street. Citizens lined up to play in Zhonghai, and commercial and civic activities were extremely prosperous.

The central axis of Beijing taken at the Zhengyangmen Archery Tower in Beijing. Photo by Tomita

Get to know Beijing’s Central Axis

　　Although Beijing's central axis has long existed, it was architect Liang Sicheng who first proposed the concept of Beijing's central axis. He began to use the term "central axis" in the "History of Chinese Architecture" completed in 1944. "The entire layout of the Forbidden City is centered on the three halls outside the central axis: Taihe Hall, Zhonghe Hall, and Baohe Hall. It is also the imperial concubine of the court meeting." He praised the central axis with great enthusiasm, saying that Beijing's "magnificence lies in this scale that extends from north to south and continues to the end."

　　In the 1950s, due to the needs of urbanization, Yongding Gate, located at the southernmost end of Beijing's central axis, was gradually demolished. Along with urban construction, a series of archaeological work also began.

　　In 1964, archaeologist Xu Pingfang and others conducted an archaeological survey and identified the location of the central axis of Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty. It was confirmed that the street from Drum Tower to Jingshan was the north-south central axis of Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty, which coincided with the north-south street of Di'anmen today. It was confirmed that It clarified the direction of the central axis of the planning and construction of the southern half axis of the Yuan Dynasty. From 1964 to 1974, the then Institute of Archeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Municipal Cultural Relics Task Force basically ascertained the shape and scope of the outer city of the Yuan Dynasty, as well as the scope of the imperial city and palace city.

　　People's understanding of Beijing's central axis was also continuously improved from the 1960s to the end of the 20th century through the research on the planning ideas and architectural design of the Yuan capital and the Forbidden City by Hou Renzhi, Liu Dunzhen, Yu Zhuoyun, Fu Xinian and others.

　　In March 1999, Wang Canchi, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, submitted a proposal to rebuild Yongding Gate at the second meeting of the 9th Beijing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. At that time, the central government had clearly stated that in the development of the capital city, attention should be paid to protecting the central axis of the ancient capital, the imperial city, cultural relics and buildings, and the layout of the ancient capital. However, this proposal did not receive a positive response after triggering a discussion on whether Yongding Gate should be rebuilt.

　　In June 2000, Wang Shiren, a member of the Beijing Municipal Cultural Relics and Monuments Protection Committee, and some experts wrote a "Recommendation on Rebuilding Yongding Gate" to the Beijing Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau, which wrote: "The complete central axis represents the historical context of Beijing. . The gates, bridges, gates, and halls on the central axis are symbols of the cultural context, and each place records the historical changes of the capital. Losing historical symbols in a city means losing its memory. Protecting the central axis means that future generations will not As for seeing a city that has lost its memory.”

　　On March 10, 2004, the reconstruction project of Yongding Gate officially started. Wang Shiren once recalled that in order to ensure the "original flavor" of Yongding Gate, cultural relic experts carried out reconstruction design based on the actual survey map of Yongding Gate Tower in 1937. They purchased 12 ironwoods from Africa and processed them into a 12-meter-high, heavy-duty gate tower. 4 tons of "golden pillars". In addition, two sections of 100-meter-long imperial roads in the late Ming Dynasty were rediscovered during the reconstruction project. More than a hundred old city bricks from the Qing Dynasty were also returned to the Yongding Gate Tower.

A view of Yongdingmen Park in Dongcheng District, Beijing. Photo by Fan Shumei

　　In September 2004, the Yongding Gate Tower was completed and stood again at the southern end of Beijing's central axis. As the protection of Beijing's old city becomes more and more important, Beijing's central axis is complete again.

　　Hou Renzhi, known as the "Beijing Master", proposed the "three milestones" in Beijing's urban planning and design in 1991: "The first milestone is the Forbidden City, the central building of Beijing. It is the planning and construction of Beijing during the feudal dynasty. A major artistic masterpiece. The second milestone is the renovation of Tiananmen Square, which gives new meaning to the city's central axis with a long tradition, and shows the special significance of inheriting the past and linking up with the future in culture, that is, 'serving the past for the present, weeding out the old and bringing forth the new', marking a The arrival of a new era. The third milestone is the construction of the Olympic Park, which highlights the new look of the capital in the 21st century and marks the arrival of Beijing's era of becoming an international metropolis."

Tourists visit Beijing Olympic Park. Photo by Du Jianpo

　　The third milestone is also the first extension of Beijing’s central axis to the north. In the late 1980s, Beijing successfully bid for the Asian Games. In order to connect the city center and the Asian Games Village, Gulouwai Street was led from the Gulou Bridge on the North Second Ring Road to the outside of the Third Ring Road to the north and became Beichen Road. The central axis was extended. After Beijing successfully bid for the Olympic Games, the central axis was once again extended northward, with the Bird's Nest and Water Cube falling on both sides of the axis.

　　What is the length of Beijing's central axis? Is the starting point the Yongding Gate or the Bell and Drum Tower? Is the southern end the starting point or the northern end the starting point? Some issues have reached consensus, while others are still being debated. All of these are shaping people's understanding of Beijing's central axis and the city. (over)