What was the main role of Beijing in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties?

The ancient ancients divided the night into "five classes", each class was two hours, and the clock and drum were used to tell the time. The drums in the drum tower and the bells in the bell tower are very regular, so the "five watches" are also called "five drums" or "five nights".

In the early Qing Dynasty, it was stipulated that the way to tell the time was: set the watch and light the watch, both of which sounded the bell first, and the second to fourth watches only sounded the bell and did not sound the drum. Later, it was changed to only twice in the evening, and the night watchman and Liang Geng beat the drum first and then rang the bell. When the bell rings, the city gate closes and the traffic is interrupted, it is called "clean street"; At dawn, the bell rings and the city gate opens, commonly known as "the morning bell and the evening drum".

In the past, the responsibility of the bell and drum tower to tell the time was borne by the Qing court, and the civil and military officials went to court, and the people lived and worked with the "morning bell and dusk drum".

In ancient times, there were tablet leakage and copperplate leakage in ancient timepieces. There are 12 copper tubes inside the monument leakage, and the last copper tube is equipped with a clamp. A node hole is arranged above the monument leakage. The copper ball passes through all the copper tubes for 24 seconds, and then hits the cymbals. The time interval between two metal balls is 24 seconds, and 36 balls need 14.4 minutes, that is, in an ancient time, 3600 balls were rolled in just 24 hours.

When the copperplate is timed, the drummer will beat the drum to set the watch after hearing the cymbals, and the bell tower will ring the bell to tell the time after hearing the drums. This set of scientific procedures for copper engraving, changing drums and striking copper bells systematically provides an important time reference for civil and military officials to go to court and the people's life and work.

Later, in the Qing Dynasty, the timing was changed to timing incense. Strictly customized timing incense is coiled and burned evenly, and a small ball is hung on the accurately calculated scale, followed by a metal plate. When the incense burns to the scale and the ball falls into the plate, remind the drummer to beat the drum.

Beijing Bell and Drum Tower is located at the northern end of Di 'anmenwai Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing. Built in 1272. The distance between the bell tower and the drum tower is 100 meters, and they are placed vertically in front and back, which changes the tradition of confrontation between the bell tower and the drum tower, and they are both located at the northernmost part of the north-south central axis of Beijing.

As the time center of the three capitals of Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Bell and Drum Tower is the largest, highest-shaped, magnificent and magnificent building in the history of the city bell and drum tower.

The Bell and Drum Tower in Beijing in the Yuan Dynasty was located in the metropolis of the Yuan Dynasty, which was later the center of Beijing. It was later destroyed by fire, and 1297 was destroyed by fire shortly after reconstruction. 1420, the Ming dynasty rebuilt the palace and the bell and drum tower, and established its position at the northern end of the north-south central axis of the capital.

Later, the two floors were destroyed by fire. 1539, the drum tower was struck by lightning and rebuilt for the third time. 1654, the second floor of the bell and drum was destroyed by fire, and it was rebuilt in 1745, and it was completed two years later.

Later, Beijing Bell and Drum Tower was destroyed and repaired many times. Later, the bell tower was built in the Qing Dynasty, while the drum tower was built in the Ming Dynasty.

The bell tower covers an area of about 6,000 square meters, and is a double-eaved, hilltop-resting building with two floors and a height of more than 47 meters. The building plane is square, which is a large single ancient building with full masonry structure.

Just south of the bell tower is a triple gate connected to the fence. In the middle gate, there is 1745 a monument to rebuild the bell tower and a square seat for beheading. The inscription at the head of the monument is "Rebuilding the Bell Tower Monument by an Imperial Envoy", the inscription on the monument is Liang, an official of Jingyan Government, and the inscription on the monument is "Records of Jingzhao People's Education Museum" written by Jing and Xue Dubi.

The lower part of the bell tower is a brick platform, surrounded by battlements and white marble guardrails. There is an arch on both sides of the platform body, and its internal structure adopts composite arch sheet, which is a cross-piece structure.

In addition to the main arch ticket, there is an annular passage in the enclosure wall. In the northeast corner of the basement, there is a small arch with 75 stone steps, which can reach the main building on the second floor.

The main building is three rooms wide, the roof is edged with black glazed tiles, the back beasts are installed at both ends of the main ridge, and the five-running beasts headed by lions are installed on the ridge of the second floor. Under the upper eaves, a bucket arch is erected in five steps, and under the eaves, a bucket arch is erected one foot at a time.

The main building has arches on all sides and stone windows on the left and right. Pay attention to an arched ticket door, a symmetrical billing window, and a stone imitation wood window installed on the window.

The whole building structure emphasizes the functions of sound broadcasting, sound amplification and sound transmission, which is unique in the architectural history of China Bell and Drum Tower.

There is an octagonal wooden clock stand in the middle of the second floor, which is used to hang the big clock that tells the time. Hang a two-meter-long log on both sides of the bell frame to make bells.

According to historical records, an iron bell cast in Yongle period of Ming Dynasty was originally hung on the bell rack. However, due to poor sound quality, it was later changed to a bronze giant clock cast by Yongle auspicious day in Ming Dynasty, and the iron clock was placed on the flat ground outside the bell tower.

The bronze bell is 7.02 meters high, 5.5 meters high, with a maximum diameter of 3.40 meters, a wall thickness of 12 to 24.5 centimeters and a weight of about 63 tons. It is the largest and heaviest ancient bronze bell in China, and is known as "the king of bells".

According to the literature, the bronze bell was cast by the traditional clay mold method, while the group furnace was shaped by pits. The bell body is all made of brass, and the sound is rich and long when it is struck, which can be heard thousands of meters inside and outside Beijing and in Fiona Fang.

The Beijing Drum Tower was called "Zhengqilou" in the Yuan Dynasty, and its location was in the west of the Ming and Qing Drum Towers, which was the south entrance of the later Old Drum Tower Street. 1800 and 1894, the drum tower was extensively renovated.

Drum Tower is a single wooden structure building with a total area of about 7,000 square meters, facing south with double eaves and three wooden structures, with a total height of 46.7 meters. The building is located on a masonry abutment about 4 meters high, with a length of 56 meters from east to west and a width of 33 meters from north to south.

Drum Tower has two functional layers, with the structural dark layer in the middle. It is five rooms wide and three rooms deep, surrounded by cloisters, surrounded by walls, red walls, bamboo columns and carved beams and painted buildings. It is very spectacular.

The lower floor of the Drum Tower is the city platform, with seven rooms wide in appearance and five rooms deep in depth. The interior is an arch coupon structure, and there are eight arch coupon doors on the ground floor. There are three ticket gates in the north and south, one in the east and one in the west. There are a pair of stone lions in front of the south gate, about 1.25m high.

There is a door in the northeast corner of the balcony and a stone staircase, which inclines 45 degrees from north to south and ranks 60 * *, then turns west, inclines 45 degrees from east to west, and also ranks 9. You can reach the second floor through 69 stone stairs.

There are six doors and windows on the second floor, surrounded by corridors, with a width of about1.3m, a wooden guardrail, a height of1.55m and a construction area of1.925m2.. There is a wooden drum stand in the building. The drum base is carved with red paint, with a height of 1.8m, a length of 2m and a width of1.9m. ..

The 25 drums of the Drum Tower are placed here, among which: "Big Drum", also called "Main Drum", represents one year; "Small drum", also known as "group drum", has 24 faces, representing 24 solar terms in a year.

According to historical records, the drum used in Beijing Drum Tower in the late Qing Dynasty was 2.22 meters high, with a waist diameter of 1.7 1 meter and a drum surface diameter of about 1.5 meters, which was full-size cowhide.

In addition, there are ancient timepieces and copperplate prints in the building. The bronze engraved leakage on the Drum Tower was handed down from generation to generation in the Song Dynasty, which was divided into four levels: Tianchi, Pingshui, Wanji and Shuitou.

The kettle is equipped with an arrow ruler in the water, and the arrow floats when the water rises. When displayed according to lettering, the god next to him strikes the time 8 times every 15 minutes, with a daily error of only about 20 seconds.

The third floor of the Drum Tower is the underground building. The roof of the Drum Tower is a double-eave, with grey tile and green glass edging. Beads are placed around the two ends of the main ridge, and five-step bucket arches are applied under the upper eaves. The lower eaves are four-slope roofs, single-inclined, single-inclined and five-step bucket arches, and they sit flat.

The five-running beast headed by the lion was once placed on the roof of every roof, and later it was changed into the seven-running beast headed by the fairy.