Architectural Design Series of Ancient Palace (Ⅱ) —— Epang Palace

I want to go home by wind, but I'm afraid of Qionglou Yuyu. Whether these buildings are still intact or not, pavilions and pavilions represent the footprints of civilization; Stand still in history and look at the long river of time.

Epang Palace, also known as Epang Palace.

When I was in middle school, everyone should have learned such a passage, Du's Epanggong Fu:

At the end of the poem, this magnificent building is called "the Chu people are a torch, and the poor are scorched." From the literary point of view, Du Fu's articles are magnificent, magnificent and meaningful. But none of this is true. Epang Palace in history has not been burned down. In fact, Epang Palace was never really built. All gorgeous or sad words are just speculations that future generations follow the torrent of the times.

As for Epang Palace, we should start with the Qin Empire. As we all know, with the accession of the first emperor Qin Shihuang, Qin gradually unified the six countries after Danyang defeated the Chu army, and then there were famous events in history, such as burning books to bury Confucianism, unifying currency and building the Great Wall. After many great achievements in the past dynasties, the first emperor had reason to think that Xianyang City left by his ancestors was not enough to show his majestic hegemony of unifying the whole country. "The first emperor thought there were many people in Xianyang, and the court of the first king was small. I heard that Zhou Wenwang is very rich, and the soldiers are all pickaxes. Between them, the Imperial Capital is also. " -biography of Qin Shihuang. This means that Qin Shihuang doesn't like living in a small house. It is said that the capital is Fengcheng and the capital is Hao, so he thinks that the place between these two places must be where the emperor should live. So the first emperor began to expand the new palace around Fenghao, which was built during Qin Huiwen's reign, but failed. This new palace is called Epang Palace by later generations.

The official construction of Afangshan began in the thirty-fifth year of the First Emperor (2 12 BC). Li Si, a native of Chu, was then the chief designer and chief engineer. According to the biographical data of the first emperor, there are more than 700,000 people imprisoned in the hidden palace, which are divided into Epang Palace or Mount Li (I think the "hidden palace imprisonment" here refers to some palace officials, troops, captured troops of the six countries and some prisoners). In April of the following year, Qin Ershi returned to Xianyang and resumed Afangshan, but in less than a year, Xiang Yu arrived at Hangu Pass, and a large number of troops and laborers in the Qin Dynasty had to be sent abroad. In the end, the construction of Epang Palace and Qin Dynasty stopped forever in this year.

In Chronicle of the First Emperor, "Naiying is a palace in Shanglin Garden in Weinan", that is to say, the palace at that time (Epang Palace) was built in Shanglin Garden south of Weishui (Shanglin Garden is similar to the royal garden). As can be seen from the above picture, Epang Palace is located in the southeast of Shanglin Garden. The "magnet gate" (that is, the cool palace gate with magnets to attract weapons) and "going to the rooftop" (that is, the high platform that the first emperor is said to have built to sacrifice longevity) handed down from later generations are all in the Royal Garden. They are not Epang Palace, but a part of Shanglin Garden.

Before Xiang Yu's allied forces entered the customs, Epang Palace was only built to tamp the foundation, and even the surrounding city walls were only built on three sides, but the south wall was not built. According to the archaeological results of Afang foundation, this foundation is about 540,000 square meters, that is, more than half a square kilometer, and the edge of the foundation has obvious defects. The maximum height of rammed earth12m, east-west1200m, and north-south 400m. According to historical records, after Xiang Yu entered the customs, "Qin Gong was burned, but the fire did not go out in March". However, in the process of archaeological excavation, the braised soil that should exist after the fire was burned out was not found in the rammed earth site at the abutment of Afanggong and the surrounding area with radiation of more than ten square kilometers. No tiles or even building fragments belonging to the Qin dynasty were found, and no accumulation layer was found after the collapse of the Qin dynasty buildings. It was only in the Tang Dynasty and later that it was found to be well preserved. According to the historical data and the discovery of abutment, it is obvious that the address of Epang Palace has been determined, which can prove that Epang Palace only built abutment at that time, but because of Qin's death, no buildings owned by Qin were built on abutment.

Therefore, the well-known Epang Palace is actually just a rammed earth abutment of half a square kilometer.

It is a pity that the planning of Epang Palace has been lost in the dust of history, and only the existing Taiji ruins and the city walls can glimpse the magnificent scenery.

When Epang Palace was built, rammed earth was used as the foundation, which raised the overall height of the planned palace, covering an area of 540,000 square meters. Due to the great difference in the surface height around the Qin Dynasty in the Epanggong rammed earth area, the rammed earth thickness in the whole rammed earth area is different, ranging from 7 to 9 meters in the northwest, 10 meters in the southwest and 5.2 meters in the southwest. Generally speaking, it is high in the east and low in the west, high in the south and low in the north, and low in the northwest and southwest. This represents the Epang Palace, which is "just high and rammed low" and is made of the natural terrain of Longshouyuan.

Different from most palace buildings in the past, Epang Palace first built city walls and rammed earth, and then built internal buildings. "Without a house, it is the city first. After the city is completed, people call it Acheng. The city started as a hall with no leisure, so it was finally named Afang", which is also one of the inference sources of Afang's name. There are city walls in the west, north and east of Acheng, but the south wall is not built. The northern slope of Acheng is 1270 m long and is divided into three sections: the eastern section is 66 1 m long, the middle section is 323 m long and the western section is 286 m long. There are no other buildings on the second step on the north side of the middle wall, and there are verandahs or wall-top buildings on the south side. The whole wall is 15m wide and 2.3m high. The east and west sections are different in structure, and there are three steps on the outside; The wall is 6.5 meters wide and 2.3 meters high; The city walls on the east and west sides have been damaged in history. It is estimated that they are 426 meters long and have the same structure. They are built on rammed soil foundation.

The front hall in the picture is equivalent to the Hanyuan Hall in Daming Palace and the Golden Hall in the Forbidden City. It is the main building of Epang Palace, and there should be its own high rammed earth on the rammed earth platform, but according to the data, these have not been built yet.

Then why does Epang Palace in history seem to be a mature landmark building that seems to exist? 、

As for the first emperor, it is the same as Emperor Yang Di who built the Grand Canal: his crimes are also obvious, his achievements are outstanding, his shortcomings are contemporary, and his benefits are future.

After Qin's death, some scholars demonized Qin Shihuang a little for the political needs of the new dynasty in order to please the rulers. Literary works such as New Book, On Qin and Yan Zhi, which created momentum for the political public opinion in the Han Dynasty, came out one after another, but due to personal limitations, these words distorted Qin Shihuang subjectively. Even now, when we talk about the Qin empire, we still associate it with tyranny, exorbitant taxes and wasteful construction. On the one hand, it is true, on the other hand, it is a necessary propaganda means in the change of dynasties, which coincides with the luxury and splendor of Epang Palace in its social construction and the death of Qin State because of no way.

Epang Palace also has its political significance. Everyone will say, how can such a huge palace be so luxurious and how long will it last? In addition, the first emperor in history did have many inhuman behaviors. If Xiang Yu hadn't set foot on Hangu Pass with Jiangdong soldiers, it is still unknown whether A Fang will succeed. As for Du Mu's poem "A Fang Gong Fu", it has its unique historical background. In order to warn the world, it is exaggerated. A Fang Gong has stood up in people's hearts and its image has gradually changed.

the end

The last article is zhanghua Palace. See the first article on the same topic.

Some pictures come from literature, internet, invasion and deletion, above.