Where is the capital of the Western Han Dynasty?

Chang 'an, now Xi City, Shaanxi Province.

Chang 'an City in Han Dynasty is located in Guanzhong Plain south of Weihe River, covering an area of about 36 square kilometers. During the Western Han Dynasty, Chang 'an, as the capital, has always been the political, economic and cultural center of the whole country, and it is also the first large city with many residents in the history of China. Its site is located in the northwest suburb of Xi, Shaanxi Province.

196 1 year, the site of Chang 'an City in Han Dynasty was announced by the people of China and the State Council as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. 200 1, Zhaolun Zhu Qian site was registered.

history

In the fifth year of Emperor Gaozu (202 BC), Liu Bang began to rebuild the palace on the basis of Qin Xingle Palace south of Weihe River, and named it Changle Palace. In the seventh year of Emperor Gaozu (the first 200 years), Xiao He was ordered to build Weiyang Palace. In the same year, the capital moved from Quercus Yangcheng to this place. Because it is located in Chang 'an Township, it is named Chang 'an City. The Great Wall was built in the first year of Emperor Hui of Han Dynasty (BC 194). Huidi reached its climax in the spring of the third year (192), and recruited140,000 people to build the city wall, which was completed in the autumn of the fifth year (190). After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty succeeded to the throne, Chang 'an City was expanded on a large scale, with Gong Bei, Guigong and Mingguang Palace built, imperial academy opened in the south of the city, Qin Shanglin Garden was expanded in the west of the city, Kunming Pool was dug, and Zhang Jian Palace was built. At this point, after nearly a hundred years of construction, the scale of Chang 'an City in Han Dynasty was complete.

In the history of more than 200 years in the Western Han Dynasty, Chang 'an has always been the political, economic and cultural center of the whole country, and also the starting point of the eastern end of the Silk Road. In the second year of Emperor Ping of Han Dynasty (AD 2), there were 88,000 households and 246,000 people in the city, which was the first mega-city with many residents in the history of China. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Chang 'an was destroyed by war. Luoyang is the capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Chang 'an is Xijing. At the end of the Han Dynasty, after Luoyang was set on fire by Dong Zhuo, Emperor Xian moved back to Chang 'an to live. Since then, the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the former Zhao Dynasty, the former Qin Dynasty, the later Qin Dynasty, the Western Wei Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty have also established their capitals here. In the early years of Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wendi of Sui Dynasty thought Chang 'an was too narrow and shabby, and ordered Yuwen Kai to build a new capital in the southeast. Since the capital was moved to Daxing City (Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty) in the third year of Emperor Chengzu of Ming Dynasty (583), Chang 'an City in Han Dynasty with a history of nearly 800 years was permanently abandoned.

general layout

The plane of Chang 'an City in Han Dynasty was square, but irregular. Because the city wall was built after the completion of Changle Palace and Weiyang Palace, in order to accommodate the location of the second palace and the river, the south wall twists and turns like six stars in the south and the north wall twists and turns like the Big Dipper, which is called "Fighting City". The city walls are all rammed with loess, with a height of 12m and a base width of 12- 16m. There is a moat with a width of 8m and a depth of 3m outside the walls. According to the actual measurement, the east wall is 6000 meters long, the west wall is 4900 meters long, the south wall is 7600 meters long and the north wall is 7200 meters long, totaling 25700 meters. The urban area is about 36 square kilometers, which is four times that of Rome in the same period.

There are three gates around the city wall, an gate on the south wall, an gate and Xi 'an on the east and west sides. The north wall is the kitchen door, and the east and west sides are Luocheng Gate and Hengmen. Qingming Gate is on the east wall, Bacheng Gate and Xuanping Gate are on the north and south sides. There are straight doors on the west wall, and Zhangchengmen and Yongmen on the north and south sides. Each city gate has three doorways, totaling 12 doorways and 36 doorways, which are consistent with the "twelve square tracks" and "three soils open to the east" in Zhang Heng's Xijing Fu. The doorway is generally about 8 meters wide, which is exactly equivalent to the distance between the four tracks at that time. The original wooden door building on the city gate was burned down at the end of the Western Han Dynasty.

All the streets in this city are connected with the city gate. There are eight main streets that cross each other. The longest Tiananmen Street is 5500 meters long, and the rest is about 3000 meters long. Generally, the road is about 45 meters wide. The road surface is divided into three strands at the interval of the ditch. The imperial road in the middle is 20 meters wide for the emperor to pass, and the auxiliary roads on both sides are 12 meters wide for the officials and the people to walk. In order to beautify the environment, trees such as locust tree, elm tree, pine and cypress are planted on the roadside, which are as dense as shade.

The palaces, aristocratic mansions, government offices and ancestral halls in Chang 'an in Han Dynasty accounted for about two-thirds of the city's area. The palaces are concentrated in the central and southern parts of the city, including Changle Palace, Weiyang Palace, Guigong Palace, Gong Bei Palace and Mingguang Palace. The aristocratic residence is located in the northern que area of Weiyang Palace, which is called "the northern que residence". The residential area is located in the north of the city and is divided into 160 "roads" by criss-crossing streets. The famous "Nine Cities of Chang 'an" is located in the northwest corner of the city, bounded by Hengmen Street, and divided into three cities in the east and six cities in the west. The East City is a place where merchants gather, while the West City is densely covered with various handicraft workshops.

According to textual research, the layout and shape of Chang 'an City in Han Dynasty were basically the same as those of Zhou Li and Gong Ji. It changed the pattern of matching large and small cities in the Warring States period, and concentrated residential areas, industrial and commercial areas and palace areas in one city. Later capitals followed this system.

palace

Changle Palace, also known as the East Palace, is located in the south corner of Chang 'an City in Han Dynasty. It was rebuilt from the Qin Xingle Palace. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang moved from Quercus Yangcheng to this palace and accepted the state affairs. Huidi later became the residence of Empress Dowager Cixi, which was destroyed by fire at the end of the Western Han Dynasty. The palace is an irregular square, surrounded by walls, with a circumference of 65438+ 100000 meters and an area of about 6 square kilometers. There are 14 buildings in the palace, including Qian Dian, Hualin Hall, Changxin Palace, Changqiu Hall, Yongshou Hall, Immortal Hall, Yongchang Hall and Bell Room. There are doors on all sides of the palace wall, and there are gaps outside the east gate and west gate.

Weiyang Palace is located in the southwest corner of the city, also known as Xigong, where the emperor met. Emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang, Emperor Xian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Western Jin Dynasty, Former Zhao Dynasty, Former Qin Dynasty, Later Qin Dynasty, Western Wei Dynasty, Northern Zhou Dynasty, etc. Have been dealing with state affairs here. It is one of the most famous palaces in the history of China. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Weiyang Palace was included in the Forbidden Garden of Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty. The palace was rebuilt in Tang Wuzong, so many existing relics were left at that time.

Weiyang Palace is square in plane and surrounded by walls. It is 2150m long from east to west and 2,250m wide from north to south, covering an area of about 5 square kilometers. Miyagi has doors all around, standing outside the east and north gates. There are more than 40 buildings in the palace. Among them, the highest is Qian Dian, which is located in the center of the whole palace. The base is 350m long from north to south, 200m wide from east to west, and the highest point is15m. It is built on a mountain. Other buildings include greenhouse, lingshi, weaving room, exposure room, Tianlu Pavilion, Shiqu Pavilion, Xuanshi Hall, Qilin Hall, Pepper Room Hall, Jinhua Hall, Chengming Hall, Gaomen Hall, Baihu Hall, Yutang Hall, Xuande Hall, Chaoyang Hall, Bailiangtai, Fish Pond and Wine Pond. There is a "complicated road" between temples in case of emergency.

There is an armory between Changle and Weiyang Palace, which is rectangular in plane, 880 meters long from east to west, 322 meters wide from north to south and surrounded by walls. There are seven warehouses in the wall, and each warehouse is divided into four warehouses. There used to be a neatly arranged weapon wooden frame in the room, but now it is rotten. The armory was built by Prime Minister Xiao He in the eighth year of Emperor Gaozu (BC 199). It was the weapons manufacturing and storage center of the country at that time and had a very important position. It was burned in the late Western Han Dynasty.

The other three palaces in the city are the palaces where empresses live. Gui Palace is located in the north of Weiyang Palace, near the Western Wall. Its plane is rectangular, with a length of 1800 m from north to south and a width of 880 m from east to west. Mingguang Palace is in the north of Changle Palace, and the specific location range is unknown. Its main hall site was superimposed by various buildings in later generations, so it was widely called a pavilion. Gong Bei is located in the north of Weiyang Palace, whose exact location is unknown. According to records, the flying pavilion is set between palaces, connected with the ground and invisible to outsiders. In recent years, a large number of building materials, ironware, bronzes, stone tools, tiles, bone markers and coins have been unearthed in various archaeological activities inside and outside Miyagi, which has high historical reference value.

suburbs

Shanglinyuan is a huge group of royal palaces, located in the west of Chang 'an, which existed in the Qin Dynasty. After the expansion and reconstruction in the third year of Jianyuan (before 138), there were dozens of palaces and other halls with a total length of 100 kilometers. According to the records in Old Instruments of Han Dynasty and Shanglin Fu, all kinds of animals are raised in the park, and "Chang 'an Bashui" is one of them. In addition, there are various institutions such as Kunming Pond for training the water army, greenhouse for growing vegetables, and "Shanglin Sanguan" where money is cast. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Shanglin Garden was abandoned.

The main building of Shanglinyuan is the Palace, which faces Weiyang Palace across a bend and is connected by a pavilion. Because it is not restricted by the city wall, Miyagi is particularly large and more luxurious than Weiyang Palace. The perimeter of the palace wall 10 kilometers, the main entrance is open in the south, and there are other phoenix que in the door. Outside the North Gate and the East Gate, there are Que, named Beique and Fengque respectively, and the remains of the latter still exist today. Miyagi consists of 36 temples, known as "thousands of households". The main buildings are the Money Palace, Yaodang Palace, Yaoyi Palace, Tian Liang Palace, Chengguang Hall, Qihua Hall, Guchun Palace, Guangzhong Hall, Hande Hall, Shentai, Jinggan Building, etc. In addition, there is a Taiye pool in the north of Gonggong, which rises from a high platform and has three islands: Penglai, Abbot and Yingzhou. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang demolished this palace and many nearby palaces in order to build the ancestral temple.

In order to train the water army, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty dug Kunming Pool in Shanglinyuan. At present, its remains are a depression with an area of 10 square kilometers. There is a highland in the pool, which was an island at that time, and it should be where the Zhang Yu Pavilion is located. There are morning glory and Vega stone statues on the east and west sides, which are more than 3 meters high and have been well preserved so far. There are many buildings in Chi Pan, which may be the ruins of Xuanzang Palace, Baiyang Palace and Liu Xi Palace.

When Wang Mang was in power, Chang 'an was renamed Chang 'an. According to the traditional Confucian etiquette concept and the popular theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements in Han Dynasty, ritual buildings such as Biyong, Lingtai, Taiyi and Jiumiao were built in the southern suburbs of the city. At present, it can be clearly identified as Biyong Site and Jiumiao Site. In the plane excircle of Biyong, there is a circular rammed earth platform in the middle, and there is an "Asian"-shaped main building on the platform. There is a rammed earth wall with a side length of 235 meters, doors around it, and a circular gully with a diameter of 360 meters outside the wall. Jiumiao Site has a total of 12 base sites, of which 1 1 is surrounded by a square fence with a side length of 1400 meters, and the other is in the middle of the outer side of the south wall. All foundations have the same shape. The center is a main building in the shape of "Asia", surrounded by square walls and doors.

Around Chang 'an City in Han Dynasty, especially near the North Wall, there were many workshops for making pottery, casting money and smelting. Among them, the largest is the Zhaolun Coin-making Site in Shanglinyuan, which was discovered in 1994, that is, the "Shanglin Sanguan" of the National Coin-making Center in the Western Han Dynasty. Its site is located in Nanzhaolun Village, Dawang Town, Huxian County, Shaanxi Province, with a length of 1 1,500m from north to south and a width of 500m from east to west, covering an area of 900,000m2. There are many gravel in the south of the site, and crucible slag, copper slag and ash pile in the north. In the north-central part of the site, there are many pits and abandoned money piles, among which Tao Pai, locating pins, bronze tools and other cultural relics have been unearthed. According to literature, "five baht money" was born here.