Introduction to the Eight Gates of Suzhou Ancient City

"Broken Chu Gate" is now the Gate of Heaven, 506 years ago, here is Sun Wu, Wu Zixu and other leaders of the Wu army to conquer Chu departure and triumph. From then on, the Gate of Heaven was also called the Gate of Broken Chu. Wu Zixu built the capital city of Wu in accordance with the laws of heaven and earth, and the Gate of Heaven is the first gate of the city, which is "open to the whole of heaven". The Gate of Heaven was also known as the most prosperous commercial district in the country during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, including the Nanhao Street and Shantang Street outside the city, as well as the Gate of Heaven Street (now Xizhong City) inside the city. Parallel to these streets, the Outer City River, the Inner City River, the Shangtang River (the ancient course of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal), and the Shantang River (which leads to Huqiu) converged here from five directions. The famous paintings "Gusu Prosperity" and "Sheng Shi Zi Sheng Tu" during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty show the 10-mile-long street from the Gate of Heaven to Fengqiao at that time, where ten thousand merchants gathered in great numbers.

The "Guxu Gate" is the Xumen Gate. Among the eight gates of Suzhou, there is none more legendary than Xumen, naturally, because it has so much to do with the legendary hero Wu Zixu, that it would be useless even if scholars of future generations were to prove that Xumen and Wu Zixu are not related. In the hearts of the people of Suzhou, there is a need for such a gate as a reminder: it got its name from the fact that "Wu Zixu's house was located next to it", and it is famous for the fact that Wu Zixu's head was hung on the Xumen Gate. So famous that the Vietcong dared not enter the city even when they attacked it: "When I looked at the southern city of Wu, I saw Wu Zixu's head as big as a wheel, his eyes as bright as lightning, his hair spreading out, and he was shooting ten miles away", and "in the middle of the night on the same day, there were storms and rains, thunder and lightning, and rocks and sand were flying faster than a bow and a crossbow". The Vietcong soldiers sacrificed a large rooster to Wu Zixu under the Xumen Gate and begged in a low voice to give way. Wu Zixu told them in a dream that night to enter the city from the east, not because Wu Zixu had been bribed, but because he had become a god, and his anger had already been vented in the rolling tides of the Qiantang River, and he had no choice but to act according to the will of heaven. Now the stone statue of Wu Zixu has been erected high outside the Xu Gate, and the change of history has not made people forget the "originator" of Suzhou City.