Chapter 8 2. Large roof

How is the city? Hard to tell. Don't say that the current cities are very sick, and the ancient cities may not be paradise on earth.Officials in ancient China, be it Beijing officials or county magistrates, would buy land and land in their hometowns, ready to "retire and return to their hometowns" at any time.The only one who had to stay in the city for the rest of his life, and could only stay in the city within the city, was the poor emperor. Therefore, as compensation, the emperor built the Old Summer Palace, Jia's mansion built the Grand View Garden, and European and American nobles and rich men built or bought villas in the countryside.

Cities are not necessarily beautiful.Of course, not necessarily. So, why do humans invent it?for safety. Cities are indeed safer than rural areas, especially in the era of cold weapons.At that time, cities in most countries had walls or castles.The walls of Athens were built in 479 BC.In fact, the word city-state (polis) comes from acropolis (acro is high).It can be seen that they not only need walls, but also "build walls high."Of course, we must also "accumulate food widely". The only exception is Sparta. For this reason, the price Sparta paid was to train adult men under the age of sixty to be warriors, ready to charge at any time, and also ready to use offense as defense at any time.They built an invisible city wall with their own flesh and blood.Likewise, in Chinese, a city is a wall.The original meaning of the word "cheng" is "the wall used as a defense around the city".If there are inside and outside, the inner city is called Cheng, and the outer city is called Guo.

If there are high and low, the high one is called the wall, and the low one is called the wall.There may be walls, walls, cities, and Guo, but it is impossible to have none.A city without walls is like a house without a roof, incredible. Cities are the big roofs of ancient humans. Of course, the ancient humans mentioned here mainly refer to agricultural peoples.They were the first to establish city-states.Sumer, Akkad, Hittite, Phoenicia, all of them.This is not surprising.For agricultural peoples, only when they live in peace can they enjoy their work.This requires not only an outpost, but also a retreat.Villages near fields are outposts, and cities with high walls are retreats.In times of war, you can go to the city to take refuge; in a disaster year, you can go to the city to beg for food.

Cities, so that farmers from worries. Therefore, in the ancient times where wars were frequent, the most important thing was to build a city, the most durable was to besiege a city, the most difficult thing was to siege a city, and the most cruel thing was to massacre a city. No wonder nomads have neither cities nor states anymore, they don't need them. The same goes for pirates and people in Taohuayuan. In fact, if an ethnic group has always been in a state of peace and has neither encountered aggression nor invaded others, they do not need cities or countries, such as the Tasaday people on Mindanao in the Philippines.

Also, if they were always on the attack, everyone was a fighter and wouldn't need either of those things, like Papua New Guinea's. Unfortunately, our people are neither Tasaday nor Fintu.We are not only "very agricultural", but also have a vast territory, a large population, and a long history.Therefore, we not only need city walls, but also the Great Wall; we need not only a country, but also centralization of power.Moreover, Beijing, one of the capitals of this centralized state, had to be surrounded by four walls: the palace city, the imperial city, the inner city and the outer city.

The country is the largest roof; the capital is the thickest wall. To build a country, the first thing in the picture is security. However, Beijing today has no city walls.Most cities around the world don't have them either.Are the meanings and secrets of the country still there in the city? Let Shanghai answer this question.

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