Chapter 22 Section 2 Han Chang'an City and Weiyang Palace Ruins

The ruins of Han Chang'an City, located in the northwest suburb of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, is the ruins of the capital city of the Western Han Dynasty.Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, established Chang'an as his capital in the seventh year (200 BC).From the first year to the fifth year of Emperor Hui (194-190 BC), the city wall was built. The exploration and excavation began in 1956. The plan of the city site is nearly square, and it used to be called "Doucheng".The total area is 36 square kilometers.The wall base is 12-16 meters wide.Around the outside of the wall is a moat about eight meters wide and three meters deep.

Gates and streets: There are three gates on each side of the city.On the east wall (from north to south) are Xuanping Gate, Qingming Gate and Bacheng Gate; on the south wall are Fu'an Gate, Anmen and Xi'an Gate; on the west wall are Zhangcheng Gate, Zhicheng Gate and Yongmen Gate; Hengmen, Chucheng Gate, Luocheng Gate.Through the excavation of Xuanping Gate, Bacheng Gate, Xi'an Gate and Zhicheng Gate, it is found that each gate has three gates.The doorway in the middle of the Zhicheng Gate is 7.7 meters wide, the width of the doorways on both sides is 8.1 meters, and the distance between the doorways is 4.2 meters.There are stone foundations on both sides of the gate, and a wooden gatehouse was originally built.The streets are straight, and there are eight main streets, each about 45 meters wide (Figure 7).

The important architectural sites in the city include Changle Palace, Weiyang Palace, Mingguang Palace, Beigong, Guigong, Arsenal, Dongshi, Xishi and so on. Changle Palace, also known as the East Palace, was the place where the emperor looked at the court in the early Han Dynasty, and Emperor Hui changed it to the empress dowager's bedroom.Located in the southeast corner of the city, the plane is nearly square, surrounded by palace walls, the base of the wall is about 20 meters wide, and there is a gate on each side of the wall.The circumference is more than 10,000 meters and the area is about six square kilometers.The main buildings in the palace include the front hall, Linhua hall, Changxin palace, Changqiu hall, Yongshou hall, Shenxian hall, Yongchang hall and bell chamber.

Weiyang Palace, also known as West Palace, is located in the southwest corner of the city.It was the place where the emperor lived and governed.After drilling, the plane of the palace city is a regular square, surrounded by palace walls, the east and west walls are 2150 meters long, and the north and south walls are 2250 meters long.The area is five square kilometers, accounting for about 1/7 of the total area of ​​Chang'an City.There are gates on each side of Miyagi.It has been found out that there was a north-south road leading directly to the front hall at the north palace gate, and there were towers on both sides outside the palace gate, where the civil and military ministers waited before entering the palace.The East Palace Gate has an east-west avenue leading directly to the front hall, and princes from all over the country enter through the East Palace Gate when they meet the emperor.

The main body of the buildings in Weiyang Palace is the front hall in the center.Other buildings surround it.In the northwest of the front hall, there is Shiqu Pavilion, which is used as a library and archives by the imperial court. To the north of the front hall, there is Tianlu Pavilion, which is used to store cultural and historical archives and important classics. The rammed earth platform of the front hall is 15 meters high in the north, 350 meters long from north to south, and about 200 meters wide from east to west.There are three main halls, front, middle and back, which are high-rise buildings built on the hills of Longshou Mountain.

In 1980, in the southwest and northeast of the front hall, a batch of wooden slips that had been roasted by fire were found.Some of them are disease prescriptions and medical prescriptions, which are precious materials for studying ancient medicine. From 1981 to 1992, a hall site was excavated 360 meters north of the front hall.The south rammed earth platform of the main building is more than 50 meters long from east to west and more than 30 meters wide from north to south. It has a rectangular courtyard in the north and two rammed earth platforms in the south.It seems to be the two gates in front of the main hall.It is speculated that it may be the ruins of Jiaofangdian in the harem, which is the residence of the queen.

In 1986, 880 meters northwest of the front hall of Weiyang Palace, a ruins of a government office that managed workers and officials across the country was excavated.More than 30,000 pieces of engraved bone sticks were unearthed as tribute items.The bone sticks are all made of animal bones (mainly bovine bones), with a length of 5.8-7.2 cm, a width of 2.1-3.2 cm, and a thickness of 0.5 cm.Its content can be divided into two categories: (1) one line of characters (six to seven characters), engraved with the name, specification and serial number of the item; (2) two to four lines of characters (ranging from 10 to 40 characters), engraved with the year, work Names of officials, relevant officials and craftsmen.The unearthed bone sticks reflect the development of handicraft production in various places at that time, the changes in quantity and variety of tributes in different ages, and the establishment of grassroots official systems in various places. They are a batch of precious materials for studying the social history of the Western Han Dynasty.

In 1988, a turret site was excavated in the southwest corner of Miyagi.The plane is in the shape of a curved ruler ("L"), which is different from the square turrets seen in later generations.This is the earliest and best-preserved turret site that has been excavated in my country. The arsenal is the central arsenal of the Western Han Dynasty.The site is located between Changle Palace and Weiyang Palace.It is rectangular in plane and surrounded by walls, 880 meters from east to west and 320 meters from north to south.There are seven bases of warehouses.A large number of weapons were unearthed, including iron knives, swords, spears, halberds, armors, bronze daggers, arrowheads, and sword grids.Among them, iron weapons are the main ones.All kinds of weapons are relatively concentrated, reflecting that the warehouses were stored according to the types of weapons at that time.

In the southern suburbs of Chang'an City, the sites of ceremonial buildings in the Western Han Dynasty, the sites of Mingtang, Piyong and Wangmang Nine Temples are relatively large in scale and relatively complete in preservation. Mingtang and Piyong were built in the first year of Emperor Ping of the Han Dynasty (the first year - 5 AD), and the nine temples were built in the first year of Emperor Wang Mangdi (20 AD).The ruins are located on the east side of Nan'anmenwai Avenue in Chang'an City, north of Tumen Village in today's Xi'an City.At that time, the Mingtang of "Ming Zhengjiao" and Piyong of "Xuanjiao" were combined into one.The plane of the ruins is "circle outside and square inside", with the central building in the middle, built on a circular rammed earth platform with a diameter of 62 meters.The plane of the central building on the stage resembles the shape of "Ya", symmetrical on all sides, and each side is 42 meters long.In the middle is a square rammed earth platform, each side is about 17 meters long.On the four sides of the center platform, there are four halls, each 24 meters long, which should be the so-called "Ming Hall", "Zong Zhang", "Qing Yang" and "Xuan Hall".The front of the four halls is surrounded by open halls.

There are walls around the central building, which are square, 235 meters long on each side, and 96 meters away from the central building.There is a door on each side of the wall, the doorway is 4.5 meters wide and 12.5 meters long.There are curved ruler-shaped rooms in the four corners of the wall, each side is 47 meters long.The wall is surrounded by a water ditch. The Nine Temples of Wang Mang is the ancestral temple built by Wang Mang after he established a new dynasty.The ruins are located on the west side of Nan'anmenwai Avenue in Chang'an City of Han Dynasty, corresponding to Mingtang and Piyong.This group of buildings consists of 12 buildings. No. 1-11 foundation site is a group, surrounded by a large square wall, 1400 meters on each side. The base of building No. 12 is in the middle outside the large southern wall, and the distance between the two walls is 10 meters.The 12 buildings are basically the same in shape. Buildings 1-11 can be divided into three rows, the north row (No. 1-4) and the south row (No. 8-11), with the same orientation and corresponding to the north and south.The middle row (No. 5-7) is scattered between the south and north rows.Every building is surrounded by walls.Its central main building is shaped like the Chinese character "Asia".The layout of these buildings is similar to that of Mingtang and Piyong, except that there is no ditch around them.On the stone foundation in the Jiumiao ruins, there is the year name of "Shi Jianguo".Therefore, it is presumed to be the site of "Nine Temples of Wang Mang".