Chapter 40 Section 6 Chang'an City and the Grand Canal

Everyone knows that Xi'an is a well-known ancient capital both at home and abroad, but its fame is mainly due to its construction in the Sui and Tang dynasties. In 581 A.D., after Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty Yang Jian unified the country, he still used Chang'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, as the capital of the country.However, Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty was nearly 800 years ago, and it seemed small, dilapidated and chaotic, and did not meet the needs of political, economic and cultural development.Therefore, in the second year, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty ordered the construction of a new capital city on the southern plain of Longshou Mountain in the southeast of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty.The new city was designed and presided over by Yu Wenkai, a famous architect in the Sui Dynasty.The entire city has a reasonable and orderly design, a symmetrical layout from east to west, and clear divisions of Lifang, reflecting the superb level of urban planning and construction in ancient my country.With an area of ​​84 square kilometers, the city was the largest city in the world at that time.Moreover, its construction speed also created a miracle in the history of the world.It started construction in July 582, and moved in in April 583. It took only nine months before and after, and the speed is astonishing.It is estimated that more than 2 million people were employed in the project, and the organization and management of manpower and material resources are also extremely remarkable.In the Sui Dynasty, the new capital city was called Daxing City. In the Tang Dynasty, it was renamed Chang'an City, and the palace city was expanded.It is a pity that during the war at the end of Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City was burned down.Later, Chang'an City, which was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty, was only 1/7 of that in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Another huge project in the Sui Dynasty was the excavation of the Grand Canal.The Grand Canal project was completed in three phases.The first phase of the project was carried out in 605 AD. It started from Xiyuan, the eastern capital of Luoyang in the west, diverted Luoshui and Gushui into the Yellow River, and then diverted the water from the Yellow River into the Huaihe River to Shanyang (now Huai'an, Jiangsu). The Han〔hanhan〕ditch reached Jiangdu (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province) and diverted water from the Huaihe River into the Yangtze River, named Tongji Canal.The second phase of the project was carried out in 608 AD. Qinshui was diverted from Banzhu near Luoyang to the Yellow River in the south, and the Yellow River was diverted to the north to reach Zhuojun (now Beijing), which was called Yongji Canal.The third phase of the project was carried out in 610 AD, from Jingkou (now Zhenjiang, Jiangsu) to Yuhang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang), connecting the Yangtze River and Qiantang River, called Jiangnan River.With a total length of more than 2,700 kilometers, the Grand Canal is the longest canal in the world.Later, after the capital of Beijing was established in the Yuan Dynasty, the canal diversion project was carried out to form the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.The Grand Canal has played an important role in the economic and cultural exchanges between the North and the South in history.