Chapter 9 Chapter 8 A Glimpse of Beijing: The Layout of the Capital

After choosing a good city site, the next step is to build the capital according to a certain layout.The layout of the ancient capital, in addition to following the rules of general urban layout, also had some special requirements.The ancient capital city was first of all the political center, the place where the emperor issued government orders. Therefore, the core idea of ​​the capital layout was to reflect the power and majesty of the emperor, ensure the safety of the emperor, and meet the needs of the emperor's luxurious life.For this reason, the layout of the capitals of all dynasties took great pains.

The book "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji" written during the Warring States Period records the architectural planning of the capital of the Zhou Dynasty: "The craftsmen run the country, the square is nine li, the side is three gates, the middle school has nine longitudes and nine latitudes, the warp and painting nine rails, the left ancestor and the right society, the face Chaohou City." Whether these plans were implemented in the Zhou Dynasty remains to be confirmed by archaeological discoveries, but to a certain extent, it reflects the ruler's requirements for the layout of the capital.Since "Zhou Li" is said to have been written by ancient sages, successive dynasties more or less attached "Zhou Li · Kao Gong Ji" when building their capitals.In particular, the metropolis of the Yuan Dynasty was built almost entirely in accordance with this planning idea.

The layout of the ancient capital city is very rich in content. The following selects a few main aspects and briefly introduces them. Cheng and Guo are the city walls built around the city for defense. Generally, the inside is called the city, and the outside is called Guo, which is often extended to the urban area inside the city and Guo.In the early Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties, the capital city had only one city (that is, one city wall) or moat, and there was no distinction between "city" and "Guo".Zhou Gongying built Zhou, which created a layout connecting the "small town" and "big country".However, in the Western Zhou Dynasty, because the vassal states were subordinate to the Emperor Zhou, they could not adopt the standard of the capital of the Zhou Dynasty. Until the Spring and Autumn Period, with the decline of the power of the Emperor Zhou and the expansion of the power of the vassal states, some Central Plains vassal states began to adopt this layout.During the Warring States period, this kind of layout was gradually implemented. Except for Chudu Ying, which always had only one city, the capitals of other countries almost all adopted the layout of both "city" and "Guo".

Among the capitals of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the area of ​​"City" (also known as Miyagi) was relatively small, while the area of ​​"Guo" was relatively large. Therefore, "Guo" was also called "Great City".Many capital cities are two large and small cities, most of which are located on the southwest side of Guo, occupying a corner, such as Linzi in Qi State.There are also some capitals where the two cities are side by side, such as the capital of Yanxia.The living objects and functions of the two are also distinct.The city is the residence and office of the monarch, nobles and ministers, while the Guo is the general residential area, as well as the industrial and commercial area and the burial area.The so-called "build a city to defend the emperor, and build a country to protect the people" summarizes the different functions of the city and the country.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Helu City, the capital of the State of Wu, and Qufu City, the capital of the State of Lu, were built in the form of a city within a city. The city was built in the center of a Guo, and the Guo completely surrounded the city.This form was not common at the time, but it could better guarantee the safety of the ruler, and it was gradually imitated by other countries.After the Han Dynasty, the form of separating the city and Guo was eliminated, and only the form of Guobao City remained. From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the layout of the Chinese capital tended to be mature and finalized.By the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the basic form of the layout of the capital city of later generations had been formed.

Miyagi was the place where the emperor lived, ate, and gave orders.The number of palaces in the early capital city was relatively large, covering a large area and not compact in layout.In the city of Chang'an in the Western Han Dynasty, there are several large palace groups such as Weiyang Palace, Changle Palace, Jianzhang Palace and Gui Palace.These palaces and central government offices are often interlaced with or surrounded by residential areas.Since the Three Kingdoms Caowei City, the structure of the palace has become more compact, and the position of the palace in the capital city has also evolved from the middle and south of the Han Dynasty to the concentrated distribution on the north side of the capital city, forming a single palace city, and the central government office is concentrated in the palace city. In the front, the residential buildings are arranged in the south of the capital.Such a clear layout and division is not only conducive to ensuring the safety of the king and the central government office, but also draws a strict boundary between the king, his officials, and the common people.In the Sui Dynasty, Chang'an City built another city outside the central government office, which was the imperial city.It surrounds Miyagi from east, south and west.Since then, the general capital has three walls and three strictly separated areas: Miyagi, Imperial City, and Outer Guocheng.

The layout of Chang'an City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties is characterized by the fact that the palace city is located in the middle of the northern part of the entire capital, and the south is connected to the imperial city by a 200-meter-wide street.The palace city and the imperial city are collectively called the inner city, and the Guocheng surrounds the inner city from the east, south and west.However, in the Northern Song Dynasty, the layout of the city and Guo of the capital changed greatly, becoming a triple square city structure.Miyagi (also known as the imperial city) is located in the whole city, the inner city (also known as Que city) surrounds the palace city, and the outer city (also known as Luocheng) surrounds the inner city.Lin'an City in the Southern Song Dynasty and Nanjing City in the Ming Dynasty were located in the intersecting areas of plains and hills, and affected by terrain and rivers, they could not follow the layout of Chang'an in the Sui and Tang Dynasties or Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty. The southernmost point and the easterly side of the city.

At the same time as the layout of the city and the country changed, the proportion of Miyagi in the total area of ​​the capital also changed from large to small.The palaces of Chang’an City in the Han Dynasty occupied a large area of ​​the capital city. Only the Changle and Weiyang palaces accounted for 1/6 and 1/7 of the entire city area, plus the buildings of the government offices, arsenal, ancestral temple, and Taicang. , occupying 9/10 of the area, leaving only 1/10 for living.Therefore, ordinary nobles also have to live outside Guo.In the Tang Dynasty, the palace city of Chang'an City only accounted for 3.7% of the entire city area, the imperial city accounted for 6.3%, and the sum of the two reached 10%, while the residential area accounted for 63.8%, and the rest was accounted for by roads, canals and other facilities. Great progress was made in the Han Dynasty.

The location of the business district "city" has also changed.Initially, the city was located in the north of Miyagi, in line with the principle of "facing the future market" in "Zhou Li · Kao Gong Ji".Han Chang'an City was built in this way, and the nine cities are all in the north of Weiyang Palace, Gui Palace, and Beigong.Both Cao, Wei and Ye broke through this layout, and moved the city to the square in the south of Miyagi, changing the tradition of "facing the future market".

The change in the location of Miyagi and the "city" brought about another change.The palace city of Chang'an in the Western Han Dynasty was in the southwest of the whole city, and the whole city faced east from west, with the east gate as the main entrance.However, in the city of Luoyang in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the south and north palaces were arranged in a row, with the south gate as the main entrance, forming a layout facing south.From the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the capital city developed from facing south to east and west symmetry, and had a north-south central axis layout. The meaning of "face south and be king".However, in the Yuan Dynasty, in order to append "Zhou Li · Kao Gong Ji", Yuan Dadu re-adopted the principle of "facing the future market" and moved the palace city to the southernmost part of the capital city, enclosing it within the Xiao Wall of the second city , residential areas and markets are outside the Xiao Wall.When it came to Beijing in the Ming Dynasty, the imperial city and palace city were pushed to the north of the city, but not the northernmost, so it was still different from the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

The plane shape of Guo Hecheng is also constantly changing.It is generally close to a square, but it is not a square as mentioned in "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji", but a rectangle.Before Yedu of Cao Wei Dynasty, it was basically a north-south vertical rectangle, and from Yedu, an east-west horizontal rectangle began to appear.But in general, the future capital is still dominated by a north-south vertical rectangle.There are also some outer gates of the capital city, in order to adapt to the specific situation and terrain at that time, the square layout is not adopted.In the Western Han Dynasty, the palace was built first, and then the city was built. Therefore, the shape of the outer gate is very irregular, like a big dipper in the sky, so it is also called Doucheng.In order to strengthen the defense of Nanjing, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty included many hills and Xuanwu Lake with military significance when building the Outer Kingdom according to local conditions, so the plane shape of Nanjing city is also very irregular.In addition, Luoyang City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Jinling Mansion in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and Lin'an Mansion in the Southern Song Dynasty are all surrounded by mountains and rivers, and they are naturally curved and not square. The city walls of the early capitals were all rammed with mud. When they were built, guard plates were usually sandwiched on both sides, and soil was added layer by layer to make them firm.The city of Chang'an in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the city of Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty were all built with rammed earth.Most of these city walls no longer exist. Only a few places, such as Luoyang King City of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Wuyang City of Yanxia Capital, and Chang'an City of the Western Han Dynasty, still retain some ruined walls, which look like loess ridges from a distance.The best-preserved one is Tongwan City, the vigorous capital of the Xia Kingdom of the Sixteen Kingdoms. Due to its particularly solid construction and location in the desert, it still maintains a majestic and majestic appearance. In the late feudal society, the capital began to use bricks to build the city walls.This change probably started in the southern part of my country at the earliest.From the end of the Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties, some larger cities in the south, such as Chengdu, Suzhou and Fuzhou, successively used bricks to build their cities.City walls made of bricks are undoubtedly stronger than those made of rammed earth, and are not afraid of rain. Therefore, since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, major cities have adopted the method of building city walls with bricks.As a political center, the capital is naturally unwilling to lag behind in this regard.Nanjing City in the Ming Dynasty was the first capital city built with bricks in the history of our country. The outer layer of the city wall was wrapped with large bricks of uniform specifications each weighing about 20 kilograms, so it was quite strong. practice. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, several capital cities had well-planned and relatively neat streets.In the Western Han Dynasty, Chang'an was built on the basis of the old Qin Palace, so it formed an irregular plane, and the roads appeared to be messy, but the main streets still intersected in the shape of a T or a cross.There are eight main streets in the city, of which Anmen Nei Street, which runs from north to south, is five kilometers long and about 50 meters wide.The 20 meters in the middle of this street is a dedicated road for the emperor, with ditches on both sides, and streets with a width of 13 meters on both sides of the ditch. Since the construction of Yecheng by Cao Cao at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, most of the capitals have adopted a regular layout similar to a chessboard, and there is often a central street that runs through the city.Its streets are very wide, generally north-south, starting from the main gate of the outer gate, passing through the main gate of the imperial city, and then passing through the main gate of the palace city to the middle of the north city wall.This central street is equivalent to the central axis of the city layout, and all the buildings in the city are based on it, roughly symmetrically distributed on both sides of the central axis.As early as in the Warring States period, Zhaowangcheng and Yanxiadu in Handan already had a layout method of building on the central axis with palaces as the main body. Caowei Yecheng made this layout more clear.This form of urban layout creates an imposing manner of facing the middle of the palace city from left to right, highlighting the supreme authority of the emperor. Therefore, it has been adopted by successive dynasties since Cao Wei Yedu, and has become the main layout of streets and buildings in ancient Chinese capitals. The most typical ones are Chang'an City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty. The central axis of Chang'an City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties was Zhuquemen Street, also known as Chengtianmen Street.The southern end starts from the Mingde Gate in the middle of the Outer Guocheng, and goes north through the Suzaku Gate, the south gate of the Imperial City, and the Chengtian Gate, the south gate of the Miyagi City, and runs straight through the north and south of the city.Including this street, 11 north-south avenues and 14 east-west avenues form a neat road network, dividing the whole city into several checkerboard grids. ", is exactly the portrayal of this uniform chessboard pattern.With Zhuquemen Street as the middle boundary, the whole city is divided into east and west parts. The east belongs to Wannian County and the west belongs to Chang'an County.Taiji Palace (the palace where the emperor listened to politics and lived) is located at the northern end of the central axis.Shangshusheng, Taipu Temple, Yushitai, Honglu Temple, Dushuijian and Qianniuwei, where hundreds of officials work in the imperial city, are all side by side with Zhuquemen Street as the axis.There is Taimiao in the southeast corner of the imperial city, and Sheji altar in the southwest corner.The residential area is also divided into two parts, east and west, with Zhuquemen Street as the axis.There are 12 squares in the east and west of the imperial city and the palace city, and 43 squares in the east and west of Zhuquemen Street in the south of the imperial city (the southeast corner is Qujiang Pond, if subtracted, there will be one less square in the east).The "city" of the commercial district is also divided into Dongshi and Xishi, which belong to Wannian County and Chang'an County, and are divided into east and west sides. The planning and construction of Chang'an City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties fully reflected the grandeur of the heyday of my country's feudal society, and had a great impact on the construction of the capital city in the future, and was imitated by the frontier regional regimes and neighboring countries in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.The upper capital of the Bohai Kingdom, Heian-kyo and Pingcheng-kyo in Japan were built in imitation of Chang'an city in the Sui and Tang dynasties. In the construction of the capitals of the past dynasties in our country, the layout of the main buildings of the Yuan Dynasty can be said to be the closest to the "Zhou Li · Kao Gong Ji" The former dynasty (imperial court), the latter market (market), the left ancestor (taimiao), the right society (Sajitan) design requirements.The Imperial City and Miyagi are located in the southern center of the city.The central axis of the city starts from the Lizheng Gate in the south, passes through the Lingxing Gate of the Imperial City, the Chongtian Gate of the Miyagi, Daming Hall, Yanchun Pavilion, Houzai Gate, passes through Wanning Bridge, and ends at the "Central Platform" in the west of the Central Pavilion (north of the Drum Tower today). ".There are three gates on the south side of Waiguo City. The south is called Lizhengmen, the east is called Wenming Gate, and the west is called Shuncheng Gate.Each of the last two city gates has a straight main road leading straight to the north of the city, and a main road is also built between the two city gates (except for a few exceptions).These arterial roads crisscross, including Shuncheng Street, a total of nine north and south arterial roads, forming a chessboard pattern.Only in the west of the "Central Terrace", along the northeast bank of Jishuitan, a diagonal street is opened to meet the needs of transportation and commercial development because it is located at the end of the Tonghui River.The street is straight, and it is said that one can see the other from one end, and one can see the opposite from one door.There are generally parallel side streets and alleys between the streets.Due to the strong wind and cold weather in Beijing in winter, the streets and alleys are mainly east-west, and the residents' houses are distributed on the north and south sides of each street and alley.In this way, each house can have its main hall and bedroom facing north and south, which is convenient for sunlight heating, ventilation and lighting. The layout of the inner city of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty generally followed the planning of the Yuan Dynasty.The three city gates in the south, east and west of the inner city were renamed Zhengyangmen (also known as Qianmen), Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen respectively. From the latter two gates, there is a wide avenue to the north, leading directly to the northern part of the inner city. It intersects with Dongzhimen and Xizhimen avenues.The streets and alleys are mainly distributed on both sides of the Imperial Palace Office, and the layout of the streets and alleys has not changed much. However, the strict, neat and symmetrical forms of Chang’an City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty are only suitable for completely new capitals with flat terrain. Other capitals that are rebuilt or newly built but restricted by hills and rivers mostly use this layout. Need to adapt to local conditions.There were many hills and rivers in Nanjing City in Ming Dynasty, and part of the old city walls of Southern Tang and Song Dynasties were used, so the layout was irregular. From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Qin and Han Dynasties, the basic unit of residents in the capital city was called "li", with an area of ​​about one square mile.There is a wall outside the house, and there is only one door for residents to enter and exit. The key is kept by a special person, and it is opened and closed on time every day.There is a Liguan in the Limen, and every day a staff member is sent to sit in the gatehouse next to the Limen to monitor the people who come and go. Anyone who does not observe the time, wears inappropriate clothes, or behaves irregularly shall be reported at any time.However, in Chang’an of the Han Dynasty, there were residences of senior officials who could not enter and exit through the inner door, and opened the door facing the street. This kind of residence was called “Di”. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, "Fang" was used instead of "Li".When the capital was moved to Luoyang, a large number of laborers were conscripted, and 320 workshops were built at one time, and most of the workshops had the same specifications.The squares are all square, with one door on each side.There are two Lizhengs and four Lili officials in each square, and eight gatekeepers to supervise and observe the people entering and leaving each gate. The planning of Chang'an City Square in the Sui and Tang Dynasties is strict, with a plane close to a square, generally 502 meters from east to west, and 510-560 meters from north to south, surrounded by tall rammed earth walls.There are doors on all sides of the big square, and there is a cross street in the middle. The square is divided into four districts, and each district has cross-shaped alleys called "qu".There are also four small squares, only the east and west gates and a side street.Each square is managed by Li Zheng and Li Zu.The government stipulates that the gate of the square should be opened and closed on time in the morning and evening, with 600 drumming as the sign.Residents are not allowed to walk on the street after the door is closed, otherwise it is a violation of the ban, and according to the law, they will be punished with 20 whips.Only the sick and those who are in charge of funerals can enter and exit the workshop gate at night after approval.This system is strictly enforced. The so-called "six street drums cut off pedestrians to rest, and nine Ququ (ququ) is full of moons in the sky" is a portrayal of this situation.Since Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, in order to celebrate the Shangyuan Festival, it was stipulated that the gates of the squares could be opened on the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth nights of the first lunar month every year, and the people were allowed to light lanterns and play games on the streets.From the Western Han Dynasty to the Northern Wei Dynasty, the houses of high-ranking officials were not built in the interior, but opened along the street. In Chang'an in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, both officials and civilians' residences were built in the square, thus reaching the peak of the closed structure of the ancient capital. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, some countries in the Central Plains had special commercial districts - "city". Qi Jinggong once wanted to replace the residence of his minister Yan Ying because it was too noisy because it was close to the city.There were many cities in the Warring States Period.When it came to Chang'an in the Western Han Dynasty, there were nine cities clearly recorded, and there were not only commercial areas in the city, but also handicraft workshops.There were three cities in Luoyang in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, which were located in the west, east and south of the city, which were more concentrated than Chang'an in the Han Dynasty.In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Chang'an City set up two cities, east and west.According to the excavation of the West City, it is slightly longer from north to south, and slightly shorter from east to west, each of which is about 1,000 meters apart. Walls are built around, and there are streets along the walls. There are nine rectangular areas, and the city centrally establishes management agencies such as the Municipal Administration and the Peace and Standardization Bureau. At the same time as the closed Lifang was formed, the urban area with a closed structure began to appear at least during the Warring States Period.There are walls on all sides of the urban area, and there is a gate in the middle of each side, called the city gate. According to regulations, the city gate must be opened and closed on time.In the Tang Dynasty, every day at noon when the drum was beaten 300 times, the store would not be able to open; when the sun was about to set, the shop would be closed when the sun was about to set, and the gong [zheng] (a copper instrument shaped like a plate) was beaten 300 times. . Since the late Tang Dynasty, with the development of the city's economy and the prosperity of commerce, this closed market system has been severely impacted. Not only have night markets prohibited by law appeared in Chang'an City, but also private demolition of the gates has occurred frequently. The event of opening doors to the main street.In the squares near the city, there appeared places similar to today's hotels for short-term rental and rest, which became the most prosperous and lively places in the city, and even "noisy day and night, with endless lights." When the outer city of Kaifeng was built in the Later Zhou Dynasty of the Five Dynasties, to meet the needs of the times, it no longer built square walls like the Tang Dynasty, but allowed residents to build houses along the street, and planted trees and dug along the roadside with an area equivalent to 1/10 of the street width. Wells and covered pergola gradually formed an open market system and street system.The Northern Song Dynasty continued this change, and in the mid-term, the old East and West cities of Tokyo Lifang had also disappeared.Before and after this, other cities have also undergone corresponding changes. After the restructuring in Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty, businesses no longer existed in several cities, but were scattered in various parts of the capital, mixed with residential areas. Shops and restaurants were set up along the streets, and the streets were open to the public, giving the city a completely new look.The kind of trading market or regular fair concentrated in the temple temple began to take shape.The Xiangguo Temple in Kaifeng City is not only the largest temple in the city, but also an important market. Its two verandahs [wuwu] (houses around the ancient hall) can accommodate tens of thousands of people to do business.There is no time limit for commercial activities. In addition to the daytime, there is also a night market at night, and there is also a dawn market in the morning. The night market ends at the third watch, and the dawn market starts again at the fifth watch. Ancient capitals have always attached great importance to urban greening, and trees have been planted on both sides of the roads in the imperial capitals of all dynasties.Generally speaking, elm and pagoda tree are the main trees in the north, while pagoda tree and willow are used together in the south.In the Tang Dynasty, pagoda trees lined the streets on both sides of Chang'an City, and the trees were full of shade. People at that time called it "Huai Street".Bai Juyi's poem "A long distance from Qinghuai Street, far away from Bajiufang" describes this landscape.Indus and willow trees are planted all over the imperial city and palace city.The greening of the central street on the central axis of the capital is more particular: a royal ditch is set up in the middle of the road to divert water, and trees are planted along the ditch.There are pomegranates and flowers planted on both sides of the Central Royal Road in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Sui Dynasty, as long as nine miles. When the breeze passes, the waves of flowers rise and fall, which is very spectacular. Garden gardens for emperors and generals to play field hunting are also an integral part of the capital.In order to meet the needs of the rulers for field hunting and recreation, the capitals of the past dynasties have opened up a large number of ditches, ponds and forbidden forest gardens inside and outside the city. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the practice of building gardens in the capitals of the vassal states was quite prosperous. The terraces built by King Zhuang of Chu, and the Gusu Terrace and Hailing Palace built by King Fuchai of Wu all had a certain scale.After Qin Shihuang unified the country, he immediately opened up a huge Shanglin Garden in the south of the Weihe River, reaching an unprecedented scale.There are many detached palaces in the garden.Qin Shihuang was superstitious. He not only sent alchemists to visit immortals everywhere, but also "made a long pond to divert the Wei River" in the garden, and used stones and soil to pile up the legendary East China Sea fairy mountains such as Penglai and Yingzhou, creating a precedent for artificial mountains. Qujiang Pond and Furong Garden in the southeast of Chang'an City in the Tang Dynasty were famous scenic spots. During Emperor Xuanzong's reign, a magnificent and beautiful garden, Xingqing Palace, was built in Xingqingfang.There are many scenic spots around Chang'an, and the Huaqing Palace and Huaqing Pool at the foot of Lishan Mountain are even more famous all over the world. Tang Xuanzong took Yang Guifei there every winter to avoid the cold.Bai Juyi's poem "Chun Han gives you a bath in Huaqing Pool, and the hot spring water is smooth and gelatinous", which is a portrayal of this matter.There are huge forest gardens inside and outside the cities of Beijing, Kaifeng, Nanjing, and Hangzhou.The West Lake in Hangzhou is based on the natural scenery, while the scenery in Kaifeng is completely artificial.The Qing Dynasty spent more than a hundred years and spent a lot of manpower and material resources to manage the scenic spot in the western suburbs.Among them, the Old Summer Palace is the pinnacle masterpiece of Chinese classical garden architecture, but unfortunately it was burned to ruins by Western invaders. In addition to the numerous royal gardens, the wealthy and nobles in the capital also built many gardens rich in natural scenery.For example, Yuan Guanghan, a wealthy man in Maoling Mausoleum in Chang'an in the Western Han Dynasty, built a garden mansion with a length of one or two kilometers from east to west and from north to south. Grass, everything is available.Since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it has become a custom to build mountain pools and gardens at the back of the house or beside the house.Bai Juyi's home garden in Luoyang in his later years covers an area of ​​17 mu. Except for the house, which occupies 2/3, the rest is water surface, bamboo forest, pavilion and rockery.Private gardens and royal gardens complement each other, forming the main part of the capital scenic area. Palaces and altars and temples are important buildings in the ancient capital, constituting an aspect of the layout of the capital. The palace is the place where the ruler issues orders, and it is also the place for daily living.The emperors of all dynasties built countless majestic and magnificent palaces, but the palaces that can still be seen today are only the buildings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the most important ones are the Forbidden City in Beijing and Shenyang.As far as the two are concerned, the Forbidden City in Beijing is superior to the Forbidden City in Shenyang, regardless of its scale, exquisite architectural technology and long use time. The Forbidden City in Beijing was first built in the fourth year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1406), and was basically completed in the eighteenth year of Yongle.It has been more than 500 years since there were 24 emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties.On the whole, it is located in the middle of the imperial city, in the center of Beijing, and the central axis of the whole city passes through the palace.All the buildings in the palace are also strictly symmetrically arranged on the central axis, and are mainly divided into two parts: the outer court and the inner court. The Outer Dynasty includes the three main halls of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony, and is the largest building in Miyagi.Enter from Tiananmen, cross the Duanmen, pass through the Meridian Gate, the main entrance of the Forbidden City, cross the Inner Jinshui River, pass the Taihe Gate, and enter the three main halls.The first hall, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, commonly known as the "Golden Luan Hall", is the most magnificent building in the Forbidden City, where grand ceremonies were held in the Ming and Qing dynasties.Every time a new emperor ascends the throne, important edicts are issued, New Year's Day, winter solstice, the emperor's birthday, and the issuance of the yellow list of new scholars, celebration ceremonies will be held here.The second hall, Zhonghe Hall, is a square hall, where the emperor took a break or practiced etiquette before going to the Hall of Supreme Harmony to hold a grand ceremony.The third hall, Baohe Hall, is the place where grand banquets are held at the end of the year. After Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty, the palace examinations for Jinshi examinations were also held here. The inner court is behind the Palace of Preserving Harmony, where the emperor and his family lived. It mainly includes the Qianqing Palace, the emperor's bedroom, and the Kunning Palace, the queen's bedroom, plus the Jiaotai Palace between the two palaces. ".On both sides of the three palaces are the East Sixth Palace and the West Sixth Palace, where the concubines live. This is what has always been called the "Sangong and Six Courtyards". People in ancient society generally believed that there was a mysterious power beyond human beings in the universe. The sun, moon, stars, thunder and lightning, wind and rain, and important mountains and rivers in nature all had their own gods, controlling the harvest of crops and the misfortune of the world. blessing.At the same time, they worship their ancestors and hope to be blessed by them.In order to pray for the protection of God and ancestors, emperors of all dynasties built many altars and temples in the capital to worship nature and ancestors.However, altars and temples are not exactly the same.Altars are mainly used to worship various gods such as heaven and earth, sun and moon, mountains, rivers and lakes, wind, rain, thunder and lightning.Temples are mainly used to worship ancestors and sages, such as Taimiao, Confucian Temple, and Guandi Temple.Xiannongtan is quite special. It consists of three altars: Xiannongtan, Taisui and Shanchuan.It not only worships the god of agriculture, Houji, but also sacrifices agricultural time and mountains and rivers, and has both properties.