Beijing's History
Beijing's History
Beijing is a city with more than 3,000 years of recorded history and centuries-old glorious evolution. Evidence of human ancestry dating back to 700,000 years ago (approximately) has been found in such places as Zhoukoudian in the southwest part of Beijing, where the remains known as 'Peking Man' were found.
While the city's origins can be traced to over 2,000 years ago, its true significance came about in early years of western Zhou Dynasty (11th centuryBC-771). During this time the emperor gave the feudal lords under his rule plots of land. One of these plots of land, called 'Ji City', which was the capital of the kingdom 'Ji' at that time.
After that when the kingdom of Ji no longer existed, the name was replaced by the kingdom of 'Yan'. However Ji was still the capital city at that time.
The Beijing City wall was a series of fortification built between early 1400's and 1533's. The inner city wall was about 24 km long and 16 meter high, with a thickness of 20 meters at the ground level and 12 meter at the top.
It had nine gates. This wall stood for nearly 530 years, but in 1965 it was removed to allow construction to the 2nd Ring Road and the Subway (地铁) Line 2. The Outer city walls had a perimeter of approximately 28km. The entire enclosure of the Inner and Outer walls formed a "凸" shape with a perimeter of nearly 60km.
Historical records indicate that when Li Zicheng retreated from the city in 1644, he ordered that the Ming Imperial Palace Complex and the major city gates be set at fire.
But late in 1960, when the walls were finally dismantled, the workers realized that Dongzhimen and Chongwenmen towers and gates section were the Ming originals.
The Imperial government of Qing China collapsed in 1911. Between 1912 and 1949, the Beiyang Military Government, The RCNG, and the Northern China reform government all under took minor deconstructions and adjustments.
In 1915, the sight tower sat northeast and southeast corners were dismantled and the barbican and sluice gates at Dongshenmen, Andingmen, Chaoyangmen, and Dongzhimen were dismantled for the passage of trains.
The defense system of Beijing during Ming and Qing dynasties included city walls, moats, gate tower, barbicans watch tower, corner guard towers, enemy sight tower and military encampments both outside and inside the city.
During the Ming dynasty, troops under permanent encampment in and around Beijing were called Jingjun or Jingying ("capital troops"). During the Tumu Crisis in 1449, theentire Jingjun was destroyed, a loss of some 500,000 men.
Yu Qian then changed the organizational structure of the force by bringing approximately 100,000 well-trained troops from different camps into super group and named it 10-battalion super group. During the Ming and Qing dynesties, the principal defensive weapons were firelocks, cannons, and bows and arrows.
In 1629 Houjin troops attacked Beijing and in 1644 Li Zicheng's troops laid siege to Beijing.Troops atop the city walls used cannons extensively during both sieges. During the second Opium War (1856-1860), invading troops stationed outside the city walls gave up because Beijing was too extensively protected.
Beijing's inner city is also called Jingcheng ("capital city"). The eastern and western sections were originally part of the Yuan city of Dadu, while the northern and southern sections were built during the early Ming dynasty (“1368-1398”). The city walls of Dadu were used as foundation for the Inner city walls of Beijing.
In 1368,after Ming troops entered Dadu, General Xu Da directed Hua Jilong to build a second city wall of rammed earth to the south of original northern city wall. After the capital was moved to Beijing in 1406, the southern city wall was moved south about a Kilometer. The original Dadu city walls were not destroyed except for a small section that overlapped the planned Ming Imperial city.
Nevertheless, Dadu's southern city walls were gradually torn down by people looking for free bricks and stones. Dadu's eastern and western walls remained standing.
Zhengyangmen (“Gate of Righteous Sun”), completed in 1419, was located at the center of southern wall of the Inner city. It was constructed in the triple-caved Xieshanding style, with green glazed tiles. Originally called Lizhengmen, the name was changed during Zhengtong era (1435-1449).
Dongzhimen (“Eastern Upright Gate”) was located on the northern section of the Inner city eastern wall. It was built on the location of the Chongrenmen gate of the Yuan era, the central gate of the eastern city wall of Dadu.
In 1419 the name was changed to Quoting. Dongzhimen's gate tower was five rooms long (31.6 meters), three room wide (15.4 meters) and two floors high (35 meters). It was built in the multi-caved Xieshanding style with grey tiles and green glazed edges.
Xizhimen (“Western Upright Gate”) was located on the northern section of Inner city western wall. Built on the site of the Yuan era gate called 'Heyimen', the name was changed in 1419, to reflect its location.
The gate tower was 32 meters long, 15.7 meters wide, 33 meters high. The barbican was 68 meters by 62 meters, with a sluice gate and an archway on the southern side. Its Guandi temple, which was dismantled in 1930, was located on the northeastern corner, facing south.
Beijing's Imperial city was built during Yongle era (1402-1424). It was expanded northwards, eastwards, and southwards from the foundations the Imperial city of Dadu of the Yuan Dynasty as an expansion of Forbidden City.
The walls averaged 7 to 8 meters in height, and were 2 meter thick at the base and 1.7 meter at the top. There were seven gates of which Tiananmen, Di'anmen, Dong'anmen, and Xi'anmen are the four referred to by the saying "Inner city nine gates, Outer city seven gates, Imperial city four gates" .
Beijing's Palace city or "Forbidden City" was completed in 1415. Its surrounding walls had a perimeter of 3.4 km, a height of 10 meters, a thickness of 8.62 meters at the base, and a top thickness of 8.66 meters.
The wall had two rows of roof tiles glazed in the imperial yellow color set on a triangular base of 0.84 meter tall. Although Wumen was the southern-facing main gate with the alignment of three other gates. Yongdingmen of the Outer city, Zhengyangmen of the Inner city and Tiananmen of the Imperial city.
Beijing, the political, cultural, military and commercial center of empire, was the capital city of the last three dynasty of china. It was the last imperial capital built in China's hintory. It is the final example of China's 3,200 year long square shaped dynastical city planning style. It closely matched the scale of chang'an of the Tang Dynasty.
The city was carefully planned during the early Ming Dynasty, with central axis running through the midpoints of the Northern and Southern Walls. And now days we can see the new Beijing as the Capital of People's Republic of China. Love Beijing and Love China.