Historical Evolution of Nanjing Ming City Wall

In the 13th year of Yuan Dynasty (1353), Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the advice of general Feng Jiandu, Jinling.

Three years later, Qing Ji was captured and renamed Yingtianfu.

In the 17th year of Yuan Dynasty (1357), Zhu Sheng put forward the proposal of "building a high wall, accumulating a wide grain, and slowing down is king", and the construction of Nanjing Ming City Wall officially kicked off.

Nanjing Ming City Wall is the only unified dynasty wall in the history of China, which was built in the south of the Yangtze River.

Nanjing City in the Ming Dynasty was expanded on the basis of the establishment of Kangcheng in the Six Dynasties. It is connected with Stone Town in the east, Qinhuai in the south and Xuanwu Lake in the north, with a circumference of 35.267 kilometers, including Nanjing, the capital of all previous dynasties. It is not only the largest city wall in China, but also the largest city wall in the world.

In August of the 26th year of Yuan Dynasty (1September of 366), a new palace, Nanjing Forbidden City, was built in the south of Zhongshan (that is, Zijin Mountain) in response to the reconstruction of Tianfu City. This is the first phase of the project.

In the twenty-seventh year of Yuan Dynasty and the first year of Wu Dynasty (1367 September), the first phase of the project was completed.

In the second year of Ming Hongwu (1369), the second phase of the project started, focusing on the construction of a new city and widening the old city northward to the Yangtze River.

In the sixth year of Ming Hongwu (1373), the second phase of the project was completed, and the third phase of the project started immediately.

In the 19th year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1386 65438+ February), the third phase of the project was completed, and the main gates of Jubao, Sanshan and Tongji, as well as Houhu City and main streets were built.

In more than 20 years, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Emperor Taizu of Ming Dynasty, mobilized more than 200,000 craftsmen from five provinces and twenty-eight states 152 county to build the city wall, and at the same time fired bricks from five provincial capitals, with a built-up area of 43 square kilometers and a total length of 35.267 kilometers, including Jiankang City in Six Dynasties and Jinling City in South Tang Dynasty, with a height of 14-26 meters.

In the 23rd year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1390), after the capital was established, Zhu Yuanzhang boarded Zhongshan with his ministers and the princes of the three armed forces to watch the battle, and the fourth son Judy raised the potential concern of "shooting at the Purple Mountain and aiming at the Forbidden City".

At the same time, Yuhuatai in the south of Nanjing and Mufu Mountain in the north stay outside the city, which is extremely unfavorable to the defense of the capital.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the construction of Waiguo City Wall to make up for the lack of Beijing City Wall. Waiguo is 180 Li, and each brick part adds up to about 40 Li. The outer tucheng is about 8 8- 10/0m high and 6-8m wide.

In the 26th year of Ming Hongwu (1393), all the walls of Nanjing Ming City Wall were completed.

In the fourth year of Ming dynasty (1402), the Ming city wall of Nanjing faced the crisis of war damage for the first time, and Judy, the prince of Yan, went south to attack Nanjing city.

"At Jinchuan Gate, Gu Sui and Li Jinglong opened the door, and the capital surrendered."

This time, opening the door to welcome guests saved the Ming city wall from a catastrophe.

During the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing was "the place where the ancestors took root and the seat of the Southeast General Association", and the city wall was highly valued by the central authorities at all levels. More than 40 large-scale wall repairs were recorded on the road alone.

Especially when Feng Cheng Hou Lixian, who is experienced in repairing the city, served as Nanjing garrison, the repair of Nanjing city wall was quite complete.

Matteo Ricci, an Italian missionary who arrived in Nanjing three times in the mid-0/6th century A.D., said, "This city has surpassed all other cities in the world".

In Matteo Ricci's Notes on China, he recorded a story told by the local people: Two people rode in opposite directions of the city, and it took a whole day to meet. The scale of the Nanjing city wall can be imagined.

In the Qing Dynasty, Nanjing was the seat of the Governor-General of the Two Rivers and the political and military center city in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, although the protection of the Ming city wall tended to weaken.

However, it is still an era of combining cold weapons with hot weapons, and the maintenance of Nanjing city walls is still guaranteed.

Wu, a writer in the Qing Dynasty, lived on the Qinhuai River in Nanjing for many years. In The Scholars, he wrote: "Today Nanjing is the capital of Emperor Mao, with 13 inner gates and 18 outer gates, passing through the city for 40 miles and circling the city for more than 120 miles", which clearly described the origin and scale of the Nanjing City Wall.

In the 18th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1892), the gate of Shence Gate in Nanjing was restored and rebuilt according to the style of Huai 'an House. Its scale is smaller than that of Ming dynasty, and it is divided into two floors, with double eaves and resting on the top of the mountain, all of which are made of city bricks.

In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (1908), the authorities reached Qinhuai River Wharf conveniently for transportation needs.

Between Liangqingmen and Dinghuaimen in the west of the city, there is a grassland gate with a single-hole arch coupon structure. The gate is about 20 meters deep and 6 meters wide.

In the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (1908), Duan Fang, then Governor of Liangjiang River and Minister of Nanyang Trade, ordered a lecture on Nanyang. In order to facilitate Chinese and foreign guests to visit Xuanwu Lake, he decided to open a city gate on the wall near the lecture venue.

The project has not been completed, and the ending party has moved. The next year, he succeeded Zhang, who was called "Fengrunmen" because of his rich native place in Hebei.

In the third year of Qing Dynasty (19 1 1), in response to the Wuchang Uprising, Jiangsu and Zhejiang allied forces were allowed to attack Nanjing from Chaoyangmen, and Wengcheng at Chaoyangmen was destroyed.

In the second year of the Republic of China (19 13), Yuan Shikai sent the Beiyang Army to retake Nanjing City and attacked Chaoyangmen and other important places with heavy artillery. The next day, Nanjing City was broken.

In the tenth year of the Republic of China (192 1), with the support of Han, then director of the Civil Affairs Department of Jiangsu Province, the wall was broken on the southwest wall of Yifeng Gate, and the road from the entrance of the city gate to the riverside pier was built from the Bazishan borrow yard in the city gate, filling Xiaonan River (now Rehe Road) with a foundation of 27,000 square meters.

The new single-hole city gate was opened, thus shortening the journey from Xiaguan River to the city.

Because Han was from Taizhou (Han was from Hai 'an and belonged to Taizhou at that time), Taizhou was called Hailing in ancient times, so the gate of Nanjing was named Hailing Gate.

In the Republic of China 16 (1927), after Nanjing was made the capital, the state proposed that "in order to meet the needs of the new capital construction, the walls and foundations of Nanjing will be sold by tender", and it was planned to demolish all the walls of Nanjing.

It was strongly opposed and condemned by the cultural circles. Xu Beihong and others published articles in the newspaper to criticize, and the city wall was finally spared.

In July of the 17th year of the Republic of China (1928), in order to rectify the atmosphere in Beijing, the National People's Congress * * ordered the Nanjing City Gate to be renamed.

Chaoyangmen is the Sun Yat-sen Gate (in memory of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's achievements), Yifeng Gate is the Zhong Xing Gate (meaning to revitalize China), Hailing Gate is the Yijiangmen Gate (because it is close to the Yangtze River), Toilet God Gate is the Peace Gate (meaning world peace), Feng Runmen is the Xuanwu Gate (because it is close to Xuanwu Lake), Jubao Gate is the Zhonghua Gate (meaning to China), and Zhengyang Gate is the Guanghua Gate.

In the same year, the National People's Congress converted the single-hole Chaoyang Gate into a three-hole Zhongshan Gate, and the inner urn was removed, while the outer urn was still there.

In the 19th year of the Republic of China (1930), Zhang Qiyun analyzed in "Geographical Environment of Capital City" that the reason why the city wall was not demolished was that "building bricks to demolish the city was too expensive, and the wages were not worth the candle". Of course, it's not that simple.

Objectively, it is its inherent military defense value that kept Nanjing Ming City Wall from 1930 until liberation.

In the twentieth year of the Republic of China (193 1), in order to facilitate the traffic in the north of Nanjing, the national * * * broke the wall at the intersection of the central road leading directly to the north and the Ming city wall 500 meters west of Shencemen, and named it the central gate.

In the same year, in order to meet the needs of Nanjing road modernization, Zhonghua East Gate and Zhonghua West Gate were opened on the east and west sides of Zhonghua Gate, which met the traffic from south to north.

In the 22nd year of the Republic of China (1933), in order to open up Hanzhong Road, Sanpiaomen, a western-style archway, was newly built on the city wall, named Hanzhong Gate, between Qingliangmen and Hanximen.

In the same year, a gap in the original Ming city wall was transformed into a city gate, named Wudingmen.

In the 23rd year of the Republic of China (1934), the city gate was opened in the north of Nanjing, located to the west of Jinchuan Gate, and now the new Xinmin Gate is built to the west of the moat at the west end of Xinmin Road.

At the same time, a moat was filled with earth. In order to keep the river flowing, a single-hole cement bridge with a deck length of about six meters and a span of about four meters was built.

In the same year, Gu, commander of Nanjing garrison, put forward the "Nanjing City Defense Proposal", which included the Ming city wall in the city defense plan and protected it.

In the 25th year of the Republic of China (1936), Yuhua Gate was opened on the basis of Nanjing Ming City Wall to connect the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway in Nanjing with the Jiangnan Railway in Yanghu Lane, and to connect with the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the small railway was gradually abandoned.

1September, 948, the "Nanjing city wall and moat fortifications rectification meeting" made nine resolutions to repair the city wall and related fortifications.

However, this time the defense function was not realized.

1954, Taicheng, located at the foot of the Arctic Pavilion Mountain, was close to the "Houhu City Wall", with convenient internal and external transportation, which opened a door for air defense evacuation. It is a single ticket gate, located in the south of Xuanwu Gate, west of Taiping Gate, northeast of Jiming Temple and south bank of Xuanwu Lake.

Around the 1950s and 1960s, the demolition movement that swept across the country spread to Nanjing. Like other ancient city walls, the restoration and protection work has gone through a tortuous course.

Due to the historical limitations and the influence of the "Left" trend of thought, the Nanjing City Wall was in danger of being completely demolished several times. Fortunately, Mr. Zhu Dai, then deputy director of the Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Culture, immediately made an urgent suggestion to the leaders of Nanjing, ordered to stop destroying the city, and ran around to unite people from all walks of life to appeal together.

At the same time, it sent a telegram to the Central Ministry of Culture, calling for the protection of the Ming City Wall.

Due to the repeated efforts of Mr. Zhu Dai and others, some citizens wrote letters to the city * * * to "criticize", and finally the Nanjing City Wall survived.

1984, Nanjing established the Zhonghua Gate Cultural Relics Protection Center and the Victory Memorial Hall for Crossing the River to protect the inherent cultural relics and show the historical features.

1988, the whole section of Nanjing Ming City Wall was announced by the State Council as a national key cultural relics protection unit. In the same year, Nanjing City Wall Management Office was established. As a professional organization for the protection, maintenance and management of Nanjing City Wall, the protection of the whole section of Nanjing Ming City Wall began to receive attention.

199 1 Nanjing * * * In order to meet the needs of urban construction and urban traffic, Zhonghua Road was opened and Qing Ji Road was widened. With the approval of National Cultural Heritage Administration, Professor Pan from the Department of Architecture of Southeast University was invited to design and build the jiqingmen. The city wall has the style of "lintel gate" in the Song Dynasty, which is the first even gate on the Nanjing city wall, meaning that the number of gates is even, which is the first of its kind.

1992, Nanjing Ming city wall protection plan was officially released.

1September, 1993, Nanjing City Wall Management Office was attached to Nanjing Cultural Relics Bureau.

1995 ~ 1996, wall restoration project from Jiefangmen to Xuanwumen.

1In April, 1996, Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress passed the local regulations formulated by Nanjing for the protection of Nanjing Ming City Wall, the Measures for the Protection and Management of Nanjing City Wall.

During the period of 1997, in the master plan of Nanjing approved by the State Council, it was clearly proposed to strengthen the protection of Ming city walls.

1996 ~ 1997, wall restoration project of Shichengmen Fucheng.

1997 ~ 1998, wall reinforcement project of Houbiao camp section.

During the period of 1998, the taipingmen section of the city wall was reinforced. On May 24th of the same year, Nanjing Ming City Wall History Museum was formally established, and shared the task of maintaining and protecting Nanjing City Wall with Nanjing City Wall Management Office, each with its own emphasis.

1998 ~ 1999, wall rescue and reinforcement project in the west section of Jiuhua Mountain.

On March 2, 2000, KLOC-0, the research group of the Feasibility Report of Nanjing Ming City Wall was established, which marked the official start of the application for the World Heritage.

From 2000 to 200 1 year, the wall of jiqingmen section was repaired.

In 200 1 year, the site of Xihuamen in Nanjing was excavated, and only three gates were left, namely Sumitomo Gate and Masonry Paved Gate, which completely confirmed the phenomenon that Xi 'anmen was mistaken for Xihuamen for a long time.

From 2002 to 2003, the wall of Shicheng section was restored.

From 2003 to 2004, the walls of the east-west trunk line, Hongshan soil section and Shencemen Wengcheng were repaired.

Since 2004, Nanjing has promulgated the protection and construction plan of the scenic belt of Ming city wall from 2005 to 2007.

Won the "Best Living Environment Model Award" issued by the Ministry of Construction.

In 2006, Nanjing City Wall, xi 'an City Wall in Shaanxi Province, Jingzhou City Wall in Hubei Province and Xingcheng City Wall in Liaoning Province were included in the China World Heritage List.

20 10, "Nanjing famous city protection plan" was issued, which clarified the height of the first-line buildings of the Ming city wall.

From June 2065438 to June 2005, the Regulations on the Protection of Nanjing City Walls was promulgated, including the outer city walls with a total length of more than 60 kilometers in addition to the walls of Nanjing Capital (inner city), Imperial City and Miyagi City.

2065438+August 2005, Nanjing Planning Bureau and Southeast University organized and compiled the Urban Design along Nanjing City Wall, which has been approved by Nanjing.

According to the planning, Nanjing Ming city wall is divided into five sections, which are distributed in a ring shape. For the missing parts without walls, green plants will be used to fill them.

Some city walls and gates will also be rebuilt in the future.

From September 2065438 to September 2005, the abutment site of Dinghuaimen City Wall was discovered in the widening project of Nanjing Mo Fan West Road. With the approval of National Cultural Heritage Administration, the Municipal Institute of Archaeology is carrying out archaeological work according to the requirements of the National Bureau.