"The six kings are finished, and the four seas are one; the Shu Mountain is steep, and Afang comes out. It covers more than 300 miles, isolating the sky. Mount Li is built in the north and turns west, going straight to Xianyang?" Du Mu's "A Fang Palace Fu" " has a more literary and exaggerated narrative about Afang Palace, but it is not purely fictional.
Du Mu's "Ode to Afang Palace"
After Qin Shihuang destroyed the six kingdoms and completed the great cause of unification, he thought that his merits exceeded those of the three emperors and the five emperors. In the thirty-fifth year of Qin Shihuang (212 BC), in the capital A large-scale construction project was carried out in Xianyang, with the intention that after completion, it would become the political center of the Qin Dynasty. More than 700,000 hidden officials and prisoners were recruited to build Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum and Epang Palace respectively. The largest of the palaces built is Afang Palace. According to "Historical Records: The Chronicles of the First Emperor of Qin", this hall is "five hundred feet from east to west and fifty feet from north to south. It can seat tens of thousands of people on top and build a flag of five feet below." Epang Palace brought together the advantages of palace architecture across the country at that time, and its scale was unprecedented. But why is this palace named "Afang"?
Afang Palace
Inspection found that there are mainly three views: The first view is that "Afang" was named because the palace site is close to Xianyang. "Historical Records? The Chronicles of the First Emperor of Qin" quotes "Kuo Di Zhi" as saying: "Qin Afang Palace, also known as Afang City, is located 14 miles northwest of Chang'an County in Yongzhou. The Yin Palace is in Shanglin Garden, southwest of Yongzhou Guocheng, that is, southeast of Afang City "So, Yan Shigu said, "Ah, it's close to Xianyang, so it's named Afang." The second view is based on the analysis of the architectural style of Afang Palace. This palace is named after its shape of "Si A Pang Guang". Ah, in ancient meaning it can also be interpreted as Qu Chu, Qu Yu, Ting Zhi, etc. The architectural structure of Epang Palace, which is "twirling and winding, with winding corridors and curved waists, and clustered around," embodies the style and characteristics of the "four Epangs". It is precisely because of the architectural style of Afang Palace that the index of "Historical Records: The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang" explains why the palace is called Afang Palace: "This is the shape of the palace, which means that the palace is wide in all directions."
The third view is that the name "Afang" was named because the palace buildings are all located on Daling. This view comes from the "Hanshu Jiashan Biography", in which the annotation is: "Ah, it is a large mausoleum. It is named Afang, which means that it is so high that the upper part is the house." It means that because the palace is built in the It was named after the Daling Mausoleum. Archaeological excavations strongly support this view. The site of the ancient Epang Palace is located in the Epang Village area about 15 kilometers outside Xi'an. The excavated ruins show that the Epang Palace was located on a steep hill, and the tall foundation of the palace is still here today. In addition, near the south of Afang Village, there is a large earth platform left behind by the palace, with a circumference of 31 meters and a height of about 20 meters: According to research, there is also a tall rammed earth platform from the ruins of the front hall of Afang Palace in the southwest of the village, with an east-to-west length of about 1,200 meters long, 500-600 meters long from north to south, and the highest point is about 8 meters. Epang Palace is built on these tall platforms.
The ruins of Afang Palace
The above are the opinions on the naming of Afang Palace. They all have their reasons, but it is difficult to determine who is right and who is wrong. Only the First Emperor who ordered the construction of Afang Palace, or Xiang Yu who burned the Qin Palace and the people of Qin at that time knew the whole story.