When it comes to Xi'an, many promotional materials say: Xi'an was called Chang'an in ancient times...; this statement that it was called Chang'an in ancient times should be said to be both correct and incorrect; it is correct because Xi'an was indeed called Chang'an in ancient times; It’s wrong because this title is neither the only title for Xi’an, nor the earliest or last title;
As a city, Xi’an’s first names are “Fengjing” and “Haojing”, which are generally called "Fenghao"; originated from Zhou (Western Zhou) in the 11th century BC; when Zhou was still a vassal state of Shang, in order to prepare for the attack on Shang, King Wen of Zhou built Fengjing on the west bank of the Feng River between Xianyang and Xi'an in today's Xi'an After King Wu conquered Zhou, because Fengjing became the center of the world, and all the vassal states came here for pilgrimage, the original city size was not enough to meet the new requirements, so King Wu of Zhou built Haojing on the east bank of the Feng River; the two capitals were separated. Facing each other by the river and connected by bridges, they are actually one city. Since the ancestral temple buildings are in Feng and the imperial palace is in Hao, Feng is called "Zongzhou" and Hao is called "Chengzhou". Whenever there are national sacrifices and other activities, The king of Zhou still had to walk across the Fenghe Bridge to Fenghao to hold the ceremony; this is how the earliest twin capitals in Chinese history appeared;
The emergence of Fenghao is of great significance to Xi'an becoming China's first ancient capital today: This is a large city in the true sense. It is called "Jing" in ancient books, which means big city. This is the first time the word "Jing" appears in China. In the following thousands of years, "Jing" became the name of the capital. Synonymous with it, but at first it was just Fenghao, which is the specific reference to Xi'an today; this was the first appearance of Xi'an as a large city. Previously, urban construction in the Guanzhong area was mainly concentrated in the Baoji area where the Zhou people originated; but today Xi'an's third It is extraordinary when it appears once. It appears directly as the national capital. In other words, the history of Xi'an's founding is the history of its capital. This is unmatched by other ancient Chinese capitals;
After the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was a long period of chaos in Guanzhong until the Qin people occupied it. The Qin people first chose Baoji, the hometown of the Zhou people, to build their capital in Guanzhong; but with Qin's national power and ambition to annex the world, Continuously growing, it faced the same situation as the Zhou Dynasty; history is similar, two kingdoms with the same talents and strategies made the same choice; Qin Xiaogong appointed Shang Yang to carry out reforms, and the first item of the reform was to move the capital from Yong ( Baoji) moved to today's Yueyang in Yanliang District (China Aircraft City), Xi'an City; later in Qin Dynasty, it moved to Xianyang, but this Xianyang is not exactly today's Xianyang; today's Xianyang is about 20 kilometers due west of Xi'an, and Xianyang, the capital of Qin, is 20 kilometers northwest of Xi'an today. Some people say that Xianyang is a separate city and should not be included in the history of the capital of Xi'an. Take a look, Xianyang, the capital of Qin, is only 20 kilometers away from the center of Xi'an, and there are some The urban ruins of the ancient capital that are half a hundred kilometers away from today's city can be regarded as their own history. Why can't this be regarded as Xi'an's? What's more, the "Xixian integration" has been implemented for several years, and the long-distance telephone area codes of the two places have been unified to 029. Why not?
The capital of Qin was grand in scale, and the essence of it, Epang Palace, was the largest palace in Chinese history, showing the majesty of the Qin Empire; but not long after the tyranny, the emerging Han Dynasty replaced it; due to Xiang Yu's entry into the Pass After setting fire to Qin's palaces and cities, the Han Dynasty re-selected a place on the south bank of the Wei River to build a brand new capital. This city was named because it was close to a small village called "Chang'an"; from this time on , Chang'an, the most glorious name in the 2000-year-old river, began to illuminate history;
The Han Dynasty was another dynasty after the Western Zhou Dynasty that had a great influence on Xi'an becoming the first ancient capital of China today; first of all, the Han Dynasty was a powerful The most powerful dynasty was in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. At that time, the Han Dynasty completely defeated the Xiongnu who had threatened the Central Plains for nearly a thousand years, creating a worldwide example of farming people defeating nomadic peoples. "Those who offend the strong Han Dynasty will "Although we are far away, we must be punished" became the declaration of the Han Dynasty; culturally, the Han Dynasty ushered in the 2,000-year dominance of Confucian culture in China; the Han Dynasty was also an open era, and the first world-class traveler Zhang Qian established China and the world for the first time. The Silk Road still has an important influence today; therefore, the main body of the Chinese nation today is called "Han", the Chinese characters are called "Hanzi", the language is called "Hanyu", and the subject of studying Chinese culture is called "Sinology" and so on, and all of these are closely connected with the city called Chang'an;
> From the Eastern Han Dynasty until the Sui Dynasty, China once again experienced a long period of division and turmoil. During this period, there were a relatively large number of dynasties that established their capitals in Xi'an today, but they all had one unique feature: they all used the same capital city; perhaps even the city wall bricks It has not been changed; that is to say, from the founding of the Western Han Dynasty to the 800 years before the Sui Dynasty, a Chang'an city was used by different rulers without any changes; this created another "best" of China's ancient capitals, After all, there is no city that has not been renovated, rebuilt, and relocated during its use. Only Han Chang'an City did not do so;
800 years of uninterrupted use brought the old Chang'an City to its limit. After the unification of the Sui Dynasty, They had to choose a new site and establish a new capital; the new capital was located less than 5 kilometers southeast of Chang'an City in the Han Dynasty, and was named "Daxing". It was the largest in the world, and the construction period was only nine months; after that, the Tang Dynasty took over the entire city of Daxing. Accept it and change it back to "Chang'an". In this way, the first famous city in ancient China was completely formed;
The influence of Tang Chang'an was even more profound. Today, many cities in Japan, South Korea and other Asian countries still have Tang Dynasty charms. Traces of Chang'an; it was the center of Asia at that time, a place that attracted worldwide attention, and was the first city in the world with a population of more than 1 million. Conservative estimates put the number of foreigners living in Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty at more than 50,000. This number puts In today's China, it is rarely surpassed; Tang suit, Tang City, Chinatown, "Tang" has become another symbolic totem that represents China internationally after "Han". As the center of Tang culture, Chang'an has since established the handbook of China's ancient capitals. An insurmountable position!