Ming Zhongdu was the last capital city newly-built on the bare land in ancient China,and conveyed the outstanding wisdom in site selection and design of the capital city in the Ming Dynasty.As a masterpiece and an example in the history of Chinese urban planning,Ming Zhongdu had an important influence on the subsequent reconstruction of Nanjing and Beijing.Regarding the design and construction of Ming Zhongdu,the academic community have reached consensus in two aspects.Firstly,Ming Zhongdu was an abandoned capital city that was never completed.The construction of Ming Zhongdu was launched in the second year of Hongwu(1369),and teminated in the eighth year of Hongwu(1375),when the main palaces,government buildings,roads as well as the city walls were nearly completed.Secondly,the design of Ming Zhongdu was changed.According to the documentary records,the capital wall in the original design was 45 li in circumference,while that in the built city was more than 50 li.Wang Jianying believed that the city outline in the original design was square,and the east and west walls were symmetrical along the axis of the palace,with the west,south and north walls at the same location with those in the city site,and the east wall to the west of that in the city site.This conclusion is gennerally followed by current studies.However,when calculating the geometry precisely,the author find something wrong.If the capital walls in the original design is at the same position as Wang Jianying believed,the shape of the capital city is not square but rectangular,and the length in the east-west direction is 208 m longer than the width in the north-south direction,which is a large deviation in reference to the measurement level at that time.In addition,the perimeter of the city wall is 43 li and 215 paces,which is not in line with the record of 45 li in the literature.the author use geographic information technology to accurately locate the city relics recorded in Wang Jianying's investigation report,and draw a planar restoration map of Ming Zhongdu based on recent archaeological discoveries,current satellite images and the adjusted satellite films shot in the 1970s.The map shows that the line through Changqiu Gate and Changchun gate and the line through Zishun Gate,Bell Tower and Drum Tower are roughly symmetrical along the east-west line through Dushan Gate.If Wang Jianying's idea is followed to assume that the south and north walls in the original design are symmetrical along the east-west line through Dushan Gate,the initially designed south wall is 327 paces to that of the built city,and the circumference is about 45 li and 252 paces which is close to the record 45 li in the literature.In addition,the angles among the lines connecting the center and four gates are all close to 60°,and the distances between the center and five gates are almost equal.The circumference of the imperial city is close to 4 880 paces,comparable to that of the imperial city of Nanjing built in the sixth year of Hongwu.The layout of the palace city takes Qianqing Gate as the center,which is almost equidistant(1 li)from the northwest corner tower,northeast corner tower,Xihua Gate,Wu Gate,Donghua Gate and the city center.This feature is very similar to the palace cities of Yuan Dadu and Ming Beijing.At the scale of the landscape environment,the axis of the imperial city is directly orientated towards a depression of the Xiang Sheng Mountain in the south,and passes through the Wansui Mount in the north.The line connecting the capital center and the top of the Shengjia Mount is exactly perpendicular to the central axis.The center of the palace city is at the intersection of the central axis and the line connecting the Rijin Mount and the Fenghuangzui Mount.On this basis,the planning process and design scheme of Ming Zhongdu are restored based on the ancient Chinese urban planning theory.It is concluded that the planning of Ming Zhongdu adopted the technical method of positioning by mountain and river,and that there were three design phases of the ideal layout,the original design,and the revised design.As capitals of unified states newly-built on the bare land,Ming Zhongdu,Sui Daxing and Yuan Dadu share similar layouts.Firstly,several city gates were laid out in a ring around a center.Secondly,central axes of the cities were closely linked to the landscape environment.Thirdly,the capitals were initially laid out in a culturally embedded manner and then adapted according to the topography.
the capital cityming zhongdulayout characteristicplanning restorationthe guihua theory
万方数据
维普
