In the history of China, the Sui Dynasty was a short-lived dynasty, and its newly-built imperial city Daxing City was replaced by the Tang Dynasty and renamed Chang 'an.
Architecture is the carrier of cultural heritage. Chang 'an City in the Tang Dynasty was the gathering place where China's ancient urban construction and architectural development reached its peak, and most excellent products representing the highest achievements of architecture at that time were concentrated here. The whole city consists of Guo Cheng, Imperial City and Miyagi, with huge walls and magnificent buildings. According to archaeological excavations, the outer Guo Cheng is rectangular, with the east-west (Chunmingmen to Jinguangmen) length of 972 1 m (including the thickness of the east-west city wall, the same below) and the north-south (Mingdemen to the east of Xuanwu Gate in northern Miyagi) length of 865 1 m, with a total area of about 84 square kilometers.
Figuratively speaking, Chang 'an in the Tang Dynasty was bigger than Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty, Dadu in the Yuan Dynasty and Beijing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with only one Daming Palace, which was three times the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Looking closely, Chang 'an in the Tang Dynasty was more than seven times larger than Xi 'an in the Ming Dynasty. Chang 'an, with a population of 1 10,000 in the Tang Dynasty, was the largest city in East Asia and even the world in the 6th-9th century. It was also the starting point of the Silk Road across Wan Li, and it was an international metropolis at that time.
There were three palaces in Chang 'an in Tang Dynasty. 1. Taiji Palace (also known as Xinei) is the political center in the early Tang Dynasty, with the main entrance called Chengtianmen and the north gate called Xuanwu Gate, where the famous Xuanwu Gate mutiny took place. The second is Daming Palace (also called Dongnei), which mainly includes Hanyuan, Zheng Xuan and Chenzi halls, which are on the same central axis. Hanyuan Temple is the most magnificent building in Chang 'an. The measured abutment is more than 3 meters high, 75.9 meters long from east to west and 42.3 meters wide from north to south, which exceeds the existing specifications of the three halls of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The third is Xingqing Palace (also known as Nannei). The residential area of Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty was divided into neat chessboards, each chessboard was an independent square with four walls and separate doors. Chengtianmen in the south gate of Miyagi, Zhuque Gate in the imperial city and Mingdemen in the outer city are located on the north-south central axis. This Suzaku Street is 155 meters wide, which is 35 meters wider than the world-famous Paris Elysee Palace Garden Street. With Suzaku Street as the boundary, Chang 'an City is divided into two parts, Chang 'an and Wannian County are in charge, each with 55 squares.
"Chang 'an Avenue shuttles for nine days", "A hundred schools of thought are like Go, and Twelve Streets are like vegetable fields", which is Li Bai's description of Chang 'an. At that time, the streets were straight and spacious, with 14 street in the east and 1 1 street in the north and south. There are drains on both sides of the street, and locust and elm trees are planted on the roadside. The business circle is divided into Dongcheng and Xicheng, each occupying two squares, with 220 industries. In 843 AD, there was a fire in Dongcheng, which destroyed more than 4,000 shops, showing the prosperity of the urban area at that time.
Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty was the political, economic and cultural center of the whole country at that time. The world's elites meet in the capital, and a large number of foreigners live or migrate here. Unprecedented cultural convergence shows the confidence, openness and tolerance of this city. There are wise kings, wise ministers, swordsmen and chivalrous men here, as well as the unrestrained mood of urban life and the romantic spirit endowed by the times, which is enough to surprise future generations.
Therefore, no matter from urban planning, building environment, building groups and single buildings; No matter from the architectural image, architectural type, architectural art or urban life, Chang 'an City in the Tang Dynasty played an important role in the subsequent urban construction at home and abroad. For example, Kaifeng City in the Song Dynasty and Beijing City in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties all followed the characteristics of Chang 'an City. The construction of Kyoto City and Nara City in Japan also absorbed the experience of Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty.
If Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty can provide a special witness for human architectural culture, then we can see that it has five outstanding characteristics: first, the urban planning is magnificent, and the pluralistic pattern is broad and open; Second, the cultural taste is extremely high, the shape is tall, and the idea is magical; Third, the architectural art is exquisite and changeable. Fourth, the architectural achievements are brilliant, standing tall and unique; Fifth, the connotation of civilization is rich, and spiritual material is closely combined. It is a creative masterpiece of contemporary world architecture.
However, prosperity always has an end. By the end of the Tang Dynasty, there were many buffer towns and wars, and Chang 'an was repeatedly hit and almost reduced to ashes.
In 904, the first year of the Tang Dynasty, the year of Jiazi in the lunar calendar, was also the year of the deepest national disaster at the end of the Tang Dynasty. This year, Zhu Wen, who controlled (the traitor of Huang Chao Uprising Army), held the Emperor of Heaven hostage, making his ministers rob Zhao and move the capital to Luoyang. Zhu Wen ordered residents to "move according to their household registration", tore down houses and set trees "floating down the Weihe River", and the people lingered and wailed for months.
Chang 'an is divided and in ruins. A generation of romance is over.
After the gorgeous turn, many eternal mysteries cannot be solved.
Cities are the symbol of the times when human society changes from barbarism to civilization. Destroying buildings means destroying history, and destroying a city means destroying the wealth of the whole society, which directly leads to the interruption of cultural accumulation.
As for the cultural pursuit of Chang 'an in Tang Dynasty, it didn't stop until it was abandoned in the late Qing Dynasty. For example, Song Qiumin's Annals of Chang 'an in the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Dawei's Annals of Chang 'an in the Yuan Dynasty, Bi Yuan's Annals of Places of Interest in Guanzhong in the Qing Dynasty and Dong Youcheng's Annals of Chang 'an County and Xianning County. Modern Japanese scholar Zuli Liu Xi's research on Chang 'an monuments is also of great value to understanding Chang 'an in Tang Dynasty. However, the historical witness, cultural symbol, aesthetic consciousness and spiritual sustenance solidified by the architecture in the Tang Dynasty have disappeared forever.
Ge, a professor at China Institute of Cultural Relics and editor-in-chief of Cultural Relics, believes that the gradual loss of architectural history makes the ancient buildings in China, represented by Tang Changan, far from being fully recognized by modern people as a treasure house of wisdom, and there are many eternal mysteries that cannot be solved so far.
Professor Ge introduced several little-known mysteries. In the construction of urban environment, three canals, Longshou, Qingming and Yong 'an, were dug in Chang 'an in Tang Dynasty, which led the water outside the city to the city. Their purpose is probably to enter the northern palace to solve the environmental water problem. Some canals are 6 meters wide, while others are 9 meters wide. It is not clear how many culverts and bridges the city needs to build. The depth of the canal is also different. In some areas, the bottom of the canal is higher than the road surface. How the water flows along the hillside and how it passes through the city walls and square walls has never been detected. How to connect wood, firewood and other storage materials with drainage tunnels in urban streets and alleys remains to be studied.
Among the sacrificial buildings in the ancestral temple, the Temple of Heaven in the campus of Shaanxi Normal University, located in East Erli of Mingdemen, Chang 'an, has been revealed by archaeology. It has been proved that the dome of worship to heaven is in the form of overlapping concentric circles, but it is made of plain soil rammed with white gypsum and not bricked. Its simplicity and monotony do not seem to conform to the lofty and solemn specifications of offering sacrifices to heaven. Strangely, the Sui and Tang Dynasties have been restored and protected many times for 300 years, and there is no masonry. However, the Ditan in the northern suburb of Chang 'an 14, the Ritan outside Chunming Gate, the Yuetan outside Kaiyuan Gate and the Xiannong altar outside Tonghua Gate still remain in the concept of books that cannot be verified.
In the new residential buildings, the mansion of aristocratic officials is luxurious, and Mrs. Guo's "He Huan Hall" in Yiyang Square costs tens of millions. There was a storm that uprooted trees and hit the top of the hall, but it didn't cause any damage. The original pottery tiles were covered with refined wooden tiles, and the wood structure technology made it difficult for future generations to guess. The "Cloud Hall" built in Zai Yuan, Anren Square, is made of the residual mud wall of clouds and grass, which is as white as jade and cannot be buried. The specific method of using this plant grass for architectural decoration is still unknown. In Tang Jingzong, Persian merchants dedicated agarwood all the way and built an ingenious agarwood pavilion in Chang 'an, but its unique construction technology has not been recorded.
In Buddhist and Taoist religious buildings, is the attic-style Big Wild Goose Pagoda seven or ten stories? It is difficult to conclude that there are different opinions; Is the Little Wild Goose Pagoda with dense eaves chalk or blue bricks? I can't agree. There are also some monasteries with wooden or brick structures. It remains to be studied whether structural mechanics is used in the bar combination of some temples.
Explain that the spring breeze is infinitely hateful, and the agarwood pavilion leans against the railing in the north. But even if the railing is beaten all over, no one should answer if it is broken. Some lost things are destined to be a mystery forever, and no one can give an answer.
In the autumn of 2004, 1 100, the declining Chang 'an City of Tang Dynasty was repeatedly mentioned. At the end of August, Xi 'an held a high-standard academic seminar on urban construction in the Tang Dynasty. Academician Qian Zhou of China Academy of Sciences, Academician of China Academy of Engineering, Academician Zhang Jinqiu of China Academy of Engineering, Wang Jinghui, Chief Planner of China Urban Planning and Design Institute, Deputy Director of National Committee of Historic and Cultural Cities, Shi xingbang of Shaanxi Archaeological Society and other experts gathered together to make suggestions for the construction of Xi 'an. At the seminar, Professor Han Ji from Tsinghua University, Professor Liu Lin 'an from An University of Architecture and Technology, and Dr. Zhu from Shaanxi Normal University exchanged research papers on Nine Palaces, Protrusion and Protection of the Historical Structure of Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty, and Ecological Construction and Enlightenment of Chang 'an City Water System Landscape in Sui and Tang Dynasties. They comprehensively discussed the characteristics and valuable experience of urban construction in Tang Dynasty from different angles and levels, and put forward valuable suggestions on how to deal with the protection of historical and cultural heritage and modern urban construction.
In the latest master plan, An Central City will take Chang 'an City of Tang Dynasty, which is 84 square kilometers, as the core area, and build Weiyang New City to the north and Chang 'an New City to the south along the central axis, forming a pattern of "one city and two hearts".
There is also good news in the field of cultural relics and archaeology: after half a century of archaeological excavation, the basic pattern of Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty has been clear. Xinhua News Agency released the news to the outside world on September 12.
Dr. Guo Qianggeng, director of Tang Chang 'an Archaeology Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters Guo Feng and Xu Zuhua: The walls, gates, scale, road network and Li Fang layout of Tang Chang 'an are basically clear. According to him, with the start of archaeology in China, the Archaeological Group of the Historical Society of Beijing Research Institute came to Shaanxi for investigation in the 1930s, excavated the site of Zhongshu Province in the Tang Dynasty, and unearthed the fragments of Lu Dafang stone carvings engraved with the floor plans of Daming Palace and Xingqing Palace in the Tang Dynasty, which provided very precious graphic materials for later restoration of the layout of Chang 'an City in the Tang Dynasty. In the 1960s, archaeologists basically completed the actual measurement and verification of the outer Guo Cheng, Imperial City, Li Fang structure, streets, palace ruins, gates, Dongcheng and Xicheng of the city site, and only then did they really draw the actual measurement map and preliminary restoration map of Chang 'an City in the Tang Dynasty.
Guo Guangqiang believes that from the 1970s to the mid-1990s, archaeologists further investigated or excavated the main relics in Daming Palace, such as Xinghua Square, Mingdemen, Qingliu Temple, Hanguangmen and Sanqing Hall, Dongchao Hall and Hanlin Academy, which greatly enriched the understanding of the internal structure and individual relics of Chang 'an City. He told reporters: "In the past ten years, archaeological work has been mainly carried out in Daming Palace, especially in the restoration of Hanyuan Temple ruins and the excavation and cleaning of Taiye Pool, which has done a lot of work to understand the court and the park-forbidden system in the Tang Dynasty. In April this year, we drilled the southwest corner of Chang 'an City in the Tang Dynasty, and made it clear that the southwest corner is located in the west of the south section of Tang Yan Road, which is in the lawn of Shaanxi Sports Center, thus inferring the clear latitude and longitude of the four corners of Chang 'an City in the Tang Dynasty, which provided a real and accurate basis for understanding the basic pattern of Chang 'an City in the Tang Dynasty. "
Talking about the present situation of the site protection of Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty, this expert expressed concern that Chang 'an City in Tang Dynasty was tightly pressed under the modern Xi 'an City, and the damage degree was the most serious. However, it is unlikely that it can actively explore large-scale sites, and future research can only be provided by splicing sporadic archaeological materials.
Professor Ge believes that cultural heritage cannot be regenerated and will not die out on its own. It depends on accumulation, inheritance and protection, otherwise even the most brilliant civilization will die out. Today, the descendants who live in the ruins of Chang 'an in the Tang Dynasty may still be related by blood, but they have no close cultural ties. Many young people don't know the grand architectural layout of Chang 'an in Tang Dynasty, don't remember how their ancestors built this ancient capital in those years, and don't know the sadness and pain caused by barbaric demolition. The elegy of the demise of the Tang Dynasty is like a farewell song. The architectural culture will disappear forever, and the heritage will become a pity that no one cares about.