Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
around the east wall of the Royal City and on toward the south suburbs. At the
same time, a new source of water was found for the Royal City's Tai-ye Chi; an
aqueduct was dug connecting the lake to a spring at the foot of Yu-quan (Pearl
Spring) Hill northwest of the city. The outfl ow from the lake passed along the
front of the Imperial Palace, then out to join the canal which drained Ji-shui Tan
(see Fig.
2.1
).
A large secular city was constructed around the Royal City. The plan for the
large city placed its geometric center at the north end of the axis of the Royal City.
At that site a platform was built, and on it were inscribed the four characters
“Zhong Xin Zhi Tai,” meaning “Central Platform.” This shows clearly the careful
measurement that went into the city's layout. From the Central Platform on the
east to its western end, Ji-shui Tan is about 3.3 km in east-west extent. The loca-
tion of the west wall of the enlarged city was set a little farther than this from the
city center. Ideally, this should have been the standard distance determining the
location of the east wall of the enlarged city. The land at that easterly location,
however, was swampy and unsuitable for heavy construction, so the east wall
could not be placed that far out. The south wall of the enlarged city was located
about 3.75 km from the Central Platform, that being the distance which allowed
the Royal City to be included within the enlarged city. It was then decided that the
north wall should be placed at the same distance. Consequently, the shape of the
enlarged city after the construction of the four walls was that of a slightly elon-
gated rectangle.
The east, west, and south walls of the enlarged city each had three gates, but the
north wall only two. Inside the southernmost gate of the east wall was built the Tai
Miao, and inside the southernmost gate of the west wall was built the She-ji Tan.
Spanning the area between the eleven city gates, which were spaced at approxi-
mately equal distances from one another, were wide avenues. Including the “wall
streets,” which ran along the insides of the city walls, there were nine aligned north-
south and nine east-west. Many smaller lanes were laid out running east-west
between the primary north-south avenues. Thus, the basic layout of all of Dadu City
was accomplished (Fig.
2.2
).
At this point, it is important to note the special signifi cance of the location of the
central gate of the south city wall, at the south end of the city's north-south axis.
Along the sides of the “Imperial Road” which connected this city gate to the south
gate of the Royal City, a T-shaped square was built. This was equivalent to the so-
called “Wai Chao” (Outer Court) of antiquity. Precisely located along the central
axis of the whole city were the chief buildings of the emperor's palace, as well as
the emperor's throne. The purpose of this was to demonstrate that the emperor was
“number one under heaven,” a concept with great symbolic meaning.
The last major project in the construction of Dadu was the tapping of the springs
of the mountains to the northwest to provide the city's water supply (Fig.
2.3
). All
these springs, except for those of Yu-quan Hill which were used exclusively to feed
the Royal City's Tai-ye Chi, were brought together into a single channel which
fl owed into Dadu City's Ji-shui Tan. From there, these waters were channeled south-
ward around the east wall of the Royal City, joining the old Jin Dynasty canal in the
