Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
First, the north city wall was moved about 2.5 km to the south, leaving the northwest
part of Ji-shui Tan outside the city. Then both the south city wall and the emperor's
palace were rebuilt a little to the south. This reconstruction produced the new
emperor's palace, or the Forbidden City, which has been passed down to the present,
and is today's Palace Museum. Within the Ming Dynasty's Forbidden City, the most
important buildings were a row of six great palaces, built along the city's main axis,
which symbolized the supreme power of the emperor. The geometric center of the
whole city was no longer at the Central Platform, but had shifted south to a point
just north of the new Forbidden City. In order to clearly mark the new city center,
soil excavated from a new artifi cial lake at the southern end of the Tai-ye Chi and
from a newly constructed moat of the Forbidden City was used to build a hill about
seventy meters high. This was named Wan-sui Shan (Long Life Mountain) and
symbolized the eternal ruling power of the emperor.
2
In addition, the Tai Miao and
She-ji Tan were moved from their old locations inside the east and west walls to new
locations just outside the south gate of the Forbidden City. They were still placed on
the left and right sides of the meridional axis, respectively, in keeping with the tradi-
tion of “Tai Miao to the right and She-ji Tan to the left.” At the same time, the south,
north, and east walls of the Royal City were extended a bit, so the Tai Miao, She-ji
Tan, and the new lake south of Tai-ye Chi were all contained within them.
3
More importantly, two major new groups of buildings were constructed in the
southern suburbs, one east and one west of the meridional axis. To the east was the
Tian Tan (Temple of Heaven), where the emperor paid homage to the gods of
heaven, and to the west was the Shan Chuan Tan (Altar of Mountain and River),
where he paid his respects to the gods of mountain and river.
4
Up until 1553, this
southern part of Beijing was outside the city wall; then an “outer wall” was built to
formally incorporate the above-mentioned temple and altar into the city. The middle
gate of this new outer wall was situated on the center axis, between these two groups
of buildings. The main north-south road within the gate was built along the axis.
At the northern end of the axis, where the old Central Platform was located,
two new buildings were constructed: the Bell Tower to the north and the Drum
Tower to the south. The newly extended north-south axis had a full length of
almost 8 km. The Forbidden City occupied the most important location on the
axis; to its north, standing like a picture screen, was Wan-sui Shan; to its south, on
the left and right, were the Tai Miao and the She-ji Tan. Between these two tem-
ples was the Central Imperial Avenue, which started at the Wu Men (Meridional
Gate) at the center of the south side of the Forbidden City and extended to the
Tian-an Men (Gate of Heavenly Peace)
5
at the center of the south side of the
2
Later the name was changed to Jing Shan (Scenic Mountain) and also Mei Shan (Coal Hill).
3
During this period, the canal formerly outside the Royal City's east wall was incorporated into the
Royal City, and shipping on the Grand Canal was thus unable to reach Ji-shui Tan. The lower part
of Ji-shui Tan was connected with Tai-ye Chi to the south, and the aqueduct which had been spe-
cifi cally created to supply water to Tai-ye Chi was abandoned. Altogether, the city's water system
regressed under the Ming Dynasty's management.
4
The name “Shan Chuan Tan” was later changed to “Xian-nong Tang” (Altar of the God of
Agriculture).
5
During the Ming Dynasty, the Tian-an Men was called the Cheng-tian Men.
