Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 3.3
The sketch map of Yuan Dadu of the Yuan Dynasty
1
Imperial Ancestral Temple,
2
Altar to the God of Land and the God of Grain,
3
Central Terrace,
4
Imperial Palace,
5
The distribution area of market (Redrawn from Hou Renzhi,
Historical Atlas
of Beijing
, Beijing Publishing House, 1988, pp. 27-28)
People's Palace of Culture) and the Altar of Land and Grain (now the Zhongshan
or Sun Yat-sen Park).
Having been aware of above mentioned points, let us now analyze further the
general planning of the Yuan Dadu—why it is totally different from the planning
system of 'the Way the Craftsmen Build the City-state' on the city outline and the
installation of city gates.
In accordance with the design of the big city in 'the Way the Craftsmen Build the
City-state', it is square, each side being nine
li
with three gates on each side (
fang
jiuli, pang sanmen
). However, the Yuan Dadu is not a square, but a rectangle slightly
longer from north to south. Besides three gates the each for the east, west and south
sides, there are only two gates, the east and west ones, on the north side with the right
in the middle portion totally closed. This kind of difference is utterly not accidental.
The reason why the plane structure of the Yuan Dadu is rectangle is directly
related to the full use of the natural lakes and rivers which fl ow from northwest to
the due south inside the city. I have another special article to elaborate this and will
