Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
northeastern shore of the lake Jishui Tan. At this spot was erected a stone tablet with
four characters “த৺೭” (The Central Platform) carved in it. Taking the platform
as the starting point, a straight line was drawn closely along the eastern shore of the
Jishui Tan as the central axis of the whole city. The imperial palaces were built on
the eastern shore of the Holy Water Pond, exactly in the middle of the axis, so that
the front court Da-ming Palace and the residential palace Yanchun Ge (Prolonged
Spring Palace) both occupied the most signifi cant sites of the city. Hence, the idea
embodied by the central axis became very clear, that is, the absolute power of the
emperor. The Ancestral Temple and the Altar of Harvest, the two complexes of
symbolic signifi cance, were placed on the left and right sides of the Palace respec-
tively within the city walls as prescribed by “The Way the Craftsmen Build the
City.” Later, as the capital was rebuilt by the Ming emperors, the original geometri-
cal centre of the Inner City was moved south to the Central Peak of the Jing Hill,
which was the original site of the Prolonged Spring Palace during the Yuan Dynasty.
And these two groups of buildings were also moved southward, still at the two sides
of front rail of the Forbidden City. This resulted in a more prominent concept of
axis. With the building of the Temple of Heaven and the Altar of Mountain and
River in the southern suburb, the axis was further prolonged to the south. Its infl u-
ence on the planning and design of the Old City of Beijing became even more sig-
nifi cant, also making the theme represented thereby more prominent.
Another question to be further clarifi ed is: How is it decided that the axis of the
capital as it appeared on the surface plan runs perpendicularly from north to south
and extends this way? The question seems simple, but it concerns the issue of orien-
tation in the design and planning of a capital, that is, it must face towards the due
south. From it derives the doctrine of “facing the south to be king.” There is no direct
reference in documents to when this idea applied to city planning originated.
However, in “the Way the Craftsmen Build the City” in
Kaogongji
,
Zhouli
, there is
an implication that the city should be built towards the south. As for the layout of the
capital, there are such prescriptions, “left for the Ancestral Temple and right for the
Altar of Harvest”—“left” refers to east and right west, and “court in the front (south)
and market at the rear (north).” The north-south orientation of city had long been
accepted by Chinese as a tradition and passed down. Archaeological discoveries have
provided concrete evidence. All the ruins of the foundations of the palaces from early
Shang Dynasty attest to that the original structures above were facing south.
5
Two
5
In the upper layer of Erlitou site of remains of Xia Dynasty, found in Yanshi County, Henan
Province, were found two large palace remains known as the earliest so far, which could be dated
to about 3700 years before present. One of the two was almost square with a rectangle platform
base slightly north to its center. A hall of 304 m from east to west and 11.4 m from north to south
could be reconstructed according to the arrangement of the holes of pillars in the foundation. There
was a court before the hall. Wall remains were found surrounding the palace and corridors insides
the walls. The gate was in the middle of the south wall. For details, please refer to “Brief Report
on the Excavation of Erlitou Site in Yanshi County, Henan Province” by Luoyang Excavation Team
of Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (
Archaeology
, vol. 5, 1965). In addition,
at the site of the middle Shang capital named Panlong in the present Huangpi County, Hubei
Province, two foundation remains of two large palaces found also face south. For further informa-
