Legends about Jinling.
The Nanjing City Wall has a long history, and there are many legends and stories spread among the people. To this day in Nanjing, you can still see the touching scene of the grandfather "talking about ancient times" to his grandchildren under the city wall. These legends and stories have been passed down from generation to generation. Although they are not strictly historical facts, they reflect the rich historical and cultural connotation of the Nanjing City Wall from different angles.
When the city of Nanjing was built in the early Ming Dynasty, most of the huge costs were allocated to the rich households in the south of the Yangtze River. Among them, Shen Wanshan, a rich man from Wuxing, Zhejiang, independently pledged the cost of building the city from Hongwumen to Shuiximen. Legend has it that at the beginning of the construction of Jubaomen, the city wall collapsed repeatedly. Someone offered a plan to Zhu Yuanzhang to use Shen Wanshan's ancestral cornucopia. Zhu Yuanzhang used the plan to forcefully expropriate it and bury it under the east wall of the first urn city. The city gate was built as expected. So people called this city gate Jubao Gate.
There is a section of city wall between Shuixi Gate and Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing, which is much shorter than other walls. Legend has it that this section of the city wall was built by people from Taiping County, Anhui Province. The land in Taiping County is barren, and the migrant workers lack food and clothing. Everyone dares to be angry but dare not speak out, and they are passive and slow in work. Seeing that the deadline had expired and the city wall had not yet been completed, the migrant workers lied to the officials responsible for inspecting the project: "I don't know what feng shui has been broken. Everyone here has a yellow disease. They can eat and sleep, but they can't do anything." When the officials saw their sallow faces, they hurried back to the palace to report to the emperor. In fact, the migrant workers used lotus leaves to rub their faces yellow. The emperor then issued an imperial edict: In order to show sympathy for civilian workers, those who did not complete the city wall would not be punished. However, if you have yellow disease, you must avoid salt. From then on, there was no official supply of salt in Taiping County. This section of the city wall is called the dwarf city.
Between Jinchuan Gate and Xingzhong Gate, there is a section of city wall more than 100 feet long. Legend has it that one of Zhu Yuanzhang's favorites was responsible for supervising its construction. The minister did not take the matter of building the city wall seriously. Seeing that there were only about ten days left before the deadline, there was no time to prepare materials, dispatch workers, dig soil, build walls, etc. The minister was so anxious that he came up with the idea of using large bamboos to build a large fence over the area of more than 100 feet, and built it on the edge of a wide river outside the city. When the deadline for completion came, Zhu Yuanzhang led the civil and military ministers to inspect all the way from Jubao Gate. When they arrived here, they found that the river was too wide. They watched from a distance, but no one found any problems. Minister Liu Ji also praised: "Your Majesty, dig a moat outside the city. This is a great idea! We should order all the moats to be dug outside the city and connect them to here. Wouldn't it be safer to cross the bridge when entering and exiting the city gate?" Zhu Yuanzhang was happy for a moment. The favored minister was rewarded. But not long after the incident, the matter was revealed. Zhu Yuanzhang became furious and killed the favored minister and a group of people for deceiving the emperor. He demolished the bamboo fence and repaired that section of the city wall. However, the place name of this fence gate has been passed down.
The southern section of the Nanjing City Wall from Tongji Gate to Sanshan Gate is almost entirely made of stone processed into strips. In order to build the city of Nanjing, stonemasons in the early Ming Dynasty were forced to engage in hard slave labor. Legend has it that each mason must hand over three buckets and three liters of gravel to the overseer every day. If he fails to meet the quota, he will be executed. There is still a place named Fengtou in Tangshan Town, the eastern suburbs of Nanjing. It is said to be the place where the masons who were executed in the early Ming Dynasty (including the masons who later mined the stones for the Yangshan stele) were buried.