Why were there nine gates in Beijing in Ming and Qing Dynasties? What's the story?

The so-called Jingmen, Beijing, refers to the land of emperors and the source, including the meaning of Kyoto. In feudal society, there were nine royal families. The old Beijing city custom has the saying "nine inner cities, seven outer cities and four imperial cities". I want to ask questions about nine inner cities.

Let's talk about the east and west sides first: the east side where Chaoyangmen and Dongzhimen are located, because the land and water terminal is convenient, so it is more convenient. These two doors have always been the main channels to bring food and wood needed for tool manufacturing and construction into the city.

Yuquan Mountain is in the west, and the water quality is very good. Drinking water for the royal family and dignitaries is brought in from Xizhimen every day, and coal production in Xishan is also brought in from Fuchengmen in the west. Let's talk about the nine main entrance, the main entrance of the inner city of Zhengyangmen, also known as the front door, the emperor's access line. No one is allowed to enter or leave the main entrance of Zhengyangmen.

Civil and military officials, ordinary people, etc. You can only enter and exit through the side doors on both sides. Chongwenmen in the east: the busiest gate in the inner city, where goods from all over the country pay taxes, most of which are wine trucks. It is said that this door is the only one of the nine doors that is open day and night, also known as the wine door. In the Xuanwu Gate in the west, in the early years, the food market outside the gate was the execution ground, so the prison cars often came and went. In addition, at that time, most of the cemeteries in Beijing were Taoranting generation, so the funeral people came and went frequently, and Xuanwu Gate was also called the "Gate of Death".

Zhengyangmen, Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen are collectively called "the first three doors". Among them, Chongwenmen is more sinister than the other six because it is open day and night. Needless to say, the death gate of Xuanwu Gate, so suppressing Zhengyang Gate in the middle also played a role in reconciling Yin and Yang. It is said that Qianmen Street is also the best place for geomantic omen in Beijing. Then continue north to Deshengmen. Because of this, the old fool's "virtue" includes the land of "victory" and convinces people with virtue. The "Deshengmen" of virtue in the world is more about promoting the benefits of my emperor and the mighty virtue of his emperor.

Finally, Andingmen, compared with the victory of Deshengmen, the army left the city at Andingmen. Usually there are many dung fields outside Anding. Usually, most of them are dung trucks coming in and out, and Andingmen is also called "Shengmen". I interpret this "stability" as stability and comfort. The professionalism of the eight gates outside Zhengyangmen also provides convenience for people entering and leaving the city. "The monarch takes the people as the sky, and the people take food as the sky", and the existence of the Eight Gates of Imperial Capital has a certain effect on people's livelihood. As for why the Nine Gates and Eight Guandi Temple only respects the existence of statues, it is the inheritance of "one emperor can't hold two emperors" in feudal society, not to mention the addition of a "Zhenwu Emperor".

It should also be noted that after the Eight Banners entered Beijing, the distribution of the Eight Banners centered on the imperial city in the inner city has nothing to do with the legendary wooden door and Watergate, and the distribution of the Eight Banners is based on five behaviors. The four colors of the Eight Banners come from: yellow for land, white for water, blue for sky and black for iron. Because iron is born in soil, with soil, black is free. So the Eight Banners have four colors.