Historical Question: What are the characteristics of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty in terms of urban planning and construction?

Beiping is just a term that came into being after Zhu Yuanzhang seized power. This place used to be called Dadoucheng, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty. After Zhu Yuanzhang seized power, this place can no longer be called Yuandadu, and my things can no longer be called other people's names, just called Beiping. This Judy wants to imitate Nanjing, because Zhu Yuanzhang has been engaged in construction in Nanjing for more than 30 years and his spirit is particularly magnificent, so he does everything according to Nanjing. On the one hand, it shows that the country has financial resources and ability, on the other hand, it shows that it is orthodox, and it makes no difference. If there is any change, it is that the regime I seized has not changed. So he transformed the Yuan Dynasty according to the layout of Nanjing City. At that time, the commander-in-chief of the Yuan officials was Chen Gui. He had two deputies, one was Yagyu and the other was Wang Tong. These two people are in charge of shaping, and these two people are assistants. They have mobilized a large number of skilled craftsmen from all over the country to command and dispatch. It took Beijing more than ten years to reach its scale.

He transformed the Yuan Dynasty into what Beijing looks like now, which probably has several characteristics:

The first feature is that the central axis of the city remains unchanged, pushing the south wall two miles south, that is to say, from the current Chang 'an Avenue line to the front three doors line, so that the center of the city's plane layout consciously falls on the harem of the Yuan Dynasty, and there is a palace called Yuan Chunge. Of course, after the war, the building was gone, but this is a site, and it fell here, thus highlighting the central axis of the city. The imperial city was originally small, so he expanded it, and then the central axis remained unchanged, which was the first feature of the transformation of Beijing by Emperor Yongle in the early Ming Dynasty.

The second feature is that it is in the north of the Forbidden City, which is the place we are talking about now. At that time, it was called Long Live Mountain. A high mountain was cast in this place. The so-called mountain is nothing more than picking up the garbage in the imperial palace in the Yuan Dynasty and digging up the moat soil in the Forbidden City, because it is based on the past geomantic omen, living with the mountain at the back and the water in front, which is the most prosperous. So he made a mountain out of this pile and called it Long Live Mountain. In addition, he put the three halls in front of the Forbidden City, namely the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe, the Hall of Baohe and the three halls in the backyard, namely the Gan Qing Palace, the Hall of Impatiens and other places where the Empress lived, and the last three halls were all placed in corresponding positions on the central axis. In addition, the second feature also includes one. He dug two rivers, one in front of Tiananmen Square and connected with the moat of the Forbidden City. In addition, there is an inland river in the palace and in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. These rivers are two water mirror rivers, which means that Jiangshan can flourish. Because the Forbidden City is particularly large, because the imperial city has been expanded and the Forbidden City has been expanded, there has been a drainage problem, and the internal and external rivers have been built, which has objectively solved the drainage problem. This is the second characteristic.

Third, Emperor Yongle stipulated that the ancestral halls and social altars under the east and west walls of the Yuan Dynasty should be moved to the front of the Forbidden City. It was built by Mongols when it was built in the Yuan Dynasty, but it was built according to the Han nationality. This community altar is located in Qihuamen, north of Chaoyangmen Road, and this community altar representing the country is located in Xicheng. To show his reasons, Emperor Judy Yongle transformed Beijing and moved them both to the front of the Forbidden City, which is now an ancestral temple, just like the eyes of two dragons. In addition, there is such a rule that the son of heaven will sacrifice to heaven in the southern suburbs, so the central axis of the whole city of Beijing will continue to extend southward 12 Li. Somewhere north of Yongdingmen, the Temple of Heaven and the Mountain Altar have been built respectively. The mountain altar is now called the social altar, one is the Temple of Heaven to worship heaven, and the mountain altar is to worship mountains and rivers, so that the central axis is relatively extended, forming a trend of king facing south. This is after its transformation. The fourth feature after the transformation is to connect the Taiye Pool, namely the North Sea, the China Sea and the South China Sea, into a quiet and profound garden, which is not only a royal garden, but also adds some natural colors to the whole city of Beijing. In this way, Yongle started construction in the fourth year, which was the first year of Yongle's transformation of Beijing. Then, after preparation, Yongle started construction in four years, which lasted until Yongle 18 and took 14 years.