(1) Taiji Palace ruins
Taiji Palace is adjacent to Longshouyuan in the north and is located in the middle of the northern part of the capital; the middle part of the palace city is the palace area. The front hall is named Taiji Hall, which is the Sui Daxing Hall. It is where the emperor held daily "China and North Korea" meetings. "The place where ministers are received; Liangyi Hall to the north of Taiji Hall is the place where "inner court" is held. To the north and on both sides of Liangyi Hall are Ganlu Hall, Wude Hall, Chengqing Hall, and Ziyun Pavilion. and other buildings; to the east of Taiji Palace is the East Palace, where the prince lives and governs; to the west is Taicang in the north, and the Yeting Palace in the south, which are the warehouses for storing money, grain and materials, and the residences of the palace maids and the female relatives of the prisoners who were confiscated and used as labor. place. Taiji Palace, East Palace and Yeting Palace are separated by high walls.
Tai Chi Palace is a place specially designed for the emperor, concubines and princes to live and work. There are three gates to the north. To the west is Xuanwu Gate , to the east is Anli Gate, and to the east (out of the East Palace) is Xuande Gate. Among them, Xuanwu Gate has forbidden troops stationed to protect the palace. It is the passage connecting Taiji Palace and Forbidden Garden, and its military status is very important.
There are three gates in the south of Taiji Palace (Imperial Palace), West Guangyun Gate, East Changle Gate, and Zhongcheng Tianmen (Guangyang Gate, Zhaoyang Gate in Sui Dynasty). Chengtianmen is the main entrance of Taiji Palace. There is an east-west horizontal street between the gate and the imperial city. Chengtianmen is the place where "outside court" is held. Every national ceremony, such as the Yuan Dynasty, amnesty, New Year's Day, winter solstice major court meetings, as well as military parades, captures, etc., the emperor would go to Chengtianmen to hold them. According to archaeological discoveries, the Chengtian Gate should be located on the south side of the lotus pond in today's Lianhu Park. Its remaining length from east to west is 41.7 meters. Three doorways have been discovered. The one in the middle is 8.5 meters wide. The ones on the east and west sides are the same width, both 6.4 meters in depth. 19 meters. There are stone strips and slabs under the gate, which is very rare. It is a special facility that has not been seen in other gate sites.
Taiji Palace has the famous Lingyan Pavilion. It once painted images of 24 heroes who followed Tang TaizongLi Shimin through life and death and conquered the world. Historically, it was called the Lingyan Pavilion Heroes. These images are said to have been created by the famous painter Yan Liben at that time. There are still stone fragments of the portraits of heroes of Tang Lingyan Pavilion carved by You Shixiong of the Song Dynasty, which are collected in the Cultural Center of Linyou County, Shaanxi Province.
The ruins of the south wall of the palace city of Chang'an City in the Sui and Tang Dynasties (now the Yunju Temple in West Wutai)
Taiji Palace Palace City was measured to be 2820.3 meters long from east to west and 1492.1 meters wide from north to south. There is only one mound in the north wall site, which is located in the building of Xi'an Railway Vocational and Technical College on the north side of Ziqiang West Road in Xi'an today. There is a section of the south wall site commonly known as Xiwutai Temple in today's Yuxiang Gate. South of Hu Road and west of Sajinqiao Road, Yunju Temple is directly connected to the Chengtianmen site (today's Chengtian Pavilion) on the south bank of the lotus pond in Lianhu Park to form the east-west orientation of the south wall, which is the end of the Tang Dynasty. fifth generation Han built the north wall of the new city. Because the ancient city of Xi'an was rebuilt on the basis of the original imperial city of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, the foundations of the west wall and the south wall have not been changed. Therefore, the west wall of the palace city is on the same line as the west wall of the ancient city of Xi'an today, and its southern part is on the Under the Xi'an City Wall; the east wall was destroyed during the expansion of Xi'an City in the Ming Dynasty, and the site is located at the location of the old imperial city to the east of the Xi'an New City compound.
The ruins of Chengtianmen Palace in Chang'an City during the Sui and Tang Dynasties (now Chengtian Pavilion in Lianhu Park)
The palace walls were built with rammed earth plates. The wall base is generally about 18 meters, and the east wall is more than 14 meters. In front of Chengtianmen is the Hengjie Street. The remaining street is 220 meters wide. Even so, it is the widest street in Chang'an City. If calculated according to historical records of "more than three hundred steps" across the street, it would be equivalent to about 441 meters based on Sui and Tang steps of 1.47 meters. Such a wide street is like a large square.
The palace area in the middle of the palace city has been surveyed and found to be 1967.8 meters long from east to west. Daxing Hall is located in the south of the area; to the east is the East Palace area, which has not been explored; in the southwest of the area is the Yeting Palace where the palace residents lived. Bricks from Taicang kilns of the Tang Dynasty were unearthed in the north of Yeting Palace, which was believed to be the location of Taicang, the warehouse in the palace. Both Yeting Palace and Taicang are 702.5 meters wide.
Taiji Palace (Daxing Palace of the Sui Dynasty), as the political center of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, mainly dates from the 21st year of the Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty (the third year of Kaihuang to the fourth year of Renshou, that is, 583 AD to 604 AD) and the Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty Although the period of more than 30 years between Li Yuan and Tang Taizong Li Shimin was not long, it laid the political foundation and imperial power structure of the Sui and Tang empires. Its status was lofty. After Tang Gaozong moved to Daming Palace , many important ceremonies were held by emperors of the past dynasties. For example, the coronation of the new emperor, weddings, funerals of the previous emperor, etc. are still held in this palace.
