Original title "Zhengyang Gate: The "National Gate" of the World and the World"
on the central axis of Beijing Zhengyang Gate has the status of the "National Gate" of the World and the World, and is also the largest and most historical and cultural gate among the gates of the capital city and the most ancient Beijing city. The People's Liberation Army held a city entry ceremony on February 3, 1949. The Zhengyang Gate Tower and the Arrow Tower are at the southernmost end of the Tiananmen Square . Each National Day ceremony is held in Tiananmen Square on the north side of the Zhengyang Gate Tower. People's Bank of China The first set of RMB 500 issued on September 10, 1949, is the pattern of Zhengyangmen on the front. In 1988, Zhengyangmen was listed as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units.
Zhengyang Gate is located in the center of the central axis
The Zhengyang Gate on the central axis was originally called " Lizheng Gate ". It has been built for nearly 580 years and has become a symbol of old Beijing since its completion. As the main gate of Beijing's inner city, Zhengyang Gate is basically in the position of "national gate". Since it is the "national gate", it must be given a good name. "Zheng" means "just, righteous, righteous and just"; "yang" means "bright and warm", which has both the spirit of the Holy Lord and the auspicious meaning. Zhengyangmen presents a "prominent" status.
Zhengyang Gate is known as the "front gate" because it is located directly in front of Forbidden City. Zhengyang Gate is the south gate of the inner city of Beijing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The city tower was built in the 17th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1419). Zhengyang Gate is the first of the "Nine Gates of the Capital" in the old Beijing. In the fourth year of Zhengtong (1439), an arrow tower was built on the south side, and there was a urn city between the city tower and the arrow tower. Zhengyang Gate was once destroyed and repaired several times. The current city tower was rebuilt after being burned down in the 26th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1900). It covers an area of 3,047 square meters. It is located on a brick city platform with a height of 43.65 meters. It is the largest city gate among the city gates of the capital. It is the only city gate and arrow tower that is relatively complete in today's Beijing city . After the subway was built at Zhengyang Gate in 1971, the Zhengyang Gate Tower and the Arrow Tower were divided into two parts. The north side of the subway was the city tower and the south side of the arrow tower.
Zhengyang Gate is located on the central axis of Beijing City, originally called Lizheng Gate. According to the information, after Zhu Di ascended the throne in Nanjing, in order to prevent the invasion of the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty, he used Beijing as his "dragon-rise land", and decided to move the capital to Beijing, and immediately ordered the construction of Beijing's palaces and cities. Based on the yuan, the southern wall of Ming Beijing City was moved south about two miles. The south city wall is three city gates: the middle is Lizheng Gate, the east is Chongwen Gate and the west is Xuanwu Gate . When Lizheng Gate moved to the current Zhengyang Gate, it is still called "Lizheng Gate". "The word "Lizheng" comes from the "Zhouyi·Li Gua": "The sun and the moon are beautiful in the sky, the grass and trees are beautiful in the soil, and the Ming Dynasty is beautiful in the sky, and then the world is transformed into."
When the first year of Zhengtong of the Ming Dynasty (1436), Lizhengmen was changed to Zhengyangmen. Zhengyangmen was in the middle of the southern wall of the nine gates of the inner city, and "The Holy Lord Dangyang, and the sun reaches the middle of the sky," The meaning of "all nations to admire". In the first year of Zhengtong (1436), the gate tower, arrow tower, urn city were added. The semicircular or square gate protection city built outside the city gate belonged to part of the ancient Chinese city walls, gate towers, moats, bridge gates, etc., was completed in the fourth year of Zhengtong. Zheng in the Ming and Qing dynasties There was originally a huge urn city between the Yangmen City Tower and the Arrow Tower. The southern end had an arc-shaped corner. The Arrow Tower was located at the top. The urn city was 108 meters long from north to south and 88 meters wide from east to west. There were doors on four sides of the urn city, two gates from east to west, and a voucher gate under the gate. In 1915, the Beiyang Government demolished the Zhengyang city for convenient transportation. The wall of the urn city and the two gate buildings on the east and west sides of the urn city have no existence.
There was a saying in old Beijing that "Nine Gate and Ten Temples" that Guandi Temples were built in the urns of each city gate in the inner city of Beijing. The nine city gates should have nine temples, and the tenth temple is in the urns of Zhengyangmen. There are two temples in the urns of Zhengyangmen, one is the same as the urns of the inner city of Guandi Temple, and the other is the "unique" Guanyin Temple.There are nine doors in the old Beijing city, and , nine doors, each have specifications and functions. Nine doors take nine cars, and Zhengyang Gate is the door to "dragon car". Among the nine city gates, only Zhengyang Gate Arrow Tower has opened the city gate, which is only opened when the emperor enters and leaves.
Zhengyang Gate was destroyed several times. According to historical records, was burned twice in the Ming Dynasty, and experienced three fires in the Qing Dynasty. The fifth time in the 26th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1900) was the worst. On the evening of June 16, " Boxer " used to help Qing Dynasty destroy foreign , resisted foreign goods, set fire at Dashilan outside Zhengyang Gate, burning a street in Dashilan and burning down the Zhengyang Gate Arrow Tower. A few months later, the British army, mercenaries stationed in the Eight-Nation Alliance, , and Indian soldiers set off fire to burn the Zhengyangmen Tower. Because the project archives in the Ministry of Works were also burned and plundered, the referenced the styles of Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen, and appropriately increased the height and width of Zhengyangmen and rebuilt some reconstructions. The rebuilt Zhengyang Gate Tower and the Arrow Tower were not completed from fundraising to construction until the 32nd year of the Guangxu period (1906).
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Beijing has repaired Zhengyang Gate many times, mainly to reinforce the platform railings, white canopies on the arrow windows, reliefs on the east and west sides, steps on the horse roads in the city, and cracks on the walls. Its overall architectural pattern still maintains the architectural style of the late Qing Dynasty, and its height has not changed.
Zhengyangmen
China Highway "zero kilometers" landmark
Now in front of the south side of Zhengyangmen Tower, the ground in the center is inlaid with: "China Highway 'zero kilometers' sign". It is a Chinese Highway "zero kilometers" sign jointly carried out by the Ministry of Transport and the Beijing Municipal People's Government. It was established in September 2006. This is a Chinese highway zero-kilometer symbol cast in bronze alloy and has a simple and solemn shape. There are four bronze characters in the east, west, south and north. On the inside of the bronze character are the patterns of Zhuque , Qinglong , White Tiger , Xuanwu , and Xuanwu . The center of the symbol is a wheel. The image of ancient wheels represents the well-connected Chinese highway network centered on the capital Beijing.
" China Highway Zero-kilometer Point " logo design has an explanation: "Blue Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird, Black Tortoise" expresses the traditional Chinese star name, symbolizing the four poles, is known as " Four-State God ", also known as " Four Spirits ", respectively, representing four directions in the east, west, south, north, and north. The wheels with radiation as banners represent the well-connected Chinese highway network in the center of the capital. The representation directions of the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird and Black Tortoise can be traced to the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties. The four god patterns used are taken from the four famous Han Dynasty tile . In addition, there are Chinese and English in the logo graphics, among which "East, West, South and North" is based on the shape characteristics of seal characters, and the English abbreviation of east, west, south and north. The Arabic numeral "0" is used as the origin in the middle of the logo, and the full Chinese and English name of "Zero-kilometer Point of China's Highway" can allow tourists from all over the world to accurately understand the connotation of the logo. The outer ring of the logo is 64 marking points, representing 64 directions of traditional culture.
Nowadays, many countries in the world, such as the United States, France, Russia, Spain, Italy, etc., have precedents for setting up zero-kilometer signs in the center of the capital.
Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower
Arrow Tower, the ancient city gate, had a cave house, and was used for defensive use of arrows.
Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower was built in the fourth year of Zhengtong (1439). The building form is a brick fortress type, with a height of 12 meters and a door opening of five volts and five arches, and is built in the middle of the city platform. Zhengyang Gate Arrow Tower is the only city gate with the opening of the arrow tower among the nine gates in the inner city, and is a special city gate for dragon, chariot, phoenix chariot. The arrow tower is double-eaved hip roof , gray tile green glazed edge cut. There are four floors in the upper and lower floors, and 94 arrow windows are opened on the east, south and west sides for external archery. The Arrow Tower has four widths and seven rooms, 62 meters wide, and five small rooms protruding out in the north, 42 meters wide, 24 meters high, two doors, with hanging drop gates in front (i.e., Qianjin Gate Gate) and a double-open iron leaf gate in the back.During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Arrow Tower was connected to the Zhengyang Gate Tower and the walls formed a large urn city.
Arrow Tower was burned in the 45th year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1780), and a fire broke out in the 29th year of Daoguang (1849). In the 26th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1900), the Eight-Nation Alliance attacked Beijing and the Arrow Tower was burned. Reconstructed from 1901 to 1906. In order to improve transportation, the National Government commissioned 5 Germans Roth Kegel to rebuild the Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower in 1915, and added cement flat guardrails and arc-shaped eaves of arrow windows. The moon wall section was added with Western pattern floral decorations. It was completed in 1916. When the reconstruction was made, the moon wall and the east-west gates of Zhengyangmen Arrow City were demolished.
There is a moat outside the arrow tower of Zhengyangmen. There is a bridge archway outside the moat bridge. Only Zhengyangmen Moat Bridge in the Nine Gate of Beijing has a bridge archway. The "Zhengyang Bridge" archway is the only five-bedroom wooden archway on the street of Beijing. It is prominently located on the central axis of the capital and is called the "Five Archway". The archway is built in the middle of the central axis, and further to the south is Qianmen Street . The street is located on the central axis of Beijing, starting from Zhengyangmen Archery Tower in the north and ending at Tianqiao Road in the south, connecting with Tianqiao South Street. It was the imperial road for the emperor to go out of the city to Tiantan and Shanchuantan.
The Ming Dynasty also changed the customization of the "former dynasty and future markets" in the Yuan Dynasty, and formed a large commercial trade zone in the Qianmen Street area. Many merchants gathered: catering, theaters, teahouses, clothing, shoes and hats, etc., which was one of the most prosperous street markets in the early years of the capital. Beijing-Feng Railway and Beijing-Hanzhou Railway were opened in the 26th year of the Guangxu period (1900), and a railway station was set up in Qianmen. A large number of goods and personnel flocked to Beijing, contributing to the prosperity of Qianmen's business. The Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower has been repaired many times. In 1976, the arch tower was seriously damaged. The Beijing Cultural Relics Administration Department carried out a comprehensive overhaul of the Arrow Tower. In 1989, the Zhengyangmen Management Office of Beijing raised 1.6 million yuan to renovate the Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower and officially opened to tourists on January 21, 1990.
Legend of Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower
Legend When the Ming Dynasty built Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower, Emperor Yongle personally visited (the actual arrow tower was built in 1439, and Emperor Yongle passed away in 1424). He found that the roof of Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower was not as majestic and tall as he hoped. He couldn't help but get angry. He immediately accused the Ministry of Works of the Ministry of Works that they would build the roof of Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower in a tall and grand manner within one month, and he would be punished if he was not completed as scheduled. The craftsmen were frightened and there was no good way to solve the problem. The craftsmen in charge could not eat or sleep. Time was approaching day by day, and there was no way to wait for the punishment. One day, an old man dressed in worn-out clothes went to the construction site to beg for food. After getting the meal and the meal, he also asked the craftsman to add salt to the pickles. In this way, the old man begging for food went to the construction site one after another, and after each time he begged for food, he still asked the craftsmen to add salt to his meal.
This move was finally understood by a smart craftsman and added "salt"! Add "salt"? Is it a "eaves"? He suddenly realized that adding salt is just adding "eaves" to the roof of the Arrow Tower! When the craftsmen communicated, that's right! Wouldn’t adding eaves to the arrow tower solve the current style not being tall enough? The craftsmen were ecstatic and according to this idea, they added flying eaves to the arrow tower at Zhengyangmen. The roof of the arrow tower after the eaves became tall and spectacular. When the emperor saw the arrow tower behind the eaves, he praised the craftsmen's wonderful ideas.
The craftsmen were recognized by the emperor and were happy to thank the beggar old man. However, the mysterious old man never came to the construction site to beg for food again. The craftsmen immediately felt that it must be Lu Ban's appearance and transformed into an old beggar to play their ideas on demand. This guidance not only allowed the craftsmen to escape this punishment, but also created the magnificent glory of the Zhengyangmen Arrow Tower.
article | Huang Yongshun
