Xi’an City Wall

By ZHANG JIANGUO

Background of China’s City Wall and Xi’an’s History

Shaanxi Province is one of the birth places of Chinese nation .It has brilliant and splendid ancient civilizations .It also has an infinite variety of scenic spots , natural landscape and human living customs . The province, especially its capital , Xi’an , is famous for its historical sites.

Xi’an , capital of the Empires for over a thousand years , was one of the world’s great metropolises , rivaling and even surpassing its contemporaries : Baghdad Constantinople and even Rome.

Our class today deals with Xi’an’s city wall .China’s city walls have a history of about 5000 years .In 1927,the archaeologists discovered the remains of the city wall of Xia Dynasty about 4700 years ago in Longshan Town ,Zhangqiu District Shandong Province . One of the famous Chinese ancient scholars Mancius － a disciple of Confucius － said : “Three ‘Li’ is the inner city (cheng), seven ‘Li’ makes the outer city (kuo),” (‘Li’ is a Chinese length unit equal to 500 meters.) He added: “The enemy surrounds it and attacks it, but cannot get in it.” These words show the military importance of the city walls in cold weapon times.

Between the 11th and the 8th centuries B.C., the Zhou Dynasty governed northern China from their palace at Hao, located a few miles west of present-day Xi’an. Although the Zhou capital was moved to Luoyang in 771 B.C., Hao, now known as Xianyang, remained one of the largest cities in Northwest China. During the 4th century B.C., it became the capital of the state of Qin. When a hundred years later, the great leader Qin Shi Huangdi unified all of China under his rule in the year of 221 B.C. . Xianyang became the center of the Empire. Qin Shi Huangdi determined that his capital should be worthy of him, and under his direction a million workers toiled to build wide boulevards and eight huge palaces. The population had increased to nearly 800,000 when in 207 B.C., rebels overthrew the dynasty and put the city to the torch.

The Han rulers, successors to the Qin, built their capital of Chang’an just north of modern Xi’an. The new city prospered, and by the first century B.C. its walls enclosed 8 main streets and 160 alleys, and enormous suburbs sprawled outside the ramparts. It was during this period that trade began with West Asia and the Roman Empire. Just as in present-day Xi’an, a special street was set aside to accommodate foreign visitors and protocol department supervised their undertakings. In 25 A.D. the seat of government was moved east to Luoyang, and Chang’an declined in its importance until the first Sui emperor, Wen-ti, ordered his engineers to build a new metropolis southeast of the old Hao town. Although Wen-ti’s successor governed from Luoyang, the Tang rulers returned to Chang’an, which they completed in accordance with the Sui design.

During the next two centuries Chang’an was at the center of a cultural and political renaissance that many historians consider to be China’s golden age.

Chang’an provided a worthy soil for this Imperial splendor. Rectangular in shape, it covered 30 square miles, and almost two million caravans plied the Silk Road to Persia, Byzantium and the Middle East. Foreigners who settled in the capital brought the fashions and culture of their homelands with them. Mosques and churches dotted the city, while the songs and dances of central Asia were performed in many of the wineshops that surrounded the huge Western Market. Scholars and students flocked from all over Asia to immerse themselves in Chinese culture. Many came from Japan, and the city of Kyoto was moderled on Chang’an.

In the 10th century the Tang Dynasty fell, the capital moved to Kaifeng, and the city’s days of splendor came to an end. It remained a regional center, although the Town of Xi’an during the Ming and Qing dynasties was not much larger than the Tang Imperial Palace.

Growth and glory began since 1949: new industries and universities were built, and the population has now increased over 7 million.

Xi’an, now the capital of Shaanxi Province is one of China’s largest center of aviation industry, known as China’s Seattle, and also the center of power electric and micro-electronics industries. And China’s largest satellite survey and control earth station is located in Xi’an.

The present—day Xi’an’s City Well was initially built in Ming Dynasty. Now let’s come to our topic today---The City Wall of Xi’an.

THE CITY WALL OF XI’AN （ TAXT） At the time when Zhu Yuanzhang captured Hu

izhou, long before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, he was admonished by a hermit named Zhu sheng, who told him to ”build high walls, store abundant provisions and take your time in proclaiming yourself emperor. Zhu Yuanzhang followed his advice. Once the whole country was unified, he sent orders to the local governments to build city walls on large scale. Zhu assumed that “out of all the mountains and rivers in the world, the central Qin is the most strongly fortified and strategically impregnable”. The city wall of Xi’an is an extension of the old Tang Dynasty structure, as a result of this wall building campaign.

Questions to the 1st paragraph------

1 What did the hermit, Zhu sheng warn Zhu Yuanzhang ? Did Zhu accept his warning?

2 We know that the existing structure. Do you know it was built in which dynasty?

The city wall, after its extension in the Ming Dynasty, stands 12 meters high. It is 12-14 meters wide across the top, 15-18 meters thick at the bottom, and 12 kilometers in circumference. First, the city wall was a symbol of human heritage. Second, it showed the power and dignity of the dominators. Third, it was a defence work, just as the medieval towns were fortified with a high wall and a deep moat.

Questions to the 2nd paragraph------

1 What’s the significance of the city walls?

On the city wall, there is a rampart Every 120 meters apart, that extends out

from the main wall. The top of the rampart is at the same level as the top of the wall. The ramparts were built to allow soldiers to see those enemies who would try to climb the wall .The distance between every two ramparts is just within the range of arrow shot from either side . This allowed soldiers to protect the entire wall without exposing themselves to the enemy. There are altogether 98 of them on the wall; each has a sentry building on top of it.

Questions to the 3rd paragraph-------

1 What’s the function of ramparts? 2 What’s the use of sentry buildings?

The weapons in ancient times were primitive .The gates of the city wall were the only way to go into and out of town. Therefore, these gates were important strategic points. In Xi’an , each of the east, west, south and north gates consists of three gate towers. The main gate tower is called “zhenglou”. “Zhalou” is the gate tower with a suspension bridge, and “Jianlou” is the arrow tower . Zhalou tower stands away from the wall. It is used to lift and lower the suspension bridge. Jianlou tower is in the center of the others. There are square windows in the front and on the two sides to shoot arrows from. The Zhenglou tower is the inner one and is the main entrance to the walls and the encircled area is called “wongcheng” in which soldiers could be stationed. From “wongcheng”, there are also horse passages leading to the top of the wall. These are gradually ascending steps that make it easy for war horses to ascend and descend. There are altogether 11 horse passages around the city.

Questions to the 4th paragraph---

1 How many gate towers does each of Xi’an’s 4 Gates (east, west, south and north) consist of?

2 What’s the function of the Zhalou tower? Does the Zhalou tower connect with the other gate towers?

3 What’s the use of Wongcheng?

A watch tower is located on each of the four corners of the wall. The one at the southwestern corner is round, probably after the model of the imperial city wall of the Tang Dynasty, but the other three are square, higher and larger than the sentry building on the ramparts. This shows the strategic importance of the corners of the city wall in war times.

The city wall of Xi’an was first built of earth, rammed layer upon layer. The base layer was made of earth, quicklime and glutinous rice extract, tempered together. It made the wall extremely strong and firm. Later, the wall was totally coated the bricks, A moat, wide and deep, runs around the city. Over the moat, there used to be a huge suspension bridge which cut off the way in and out of the city, once lifted.

Questions to the 6th paragraph _

Is there only one topic in this paragraph? If not, then, how many and what are they?

Today, after the repairs that have been made on the wall by the local government the city wall has taken on a new look. A circular park has been built in between the high wall and the deep moat, all around the city. The thriving trees and flowers, and the buildings of classical Chinese architecture in the park, together with the city wall, make Xi’an all the more beautiful.

Questions to the 7th paragraph _ 1. Where is the circular park?

Assignment To review what we have learned toda

y. Try to tell your foreign visitors what

you know about Xi’an’s city wall. After class, you may find even more supplementary from our library and internet. (Now we’ve got several minutes for you to raise questions.)

Class is over. See you.