The last episode said that the south wall of the inner city in the Yuan Dynasty was moved from the line of Chang'an Avenue to the line of Qiansanmen in the Ming Dynasty. The south city wall is in front of the imperial city, so the three gates on the south side are called "the first three gates".
To the west of the first three gates is Xuanwu Gate, and before moving south it was Shuncheng Gate in the Yuan Dynasty. In the seventeenth year of Yongle (1419) in the Ming Dynasty, the name of Shuncheng Gate was still used after the city wall was moved to the south. Why didn't Zhu Di rename the first three doors? That's because he had one important matter on his mind, and he didn't care about changing the name of the city gate. What's the big deal? This year, Zheng He will return from his fifth voyage to the West. Zhu Di sent Zheng He to the sea to find Emperor Jianwen who fled to the fairy mountains on the sea. The fairy mountains in the East China Sea are very close to us, and the gods in the mountains probably have a lot of contact with the imperial court, of course through the chief of Baiyun Temple. The fairy mountains on the western sea were quite despised by the Chinese in the past, and Emperor Jianwen might have gone there. Zheng He did not find any news about Emperor Jianwen during his previous voyages to the West. This time he will spend a few more days at sea to visit further places. According to records, on this fifth voyage, Zheng He sailed all the way to Laza on the east coast of the African continent, which is now the port of Aden in Yemen. After Zheng He's voyage, he made the famous "Zheng He's Nautical Chart", which became the first nautical chart in the world. The Portuguese heard Marco Polo talk about Zheng He's nautical charts, so they thought of developing an eastward route from Portugal to connect with Zheng He's route, and then arrived at the palace covered with gold described by Marco Polo. Prince Enrique went to sea in 1418, and Dias crossed the Cape of Good Hope. In 1498 (the eleventh year of Ming Hongzhi), Da Gama finally sailed to Aden and joined Zheng He's route. Zhu Di waited impatiently for Zheng He's news in Beijing, and of course he was not in the mood to care about whether the first three schools should change their names. Zheng He lived up to Zhu Di's expectations, and told Zhu Di when he came back that he had "visited all the fairy mountains on the western seas, and never saw a single hair of Zhu Yunwen". Knowing that his nephew was not in Xianshan, Zhu Di was relieved. He issued an imperial edict to commend Zheng He as a spiritual reward, and also granted Zheng He a lump of silver as a material reward. After more than 20 years, Zhu Qizhen succeeded him as Emperor Yingzong. As soon as he came to the throne in the first year of Zhengtong (1436), he rebuilt the first three gates, and changed the name of Shuncheng Gate to Xuanwu Gate by the way. Xuanwu means "propagating martial arts", which means "if the jackal comes, he will be greeted with a shotgun".
Xuanwumen’s archery tower and urn city were demolished during the Republic of China. The city tower was demolished in 1965 when the ring line subway was built, and they are gone now. You see, this makes it clear that the ring subway in Beijing was built along the inner city wall, so the stations are all named after the inner city gates. The ring line is now the second line. There used to be a vegetable market outside Xuanwumen, and the intersection of the market was called Caishikou, which is roughly equivalent to the current Xinfadi Wholesale Market. On weekdays, many peddlers bought melons, fruits and vegetables here, and then entered the city from Xuanwumen with carts or loads and went into the alleys to sell them. During the autumn decisive battle, prison carts were pushed out from Xuanwu Gate. The executioner and the supervisor sat down on a stool at the door of any vegetable shop, stopped the prison car on the street, and beheaded the prisoner when the "Xuanwu Wu Cannon" was fired against the sound of the Deshengmen cannon. Three quarters of the noon in ancient times is actually almost twelve o'clock today. Therefore, Xuanwumen is driven by prison cars.
To the east of the first three gates is Chongwen Gate. In the Yuan Dynasty, this city gate was called Civilization Gate, and the folks called it Hade Gate, and the word "ha" was pronounced the third time. After the city wall was moved south in the 19th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed Chongwenmen in the fourth year of Zhengtong. Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen are in front of the imperial city, which means left Wen and right Wu, Wen Zhi Wu Yun. In ancient times, emperors had the pursuit of governing the country with literature and martial arts. Enter Chongwenmen and go straight north, you can come to the Confucian Temple, very literary, right? Just to go a long way. This concept of "artificial governance and martial arts" in Chinese culture was later spread to the West. I saw Westerners' understanding of martial arts and martial arts in the Old Palace of Florence, Italy. That palace was that of Cosimo I, who became Duke of Florence in 1537 and used it as his palace. The year 1537 is equivalent to the 16th year of Jiajing reign of Ming Shizong Zhu Houcong after Zhu Qizhen in the Ming Dynasty in China. Wenmingmen has been renamed Chongwenmen for nearly a hundred years, and the name of Chongwenxuanwu has spread far and wide. This Cosimo I did not build two gates in front of his Palazzo Vecchio, but erected two statues. The one on the right hand is the very famous Michelangelo's "David", which represents spiritual power; the one on the left is the very famous "Hercules and Cacus" by Bandinelli, Hercules is the Greek Hercules in mythology represents the power of Kong Wu. You see, there is also a civil and military entrance here, but the left and right are full of twists and turns, which shows that their understanding of Chinese culture is still not thorough.
At that time, Chongwenmen was mainly a door for transporting wine, that is, wine from Jiuchi Roulin. A tax office was set up in the gate to collect taxes on alcohol, and then use it to buy makeup for the queens and concubines in the palace. There is an old saying that "tobacco and alcohol are not separated". Since there is alcohol in Chongwenmen, there must also be cigarettes, which are "Hardmen cigarettes". The earliest Hadamen should be called "Hadamen", that is because there was a Hada Palace in the Yuan Dynasty in Chongwenmen. No one knows which prince this King Hada is, let alone the location of that palace. Hardman cigarettes are produced by British American Tobacco and are embezzled. The British have a cigarette factory in Qingdao, where they make Hardman cigarettes. People in New China felt that Hardman cigarettes had traces of colonialism, and production was soon discontinued. Two years ago, the Qingdao Cigarette Factory sold these cigarettes again, and no one called them colonialism anymore, so maybe they were very proud.
The first three gates are still preserved, or not demolished, and that is the Zhengyang gate in the middle, commonly known as the front gate. Zhengyangmen means "the sun at noon is over this gate". The ancients said in classical Chinese that it is called "the Holy Lord is in the sun, the sun reaches the sky, and all nations look up to them". This gate is the Lizheng Gate of the Yuan Dynasty. It was also called the Lizheng Gate after it was moved to the south in the 19th year of Yongle.
The street above Qiansanmen is not called "Qiansanmen Street", but is called Chachamen West Street and Chachamen East Street facing the city gate. Of course, Qianmen West Street and Qianmen East Street are called Qianmen West Street and Qianmen East Street. There is a station on the Ring Line subway at Qianmen. When you get out of the subway station and look north, you can see the Qianmen Gate Tower.
Looking south, it is the Qianmen Archery Tower.
Qianmen Gate Tower is the only one preserved in Beijing. Go to the front and have a look.
It has been 580 years since the tower was built in the fourth year of Zhengtong (1439). It was destroyed several times during this period and then rebuilt. What you see now should be the reconstruction in the 33rd year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (1907). The city tower is a two-story pavilion with double eaves on the top of Xieshan Mountain. It has a bucket arch structure and is in the style of the Ming Dynasty. It is seven rooms wide and three rooms deep. The first floor is surrounded by eaves corridors, the second floor is a circle of flat seat railings, and there are eaves poles at the four corners. The roof is made of gray tiles with green glaze trimmings, and the two ends of the main ridge are not kisses of birds, but tails of dragons. There is no fairy riding a chicken at the front of each ridge, but there are nine ridge beasts, which are of very high specifications. There is a wooden "Zhengyangmen" plaque under the eaves above.
Turn around and look at the Arrow Tower.
This archery tower is the same shape as the Deshengmen archery tower seen earlier, it is one size bigger. If you look carefully, there is a little difference. First, the arrow window with curved eaves, which was added in 1915. The other is that there is a wide platform behind the Baosha.
Go to the front and see that this archery tower has coupon doors. This is the only archery tower with a coupon gate in the inner city gate, because the emperor entered and exited the city with a ceremony here, and the People's Liberation Army also held a city entry ceremony here in 1949.
Looking up again, the stone carved door plaque of "Zhengyangmen" is still there. Comparing this door plaque with the "Pingzemen" stone carving, there is still a big gap, and it is not even inscribed, so it is definitely not the original Ming Dynasty. If you look carefully, the last stroke of the word "door" is not ticked. The act of changing Chinese characters was not done by Ming people, but only by the emperors of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty began to change Chinese characters from Qianlong, especially on steles, and later generations of emperors also produced this kind of moth.
There is a national key protected cultural relic sign beside the coupon door, in 1988, the third batch. Beijing also includes the ruins of the Old Summer Palace, Taimiao, Confucian Temple, Sheji Altar, Tianning Temple Liao Pagoda, Yinshan Pagoda Forest, Fahai Temple and Niujie Mosque, Liulihe Yandu Ruins, and a Chongli residence in Dongsi six. The lion next to the coupon gate does not seem to be an aboriginal here.
Although Zhengyangmen retains the largest city tower and archery tower among the nine inner city gates, many accessories have been demolished. The most important thing is that the Wengcheng was demolished in 1915. In addition to the Guandi Temple, there is also a Guanyin Temple in the Wengcheng, which is also different from other city gates. The horse trails in the Wengcheng must also be demolished together, the gates on the east and west sides of the Wengcheng, and the gate towers of the suspension bridge were also demolished, and the moat was also filled in.
After the gate of the archery tower came out, there was a big stone bridge on the old moat. This bridge is very special. Its middle span is the main road, and there is another span on each side that seems to be a side road. In fact, the middle span is the imperial road, with white marble handrails on both sides; the auxiliary roads on both sides are ordinary stone bridges.
After passing the stone bridge is an archway, which was the best archway in Beijing at that time, with six pillars and five floors. There are archways outside the nine inner city gates in Beijing. Only the archway at Zhengyang Gate has six pillars and five floors, and those are all four pillars and three floors. Take a look at the Qianmen archway rebuilt in previous years.
There are six towering pillars, and two lions sit facing each other on the caps of the pillars. "Zhengyang Bridge" is written on the forehead plaque, which is the name of the bridge on the moat behind it.
In the past, Qianmen was said to be "four gates, three bridges and five archways". The four gates are the gates of the city tower and the archery tower, plus a gate on the east and west sides; the third bridge refers to the main road and auxiliary road of Zhengyang Bridge; the fifth archway refers to the upper archway. This "four gates, three bridges and five archways" is unique to Qianmen and the only one in Beijing.
The British American Tobacco Company not only sells "Hardman" cigarettes for money in China, but also makes Qianmen a cigarette brand, which is the "Daqianmen" cigarette. Daqianmen cigarettes are produced in Shanghai, and the pictures of Qianmen Jianlou are printed on them. Daqianmen is not like Hardman cigarettes, which have been discontinued. It has been in production, of course, it was taken over by the Shanghai Cigarette Factory in New China. In the era of planned economy, cigarette production was also planned. In Beijing, cheap brands such as "Badaling" and "Xiangshan" are commonly seen, while those in Shanghai are "Pegasus". Good cigarettes will be supplied on a household basis with shopping certificates until the Chinese New Year. Class A cigarettes are Zhonghua, which is not supplied; good cigarettes supplied with certificates are Class B cigarettes, Daqianmen and Mudan.
Zhengyangmen refers to the city gate building and archery tower in the previous picture. The commonly referred to as "Qianmen" generally refers to the large commercial area outside Zhengyangmen, that is, Qianmen Street below Wupailou and the large and small alleys on both sides. This bustling commercial avenue extends all the way to Zhushikou in the south. In the past, this street was called Zhengyangmen Street, but after 1965 it was renamed Qianmen Street. Beijing’s business districts used to have a default hierarchy. Wangfujing Department Store is tall and upscale, Xidan Shopping Center is mid-range, and Qianmen is a large number of small shops that ordinary people visit.
In the Qianmen area, there are still traces of the Lifang system in the past. The east side of the road is regarded as the East Square, and the west side of the road is called the West Square. There are many time-honored brands in Beijing at Qianmen, and the Dabei Photo Studio under the five-pailou building below is one of them. Dabei Photo Studio should be regarded as a century-old store. It occupies the first position on the east side of Qianmen Street, which is No. 2 Qianmen Street.
What shop used to be at No. 1 Qianmen Street opposite Dabei Photo Studio? I don’t remember, the street was taken over by Starbucks after the renovation. On Qianmen West Street, there is a half-century-old American restaurant with the first branch in China, which is KFC. After the reform and opening up, the first restaurant opened by foreigners in Beijing was Maxim Restaurant in Chongwenmen in 1983, and KFC in Qianmen was the second in 1987.
There are still some place names left in the commercial downtown area around Qianmen, which are the names of those alleys, grain store streets and the like. Take a look below and this is where Grain Store Street is now.
Don't look at the dilapidated grain store street now, but there are still buildings like the following! It shows that it was also a magnificent street back then.
The most famous store on Grain Store Street is the following time-honored store, No. 3, Grain Store Street.
This is a very old store. The plaque on the door was inscribed by Yan Song, a villain in the Ming Dynasty. You know how old the store is, right? Ming Jiajing nine years (1530), four hundred and ninety years. Don't look at Yan Song as a bad guy, but his character is quite good. This door plaque is said to be the original, constantly refurbished, it is not easy to pass down. This plaque is a masterpiece of Yan Songbang's book. Anyone who learns calligraphy must read it. After reading it, buy a jar of Liubiju pickles and eat it when you go home to practice calligraphy. Liubiju's Liubi said that the six materials and equipment for making pickles must be the best.
Needless to say, people all over the country know about Dashilan, so there is no need to look at it. It is a mess inside. An alley dedicated to eating is Xianyukou, and I have also eaten there. Sit in the shop to eat and look at the street.
The owner of the shop stood at the door, trying to invite all the people passing by on the street to come in and eat.
Finally, a few old ladies came in, and each of them bought three self-made red and three self-made white. These are two kinds of ancient style moon cakes in Beijing, pronounced "嗞红痞旞白".
In order to welcome the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Qianmen Street began to be remodeled in 2003. After the renovation, only Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant remained in place. There is only one time-honored brand that has returned after the renovation, or is still in Qianmen Street. Lao Zhengxing, who moved to Beijing after liberation, was also here. His chicken soup buns are very delicious, but now they are gone. The door frame alley known to Beijing people is now gone. When talking about Luzhu, fried liver will definitely be mentioned. Xianyukou Tianxingju's fried liver is still there, but his steamed stuffed bun level has dropped too much.
The most famous shopping mall on Qianmen Street in the past was the Quanyechang below.
The earliest Quanyechang was established in 1905, and the current building was rebuilt in 1923 after a fire. It was designed by foreigners in Neo-Baroque style. Quanye’s industry refers to industry, and here was the earliest industrial product exhibition hall. Before liberation, it had become a self-employed shopping mall selling everything; later it became a state-run shopping mall, and in the 1970s it became a Xinxin clothing store. Now this building is a cultural relic protection unit in Beijing.
From Quanyechang to the west, old houses were demolished and new buildings were built. Go in and take a look around. This is a brand new office building.
Although it is a new building, it is still the same.
There are various shops downstairs, where writers in the office building can go shopping after work.
There are also various restaurants and wine shops, where writers can go to buy food. But if I work overtime until midnight, I'm afraid there will be no food anywhere, so I can only go to the KFC on the street to eat chicken. The word "Fang" on the front wall means "Li Fang" in the past?
It turns out that this building is called "Beijing Fang", but now there is only such a square in Beijing? When opening a store in Beijing Fangli, there is a photo with the word "Fu" in front, and the business must not go wrong.
In short, the commercial and entertainment industries in Qianmen area were very developed in the past, and they still are.
The inner city of Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing is the nine city gates. It is not enough just to have city gates, but also to have city walls. Let's talk about it next time.
