I brought a Jurassic

Chapter 362 Recording the Gate of the Old Capital

The Siheyuan in Beijing is influenced by the traditional Confucian concept of "harmony between man and nature". The buildings are arranged along the central axis, with many courtyards of different sizes interspersed in between, which is very characteristic of the Chinese interchange. The layout emphasizes "front bedroom and back room". According to the traditional concept of superiority and inferiority, and order of seniority, all family members live in different rooms according to their generation. The scale of the Siheyuan is also different, and it can be roughly divided into three types: small Siheyuan, medium Siheyuan and large Siheyuan. This Siheyuan is simple and practical, and the colors are mainly gray roofs and blue bricks. However, in the regulations, it still reflects the orderly and magnanimous temperament that is connected with the capital.

Take this common three-courtyard Beijing Siheyuan as an example. It is mainly composed of the main gate, the back house, the screen wall, the hanging flower gate, the main room, the ear room, the wing room, the corridor, and the back room. The inner courtyard is the main activity place for the family. It is large in area and planted with flowers and trees. The living environment is quiet and suitable.

Generally, it is a square or rectangular courtyard with houses built on all four sides to enclose the courtyard in the middle. The courtyard in the shape of a "口" is called a one-entry courtyard; the courtyard in the shape of a "日" is called a two-entry courtyard; the courtyard in the shape of a "目" is called a three-entry courtyard. The courtyard is generally a place for large families to live, with each family living in an enclosed courtyard and having a relatively private space.

Look at this gate, the back house, and the screen wall. They are well preserved. The courtyard you live in was definitely something only the rich and powerful could afford in the past. If you preserve it well, its value in the future will be immeasurable."

After taking everyone around and introducing them, Yan Bugui kindly gave everyone some advice.

"As far as I know, this courtyard was the villa of a prince in the previous dynasty. It was later converted into a large compound. It is impossible to preserve it well. Now everyone is short of housing and it is difficult to allocate rooms. The children are gradually growing up and we don't know what will happen to them in the future. Many families around us have already started to build temporary houses. It is because our courtyard has been suppressed, otherwise they might have built one long ago."

Yi Zhonghai also came out to speak a fair word.

What Yi Zhonghai said is really true. Now, casual renovations are not allowed because the houses are collective, so they can only build a temporary kitchen or something like that. After the reform and opening up, various policies have been relaxed, and it's really chaotic. The houses are distributed to individuals and are no longer collective. Finally, they have found a reason. Just build as much as you can. Whoever builds it owns it. In the later stage of the TV series, the second uncle and the third uncle both built as much as they could, making the yard a mess. Just because they took up space, the whole family was in turmoil. It has to be said that every bit of food and every bit of water has its own merits.

It seems that at that time, only the Central Courtyard was under pressure from Yi Zhonghai, so no one built anything randomly. In this regard, he did a relatively good job. Old antiques have their advantages.

After walking around and looking at the entire courtyard and introducing it, Wang Luo also took a lot of photos and recorded what Yan Bugui and Yi Zhonghai said. He would put them online for everyone to see when the Internet becomes more developed.

Of course, the reason why everyone came out to watch the fun today was not only to listen to Yan Bugui's explanation of the history of the Siheyuan, but also to take a photo as a souvenir. Wang Luo was not a stingy person. As long as the people in the Siheyuan were willing to take a photo, he would never refuse. He took quite a few family photos and individual photos.

From then on, Wang Luo became interested and started strolling around the capital with a camera, especially the old city walls, the people walking by and the alleys, which were his main subjects of photography.

Especially the old city wall, this magnificent building that has witnessed the history of multiple dynasties is about to be demolished. It is really a pity, so he wants to record it. As for preventing the demolition, well, he can only try his best. The limitations of people's vision nowadays are here. They keep developing industry and economy, and can't see the economic effect that these ancient buildings will bring in the future. Who knows, in a few decades, it will become a good place to generate income for every city and a tourist check-in spot, and it will even be rebuilt.

There is a saying about the city gates of the capital, "Nine inside, seven outside, four in the imperial city, nine gates and one bell at eight o'clock", which refers to the city gates inside and outside the capital.

The old saying of Beijing people is "Nine inside, seven outside, four in the imperial city", which refers to the gates of the inner city, outer city and imperial city. The "Nine inside" refers to Dongzhimen and Chaoyangmen in the east, Xizhimen and Fuchengmen in the west, Deshengmen and Andingmen in the north, and Chongwenmen, Zhengyangmen (Qianmen) and Xuanwumen in the south.

The "Outer Seven" refers to the outer city gates that were added by Emperor Shizong of Ming Dynasty in the 32nd year of Jiajing to strengthen the city defense. Parallel to the "front three gates" in the north and the inner city are the East Bian Gate and the West Bian Gate, and the Guangqu Gate and Guang'an Gate are on the east and west sides respectively, and the Zuo'an Gate, You'an Gate and Yongding Gate, which directly leads to Zhengyang Gate, are on the south.

There are four gates of the imperial city: Dong'anmen (now Donghuamen) in the east, Tiananmen in the south, Xi'anmen in the west, and Di'anmen in the north.

However, if you ask me, knowing only these gates is not enough to understand the old gates of Beijing. Think about it, if you say that the culture of Beijing is just these gate towers, no one would believe it! The culture of Beijing is the total collection of material and spiritual wealth created by many Beijing people from generation to generation.

First, what does the city gate look like?
If you think that a city gate is a big door in movies and TV shows, you are totally wrong. A city gate is a door, but it is different from the door of a house or a house. It is the gate of the city and the gate of the city wall. The city gate of the capital is the same as the city gate of our ancient country. In addition to being a passage in and out of the city, its more important function is to defend against external attacks.

When it comes to city gates, it is actually a general term for a group of defensive facilities. It includes the following components:

Tower. It is built on the top of the city platform. The part below the tower that is connected to the city wall is called the city platform. The city platform is slightly higher and wider than the adjacent city wall. There is a door in the middle of the city platform, called the "tower gate". This tower gate is the last line of defense for the city gate.

The urn city. A small castle built in front of the tower. The walls of the urn city are connected to the city wall. If you look down from the sky with a drone, the urn city has several different shapes, such as square, rectangular and semicircular. The function of the urn city is to move the defense line away from the tower and protect the tower.

The Arrow Tower. It is located in the middle of the city wall, facing the tower inside. The Arrow Tower has four sides, and each layer of the three sides facing the outside of the city has arrow windows for external attacks. The platform below the Arrow Tower is slightly higher and wider than the city wall of the city wall, and is connected to the city wall. If you want to see the real thing, I suggest you go directly to Deshengmen in the north of the capital. The Arrow Tower there is relatively well preserved. Once you get there and take a look, you will understand everything.

The gatehouse. It is also built on the urn city, either on the left or on the right, or on both sides. Its shape is like a smaller arrow tower. The gatehouse also has arrow windows on three sides and a door below. However, there are no door leaves below the gatehouse, but a "thousand-pound gate" that can be lifted or lowered by the gatehouse. In the inner city of the capital, the gatehouse doors of each gate are generally opposite to the gatehouse doors of the adjacent urn city. The only exception is Anding Gate, whose urn city gatehouse door is not opened on the west side as usual, but on the east side of the urn city. These few things are put together to form a complete city gate.

Someone asked: Hey, why are there no arrow towers, gate towers, or urn cities at the gates of the Forbidden City?

The gates of the Imperial City and the Forbidden City are mainly to reflect the majesty of the royal family, so only the gate towers are built. The main function of the two walls of the inner and outer cities is to defend against foreign attacks, so the facilities of these sixteen gates must be complete.

Among all the gates, the nine gates in the inner city are more important and each has its own purpose. In the words of the old capital, it is called "nine gates for nine carriages".

Chaoyang Gate - grain carts. Therefore, there is a grain ear carved on the top of the Chaoyang Gate. After the grain entered Chaoyang Gate, it was stored in the nearby granary. Now there are also place names such as "Lu Mi Cang", "Haiyun Cang", "Xin Taicang" inside Chaoyang Gate, which were all warehouses for storing official grain in the past.

Chongwenmen - Wine carts. Chongwenmen is also known as "Hademen". Outside the city is the wine road. Most of the fine wines in those days were transported from Zhuozhou, Hebei and other places. To enter Beijing, you naturally have to take the south road. In the past, there was an iron turtle in the northeast outside Chongwenmen. The shape was very simple. It is said that there was a sea eye under the bridge of this section of the moat, so people used a turtle to suppress the sea eye and protect the safety of the capital.

Xuanwu Gate - Prisoner's car. Because the execution ground was set up at Caishikou outside Xuanwu Gate. After the Ministry of Justice reviewed and confirmed the prisoners, they left Xuanwu Gate and were executed at Caishikou. There were three big characters engraved on the top of the gate of Xuanwu Gate: "It's too late to regret". It's not too late to regret, because they were going to be executed, so it's too late to regret!

Fuchengmen - coal trucks. Because the Mentougou area west of Beijing is a coal-producing area, all the coal used in Beijing was transported from there. Otherwise, why is there a plum blossom carved on the top of the old Fuchengmen gate? The plum blossom, with its old and swaying branches, is quite picturesque. "Plum" and "coal" are homophones, which means that coal trucks are used in this place.

Xizhimen - Waterwheel. The gate of Xizhimen is engraved with water ripples. In the past, there was no running water in the capital. The emperor thought the water in the city was bitter and refused to drink it. Instead, he drank the water from Yuquan Mountain northwest of the city. Listen, Yuquan Mountain, the water tastes sweet. Emperor Qianlong once praised the spring of Yuquan Mountain in the capital as the best spring in the world. This is not a legend. Now that science has advanced, people have sent the water here for identification. It is indeed less impurities and has a pure taste.

As for the outer city of Beijing, it was built in the 32nd year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty. It is called the "outer city" relative to the inner city. Because the outer city is located south of the front three gates of Beijing, it is also called the "South City". The south city is longer from east to west than the inner city, but only half the length from north to south. Its shape is like a "convex" character. In the past, it was also called the "hat city" because it looked like a hat.

Originally, the outer city was planned to be built outside the inner city, a true circle around it. But how much money would it cost to build a wall around the inner city forty miles? It cost too much, so the south side was built first. The north wall of the south city embraced the southeast and southwest corner towers of the inner city, with a circumference of twenty-eight miles. There were seven gates in total. The Yongding Gate was in the middle of the south, the Zuo'an Gate was in the east, and the You'an Gate was in the west. The gate on the east side was called Guangqu Gate. The gate on the west side was originally called Guangning Gate, but later it was renamed Guang'an Gate to avoid the name of Emperor Daoguang. The east and west side gates on the north side of the outer city were different from the other gates at first glance: among all the gates in the capital, only the two side gates faced north, while the others faced south.

In the Qing Dynasty, the "front three gates" (Chongwen Gate, Zhengyang Gate, Xuanwu Gate), especially the area outside Zhengyang Gate, was particularly prosperous. Officials often went in and out of Zhengyang Gate when they went to and from the court. The street outside Zhengyang Gate was full of shops, noisy transactions, and crowded with merchants. It was the most prosperous downtown area in the capital during the Qing Dynasty. Famous shops such as Liubiju, Tongrentang, Duyichu, and Hexianglou were lined up, with plaques facing each other. Jewelry stores, silk shops, grain stores, and grocery stores were all over the place, and they were very prosperous.

There was a customs house at Chongwenmen, and to the west of the gate was the Huitong Siyiguan, where many merchants came and went. Outside Dongbianmen, the Tonghui River led to Zhangjiawan, where goods from the south transported by the Grand Canal were distributed.

There were many guild halls outside Xuanwu Gate, and intellectuals at that time often went in and out of Xuanwu Gate. In the Qiansanmen business district, there was also the Liulichang Cultural Street, which featured classics, history, and literature, four treasures of the study, calligraphy and paintings, and seals and antiques. Every New Year, there was a market in Changdian, where bookstores and other vendors set up stalls, becoming a major event during the New Year in Beijing. Corresponding to the economic development, Yongdingmen in the south was the largest and most important city gate in the entire southern city. The large plaque with the words Yongdingmen is now stored in the Capital Museum. If you have the chance, you may wish to take a look.

In the past, if you lived near Guang'anmen, you could often see a scene of "camels running through the city". This was a daily social phenomenon at that time. At that time, transportation was not well developed and the road conditions were not good. The building materials, fuel and mountain products needed in the city had to be transported from the mountains to the city by camels. Most of the "camel owners" who "pulled camels" were professional households in the west and south of Beijing. They took advantage of the characteristics of camels, such as being easy to raise, able to bear weight, able to endure trekking and having a docile character, to pull work and transport goods to support their families. The history of camels is very long. Camel teams have been involved since the construction of Yuan Dadu. If we count the 50s when camels were retired from the transportation industry in Beijing and replaced by cars and horse-drawn carriages, camels have made great contributions to the construction and development of Beijing for more than 700 years.

Zuoanmen is commonly known as "Jiangcamen". Exit Zuoanmen, go south and east a little, less than three or four miles, there is a place called "Minzhong Temple". In the early years, there was a strange bell in the temple. When it was rung, the sound was not like the sound of a bell, but like someone talking next to your ear. People who listened to the bell also heard different things. If a lazy person heard it, it would be "Get off the kang! Get off the kang!" If a diligent person heard it, it would be "No hurry! No hurry!" The little shepherd boy heard "Let the sheep go! Let the sheep go!" If you heard it in spring, it would be "Empty the warehouse! Empty the warehouse!" When it came to the harvest season, it would be "Winnow the field! Winnow the field!" Because everyone heard different bell sounds, everyone called the bell here "Minzhong", and the temple naturally became Minzhong Temple.

By the way, after talking for so long, I haven’t discussed the “nine gates, eight o’clock and one bell” that I mentioned at the beginning.

Legend has it that the old Dragon King wanted to steal all the sweet water in the capital, so he asked the Dragon Lady and the Dragon Girl to carry the sweet water out of Xizhimen in a big basket. If all the sweet water was gone, how could the people survive? General Gao Liang picked up his spear and chased out of Xizhimen. When he caught up with the Dragon Lady and the Dragon Girl at the river, Gao Liang stabbed them with his spear, and the water basket leaked. The water naturally flowed down, but Gao Liang was also drowned. In order to commemorate him, people built a bridge outside Xizhimen, called Gaoliang Bridge, and later it was called "Gaoliang Bridge". The Dragon Lady and the Dragon Girl were useless, so the old Dragon King had to take action himself. In order to take revenge, he wanted to flood the entire capital, but his magic was not as good as Liu Bowen's, so he was caught by Liu Bowen and locked in the deep well that led directly to the sea eye at Beixin Bridge in Dongzhimen with a big iron chain. The Dragon King was caught, and the Dragon Son was not convinced, so he tried to arch out along the sea eye under Chongwenmen Bridge - to flood Beijing again. Liu Bowen was not ambiguous and captured him as well, and put him in Chongwen Gate. Liu Dajunshi left a message: If the dragon wants to turn over, he has to wait for Chongwen Gate to ring. However, the common people had already replaced Chongwen Gate with a clock, and if they didn't ring, how could the dragon have a chance to turn over! Therefore, people in Beijing said "Nine gates ring at eight o'clock".

Actually, the Nine Gates Governor's Office was located inside Chongwen Gate. The Nine Gates Governor had great power at that time, equivalent to the commander of the garrison area! The other eight gates in the inner city all had cloud signs - "dots", but the Had Gate had a clock. The Nine Gates rang a bell at eight o'clock! The Nine Gates Governor's Office was there! When he rang the bell there, the other eight gates would ring one by one: "The city is closed!" In fact, the bell served as a signal to the other eight gates to close the city gates.

In short, there are many legends about the capital, and it would take days to talk about them all. When you have nothing to do, you can refer to some books, such as Liu Xinwu's "Bell and Drum Tower", Liu Yida's "Human Worm", and Weng Li's "Hutongs in the Capital". If you take the time to take a look at them, you will definitely have more feelings and learn more about the legends of the old capital.

Wang Luo was also happy and at ease. He had nothing to do anyway, so he ran around with his camera, asking some older people. He had a box of cigarettes with him, and when he handed them the cigarettes, the people in the capital would start talking to him about these things. He recorded these things and took pictures with his camera as souvenirs. It was very interesting.

By the way, dear readers, when you travel to Beijing, the most interesting things are not those seemingly prosperous commercial areas, nor those magnificent buildings. The most interesting thing is to go to those old alleys, hire a tricycle, and let the tricycle riders take you to experience the culture of the old alleys in Beijing. The author was fortunate enough to try it, and these tricycle riders will definitely make your money worthwhile.

(End of this chapter)