Encyclopedia of society and culture in the ancient world ( PDFDrive ) 246

cities: Asia and the Pacific remains are more than 3,000 tombs, 2,200 sacrificial burials, and about 200 residential foundations, along with thousands of artifacts in bronze, bone, ivory, jade, stone, pottery, and horn as well as a few fragments of painting A rectangular Shang wall has been found at Anyang, but the most important part of the settlement is at Xibeigang, west of the walled area Xibeigang was the location of the royal cemetery, with at least 13 large-scale tombs dated from 1250 b.c.e or slightly earlier until 1046 b.c.e Much of the residential architecture lay in yet another area, just north of the village of Xiaotun and south of the walled enclosure Xiaotun is the site of the important tomb of Lady Hao, consort of King Wu Ding, who ruled in the 12th century b.c.e From Yinxu through the rest of Chinese history, the names of all primary capitals, their dates, and their rulers are known Between 1045 and 256 b.c.e., the period of the Zhou Dynasty, China’s main capitals were near Xi’an and Luoyang Hundreds of other walled cities were built during this period as well The first part of the Zhou, sometimes known as Western Zhou (1045 b.c.e.–771 b.c.e.) because its capital was in the western of the two locations, had two capitals, Feng and Hao, located southwest and northeast of each other, about 7½ miles southwest of Xi’an Ten building foundations, more than a thousand tombs, and caches of bronze goods have been excavated in the area of the two cities The most important capital of the second half of the Zhou Dynasty, known as the Eastern Zhou (770 b.c.e.– 256 b.c.e.), is one of China’s most famous ancient cities Wangcheng, literally “ruler’s city,” part of a larger city in the environs of Luoyang, is described in the “Kaogongji (Record of Craft smen)” section of the Rituals of Zhou, a book that describes imperial and official rites and ceremonies of the Zhou Dynasty The text sets forth a prescription for an idealized city, square in shape with three gates at each side from which three-lane thoroughfares run through the city The only interruption to those streets is the centralized palace area It includes the ruler’s hall of audience, temples to the ancestors and to soil and grain, and markets Th is idealized city plan may never have been achieved, but the description has been viewed as a standard against which all later Chinese imperial cities are compared Besides the major capitals, each of the states contending for power in the fi rst millennium b.c.e built at least one capital More than 100 state capitals from this period have been excavated Among the most famous is the city at Qufu, in Shandong Province, where Confucius taught around 500 b.c.e Its plan may have followed the prescription for a royal city in the Rituals of Zhou Like Qufu, other cities of major states of the Zhou, including Linzi, capital of the state of Qi in Shandong; Xiadu, capital of the state of Yan, just south of Beijing in Hebei province; Handan, capital of the Zhao state in Hebei; and Houma, capital of Jin in southern Shanxi Province, all had walled palatial sectors and at least one more walled area either adjacent to or surrounding the palace-city 217 CHINA’S FIRST IMPERIAL CITIES China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, who unified existing states in the formation of his empire in 221 b.c.e., built his national capital northeast of the early Zhou capitals Hao and Feng Remains of palaces and countless other foundations have been uncovered, as well as pits that contained thousands of life-size warriors to guard the emperor in the afterlife However, the outer boundary of the capital at Xianyang has not yet been determined Like their Zhou predecessors, the two great capitals of Han China—the earlier capital in the west, Chang’an, of the Western Han (202 b.c.e.–9 c.e.) and the later capital in the east, Luoyang, of the Eastern Han (25–220 c.e.)—are known through extensive documentation and equally extensive excavation Chang’an is probably best known for the irregular shape of its outer wall: only the eastern boundary is a straight line About 16 miles in perimeter, the length corresponds fairly closely to the 62 li (a Chinese unit of distance that varied over time) recorded in texts The wall was between 39 and 52 feet at the base and rose more than 39 feet The one accommodation to the ideal prescription for a city described in Rituals of Zhou was the presence of three gates on each side From them emanated eight major streets, none stretching the full expanse of Chang’an in any direction More unusual was the presence of six palaces, five inside the walls and one beyond the western boundary The palaces occupied most of the space inside the walls, and probably the placement of city walls was a response to the positions of palaces Largest was Changle palace, a little over square miles and built on the ruins of a palace from Qin times (221– 207 b.c.e.) Weiyang palace, opposite it on the western side of Chang’an, was almost square miles Between them was an armory Excavation and theoretical reconstruction have been conducted at each palace site Extensive excavation has also been undertaken in the southern suburbs, the location of an ancestral temple complex that consisted of 11 individual halls and other ritual structures Nine mausoleums for emperors and empresses spread north of the Wei River, north of Chang’an, and four more royal tombs lie in the southeast Kilns, bronze foundries, and a mint were located in the market area in the northwestern area of Chang’an within the city walls The population of Chang’an during the Han Dynasty was nearly 250,000 Although its population was twice that of Chang’an and its shape more regular, the Eastern Han capital at Luoyang was less than half the size of the earlier capital The nearly rectangular city, whose eastern and western walls, compared with the lengths of its northern and southern walls, were proportionately 3:2, had 12 city gates, 10 major street segments, and two palaces The palaces were not used simultaneously Like Chang’an, Luoyang had ritual structures for the same ceremonies and sacrifices in its southern suburbs Luoyang, with its two palaces, should be viewed as a transitional imperial city in Chinese history, whereas Chang’an was largely