As the old people in Beijing know, there is a saying about the city gates of Beijing, which is called "eight bells and nine gates in the inner nine and seven imperial cities outside", referring to the gates that enter and leave Beijing. Today we will talk about the old city gate culture in Beijing.
There are nine inside and seven outside, and the imperial capital is four.
There is an old saying in Beijing that "nine inner cities, seven outer cities and four imperial cities" refer to the gates of inner cities, outer cities and imperial cities. Among them, "Neijiu" refers to Dongzhimen and Chaoyangmen in the east; Xizhimen and Fuchengmen in the west; Deshengmen and Andingmen in the north; Chongwenmen, Zhengyangmen (front gate) and Xuanwu Gate in the south.
"Outer Seven" refers to the outer city gate built in the thirty-second year of Jiajing to strengthen the city defense. Parallel to the "first three doors" in the northernmost part and the inner city are the East Gate and Bianxi Gate, the refractive gate and Guang 'an Gate on the east and west sides, and the Zuo 'an Gate, You 'an Gate and Yongding Gate on the south leading to Zhengyang Gate.
There are four gates in the Imperial City: Dong 'anmen (now Donghuamen), South Tiananmen, West Xi 'an and North Di 'anmen.
However, if you ask me, just knowing these gates can't be regarded as knowing the old gates of Beijing. Think about it, if you say that Beijing's culture is only a few doors, no one will believe it! Beijing culture is the sum of material and spiritual wealth created by generations of Beijingers.
First of all, what is the gate like?
If you say that the city gate is just a doorway in movies and TV, you are all wet. The city gate is a door at first, but it is different from the door of our home or house. It is the gate of the city, the gate of the city wall. Like the ancient city gates in China, the city gates in Beijing not only serve as the access to the city, but also have the function of external defense.
Speaking of the city gate, it is actually the floorboard of a group of defense facilities. It includes the following components:
Tower. This building is located on the city platform. The part below the tower that blends with the wall is called the tower. This tower is slightly higher and wider than the adjacent wall. There is a door in the middle of the tower, which is called "tower door". This gate is already the last line of defense of the city gate.
A small castle in Wengcheng was built in front of the tower. The urn wall is connected with the city wall. If you look down from the air, the urn can be divided into squares, rectangles and semicircles. The role of Wengcheng is to remove the defense line from the tower and protect it.
The arrow tower is built in the middle of the urn, and it faces the tower. The arrow tower is divided into four sides, three facing the city, and each floor has an arrow window for external attack. The platform below the watchtower is slightly higher and wider than the urn wall, and is integrated with the urn. If you want to see the real thing, I suggest you go directly to Deshengmen in the north of Beijing, where the archway is relatively well preserved. When you get there, you will understand everything.
Gate building. It is also built on the top of the urn, either on the left or on the right, or both. It is shaped like a smaller watchtower. There are also arrow windows on three sides of the gatehouse, and there is an entrance below. However, there is no door leaf under the gatehouse, but a "one-thousand-pound door" that can be lifted and lowered under the control of the gatehouse. In the inner city of Beijing, the gate of each gate is generally opposite to the gate of the adjacent urn. The only exception is Andingmen, whose urn door is not located in the west as usual, but in the east of the urn.
When these things are put together, a complete gate is formed.
Someone asked: hey, why didn't you see any watchtowers, gatehouses and urns at the entrance of the Forbidden City?
The gates of the Imperial City and the Forbidden City are mainly to reflect the royal majesty, so only towers are built. The main function of the inner and outer city walls is to defend against foreign attacks, and the facilities of these sixteen gates are not ready-made.
Among all the doors, nine doors in the inner city are more important, each with its own purpose. In the words of old Beijing, it is called "nine doors and nine cars".
Chaoyangmen-grain truck. Therefore, on the ceiling of Chaoyang Gate, there is a tattoo ear engraved. Grain enters Chaoyangmen and is stored in a nearby granary. Now Chaoyangmen's place names include Mi Lu Warehouse, Maritime Warehouse and New Taicang, all of which were warehouses for storing official grain at that time.
Chongwenmen-take a wine car. Chongwenmen is also called "Hadamen". Outside the city is the wine channel. Most of the fine wines of that year were shipped from Zhuozhou, Hebei and other places. It is natural to take the south road when entering Beijing. In the past, there was a northeast iron turtle outside Chongwenmen, and its shape was very simple. It is said that there is a sea eye under the bridge of the moat, so people use a turtle to hold the sea eye and protect peace in Beijing.
Xuanwu gate-take a prison car. Because the execution ground is located in the food market outside Xuanwu Gate. The prisoner has been examined and approved by the Ministry of Punishment, so please behead him. There are three characters engraved on the ceiling of Xuanwu Gate: "It's too late to regret", but it's too late to regret. It's time to ask questions, it's not too late to regret!
Fuchengmen-take a coal car. Because the Mentougou area in the west of Beijing is a coal-producing area, all the coal used in Beijing is transported from there. Otherwise, it is quite picturesque to carve a plum blossom on the top of the entrance of the old Fuchengmen, especially the plum blossom. "Mei" and "coal" are homophonic, which means that this place takes a coal car.
Xizhimen-waterwheel. The doorway of Xizhimen is engraved with ripples of water. In the past, there was no running water in Beijing. The emperor didn't drink the water in the city because it was bitter. He only drank the water from Yuquan Mountain in the northwest of the city. Listen, Yuquan Mountain, this water makes people feel sweet. Emperor Qianlong once boasted that the spring in Yuquan Mountain in Beijing is the first spring in the world. This is not a legend. Now that science has advanced, people send water here for identification. It does have less impurities and a pure taste.
The gates and legends of the outer city
The outer city of Beijing was built in the thirty-second year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty. Compared with the inner city, it is called "the outer city". Because the outer city is located in the south of the first three gates in Beijing, it is also called "South City". The east and west of Cheng Nan are longer than the inner city, and the north and south are only half as long as the inner city, shaped like a "convex"; In the past, it was also called "hat city" because it looked like a hat.
Originally, this outer city was intended to be built outside the inner city, and it was really a circle, but how much did it cost to build a 40-mile wall inside and outside the city? Too many flowers have disappeared, so repair the south side first. The north wall of Cheng Nan covers the southeast and southwest corner buildings of the inner city, with a circumference of 28 miles. One * * * opens seven doors, with Yongding Gate in the middle of the south, Zuo 'anmen in the east and You 'anmen in the west. The east gate is called Guangqumen; Simon, originally called Guangning Gate, was later renamed Guang 'anmen to avoid the taboo of Daoguang. At first glance, the east and west gates in the north of the outer city are different from other city gates: of all the city gates in Beijing, only two side doors face north, and the others face south.
In the Qing Dynasty, the "first three doors" (Chongwenmen, Zhengyangmen and Xuanwumen), especially the area outside Zhengyangmen, were particularly prosperous. Officials go in and out of Zhengyang Gate. Zhengyangmenwai Street was the most prosperous downtown area in Beijing in Qing Dynasty, with many shops, noisy transactions and many businessmen. Famous shops such as Liubiju, Tongrentang, Duyichang and Hexianglou are lined with plaques. Jewelry stores, silk stores, grain stores and grocery stores are numerous and the business is booming. Chongwenmen has a tax gate, and Huitong in the west has four translation firms. Many buyers and sellers enter and leave Chongwenmen. Tonghui River outside Dongbianmen reaches Zhangjiawan, where southern goods transported by the Grand Canal are distributed. There were many halls outside Xuanwu Gate, and intellectuals at that time often went in and out of Xuanwu Gate. In the first three business districts, there is also a Liulichang Cultural Street, which features business history, Four Treasures of the Study, inscriptions, calligraphy and paintings, and antiques with seals. Every Spring Festival, there are fairs, bookstores and other vendors in the factory to set up stalls here, which has become a major event of the Spring Festival in Beijing. Corresponding to economic development, Yongdingmen in the south is the largest and most important gate in Cheng Nan. The big plaque with the words Yongdingmen written on it is now in the Capital Museum. Have a chance to have a look.
I used to live near Guang 'anmen, and I often saw the scene of "pulling a camel to the city". This was a daily social phenomenon at that time. At that time, the traffic was underdeveloped and the road conditions were not good. The building materials, fuel and mountain products needed by the city must be transported to the city by camel from the mountains. "Camel-pulling households" are mostly professional households in the west and south of Beijing. They make use of the characteristics of camels, such as easy to raise, able to bear loads, durable to trudge, docile and so on, to pull jobs and engage in transportation, so as to support their families. It takes a long time to tell the history of this camel. Camel teams have existed since the Yuan Dynasty. If camels retired from Beijing's transportation industry in the 1950s, they have made great contributions to the construction and development of Beijing for more than 700 years.
Zuo 'anmen is commonly known as "Jiang Wipe the Door". Out of Zuo 'anmen, a little east and south, less than three or four miles, there is a place called Minute Temple. In the early years, there was a strange clock in the temple. When it rings, it sounds like someone is talking in his ear, not like a bell. The person who listens to the clock is also the person who hears the same thing. Lazy people listen to it, that is, "get off the kang! Get down! " If hard-working people listen, it is "not busy! Not busy! " What the little shepherd boy heard was "herding sheep! Grazing sheep! " If you listen to it in spring, it is "dumping the warehouse! Dump the position! " , and so on to the wheat autumn, is "Yang field! Chang Yang! " Because everyone hears different bells, everyone calls the bells here "minutes", and the temple naturally becomes a minute temple.
By the way, after talking for a long time, I haven't talked to you about the "eight ten nine doors" mentioned at the beginning.
Legend has it that the old dragon king wanted to steal all the sweet water from Beijing, so he asked the dragon girl and the dragon girl to take a big basket and put the sweet water in Xizhimen. How can ordinary people live without all the sweet water? The general Gao Liang chased Xizhimen with a pike and caught up with the dragon lady and the dragon lady by the river. Gao Liang stabbed with a gun, and the water basket leaked, and the water naturally stayed, but Gao Liang was still drowned. In order to commemorate him, people built a bridge outside Xizhimen, called Gaoliang Bridge, which was later called "Gaoliang Bridge". The dragon lady and the dragon lady are useless, and the old dragon king personally stepped out. In order to get revenge, he wanted to drown the whole city of Beijing, but his magic power was not as great as that of Liu Bowen, so he was caught by Liu Bowen and chained in the deep well of Beixinqiao in Dongzhimen. When the dragon king was arrested, the dragon son refused to accept it and wanted to arch out along the sea eye under Chongwenmen Bridge-or flood Beijing. Liu Bowen is also unambiguous. He was arrested, and the town is in Chongwenmen. Teacher Liu Dajun left a message: If Zi Long wants to turn over, he has to wait for Chongwenmen to do something. However, the people have already replaced the Chongwen Gate with a clock, but they just don't do it. See how you turn over! Therefore, Beijingers say "nine doors and eight o'clock".
In fact, the former Nine Magistrates' yamen were all located in Chongwenmen. At that time, the nine magistrates had great power, which was equivalent to the garrison commander! The other eight gates on the edge of the inner city are all hung with cloud cards-"dots", but Hadmen is hung with clocks. It's eight o'clock at nine! Nine prefect yamen and there! As soon as he rang the doorbell, the other eight gates followed: "Seal the city!" " "In fact, this clock is a signal to the other eight doors to close the city gate.
Seriously, when it comes to the culture of old Beijing, it's not just seven or eight legends of more than a dozen old city gates. You must remember these.
There are Lao She and Xiao Gan in the older generation, Liu's Bell and Drum Tower in the modern age, Man and Insect in Beijing and Wengli Hutong in Beijing. If you take the time to see it, you will certainly have more feelings and learn more about the legends of old Beijing.