Why did Yongle move the capital? The splendor of the Ming Dynasty behind the "convex" shape of Beijing

When talking about the Ming Dynasty and Emperor Yongle, we have to mention a major event in the history of the Ming Dynasty - the relocation of the capital to Beijing. In this issue of the "Planning Science" column, [China Urban Planning] specially invited Professor Liu Su from the School of Architecture of Hunan University to bring us "The Reasons for the Relocation of the Capital to Beijing in the Ming Dynasty and the Changes of Beijing's City Walls".

1. Reasons for the Ming Dynasty to move its capital to Beijing

Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, first established the Ming Dynasty with Nanjing as its capital. Zhu Di, the Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, who later became the Yongle Emperor, moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing in the 18th year of the Yongle reign (1420 AD).

The reason why Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing can be traced back to the founding of the Ming Dynasty. In the late Yuan Dynasty, the country was in chaos and peasant uprisings were surging everywhere. The team led by Zhu Yuanzhang was also one of these peasant uprisings. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang gradually annexed the uprising teams in the south, proclaimed himself emperor in Yingtianfu (now Nanjing), and established the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, he sent General Xu Da to fight in the north with the slogan "expel the barbarians and restore China". Xu Da's army successfully conquered the Yuan Dynasty's capital Yuan Dadu (now Beijing). Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Shundi, led the royal family and the remaining troops to flee to the northern grassland area. The city of Beijing was not greatly damaged by the war and was preserved relatively intact.

Ming Chengzu Zhu Di (Emperor Yongle), picture from the Internet

At that time, the country was not at peace. There were still remnants of the Yuan Dynasty in the north and some local armed forces in the south. In order to unify the country as soon as possible and bring peace to all parties, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, appointed his sons, brothers, uncles, nephews and other relatives as well as meritorious court officials as kings in various places.

This practice of enfeoffing relatives and meritorious officials to various places to be kings and establish kingdoms began in the Zhou Dynasty. The so-called "feudalism" means enfeoffment to various places to establish a vassal state. This way of ruling is conducive to quickly stabilizing various places, but later it led to division and separatism. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are typical examples. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang also adopted this method of enfeoffment in order to quickly stabilize all parties. He enfeoffed his fourth son Zhu Di (later Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty) to Beiping (now Beijing), the land of the ancient Yan State, and called him the King of Yan.

After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, his grandson Zhu Yunwen (Emperor Jianwen) succeeded to the throne. Considering the growing power of the princes in various places and the possibility of separatism, he began to reduce the power of the princes. Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan, who was the most powerful among the princes, rebelled and launched the "Battle of Jingnan". After four years of war, he overthrew Emperor Jianwen. Emperor Jianwen fled Nanjing, and his whereabouts remain a historical mystery. Zhu Di proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing and changed the reign to "Yongle".

The main reasons why Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing are as follows:

01

Emperor Yongle, who was originally the Prince of Yan, had a special affection for his birthplace, "Yanjing" .

02

A geomancer said that Beijing is a place of dragon and tiger, with excellent feng shui , and some court ministers also supported moving the capital.

03

Another important reason is that the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty and other nomadic peoples in the northern grasslands are still a threat to northern China .

In ancient China, there was a saying that "the emperor guards the country's gates", and the capital was located in Beijing to defend against invasions from the north. The Ming Dynasty was attacked several times by nomadic tribes in the north, which also shows the significance of moving the capital to Beijing to guard against the north.

Several factors prompted Emperor Yongle to make up his mind to move the capital to Beijing. Soon after he ascended the throne, he began to collect precious wood, stone and other building materials from all over the country to prepare for the construction of Beijing. At the same time, he chose Changping near Beijing to build his own mausoleum, Changling, which later formed the Ming Tombs. Choosing Beijing as the location for his own mausoleum a hundred years later shows Emperor Yongle's determination to move the capital to Beijing.

2. Changes in Beijing’s City Walls

Beijing officially established its capital at its current location during the Yuan Dynasty, namely Yuan Dadu. The central axis of Yuan Dadu basically coincides with the central axis of Beijing in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the location of the city walls also largely coincides. The location of the imperial palace and royal gardens (Beihai and Zhongnanhai) is basically completely coincident. It's just that the entire city wall is biased to the north, and the imperial palace and royal gardens are at the southernmost end of Yuan Dadu. The location of Tiananmen Square and Chang'an Avenue today is the southernmost city wall gate of Yuan Dadu (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of Yuan Dadu

Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing, and sent General Xu Da to lead the army to attack Yuan Dadu. Emperor Shundi of Yuan fled to the northern grasslands, and Yuan Dadu was occupied by the Ming army. Zhu Yuanzhang announced that Yuan Dadu would be renamed Beiping Prefecture, and in the same year General Xu Da began to build the Beiping city wall. The northern city wall of Yuan Dadu was retracted about five miles inward, and the original Jiande Gate on the northern city wall was moved to the location of today's Desheng Gate; the original Anzhen Gate on the north was moved to the location of today's Anding Gate. The three sides of the southeast and west remained unchanged, and the area was much smaller than that of the original Yuan Dadu (see Figure 2). The reason for this reduction in area was mainly to concentrate defense. The northern city of Yuan Dadu was sparsely populated and not important, and it was necessary to disperse a lot of troops for defense, so it was decided to shrink the city wall inward to concentrate troops for defense.

Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the Beijing city built in the first year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty (1368)

Emperor Yongle was preparing to move the capital to Beijing, and he carried out large-scale construction and renovation of Beijing. In the 17th year of Yongle (1419), the construction of New Beijing and the new imperial palace was basically completed. In order to arrange the government offices of various departments in front of Chengtian Gate (today's Anmen), the main gate of the palace city , the southern city wall at the original location of Chengtian Gate was pushed out about two miles to the south, and the southern city wall reached the location of Zhengyang Gate (today's Daqianmen). Zhengyang Gate became the main south gate of the entire Beijing city (see Figure 3).

Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the Beijing city expansion in the 17th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1419)

After that, many residents and merchants gathered outside Zhengyangmen, and it became a prosperous place with a large population, but this was outside the city wall. In the subsequent nomadic peoples from the grasslands invaded Beijing from the south, and the residents outside the southern city wall could not be protected and suffered heavy losses. However, the court was in financial difficulties at that time, and the plan to expand the city was repeatedly delayed. It was not until the 32nd year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1553) that the court finally decided to expand the outer city of Beijing, starting from Zhengyangmen and moving south along Qianmen Street, pushing the southern city wall to the location of Yongdingmen today. At the same time, the city walls on the east and west sides were expanded outward, and the width of the southern city wall was greater than that of the northern city wall. This formed the unique "convex" plane of Beijing City (see Figure 4).

Figure 4 Schematic diagram of the expanded Beijing city in the 32nd year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1553)

After these three reconstructions and expansions during the Ming Dynasty, the basic outline of Beijing was determined. As the city was repeatedly moved southward and expanded, the location of the imperial palace remained unchanged. The imperial palace, which was originally located at the southernmost part of the city, eventually moved to the center. After that, through the Ming and Qing dynasties, the outline of Beijing has not changed.

Map of the evolution of Beijing's city walls. This map was added by the editor based on the first four maps of Mr. Liu Su's article. Map maker: Liu Fengyuan.

It was not until the 1950s that Beijing demolished all the city walls and the original location of the city walls became a road, which is today's Second Ring Road. The Second Ring Road we see in the center of the Beijing map today is still the famous "convex" character.