Why was Chang'an, the ancient capital of 13 dynasties, renamed Xi'an?

Many people believe that the current Xi'an is the ancient Chang'an. Moreover, the name "Xi'an" is far less magnificent than the ancient capital "Chang'an" of 13 dynasties. So what is the relationship between today's Xi'an and ancient Chang'an?

Chang'an could be the ancient capital of 13 dynasties because in the eyes of the ancients, "Guanzhong is the backbone of the world and the dragon head of the Central Plains". Therefore, the capital was built here since the Western Zhou Dynasty. Later, the Qin State moved its capital here and used it as the ruling center to unify the six kingdoms and established the Great Qin Dynasty. After that, Mangxin, Western Jin, Former Qin, Later Qin, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang successively established their capitals here.

Of course, the names of the capitals of these dynasties that built their capitals in Guanzhong were not unified. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, this place was called Haojing; in the Qin Dynasty, it was also called Xianyang; in the Western Han Dynasty, it was officially named Chang'an, which means "long-term peace and stability." During this period, although Wang Mang briefly changed its name to "Chang'an", in the following hundreds of years, whether it was a capital or not, it was almost always called Chang'an. Only during the Later Liang Dynasty of the Five Dynasties was it renamed "Da'an Prefecture." It was the Yuan Dynasty that truly bid farewell to the name Chang'an. After the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Jin Dynasty, it changed this place to Fengyuan Road (Note: Road, an administrative division in ancient times). In the Ming Dynasty, Xi'an Prefecture was established, which meant "stabilizing the northwest."

However, while the name was changing, the location of Chang'an City was also constantly changing. When Liu Bang established the capital, Xianyang of the Qin Dynasty had been greatly damaged. Therefore, under the suggestion of Zhang Liang, a city wall and palace were built in a place called Chang'an Township to establish a new capital. The reason for choosing Chang'an Township was, on the one hand, because it could effectively control the Guanzhong area of ​​800 miles of fertile land. At the same time, there was the Xingle Palace left over from the Qin Dynasty, which could effectively shorten the time to establish the capital. Of course, with the stabilization of the Han Dynasty's rule and the recovery of the economy, palaces such as the Weiyang Palace were expanded on the original basis, making Chang'an City a rare metropolis in the world at that time in terms of city scale and prosperity.

Later, Chang'an was burned down by fire during the fall of Wang Mang, causing this magnificent capital to lose its former glory. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo imposed heavy taxes near Chang'an, and his subordinates Li Jue and Guo Si fought here, causing Chang'an to decline. Although the Western Jin Dynasty, the Former and Later Qin, the Western Wei Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty successively established their capitals here, they were unable to restore the glory of the Western Han Dynasty. It was not until the establishment of the Sui Dynasty that Daxing City was built in Daxing County south of Han Chang'an City. The later Tang Chang'an City was built on the basis of Sui Daxing City.

Today, Chang'an County has once again become Chang'an District, a district of Xi'an City, and has once again become a part of Xi'an.

In the Sui Dynasty, the jurisdiction of Chang'an City was no longer just Chang'an County, but had two attached counties, namely Chang'an County and Wannian County (Daxing County). On this basis, the Sui Dynasty established Yongzhou and Jingzhao County. In the early Tang Dynasty, Chang'an was also just an attached county of the capital, and the other county was Wannian County (renamed Xianning County during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang). However, at this time, the seat of government of Chang'an had been moved to the "Daxing" city, so it was also called "Jingxi", and Yongzhou and Jingzhao Prefecture were set up. How were the jurisdictions of the two counties in Chang'an City divided? According to the division of the Tang Dynasty, the boundary was Zhuque Street. The 59 wards of the west city, the West Market and the 59 townships outside the city to the west of Zhuque Street were assigned to Chang'an County, while the 59 wards of the east city and the East Market to the east of Zhuque Street were assigned to Wannian County.

After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an was no longer the capital of the central dynasty, so Chang'an also became an ordinary county-level administrative division. In the second year of Hongwu, that is, 1369, after the Ming Dynasty pacified Shaanxi, Zhu Yuanzhang established Xi'an Prefecture. At the same time, in order to prevent the invasion of Mongolia, Zhu Yuanzhang's second son, Qin Wang Zhu Chong, built a new city in the original Chang'an City, built a city wall (now the Xi'an City Wall), and called the newly built city "Xi'an Prefecture". Since the county government of Chang'an County has been in Xi'an Prefecture City for a long time, "Xi'an City" and "Chang'an City" have been confused by the people since the Ming Dynasty.

After 1911, the Beiyang government abolished the prefecture-level system, and Xi'an Prefecture was changed to Chang'an County. However, in 1928, Xi'an City was re-established, and the former Chang'an County was moved to the south of Xi'an City in 1939. Only then did Xi'an and Chang'an officially "separate".

Today, Chang'an County has once again become Chang'an District, a district of Xi'an City, and has once again become a part of Xi'an.