S ince Chine archaeologists discovered remains of two rice fields from some 10,000 years ago in the Yangtze River Basin in the 1990s, increasing data have shown that East Asia, where China is located, is the cradle of early human agriculture, just like West Asia, where barley and wheat were domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Domestication of crops evidenced that ancient Chine people already had a farming calendar. Rites of Zhou: The Artificers’ Record , a 2,000-year-old work on bureaucracy and organizational theory, recorded in detail how Chine people determined the time for farming. They t up a pole for measurement vertically on the flat ground and ud the cardinal point of the pole as the center to draw a circle. At sunri, the pole shadow and the circle interct at a point. At sunt, they interct at a different point. By connecting the two points, people drew a line pointing due east one way and west the other. Connecting the central point of this east-west line to the cardinal point of the pole will make a north-south line. The directions could be further adjusted at night by obrving Polaris. In the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, at noon, when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky and the shadow of the pole is the longest, it marks the arrival of winter solstice. The shortest shadow indicates the summer solstice. Through obrvations over the years, the length of a solar year could be determined with accuracy, and an agricultural calendar was formulated to guide farming activities.In this obrvation system,
淮阳景点the pole and the circle drawn with its cardinal point as the
Immortal Culture Wang Jun is a rearcher at the Palace Muum and head of the Institute of Gugong Studies, an academic entity within the Palace Muum. Engaging in rearch on the court system and architectural history, Wang won the Wenjin Book Award, China’s top-notch book honor. His works include Beijing上下楼梯靠右行
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过故人庄Record: A Physical and
Political History of Planning
Modern Beijing (World Scientific, 2011). Text by Wang Jun Photos courtesy of Wang Jun The old city of Beijing contains abundant time-honored cultural information and showcas the basic methods ancient Chine people ud to determine time and space.C H I N A P I C TO R I A L 57
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center together remble the shape of the Chine character “中,” which means “center” or “middle.” This system has exerted a profound influence on the axial symmetry of ancient Chine cities, with the Central Axis of Beijing during Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644), to Qing (1644-1911) dynasties as reprentative. According to Rites of Zhou , when the first ruler of the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 B.C.) established the state, he had to determine its geographical location. Becau time could only be measured through space, when the king built a capital, he had to first decide the place and direction of the city. He needed to establish a connection between the royal court and the central axis of the city which symbolizes the source of power. The Forbidden City, which was home to Chine emperors in Ming and Qing dynasties and constructed on the Central Axis of Beijing, demonstrates the significant influence of the ancient philosophy.Great importance was attached to the direction of due north and south in astronomical obrvation activities in ancient China. The Book of History , which was believed to be compiled by great Chine thinker and educator Confucius, claimed that legendary Chine Emperor Yao requested his men to determine the time of winter solstice, summer solstice, spring equinox, and autumn equinox by obrving astrology. The north-south line was the most important obrvation axis.Contrasting ancient Chine people, Europ
eans found a n of time by obrving the motion of the sun. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a Roman architect and engineer from the first century B.C., wrote in The Ten Books on Architecture that the east-west direction was most significant. He explained that it was becau people needed to obrve the stars accompanying the sun at sunri and sunt. Thus, the Parthenon, a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, was built facing east. Chine people ud east and west to determine the time of spring equinox and autumn equinox. On the days of spring equinox and autumn equinox, the sun ris due east and ts due west. Huainanzi , a Chine philosophical classic from the Western Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-25 A.D.), recorded the method for obrving the motion of the Big Dipper. On the day of spring equinox, the Big Dipper points due east at dusk. On the day of autumn equinox, it points due west.
I found in 2016 that by connecting the Altar of the Sun, a venue in eastern Beijing where emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties offered sacrifices to the God of the Sun on spring equinox, to the Altar of the Moon, a place in western Beijing where emperors worshiped the God of the Moon on autumn equinox, you get an east-west line traversing across the old city proper. This line and the city’s north-south axis meet at the Hall of Supreme Harmony Square in the Forbidden City, forming the classic horizon coordinate system
in ancient China for determining After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the newly constructed buildings have fully respected the existence and due value of the Central Axis throughout the inheritance and transformation of the old city of Beijing. The photo shows the north part of the Central Axis viewed from Jingshan Park.
(Photo by Zhang Ziqiang)58 V O L U M E 890
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winter solstice, summer solstice, spring equinox, and autumn equinox.
Thus, it is clear that the
old city of Beijing contains abundant time-honored cultural information and showcas the basic methods ancient Chine people ud to determine time and space. The Central Axis of Beijing reprents the esnce and quintesnce of agricultural culture with a history of nearly 10,000 years in East Asia.
The Central Axis of Beijing has roots dating back to the planning and design of Dadu City in the Yuan Dynasty around the 13th century. When the Mongols founded the Yuan Dynasty and conquered all of China, the Yuan emperors planned this axis to show determination to inherit and carry on Chine culture. At the northern end of this axis, two grand structures, the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, were built in commemoration
of legendary Emperor Yao’s abdication in favor of Emperor Shun. This was a major event for the integration of the Mongolian ethnic group and other Chine ethnic groups. Several centuries later, the Manchus founded the
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Qing Dynasty and made Beijing the capital. They also proudly inherited this axis and integrated into the bigger family of the Chine nation.
In this n, the Central Axis of Beijing witnesd the development and growth of China as a unified multi-ethnic country. It demonstrates the immortality of ancient China
in the form of unique culture. The core of Chine civilization never changed with a change of rulers. Ancient Chine culture is incredibly inclusive, which rves as an important reason for the continuous development of Chine civilization to this day.
C H I N A P I C TO R I A L59
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