Last time, it was said that the Jin Dynasty established a Jindu in Beijing, and all the Jin emperors since King Hailing all took their seats in the Jindu. Jinzhong Capital is located in the southwest of Beijing, probably in the same location as Fengtai District, and has now disappeared.

The jade urn I saw in Tuancheng, Beihai,"Du Shan Da Yu Hai", was a memorial of the Yuan Shizu Kublai Khan when he entered Beijing to establish the Yuan Dadu in the first year of the Yuan Dynasty (1263). It is equivalent to the cornerstone. Prior to this, during the Mongolia-Jin War, Muhuali, the Grand Marshal of the Jin Conquering under Genghis Khan Temuzhen of the Yuan Taizu, surrounded the Jin Zhongdu in 1214 (the ninth year of the Yuan Taizu, the second year of Zhenyou of the Jin Dynasty, and the seventh year of Jiading of the Southern Song Dynasty). Emperor Xuanzong of the Jin Dynasty paid tribute and negotiated peace and moved his capital to Bianliang. In the following year, Muhuali turned back and captured Zhongdu in the Jin Dynasty and established Daxing Mansion on Yanjing Road. After the death of Genghis Khan, Ogetai took over, and after the death of Ogetai, Mengge Khan took over. Similar to the collapse of the Carolingian Kingdom in Europe into Eastern, Western and Central Francia after the death of Charlemagne the Great. After the death of Menggo Khan, the Mongolian Empire was also divided. In addition to Kublai Khan establishing the Yuan Dynasty, he also created the Golden Horde Khanate, the Chagatai Khanate and the Ilhan. The other khanates finally centralized through democracy, leaving the Timur Khanate and the East Chagatai Khanate, which finally paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty. This is a later story.

Kublai Khan was called Great Khan in 1260. In the first year of the founding of the Central Rule, he launched a battle for the throne with his brother and won. In the fifth year of Zhongtong, Daxing Mansion on Yanjing Road was changed to Daxing Mansion on Zhongdu Road, and an edict was issued to change the year title to the first year of the Yuan Dynasty. This was 1264, the fifth year of Jingding in the Southern Song Dynasty. After changing the year name and place name, Kublai Khan began to establish the capital on the spot and prepared to set up the capital in Yanjing. This led to the fact that many jade craftsmen raised funds to contribute to the destruction of the mountains and jade seas. In the eighth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1271), when Kublai Khan drove craftsmen to build a city, he secretly ordered Liu Bingzhong, a doctor of Guanglu, to write a letter saying that according to the ancient motto of "Great is the Qian Yuan", it would be best for Great Mongolia to change its name to "Yuan". Kublai Khan readily agreed and appointed himself as the first emperor and no longer served as a Hu Khan. The following year, after the urban construction project was accepted, Kublai Khan issued another edict to change Zhongdu to Dadu, which was the capital of Dayuan. This is the origin of the Yuan Dadu.

According to Han tradition, since the Western Han Dynasty, the temple name of the founding emperor should be called Taizu, the second emperor was called Taizong, and there were various sects after that. The first two emperors, one ancestor and one family, are the origin of the word "ancestors", such as Liu Bang, Taizu of the Han Dynasty (Emperor Gao), Liu Heng, Taizong of the Han Dynasty (Emperor Wen), and Liu Che, Shizong of the Han Dynasty (Emperor Wu). But this Kublai Khan was very magical. In order to emphasize that he was the authentic successor of Genghis Khan, he gave Genghis Khan Temuzhen the temple name "Yuan Taizu". By right, Kublai Khan should have been given the temple name "Yuan Taizong"? But he was the actual first emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, and he still wanted to use "Zu" as his temple name. Finally, his temple name was called "Yuan Shizu". He learned this from ancient Han people. The first person to use Shizu as the temple name was Liu Xiu, Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In fact, the temple names were all given by posterity, and I was just saying these for fun. But "ancestors" do refer to the first and second generations of ancestors.

The buildings of the Yuan Dadu did not leave much trace in Beijing. Its imperial city was also destroyed by Zhu Di during the Yongle period and buried under his imperial city. The most famous Yuan Dynasty building in Beijing is the White Pagoda of Miaoying Temple in Fuchengmen. The temple is no longer the same, but the white pagoda is still the same. This is the first Indian white tower in China, and the second one in Wutai Mountain in Shanxi Province. Both were built by Anigo, a craftsman from Nepal. See my article "Visiting the White Pagoda Temple in the Capital." The White Pagoda of Miaoying Temple was built after Kublai Khan built the city. Let's say it was in the eighth year of the Zhi Yuan Dynasty. When it was built, it was already in the 16th year of the Zhi Yuan Dynasty (1279). The White Pagoda on Mount Wutai was built in the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1302).

When the Yuan Dynasty was built, in addition to mountains and jade seas, there must be city walls. In the tenth year of Emperor Taizu of the Yuan Dynasty, when Muhuali captured Zhongdu of the Jin Dynasty, he killed and set fire to destroy the old world. When Kublai Khan arrived in Yanjing in the first year of the Central Tong Dynasty, there was no Jinzhong City to enter. He could only live in the Yuyuan Tianning Palace of the Jin Dynasty in the suburbs, which is now Beihai Park. When building the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan re-established a new world and built a brand new capital city centered on Qionghua Island in the North Sea.

Part of the city wall of the Yuan Dynasty was later taken over by Zhu Di, which was the southern half, but actually the majority. Zhu Di built a wall from Xizhimen to Dongzhimen in the Yuan Dynasty, but abandoned the wall in the north. There are three gates in each direction of the Yuan Dynasty. To the east are Chongren Gate (Dongzhi Gate), Qihua Gate (Chaoyang Gate) and Guangxi Gate. Guangxi Gate is no longer present; to the west are Heyi Gate (Xizhimen), Pingshun Gate (Fucheng Gate) and Zhuquan Gate, and Zhuquan Gate is no longer present. To the south are Shuncheng Gate, Lizheng Gate and Wenming Gate. These three gates are now gone. The location of this section of the city wall should be what is now Chang 'an Street. Although the southern city wall seems to be very close to the imperial palace, in fact, the imperial city of the Yuan Dynasty is north than the present Forbidden City. The gate of the imperial city should be north of the Jinshui River in the present Forbidden City, not the present Tiananmen Square. There are only two gates on the northern wall of the Yuan Dynasty, Jiande Gate and Anzhen Gate. You see, several city gates in the Yuan Dynasty are gone, and now only place names are left. These gates are all counted as outer city gates.

The gate of the Yuan Dynasty was gone, but some traces of the city wall were still left. The outer city wall of the Yuan Dynasty is a rammed earth wall. A regular rammed earth wall should look like this. I saw this in Zhangbi Castle in Shanxi Province. It was built during the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms period. I saw my article "Walking in the Third Jin Dynasty when the Autumn Wind Rises: Zhangbi Castle".

From a distance, the remnants should look like this. I saw this at the Liaozhong Jing site in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. See my "Summer Journey to Mongolia and Liao 2: The Traces of Visiting Ancient Liao in Chifeng".

The existing Yuan Dadu City Wall in Beijing is not as intact as these above. There are still some remnants left in the northern half of the Yuan Dynasty. The northwest section of the city wall runs north from Xizhimen to the Zhichun Crossing on Xueyuan Road, and then east. This section now houses a "Yuan Dadu City Wall Site". Look at this sign at the intersection of Mingguang Village. This place is likely to be the location of Guangximen in the Yuan Dynasty. On the east side, south of the Sun Palace in the North Third Ring Road, it is likely to be the location of Guangximen in the Yuan Dynasty. There is a stop on Metro Line 13 there called Guangximen. Outside Guangxi Gate is the Moat of the Yuan Dynasty at that time, which is now called the "Tuchenggou".

The platform above is a cross-section of the Yuan City Wall, and a city platform is reproduced on the platform.

This is a relatively good-looking city wall for a short period of time. At least the height is not much different. The two slopes have collapsed a lot. There is still a path on the top of the city wall.

The Tucheng further north has collapsed to this extent.

We all used to know that the road north of Mingguang Village is Xueyuan Road. Starting from Mingguang Village, the east of the road is the College of Posts and Telecommunications, and then to the west of the north road is the College of Political Science and Law. After crossing Jimen Bridge, on the east side of the road is the Film Academy.

After the collapse of the Tucheng here, surrounding residents and the Garden Bureau took turns planting trees and digging soil. Although the rammed earth was still tough, it couldn't help their children and grandchildren digging hard. Not only was the height of the wall reduced, the facade of the wall was basically a flat slope within 10%. Many trees have been planted on the slope, and in spring, flowers will bloom in flowers and colorful flowers.

Every day, there will definitely be "she" smiling among the flowers. Among the flowers, there is also the "Jimen Smoke Tree", one of the eight scenic spots in Yanjing.

The Eight Scenes of Yanjing were originally selected by scholars in the Jin Dynasty. Although there were also theories of "Eight Scenes" before that, they were only oral and were not written in black and white. During the Mingchang period of Jin Zhangzong in the Jin Dynasty, there was a book "Mingchang's Legacy", which should have been produced by movable type printing. The eight scenic spots in Yanjing recorded in the book include Taiye Autumn Wind, Qiongdao Spring Yin, Jintai Sunset, Jimen Flying Rain, Snow on the Western Hills, Jade Spring Falling Rainbow, Lugou Moon Moon, and Juyong Peak. These eight landscapes are all outside the capital city of Jinzhong. The first two are in the Yuyuan Tianning Palace, which is now Beihai Park, which is related to the royal family. The other six places are all established by folk beauty lovers and tourists, so it is said that experts have been among the people since ancient times. Look at the small folk temple next to the Chimen Smoky Tree City Gate and the Buddha inside for folk worship.

In the Yuan Dynasty, some literati changed the "Taiye Autumn Wind" in the Eight Scenery of the Jin Dynasty to "Taiye Autumn Wave". At that time, there might be a girl who went to Beihai Park at night to scoop up a ladle of water and put it under the windowsill of the boy's house. This was called making eyes. In fact, the meaning of this change is that people in the Jin Dynasty went to Beihai to drink the northwest wind in autumn to drink the autumn water in the lake. In fact, the artistic conception of autumn wind and autumn waves is not much different. In addition, the Yuan people also changed "snow on the West Mountain" to "snow on the West Mountain". This is a good change."Jixue" is more poetic than the original "snow". Although the Yuan people destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, they still learned from Song literature culturally. The Song people had a "lost poetic soul and a true style butterfly." The cold fragrance reaches the bones. Dream ten miles, plum blossoms shine snow." During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the scholars of the Imperial Academy changed the flying rain in Jimen into a smoke tree in Jimen, which was also more poetic. Prime Minister Li Dongyang was good at adding two more scenery to these eight scenery, called the autumn wind in the south garden and the rain in the east suburbs. Nanyu refers to the Nanyuan of the Royal Hunting Garden, and the rainy season in the eastern suburbs refers to the scene of farmers outside Chaoyang Gate supporting plows and farming in the drizzling spring rain.

In the Qing Dynasty, there was an emperor named Qianlong who loved beauty and was good at traveling. When he ascended the throne for sixteen years, this old Qian organized an expert group. He personally presided over the expert group and identified the eight scenic spots in Yanjing as Taiye Autumn Wind, Qiongdao Spring Yin, Jintai Sunset, Jimen Smoky Tree, Xishan Clear Snow, Yuquan Baotu, Lugou Xiaoyue and Yongjudian Cui. Lao Qian was afraid that people would not understand the meaning of "Jixue", so he changed it to a straightforward "Qingxue", which was unpoetic and failed. Lao Qian also did one thing. He wrote characters for each scenic spot, then carved them into imperial stele to stand in the scenic spot, and also built an imperial stele pavilion. The "Jimen Smoke Tree" stele in the picture above is the Qianlong Imperial Monument. In the 1980s, the Landscape Bureau rebuilt this scenic spot and built a fake city wall and a fake city gate without rebuilding the imperial stele pavilion. The original Imperial Stele Pavilion was commonly known as the Yellow Pavilion, but now it is also commonly known as the Yellow Pavilion.

Standing on the city wall, you can view the surrounding buildings.

Of course, an official house will be built under the city wall so that the cleaners can rest. Don't get me wrong, the pavilion in Turi is not a fake yellow pavilion.

This Jimen refers to the gate of ancient Jimen. We know that Jizhou is in Tianjin territory east of Beijing. How can this be Jimen? During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the capital of Yan State was the capital of Yan. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, not only King Ping of Zhou moved the capital, but the capital of Yan State also moved to Jicheng. The capital of Yan, Jicheng, is in Beijing, not Jizhou in Tianjin. At present, the archaeological industry is unable to determine the true location of ancient Ji City, so everyone prefers it to be in the Niujie area of Nancheng. Ji City is named after the Jiqiu in the city. For some unknown reason, since the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, the ancients believed that the place where the Smoke Tree in Jimen was located, so it was rumored that this place was called "Jimen". Contemporary people probably use "Jimen" as the place name here based on "Jimen Smoke Tree", which is a myth.

When literati say "smoke trees", they usually refer to trees and jungles surrounded by clouds and clouds, not the curling smoke when cooking. In the Song Dynasty, there was a graceful poet named Liu Yong. He once wrote,"The uneven smoke trees and Baling Bridge are the scenery of the previous dynasty. The withered Yang and ancient willows have climbed several times and withered into the waist of the Chu Palace." It can be seen that the smoke trees should be poplar and willow, especially the willow on the palace wall. When the west wind blows, they will become ethereal as smoke. I think there were no willows here during the Jin Dynasty, so I could only watch the flying rain. In the Ming Dynasty, Yuantucheng was abandoned, and willow trees grew everywhere. Nowadays, the poplar or willow trees have been climbed several times and no trace has been found, and we can't see the back of the Chu Palace at all. Only a few bushes are left, and the scenery of smoke trees is no longer visible.

If you go north from Jimen Smoky Tree, you will reach the northwest corner of Yuantu City. It's time to turn east. There is a river outside this Tucheng, now called Xiaoyue River, which should be the moat of the Yuan Dynasty.

This section of Xueyuan Road under Tucheng is now called Xitucheng Road.

Then turning this corner should be called "Beitucheng Road"? As expected.

This place has opened a street park along the north bank of Xiaoyue Henan Province, called the "Yuantucheng Ruins Park".

If the Xiaoyue River is the moat of the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, then Tucheng should be on the south bank of the river. However, there were no traces of the earth city there. The ground was already the territory of the Film Academy and the Film Channel.

Since it is called a park, it must be a place where flowers bloom.

Speaking of blooming flowers, there is a very famous flower field along Tucheng. North of Xiaxiaoyue River in Beitucheng, there is a very important transportation trunk line in Beijing underground, that is, Beijing Metro Line 10. Walking east along the "Yuantucheng Ruins Park" just now is not far from Mudan Garden Subway Station. From here, you can board Metro Line 10, and you will find that the northern section of Metro Line 10 runs along the northern wall of the Yuan Dynasty. You can see the names of two city gates in the north of the Yuan Dynasty: Jiande Gate and Anzhen Gate. Both places have stations. If you don't get off the bus there, the two city gates are just the same place name, and there are no buildings on the ground. There is also a station called Beitucheng between Jiande Gate and Anzhen Gate. When you get off the bus here, you will find Haitang Huaxi, which is the flower land under the city wall of the Yuan Dynasty. Beichen Road, which runs north-south in this place, is part of Beijing's central axis, and Haitang Huaxi can be said to be at the northernmost end of the central axis of the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, Beitucheng Road is divided here. Just now, the west side is "Beitucheng West Road", and from there to the east is "Beitucheng East Road". What you see on Beitucheng West Road is the "Yuan Dadu Ruins Park", and Haitang Huaxi is called the "Yuan Dadu City Wall Ruins Park". The "stream" here is still the same moat of the Yuan Dynasty, which is connected to the Xiaoyue River in the western section. And it runs all the way to Guangxi Gate in the east. Beitang flowers are open freely on both sides of the moat, and the mounds on the south bank are still there, so the place name "Beitucheng" is still in use today.

Look at the crabapple blooming on the river bank.

Every spring, people take off their bloated winter clothes and change into colorful spring clothes, and then flock to Haitang Flower Creek as tourists. When tourists come in spring, the crabapple trees on both sides of the river bloom, for nothing else but to compete with the tourists for beauty. Sometimes, officials will come to enjoy the beautiful spring scenery with the people, such as Kangxi. After admiring the crabapple, Kangxi found a piece of paper and wrote,"Fine grass is applied to the glory and the green is eroded, and wild flowers compete for beauty and fragrance on the clothes." Then he threw his pen on the ground and went to court for governance. Look at the crabapple flowers competing with tourists for beauty.

Like at Jimen Smoke Tree, a house will be built here so that cleaners can rest and store brooms.

There is a business card plaque "Haitang Huaxi" hanging on the door, signed "Thousand Stone", which should be the pseudonym of the painter and painter Li Jianjun. There is a painter and painter Li Jianjun everywhere. He is from Beijing and may live near Beitucheng.

"In front of and behind the house, plant melons and beans." In Haitang Flower Creek, crabapple trees will be planted in front of and behind the houses.

The only surviving Yuan Dadu buildings in Beijing are the White Pagoda of Miaoying Temple, and the rest are the ruins of these city walls. In addition, the Broken Hongqiao Bridge in the Forbidden City has been found to be the building of the Imperial City of the Yuan Dynasty, equivalent to the present Jinshui Bridge. Next time I write a post on the Forbidden City.