Planning and Construction
Zhouli is a classic Chinese Confucian text. Scholars have had different views on its author and completion date for a long time. It is generally believed that the Duke of Zhou wrote it during the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is estimated to have taken shape and completed as a book in the Warring States period. Through its account of the administrative system of the Zhou Dynasty, Zhouli builds a picture of the ideal state organization, social structure, and behavioral norms of early China.
Kao Gong Ji is the oldest surviving historical data about handicrafts in China. Its completion is controversial, but it is estimated to have been finished sometime between the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods. It could be included in Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou) about the Western Zhou era. The system described in the chapter “Construction of the Capital by Craftsmen” is the earliest systematic treatise on urban planning and construction in China, which had a profound influence. The Kaogongi’s depiction of the ideal capital city planning paradigm emphasizes that the principles of etiquette and order should permeate all aspects of urban planning and architectural design, with gates, city walls, buildings, and roads all needing to demonstrate hierarchy. The capital city should possess the most complete set of urban functions and the highest level of architectural forms. The Kao Gong Ji is known as the earliest and most influential ancient Chinese urban planning theories.
The “Kao Gong Ji (Record of Trades)” in Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou) describes the planning pattern of the ideal capital city in ancient China as follows, “When craftsmen build a capital city, they must follow the following rules: The city should be square in shape, with nine-li on each side, and three gates on each side of the city wall. The capital should have nine north-south roads and nine east-west roads, each of which can accommodate nine vehicles side by side. An ancestral temple should be placed on the left (outside the palace gates), and an altar of land and grain should be placed on the right; the court should be placed in front of the emperor’s residence, and the market should be located behind the palace. Both the court and market should be a square of 100 paces.”
The urban planning pattern shown in the literature is roughly like this: a square outline of the capital city, with three gates on each side of the city wall. The capital city should have nine north-south and nine west-east avenues; each avenue could accommodate nine vehicle lanes. In the capital city, the Imperial Ancestral Temple should be east of the palace city, whereas the temple of land and grain should be in the west. Besides, the palace’s main hall should be in the south of the capital city, while there should be a market and a residential area in the north.
he sketch map of an ideal royal city in the “Kao Gong Ji (Records of Trades)” in Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou)
Reference: a diagram of a royal city in San Li Tu (Three Rites Illustrated) by Nie Congyi of the Song Dynasty
The Beijing Central Axis layout pattern fully demonstrates the ideal capital city planning paradigm prescribed in the Kao Gong Ji. It takes the north-south and centered historical road as the skeleton, linking the well-arranged buildings and urban spaces with different functions. Located in the middle of the Beijing Central Axis, the outer part of the Forbidden City, the Tiananmen Gate, the Upright Gate, and the ceremonial hall complex in the Outer Court area of the Forbidden City form “the imperial court in the front with a market at the back,” as prescribed in Kao Gong Ji. The Bell and Drum Tower and the surrounding commercial areas at the north end of the central axis were where the markets in the inner city of Beijing were located during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. They represent the “market in the back” concept. The Imperial Ancestral Temple, located southeast of the Forbidden City, and the Altar of Land and Grain to the southwest form the pattern of “an ancestral temple on the left and an altar of land and grain on the right.”
The diagram of the relationship between the Beijing Central Axis and the border of the city and the important building complex
Reference: Historical Atlas of Beijing