Live Your Best Lives
The previous episode mentioned that during the Ming Dynasty, the southern wall of the inner city of the Yuan Dynasty was moved from Chang'an Avenue to the line of the Qiansanmen Gate. This southern wall was located in front of the Imperial City, so the three gates on this south side were called the "Qiansanmen Gates."
To the west of the Qiansanmen Gates is the Xuanwu Gate, which, before its southward shift, was the Shuncheng Gate of the Yuan Dynasty. Even after the wall was moved south in 1419, the Shuncheng Gate name remained. Why didn't Zhu Di rename the Qiansanmen Gates? He was preoccupied with something important and didn't bother renaming the gates. What was that important? That year, Zheng He was about to return from his fifth voyage to the West. Zhu Di had sent Zheng He to sea to pursue Emperor Jianwen, who had fled to the Immortal Mountain in the East China Sea. The Immortal Mountain in the East China Sea is very close to us, and the immortals there likely had frequent contact with the imperial court, certainly through the officials of the Baiyun Temple. This Western Immortal Mountain was once considered despised by the Chinese, and it's possible that Emperor Jianwen had visited it. Zheng He's previous voyages to the West had yielded no news of Emperor Jianwen, so this time he intended to sail further at sea and explore further afield. Records indicate that on his fifth voyage, Zheng He sailed as far as Lassa on the east coast of Africa, now the port of Aden in Yemen. After this voyage, Zheng He produced the famous "Zheng He Navigation Chart," the world's first nautical chart. The Portuguese, having heard of Marco Polo's description of Zheng He's chart, envisioned developing an eastward route from Portugal to connect with Zheng He's route and reach the gold-covered palaces described by Marco Polo. From Prince Henry's voyage in 1418 to Dias's crossing of the Cape of Good Hope, Vasco da Gama finally reached Aden in 1498 (the 11th year of the Hongzhi reign of the Ming Dynasty), thus connecting with Zheng He's route. Zhu Di, eagerly awaiting news from Zheng He in Beijing, naturally had no interest in whether the Qiansanmen Gates should be renamed. Zheng He lived up to Zhu Di's expectations, returning to tell him that he had "visited every celestial mountain in the western seas, but hadn't seen a single hair of Zhu Yunwen." Zhu Di, relieved to know his nephew was no longer there, issued an imperial edict commending Zheng He and granting him a spiritual reward, as well as a large sum of silver as a material reward. More than twenty years later, Zhu Qizhen succeeded him as Emperor Yingzong. Upon ascending the throne in 1436, the first year of his reign, he rebuilt the three front gates and renamed Shuncheng Gate to Xuanwu Gate. Xuanwu means "promoting military prowess," as in, "If the jackal comes, there are hunting rifles to greet him." The Xuanwu Gate's arrow tower and urn were demolished during the Republican era. The tower was removed in 1965 when the circular subway line was built, and neither remains today. This clarifies that Beijing's circular subway line was built along the inner city wall, hence the names of the stations. The loop line is now Line 2. There used to be a vegetable market outside Xuanwumen. The intersection was called Caishikou, roughly equivalent to the present-day Xinfadi Wholesale Market. On weekdays, street vendors bought fruits and vegetables here, then pushed carts or carried baskets through Xuanwumen into the city, selling them in the alleys. During the autumn executions, prison carts were pushed out of Xuanwumen. The executioner and the overseer would pull up a bench outside any vegetable store, park the prison cart in the street, and wait for the "Xuanwu noon cannon"—the cannon fire directed at Deshengmen—to behead the prisoner. The ancient time, 12:30 am, was roughly midnight today. Therefore, Xuanwumen was used for prison carts. To the east of the three front gates is Chongwenmen. During the Yuan Dynasty, this gate was called Wenmingmen, and popularly known as Hademen, with the "ha" pronounced with the third tone. After the city wall was moved south in the 19th year of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty, it was renamed Chongwenmen in the 4th year of the Zhengtong reign. Chongwenmen and Xuanwumen are located in front of the Imperial City, symbolizing "civil governance on the left and military prosperity on the right," meaning "civil governance and military prosperity." In ancient times, emperors aspired to govern the country with civil power and expand territory with military power. Walking north through Chongwenmen, you'll reach the Temple of Literature. Pretty elegant, right? It's just a long walk. This Chinese concept of "civil governance and military prosperity" later spread to the West. I witnessed this Western understanding of civil governance and military prosperity at the Palazzo Reale in Florence, Italy. That palace was the residence of Cosimo I, who ascended to the Duke of Florence in 1537 and made it his royal residence. 1537 corresponds to the 16th year of the Jiajing reign of Zhu Houzhao, the successor to Zhu Qizhen of the Ming Dynasty. Wenmingmen had been renamed Chongwenmen for nearly a century, and the names Chongwen and Xuanwu had long been known far and wide. Cosimo I didn't build two gates in front of his Palazzo Vecchio, but rather two statues. The statue on the right is the famous Michelangelo's David, representing spiritual strength; the statue on the left is also famous Bandinelli's Hercules and Cacus. Hercules is the Hercules from Greek mythology, representing muscular strength. You see, here, the gates also have one civil and one military, but the left and right sides are twisted, demonstrating a lack of thorough understanding of Chinese culture. Chongwenmen was primarily used to transport wine, the kind from the "Wine Pool and Meat Forest." Inside the gate, a tax office was set up to collect liquor taxes, which were then used to purchase cosmetics for the empress and concubines. As the saying goes, "alcohol and tobacco go hand in hand." Since Chongwenmen had alcohol, it certainly had tobacco, namely "Hadimen cigarettes." Originally, Hadimen was probably called "Hadamen," because during the Yuan Dynasty, there was a Hada Palace inside Chongwenmen. No one knows which prince this Hada King was, and even less so, the location of the palace. Hadimen cigarettes were produced by British American Tobacco, a misappropriation. The British had a cigarette factory in Qingdao, where they produced Hardemen cigarettes. In New China, people felt Hardemen cigarettes bore traces of colonialism, and production soon ceased. Two years ago, the Qingdao Cigarette Factory brought them back for sale, and no one accused them of colonialism anymore; perhaps they were even quite proud of them. Of the three front gates, only one survives, or at least hasn't been demolished. The middle one, Zhengyangmen, is commonly known as the Front Gate. Zhengyangmen means "the midday sun is above this gate." In classical Chinese, it's called "The Holy Lord is in the sun, the sun reaches its zenith, and all nations look up to him." This gate was the Lizheng Gate of the Yuan Dynasty. After moving south in the 19th year of the Yongle reign, it remained called Lizheng Gate. It was also renamed in the first year of the Zhengtong reign, along with the two southern gates. The streets along the Front Three Gates aren't called "Front Three Gates Street," but rather Chachamen West Street and Chachamen East Street, facing the gates themselves. Naturally, the streets along the Front Gate are called Qianmen West Street and Qianmen East Street. The Loop Line subway station stops at Qianmen. When you exit the station and look north, you'll see the Qianmen City Tower. Looking south, you'll see the Qianmen Arrow Tower. Qianmen City Tower is the only remaining city tower in Beijing. Let's take a look from the front. This city tower was built in 1439, the fourth year of the Zhengtong reign, marking its 580th anniversary. During this time, it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. The current version is likely the one rebuilt in 1907, the 33rd year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty. The tower is a two-story pavilion with a double-eaved hip roof and bracket-arch structure, in the Ming Dynasty style. It is seven bays wide and three bays deep. The first floor is surrounded by a veranda, while the second floor features a flat railing with supporting eaves at the four corners. The roof is gray tiled with green glazed edging. The ridgelines are adorned with dragon tails instead of gargoyles. Instead of an immortal riding a chicken, each ridge ridge features nine ridge beasts, a truly high standard. Under the eaves above, there's a wooden plaque with the words "Zhengyang Gate." Turn around and take a look at the Arrow Tower. This Arrow Tower is identical to the Deshengmen Arrow Tower we saw earlier, only larger. A closer look reveals a few minor differences: first, the curved eaves on the arrow windows, added in 1915. Another difference is the spacious veranda platform behind the porch. Approaching the front, you'll see that this Arrow Tower has a vaulted door. It's the only one of the inner city gates with a vaulted door, as the emperor used it for ceremonial entry and exit. The PLA also held its entry ceremony here in 1949. Looking up again, the stone plaque of "Zhengyang Gate" is still there. Compared to the "Pingze Gate" stone plaque, this plaque is quite different. It doesn't even have a signature, so it's definitely not the original from the Ming Dynasty. Look closely, the last stroke of the character "门" (door) is missing. Changing Chinese characters wasn't something Ming people did; only Qing emperors could have done it. The Qing dynasty began with Emperor Qianlong, who was particularly fond of altering Chinese characters on steles and plaques, and subsequent emperors also resorted to this tactic. A plaque designating it as a Nationally Protected Cultural Relic was inlaid on the side of the archway. It was designated as one of the third batch in 1988. This group of Beijing sites also includes the ruins of the Old Summer Palace, the Imperial Ancestral Temple, the Temple of Confucius, the Altar of Grain and Grain, the Liao Pagoda at Tianning Temple, the Yinshan Pagoda Forest, the Fahai Temple, the Niujie Mosque, the ruins of the Yandu capital at Liulihe, and a Chongli residence on Dongsi 6th Street. The lions by the archway do not appear to be native to the area. While Zhengyangmen retains its largest tower and arrow tower of the nine inner city gates, many of its annexes were demolished. Most significantly, the 1915 demolition of the barbican, which housed a Guanyin Temple in addition to the Guandi Temple, was unlike the other barbicans. The horse path within the barbican was undoubtedly demolished as well, as were the gatehouses and drawbridge towers on the east and west sides of the barbican, and the moat was filled in.
After exiting the Arrow Tower Archway, there was a large stone bridge over the old moat. This bridge is quite unique: the central span is the main road, with two spans on each side, acting as secondary roads. In fact, the central span was the imperial road, flanked by white marble handrails; the secondary roads on either side were just ordinary stone bridges.
Across the stone bridge is a memorial archway, the most impressive in Beijing at the time, with six pillars and five stories. Beijing's nine inner city gates all have memorial archways, but only the Zhengyangmen memorial archway has six pillars and five stories; the others all have four pillars and three stories. Take a look at the Qianmen memorial archway, which was rebuilt a few years ago.
Six soaring pillars, with two lions sitting facing each other on top of their crowns, crowned with Pilu hats. The plaque on the lintel reads "Zhengyang Bridge," the name of the bridge over the moat behind it. Qianmen was once said to have "four gates, three bridges, and five archways." The four gates refer to the city tower and the archway, plus two gates on each side; the three bridges refer to the main road and auxiliary roads along Zhengyang Bridge; and the five archways refer to the archway above. This "four gates, three bridges, and five archways" arrangement is unique to Qianmen, the only one of its kind in Beijing. The British American Tobacco Company not only produced "Hardemen" cigarettes for sale in China, but also established Qianmen as a cigarette brand, the "Daqianmen" brand. Daqianmen cigarettes were produced in Shanghai and featured an image of the Qianmen Archway. Unlike Hardemen cigarettes, which never ceased production, Daqianmen has continued to be produced, although they were taken over by the Shanghai Cigarette Factory in the new China. During the planned economy era, cigarette production was also planned. In Beijing, cheaper brands like "Badaling" and "Xiangshan" are commonly seen, while Shanghai produces "Feima." Only during Chinese New Year and other festivals will premium cigarettes be distributed to households with purchase certificates. Grade A cigarettes are Zhonghua, which are not available; the premium cigarettes available with purchase certificates are Grade B cigarettes, Daqianmen and Mudan. Zhengyangmen refers to the city gate tower and arrow tower shown in the previous picture. The term "Qianmen" generally refers to the large commercial area outside Zhengyangmen, encompassing Qianmen Street below the Five Archway and the alleys on either side. This bustling commercial thoroughfare extends all the way to Zhushikou in the south. This street was formerly known as Zhengyangmen Street, but was renamed Qianmen Street after 1965. Beijing's commercial areas used to have a tacit hierarchy: Wangfujing Department Store was high-end, Xidan Shopping Mall was mid-range, and Qianmen was home to the small, large shops frequented by ordinary people. The Qianmen area still retains traces of the old Lifang system, with the east side of the street considered the East Fang and the west side the West Fang. Qianmen is home to many time-honored Beijing establishments, including the Dabei Photo Studio below the Five Archway. Dabei Photo Studio is arguably a century-old establishment, occupying the prime location on the east side of Qianmen Street, at No. 2 Qianmen Street. What store used to be located at No. 1 Qianmen Street, across from Dabei Photo Studio? I don't remember; after the street was renovated, it was taken over by Starbucks. On Qianmen West Street, there's a KFC, the first Chinese branch of a half-century-old American restaurant. The first restaurant opened by foreigners in Beijing after the reform and opening up was Maxim's in Chongwenmen in 1983, with Qianmen KFC being the second, opening in 1987. Some of the place names from the former commercial district around Qianmen still remain, such as the names of the hutongs, like "Grain Store Street." See below: Grain Store Street in its current state. Don't be fooled by the run-down appearance of Grain Store Street now. The fact that it still has buildings like this one proves it was once a magnificent street. The most famous shop on Grain Store Street is the time-honored establishment below, located at No. 3 Grain Store Street. This is a very old shop. The plaque on the door was inscribed by the Ming Dynasty villain Yan Song. So, you can tell how old it is, right? It was inscribed in the ninth year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1530), making it 490 years old. Although Yan Song wasn't a very impressive person, his calligraphy was truly remarkable. This plaque is said to be the original, having been repeatedly renovated, making its survival a rare feat. This plaque is a masterpiece of Yan Song's calligraphy. Calligraphy students should definitely come and see it. Afterward, buy a jar of Liubiju pickles to enjoy while practicing calligraphy. The "Six Musts" in Liubiju refer to the six ingredients and equipment used in making the pickles, all of which must be of the finest quality. Dashilar is a national favorite, and you don't even need to look; it's a mess. An alley dedicated to eating is called Xianyukou, where I've also dined. Sit inside a shop, eat, and look out over the street. The shop owner stood at the door, eagerly urging passersby to come in and eat. Finally, a few elderly ladies came in, each buying three "Zi Lai Hong" (red) and three "Zi Lai Bai" (white) mooncakes, two traditional Beijing mooncakes pronounced "Si La Hong" (red) and "Si La Bai" (white).
In preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Qianmen Street began undergoing renovations in 2003. After the renovations, the only restaurant left largely intact was Quanjude Roast Duck. Of the time-honored businesses that returned after the renovations, or are still on Qianmen Street, only one remains. Lao Zhengxing, which moved from Shanghai to Beijing after liberation, was also here. Its chicken soup dumplings were incredibly delicious, but they're gone now. The Menkuang Hutong Luzhu Huoshao, a familiar sight in Beijing, is also gone. When talking about Luzhu, stir-fried liver is definitely mentioned. Xianyukou Tianxingju still has their stir-fried liver, but the quality of their steamed buns has declined significantly.
The most famous shopping mall on Qianmen Street used to be the Quanyechang below. The original Quanyechang was built in 1905. The current building was rebuilt in 1923 after a fire. Designed by Westerners, it features a neo-Baroque style. The "industry" in "Quanye" refers to industry, and this was originally an exhibition hall for industrial products. Before liberation, it became a self-employed business selling everything; it later became a state-owned mall, and in the 1970s, it housed the Xinxin Clothing Store. This building is now a Beijing Municipal Cultural Relic Protection Unit. West of Quanyechang, a section of the old buildings were demolished and new ones erected. Take a look inside. This is a brand new office building.
Although it’s a new building, it still looks the same.
There are various shops downstairs, so writers in the office building can go shopping after work. There are also various restaurants and bars where writers can grab a bite to eat. However, if you work late into the night, there might not be any food available, so you'll have to go to the KFC at the corner. Does the "Fang" character on the wall out front seem a bit like the "Lifang" of the past? This area of buildings used to be called "Beijing Fang," but is it the only "Fang" in Beijing now? Opening a shop in Beijing Fang with the "Fu" character in front is a surefire way to do business.
In short, the Qianmen area was once a bustling commercial and entertainment hub, and it still is today.
Beijing's inner city during the Ming and Qing dynasties consisted of these nine gates. Gates alone weren't enough; they also needed city walls. More on that next time.
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