Chapter 22 Allusions

The quietest and most majestic place in the capital is the Imperial City, which is the outer wall of the Forbidden City, and the four imperial city gates are barred from the royal forbidden land. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 There are four gates of the imperial city: Dong'anmen (now Donghua Gate) in the east, Tiananmen in the south, Xi'an Gate in the west, and Di'anmen in the north.

The sixteen city gates are like valves that control the entry and exit of the entire capital, allowing people to work at sunrise and rest at sunset. In order to allow all the gates to open or close at the same time, the bell of the bell tower was used as a command to open and close the gates. For the nine gates of Jingshi, which guarded the imperial city, every morning and evening, as soon as the bell of the bell tower rings, except for the Chongwen Gate, the remaining eight city gates will begin to hit a metal percussion device called Dian. It is said that at that time, the city gate in Beijing was closed at 10 o'clock in the evening, and each time the gate was closed, it had to be dug three times, and each time it was struck, the door was only partially closed, and it was not completely closed until the third blow. Just like what people described at that time, "the city gate does not wait for anyone, and you must follow closely when you go out of the city and enter the city". Otherwise, no one can be accommodated unless there is a special order to open the door.

Let's talk about "nine doors, eight classics, and one bell". In the past, the gates were closed at night. Before closing the door, you have to play "Dian", the point is an ancient percussion instrument, made of copper, similar to peach-shaped, flattened, in the middle of the bulge, through two holes on the side, hanging and hitting, knocking up the sound is very loud. Now there is still a "canon" hanging in the east side hall of Fayuan Temple, which may be a signal of the monk's work and rest time.

Eight of the nine city gates are all "dian" when they close the city, but this Chongwen gate rings the bell when the city is closed. Why is that? I heard the old man say that when Liu Bowen and Yao Guangxiao built Beijing City, they repaired to Chongwen Gate, and there was a big sea eye under the city tower, and there was a giant turtle lying on top of the sea eye. If you don't hold the giant turtle down, as soon as it rolls over, the sea will flood the capital. It is said that the Beijing area was a forty-mile bitter sea and an ocean, and it was only because the giant turtle blocked the sea eye that Beijing became land.

At that time, it was decided to build the castle tower on the back of the turtle, and hold it down while it was sleeping, so as not to let it turn over, and it would be safe. When the giant turtle woke up, he found that it was suppressed, and he was very unhappy, so he asked Liu Bowen: Why did you press the city tower on me? Liu Bowen praised and said good things again, and said to the giant turtle: "It's okay, anyway, you have a lot of strength, and it's nothing to carry a city tower on your body." "The giant turtle said: Then when will I be able to turn over? Liu Bowen said: When you hear the sound of hitting the "pawn", you can turn over. When the giant turtle thought about it, he had to fight the "pawn" every day when he closed the city, and he could turn over every day, so he endured it and stopped asking. Who knew that the resourceful Liu Bowen ordered someone to replace the "point" with a bell at Chongwen Gate, and when the city gate was closed, only the bell was not clicked, and the result became "nine gates, eight classics, and one bell".

Therefore, Beijing City is also called Sijiu City, but he also has a popular title called "Eight-armed Nezha City", where does this come from?

After Zhu Yuanzhang's fourth son, Zhu Di, became the emperor, he wanted to build the capital in Beijing, so he sent the Ministry of Industry to handle the matter. But the minister said: "This place was originally a bitter sea and a secluded state, and there was an evil dragon in it that was very powerful. Please let the advisors restrain the dragon before you can build the city. So Zhu Di asked the military advisors: "Which of you can go and build the capital for me?" "Liu Bowen, the division of the army, reported that he was brave, and Yao Guangxiao, the division of the second army, was not to be left behind. The emperor was very happy, he knew that the two military advisors had the ability to subdue demons and subdue demons, so he sent the two of them to build the city of Beijing.

After Liu Bowen and Yao Guangxiao received the holy decree, they came to Beijing to inspect the terrain and ponder how to build it to prevent the evil dragon from making trouble. Both of them wanted to compete for the first prize, so Liu said: "Yao Erjunshi, let's do this, you live in the west, I live in the east, each of them thinks of a way to build a city, ten days later, we both kicked our heads, each took out the planning map we drawn, to see if we both have the same idea?" Yao said, "Okay." So they stayed separately and went out to inspect the terrain every day. The strange thing is that every day they hear a child's voice in their ears saying, "Paint as I say, won't it be done!" And they always saw a little kid in a red jacket in front of them. On the fifth day, both of them saw the child again, but they were dressed in a ruffled shawl, with red silk trimmed on both sides of the shoulders, and when the wind blew, it was like several arms; Both of them understood in their hearts: this is the eight-armed Nazha.

Liu Bowen thought to himself: The picture that the eight-armed Nazha asked me to draw must be the map of the city that subdues the evil dragon! And Yao Guangxiao thought the same thing, but neither of them said anything. On the tenth day, the two of them each took out the drawings they had drawn, and they were exactly the same, they were all "eight-armed cities", and the two laughed, so the two took the drawings and reported to the emperor, and decided to build the city of Beijing according to this drawing. In this way, there is a saying that Beijing City is also called "Eight Arms Nazha City".

Nezha is a widely circulated mythological figure. Since Nezha is three-headed, six-armed and two-legged, his martial arts are extraordinary, but he can suppress evil dragons and control demons, so how did Liu Bingzhong design Nezha's three heads and six arms to the capital of Yuan?

The main gate of Yuan Daduli is the head of Nezha, the civilization gate in the east is the second head, and the Shuncheng gate in the west is the third end. The Qihua Gate, Chongren Gate, and Guangxi Gate on the east side are the three arms on the left; The Pingzemen, Heyimen, and Suqing Gates on the west side are the three arms on the right. With three heads and six arms, there must be two feet, right? It just so happens that the two gates on the north city wall, Jiande Gate and Anzhen Gate, are Nezha's feet.

When we determine the position of Nezha's three heads, six arms and two feet, it will not be difficult to find Nezha's internal organs in the capital of Yuanda. Nezha's upper body is in the middle of the southern end of the Yuan capital, and its building is the imperial palace within the Xiao wall, including the Lingxian Gate, Yanchun Pavilion, Renzhi Palace, Xingsheng Palace, Guangtian Palace, Longfu Palace and other palace palace buildings and 35 squares extending to the south of the capital. The lower body of Nezha is in the middle of the capital city of Yuan, including Houzaimen, Haizi Bridge, Wanning Temple, Central Bridge, Bell and Drum Tower and other areas.

In the fourth year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1406 AD), Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, began to renovate the city of Beijing, first shrinking the north wall of the Yuan capital to the south by 2.5 kilometers, so that the north and south directions of the Yuan capital were short, and Nezha's feet were gone. In the seventeenth year of Yongle (1419 AD), the south city wall was expanded by 1 km south of the old site, so that Nezha's feet and his whole body were in harmony again.

After the exhibition of shrinking from the north to the south, the wall of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty not only still has the characteristics of Nezha City, but also enriches the materials of Beijing as Nezha City. Due to the southward movement of the north city wall of Beijing in the Ming Dynasty, the Guangxi Gate of the east city wall and the Suqing Gate of the west city wall were lost. One end is Zhengyang Gate, and the east three arms are Chongzhang, Chaoyang, and Dongzhi Gate; The west three arms are Xuanwu, Fucheng and Xizhimen. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the outer city surrounding the south city wall was built on the basis of the original city wall, and the city of Beijing became a "convex" shaped city. It seems to have put a big hat on Nezha City. There are also city towers in the outer city, with the building of the east and west gates of the outer city, and the saying of Nezha City is enriched, and the three-headed, six-armed and two-legged theory still exists: Zhengyang, Xuanwu, and Chongwenmen are three-headed; The left three arms are Dongbian, Chaoyang, and Dongzhimen; The three arms on the right are Xibian, Fucheng and Xizhimen.

(End of chapter)