Architecture of The Song Dynasty - City and Palace

City and Palace

The layout of ancient Chinese capitals, such as Bianjing, capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, followed the guidelines in Kao Gong Ji, which specified a square city wall with several gates on each side and passageways for the emperor. The outer city of ancient Bianjing was built during the reign of Emperor Shenzong to a rectangular plan, almost square in proportions, about 6 km (3.7 mi) from north to south and 7 km (4.3 mi) from west to east. The south wall had three gates, with Nanxun Gate in the center, Chenzhou Gate to the east, and Dailou Gate to the west. The other walls had four gates each: in the east wall were Dongshui Gate (at the southern end), Xinsong Gate, Xinchao Gate, and North-East Water Gate; in the west wall Xinzheng Gate, West Water Gate, Wansheng Gate, and Guzi Gate; and in the north wall Chenqiao Gate (at the eastern end), Fengqiu Gate, New Wild Jujube Gate and Weizhou Gate. The gates in the center of each of the four sides were reserved for the emperor; these gates had straight passages and only two sets of doors, while the other city gates had zigzag passages and were guarded by three sets of doors.

The Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan's painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival depicts the Dongshui Gate in detail: the building on top had a five-ridged roof with a shallow slope in the Song Dynasty style, supported prominently by two sets of brackets (dougong). The lower bracket assembly rested on the city gate to form a wooden foundation, while the upper assembly supported the roof, similar to the dougong in an extant Song Dynasty building, the Goddess Temple in Taiyuan. This method of using bracket assemblies to support superstructure was specified in Li Jie's 12th-century building manual Yingzao Fashi as pingzuo (literally "flat base").

The city wall itself was built with rammed earth, a technique also detailed in Yingzao Fashi, vol. III, "Standards for Moat, Stronghold and Masonry Work":

Foundation: For every square chi, apply two dan of earth; on top of it lay a mixture of broken brick, tile and crushed stones, also two dan. For every five-cun layer of earth, two men, standing face to face, should tamp six times with pestles, each man pounding three times on a dent; then tamp four times on each dent, two men again standing face to face, each pounding twice on the same dent; then tamp two more times, each man pounding once. Following this, tamp the surface with pestles or stamp with feet randomly to even out the surface. Every five-cun layer of earth should be compressed to three cun; every three-cun layer of brick and stone to one and a half cun.

Rammed-earth walls during this time were tapered: the thickness of the wall is greatest at the base and decreases steadily with increasing height, as detailed in Li Jie's book.

During the Song Dynasty, the city of Bianjing had three enclosures: the outer city wall, the inner city wall, and the palace at the center. The inner city was rectangular, with three doors on each side. The palace enclosure was also rectangular, with a watch tower on each of the four corners. It had four main gates: Xihua Gate to the west, Donghua Gate to the east, Gongchen Gate to the north, and Xuande Gate, also known as Duan Gate or Xuandelou, at the south. Xuande Gate had five-paneled doors, painted red and decorated with gold tacks; its walls were lavishly decorated with dragon, phoenix and floating-cloud patterns to match the carved beams, painted rafters and glazed-tile roof. There were also two glazed dragons, each biting an end of the rooftop ridge, its tail pointing to the sky. The symbolic function of these chi wei was explained in Yingzao Fashi:

There is a dragon in the East Sea, whose tail (wei) is similar to that of a sparrow-hawk (chi); it stirs up waves and causes rainfall, so people put its likeness on the rooftop to prevent fire. However, they misnamed it "sparrow-hawk tail" (chi wei).

Running southward from Xuande Gate was the Imperial Boulevard, about two hundred paces wide, with the Imperial Corridors on either side. Merchants opened shops in the Corridors until 1112, when they were banned. Two rows of black fencing were placed at the center of the boulevard as a barrier to pedestrians and carriages. Along the inner sides of the fences ran the brick-lined Imperial Water Furrows, filled with lotus. About 400 m (1,300 ft) south from Xuande Gate, the Bian River intercepted the Imperial Boulevard, which crossed it over the stone Zhou Bridge, balustraded and flat-decked. This design of a boulevard with a stone bridge crossing a river was later imitated in the Forbidden City. During spring and summer, mingled peach, plum, pear and apricot trees adorned the banks of the Bian with a variety of flowers.