1．历史名城帝王都

1．历史名城帝王都

北京坐落于华北平原的北部，它的西北是燕山、太行山脉，东南是广阔的平原。作为东北平原与蒙古高地、热河山地与松辽平原的交通要道，北京自古就有“承万世帝王之都”的评价。

北京是人类文明的发祥地之一，早在约70万年前，北京西南的周口店地区，已经有猿人在这里活动，他们就是举世闻名的“北京人”。“北京人”处于原始社会的早期，凭借木棒和石器制造的简单工具从事狩猎和采集。约五六千年之前，北京地区进入了新石器时代，人们开始了以农牧业为主的定居生活。

商朝时，北京地区在政治关系上不受商朝的管辖，但却受到以青铜器为主要特征的商朝文化的强烈影响。

周王朝采用分封诸侯的办法来扩大直接的统治区域，在这一时期，北京地区以封国的形式被纳入了周王朝的政治体系。

北京地区属于蓟国和燕国，相传燕国是召公的封地，蓟国是尧的后代的封地，燕国都城在今北京房山县境内。蓟国的都城就是蓟城，大致在今广安门附近。关于蓟城这个名字的由来在北魏地理学家郦道元的名著《水经注》中有比较可信的解释，在蓟城的西北角有一个突出地面的小山冈，叫做蓟丘，蓟丘渐渐成为蓟城一个显著的地理标志，于是这座城市就叫做蓟城了。中国历史上鲁国的曲阜、齐国的营丘也都是这样的来历。

后来燕国吞并了蓟国，并且将都城迁到了蓟城，燕国就成了北京地区唯一的诸侯国，蓟城成了北京地区的中心城市。

随着燕国的不断发展壮大，在春秋战国时期，燕国已经成为一个强大的诸侯国，直到公元前226年，秦国大将王翦攻破蓟城，燕国灭亡。秦统一全国后，在燕国的领土上设置了六个郡，其中广阳郡的治所就在蓟城。蓟城位于秦朝版图的东北部，是通往东北地区的重要门户。在汉族中央王朝和东北少数民族之间的交流上，起着十分重要的作用。

两汉时期，铁制工具开始广泛应用，蓟城的经济也有了显著的发展，统治者还在渔阳（今北京密云县内）设置了铁官，管理这一带的铁器生产。东汉时有位叫做张堪的渔阳太守，还曾发动人们开垦水田，引水种植水稻。

三国时期为了解决农业用水，在蓟城附近修建了戾陵遏和车箱渠。戾陵遏是利用永定河的水源建造的拦水坝，车箱渠是一条引水渠，这是北京历史上最早的大规模水利工程。

隋唐时期，蓟城的军事地位十分突出。唐朝时改涿郡为幽州，治所仍在蓟城，因此蓟城又叫做幽州城。隋朝时，蓟城是兵马粮饷的集结地。唐太宗发动对高丽的战争时，曾亲自率领主力部队在幽州城誓师，被迫撤退时，唐太宗在幽州城东南角修建了一座悼念阵亡将士的庙宇，命名为悯忠祠，后来经过多次重修，改名为法源寺，至今仍然是北京市区重要的寺庙之一。

755年，安禄山在幽州起兵，攻打到洛阳和长安，发动了历史上有名的“安史之乱”。长达8年的安史之乱给人们带来了巨大的灾难，幽州城同样也受到了严重的破坏。

936年，东北地区的契丹族占据了幽州城，改国号为辽，并在这里修建了陪都，因为这个陪都位于辽国管辖的区域的南部，所以称作南京，又叫燕京，历史上又称辽南京。但辽政权的存在对北宋王朝构成了极大的威胁，北宋统治者曾多次派军队攻打辽国，希望收复燕云十六州，却是屡战屡败。后来北宋与辽签订了和约，形成了长时间的南北对峙局面。直到在辽国后方崛起的女真族统一后，与宋朝政权联合攻打辽国。1023年金军首先攻取了辽南京，经过反复交涉，在索取了大量的财物之后，金军才将一座空城还给了宋朝。北宋将南京改名为燕山府。但不到两年时间，金军又卷土重来，重新占领了燕山府，并且长驱直入，攻占了汴梁，北宋灭亡。金朝的统治者把远在松花江上的会宁迁到燕山府，并改称中都，这时，北京城作为中国封建王朝统治中心的历史才真正开始。

13世纪，蒙古族在金朝的北方渐渐强大起来，1215年南下攻占金朝中都，随后又灭掉金朝。但蒙古人攻占中都以后并没有对其加以利用，直到20多年后，蒙古首领忽必烈才决定在这里重建新都，名为大都。忽必烈放弃了中都旧城，在旧城的东北郊营建新的都城。新都城从莲花水系转移到了高粱水系，这样就为城市提供了较为充沛的水源，有利于城市的长远发展。建成后的元大都成为当时世界上最繁华的城市。宫殿富丽堂皇，商业繁华，交通便利。意大利旅行家马可·波罗在他的旅行游记中曾用朴实生动的语言叙述了700多年前北京城的美丽与壮观。

1368年明军攻占大都，元朝灭亡。除了将其改名为北平之外，明军还对这座城市进行了一番改造，在旧的北城墙以内又修建了一座新的城墙，墙上设置了安定门、德胜门，这就形成了明代北京城的北界。

明朝初年，朱元璋封他的第四个儿子朱棣镇守北平，称为燕王。朱元璋死后，朱棣夺取了政权，称为明成祖。为了进一步加强对东北的控制，他决定将首都从南京迁到北平，然后改北平为北京。也正是从这时起，北京这一名称才在历史上第一次出现，并沿用至今。

明朝北京城的营建前后延续了15年，凝结了人们的智慧和血汗，当时大批的工匠和建筑家都被迫投入到宫殿的修建中来，动用了上百万的人力。明朝时期对北京城改建的重点工程在紫禁城和皇城的修建上，紫禁城的城墙外移，扩大了紫禁城的空间，同时拉开了与皇城的距离，在紫禁城内连续修建了几座金碧辉煌的宫殿。在营建宫城的同时还对大城进行了一系列的改造，天坛、日坛、月坛等也都是在这一时期修建的。

明朝末年，李自成率领农民起义，攻占北京城，明朝灭亡。清军随即入关，建立了中国历史上最后一个封建王朝。这一时期的北京基本保持了明朝时的布局，经济文化有了进一步的发展，北京也日益成为全国的政治、经济、文化和交流的中心，城市居民民族成分繁多，市内还出现了具有鲜明民族特色的建筑。另外清代的园林建筑也十分辉煌，著名的畅春园、圆明园、颐和园等都是这一时期建造的。

1. History

Located on the northern tip of the North China Plain and facing Mount Yan and Taihang Mountains to its northeast and a boundless plain to its south, Beijing enjoys easy access to the Northeast China Plain, the Mongolian Plateau, the hilly area in Rehe and the Songliao Plain. It has been titled "an eternal capital of emperors" since ancient times.

Beijing is one of the cradles of human civilization. About 700,000 years ago, there lived some apemen in the area around today's Zhoukoudian (in the southwest of Beijing). They are the world-famous "Peking Man". Still in an early stage of the primitive society, Peking Man made a living on hunting and collecting with wooden sticks and simple stone-made tools. Around five or six thousand years ago, Beijing area entered into the Neolithic Age when agricultural production was started and thus human beings began to settle down.

In the Shang dynasty, though Beijing was not under the political rule of the dynasty, it was greatly subject to its bronze culture.

In the Zhou dynasty, emperors ruled and expanded the territory by appointing dukes or princes. It was in this period that Beijing was incorporated into the political system of the Zhou dynasty which established two ducal states in today's Beijing area-the State of Ji and the State of Yan which were said to be the manor of Duke Shao and the manor of the offspring of Yao respectively (Yao, together with Shun and Yu are three famous leaders in the early primitive society in the Chinese legend.). The capital of Yan was in today's Fangshan District while the capital of Ji, named Ji city was around today's Guang'anmen. Li Daoyuan, an geographer in the Eastern Wei dynasty explained in his famous work The Commentary on Waterways Classic why the city was named such: Northwest of the city, there was a projecting hillock called Jiqiu ("qiu" literally means hillock) which gradually became the landmark of the city and thus the city was named after the hillock as Ji. Many other cities in Chinese history got their names in a similar way, such as Qufu, the capital of the State of Lu in the Warring States Period, as well as Yingqiu, the capital of the State of Qi in the same period.

Later, Yan state annexed Ji state and became the only ducal state in present-day Beijing. As Yan moved its capital to Ji city, Ji city became the centre of this area.

During the Spring and Autumn Period & Warring States period, Yan was already very strong, but was finally defeated by General Wang Jian of the State of Qin in 226 BC.

After the State of Qin annexed all the other ducal states and established the Qin dynasty in 221 BC, on the territory of the former Yan six prefectures were ordered to be set, one of which was Guangyang prefecture with Ji city as the seat of the local government. Lying in the northeast of Qin's territory, Ji city was an important passage to the northeast and thus a bridge for communication between the Han-ruled central government and the minorities living in the northeast.

In the Western Han and Eastern Han dynasties, the wide use of iron-made tools remarkably propelled economic development in Ji city. The feudal central government appointed in Yuyang (in today's Miyun County of Beijing) an Iron Official to exclusively govern the production of iron-made tools. In the Eastern Han dynasty, a prefect of Yuyan whose name was Zhang Kan encouraged his people to reclaim paddy fields.

In the Three Kingdoms Period, near Ji city, a dam called Liling'e was built over the Yongding River and an irrigation trench named Che'xiangqu was dug to help agricultural production. This is the first large-scale irrigation works in Beijing's history.

In the Sui dynasty and the following Tang dynasty, the military significance of Ji city was pronounced more than ever. In Sui, the city was a place for stationing soldiers and horses and storing food and feed. Then the ruler of the Tang dynasty elevated today's Beijing which was then called Zhuo prefecture into Youzhou (zhou is a local administration adopted by the Tang court).. Thus, Ji city, still the seat of the local government, was named Youzhou city where later Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty made some encouraging remarks to his soldiers before he waged the war against Goryeo (today's Korean Peninsular). Unable to win and forced to withdraw, the Emperor ordered the construction in the city's southeast corner of a temple in memory of the soldiers who died and named it the Memorial Temple of the Loyal which was later renamed as Fayuan Temple (Temple of Source of Buddhist Teaching). Today, the temple still remains an important one in Beijing.

In 755, An Lushan, the governor of Youzhou city rose in revolt and assaulted all the way to Luoyang and Chang'an, which is known as "An-Shi Rebellion" in the Chinese history. It lasted eight years, bringing much grief to ordinary people and severe destructions to Youzhou city.

In the Northern Song dynasty, across the northeast land of China, a minority called Khitan gradually built up its muscle. In 936, they occupied Youzhou city and made it the secondary capital of the Khitan Liao dynasty. Since Youzhou city was located south of Liao, it was named Nanjing (which means "southern capital"). Regarding the existence of Liao as a big threat to their rule, the rulers of the Northern Song dynasty ordered several fights against Liao in the hope of recovering the sixteen prefectures in the present-day Beijing, but all in vain. Unable to conquer the minority, the Northern Song dynasty finally reached an agreement with Liao, assuring peace between the two dynasties for a long time until the rise of another minority group Jurchen who established the Jin dynasty (1115-1234). In 1023, Jin forces, who had agreed with Northern Song to jointly fight Liao, captured Nanjing. After several negotiations, they returned Nanjing to the Northern Song after taking away all the properties and the Northern Song dynasty renamed the city Yanshan Fu ("Fu" is an administrative area in ancient China, usually larger than a county). However, barely two years later, Jin forces once again occupied Yanshan Fu and even the capital of the Northern Song dynasty-Bianliang, marking the end of the Northern Song dynasty. The ruler of Jin moved the capital from Huining which was on the bank of the Songhua River to Yanshan Fu and renamed it Zhongdu (which literally means "central capital"). This is the first time in history that Beijing was made the ruling centre of a feudal dynasty.

In the 13th century, Mongolians, who lived north of the Jin dynasty, were building up their strength. In 1215, they marched all the way south to Zhongdu, occupied the city and finally defeated the Jin dynasty; however, the city was left largely idle until twenty years later the Mongolian leader Kublai Khan set his sights on building a new capital to the northeast of Zhongdu and named the new capital Dadu (Cambalu). With magnificent palaces, prosperous markets and convenient transportation, Dadu, the capital of the Yuan dynasty became the world's most prosperous and spectacular city, as revealed by the plain yet vivid words of the Italian traveler Marco Polo in his travel notes.

In 1368, Dadu was seized by the Ming forces, marking the demise of the Yuan dynasty. And the name of the city was changed into Beiping which literally means "peace in the north". Inside the original north city wall, a new one with two gates-Anding Gate and Desheng Gate- was built, forming the north boundary of the city. ("Anding" literally means stability while "desheng" literally means "triumph".)

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, dispatched his fourth son Zhu Di to Beiping and entitled him Prince Yan who finally seized the throne and became the new emperor known as Emperor Chengzu after the old emperor passed away. In order to strengthen his control over the northeast, Zhu Di decided to move the capital from Nanjing to Beiping and renamed Beiping Beijing. Thus Beijing (which literally means "northern capital") was first heard in history and the name has been maintained till now.

Beijing was built with wisdom, sweat and toil. During the fifteen years of construction, numerous artisans and architects as well as millions of manual workers were forced to dedicate themselves to the huge project: the wall of the Forbidden City was moved further outside, thus expanding its space and the space between the Forbidden City and the Imperial City; several splendid palaces rose from the ground of the Forbidden City; and a number of building complexes were erected including those we still see today - the Temple of Heaven, the Altar to the Sun, the Altar to the Moon as well as many other landmarks.

Eventually, the Ming dynasty was overthrown by an uprising lead by a farmer Li Zicheng. Having driven the last emperor of Ming out of the Forbidden City, Li dreamed of becoming the emperor and enjoying a luxurious life, only to be expelled by a minority from the northeast, Manchu, who established the last feudal dynasty in the Chinese history, the Qing dynasty.

In the Qing dynasty, Beijing was nearly in the same layout as in the Ming dynasty; but economic and cultural activities were more vigorous. Beijing gradually became the political, economic and cultural center of the country. As its residents were of different ethnic backgrounds, buildings with ethnic characteristics were constructed. Moreover, construction of imperial gardens was in full swing in that many famous gardens were built, such as Changchun Garden (also known as Garden of Exhilarating Spring, Yuanming Yuan (also known as the Old Summer Palace) and the Summer Palace.