Online Encyclopedia
Chang'an
- For the town in the Guangdong province of China, see Chang'an Town
Chang'an (长安; 長安, Pinyin: Cháng'ān, Wade-Giles: Ch'ang-an, now Xi'an, Shaanxi) is the ancient capital of more than 10 dynasties in China. "Chang'an" means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. The site of Chang'an of Han Dynasty is located in northwest of Xi'an. Another site, Chang'an of Tang Dynasty, includes the area inside the walls of Xi'an , small parts of eastern, western and major part of southern suburbs of nowaday Xi'an city. It is as big as 8 times of the Xi'an city in the Ming Dynasty, which was reconstructed on the basis of the imperial city of Sui and Tang Dynasty. Chang'an was one of the biggest and the most populous cities in the world.
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Chang'an of Han Dynasty
The city site was found 5 km away from Xi'an in the northwest. As the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, it was the centre of China's politics, economy and culture, the start of the Silk Road and an international metropolis which was comparable with the Rome city at that time.
History
The construction of the city could be divided into 3 periods and costed more than 90 years. The Emperor Gao of Han Liu Bang decided to build the palaces before the city walls. In 202 BC, he repaired the Xingle Palace (兴乐宫) of the Qin Dynasty and renamed it as Changle Palace (长乐宫). Two years later, a new palace called Weiyang (未央宫) was accomplished. In 195 BC, his son, Emperor Hui of Han begun to construct walls of Chang'an and finished it in September 191 BC. After Emperor Hui, Emperor Wu of Han built several palaces in the city. At that time, Zhang Qian went to the west as a diplomat of the Empire of Han. Chang'an city became a bridge between Asia and Europe as the eastern start of the famous Silk Road. In 2, there were more than 240,000 people lived in Chang'an. After the Western Han, the Eastern Han government capitalised Luoyang. Chang'an was called Xijing (western capital) then. After the Eastern Han, many dynasties regarded Chang'an city as the capital. In 582, emperor of the Sui Dyansty selected a place in the southeast of it to build a new capital which called Daxing city (renamed as Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty). The Chang'an city of Han was abandoned.
City wall
City structure
Palaces
Daxing of Sui Dynasty
History
City wall
City structure
Chang'an of Tang Dynasty
History
...Beginning from November 12 764, Tibetan troops occupied the city for 15 days...