1997 12.4 At the 265438th plenary meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in Naples, Italy, it was included in the World Heritage List according to the cultural heritage selection criteria C(II)(IV).

No.: 200-0 17

Evaluation by World Heritage Committee: Lijiang, an ancient city, skillfully blends economic and strategic locations with rugged terrain, and truly and perfectly preserves and reproduces its quaint features. The architecture of the ancient city has experienced the baptism and vicissitudes of countless dynasties, and is famous for integrating the cultural characteristics of various ethnic groups. Lijiang also has an ancient water supply system, criss-crossing, exquisite and unique, which still plays an effective role today.

"Old Town of Lijiang" is the world's first "living space for residents" that has become a world heritage.

Old Town of Lijiang, located in Lijiang Naxi Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, was founded in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty (/kloc-the late 3rd century). The ancient city is located in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, with an altitude of more than 2,400 meters and an area of 3.8 square kilometers. Since ancient times, it has been a famous market and an important town on the ancient tea-horse road. The ancient city has more than 25,000 residents. Among them, Naxi people account for the vast majority of the total population, and 30% of the residents are still engaged in traditional handicrafts and commercial activities, mainly producing bronzes and silverware, fur and leather, textiles and wine making.

The streets of Old Town of Lijiang are built by mountains and rivers, and paved with red breccia, which will not be muddy in rainy season or flying dust in dry season. Stone patterns are natural and elegant, which complement the whole urban environment. Sifang street, located in the center of the ancient city, is the representative of Lijiang ancient street. There are 354 bridges on the Yu He River system in Old Town of Lijiang, with an average density of 93 bridges per square kilometer. Bridges have various shapes, among which the famous ones are Suocui Bridge, Dashiqiao Bridge, Wanqian Bridge, Nanmen Bridge, Saddle Bridge and Renshou Bridge, all of which were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (14-19th century). Among them, Dashiqiao, located at 100 meters east of Sifang Street, is the most distinctive.

Old Town of Lijiang is also known as Dayan Town. Naxi dialect calls Dayan ancient city "the ancient capital of England", which means the land of Jiangwan. Founded in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty, it has a history of more than 800 years. The ancient city is located on the Jinsha River at the foot of Yulong Snow Mountain, with dozens of acres of fertile fields and vast fields in the southeast. Shaped like a jade inkstone, it was named Dayan Town.

Old Town of Lijiang is the only historical and cultural city in China without walls. It is said that because the hereditary ruler of ancient Lijiang is surnamed Mu, it is unlucky to build a city wall, just like the word "sleepy" framed in wooden characters. The ancient city combines the essence of Naxi, Bai, Tibetan and Han architectural arts. Exploring its past, people find that this once forgotten "Ancient Naxi Kingdom" has been inhabited and multiplied by human beings since ancient times. Today's Naxi people are descendants of the Qiang people who moved south in ancient times. In the long years of thousands of years, they worked hard and built their own beautiful homes. Nowadays, there are a large number of houses in the Ming and Qing dynasties in the city, all of which are tile houses with civil structures, mostly with three squares and one wall. The layout of residential buildings is flexible, with emphasis on decoration and meticulous carving. Flowers, trees and bonsai are planted in the courtyard. There are many canals in the city, and buildings across water and adjacent canals are very common. (see attached figure)

Located in Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet traffic arteries. In ancient times, frequent commercial activities promoted the prosperity of local people and soon became famous markets and towns. It is generally believed that Lijiang was built in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. In 1253, Kublai Khan (Yuan Shizu) was stationed here when he conquered Dali. From then on, until the early Qing Dynasty, Lijiang was ruled by the Mu ancestor of Naxi nationality and the Mu Tusi (founded in 1382) under the jurisdiction of the central dynasty for nearly 500 years. In the meantime, Xu Xiake (1587- 164 1), a geographer of Amin Dynasty who had traveled all over Yunnan, described in the Diary of a Journey to Yunnan that Lijiang City was a "residential community with rows of tiled houses", with more than 1,000 residents in the ancient city in the late Ming Dynasty, which shows that the urban construction has been quite huge.

The shogunate in the ancient city was originally the hereditary chieftain shogunate in Lijiang. Founded in the Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 127 1 ~ 1368), it was rebuilt in 1998 and changed into an ancient city museum. The wooden house covers an area of 46 mu, with 162 rooms in it. (See attached figure) There is a plaque inscribed by emperors of past dynasties, 1 1, which reflects the rise and fall of the Mu family.

Sifang street is the center of the ancient city, extending in all directions and surrounded by quiet alleys. It is said that the toast of the Mu family was built at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. This is the market center of past dynasties, and it is very lively every day. Four main streets extend from the four corners of Sifang Street, leading to four suburbs in the southeast and northwest, and many streets and lanes branched from the main streets are like cobwebs, which are convenient for travel. Streets are paved with colored stones, smooth and clean, with no dust in sunny days and no water in rainy days. Almost every street has one side accompanied by running water. The spring comes from the Yu He River, and the river reaches the town to form a double stone bridge. It flows into the ancient city in three streams: east, west and middle, and goes around the street, through walls and houses. Willow hangs by the water, and the small bridge stands in Liu Xia, forming a unique style of "every family is flowing, and every family is weeping willow". When I came here, I suddenly felt the charm of "Venice of the East". In the early years of the city, Baima Longtan and several Jing Quan, which were built according to underground springs, still exist today. People have created the method of "one pond, one well and three ponds", that is, drinking water in the first pond, washing vegetables in the second pond, washing clothes in the third pond, and the clear water is decreasing in turn, which is both scientific and hygienic. Residents also use water to clean streets. As long as the sluice is put to stop the river and the water overflows the stone pavement, the pollution can be washed away and the market can be kept clean.

Lijiang Dayan Town, which is surrounded by mountains and waters, has neither a tall besieged city nor a spacious avenue, but it is simple and picturesque, showing natural harmony everywhere. Because of the terrain and flowing water, the houses in the town are scattered and undulating. People use wood, stone and mud to build beautiful and applicable houses, which are integrated into the traditions of Han, Bai and Tibetan dwellings and form a unique style. The common local houses are "three squares and one wall", that is, a courtyard surrounded by a main room, a wing room and a wall. Each room has three rooms and two floors. The main room facing south is occupied by the elders, and the east and west rooms are generally the next substitute. Most houses are decorated with a fish-shaped or leaf-shaped wood chip under the eaves of two gables, which is called "hanging fish" to pray for "more happiness and more celebration". Many courtyard gates are beautifully carved and the ground is covered with pebbles, tiles and tiles. There are generally six doors and windows in the front hall, and the carvings in the center of the window are mostly four seasons flowers or auspicious birds and animals. Most of the eaves in front of the hall are wide, which is a warm and comfortable activity space.

Baisha residential complex is located 8 kilometers north of Old Town of Lijiang. It was once the political, economic and cultural center of Lijiang during the Song and Yuan Dynasties (10 ~14th century). Baisha dwellings are distributed on a north-south axis, with a trapezoidal square in the middle. A spring water is introduced into the square from the north, and four alleys lead from the square to four directions, which is very distinctive. The formation and development of Baisha folk houses laid the foundation for the layout of Old Town of Lijiang.

It is said that there are 100 college students in the quiet courtyard of Naxi people, with small bridges and flowing water and birds and flowers. This shows the result of respecting literature-this is the land where one side gathers wisdom and elves.

Many Naxi people, especially Naxi men, are good at poetry, piano and calligraphy. In the colorful festivals of the ancient city, apart from the all-night national songs and dances and local operas, the most famous is the amateur "Naxi Ancient Music". (See attached chart) Among them, "White Sands and Fine Music" is a large-scale classical music suite integrating song, dance and pleasure, and is known as the "living fossil of music"; Another Lijiang "Dong Jing Qu" is derived from ancient Taoist music, and retains the rhyme of many long-lost lyrics of the Central Plains.

According to historical records, the murals in Lijiang, represented by Dabaoji Palace, were painted in succession during the 300 years from the early Ming Dynasty to Puli period. At that time, local officials hired a group of Han painters headed by Ma, and Tibetan and Bai painters, Dongba disciples and Taoist disciples also participated in the painting of murals.

These murals of Ming and Qing dynasties distributed in the ancient city and its surrounding 15 temples are characterized by the coexistence of various religions and sects. The large-scale mural "The Tathagata Endless" existing in Dabaoji Palace in Baisha Village, Lijiang, brings together hundreds of Buddha statues of Han Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Taoism, which embodies the characteristics of Naxi Nationality Religion culture.

Baisha murals attract domestic and foreign tourists with their unique painting style and precious historical and cultural connotation. Baisha is located at 16 km north of Lijiang city. It is an ancient and beautiful town, the original settlement of Naxi people in Lijiang Dam, the birthplace of Lijiang wooden toast and the earliest political center of Naxi people.

During the Ming Dynasty, Lijiang's wooden chieftain was at its peak, with stable political situation and prosperous economy. In order to show his wealth, he built a lot of palaces and buildings. The existing white sand glazed hall, Dabaoji Palace, Dadingge and other temples were all built during this period. Among them, the murals of the Ming Dynasty are extremely precious cultural relics and belong to the national key cultural relics protection units. There are 558 murals in Dabaoji Palace, which is the largest mural collection in Lijiang. The murals preserved in Dabaoji Palace and Liuli Hall are particularly essence. These two palaces were declared as national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council in 1996 and 12 respectively.

Baisha murals are eclectic, unique in various religious cultures and artistic schools, and blend Tibetan Buddhism, Han Buddhism, Taoism and Dongba religion. It is a unique artistic treasure. In terms of artistic style, it embodies the mutual integration of traditional painting techniques and styles of Han, Tibetan and Naxi nationalities. The contents of murals show the life stories of Tibetan Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. The painting has rigorous layout, rigorous brushwork, rich colors, accurate modeling and lifelike characters, which obviously absorbs the characteristics of Dongba painting, such as rough, strong color contrast, even lines and refined brushwork. Lijiang murals have a wide range of themes, depicting natural scenery such as flying horses, blooming lotus flowers, Shan Ye, flowers, birds, insects and fish. These paintings clearly show the painter's keen observation ability and his thoughts and feelings of actively entering the WTO. The religious figures depicted in the murals are reflected by religion, integrated into the painter's aesthetic thoughts, or implicitly or explicitly expressed the social life at that time. (see attached figure)

Up to now, there is a hieroglyphic "Dongba" circulating in Lijiang area. This unique script used by Naxi ancestors to record Dongba scriptures is the only living hieroglyph in the world. Today, libraries and museums in China and some European and American countries have collected more than 20,000 Dongba classic ancient books, which have recorded the splendid history and culture of Naxi people for thousands of years. Among them, the Dongba dance score named Cuomo, including dozens of ancient dance arts, is an extremely rare and precious document. Dongba Sutra, known as the "encyclopedia" of ancient Naxi people, is of great value to the study of Naxi history and culture.