Pingyao ancient city, located in Shanxi, is a famous cultural city with a history of more than 2,700 years. It is one of the four best-preserved ancient cities in China, and the only ancient county in China that successfully declared the world cultural heritage with the whole ancient city. Pingyao was once called "ancient pottery". In the early Ming Dynasty, the city wall was built to resist foreign interference from the south. In the third year of Hongwu (AD 1370), the old wall was rebuilt and expanded, and it was all brick. Since then, Jingdezhen, Zhengde, Jiajing, Qin Long and Wanli have been renovated for ten times, and the towers have been updated and enemy stations have been added. In the 43rd year of Kangxi (A.D. 1703), four towers were built because the emperor traveled westward through Pingyao, making the city more spectacular. The total circumference of Pingyao city wall is 6 163 meters, and the height of the wall is about 12 meters, which divides Pingyao county with an area of about 2.25 square kilometers into two different worlds. The streets, sidewalks and urban buildings within the city walls retain the shapes of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Outside the city wall, it is called the new city. This is a wonderful place where ancient and modern buildings are integrated, reflecting each other and making people memorable.
Pingyao Ancient City was built during the Zhou Xuanwang period from 827 BC to 782 BC, and was the residence of Yin Jifu, the general of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Pingyao City has been the seat of county administration since the Qin government implemented the "county system" in 22 1 BC and continues to this day. Pingyao ancient city experienced vicissitudes and became the most complete prototype of ancient county town in China in Ming and Qing Dynasties. The ancient city we are seeing now is what it looked like after the expansion in the third year of Ming Hongwu (1370). Pingyao city after the expansion is magnificent, with a circumference of 6.4 kilometers. It is the oldest and largest county wall in Shanxi and China.
A bird's eye view of Pingyao ancient city is even more amazing. This flat square wall, shaped like a turtle, has six doors, one in the north, one in the south and two in the east and west. The south gate of the city is the turtle head, and two wells outside the gate symbolize the turtle eye. The north gate is the turtle tail, which is the lowest place in the city, and the accumulated water in the city will flow out through it. There are four crocks in the city, facing each other. The doors of the upper west gate, the lower west gate and the upper east gate all face south and look like turtle claws, but the outer door of the lower east gate of the crock directly faces east. It is said that the tortoise was afraid of crawling away when building the city, so he stretched his left leg and tied it to the foothills twenty miles away from the city. This seemingly illusory legend shows the ancient people's great worship of turtles. Turtles are immortal, and in the eyes of the ancients, they are naturally sacred as gods. It embodies the deep meaning of hoping to make Pingyao ancient city rock solid, golden soup forever solid, safe and sound, and last forever. There are also 72 enemy watchtowers on the wall, and there are 3000 cribs on the outside of the wall. It is said to be a symbol of Confucius' 3,000 disciples and 72 sages.
Up to now, the walls, streets, houses, shops, temples and other buildings in the ancient city are still basically intact, and the original shape and pattern remain basically unchanged. They are all organic parts of the existing historical sites of Pingyao ancient city.
This solid and complete masonry city has played a great role in military defense, flood control and avoidance for hundreds of years. The streets, ancient yamen, towers, shops and houses in the city still retain the original appearance of the Ming Dynasty. It is a national key cultural relics protection unit.
Pingyao Ancient City is known as "the collection and treasure house of ancient buildings in China", and the preservation of cultural relics and historic sites with high grade is rare in China. Among them, it was built in the Western Zhou Dynasty and expanded in the third year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1370). It is the most complete preserved city wall in China. There is the most precious wooden structure in existence, which was built in the seventh year of Tianhui in the Northern Han Dynasty (963) and ranked third in the country. The five dynasties painted sculptures in the temple are treasures and samples for studying the early painted sculptures in China. There is Shuanglin Temple, which was built in the second year of Wuping, Northern Qi Dynasty (57 1) and is known as the "treasure house of ancient colored sculptures in China". There are 2,052 pieces of colored sculptures in Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. There is a rare Confucian temple in China during the Song and Jin Dynasties-Dacheng Hall of Confucian Temple; China, the originator of finance, is known as "No.1 in the world" and "Huitong in the world". There is Qingxu Guan, a peculiar structure of "hanging beams and columns", which was built in the second year of Tang Xianqing, and it is rare in ancient buildings in China. More than 20 woodcarving statues in the museum are rare objects to study the ancient woodcarving art in China and the development of Taoism. There are 1000 stone carvings of different ages, shapes and colors and various glazed objects in the ancient city. At the same time, Pingyao ancient city is one of the gathering centers of ancient residential buildings in China. Among the 4,000 existing ancient and modern residential buildings in the ancient city, more than 400 typically reflect the styles and characteristics of ancient and modern northern residential buildings in China.
Pingyao ancient city has a long history and many cultural relics. It fully embodies the historical features from 17 to 19 century, and is a historical museum of architectural art in Ming and Qing dynasties. Its ancient buildings and cultural relics are rare in quantity and taste in China, which is of great historical, artistic and scientific value to the study of China's ancient urban changes, urban architecture, human living patterns and the development of traditional culture.
During the period of 1997, Tian Zhongdan, a special expert of UNESCO, happily wrote the inscription "Pingyao Ancient City is the best in the world" when he visited Pingyao Ancient City. UNESCO's evaluation of Pingyao Ancient City is: "Pingyao Ancient City is an outstanding model of Han cities in China in Ming and Qing Dynasties, which preserved all its characteristics and showed people a complete picture of extraordinary cultural, social, economic and religious development in the historical development of China".
People who have been to Pingyao say, "Walking into Pingyao is like walking into a large history museum."
It is said that Pingyao has three treasures, and the ancient city wall is one of them. At the beginning of the construction of the city, this city wall was only made of rammed earth, and the scale was small. It was not until the third year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty (1370) that it expanded to its present scale. Although it has experienced more than 600 years of vicissitudes, it still has a strong spirit. This ancient city wall with a circumference of about 6 kilometers has 3,000 battlements and 72 watchtowers, which is said to symbolize 3,000 disciples of Confucius and 72 sages. In addition, the Kuixing Pavilion symbolizing the prosperity of the ancient city was built in the southeast corner of the ancient city in the late Qing Dynasty, which shows that Confucianism represented by Confucius has far-reaching influence.
Pingyao Ancient City is a county town built in full accordance with the traditional urban planning thought and layout scheme of Han nationality in China. In a closed city, there are four main streets, eight small streets and seventy-two alleys intertwined with the tower as the center. They have distinct functions and well-organized layout. The ancient houses in the city are quadrangles with blue bricks and gray tiles, with clear axes and left-right symmetry, especially brick caves, which have a strong local flavor. There are 3,797 quadrangles in this city, of which more than 400 are well preserved. In addition, there are some large and small temples in the city, and old-fashioned pavements are also row upon row. These antique buildings truly outline the prosperous face of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
There is Zhenguo Temple in the northeast of the north gate of the ancient city, which is the second treasure of the ancient city. Built in the Five Dynasties (A.D. 10 century), the Buddha Hall of this temple is the third oldest wooden structure in China with a history of 1000 years. The five generations of colored sculptures in the temple are rare sculptures.
The third treasure of the ancient city is Shuanglin Temple, which is located in the southwest of the city and rebuilt in the second year of Wuping in the Northern Qi Dynasty (AD 57 1 year). There are more than 2,000 painted sculptures from Yuan Dynasty to Ming Dynasty in the temple 10 Hall, which is known as the "treasure house of painted sculptures". In fact, there are countless treasures in the ancient city.
Pingyao can't help but say "Shanxi merchants" and "banks", because it is one of the birthplaces of Shanxi merchants and the birthplace of Rishengchang Bank, the first modern bank in China.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the development of commercial economy, some large firms of Shanxi merchants gradually formed a commercial system with general numbers in Shanxi and semicolons in other places, operating across regions. In this case, large-scale wholesale, transportation and sales bring huge cash transportation business, so a new payment and settlement method-"bank number exchange" came into being. In the fourth year of Daoguang (AD 1824), the first Rishengchang bank in China was established on the basis of "Xiyucheng" pigment shop in Pingyao West Street, specializing in foreign exchange and silver deposits. Three years later, we set up branches in Shandong, Henan, Liaoning and Jiangsu provinces. From 65438 to 1940s, its business further expanded to Japan, Singapore, Russia and other countries. At that time, driven by Rishengchang Bank, Pingyao banking developed rapidly. At its peak, there were as many as 22 banks here, which once became the center of China's financial industry. It can be seen that Pingyao occupies a very important position in the modern financial history of China.
Pingyao in ancient times was brilliant, and Pingyao today is still full of charm. Now many ancient cultural cities have been dismembered and destroyed for commercial reasons, but Pingyao is so well preserved. The ancient city of Pingyao has preserved all its features. In the historical development of China, it has shown people a complete picture of extraordinary cultural, social, economic and religious development.