Chang'an Avenue and the Modernization of Chinese Architecture

Shuishan Yu

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780295804484
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

In this interdisciplinary narrative, the never-ending "completion" of China's most important street offers a broad view of the relationship between art and ideology in modern China. Chang'an Avenue, named after China's ancient capital (whose name means "Eternal Peace"), is supremely symbolic. Running east-west through the centuries-old heart of Beijing, it intersects the powerful north-south axis that links the traditional centers of political and spiritual legitimacy (the imperial Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven). Among its best-known features are Tiananmen Square and the Great Hall of the People, as well as numerous other monuments and prominent political, cultural, financial, and travel-related institutions. Drawing on Chang'an Avenue's historic ties and modern transformations, this study explores the deep structure of the Chinese modernization project, providing both a big picture of Beijing's urban texture alteration and details in the design process of individual buildings. Political winds shift, architectural styles change, and technological innovations influence waves of demolition and reconstruction in this analysis of Chang'an Avenue's metamorphosis. During collective design processes, architects, urban planners, and politicians argue about form, function, and theory, and about Chinese vs. Western and traditional vs. modern style. Every decision is fraught with political significance, from the 1950s debate over whether Tiananmen Square should be open or partially closed; to the 1970s discussion of the proper location, scale, and design of the Mao Memorial/Mausoleum; to the more recent controversy over whether the egg-shaped National Theater, designed by the French architect Paul Andreu, is an affront to Chinese national pride. Art History Publication Initiative. For more information, visit http://arthistorypi.org/books/chang-an

Chapter One

The History of Chang’an Avenue in an Urban Context

“CHANG’AN” means “eternal peace,” or “long peace” in a more literal translation, but the word will immediately remind the Chinese of two of their most powerful dynasties: the Han (202 BCE–220 CE), from which the Chinese ethnic majority acquired its name (Hanren), and the Tang (618–907 CE), from which the overseas Chinese communities derived their collective identity (Tangrenjie).¹ Both the Western Han Empire (202 BCE–9 CE) and the Tang Empire had the city of Chang’an (modern day Xi’an) as their capital, and both dynasties represent past golden ages of Chinese political power. Thus the roots of the name Chang’an Avenue stretch far into China’s imperial past.

Chang’an Avenue during the Imperial Era

“Chang’an” was first used as the name for the major avenue in front of the Imperial City in the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644), during the first fifty-three years of which Nanjing was the national capital. Located on the north bank of the Yangtze River some 1,000 kilometers south of Beijing, Nanjing had served as the imperial capital for many southern regimes before the Ming: Wu (229–80), Eastern Jin (317–420), Song (420–79), Qi (479–502), Liang (502–57), Chen (557–89), and Southern Tang (937–75). None of these regimes unified China. Compared to the powerful and prosperous Han and Tang, with Chang’an as their capital, these dynasties were politically weaker, territorially smaller, and short-lived. When the first Ming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu emperor, r. 1368–98), finally chose Nanjing as the main capital of his unified Chinese empire, he was concerned about inauspicious associations with these previous ephemeral dynasties. Therefore the new walled quarters for palaces and central government—also known as the Palace City (Gongcheng) and the Imperial City (Huangcheng), respectively, as later in Beijing—were constructed at the southeast corner of Nanjing to avoid overlapping with the palace sites of former regimes.² This might also be why the major street in front of the Imperial City was then named Chang’an Avenue, in hopes of a “long peace” and to create auspicious associations with the long-lasting and glorious Han and Tang dynasties.

Fig. 1.1. Plan of Ming dynasty Beijing showing the four layers of city walls. Reproduction from Chang’anjie: Guoqu, xianzai, weilai, 28. Courtesy of Zheng Guangzhong.

In 1416 the third Ming emperor, Zhu Di (the Yongle emperor), decided to move the capital to Beijing, the site of the previous Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) capital Dadu (Great Capital). Construction of the new capital started in 1417 and was completed in 1420. Although the new Ming capital partially overlapped with the Yuan Dadu and followed its north-south axis, the layout of Ming Beijing replicated the dynasty’s capital Nanjing, including use of the name Chang’an Avenue for the streets in front of the Imperial City. The Beijing of 1420 had three layers of city walls: the Inner City (Neicheng) with nine gates,³ the Imperial City inside the Inner City with four gates,⁴ and the Palace or Forbidden City inside the Imperial City with four gates.⁵ In 1553 walls were constructed to the south of the Inner City to define an Outer City (Waicheng),⁶ adding a fourth layer of walls with seven gates⁷ to Ming Beijing. The entire city was dominated by a 7,500-meter-long north-south axis. Running from Yongding Gate (Gate of Permanent Stability) at the south end of the city to the bell tower in the far north, it lined up not only the main gates of the Outer City, Inner City, Imperial City, and Palace City but also other major imperial monuments.⁸ This layout persisted for centuries (fig. 1.1). The Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty, which followed the Ming in 1644, made no major physical changes to the general plan of Ming Beijing or to Chang’an Avenue.

Apart from its central location, Chang’an Avenue during the Ming and Qing dynasties was no different from the other major thoroughfares in Beijing. At that time, however, two separate avenues existed, divided by the Imperial Tiananmen Square.⁹ On the western side of the square, from West Three-Arch Gate (Xisanzuomen) to Xidan (named after Xidanpailou, West Single Memorial Archway) lay the historic West Chang’an Avenue. On the eastern side of the square, historic East Chang’an Avenue ran from East Three-Arch Gate (Dongsanzuomen) to Dongdan (named after Dongdanpailou, East Single Memorial Archway).¹⁰

Imperial Tiananmen Square itself consisted of three squares (fig. 1.2). In the center was the T-shaped space directly in front of Tiananmen Tower, bounded by Tiananmen (Heavenly Peace Gate) in the north, Great Qing Gate (Daqingmen)¹¹ in the south, Left Chang’an Gate (Chang’anzuomen) in the east, and Right Chang’an Gate (Chang’anyoumen) in the west. Two smaller wing squares separated central Tiananmen Square from the two avenues: the east wing square, between Left Chang’an Gate and East Three-Arch Gate, and the west wing square, bounded by Right Chang’an Gate and West Three-Arch Gate. Walls enclosed all three squares. Imperial Tiananmen Square, together with the Imperial City behind it, blocked more than two-thirds of the east-west communications in the Inner City of Beijing.

Fig. 1.2. Tiananmen Square, East Chang’an Avenue, and West Chang’an Avenue during the late Qing dynasty, detail of Xiangxi Dijing Yutu [Detailed map of the imperial capital], a map of Beijing published in 1908. Map in the public domain.

Historic East and West Chang’an Avenues had different functions and symbolic meanings in imperial China. According to the Daoist “five elements” (wuxing) theory, east belongs to the element of wood and is associated with spring, growth, and life, while west belongs to the element of metal and is associated with autumn, decay, and death. While historic West Chang’an Avenue was mainly associated with punishment, military power, and authority, its eastern counterpart was more associated with business, civil power, and celebration. On the west side of the Thousand-Pace Corridor (Qianbulang)—the southern part of T-shaped Imperial Tiananmen Square—next to historic West Chang’an Avenue, the Ming dynasty built the headquarters of the Five Armies and the Jinyiwei (secret police force), and the Qing dynasty built the Ministry of Punishment (Xingbu), Imperial Procuratorate (Duchayuan), and the Imperial Prison (Qintianjian). On the east side, next to historic East Chang’an Avenue, both the Ming and Qing dynasties built the Ministry of Rites (Libu), the Ministry of Revenue (Hubu), the Ministry of Civil Office (Libu), the Ministry of Public Works (Gongbu), and the Imperial Hanlin Academy (Hanlinyuan).¹²

Every three years, an imperial announcement written on yellow silk with the names of those who had passed the imperial examination was carried out through Left Chang’an Gate and posted in today’s East Chang’an Avenue; and every autumn, convicts awaiting execution were led through Right Chang’an Gate and knelt along the west side of Imperial Tiananmen Square for their final trial and sentence. From these events, popular names for the gates evolved. Left Chang’an Gate was known as the Dragon Gate (Longmen), or Gate of Success, while Right Chang’an Gate was called Tiger Gate (Humen), or Gate of Peril.¹³

The civil-military dichotomy that divided East Chang’an Avenue from its western counterpart was further strengthened by Beijing citizens’ different opinions about the areas east and west of the north-south axis in general. The saying in Beijing that “the east is rich and the west is aristocratic; the south is humble and the north is poor” suggests that most of the merchants lived in the east city, while most of the princes, dukes, and other Manchu aristocrats lived in the west city, and that many inhabitants of the south city were from the lower classes, while those in the north were poor Manchus.¹⁴

After the Second Opium War in 1860, part of the area south of historic East Chang’an Avenue became foreign concessions of Western powers. After the Boxer Rebellion in 1901, the entire area between today’s East Chang’an Avenue proper and the southern wall of the Inner City became foreign concessions.¹⁵ Thus East Chang’an Avenue also became associated with diplomacy, Western influence, the larger world, and, later, with Western imperialism and China’s past humiliations.

Chang’an Avenue during the Republican Era (1912–1949)

After the Qing Empire collapsed in 1911, the two Chang’an Avenues were gradually unified. The unification and spatial reconfiguration of the avenue during the Republican era, however, were less about change in the physical environment than about the way urban space was used. In other words, the changes were more symbolic than physical, more about “software” than “hardware.” Throughout the Republican era, new facilities, such as electric street lamps and tramlines, were added to the avenue, but its length and width remained unchanged from imperial times.

In 1912 Beihai, the northern part of the former imperial garden west of the Forbidden City, opened to the public, while the central and southern parts, located north of Chang’an Avenue and known as Zhongnanhai, became the presidential palace. A new south entrance to Zhongnanhai, called Xinhua Gate, Gate of New China, was opened onto the avenue. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, this structure had been a freestanding two-story pavilion just inside the imperial garden’s south wall. At that time, it was known as Baoyuelou, the Tower of the Precious Moon. The Republican regime changed this freestanding structure into a gate by opening the ground floor and modifying the garden walls (fig. 1.3), which are now connected to the sides of the structure instead of screening the front of it.¹⁶

On January 1, 1913, the first anniversary of the Republic of China, the government under Yuan Shikai removed the doors in the East and West Three-Arch Gates and the Right and Left Chang’an Gates and demolished the walls connecting these gates.¹⁷ This created a passageway that connected the two avenues for the first time, and common Beijing citizens were now able to walk from one directly to the other.¹⁸ However, two separate streets still existed, along with the four gate towers marking the borders between Imperial Tiananmen Square and the historic Chang’an Avenues.

In October 1914, the former Altar of Soil and Grain (Shejitan) opened to the public as the “Central Park” of Beijing. During imperial times, the altar was a sacred place, where the emperors performed annual duties of sacrifice to the gods of soil (she) and grains (ji). The tradition of constructing an Altar of Soil and Grain in the imperial capital as a national symbol and legitimizing device for the mandate of the emperor as the “Son of Heaven” can be traced as far back as the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE).¹⁹ During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Altar of Soil and Grain, together with the Imperial Ancestral Temple (Taimiao) on the other side of the north-south axis, was closed to common Beijing citizens. The Imperial Ancestral Temple remained a private preserve of the former Qing imperial family well into the 1920s. After the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, however, both sites were gradually opened to the public.

Fig. 1.3. Gate of New China (Xinhuamen), built in 1758 as Baoyuelou, opened as a gate in 1912. Photograph by author.

Before the Republican capital was moved to Nanjing in 1927, the main person in charge of these urban changes in Beijing was Zhu Qiqian. Born to a family that had close connections with many powerful Qing officials, Zhu first became minister of communications, then minister of interior in 1912 during Yuan Shikai’s presidency.²⁰ In addition to unifying Chang’an Avenue and converting the Altar of Soil and Grain into a public park, Zhu also supervised the Zhengyang Gate renovation project and many road and...