Ancient Chinese urban planning
Factors that have shaped the development of Chinese urbanism include: fengshui, and astronomy; the well-field system; the cosmological belief that Heaven is round, and the Earth is square, the concept of qi (气; 氣); political power shared between a ruling house and educated advisers; the holy place bo; a three-tiered economic system under state control; early writing; and the walled capital city as a diagram of political power.
and concluded with the introduction of metallurgy about 8,000 years later, was characterized by the development of settled communities that relied primarily on farming and domesticated animals rather than hunting and gathering.
These pit houses were sited for solar gain by aligning the door to the Yingshi (营室; 營室; yíngshì, or simply shi 室) asterism just after the winter solstice.
As in other Neolithic communities, life at Banpo was synchronized to the agricultural year, which was timed by the movement of the Big Dipper, which functioned as a celestial clock.
In winter, the men left their homes and retired to the Great Hall, where they were led by the village elders in drinking and singing to repel the cold.
Additionally, the concept of the relationship between ancestors, the earth, and fertility laid the groundwork for the theory of qi energy and fengshui geomancy.
This idea is elaborated in the Book of Burial, which describes the notion of qi (气; 氣, literally 'vital energy' or 'atmosphere') as a fundamental force.
This philosophy suggests that the world is an active matrix of qi, and for harmony to be maintained, graves, houses, and cities must be carefully positioned according to fengshui principles.
The cosmic diagram is often depicted on jade bi (a flat disc) and cong (a cylindrical object), which were used to communicate with sky and earth spirits, respectively.
Over time, this model of the nine-in-one square served as the basis for the well-field system, a fundamental and geometric concept used in urban planning.
This arrival is mythologized by the story of the Yellow Emperor, a man of vigorous energy who dispensed law, standardized measures, invented writing, and conquered.
The original Yangshao Jū villages formed a matrix of production that channeled goods upward to larger Longshan Yi and ultimately to the Dū.
The qi concentrated in mountains and rivers, and by informed site planning a building and even a city could fit into this energized matrix.
In a myth the founder of the Xia dynasty, Yu the Great, received the Holy Field symbol from a magical turtle sent by heaven.
By the time of the Xia dynasty, the nine-in-one square territory of earth was divided into nine states (Chinese: 九州; pinyin: Jiǔzhōu).
The cities lost the rank to size hierarchy imposed by Zhou authority and grew according to their economic and military functions.
By the time of the Qin dynasty conquest there was a great diversity of wealthy cities across China, excluding the Lingnan region.
While some important literary evidence concerning Zhou urban construction can be found in the Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents, during the Han dynasty a text emerged that would later become the locus classicus of the ideal imperial capital.
The section for the Offices of Winter, a bureau charged with the oversight of public works, was lost sometime before or during the Qin to Han transition.
There are several cosmologically significant features of this basic urban outline, including cardinal orientation, square shape, (implied) centrality of the ruler's palace, grid structure, and the prominence of the number nine.
The nine-by-nine grid has led some scholars to suggest that the plan is based on the cosmological belief that the Earth is a square divided into nine sections.
Historically, the cities of the Seven Warring States were combined into one unified regional system under the Qin dynasty unification of China.
Colonization of the Lingnan and Ordos regions began at this time, using a modified version of the Zhou classical standard of urban design.
The Qin created a national system of military garrisons on a three-tier administrative hierarchy as a practical measure to control the population according to strict legalistic principles.
The territory of the county was divided into districts called townships (乡; 鄉/鄕; xiāng) which were subdivided into villages (村; cūn).
Economically, the county was a market for productive countryside, which consisted not only of agriculture, but also townships and villages of people to work the land and produce goods by cottage industry.
The county extended military control over a segment of this productive matrix and was the entry point for goods to channel upward to the Imperial City.
He was responsible for tax collection, justice, postal service, police, granaries, salt stores, social welfare, education, and religious ceremony.
The three courtyard compound formed the center of the complex to the east west of it were other halls, offices, granaries, stables, libraries, official residences, and prisons.
As the empire was divided into counties prefectures and provinces It is uncertain to what extent the planners of early and medieval Chinese cities consciously took the Kaogongji as a model.
