明初城墙包砖问题试析

A Probe into the Issues Concerning the City-Wall Bricking of the Early Ming Dynasty

本文通过统计明初南直隶、湖广、江西三省的城墙包砖情况,考察了明初城墙包砖的基本面貌,并根据明代各级城市所用城砖的烧造与征调情况,探讨包砖的相对成本,指出明初城市包砖与城市的等级、所处地区的军事战争形势密切相关。

Based on the statistics for the bricked city wall of the Southern Zhili, Huguang and Jiangxi provinces of the early Ming dynasty, this thesis makes an overall probe into the issues concerning the relative cost, production and acquisition of bricks for uses, that is, to remove the bricks here and transport them elsewhere to build brick city walls. It comes to the following conclusion: whether the city wall was bricked or not was decided to large extent by the city’s status and the military situation it was in.