Yangzhou was the largest local city of the Sui-Tang period. It consisted of two parts: Zicheng(literally sub-city, but actually the quarter of government offices) and Luocheng (outer city, or the main body of Yangzhou...Yangzhou was the largest local city of the Sui-Tang period. It consisted of two parts: Zicheng(literally sub-city, but actually the quarter of government offices) and Luocheng (outer city, or the main body of Yangzhou City). The former stood on Shugang Hill to the north of the latter. Originally it was Jiangdu Palace-city built by Sui Emperor Yangdi, and was rebuilt into Zicheng in the Tang period. Being irregular in plan, it had four gates on the four sides respectively and two streets in a crisscross pattern within the city. The latter, Luocheng, was built below Shugang Hill in the full Tang or a little later. Rectangular in plan with the major axis pointing north and south, it had four gates on each of the eastern, western and southern sides and one gate on the northern side. The main streets led to the city gates respectively and formed a checkerboard-shaped layout with blocks arranged in the checks. Although its plan layout was designed in imitation of the block system in Chang'an and Luoyang, Yangzhou as a commercial city was developed on a gradually-progressing model with blocks emerging earlier than city walls, and the layout of Luocheng embodied the planning principle with markets as the center. This might have reflected that the restrict block system of the Tang period had been relaxed or broken through in commercial cities. In the Northern Song period, the open-style street-and-lane layout in the capital of Bianjing, or the prefecture of Kaifeng, manifested the collapse of the old block system. This of the freat significance in the history of Chinese cities, but its source can be traced to Yangzhou City of the Tang period.展开更多
文摘Yangzhou was the largest local city of the Sui-Tang period. It consisted of two parts: Zicheng(literally sub-city, but actually the quarter of government offices) and Luocheng (outer city, or the main body of Yangzhou City). The former stood on Shugang Hill to the north of the latter. Originally it was Jiangdu Palace-city built by Sui Emperor Yangdi, and was rebuilt into Zicheng in the Tang period. Being irregular in plan, it had four gates on the four sides respectively and two streets in a crisscross pattern within the city. The latter, Luocheng, was built below Shugang Hill in the full Tang or a little later. Rectangular in plan with the major axis pointing north and south, it had four gates on each of the eastern, western and southern sides and one gate on the northern side. The main streets led to the city gates respectively and formed a checkerboard-shaped layout with blocks arranged in the checks. Although its plan layout was designed in imitation of the block system in Chang'an and Luoyang, Yangzhou as a commercial city was developed on a gradually-progressing model with blocks emerging earlier than city walls, and the layout of Luocheng embodied the planning principle with markets as the center. This might have reflected that the restrict block system of the Tang period had been relaxed or broken through in commercial cities. In the Northern Song period, the open-style street-and-lane layout in the capital of Bianjing, or the prefecture of Kaifeng, manifested the collapse of the old block system. This of the freat significance in the history of Chinese cities, but its source can be traced to Yangzhou City of the Tang period.
