The city wall site of the palace of the Ming and Qin Dynasties

The city wall site of the palace of the Ming and Qin Dynasties

The Ming Palace in Xi'an, also known as Qin palace, is located in the people's Government of Shaanxi Province and Xincheng square. It is a rectangle from north to south, 671 meters from north to south, 408 meters from east to west, and 2158 meters in circumference. There were four gates around the Fucheng, namely, dongti Renmen, xizunyi, nanduanli and Beiguang Zhimen.

The layout and historical evolution of Prince Qin's residence

After the unification of China in Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed his second son Zhu Xian as the king of Qin to guard Xi'an in 1374, and instructed Geng binwen, the governor of Xi'an, and Shi Puying, the commander of Xi'an government, to build Xi'an city wall and the palace of King Qin. In the sixth year, the construction was completed in the ninth year of Hongwu (1380), and in the eleventh year of Hongwu (1382), Zhu Xian officially came to Xi'an. The palace of the king of Qin became the residence and office of the kings of Qin.

In the late Ming Dynasty, at the end of 1643, Li Zicheng led the peasant uprising army to capture Xi'an and captured Zhu cunshu, the last king of Qin Dynasty. He ended the 270 year rule of the king of Qin in Xi'an and established the Dashun peasant regime in the palace of the king of Qin.

In 1645, after the Qing people entered Shaanxi, they demolished all the buildings and the East, West and South gates of the palace, and rebuilt the palace into a military field of eight banners.

In 1921, when Feng Yuxiang was building the governor's mansion in Xi'an, he used the bricks from the inner wall to build the governor's mansion.

During the period of the Republic of China, the palace of the king of Qin became an important place for military and political activities in Shaanxi Province. Now there are also sites such as Huanglou and Xi'an Incident Command Post.

In 1949, after the founding of new China, it was the seat of Shaanxi Provincial People's government.

Remains of the existing city wall

South wall: among the four walls, the south wall should be the best preserved. On the East and west sides of the junction between Nanxin street and Xincheng square, there are walls at both ends which have been bricked and repaired, about 300 meters long. On the other side, the rammed earth walls at both ends in the east section are respectively the 7-meter-long and 8-meter-thick section in front of the square district and the 3-meter-long section in the Bank of East Asia courtyard, about 30 meters apart.

East wall: close to Huangcheng East Road, from the kindergarten of the provincial government in the south to the west gate of Xi'an stadium in the north, there are rammed walls with relatively complete preservation at both ends, about 150 meters in length and 10 meters in the middle. It is the gate of the logistics center of the provincial government, and there are repair bricks at the lower part of the wall.

North Gate City Wall: the North Gate City Wall is relatively hidden, which is hidden between the residential area and the office building of the provincial government. Two ends were found on both sides of the north gate of the provincial government. The rammed earth on the east side is about 20 meters long, and the rammed earth on the west side is about 50 meters long. There are brickwork repaired later in the lower part. According to the records in the second issue of Archaeology and cultural relics in 2000, the investigation records of the north gate of Prince Qin's mansion in the Ming Dynasty, the original East Pier of guangzhimen should have survived before 1995, but it was not found this time. It is estimated that it had been destroyed after the investigation when the north gate of the provincial government was rebuilt.

The Western Wall: rammed earth is basically not preserved, but the brickwork inside is relatively intact.

In 2003, the city wall site of the palace of the Ming and Qin Dynasties was listed as the fourth batch of cultural relics protection units in Shaanxi Province.

Address: south side of Xincheng square, Xincheng District, Xi'an City

Longitude: 108.95499420166

Latitude: 34.263046264648