Chang'an

Chang'an listen (help·info) (Simplified Chinese: 长安; Traditional Chinese: 長安; pinyin: Cháng'ān; Wade-Giles: Ch'ang-an) is the ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in China. "Chang'an" means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. (During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the name was changed to 常安 -- pronounced the same way in Mandarin, but with the meaning of "Frequent Peace" instead; after the fall of Xin in 23, the name was changed back.) In the Ming Dynasty, the city's name was changed to Xi'an (西安), meaning "Western Peace", which is what the city is called today.

The site of Chang'an of the Han Dynasty was located in northwest of today's Xi'an, Shaanxi (陕西). Another site of Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty, includes the area inside the walls of Xi'an, small parts of eastern, western and major part of southern suburbs of modern Xi'an city. It is 8 times as big as the Xi'an city in the Ming Dynasty, which was reconstructed on the basis of the imperial city of the Sui and Tang dynasties. Chang'an was one of the largest and the most populous cities in the world.

Han Dynasty Capital

The site of the Han capital was located 5 km northwest of modern Xi'an. As the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, it was the political, economic and cultural center of China, the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, and a cosmopolitan metropolis comparable with the greatest cities of the contemporaneous Roman Empire.

It was a consumer city, a city whose existence was not primarily predicated upon manufacturing and trade, but rather boasted such a large population because of its role as the political capital of China.

The construction of the city can be divided into 3 periods over more than 90 years. The Emperor Gao of Han, Liu Bang, decided to build the palaces before the city walls. In 202 BC, he repaired the Xingle Palace (兴乐宫) of the Qin Dynasty and renamed it to Changle Palace (长乐宫). Two years later, a new palace called Weiyang Palace (未央宫) was constructed. In 195 BC, his son, Emperor Hui of Han began the construction of the walls of Chang'an and finished them in September of 191 BC. Emperor Hui, Emperor Wu of Han then built several palaces in the city. At that time, Zhang Qian went to the west as a diplomat of the Empire of Han. Chang'an city became a bridge between Asia and Europe as the eastern end of the famous Silk Road. After the Western Han, the Eastern Han government made Luoyang the capital and renamed Chang'an to Xijing ("Western Capital"). After the Eastern Han, many dynasties regarded Chang'an city as the capital. In 582, Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty selected a place in the southeast of to build a new capital which he called Daxing .

Tang Dynasty Capital

Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) was, with Constantinople (Istanbul) and Baghdad, one of the largest cities of the world at that time. The Japanese in 794 built their ancient capital, Heian-Kyo or Kyoto, modelled after the Tang Dynasty capital, Chang'an. As a result, the modern Kyoto reflects some characteristics of Tang Chang'an. Similarly, the Korean Silla dynasty modeled the layout of their capital of Gyeongju after the Tang capital.

See also

• List of historical capitals of China
• Xi Ming Temple

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