The Study Of The Evolution Of The Spatial Pattern Of Chinese Ancient Capital

As the material carrier of Chinese civilized social form,ancient capitals reflect the cosmology,state form and social governance system of Chinese civilization in different periods.This paper conducts the spatial analysis of ancient capitals in accordance with the evolution of Chinese civilization.For this paper,the analysis of people through objects is the goal;the civilization evolution is the core;the spatial pattern is the research object,the capital and its area is the scale;the bottom-up acting force of economic development is the breakthrough.There are some limitations in the understanding of the basic conception and formation principle of the capital and it is affiliated regions.The stereotype and impression of “city”,“city wall” and “axis” are preconceived.Through the methodology of urbanology,analytical historiography and archaeology,the paper conducts a diachronic universal study of 20 major settlements and capitals in the period of state,kingdom,and empire from dimensions of spatial category,location,scale,and degree of coupling.The study conducts the qualitative and quantitative analysis of spatial elements,and then conducts the characteristic analysis of the space order,the city system,and the growth and decline of spatial systems.Some viewpoints of endogenous hierarchical organizations and evolving mechanisms of Chinese ancient capitals are proposed:The endogenous structure and the evolution of Chinese ancient capitals can be summarized as the growth and decline of “the god,the king,and the people”,which represent the leading functions of “revering the God,defending the king and prospering the people” and symbolize the appeal of “culture power” in the spatial pattern of the dynasty state.The cosmology rules the spatial hierarchical relationship in the capital.The power creates the spatial structure and organization pattern of the capital.The social force constitutes the spatial texture of the capital,and influences the former two factors reversely.The development of different state forms,the enhancement of centralization system,and the transformation from blood relationship to geographical relationship reflect the structural changes of “the universe,the regime and the“markertplace”.The space of the god and the king are contracted and their overall positions are enhanced.The palace representing the space of the king exceeds the ancestral temple ritual architecture which symbolizes the space of the god.The space of the people is always at the bottom of the social structure.In the process of the division,monopoly,exclusion and operation of the spatial structure,the marketplace is subject to the power space.Moreover,because of the irresistible "bottom-up" economic characteristics,the expansion of its spatial distribution and the phenomenon of polarization indicate the decline of the focus of the capital.The space of capital should not be confined to the main function area.Emperors’ mausoleums,palaces,suburban sacrifice spaces and other areas should also be included.In the pre-Qin period,no intact or closed defense facilities in the capital.The awareness of polarity and axis is affected by the cosmology of “the center of the world”.However,the overall south-north axis wire is influenced by ritual reform in the late West Han Dynasty.It has been established after the imperial period,and the form the overall south-north axis wire does not mean the balanced space of the capital.The dimension and axis of the capital is influenced by the world view,the concept of military defense,population management methods,agriculture supplies and other factors.The formation of ancient Chinese capitals is not a simple superposition of the “city” and the“markerplace”.The “city” and the “markerplace” have different functions in the early settlement.As time goes by,the space of the “markertplace” is expanded externally and gradually is attached to the “city”.The capital space is the sprout and the carrier of the “civic space”.In the economic activities of temples,the “market” and the “open space” begin to merge.After the Song Dynasty,the function diversification and publication of the space street has been reflected.In the Yuan Dynasty,the central geographical structure of the capital has been initiated and it has developed maturely in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.The theory of "function division" is not completely adapted to Chinese ancient capitals.Although the awareness of function division has occurred early,the coupling phenomenon exists between handicraft production,residence,tomb,trading and agricultural space.Moreover,the degree of coupling varies in different periods.Agricultural production activities may exist in the ancient Chinese capital all the time.The development of capital experiences the stage of the attachment of the city,the transition to the Lifang system,and the opening to the street.However,the essence of the capital: the polymerization of the small-scale peasant economy has not changed.The agriculture economy space exists in the capital from beginning to the end,and depends on the living space closely.