Chinese Ancient Capitals' Construction And Changes Of Natural Environment

Today, urban environmental problem has brought people's close attention increasingly In substance, the consequence is leaded by the imbalance of human and nature. Therefore, " Sustainable development" works out new tasks and aims for urban construction, and " Green campaign" becomes a beneficial practice In addition, history reviewing will give us more profound inspiration as we are looking forward to the future. Although ancient science is not so developed as modern, the relationship of human and nature will not become estranged with the improvement of productive forces. On the contrary, the relationship is becoming wider and deeper So, it is very necessary to research the history that ancient cities utilized and remade natural environment. We should also summarize the laws, study the experiences and draw the lessons.In this paper, two famous Chinese ancient capitals—Chang'an and Luoyang—are taken as the mam study objects. First, with the generation and development of them, this paper studies the historical situation of capitals and nature in the aspects of site selection, layout and water conservancy, describes the scene that these two capitals made use of natural factor to develop urban construction from the pre—Qin days to the Tang dynasty, shows their splendid brilliance and graceful sight Second, with the view of their movement and vicissitudes, this paper explores the historical changes of ancient capitals and natural environment. It shows that, as the result of human's struggle to conquer nature, the sites of Chang'an and Luoyang were always moved in a direction favorable to their development, and the deterioration of natural environment leaded to the two capitals' decline after Tang dynasty. Furthermore, this paper considers that the national economical and political center moved from the Huanghe River valley to the Changjiang River valley during Tang—Song dynasty was also related to natural changes. In view of the above, this paper summarizes the successful experiences and failed lessons in history, suggests to treat the relationship of ancient capitals and natural environment in historical perspective. Following the principle of "selecting essence and discarding dross", this paper also advocates to assimilate city's tradition critically and to gain enlightenment from history in order to develop modem construction.Basing on modem urban planning theory and combining achievements of correlated subjects, this paper discusses the relationship of ancient capitals and natural environment, discovers the laws of their vicissitudes. Therefore, it not only has practical significance for capitals' reasonable construction at present and cities' sustainable development in the future, but also has theoretical significance for carrying forward the fine traditional culture and promoting the research of Chinese ancient capitals.