A Study On Urban And Architectural Feature Of Ming Dynasty In Shaanxi Province

There was a country-wide movement of construction of cities in Ming Dynasty on a large scale.It was very important for Chinese cities to regress to traditional culture and had laid the foundation of the very recent Chinese cities.The cities in Shaanxi province were typical and special and its research can help us better understand the local cities in Ming Dynasty. The three dimensions ranged in region, city and architecture are analyzed and studied in this paper and it is composed of three parts:Firstly, this paper has discussed the regional space and the relative background of the development of the cities from these aspects: the historical background, the administrative divisions, the physical geography, the strategy in frontier, the structure of road network and the thoughts in planning. The Shaanxi province in Ming Dynasty laid on the very important strategic outpost in frontier.Because of the strategy with the purpose of cutting off the connection of Tatar and Tibet, it did a regional planning called three frontiers and eight prefectural cities.Secondly, this paper has discussed and described the city including shapes, structures, scales and population. The city shapes in Shaanxi province in Ming dynasty were mainly square and rectangle. Partly, some city shapes were symbolic and irregular. The size of the cities was decreased and divided to three divisions by the administrative hierarchy. The structure of cities was mostly crossed-street mode, and the number of city gates played a considerable role of changing them. And it is essential for the population to make an effect on the city shape. So, this paper try to find and summarize the basic features of Shaanxi province in Ming Dynasty and explain the special phenomenon.At last, this paper has discussed and described the features, distribution and plane pattern of main architectures which exert a vital effect on cities, including the city wall and moat, the distribution of main buildings, Yashu building (official building), Miaoxue building (educational building) and the Town's God Temple.