A Study Of Capital City System Of Liao Dynasty

Capital city system of Liao is the research object of this article. The capital city construction of Liao regime founded by Qidan played a great important role in the city construction of ancient time, as well as had great influence on the city construction of Jin and Yuan Dynasty in many aspects. Liao Dynasty, however, was a minority regime, so its capital city construction show some different characteristics compared with that of Central plains under the influence of Qidan's traditional culture. With the combination of archaeological material and historical documents, this article expounds the two capital cities, Shangjing and Zhongjing, built by Liao, concluding some points as follows:Firstly, the programming of Liao Shangjing embodies Qidan's cultural tradition, typical of facing east. Secondly, the whole layout of Liao Zhongjing mainly imitated the capital city, Bianjing of Northern Song, but it still showed the characteristics of ethnic regime to some degrees. Thirdly, the shape and structure of two northern and southern cities of Liao Shangjing was born of Qidan's nobles' precaution against foreign races. Fourthly, the Huangcheng, surrounding three sides of the outside Gongcheng of Liao Zhongjing, maybe continue the tradition that the West hillside Gongcheng of Liao Shangjing borrowed the west wall from that of Huangcheng. Fifthly, the construction of Shangjing in early Liao Dynasty took Qidan's culture as the dominant factors, while the domination of Zhongjing in the middle of Liao Dynasty was on the contrary.This article contains five chapters.The first chapter gives an introduction of the meaning of choosing of the topic and gives a definition of the capital city of Liao Dynasty.The second chapter reviews the archaeological discovery of the capital city of the Liao Dynasty and research in detail, analyses the problems of the archaeological study on the capital city of Liao Dynasty and current research, and three suggestions are brought up.The third chapter mainly talks about the capital city system of Liao Dynasty in five respects——the relationships between building and layout, city wall and city gate, Gong cheng and Huangcheng, ancestral city and Shangjing city of Liao. It also mentions that Shangjing city of Liao went through construction in the stage of Empire Taizu and expansion in the Empire Taizong. As one of nomadic tribes in Northern Asia, Qidan built cities which did not completely result from studying the systems of Central Plains, but with some of their own cultural traditions. Shangjing city had a relatively consummate military defence system, which showed not only their adoption of the defensive methods of cities in Central Plains but also their tradition of attaching importance to defence.The fourth chapter studies the system of Capital Zhongjing from construction and layout, city wall and city gate, Gongcheng, Huangcheng and outside city. It says that the location of Zhongjing city was chosen by the most powerful ruler and the overall programme, street layout and construction structure were decided in advance. The three encircled walls, symmetrical overall layout and some other particular construction styles were all from Bianjing, the capital of Northern Song Dynasty, some still with Qidan's own characteristics.The fifth chapter discusses the related problems of the capital city system of Liao Dynasty, including the relation between Zuzhou city and Liao Shangjing; analyses the capital city system of Liao Dynasty from the point of capital city culture of Liao Dynasty and points out that Liao Shangjing built in early Liao Dynasty took Qidan's culture as the dominant factor and Han's culture as accessory factor. But Liao Zhongjing built in the middle of Liao Dynasty was on the contrary.