Genre Painting in Ming and Qing Dynasties —— Pingyao Ancient City

Genre Painting in Ming and Qing Dynasties —— Pingyao Ancient City

Pingyao Ancient City is the most intact ancient county in China, and it is an outstanding model of Han cities in China in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the development of China's history, it shows people a complete picture of extraordinary cultural, social, economic and religious development. Pingyao ancient city is located in the middle of Shanxi Province. ?

Pingyao, formerly known as "ancient pottery", was built in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and it is said that it was built by Yin Jifu, the general of the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the early Ming Dynasty, in order to resist foreign invasion, the city wall was built. In the third year of Hongwu (1370), the old wall was rebuilt and expanded. Later, Zhengde, Jiajing, Qin Long, Wanli and other places were rebuilt and repaired ten times, the towers were updated and enemy stations were added.

Because the emperor visited Pingyao in the west, he specially built four towers to make the city more spectacular. This ancient city has been built for more than 2700 years. The ancient city of Pingyao has experienced vicissitudes and become the most complete existing ancient county town of China in Ming and Qing Dynasties in China. Up to now, it still retains the basic features of the county town in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it can be called the most complete existing ancient city in the Han area of China. ?

A bird's eye view of Pingyao ancient city is even more amazing. This flat square wall, shaped like a turtle, has six doors, one in the north, one in the south and two in the east and west. The south gate of the city is the "glans", and two wells outside the gate symbolize the turtle's eyes. The north gate is the "turtle tail", which is the lowest place in the whole city, and the accumulated water in the city will flow out from here. There are four urn cities in the city, all of which are relative.

The gates of the Upper West Gate, the Lower West Gate and the Upper East Gate all face south, which looks like the claws of a turtle protruding forward, but the outer door of the Lower East Gate faces east directly. It is said that when the city was built, the turtle was afraid of crawling away, so he straightened his left leg and tied it to a platform ten thousand meters away. This seemingly false legend reflects the ancient people's great worship of turtles and their desire for good luck.

Turtle city is intended to live a long life and be rock solid. There are 3,000 pits and 72 watchtowers on the city wall, which are said to symbolize 3,000 disciples and 72 sages of Confucius. After more than 600 years of vicissitudes, the city wall is still brilliant.

There are 4,000 ancient and modern dwellings in the ancient city, of which more than 400 buildings typically reflect the architectural styles and characteristic dwellings of ancient and modern dwellings in northern China. The ancient Pingyao is brilliant. It retains all the ancient architectural features, and it shows people an extraordinary complete picture of culture, society, economy and religion. ?

In addition, Pingyao was once one of the important birthplaces of Shanxi merchants in China. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shanxi merchants gradually rose and developed into an important business group in China. In the fourth year of Daoguang reign, Rishengchang, the first bank in Pingyao West Street, came into being. At present, "Rishengchang" Bank is still located in Pingyao West Street, and its architecture embodies the traditional characteristics of Jinzhong architecture in Shanxi, which is the perfect unity of Jinzhong commercial store style and business bank space utilization.

Covering an area of 1400 square meters, * * there are 2/kloc-0 buildings with a total area of 1240 square meters. The building space is in the form of three halls. Street pavement, hall and living room are all located on the north-south central axis. Gardens and wings are symmetrically arranged along the central axis. The wing in the first half of the front yard is a cabinet room open to the outside world, and the interior is excavated into a vault. The second half of the wing is the letter room and accounting room for internal management. In addition to the road facing the street, tall brick walls have been built on the east, west and south sides of the whole building complex.