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Xi'an
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If Beijing is the political heart of China, then Xi'an is its historical
center. An ancient philosopher once mused that all those seeking the truth
should go to China. A contemporary philosopher added that no visit to China is
complete without a journey to Xi'an. This reflects the important position Xi'an
holds as a famed historical and cultural city and one of China's six major
ancient capitals.
Indeed, Xi'an has made unparalleled
contributions to the history and culture
of China. For more than a millennium, it was the stage on
which the histories of more than a dozen Chinese dynasties
unfolded. Every move and every action originating from
Xi'an had a far-reaching influence on the course of
China's
social development.
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It is where Zhou dynasty aristocrats instituted rites and composed music
while offering libations to gods and
ancestors and feasting
themselves out of bronze utensils. It is where they inscribed their laws in
bronzeware and stone
tablets, many of which remain
to this day. It is where the Qin army eliminated six rival states and initiated
the first centralized
autocracy in Chinese history.
Principles of philosophy and government established by the the Qin would endure
for more
than a hundred generations. |
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Xi'an
is where Han and Tang monarchs established their capital city of Chang'an. It
was the eastern terminus of the
celebrated Silk Road and an
oriental metropolis thronged with visitors and merchants from every nook and
corner of the
world. |
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Today,
the rich and deep-rooted historical and cultural heritage of Xi'an is visable
through a wealth of cultural relics,
museums, and historical sites
including the world-famous terracotta army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. The flat
plane on the
city's outskirts is strewn
with the tomb mounds of emperors, empresses, aristocrats, ranking officials and
scholars. Pick up
a fragment of something from
the ground, and it may turn out to be part of a Qin dynasty brick, a Han
dynasty tile or a
porcelain chard from the Tang
dynasty. |
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The
English word "China" is actually a transliteration of the Chinese ideogram
meaning "Qin". Those who live in and
around Xi'an are direct
descendents of the Qin people. Emperors chose Xi'an as their capital partly
because of its fertile
land and sufficient water
supply and partly because it was militarily formidable because of the mountains
that skirted it. It is
precisely because of its
somewhat isolated location that Xi'an was able to preserve so much of its
history and culture to this
day. The local dialect of
Xi'an and the Guanzhong Plain is reflective of the rhythm and timbre of archaic
Chinese. Weddings,
funerals, celebrations, diet,
and social etiquette are all evocative of the social mores and traditions of
the dynasties of the
Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang. |
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Today Xi'an and its environs comprise a robust and bustling urban
area with over 6,000,000 inhabitants. Xi'an has
transformed itself into a
modern metropolis with an impressive mix of commerce, trade, tourism, science,
technology,
manufacturing, and
education.
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| History |
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In the Neolithic period, about 6,000 years ago, excavations show a matriarchal
clan was formed at Banpo village,
now part of Xi'an. Around 1027
b.c. the Zhou dynasty kings established their capital in settlements only a few
miles from
the present-day city. In 231
BC, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of unified China, set about enlarging the
settlement of
Xiangyang, about 15 miles
northwest of the city. Xiangyang, established under earlier Qin rulers as the
capital, became
heavily populated and in 213
BC. Qin Shi Huang decided to move his court to the south bank of the Wei River.
A vast
palace was begun, however,
work not completed by the time of his death. Some years later when the Qin fell
to the Han
(206 BC), this and most of the
other palaces were destroyed. The conqueror, Liu Bang, first emperor of the Han
Dynasty,
also established his capital
only a few miles north of modern Xi'an. |
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From about 35 AD, the city went into a decline that lasted for five and
a half centuries. In 583 AD the Sui emperor,
Wen Di, established his
capital southeast of Chang'an. The city flourished and under the Tang Dynasty
became the most
important city in Asia. It had
a population of more than a million people living in a vast, well-planned area
protected by
large walls with ramparts. The
area occupied by the old city was greater than that of present-day Xi'an. For
over a
millennium, from the Second
Century BC, China's silk was transported from Xi'an to central Asia and Europe. |
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