Traces of Ancient Beijing: Sighing at the Vicissitudes of Landscape Changes – Part One (Beihai and Tuancheng)

Beijingers often say the city has 600 years of history, and that 'first there was Tanzhe Temple, then Beijing City.' The time they refer to is Beijing in the Ming Dynasty – strictly speaking, it’s the Ming imperial city, which is today’s Forbidden City.

In truth, people lived in Beijing much earlier. The earliest Beijingers stayed on Dragon Bone Hill in the suburbs, at Zhoukoudian in Fangshan, as far back as 700,000 years ago. They lived there for hundreds of thousands of years, then moved upstairs – into caves at the top of the hill. We call them the Upper Cave Man, and that was already 30,000 years ago. All these folk were Paleolithic types; they gathered in the wild, dug pits and lived in them – basically troglodytes. Another relatively short time later, say 20,000 years, the Beijing people came out of the hills. They settled in Zhaitang in today’s Mentougou, flattened a patch of land in a place called Donghulin village, built some huts and moved in. That was the early Neolithic, 10,000 years ago. Don’t take my neat timeline too seriously; whether Peking Man, the Upper Cave Man and the Donghulin people were direct blood relatives – I have no idea. Still, archaeologists now consider the Donghulin people the ancestors hundreds of generations back of modern Beijingers. Plus, they wore jade ornaments, which shows they had a fairly sophisticated leisure life. See, they survived the Quaternary glaciation and didn’t flee to some Alaska. The only ones who were born and raised right here were the Beijing people. Westerners are all descendants of African Homo sapiens who couldn’t stand the loneliness of the ice age, so they drifted north of the Alps, into Siberia, and eventually Alaska.

After the Donghulin people, Beijing’s economy boomed, society progressed, and the population grew. A few thousand years later, over to the west, King Wu of Zhou overthrew King Zhou of Shang. After the victory, he enfeoffed his younger brother Ji Shi with the title 'Duke of Shao.' A title alone wasn’t enough; he also got land, and that land was Beijing and its surroundings, called Yan. Yan’s capital was in what is now Liulihe town in Fangshan, at the southern edge of today’s Beijing suburb. That capital, Yan Du or Yanjing, is the starting point of Beijing as a city, dating to the 12th year of King Wu of Zhou, 1044 BC – over 3,000 years ago. Ji Shi, though Duke of Shao, mainly worked in the court at Haojing, the new capital King Wu built near present-day Xi’an after tearing down the Shang capital Zhaoge. Ji Shi had a grand mansion but no time to furnish it, so he sent his eldest son Ji Ke to take charge. So Yanjing wasn’t built by the Duke of Shao but by his boy.

I still haven’t visited the Zhoukoudian Peking Man cave or the Upper Cave. Last time I passed Donghulin village on my way to Cuandixia, people were digging there and wouldn’t let me scrounge for tidbits in the dirt, so I didn’t go in. At Liulihe they’ve now built a West Zhou Yan Capital Site Museum, which apparently lets you see a big earthen pit. They built a house beside it to display, under lights, the mud tiles, bronze pots and pans dug out of that pit. I thought driving there would be a bit of a roundabout hassle, so I skipped it.

After the Western Zhou, Beijing never properly served as a capital again, and was at one point carved away by the Khitans along with the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. In the Jin dynasty, Wanyan Aguda, the Jin founding emperor, launched the campaign to destroy Liao, which his younger brother and successor Wanyan Sheng completed in the third year of Tianhui (1125) by capturing the last Liao emperor. The original Jin capital was near today’s Harbin in Acheng, called Shangjing Huiningfu. Later, Wanyan Liang, then chancellor, staged a palace coup in 1150 and shamelessly murdered Emperor Xizong to seize the throne; history calls him Prince Hailing. Soon after taking power, he moved the capital from Shangjing to Yanjing, renaming it Zhongdu Daxingfu, and changed the era name to Zhenyuan (1153). Jin Zhongdu occupied roughly the southwest corner of present-day Beijing’s city area. The Liao pagoda at Tianning Temple I visited last time stood inside Jin Zhongdu’s walls. When they were developing the Lize business district a few years ago, they found traces of Jin Zhongdu – rammed earth from the foot of the walls and such. No Jin-dynasty buildings survive in what was the capital itself, but some remain outside. When I went to see the restored Xiangshan Da Yong'an Temple – that’s Xiangshan Temple – it was a building from Emperor Shizong’s reign in the Jin dynasty.

One more relic outside the old Jin capital has survived. Even earlier, in the Liao period before Jin, the Khitans dug at Jin Lake to enlarge a body of water into Taiye Pond, and the excavated earth formed two big mounds. They built a temporary palace there, the Yaoyu Palace, a royal garden. Taiye Pond is today’s Beihai (North Lake); the two mounds are Qionghua Isle and Yuanchi – today’s Tuancheng (Circular City). The same Jin Shizong enlarged Yaoyu Palace into the Taining Palace, built a Guanghan Hall on Qionghua Isle, and another hall on Yuanchi facing each other across the water. Much has changed on Qionghua Isle: the only Jin leftover now is the rocks they swiped from Bianliang’s Genyue garden back then. The round hall Shizong built on Yuanchi is long gone too.

These days we say Beihai Park is Beijing’s oldest park, and that’s because it was already a royal excursion spot during the Liao and Jin eras. In Jin times it lay outside the city walls; by the time Kublai Khan arrived and founded the Yuan dynasty, Beihai sat inside the city and right next to the imperial city. When Kublai built Khanbaliq (Yuan Dadu), he added a wall around Yuanchi and renamed it Yuancheng (Round City, today’s Tuancheng), raised the round hall, added double eaves, and called it Yitian Hall. Most importantly, the foundation stone Kublai set to mark the building of Yuan Dadu still stands in Tuancheng – it’s the oldest founding memento in Beijing.

I’ll head to Beihai’s Tuancheng to see that very foundation stone of Yuan Dadu.

The easiest way for me to get to Beihai is by subway. One transfer and I’m on Line 6 to the Beihai Rear Gate station. Then I can stroll south along the eastern shore of the lake all the way to the front gate to see Tuancheng.

Along Beihai’s eastern shore, tall shade trees line the way.

Anyone who’s been to Beihai knows that at the north end of this eastern shore, on the east side of the road, runs a stretch of red wall. Inside lies Beihai Kindergarten. The kindergarten’s main entrance faces north, outside the gate, but the original entrance to the buildings within that red wall faces south. This was once a very important spot.

The Altar of the Silkworm God. Beijing has the so-called 'Nine Altars and Eight Temples': the Altar of Heaven, Altar of Earth, Altar of the Sun, Altar of the Moon, plus the Altar of Land and Grain in Zhongshan Park, the Altar of Agriculture, and this Altar of the Silkworm God. China was an agricultural country; the God of Agriculture was one of the six gods, in charge of farming – Shennong. The Altar of the Silkworm God was for offering to the silkworm deity. China revered the silkworm from ancient times, hence a thriving silk industry. Legend has it the silkworm goddess has a woman’s head and a horse’s body, called Matouniang. In royal ceremonies, the empress herself presided over silkworm worship, called 'personal silkworm rites.'

Reaching the east gate, you can cross Zhishan Bridge. 'Zhi' means 'to ascend,' so the bridge’s name means climbing the artificial hill on Qionghua Isle. Standing on Zhishan Bridge and looking south.

At the southeast corner of Qionghua Isle stands a little cottage I adore. In winter, brew tea over snow or warm wine there – carefree, peerless. The mood echoes Lu You’s lines: 'North wind blows snow at the fourth watch’s start; a lucky omen sent by heaven as the year departs. Half a cup of New Year’s wine not yet lifted; by lamplight I write peach-wood charms with a grass brush.'

On a clear day, lift your gaze and you’ll see the White Dagoba poking through the treetops.

Continue on, and you reach the gate of Yong’an Temple on Qionghua Isle. This temple is one of the 'Three Early Morning Temples of the Qing capital' I mentioned in my article 'Visiting Beijing’s Huang Temple to Probe a Three-Century Secret.' The first is Pu Sheng Temple outside Donghua Gate, now the Western Returned Scholars Association. Pu Sheng’s most curious feature is two Gongde stelae (merit tablets). Normally, temple stelae stand upright in front of the Great Buddha Hall. Pu Sheng’s are recumbent stelae, one recording the temple’s founding in the eighth year of Shunzhi (1651).

And another, a restoration stele from the ninth year of Qianlong (1744).

Both now sit in Wuta Si (Five Pagoda Temple) north of the Beijing Zoo, which houses the Beijing Stone Carving Museum. Among the many stelae there, only these two lie flat. Recumbent Gongde stelae are exceptionally rare; the ones from Pu Sheng may be unique, at least in Beijing.

In front of Yong’an Temple in Beihai Park stand two stone lions. Unlike those at other temples, these don’t face outward, away from the gate, but rather face toward the temple door – hence they’re called 'Reversed Lions.'

Before Yong’an Temple is a three-arched stone bridge. Since it sits in front of the temple, it’s naturally called Yong’an Bridge.

At each end of Yong’an Bridge stands a four-pillar, three-bay pailou (decorative archway). The northern one bears the inscription 'Duiyun' (Piled Clouds) on its horizontal beam, so it’s called the Duiyun Pailou.

The southern one is inscribed with 'Jicui' (Accumulated Verdure), so it’s the Jicui Pailou. Behind the Jicui Pailou are the north wall of Tuancheng and the splayed climbing steps.

From beneath the Jicui Pailou, gaze at the White Dagoba.

Then I suddenly noticed two more stone lions under this archway.

So the lions at Yong’an Temple aren’t reversed ones after all – they belong to the northern Duiyun Pailou by the bridge. Because the southern Jicui Pailou has an identically posed pair. Reading without thorough understanding is bad enough; sightseeing the same way won’t do either.

The splayed steps on the north side of Tuancheng are not open to the public. To visit Tuancheng, you go up from outside Beihai Park’s main gate. On the outer wall hangs a sign: 'Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.'

See, Beihai and Tuancheng are among the first batch of national protected sites. Other Beijing landmarks in the same first batch include the Forbidden City, Badaling Great Wall, Yonghe Temple, Temple of Heaven, Imperial Academy, and the Summer Palace – plus some less famous ones like the White Dagoba at Baita Si, the Diamond Throne at Wuta Si, Zhihua Temple, Yunju Temple pagoda, and stone sutras.

In the Liao dynasty, Tuancheng was a mound called Yuanchi. In the Jin dynasty, a round hall was built atop it. When Kublai Khan entered Beijing and built the imperial palace and Yuan Dadu, the palace was no longer on the old Jin Zhongdu site but near Yuanchi. Kublai rebuilt the roof of the round hall and named it Yitian Hall. Beihai was called Taiye Pond, Qionghua Isle called Penglai, and Yuanchi called Yingzhou – all immortal realms. So Yitian Hall was also called Yingzhou Round Hall. In the Ming dynasty, Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) renovated it again, renamed it Chengguang Hall, and rebuilt the ring wall, giving us the basic form of today’s Tuancheng. During the Kangxi reign in the Qing, the buildings on Tuancheng were destroyed by an earthquake; repairs were made but it remained shabby. In that renovation, the round hall was changed into a square one. Under Qianlong, Tuancheng got a major overhaul – all buildings reconstructed, the wall augmented with crenellations. What we see now is the result of that Qianlong-period restoration.

Enter the gate, climb the steps onto Tuancheng, and look back – wow, that gatehouse is something else. Though just a small structure, it sports a single-eaved hip roof with glazed tiles.

Beside the gatehouse towers an enormous lacebark pine, impossibly ancient – nicknamed 'General White Robe.' Tuancheng boasts many old trees.

But my main reason for coming is to see the founding memento of Yuan Dadu. That memento is a jade urn, over which Qianlong built a pavilion.

The Jade Urn Pavilion has glazed tiles and glazed wall bricks. Its roof is not a pointed pyramid but a single-eave xieshan-top (hip-and-gable) with a flat top – a 'lu' roof. The Great Hall of the People has a lu roof. Atop the flat center sits a gilded stupa as the ridge ornament – an exceptionally high-status detail.

The jade urn inside is enormous, about a meter and a half across, now screened by glass on all sides. Legend says that in the second year of Zhiyuan (1265), while Kublai was building his capital, a group of jade craftsmen acquired a giant piece of Dushan jade from Nanyang. They carved it into a wine vessel and presented it to Kublai, who was overjoyed and placed it as a talisman in Guanghan Hall on Qionghua Isle, naming it 'Dushan Dayuhai' (the Great Jade Sea of Dushan). Whenever his Mongol army won a battle, Kublai would have wine poured from it to reward his troops. Marco Polo, who visited China in the Yuan era, described this urn in his travelogue, spreading its fame to the West. Red-bearded, green-eyed foreigners coming to Beijing all had to see the Jade Urn and exclaim a hearty 'Wow!' In the late Ming, the urn ended up among commoners until Qianlong rediscovered it. In the 11th year of Qianlong (1746), he had it moved back to Beihai, not to Qionghua Isle but to Tuancheng, where he built this pavilion. Qianlong also gathered a bunch of Hanlin Academy scholars to each compose a poem, carved onto the granite pillars of the pavilion. The inscriptions are now illegible, just faint traces; the unwitting might take them for 'Qianlong was here on an auspicious day.' Qianlong retrieved only the urn itself; its base is not original. The original Dushan Dayuhai base was recognized by someone in 1988 at Fayuan Temple.

The urn is carved all over with dragons, beasts, and various seafood. After discovering it, Qianlong summoned jade craftsmen to give it a thorough refinishing – scraping off caked mud, scrubbing it clean, and using their burins to sharpen the dragon scales, shrimp whiskers, and toad claws. It certainly looks more polished. Qianlong may have been fierce, but he was no Kublai: whenever someone won a battle, Qianlong never dragged out this Great Jade Sea to fill with wine for his soldiers.

The Dushan Dayuhai is the earliest large vessel carved from a single block of jade in China. Besides being the founding mascot of Yuan Dadu, it’s a landmark piece in Chinese jade history. Some years after the Beijing Olympics, a few busybodies invited nine archaeology and museology experts, who jointly designated nine 'National Treasures.' This Yuan-dynasty Dushan Dayuhai was ranked first among them, deemed the earliest surviving large jade object, with nothing surpassing it. Moreover, it has a complete chain of ownership records through Yuan, Ming, and Qing, giving it extraordinarily rich historical depth.

Visitors arriving at Tuancheng invariably admire this giant jade urn and carefully read the bilingual Chinese-English description beside it.

From the gate of Tuancheng, besides General White Robe and the Jade Urn Pavilion, you can immediately spot the main hall, Chengguang Hall.

Naturally, there has to be a bronze incense burner in front of it.

Circle past the burner to see the hall’s façade – indeed, Chengguang Hall.

Here, the fire cisterns aren’t placed below the hall but on the terrace, one on each side. The cisterns look unrefined, iron lids chained down, perhaps to stop Cuihua from stealing a snack of pickled cabbage. The ring-holding lions on them don’t seem to be bronze.

Now look at the lion on the incense burner’s leg – that’s bronze, rubbed so often the yellow metal shows through. It’s not actually a lion, but a bixie, a mythical guardian beast.

Stand on the steps with balustrades at the forecourt and peer into the hall.

Inside hangs a plaque reading 'Great Round Treasure Mirror' – calligraphy by Empress Dowager Cixi. During the Guangxu reign in the late Qing, a monk named Mingkuan from a tiny village temple outside Beijing sold his temple to a local landlord and got a sum of money. Mingkuan pocketed the cash and sailed south; in Myanmar, he was presented with a jade Buddha statue. In the 22nd year of Guangxu (1896), Mingkuan returned to Beijing and offered the statue to Cixi. She placed the Buddha in Tuancheng’s Chengguang Hall and wrote that plaque. Myanmar excelled in jade Buddha images; this one is in that style, with the right shoulder bared and a golden dharma robe.

The Chengguang Hall rests on a five-foot blue-brick base surrounded by a glazed-tile balustrade. The terrace and base have stepped access on all four sides with railings – called 'handrail steps.' There’s a moon terrace at the front, but no carved royal path on the steps, meaning the emperor didn’t come every day. The hall is square, three bays wide and deep, with a small protruding porch (baosha) on each side. The main hall has a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof with dougong brackets; each porch has a single-eaved round-ridge hip roof.

Take a look at the back of the hall.

Tuancheng’s layout is highly orderly: Chengguang Hall is the center, with the Jade Urn Pavilion in front, and behind it, Jingji Hall, visible from Beihai’s lake. To the east and west, where bell and drum towers usually stand, are two pavilions facing each other: Duoyun (Piling Clouds) Pavilion and Guanlan (Viewing Billows) Pavilion.

Flanking Chengguang Hall are side halls; below is the east side hall.

Staggered to the rear on each side are two halls called East and West Shunshan Halls. Below is the east one, named Gulai Hall; the west one is Yuqing Hall.

The most prestigious Shunshan Halls in Beijing are at the Summer Palace, flanking Paiyun Hall. Here’s the east Shunshan Hall of Paiyun Hall – impressive, isn’t it?

Though Tuancheng originated as Yuanchi in the Jin dynasty, no Jin traces remain – Kublai, Yongle, Kangxi, and Qianlong all erased them. Yet it holds Beijing’s oldest surviving founding symbol: that jade urn. Xiangshan Temple, built even earlier in the Jin before the Yuan, was likewise rebuilt by the Qing and lost its original look. Only this jade urn still attests to the very beginning of Yuan Dadu. So, to see the authentic, most ancient relic of Beijing, you absolutely must come to Beihai’s Tuancheng and view this 'Dushan Dayuhai.'

After seeing the urn, thoroughly satisfied, I head home.