In the Divine Capital Luoyang, a Single Dingding Road Inscribes Five Thousand Years of Chinese History

At the heart of Luoyang, the intersection of Dingding Road and Zhongzhou Road is 'Luoyang Kilometer Zero', the central coordinate point where all Chinese highways reach Luoyang, and the starting point for calculating distances from Luoyang to everywhere in the world.

In the late 1970s, I lived on a building right by the east side of Dingding Road, only a hundred meters south of this coordinate point. The four corners of the intersection were occupied by four small state-owned shops: the southeast corner was a fruit shop, the southwest corner was a labor protection supplies store, the northwest corner was a hardware and sundries store, and the northeast corner was a barbershop. Behind the barbershop, in a large courtyard, was the Luoyang City Public Bus Company. I once queued for two hours in front of the fruit shop just to buy two oranges I had never tasted before, and I often queued for an hour at the barbershop for a haircut.

Every morning, a long stream of bicycles would swarm through the intersection, as people rode to work in a continuous flow; at noon, under the utility pole at the intersection, passersby and students would occasionally gather, listening intently to Liu Lanfang vividly narrating 'The Legend of Yue Fei' or 'The Generals of the Yang Family' from a wired loudspeaker; on summer evenings by the roadside, many families would come down from their stuffy apartments, set up small tables, and sit around eating dinner; after dinner, some would spread out reed mats or set up deck chairs on the spot, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans while chatting to cool off, or even drifting directly into sleep.

For a teenager of thirteen or fourteen, I had no idea that this place was once the center of China, once the poetry and distant land of the world, and I did not know that the place where I lived was once the imperial city where myriad nations paid homage, the palace where countless states came to court. This was not a commercial center, nor did it have parks or cinemas; apart from the vehicles coming and going and the hurried pedestrians, there was nothing special. Along Zhongzhou Road running east-west, to the east were the Old City's West Gate and Youth Palace, and to the west were the Department Store and Wangcheng Park—these were the liveliest and most fun spots in the city.

Walking north on Dingding Road to the first intersection, one encountered Tanggong Road. Every day on my way to school, I passed this place, never wondering why these two roads were called Dingding Road and Tanggong Road; I simply thought they were just names of roads and streets like Zhongzhou Road. More than thirty years later, returning from the city where I worked to revisit old haunts, I found that the bus company nestled among the three roads had disappeared. The original large courtyard had expanded several times, replaced by the Sui-Tang Luoyang City National Heritage Park, where two magnificent landmark buildings—the Hall of Brightness (Mingtang) and the Hall of Heaven (Tiantang)—now stood.

The park is the site of the Purple Micro City (Ziwei Cheng), the palace city of Sui and Tang dynasty Luoyang, and is a national model project and key project for the protection of large heritage sites. In the first year of Daye (605 AD), Emperor Yang of Sui moved the capital to Luoyang, officially called it the Eastern Capital, with Daxing (present-day Xi'an) as the secondary capital; four years later, it was renamed the Eastern Metropolis. The Purple Micro City covered an area of 4.2 square kilometers, six times the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing, and was hailed as the palace of all palaces. As the imperial city, the Purple Micro City served as the core of the capital for over 530 years through the Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, and Northern Song.

During the great Tang dynasty, whenever the capital Chang'an suffered from famine and food shortages, Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi and Empress Wu Zetian would move to the Eastern Capital Luoyang, handling state affairs in the Purple Micro City, receiving foreign guests, and conducting Buddhist and sacrificial ceremonies. Luoyang, located at the heart of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Yi-Luo River basin, enjoyed developed transportation, economic prosperity, and social flourishing, providing abundant convenience for exchanges between officials, commoners, and merchants from home and abroad. According to the 'Tang Hui Yao' (Institutional History of Tang): 'The divine capital's treasury stores grain, accumulated and abundant over the years; the Huai and Hai waterways transport goods day and night. The treasuries and granaries in Chang'an are mostly empty, all relying on the Luo capital.' Emperor Gaozong proudly stated in his 'Edict on Establishing the Eastern Capital': 'Here, centered in the universe, all nations pay tribute.' In the first year of Guangzhai (684 AD), he renamed Luoyang from Eastern Capital to Divine Capital, meaning 'Capital of the Divine Land.' At the same time, Chang'an was downgraded to a secondary capital. In 690 AD, Wu Zetian proclaimed herself emperor and built the unparalleled Hall of Brightness and Hall of Heaven within the Purple Micro City.

Back then, from the balcony on the fourth floor of my home, looking south, the neighboring courtyard was a vegetable market. Countless times, I went through the wall into that vegetable market to buy pickles for five cents a dish, soy sauce for seven cents a bottle, and tomatoes and eggplants for ten cents a pile.

Beyond the south wall of the market was Zhougong Road, parallel to Zhongzhou Road. Zhougong Road and Dingding Road formed a T-junction, and at the southeast corner of that junction was a larger courtyard. The gate of the courtyard faced west, opening onto Dingding Road, and anyone could enter freely. Opposite the road was the Luoyang Second Printing Factory. Inside the courtyard, large trees and weeds grew in a tangle; the brick-paved paths were almost submerged. Several halls were locked all year round, and no one knew what halls they were or what treasures they contained; we only knew it was the Duke of Zhou Temple (Zhougong Temple).

Ten years later, a sign reading 'Luoyang People's Broadcasting Station' was hung at the gate of the Duke of Zhou Temple, and across the street, the printing factory hung the sign 'Luoyang Daily.' Visiting a friend there, I learned that their bustling office was called the Dingding Hall (Dingding Tang), and I suddenly understood why the road outside was called Dingding Road. However, at that time, it was still difficult to find many traces of the Duke of Zhou or the 'settling of the tripods' (dingding) in the courtyard.

Returning home to consult materials, I learned that after Yu the Great successfully controlled the floods and established the Xia dynasty in 2070 BC, he divided the land into nine provinces, gathered copper from across the realm, and cast nine great tripods to symbolize the nine provinces. Later, Tai Kang, the third king of Xia, moved the Xia capital to Zhenxun (Luoyang) in the Yi-Luo basin. In 1600 BC, Shang overthrew Xia and moved the nine tripods to the Shang capital Zhaoge. After King Wu of Zhou, Ji Fa, allied the vassals and conquered Shang, his first major task was to mobilize 810,000 people to transport the nine tripods to the Zhou capital Haojing. After several months, when the tripods reached Luoyang, they seemed to take root and could not be moved an inch. Upon hearing the report, King Wu, helpless, generously said: 'The nine tripods are the great vessels and treasures of the state; if they refuse to go west upon reaching Luoyang, there must be a reason. Luoyang is the center of the world and was also the capital of the Xia state. Could it be that they want me to move the capital to Luoyang as well? If so, let the nine tripods be placed in Luoyang.'

Before the tripods could be installed, King Wu fell ill and died. In his last words, he asked his brother Ji Dan to assist the young King Cheng and act as regent to pacify the people. Ji Dan's fief was in the land of Zhou, present-day Qishan, Shaanxi, and his rank was Duke; thus he was known as the Duke of Zhou. The Duke of Zhou suggested that King Cheng build a great hall in the ancestral temple, and on an auspicious day, summon the vassals and officials to hold a grand ceremony of settling the tripods (dingding dadian), proclaiming that the Zhou dynasty had replaced the Shang as the legitimate ruler of the world. Hence the name Dingding Hall.

From then on, 'ding' (tripod) became synonymous with conquest, power, and kingship, the supreme symbol of imperial authority in ancient China, and a marker of the rise and fall of dynasties. Historical stories derived from the tripods are numerous. King Zhuang of Chu, arriving at the Zhou capital, hypocritically inquired about the weight of the tripods, fully exposing the vassals' eagerness to covet the royal power; King Xuan of Qi searched everywhere for tripods, depicting his ambition to become hegemonic and his greedy vanity in seeking shortcuts; King Wu of Qin, wanting to show off his strength and ambition as a hegemonic ruler, recklessly tried to lift a tripod but was crushed to death by it. Idioms and allusions such as 'asking about the tripods in the Central Plains' (meaning to have imperial ambitions), 'one word is as heavy as nine tripods' (meaning to keep one's word), and 'lifting the nine tripods' are all closely related to this.

After the grand ceremony, the Duke of Zhou, following the king's order, oversaw the construction of a new capital, Luoyi, on the north bank of the Luo River. There, he established rites and music, and enfeoffed the vassals. Consequently, the Duke of Zhou is revered as the father of Luoyang and the prime sage of Confucianism.

'When the Duke of Zhou spat out his meal, all hearts turned to him.' In the late Sui and early Tang, later generations built the Duke of Zhou Temple in Luoyang to commemorate this statesman, military strategist, and thinker for his great achievements: 'In one year he quelled the rebellion, in two years he conquered the Yin, in three years he subdued the Yan, in four years he established feudal states, in five years he built Chengzhou (Luoyang), in six years he formulated rites and music, and in seven years he returned the government to King Cheng.'

In September 1989, the Luoyang City Capital Museum was established on the basis of the Duke of Zhou Temple; in January 2008, the Zhongzhou Canal outside the south wall was dredged, the main gate was moved to face south, and it was officially renamed the Luoyang Duke of Zhou Temple Museum, now a national key cultural heritage protection unit. From south to north along the central axis, Ming and Qing architectural complexes such as Dingding Hall, Rites and Music Hall, and Ancestral Hall are preserved. Dingding Hall features upturned eaves at the four corners, extending forward and upward, appearing both dignified and elegant as well as light and graceful. The ancient architecture expert Zheng Xiaoxie called it an artistic masterpiece retaining the architectural style of the Liao and Jin dynasties. Inside the hall are enshrined five statues: the Duke of Zhou, his younger brothers the Duke of Shao and Duke of Bi, his eldest son Boqin, and his second son Junchen. On the surrounding walls, six richly colored paintings depict the Duke of Zhou's six major achievements: the Battle of Muye, assisting King Cheng, the eastern campaign to quell rebellions, enfeoffing vassals, building Luoyi (Luoyang), and formulating rites and music.

Forty years ago, Dingding Road was the only main artery for the central urban area of Luoyang to cross the Luo River southward. Outside the west gate of the Duke of Zhou Temple, from Dingding Road heading south to the former Luobei People's Commune Supply and Marketing Cooperative, there was a long downhill slope. Halfway down the slope, Dingding Road crossed Zhongzhou Canal and then intersected with Kaixuan Road. Day after day, besides the noisy motor vehicles, there were workers bent over, pulling heavily loaded handcarts, sweating profusely as they zigzagged up the slope. Often, teenagers would run up to the stopped carts, haggle for a price, push the carts uphill, earn a few cents, and happily go buy an ice pop to satisfy their cravings.

On September 13, 2019, a massive building 120 meters long from east to west, 60 meters wide from north to south, and 36 meters high rose from the ground, completely transforming the look of this intersection. This building is the site of the 2020 CCTV Mid-Autumn Festival Gala—Yingtian Gate.

Yingtian Gate was the main south gate of the Purple Micro City in Sui-Tang Luoyang, a massive pseudo-ancient architectural complex consisting of a gate tower, side towers, and eastern and western watchtowers connected by corridors, forming a concave shape in front.

Archaeological determinations indicate that Yingtian Gate had a triple-outward gate system with two side towers, totaling twelve watchtowers on the east and west sides—the highest rank of ancient city gate construction. This confirms the historical records about 'double-tiered gate towers' and 'the emperor's triple-outward gate' (tianzi sanchuque), the highest ritual privilege for emperors in ancient times. It is the first three-outward gate site discovered in the archaeological excavations of the two capitals, Chang'an and Luoyang, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, earning it the title 'First Gate of Sui and Tang.' The later Xuan'de Gate of Bianliang (Kaifeng) in the Northern Song and the Meridian Gate (Wumen) of the Ming and Qing Forbidden City both derived from this construction.

Yingtian Gate was first built in the first year of Daye of Sui (605 AD) under the name Zetian Gate. In the first year of Shenlong (705 AD), to avoid the taboo of using Wu Zetian's name, it was renamed Yingtian Gate. It was the venue for various grand court ceremonies. On the 9th day of the 9th month in the first year of Tian Shou (690 AD), Wu Zetian was crowned empress here, changing the reign title and declaring herself emperor.

South of Yingtian Gate, after Dingding Road crosses the Luo River Bridge, its name changes to Longmen Avenue. At the first intersection, following Gucheng Road west for 500 meters, on the south side lies Dingdingmen Square, covering an area of 46,700 square meters. This is the site of the Sifang Guan (Hall of the Four Quarters), where Emperor Yang of Sui once received envoys and handled trade affairs. In the center of the square stands a huge square bronze tripod, beneath which an adult can walk upright with ease. On the north side is a gate tower with architectural style similar to Yingtian Gate—this is the main gate of the outer city of Sui-Tang Luoyang, Dingding Gate. Unlike Yingtian Gate, the double watchtowers of Dingding Gate are symmetrically aligned in a straight line with the main gate tower, forming a 'one-line watchtower' (yizi que) configuration—unique in the archaeological excavations of the two capitals of Sui and Tang.

Dingding Gate was originally named Jianguo Gate, the first gate to enter Luoyang city. Amid the celebratory cannon fire of the capital relocation, Yang Guang walked through this gate, becoming the first emperor to enter the Eastern Capital Luoyang. In the fourth year of Wude (621 AD), Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan, renamed it Dingding Gate.

The Sui-Tang Luoyang City Dingding Gate Site Protection and Exhibition Project is one of the first key projects for large heritage site protection approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. The Dingding Gate Site Museum, opened on October 30, 2009, reconstructed the Dingding Gate tower above while fully protecting the underground ruins. The heritage protection area consists of one underground level and two aboveground floors, with a total building area of 12,616 square meters and a building height of about 28 meters. The underground level displays the original gate passageways, column bases, and city walls excavated at the Dingding Gate site, while the two aboveground floors house the museum, exhibiting the historical evolution of the Dingding Gate protection area.

A large number of artifacts unearthed during archaeological excavations show that Dingding Gate opened not only the political, economic, and cultural center of ancient China but also a fashion capital where world civilizations converged in the East. On June 22, 2014, China, together with Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, jointly nominated the transnational Silk Road for UNESCO World Heritage status, and the Dingding Gate site was officially inscribed on the World Heritage List as one of the sites.

Climbing up the gate tower of Dingding Gate, looking north, under the guidance of the broad Heavenly Street (Tian Jie), designed in line with the concept of harmony between heaven and man, Dingding Gate, Yingtian Gate, and the Hall of Brightness line up in a straight central axis, with the Purple Micro City, the Imperial City, the Outer City, and Shangyang Palace distributed in order. The Sui-Tang Luoyang city, covering 51.9 square kilometers with three cities and 109 wards, seems to appear vividly before one's eyes: beneath the gate, wheels rumble and horses' hooves sound; in the market, crowds bustle and camel bells jingle; in the alleys, colorful silks flutter and vendors hawk their wares; in the tea houses, smoke curls and drinking games echo... The heroic spirit and prosperity of the Great Tang seem not far away.

'If you want to know the rise and fall of dynasties past and present, just look at Luoyang.' Turning your gaze slightly to the right, in reality, Dingding Road is bustling day and night, brilliantly lit at night. The Divine Capital's Dingding Road, which inscribes five thousand years of Chinese history, is not only a geographical coordinate but also a civilization coordinate, connecting reality and the future, continuing to write new chapters.