Have you wondered how Asia’s earliest major cities were planned?
In this segment of Anshina’s Architecture, I will upload a video series dedicated to China’s first model planned city, Chang’an, now present day Xi’an. The SERIES: T’ang Changan (? ??).
GOALS: The goals of this video series are to explain:
What made Chang’an a successful city?
What did Chang’an lack?
What techniques from Chang’an can today’s modern urban planners improve on or take for today’s growing society?
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This is only PART 1 of the series: Early Chinese Urban Planning. PART 1 discusses the origins of Chinese urban planning; one has to go back to the Shang (1600 BC!) and Zhou Dynasties to discover that early Chinese urban planning was all based on matters of unity, control, and religion.
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BACKGROUND INFO on the VIDEO SERIES:
Chang’an, in the 7th Century AD, represented the capitol of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty is considered by historians to be the Golden Age of Chinese culture: tea, music, acrobatics, poetry, silk, pottery, civil service examinations for government positions, architecture, paintings, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, all flourished in China.
Chang’an was located on the Silk Road, so people from far away, from Persia and Turkey, all the way to India, Tibet, Japan and Korea, came to trade to China and brought China’s influences back to their respective homelands. To put this in an urban planning perspective, Japan (i.e. Japan’s Heian-kyo, aka Kyoto and Nara) and Korea’s early capitals were influenced by Chang’an’s architecture and city-planning grid. Given that much of Tang Dynasty architecture does not exist anymore, one must see Kyoto and Nara to see how the Japanese were influenced by the Tang (and how the Japanese made Tang architecture to a Japanese-style architecture).
Beijing was also influenced by Chang’an city-planning grid.
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For any comments or inquires, post them on my blog or YouTube channel, or email me at fncis.chen@gmail.com.
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I will be citing sources shortly; be patient if you want more information!
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Duration : 0:5:9
Continue reading “Anshina’s Architecture (Episode 3): PART 1: Early Chinese Urban Planning (T’ang Chang’an series)” »