Thirteen dynasties Xi ‘an was called Chang ‘an and Haojing in ancient times. Weihe River in the north, Qinling Mountains in the south. Since ancient times, there has been a reputation of “eight rivers around Chang ‘an”. Xi ‘an is a world historic city. The birthplace of the Chinese civilization and the Chinese nation. Thirteen dynasties established their capitals here.
Xi ‘an is as famous as Rome, Athens, Cairo and other ancient capitals of the civilized world. It is the oldest of the six ancient capitals in ancient China. It is also one of the four ancient capitals of the world.
Xi ‘an is located in the central Guanzhong Basin of the Yellow River Basin. With superior geographical location, it is the central city of Guanzhong Plain with convenient transportation. Chang ‘an (Xi ‘an) has been the political, economic and cultural center of China for more than a thousand years, and has been the capital of 21 dynasties. Therefore, it is known as the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties.
1.The capital of the Zhou Dynasty
The city of Chang ‘an was called Fenghao in the Western Zhou Dynasty, which is the combined name of Fengjing and Haojing built by King Wen and King Wu of Zhou respectively. The area where Fengho is located is called “Zongzhou”. Feng Jing and Haojing were the capital of the Zhou Dynasty in China very early.
Feng Hao is also called Feng Hao, and it is also two cities of good scale built along the Feng River. Feng Feng West is Feng Jing, and Feng East is Hao Jing, which in historical history is called “Feng Hao Erjing”, built by King Wen and King Wu of Zhou respectively.
Feng Hao and Feng Feng were the capital of the late Western Zhou Dynasty, which undertook more of the religious role of sacrifice, while Haojing served as the administrative center.
2 Capital of the Qin Dynasty
Because of his service in escorting King Ping of Zhou to move east, Duke Qin was made a vassal, and his capital was Yongcheng (Fengxiang), and then he continued to move east. After Shang Yang’s reform, the capital of Qin was moved to Xianyang.
Only when the king of Qin became the first Emperor of Qin did Xianyang become the imperial capital from the city of princes, with a history of 15 years. The capital of Qin Dynasty was Xianyang, which was located in today’s Xi ‘an and Xianyang cities. The ancient location of Xianyang was on both sides of the Wei River, covering parts of present-day Xi ‘an and Xianyang.
At that time, the Qin capital of Xianyang was huge, including the vast area on both sides of the Wei River, with Xianyang as the center, the Yellow River in the east, the Qian River in the west, the shore of the Wei River, the nine Mountains and the Linguang Palace in the north, and the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains in the south.
400 kilometers east to west and 200 kilometers north to south, Xianyang was one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the world at that time.
3 Western Han Dynasty
Chang ‘an was the hometown of Qin, and there was Xingle Palace in Qin. In the fifth year of Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty, Changle Palace was built on the basis of Xingle Palace, Weiyang Palace was built in the seventh year, and the capital was moved from Shuoyang to Chang ‘an. The city wall was built from the first five years of the Hui Emperor.
During the reign of Emperor Wudi, he built North Palace, GUI Palace and Mingguang Palace inside the city, Jianzhang Palace outside the west city, expanded Shanglin Garden and dug Kunming Pool.
4 Xin Dynasties
Xin Dynasty is following the Western Han Dynasty established by the Western Han Dynasty Wang Mang, the initial year (AD 8), Wang Mang self-proclaimed emperor, change the name of the new, at the same time, the capital Chang ‘an changed to “Chang ‘an”, at the same time set up the east capital Luoyang, Chang ‘an called the west capital.
5 Eastern Han Dynasty
Xin Dynasty broke out at the end of the green forest red eyebrow uprising, clan Liu Xiu took advantage of the situation, and continued the Han Dynasty for the title, known as the Eastern Han Dynasty. The capitals of the Eastern Han were Luoyang, Chang ‘an and Xuchang.
Luoyang, the capital of the early Eastern Han Dynasty, was ruled for about 195 years. However, the initial capital of the Eastern Han Dynasty was Haojing（XI‘an）, which was later moved to Luoyang. In addition, the Eastern Han Dynasty also had other capitals, such as Xuchang. Luoyang was finally the capital.
6 Western Jin Dynasty
After Sima Yan, Emperor Wudi of Jin, unified The Three Kingdoms, Luoyang was also the capital, but only eleven years after his death, the State of Jin started the “Eight Kings Rebellion”, which led to the famous “Five Hu Cholera Hua” in history.
7 Former Zhao
The former Zhao was one of the states in the period of Sixteen Kingdoms, which was established by the Xiongnu noble Liu Yuan in the late Western Jin Dynasty. The ruling centers of the former Zhao were roughly equivalent to present-day Guanzhong, Northern Shaanxi and Shangluo regions of Shaanxi.
From its founding to its demise, the former Zhao dynasty had a short history of ten years, and it was also a minority regime in the period of the first Sixteen States. The former Zhao successively established the capital in Zuo Guocheng, Pingyang and Chang ‘an.（Xi’an）
8 Pre-Qin Dynasties
The former Qin was one of the regimes in the sixteen States when the Five Hu was established by the Di nationality, and it was also the most powerful state in the sixteen States. In 350, Fu Jian occupied Guanzhong, and in the following year ascended the throne and set up a hundred officials. There were six emperors in the former Qin dynasty for forty-six years. The capital is Chang ‘an.
9 later Qin
Later Qin was a regime founded by Yao Chang of Qiang nationality during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. There were three emperors and three kingdoms for thirty-four years.
Yao Chang ‘an was king in Chang ‘an in the third year of Bai Qi’s reign. His reign included present-day Shaanxi, eastern Gansu and parts of Henan. The capital of the later Qin dynasty was Chang ‘an.
10 Western Wei Dynasty
The Western Wei was a local dynasty split from the Northern Wei during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Yuan Baoju, supported by Yuwentai and his ministers, proclaimed himself emperor with the title of “Wei”. The capital was Chang ‘an.
Western Wei owned the land west of Luoyang in the Northern Wei Dynasty and established its capital at Chang ‘an. Geographically, it was located to the west of Eastern Wei, so it was called Western Wei.
11 Northern Zhou Dynasty
The Northern Zhou Dynasty was one of the Northern and Southern Dynasties in Chinese history. The foundation of the state was laid by Yuwentai, a powerful minister of Western Wei, also known as the Later Zhou and Yuwen Zhou.
In the third year of Emperor Gong of Western Wei, after the death of Yuwentai, the actual ruler of the Western Wei regime, the third son Yuwenjue officially ascended the throne as King of Heaven, Duke of Zhou. At the beginning of the next year, Yuwen abolished Emperor Gong of the West Wei and established the state with the title of Zhou and the capital at Chang ‘an. It is known as the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
12 Sui Dynasty
The Jing Emperor of Northern Zhou gave way to the Prime minister Yang Jian, and the Northern Zhou Dynasty fell. Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty, was named Sui. Daxing City (now Xi ‘an, Shaanxi). In 589, the Sui army marched south to destroy the Chen Dynasty and unify China.
Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty worked hard and created a prosperous situation of Emperor Kai’s rule. In 604, Emperor Yang Guang ascended the throne and moved his capital to Luoyang.
After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, initially fixed the capital in Chang ‘an City of Han, but Chang ‘an was dilapidated and narrow, and the river was seriously polluted, so he decided to build another new city on the south slope of Longshou Yuan in the southeast direction.
The construction of Daxing Palace in the second year of Kaihuang opened the prelude to the construction of Daxing City. In the three years of Emperor Kai, the Sui Dynasty moved to the new capital, and the city was named after Daxing because Emperor Wen was named Daxing Duke in the early years.
13 Tang Dynasty
The concept of capital city can be divided into narrow sense and broad sense. The narrow sense of capital city is the capital city, and the broad sense of capital city is outside the capital city and includes the secondary capital.
In a narrow sense, Chang ‘an and Luoyang were the two capitals of the Tang Dynasty. Chang ‘an was the Tang Dynasty from AD 618-684, AD 705-903, a total of 266 years.
Luoyang served as the capital of the Tang Dynasty from AD 684-705 and AD 904-907 for 26 years.
In a broad sense, the Tang Dynasty had Chang ‘an (Jingzhao Prefecture), Luoyang (Henan Prefecture), Pingzhou (Taiyuan Prefecture), Hezhong Prefecture, Chengdu Prefecture, Fengxiang Prefecture, Jiangling Prefecture and other capitals.
The predecessor of Chang ‘an City in Tang Dynasty was Daxing City in Sui Dynasty. In the second year of Emperor Kai, Emperor Wen ordered Gao Ying, Yu Wenkai and others to build a new capital in Longshou, southeast of the former city of Chang ‘an of the Han Dynasty, called Daxing City.
Note: Ancient Xi ‘an was called Chang ‘an, so all Chang ‘an in this article refers to Xi ‘an
