Nanjing Taicheng

Nanjing Taicheng

Nanjing Taicheng is a cultural relic protection unit of Nanjing.

Nanjing Taicheng

“The river rains fall thick, the riverside grasses grow lush; the Six Dynasties pass like a dream, birds cry in vain. The cruelest of all are the willows of Taicheng, still veiling the ten-mile dike in mist.” Throughout the dynasties, literati visiting Jinling never failed to pay their respects at Taicheng, leaving behind many unforgettable poems and essays.

Nanjing Taicheng is situated on the southern shore of Xuanwu Lake, behind Jiming Temple, with its eastern end connecting to the Ming capital city wall and its western end ending in a broken wall. As it is not far from the Jiankang Palace of the Six Dynasties, later generations commonly refer to it as Taicheng.

According to expert research, Taicheng was located in the area of today’s Southeast University. It was originally the palace city of the emperors of the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, serving as the political, military, and ideological-cultural center of power at the time. Later generations, influenced by Wei Zhuang’s poem, associated the willow trees by Xuanwu Lake with Taicheng, and also linked a section of the Ming city wall behind Jiming Temple to Taicheng.

Taicheng suffered repeated destruction throughout history, bearing witness to the rise and fall of the “glory of the Six Dynasties”: once during the Hou Jing Rebellion; three years later when Liang forces recaptured Taicheng, “the imperial army’s cruelty surpassed that of Hou Jing”; the third time was when the Sui Dynasty overthrew the Chen Dynasty, razing Jiankang’s “city walls and palaces to the ground for cultivation”; by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, with the Jinling Prefecture City being built three times, Taicheng was completely abolished. The prosperity of the past remains only in the poetry of literati.

Walking along the asphalt road on the eastern side of Jiming Mountain, passing the main gate of Jiming Temple and heading west, you’ll find a section of the city wall preserved—this is what locals in Nanjing consider to be Taicheng. It stretches 253.15 meters in length, with an external height of 20.16 meters. According to the “Chronicles of the Two Counties Along the River,” “The city wall behind Jiming Temple was built during the Ming Dynasty’s expansion of the capital city.”

Zhu Yuanzhang initially planned to build the city wall behind Jiming Temple and extend it westward through Drum Tower Hill to connect with Stone City. Later, in order to enclose hills such as Chicken Rooster Mountain, Lion Mountain, Ma’an Mountain, and Stone Mountain within the city, the construction scope was expanded. As a result, the 250-meter-long stretch of wall behind Jiming Temple was left unused.

The section of the city wall from Taicheng to Taiping Gate is 1.7 kilometers long. At Taicheng, there is the Ming City Wall Museum. Climbing onto the wall, to the east you can gaze at the verdant, coiling form of Zhongshan Mountain with its clear mountain hues; to the north, you can admire the misty willow-lined scenery of Xuanwu Lake stretching for miles; to the south, you can see the swaying shadows of the Jiuhua Pagoda with its towering structure; to the west, you can take in the yellow walls and green tiles of Jiming Temple, with the ancient temple bells echoing profoundly. Moreover, beneath Taicheng, drooping willows sway gently, while structures such as Beiji Pavilion, the former site of the “Central Research Institute,” and the villa of T.V. Soong are tucked away in lush greenery, creating a picturesque scene that truly embodies the verse “still veiling the ten-mile dike in mist.”