The Ancient City Wall of Ganzhou
4 min readGanzhou is on the upper reaches of Ganjiang River and lies in the south of Jiangxi Province.It is a city which combines wonders of man and nature.What nature gives the city is its gorgeous scenery.Man’s wisdom and endeavor can be best seen in the 3，664-meter-long city wall，which was completed in the Song Dynasty（960-1279）.The existing Ancient City Wall has its beginning at Xijin Gate，stretches along Zhangjiang River，Bajing Pavilion，Yongjin Gate and Jianchun Gate，then ends at the end of Donghe Bridge-former Eastern Gate.Taking a stroll on the city wall that undulates with the terrain，you will be awed by the contrast between the beauty of the ancient man-made structure and the beauty of nature.The birth and maintenance of the Ancient City Wall of Ganzhou is attributed to four outstanding persons in history.
The man who initiated the city wall was Gao Yan，procurator of Nankang prefecture（today’s Ganzhou）of the Eastern Jin Dynasty（A.D.317一A.D.420）.
He organized people to build an earth wall around the city in A.D.349.The secondcontributor was Lu Guangchou，a general who guarded the city during the period of Wudai Dynasties（A.D.907-A.D.960）.It was time of wars and chaos when ambitious generals had chances to become a king.The ambitious Lu Guangchou wanted to become a king，so he started to expand the city，planning to build it into a capital for his future dynasty.The third man who contributed to the city wall was Kong Zonghan，the 46th generation great-grandson of Confucius，governed the city during Jiayou Years of the Northern Song Dynasty.In order to free the city forever from floods that would inundate the city every year，Kong first had the stone foundation of the city wall consolidated with melted iron and then had the wall covered with bricks.The brick city wall，made by Kong Zonghan，was the only ancient city wall of the Song Dynasty that preserves its original construction till today.
While building the brick city wall，Kong Zonghan constructed a pavilion on the wall where three rivers converge.Peered from the pavilion，the eight views of Ganzhou would be within your sight.It was so vivid that people named the Tower“Bajing Pavilion”，meaning”the eight-view pavilion”.The Tower was also the birthplace of the eight-view literature of China.Su Dongpo，presumably the greatest scholar of the Song Dynasty，was attracted to Ganzhou several times and wrote poems for it.The fourth man who contributed to the wall was a hydrographer named Liu Yi in Xining Years of the Northern Song Dynasty，the successor of Kong Zonghan.He had the underground draining system of the city dredged and built a network of additional ditches to drain rainwater from streets.He also had twelve“water windows”built around the city to help divert floodwater from one side of the city to the other side，thus rid the city of annual flood disasters forever.Unbelievably，although it was excavated over 900 years ago，it still functions today，which deserves a miracle in the history of city construction.
For nearly 1，000 years，the city wall has not only survived numerous floods，but also withstood attacking troops.With the first appearance of brick city wall in the Northern Song Dynasty，the wall experienced innumerable repairs with bricks and stones from the Southern Song，Yuan，Ming，Qing Dynasties to the Republic of China.So it was extremely solid and indestructible.With the river as its natural city moat，Ganzhou became strategically located and difficult to reach.There stood five city gates，respectively named Xijin，Zhennan，Baisheng，Jianchun，Yongjin，three of which，Zhennan，Baisheng and Xijin had defensive barbicans.In order to prevent Taipingtianguo Uprisings during Xianfeng Years in the Qing Dynasty，five half-circled gun towers were built alongside the city wall，and two of the gun towers，Bajing Pavilion and Xijin Gate，are still in good retention today.
What’s more，there are more than tens of thousands of wall bricks with 52l different kinds of inscriptions，which made the wall very rare.The earliest one dates back to 1069（Xining Years in the Northern Song Dynasty），and the latest part recorded in 1915（the Republic of China）.So the wall becomes a valuable cultural relic for us to research the history of Chinese city construction.With a variety of inscriptions the wall bricks might be a historical collection，recording every rise，fall and evolution of Ganzhou City.The State Council listed the Ancient City Wall as a key historical relic under state protection in 1996.
