The Holy City of Beijing: Openness and Inclusion Cultivate Diversity and Harmony of Religious Culture
2023-07-27
In 1153 AD, the Jin Dynasty relocated its capital from Shangjing to Yanjing (now Beijing) and named it "Zhongdu", marking the beginning of Beijing's capital history. The establishment of the status of Zhongdu enabled Beijing to complete the identity transformation from "city" to "capital" in the process of historical development, laying a solid foundation for the capital of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Beijing, the capital of the great motherland, has a history of over 3000 years of urban construction and 870 years of capital construction. It always adheres to an open and inclusive attitude, accepting and carrying diverse religious cultures from all over the world. The late Kristofer Schipper, a famous European sinologist, believed that it was great for the Chinese to make Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and other religions coexist peacefully; It is remarkable that various religions can integrate and coexist harmoniously in the same city in Beijing. Therefore, he referred to Beijing as the "Holy City of Beijing". In Beijing, a harmonious pattern of diverse and coexisting religious beliefs has been formed. Zhongdu and Khanbaliq, with strong cultural inclusiveness and integration, when Zhongdu became the capital of the Jin Dynasty, the original urban space could not meet the needs of the national capital, and must be transformed on a large scale. In the process of construction, Zhongdu constantly emphasized the idea of "standing upright with the emperor" and "being orthodox", which fully reflected the tenacity, cohesion and Centripetal force of Chinese culture. In order to expand the capital city, the Jin Dynasty ministers drew up a blueprint in advance, referring to the standard of Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo during the Song Dynasty: "Building Yanjing, the system is like Bian". It was said at the time that "(Hailing King) Liang wanted to be the capital of Yan. He sent painters to write the imperial palace system in advance. As for the width, the width, the length, and the number of songs and paintings, he gave the left minister, Zhang Hao, the generation of painting according to the picture." Zhongdu imitated the Central Plains Dynasty to prepare the "standard configuration" of various capitals of Qi, including the royal gardens supporting the palace, the altar and temple sites for various important ritual activities, the bureaucratic offices at all levels from the central to the local, and the construction of royal tombs in the suburbs. The urban construction of Zhongdu, on the one hand, inherits the traditional concept of capital planning and absorbs the ritual thought of capital construction of the Central Plains Dynasty; Facing the front and facing the back, with symmetrical axis; The division of alleys is like a chessboard. On the other hand, they built palaces according to the water potential, incorporating the irregular water surface into the square imperial palace wall, reflecting the style characteristics of Nomad, showing a strong degree of cultural inclusiveness and integration. These provided ideas for the site selection, planning and construction of Khanbaliq, and played a connecting role in the history of capital construction. The first time Beijing became the capital of China was in the Yuan Dynasty, and Yaheidier was the designer of Khanbaliq. Chen Yuan, Bai Shouyi and other historians have made detailed textual research on Yaheidier's achievements in the history of Beijing's construction. Bai Shouyi said, "Today, Heidier is famous for his majestic and magnificent palace city in Peiping in World history. Although there were many projects in the Ming and Qing dynasties for the palace city in Peiping, it only increased or damaged the old days of the Yuan Dynasty." According to the official history, Heidier was a "big eater". Yaheidier was in charge of the construction project under the leadership of Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty. He first designed Qionghua Island (now Beihai Park) for Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty, and then was responsible for the design and supervision of Khanbaliq Palace and urban construction. There is no exact record of the time when Islam was introduced into History of Beijing, but according to the research of relevant experts, the oldest Niujie Mosque in Beijing was founded
Edit：XiaoWanNing Responsible editor：YingLing
Source：China Ethnic Network
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