Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The relocation of government offices made the adjustments to the streets and alleys implemented by Zhu Youjian go more smoothly.

In particular, the ministers present at the meeting have realized that this is a major adjustment to the capital after the emperor set up the three urban districts.

After this adjustment, the layout of the capital will not change for a long time, just like the layout of the capital has remained basically unchanged since the construction of the South City District during the Jiajing period.

If they want to take the lead in this adjustment, they must take the initiative to participate and cooperate with the emperor's orders.

This was the conclusion they came to from the previous adjustments to the nine temples and five academies.

They were reluctant to make major changes to the court system before, but after the five academies, six ministries, and nine temples had a smooth run-in, they all felt the benefits and became more supportive of the new system.

This is also the reason why the Ministry of Justice, which had its power cut the most, was unable to make trouble despite being dissatisfied.

After seeing what happened to the Ministry of Justice, all the ministers took the initiative to support the emperor's transformation of the alleys and moved the supervisory office near their own offices.

During the adjustment of lane roads, they also put forward suggestions and actively participated in discussions.

Minister of Rites Cheng Ji ordered:

"Shuowen Jiezi says: 'Street means four passages.'"

"It is accessible from front to back, left to right, and is the common road in the city. Everyone can move around."

“Therefore, there are many pedestrians and vehicles, and your majesty has set up special sidewalks and lanes, which is in line with the intentions of the ancients.”

After praising the emperor's approach to separating pedestrians and vehicles, Cheng Jiming continued:
"Unlike streets, which are roads in the middle of a town, alleys mean roads in the middle of a village."

"The li in ancient times is what we know as the fang today, and the roads in the fang are called alleys."

"One way to write it is 衖, which was corrupted by the Mongolians into 胡同 and is now written as 衚衕."

"The so-called Nong in Jiangnan is also a colloquial term for Alley. The Seventeen Histories all use Nongzhe to refer to Alley."

(Alternative forms of the word "巷", one of which adds the character "行" to become "衖". Ancient people probably pronounced it as "hong", which evolved into "longnong" in the south and "hutong" by the Mongolians in the north. This is one of the theories about the origin of "hutong". There are also theories such as the rumor of "火巷", and the meaning of "大同" (great unity) of the Hu people and "大统 (great unification)" (great unity) in the Ming Dynasty, the character "行" was added to become "衚衕", which means the Hu people migrated north)
Zhu Youjian nodded in approval after hearing this explanation and asked him:

"Cheng Qing is a man of profound knowledge, worthy of being the Minister of Rites!"

"Do you mean to change all the current alleys back to lanes?"

He had thought about this, but all the alleys had to be renamed, and there were too many changes.

I guess even if it is changed in name, people will still call it a hutong.

Just like Qihua Gate was renamed Chaoyang Gate in the fourth year of Zhengtong, many people still call it Qihua Gate until now.

Moreover, Zhu Youjian did not think that those alleys could be called lanes.

After all, the standard width of the alley he set was sixteen meters.

Cheng Jiming heard this and replied:

“Not all of them will be changed into alleys, but only the alleys that meet the standards of alleys will be changed.”

"The pronunciation that was misrepresented by the Hu people in the pre-Yuan Dynasty can only be used on the narrowest roads."

"Only those that are more than ten meters wide can be called such-and-such lanes."

This made the ministers agree that even if the name Hutong continued to be used, it should be regarded as the lowest level road.

Zhu Youjian also held the same view, so he named the alleys that were ten meters wide, or three meters wide in the old system, as fire lanes:

"Roads longer than 10 meters can accommodate large vehicles side by side, making it convenient for the fire brigade to enter with water trucks and other tools."

“The fire is also less likely to spread and will be isolated by the roads.”

"This was the original intention of the Song Dynasty when it established Huoxiang. We can restore the old name."

Cheng Jiming agrees with restoring the old name of Huoxiang, but he disagrees with calling it Xiaoxiang:
"A small alley means a smaller alley. Your Majesty called an alley wider than a fire alley a small alley, which could easily lead to ambiguity."

"Alleys are roads within the neighborhood, and they have no responsibility for people outside the neighborhood to pass through."

"Its width doesn't need to be too wide, about ten meters will do."

"There are no roads in the capital that are sixteen meters wide now. The closest thing to it is a small street that was originally six meters wide, nearly twenty meters wide."

"I think if we are going to build an alley, we should make it wider and turn it into a small street."

This statement made Zhu Youjian think seriously and wonder whether it was reasonable.

According to the current situation, the roads in the neighborhood are not obliged to be used by outsiders, so they do not need to be built too wide. A 10-meter-wide two-way mixed passage for people and vehicles can meet the needs.

The wider ones can be built into small streets of about 20 meters, with dedicated driveways and sidewalks.

However, the reason he mentioned the road width standard was not for now, but more for the future.

The more time goes by, the more difficult it will be to demolish buildings in Beijing. After the birth of cars, how will the old city be renovated?

So he explained to Cheng Jiming and other ministers:

"My goal is to ensure that every family in the Ming Dynasty has its own carriage."

“Without a dedicated lane, it’s inconvenient for carriages to pass through.”

"So when I planned the outer city, I set the width of the new alley to 16 meters."

“There are two dedicated lanes in the middle for rickshaws and pedestrians on both sides.”

The car is called a horse-drawn carriage, and the lane standard is also based on the large carriage. After the car is invented in the future, the existing roads can still be used.

The ministers did not know what the emperor was thinking, but the fact that every family had a carriage made them open their eyes wide. They could not imagine what this scene would be like.

Even if we assume that 100,000 households have horse-drawn carriages, that would be at least 100,000 vehicles. The existing road standards are definitely not enough and they really need to be widened.

However, widening a 10-meter-wide alley into a 16-meter-wide lane is too difficult. It is estimated that many houses and walls will have to be demolished.

Therefore, the emperor only planned to implement it in the outer city and set the width of the alleys outside the city to sixteen meters.

Cheng Jiming didn't think that this vision could be realized, but he didn't have the heart to shatter the emperor's dream.

After all, the emperor was committed to improving people's travel standards, and he couldn't sing a different tune and say that people shouldn't live a good life.

Cheng Jiming was silent for a moment. Most of the ministers were also immersed in this scene, imagining what it would be like in the future when every family had a carriage.
Chen Qiyu, the Minister of the Imperial Household, knew that the emperor had been pushing the carriage all along, so he was not too surprised and said:

"I think Minister Cheng's intention is to worry that the width of the alley is set at 16 meters, which is too close to the original width of the small street and will confuse the public."

"So we can combine the two names of small street and small alley into one small street, with a width of 16 to 20 meters."

“The new 28-meter-wide street was named Zhongjie, or Xinjie.”

“This way, the people won’t be confused, and the streets will have the responsibility of being accessible to all the people in the city.”

Zhu Youjian finally understood why Cheng Jiming explained the meaning of the word "alley".

It turned out that he thought the alley had no responsibility for people outside the neighborhood to pass through, so the name of the alley should be changed to small street.

In this way, there is no need to change many of the current small streets. There is no need to change them to 28-meter-wide streets as previously stated.

Zhu Youjian had no intention of remodeling all the streets and decided to keep the old streets. He approved of this and said:

"Then we will change the name as you said. The new street will be called the middle street, and the width of the small street will be set at sixteen to twenty meters."

“Newly built roads outside the city and renovated streets and lanes in the capital must comply with this standard.”

"Also, the street has four passages, so it must be connected. There can't be any dead ends."

"The fire lane must also be accessible to facilitate the fire brigade of Weiwei Temple to plan the firefighting route."

"After all, from the perspective of the character's shape, it is composed of Gong and Yi. It is also Yizhongdao, and has the responsibility of providing transportation for the entire city's people."

"The alleys in each district must be open and cannot be closed off by private walls to form dead ends."

This point was emphasized again, so that the ministers could understand the emperor's hatred for dead-end roads. It was decided that when renovating the streets in the capital, attention should be paid to opening up dead-end roads.
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Then, Zhu Youjian thought of the concept of streets and roads and asked his ministers:
"I have heard a saying that 'north-south is the road, east-west is the street'."

"Some people also say 'north-south is a street, east-west is a road.'" "Do the original meanings of street and road represent directions?"

The ministers pondered over this, but none of them could think that these two words could represent a direction. Cheng Jiming said:
"Street means four passages, east, west, north, and south."

"Lu means way, and it also means big, so it can refer to a street."

"Neither of them has any direction. I have never heard of the two theories your majesty mentioned."

Other ministers also said that they had never heard of such a statement.

Chen Qiyu tried to figure out the emperor's thoughts and said:

"People in the capital call the roads they travel on 'streets', 'roads', or 'streets'"

"The Xijin Chronicle says: The street system from south to north is called longitude; from east to west is called latitude."

"If you want to distinguish the directions, you can add longitude and latitude, using longitude and street and latitude and road, or longitude and road and latitude and street."

Zhu Youjian nodded in praise of kindness and said to the ministers:
"You all can discuss which statement should be adopted."

"Let all cities in the Ming Dynasty adopt this uniformly to prevent some people from entering the city and being unable to tell east from west, south from north, and north from south."

The ministers had no objection to this point, but they started a heated debate over which statement to adopt.

Some people think that the word "street" should be oriented north-south, and the longitude and latitude roads should be used.

However, some people believe that there are two "土" characters in "街", which means it should be east-west and should be written as 经路渭街.

On the contrary, the character "路" is composed of "足", so it should be facing north and south.

The two statements are different and each has its own reasons.

In the end, it was Zhu Youjian who looked at the street map of the capital and made the final decision:
"There are many east-west streets in Beijing now, so in order to reduce the number of name changes, we will call it Jingluweijie."

“Roads running east-west are still called streets, such as Chang’an Avenue outside Chengtian Gate.”

"North-south streets were renamed roads, for example, Chongwenmenli Street will be renamed Chongwen Road."

The ministers stopped arguing because neither of the two opinions could convince the other.

After the emperor selected one as the norm, they decided to follow it.

However, Cheng Jiming objected to Chongwen Road's statement:
"There is also Chongwenmen Street in the southern part of the city outside Chongwenmen. If it is also to be changed, it will also be called Chongwen Road."

"I think it should be named Chongwenmen North Road, or use the old name of Chongwenmen, and name this road that almost extends to the north city wall Wenming Road."

Then he added:

"The idea of ​​inner and outer streets that Your Majesty had set before was not clear in its direction."

"I think the north-south roads can be called South Road and North Road, and the east-west roads can be called East Street and West Street."

“It’s easier to tell the direction when you see it at a glance.”

Zhu Youjian nodded in approval and asked Chen Qiyu to set the naming standards for urban roads based on this.

The two north-south streets planned by Chen Qiyu were first changed to Nanda Road and Beida Road as their overall names, and specific sections of the road were distinguished by landmarks such as city gates.

The ring road, which is easy to confuse in terms of direction, has been renamed the First Ring South Street and the First Ring North Street.

The East First Ring Road was officially named Wenming Road, and the West First Ring Road was named Wuan Road.

The South First Ring Street was named Zhengnan Street, and the North First Ring Street was composed of the planned Shichahai Street and Gulou East Street because they were not connected.

There is also a new road on the east side of Xizhimen Street, which was merged into Xizhimen East Street.

The Xinkaidao Street to the north of Wuan Road was renamed Huiying Road based on the name of Juxian Road, which was renamed from Juxian Street to the east.

The name of Chang'an Avenue remained unchanged, but Chengtian Street was renamed Chengtianmen Square. The north-south roads on both sides of the square were called the Square East Side Road and the Square West Side Road. Because the Executive Yuan and the Privy Council were located on both sides, they were called the Executive Yuan Road and the Privy Council Road.

The roads around the imperial city were also changed into Dong'an Road, Xi'an Road, Bei'an Street according to the city gates, and together with Chang'an Street formed the Imperial City Road...

It can be said that the names of all the major streets in the capital have been redefined.

The new alley divisions were also determined during this process, with the areas being re-divided based on the principle of proximity to the city gates and division by streets.

In addition to the five gates and nine blocks of the imperial city which were under the charge of the Zhongcheng Bingmasi, the Dongcheng Bingmasi was responsible for the newly opened Donglu Gate, as well as Chaoyang Gate and Dongzhimen.

The guards of Donglu Gate are responsible for Mingshifang inside the city, as well as Donglumenwaifang outside the city, which is named after the city gate, and is simply called Donglufang.

The guards of Chaoyang Gate are responsible for Huanghuafang and Sichengfang in the city, as well as Chaoyangfang outside the city.

The guards of Dongzhimen were responsible for the North and South Juxianfang inside the city, as well as Dongzhifang outside the city.

This is the East City Military Division, which will be responsible for the eight districts.

A total of three guards will be arranged to be responsible for guarding the three city gates, recruiting soldiers from the eight districts, and assisting in public security and other tasks.

Zhu Youjian wanted to let the Shangzhi Qinjun Guards take charge of these city gates, but Yuan Keli, the Privy Co-Director, was the first to speak out:
"Under the old system, the Five Military Commanders' Office was left behind to guard the city gates with troops and horses."

"I think the Five City Military Command should be under the jurisdiction of the Five Military Commands Office, commanding the guards under the five offices to guard the city gates."

"The guards of the Left Army Commandery in Beijing now include the Left Guard, the Southern Guard, the Cavalry Right Guard, the Dragon and Tiger Guard, the Shenyang Left Guard, and the Shenyang Right Guard."

"Among them, the Dragon and Tiger Guards happen to be in Huanghuafang and can be in charge of Chaoyang Gate."

This is to divide the garrisons of the Five Military Commanderies in Beijing into the Five Cities Military Command.

The nobles naturally had opinions about this matter.

Because the local Dusi and Weisuo of the Five Military Governor's Office had already been transferred to the Duhusi, Bingbeidao and garrison area under the charge of the Protectorate, only the thirty-three guards and two garrisons directly under the capital were left to be managed.

Even though the soldiers of these garrisons are now under the charge of the Guards of the three major camps, the management rights of the garrisons still nominally belong to them.

If these are divided among the Five Cities Army, what else will they do?
So these people spoke out one after another, saying that Yuan Keli's method was inappropriate.

Moreover, according to the corresponding location, there are only four garrisons of the Front Army Governor's Office in Beijing. How can these four garrisons guard the South City District?

On the contrary, the Rear Army Commandery had more than a dozen guards, but could only defend the three city gates on the north.

They thought that this division was ridiculous and that the various defense zones in the capital should not be adjusted in this way.

Zhu Youjian saw that they were very angry, and after thinking for a while he said:
"Not only can the Five Military Commanders' Garrisons in Beijing guard the city gates, but the Imperial Guards can do the same."

"Dongyang Gate was opened to draw in Yang Qi. Jiyang Guard has a good name, so let this guard guard Chaoyang Gate."

As the main road for him to open up to Dongyang Gate, Chaoyang Gate must be under his control. Even though the Shangzhi Army is now divided into three camps of the Beijing Camp and under the jurisdiction of the Guards, he must show his importance.

These guards, known as the imperial army, are always more trustworthy than other guards.

After hearing the emperor's reason for using Jiyang Guard, the ministers were at a loss for words. They couldn't tell the emperor that Jiyang Guard was a personal guard and couldn't be used. Moreover, after the establishment of the Wucheng Bingmasi Hujunsi, it would have restraint on the guards at the gate.

After deciding to assign Jiyang Guard to be in charge of Chaoyang Gate, Zhu Youjian transferred Huben Zuowei to be in charge of Donglu Gate which was about to be opened.

Dongzhimen used the Dragon and Tiger Guards and asked these guards to adjust their defense areas.

At the same time, their land, pastures, etc. in the capital should be exchanged according to the principle of proximity, and they should be given land within the third ring road and close to the city gates they are guarding as much as possible.

During this process, the assets of the garrison must be thoroughly checked, and houses and land must be redistributed to the officers, non-commissioned officers, and military households.

There will be as many soldiers as there are lands. The excess military households can be converted into military and civilian households according to their wishes, or they can be added to the garrisons that are to be moved outside the city and led by them to cultivate the land.

This order made the nobles even more nervous, because most of the hereditary officials in the capital were related to them.

Some of the garrison's land was also occupied by them, and now that we are re-checking it, it will obviously affect them.

This made some nobles regret their previous opposition:

Rather than being thoroughly checked by the emperor during the replacement process, it would be better to arrange defense zones nearby as Yuan Keli said.

That way the change would be small, and they would be able to figure out a way to get by. (End of this chapter)