JingJiang Prince City - A Short History

The Princes City of Guilin was founded by Prince JingJiang, grandson of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

 

The reason for sending his grandson to Guilin was that at the beginning of the Mind Dynasty, China was already a pretty consolidated, but big country. To prevent the different provinces from breaking away, he relied on his family to ensure loyality on a local level.

 

The sons of the first prince (also referred to as "king JingJiang") send to Guilin continued to rule the area until the end of the Ming Dynasty. They count together 14 generations of whom most are buried in the Ming-Tombs nearby.

 

The palace itself was build at the food of the Solitary Beauty Peak, called Duxiu Peak in Chinese. The layout of the palace follows the typical Ming Dynasty stile, after which also the Forbidden City in Beijing has been build. All important buildings are aligned along a north-south axis, in this case with Duxiu Peak as the most northern fix-point.

 

The palace structure itself is sourrounded by a city wall which, with the exception of the gate houses is still mostly present today. There are four gates in the eastern, western, northern and southern outer walls, named Tiren (Donghua Gate), Duanli (Zhengyang Gate), Zunyi (Xihua Gate) and Guangzhi (Hougong Gate) respectively. Between Hougong Gate and the inner royal chambers is another palace gate, called Chengyun Gate.

 

After the fall of the Ming emperors, the palace was used by the new Qing (1614-1912) rulers as the local examination hall for the imperial examinations. It continued to serve this purpose until also the Qing Dynasty ended in 1912. During the Chinese Republic, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of said republic used the structure as headquarter during his "Northern Expedition". They were converted to become the government offices for this area after the victory of the republican forces.

 

During the years, the palace burned down several times, caused by different wars in the area. The last time it was a victim of fire during a Japanes bombing raid during the Second World War.

 

After the war, the palace again became a place of learning when Guangxi Normal University moved in. While the structure has been sold back to the government in 2008, the university still resides in the old buildings until today.

 

 

 

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Picture Sources:

(1) http://startzxx.blog.163.com/blog/static/43365572009816113018609/

(2) http://hongdou.gxnews.com.cn/viewthread-4424262-2.html