Emerging from multiple sources spatially and culturally, the Chinese Civilisation has been keeping interacting and reforming throughout history. Those historic urban and rural areas and architecture which were rooted in the social, economic, cultural and political past of China are now becoming treasures and heritage of Chinese Civilisation.
Figure 1 A snapshot of The Maps of Yellow River Region (1900)
Source: <http://www.nlc.cn/newgtkj/tssc/mzyj/201703/t20170307_142303.htm>
Early human settlements and urban systems had been developed in China since Neolithic times. By about 1050 BCE., the prototype of the Chinese Civilisation had been formed as a result of the continuous fusion of various tribes. To govern the resources in the territory, an enfeoffment system was created by the rulers of the Western Zhou (1050 BCE.-770 BCE.) based on the bonds and the ruling class, and later the ruling mechanism experienced great changes in the Spring and Autumn Annals period’s social reforms and turbulence. It was not until 221 BCE., China was united for the first time by Qin Shi Huang (259 BCE.-210 BCE.) who became the first empire ruler in Chinese history. A centralised government system was thus invented and had been developed in the following 2000 years. With the change of dynasties, a system integrating the centralised government with local autonomy had been established, meanwhile, an urban system was formed as a consequence to assist the government.
Over the past thousand years, the urban administration in China consisting of the national capital (都城), county and state capitals (郡/州府) and town (县城) had gradually been mature under the government system. Through the multiple administrative tiers, the national policies and local demands could be efficiently communicated to maintain the social and economic activities in different areas within the vast territory. On the basis of the urban administrative framework, settlements in the countryside were managed autonomously by local clans and societies. The autonomy greatly enabled the liveability and prosperity of local societies. Manifesting local spirits and landscapes, diverse traditional urban and rural areas and architectural heritage were thus generated. With the efficient administrative and urban management system, the robust interactions between urban and rural areas contributed to the socioeconomic and cultural developments of ancient China.
The urban and rural areas in China historically tended to develop on the basis of different geographical clusters. Archaeologically, a great number of ancient human settlements across the territory have been found to be formed and interacted socially and economically along water bodies, such as Songliao Plain, Three Parallel River Region, Taihu Plain and Sichuan Plain. This spatial distribution of early settlements has been deeply influencing the modern urban-rural pattern in China, and the cultural distinction of urban and rural characteristics in different regions is also grounded on the diversity of geographical environments. Together with the administrative system integrating the top-down and bottom-up management, the urban-urban and urban-rural gravitation and hierarchies in each of the clusters organically remain stable and considerable throughout history, and those clusters spatially contributed to the urban-rural pattern today.
Figure 2 The distribution of ancient settlements in China
Source: <https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/huOFvISx7HaZXRYdRCRkag>
Source: <https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/huOFvISx7HaZXRYdRCRkag>
Edited and translated by Liang Xiuchun
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