Historical site of a pottery kiln at the town around Yangling, the mausoleum of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty

The practice of establishing a town around an imperial mausoleum began in the Qin Dynasty. It involves moving a large population to reside around the mausoleums of emperors and queens and then form a town. The mausoleums were at the center of the town and the town served to protect the mausoleum. This also allowed the emperors to build a large garden around the mausoleum as well as establish worship ceremonies.

It was recorded that in the year 231 BCE, when Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of Qin, constructed his mausoleum at the foot of the Lishan Mountain, he also built the Li Town around the mausoleum. In recent years, archeologists excavated eave tiles engraved with the Chinese characters li yi, literally Li Town, nearby the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang. They also discovered pottery fragments inscribed with information including these two characters.

The practice was passed down to the Western Han Dynasty. It became an institution during the early and middle period of the dynasty to build a town around the imperial mausoleum to ensure the supplies as well as the prosperity of the area around the mausoleum. These towns existed during most time of the Western Han Dynasty. They kept close relations with the capital city Chang’an and had profound impact on social development at that time.

In order to avert rebellions from the east, Liu Bang, or the Emperor Gaozu, first emperor of the Han Dynasty, moved a large number of powerful landlords from the Guandong area, or the North China Plain, to the Guanzhong area, or the Guanzhong Plain. Many of them were moved to live around Changling of Emperor Gaozu. Later on, emperors of Hui, Jing, Wu, Zhao, Wen and Xuan all established towns around their mausoleums.

The town around Changling was situated at today’s Hanjiawan Township, Qindu District of Xianyang City in Shaanxi Province. Built 2,000 years ago, ruins of the town’s southern, northern and western walls still remain. According to historical documents, the town was inhabited by more than 50,000 households and nearly 180,000 people. Its population density even exceeded that of the capital Chang’an.

At the ruins of some buildings, a large quantity of brick and tile fragments piled up and various production tools, pottery and copper wares were unearthed, showing the prosperity of the town at that time. The town around Changling effectively prevented the attacks  from Northern invaders and thus helped to maintain the political stability of the northwestern regions, said Jiao Nanfeng, former leader of an archaeological team of Han mausoleums.

The town around Changling was adjacent to the mausoleum, but the distance was increased to one or 2 li or even 5 or 6 li (a distance unit equal to 0.5 kilometer) since the Emperor Wen period.

Emperor Wu on three occasions moved people to the town around his mausoleum, or Maoling. These people were mostly talented people, officials and rich people. Brilliant people from around the country gathered at the towns around imperial mausoleums in the Western Han Dynasty. They brought with them different cultures, contributing to the formation of the cultural center of the town, said Professor Wang Zijin from the School of Chinese Classics at Renmin University of China.