Pingyao Travel Guide

History of Pingyao

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Pingyao History

Story of its name

Pingyao was called the Ancient Tao before the Dynasties of Qin and Han. According to the Records of Pingyao County, it had been the manor of Yao, who was the king of a union tribe in ancient China. In the Period of Spring & Autumn, the Ancient Tao belonged to the Jin Kingdom, and to the Zhao Kingdom later. The county system replaced the manor system when the First Emperor of Qin unified the whole country. The Ancient Tao was then set as the county location and changed name to Ping Tao. In early Northern Wei Dynasty, Ping Tao was renamed as Pingyao to avoid the pronunciation Tao, because the temporal Emperor was named as Tuoba Tao. According to ancient rules, name of emperor, high official, head of a family, or elder of a clan was regarded as taboo by his subjects or juniors.

History of Pingyao's city wall

According to historical records, in the West Zhou Dynasty, the King of Xuan dispatched his general Yin Jie Fu fighting against invaders of other nationalities. General Yin stationed his troops in the Ancient Tao and constructed defense wall there. In early Ming Dynasty, since the year of 1370 AD, the government had enlarged and reconstructed the city wall to present size for military purpose. In the late 500 years of Ming & Qing Dynasty, the wall had been reconstructed and repaired for 26 times or so, with its basic style and size remained without many changes. From then on, the magnificent wall has been standing there for 600 years through the war flames and natural corrosions. Glints and flash of swords and spears, and flames and explosions of war all have become historical things. Military function of the strong and high city wall has died out. Nowadays the old wall presents to the later generations the changing dynasties and events that occurred in the past thousand years.

 

 

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