Beijing Ancient Capital Culture
The long-standing ancient capital culture is the foundation of Beijing city and an important component of the current construction of the capital's cultural center, representing the characteristics of national culture in the world. The international significance and global influence of ancient capital culture can be said to be irreplaceable. Ancient capital culture is a unique urban culture that emerged, developed, and accumulated during the period when the city served as an ancient capital. It includes aspects such as political culture, ethnic culture, religious culture, social occupational culture, social class culture, and behavioral culture (i.e. clothing, food, housing, transportation culture). Broadly speaking, ancient capital culture refers to the material and spiritual cultures associated with the ancient capital, including tangible cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage, and spiritual cultural heritage. The ancient capital culture of Beijing not only includes its own 3000 year history of city construction and 800 year history of capital construction, but also carries the 5000 year history of Chinese civilization at a more macro level. Especially the cultural structure, elements, and spiritual temperament created by Beijing during the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties as the central region of the country and the center of external communication and exchange, representing the characteristics of Chinese culture and the highest level of cultural development at that time, and accumulated and inherited to this day. The ancient capital culture accumulated for thousands of years in Beijing not only forms the source and root of the capital culture, but also provides a profound foundation for the construction of the national cultural center in Beijing today, thus becoming an organic part of socialist culture with Chinese characteristics.
Characteristics and Connotation of Ancient Capital Culture
The ancient capital culture has profound cultural origins and historical significance, and represents the international image of Chinese national culture. Beijing's ancient capital culture is upright and solemn, elegant and broad, highly cultured and virtuous, and harmonious with Ningyuan. The connotation of ancient capital culture is extremely rich, it is a historical and cultural system that includes various cultures, arts, education, literature, and historical records. Its core values have three most prominent highlights: cultural pursuit and embodiment of national unity, diversity and unity, and ethnic harmony.
A representative case of the pursuit of a unified culture: Beijing was once the capital of five ethnic groups (Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming, Qing) in history. Despite cultural differences, all five ethnic groups followed the cultural concept of respecting the "center" in urban construction. The central axis represents the concept of the emperor being centered and embodies the cultural pursuit of unity.
The case of pluralistic integration: The famous "Tripitaka Sutra" (also known as the "Tripitaka Sutra") of the Qing Dynasty is the culmination of Buddhist scriptures. The Qing government used the scripts of five ethnic groups (Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Hui) to engrave scriptures and distribute them to temples across the country, achieving the unity of national scriptures through the scripts of different ethnic groups. Its cultural significance is the pursuit of diversity and unity. Among them, the Chinese version of the "Dragon Canon" is collected in the Capital Museum, while the other four scripts are preserved in the Palace Museum.
Case of Ethnic Harmony: The Three Religious Temples in Tongzhou have brought together different sects of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism from the Qing Dynasty, reflecting the cultural pursuit of harmonious coexistence between sects and ethnic groups in history.