Capital Flows

Cumulatively, Luoyang in Central China’s Henan Province served as a dynastic capital the longest, followed by Xi’an in Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province and current capital Beijing. Other famous ancient capitals include Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, Nanjing in Jiangsu Province and Kaifeng in Henan Province. 　

Luoyang and Xi’an, which was known for centuries as Chang’an, were capitals a millennium before Beijing. Why were these two cities chosen as dynastic capitals, and what prompted their decline? A major reason was changes in the environment, especially water resources. 

Xi’an was first. It served as the Western Zhou’s capital for nearly 280 years. In 770 BCE, the year after the fall of the Western Zhou, the son of the last emperor moved the seat of power of his new kingdom to Luoyang. As Luoyang is to the east of Xi’an, the new kingdom was called the Eastern Zhou. 　

The Eastern Zhou, however, lost control of its vassal states. One of them, the Qin, was based in Xianyang, about 30 kilometers west of Xi’an, since the mid-4th century BCE. The Qin united China in 221 BCE and Xianyang became its capital. The Qin ruler’s main imperial palaces and the Terracotta Warriors are today administered by Xi’an. Today, both Xi’an and Xianyang claim the Qin capital. 　

The Qin created the imperial ruling system that would last for over 2,000 years in China. But the Qin itself was a short-lived dynasty. Just 15 years after the first Qin Emperor Shihuang was crowned, a rebellion force led by Liu Bang took Xianyang. Liu Bang’s ally Xiang Yu torched and destroyed the city. According to historian Sima Qian’s classic book Historical Records in the first century BCE, the fire burned for at least three months. But Xiang Yu eventually lost his rivalry with Liu Bang to rule China. 　

Liu Bang, founder of the Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE), built a new capital in old Xianyang. He changed its name to Chang’an, which means “lasting peace and stability.” The name stuck for nearly 1,500 years up to the late 13th century during the Yuan Dynasty. It had different names over the next century until 1369, when Ming Dynasty founder Zhu Yuanzhang changed it to Xi’an – meaning “western peace.” 　

But the Han Dynasty ended much like the Zhou. More than 200 years after Liu Bang set up the Han, it was overturned in a coup. In the year 25, Liu Xiu, who was a royal descendant, launched a rebellion and seized power. He established the Eastern Han Dynasty with Luoyang as its capital. Liu Bang’s original dynasty became known the Western Han. The Eastern Han lasted nearly 200 years to the year 220. 　

The last years of the Eastern Han saw wars between regional powers. After years of chaos and conflicts, the Jin Empire ruled by the Sima family united China again from its capital in Luoyang. But after the Jin’s waning years in the early 5th century, China fractured again and was mired in war, with 10 kingdoms vying for supremacy. Among the five northern kingdoms, two based their capital in Luoyang and two in Xi’an. 　

In the late 6th century, the Sui Dynasty ended hundreds of years of chaos. However, it was short-lived, and was soon followed by the powerful Tang Dynasty (618-907). Both Xi’an and Luoyang served as their capitals for more than 300 years until the early 10th century. 　

Xi’an was a more important political center than Luoyang. However, Empress Wu Zetian, wife of the Tang Emperor Gaozong, crowned herself as the only female sovereign in China’s history in the late 7th century. During her 15 years on the throne, she preferred to live in Luoyang. 　

The area of China’s Central Plains refers to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, a region long regarded as the political and cultural center of Chinese civilization. Luoyang is the region’s geographical center. 　

However, dynasties that made Luoyang their capital were often weaker and smaller than dynasties that chose Xi’an. This was the case for the Eastern Zhou and Eastern Han. Both were established by descendants of their namesake previous dynasties, the Western Zhou and Western Han. However, neither could recapture the power and prosperity of their predecessors. The Jin Empire that ended the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280) only survived 52 years. Its successor, the Eastern Jin, moved south and built its capital in Nanjing in 317. 　

As China’s eastern coast provided a natural boundary for early empires, the only possible way to expand was westward. Given this, many historians believe that dynasties with Xi’an as the capital were more ambitious and able to expand their governance than dynasties seated in Luoyang. 　

Xi’an is located slightly west of the center of the Western Han Dynasty. This facilitated the Western Han’s expansion. Emperor Wu extended Western Han territory in the 2nd century BCE to include part of China’s northwest today. As a result, the Silk Road grew to link China and Europe through Central and West Asia. 　

The end of the Tang Dynasty in 907 also meant the end to either Xi’an or Luoyang serving as capital, with the centers of power shifting to the east, south and north. 

Luoyang sits beside the Luo River, a tributary of the Yellow River. Kaifeng, to the east of Luoyang, was closer to the Yellow River than Luoyang and had several smaller rivers, giving it much easier access to more water resources than Luoyang. The river flowing through Kaifeng, the Bian River, connected to the Grand Canal. 　

Kaifeng was the capital of the Northern Song and grew to be a major hub along the Grand Canal. A famous painting called Along the River During the Qingming Festival by Northern Song artist Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145) illustrates the prosperity of Kaifeng. Scenes of people loading and offloading enormous bags from cargo barges by the canal are prominently depicted. It shows the Grand Canal was the capital’s lifeline. Zhang Zeduan lived during the last years of the Northern Song (960-1127). The image of a bustling port and streets during a time when the dynasty was on the brink of collapse suggests the Northern Song’s economy was more developed than the Western Han and Tang, which were larger and stronger. 　

Only 30 years after Zhang Zeduan presented the silk scroll painting to Emperor Huizong, the eighth Song emperor, the Jin of today’s Northeast China invaded Kaifeng. The Jin army captured both Huizong and his son, Emperor Qinzong. Emperor Qinzong’s brother Zhao Gou established the Southern Song Dynasty, which controlled the area south of the Yangtze River. The capital was Hangzhou, the southern terminus of the Grand Canal. Zhao Gou changed the city’s name to Lin’an, which means “temporary settlement.” He hoped to quickly recapture the Northern Song’s territory, but his dream was not realized in the 152 years of the Southern Song’s rule. However, its dominion rose to be China’s most developed area in terms of economy, politics and culture. 

The Southern Song was devastated in 1279 by the Mongol army, which established the Yuan Dynasty. Both the Jin and Yuan chose Beijing as their capital. As the connection between the dry grasslands to the north and the fertile plains in the south, Beijing is strategically crucial. It has largely served as China’s political center since the late 13th century. 　

During the Yuan, new waterways were dug to shorten the Great Canal, bypassing Luoyang and Kaifeng and contributing to their decline. Worse still, their position in China’s Central Plains exposed them to attack, a strategically inferior position for a capital. 　

Xi’an, although flat, nestles against a mountain range to its north, providing much better defense. But as China’s economic engine moved to the east and south, the importance of Xi’an faded. 　

At their height, the populations of Xi’an and Luoyang exceeded 1 million – which strained their natural resources. 　

The Luo and Weishui rivers, the two main waterways that supported Luoyang and Xi’an, were just branches of the Yellow River. Water demand was a major reason that cities next to much larger rivers replaced Luoyang and Xi’an, such as Kaifeng by the Yellow River and Hangzhou, which has several rivers and is at the southern end of the Grand Canal. 　

Local food supply is never enough to feed mega cities. Grains and aquatic products from the southeast had to be shipped in. Xi’an in the northwestern hinterlands did not have direct access to major water routes. Luoyang was no longer a good option for a capital after it lost the advantage provided by the Grand Canal. 　

Wood in ancient times was like steel and cement today. As a city transformed into a capital and grew, shortages of wood to build houses, cook and provide heating were common. Xi’an was set ablaze at least six times due to wars. Repeatedly rebuilding such a large city of wood was not sustainable. 　

Protecting the environment, especially water resources, is still a major issue for China’s modern capital, Beijing and the other megacities of northern China.