Hetuala Old City, the very first capital city of Later Jin – the predecessor of Qing Dynasty, was the center of politics, military, economy, and culture of Later Jin and the cradle of Qing Dynasty and Manchu. It has great value in the study of history, art and science of early Qing Dynasty.

    In 1616, the first day of Wanli 44th ruling year of Ming dynasty according to Chinese lunar calendar, Nurhachi ascended the throne and established Later Jin Dynasty.
On the first day of the first lunar month in Wanli 44 of Ming Dynasty (1616 AD), Nurhachi ascended the throne and established the reigning dynasty as Dajin in Hetuala. In the first year Tianming of the Dynasty, all Baylors and ministers submitted to the emperor the honorific title of Wise Emperor, and Xingjing was appointed as the capital. From then on, Hetuala Old City became the first capital of Later Jin – Qing Dynasty, namely Xingjing City.   

    Meanwhile, on foreign policies, Nurhachi feasted Korean envoys for cordial relations and align with Mongolia through intermarriage for many times, and Nurhachi sent out to the Capital of Ming Dynasty for tributes to show his respect and submission for several times; on construction of regime, there were ministers assisting in state affairs, the talent recommendation system, the Eight Banners System, and the law on soldiers hunting; on economy, the system of Niulu troops opening up wasteland was carried out and people were encouraged to plant cotton and weave cotton cloth and to rear silkworms and reel silk and woven satin and to exploit mines and smelt iron. In the inner city, a bow and arrow manufacturing field was established outside the south gate, a armor manufacturing field was set up outside the north gate, and granaries were located outside the east gate, and there was a platform for appointing commanders and a military drill ground outside of northwest of the outer city. On military, Hadda was surrendered, Wula was wiped out, Huifa was annexed, Yehe was perished, four tribes of Hulun were united, and Donghai Jurchen was captured; Nurhachi proclaimed “Seven Hatreds” to send a punitive expedition against Ming Dynasty and conquered Fushun and got Li Yongfang surrendered; in March of Tianming 4 (Wanli 47 of Ming Dynasty, 1619), in Battle of Sarhu, three forces of Ming Dynasty were defeated utterly and Korean military that aided Ming Army was forced to surrender. The battle concentrated superiority in force and defeated the enemy forces one by one with a force inferior in number, and it is also a turning point where Nurhachi’s political and military policy to Ming Dynasty turned from pretending to be deferential and developing itself secretly to resorting to arms to Ming and seizing the political power.

    Hetuala Old City played an important role in the historical development of Qing Dynasty. Nurhachi ascended the throne and founded Later Jin which became a great power and he waged lots of territory annexation wars. In 1636 of Huangtaiji period, Later Jin was changed to Qing Dynasty and Manchu Eight Banners, Mongolian Eight Banners and Han Eight Banners were established, which fully prepared in politics, military, culture and talented people for entering and hosting Central China. And the great cause of reunification of Qing Empire was accomplished finally,which is a new round of northern ethic groups’ entering and hosting Central China and building an empire after Qin and Han Empires as well as repeat of a trilogy from Ancient Nation to Fang Nation to Empire. Moreover, it only took Manchu over thirty years to basically accomplish the transition from the culture of fishing and hunting to agricultural culture and from slavery to feudalism, and Manchu developed from a scattered and backward nationality to a national community with its own regime, system, army and words.

    On construction system and techniques, Hetuala Old City not only inherited the tradition of city building of ancient China but also had its own originality, which greatly influenced the capital building of Qing Dynasty afterwards and even was inherited and developed by later generations.

 

    According to Li Minhuan’s Heard and Seen from Jianzhou, “Long kangs were built against four inner walls, no covers or partitions”. At west, south and north sides of Khan’s Bedchamber, there are all long kangs (called ∏-shape kang) and there is a tablet for making offerings to the spirits at the west gable; in Qingning Palace of the Imperial Palace in Shenyang, there are also ∏-shape kangs and right in the middle of the west gable there is also a spirit tablet for making offerings to the spirits, and Shaman worship ceremony is held there. In Shunzhi 12 (1655), a building with one bright room and four dark rooms with the door opening in the middle in Kunning Palace of Ming Dynasty was changed to a pocket-like house with the door opening in the first room at the east side; at the entrance, there is the kitchen range, and the second east room is used as the bedchamber, the west three rooms are used as a hall for worshipping the spirits, and there are kangs along the south, north and west walls; and its construction form and style all continued Hetuala Old City and the Imperial Palace in Shenyang.

    Manchu always believes in Shamanism which deems animism and immortality of soul, so they would hold heaven-worshipping ceremonies whenever there were great events or the Spring Festivals. A Shamanic temple was built outside of the southeast gate of Hetuala outer city for heaven-worshipping ceremonies. Nurhachi would hold a heaven-worshipping ceremony before he dispatched troops every time and prayed for blessing from the ancestors and the gods of heaven and earth and proclaimed the reasons of dispatching troops and declared military disciplines. From then on, they moved the capital to Liaoyang, Shenyang and then Beijing, they built Shamanic temples after every movement, and there were also Shamanic temples built in the temporary imperial palaces at Jiefan and Sarhu for short stays, and all these are the inheritance of Shamanic temples in Hetuala City.

    Manchu, formed in the end of the 17th century, is a new national community with Jianzhou Jurchens and Haixi Jurchens with the main part. During the historical development, Manchus not only devoted glorious historical achievements to the Chinese nation but also widely adopted good qualities of other ethnic groups and formed their own unique folk culture, which enriched the culture treasury of the Chinese nation. As the progress of history and human society goes on, some folkways have been preserved, but some have disappeared (died out) or are disappearing (dying out) and finally they are replaced by contemporary civilization. In Hetuala Old City, a typical residential courtyard with characteristics of the middle and late Qing Dynasty has been preserved, from which we can get a general understanding of Manchu folk features.

    The courtyard has a principal house with three rooms, with the bright room (right in the middle) opening a door and as the kitchen with four kitchen rages; the first east room and the first west room are two separate pocket-like houses and the elders live in the first west room, with ∏-shape kangs built inside and wooden cabinets on the turnings of kangs and worship ceremony wares, duster vases, hat-stand vases on the cabinets, and boards and long tables for worshiping forefathers are in the center of the gable (hanging pictures).

    In the courtyard, there are Pocket-like houses and ∏-shape kangs, shrines for ancestral tablets, a pole for worshipping ancestors, and you can find the traces of “window paper outside, girls smoking with long-stemmed tobacco pipes, and raising children in lifted cradles.”, and you can also enjoy the beautiful scenery as described in “Chimneys standing upright against the wall like two towers; whenever wisps of smoke rose from the village chimneys and diffused, looking from distance, it looks like palaces appearing indistinctly in the clouds ” (SHENGU Volume 2).

Hetuala Old City, as the last mountain capital in Chinese History, is a typical example of “building villages near the mountains and cities with fences” of all Jurchen tribes and also is the only site of an ancient city well preserved among numerous Jurchen mountain cities till now. It not only has high value in the study of ancient Chinese construction methods and the development history of buildings but also has great value in the study of the development history and residence history of Jurchen.