View source for Shangdu

{{Short description|Summer capital of Yuan dynasty}}
{{Other uses|Shangdu (disambiguation)|Xanadu (disambiguation){{!}}Xanadu}}
{{too many quotes|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox UNESCO World Heritage Site
|WHS         = Site of Xanadu
|Criteria    = Cultural: ii, iii, iv, vi
|ID          = 1389
|Year        = 2012
|Location    = Shangdu Town, [[Zhenglan Banner]], [[Inner Mongolia]], China
|Area        = 25,131.27 ha
|Buffer_zone = 150,721.96 ha
|Coordinates = {{coord|42|21|35|N|116|10|45|E}}
|locmapin    = China Inner Mongolia#China
|map_caption = Location of Shangdu
|image=File:Yuan Shangdu.jpg|caption=Ruins of Shangdu}}
{{Chinese
| c = {{linktext|上|都}}
| p = Shàngdū
| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|sh|ang|4|d|u|1}}
| w = Shang-tu<br />Shangtu
| l = Upper Capital
| showflag = p
}}
[[File:Xanadu on Map of Asia.JPG|thumb|Shangdu (here spelled ''Ciandu'', as [[Marco Polo]] spelled it) on the French map of Asia made by [[Sanson d'Abbeville]], geographer of King [[Louis XIV]], dated 1650. It also shows a Xandu east of Cambalu, where English maps placed it. Like some other European maps of the time, this map shows [[Cambalu]] and Pequin as two different cities, but they were in fact the same city, now called [[Beijing]]. When this map was made, Shangdu had been in ruins for almost three centuries.]]
[[File:John-Speed-The-Kingdome-of-China-1626-2544.jpg|thumb|Even though [[Matteo Ricci]] and [[Bento de Góis]] had already [[Cathay#Identifying China as Cathay|proven]] that [[Cathay]] is simply another name for China, the English cartographer [[John Speed]] in 1626 continued the tradition of showing "Cathaya, the Chief Kingdome of Great [[Khan (title)|Cam]]" to the northeast of China. On his map, he placed '''Xandu''' east of the "Cathayan metropolis" [[Khanbaliq|Cambalu]]]]

'''Shangdu''' ({{zh|c={{linktext|上|都}}|p=Shàngdū}}; <small>pronounced</small> {{IPAc-cmn|sh|ang|4|d|u|1}}; {{lit|Upper Capital}}; {{langx|mn|{{MongolUnicode|ᠱᠠᠩᠳᠤ}}}}, {{langx|mn|Шанду|Šandu|label=<small>[[Mongolian Cyrillic]]</small>}}), more popularly known as '''Xanadu''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|z|æ|n|ə|d|uː}} {{respell|ZAN|ə|doo}}), was the [[summer capital]]<ref>{{cite book|first=Masuya |last=Tomoko |chapter=Seasonal capitals with permanent buildings in the Mongol empire |editor-last=Durand-Guédy |editor-first=David |title=Turko-Mongol Rulers, Cities and City Life |location=Leiden |year=2013 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |page=239}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Christopher P. |last=Atwood |title=Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire |publisher=Facts on File |date=2004 |page=605}}</ref> of the [[Yuan dynasty]] of China before [[Kublai Khan|Kublai]] moved his throne to the former [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)|Jin dynasty]] [[Historical capitals of China|capital]] of Zhōngdū ({{zh|c={{linktext|中|都}}|l=Middle Capital|links=no}}) which was renamed [[Khanbaliq]] ([[History of Beijing|present-day]] [[Beijing]]). Shangdu is located in the present-day [[Zhenglan Banner]], [[Inner Mongolia]]. In June 2012, it was made a [[World Heritage Site]] for its historical importance and for the unique blending of Mongolian and Chinese culture.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/898 |title=Xanadu (China), Bassari Country (Senegal) and Grand Bassam (Côte d'Ivoire) added to UNESCO's World Heritage List |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415190445/https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/898 |archive-date=April 15, 2016}}</ref> 

[[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] traveller [[Marco Polo]] described Shangdu to Europeans after visiting it in 1275. It was conquered in 1369 by the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] army under [[Chang Yuchun]]. Historical accounts of the city inspired the famous poem ''[[Kubla Khan]]'', written by English [[Romanticism|Romantic]] poet [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] in 1797.

== History ==

Shangdu was located in what is now Shangdu Town, Zhenglan Banner, [[Inner Mongolia]], {{convert|350|km|mi}} north of Beijing. It is about {{convert|28|km|mi}} northwest of the modern town of [[Dolon Nor|Duolun]]. The layout of the capital is roughly square shaped with sides of about {{Convert|2.2|km|abbr=on}}. It consists of an "outer city", and an "inner city" in the southeast of the capital which has also roughly a square layout with sides about {{Convert|1.4|km|abbr=on}}, and the palace, where Kublai Khan stayed in summer. The palace has sides of roughly {{Convert|550|m|abbr=on}}, covering an area of around 40% the size of the [[Forbidden City]] in Beijing. The most visible modern-day remnants are the earthen walls though there is also a ground-level, circular brick platform in the centre of the inner enclosure.

The city, originally named ''Kaiping'' ({{zh |s=开平 |t=[[wikt:開平|開平]] |p=Kāipíng |l=open and flat |labels=no }}), was designed by Chinese architect [[Liu Bingzhong]] from 1252 to 1256,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://etcweb.princeton.edu/asianart/timeperiod_china.jsp?ctry=China&pd=Yuan |title=Yuan dynasty |publisher=[[Princeton University Art Museum]]}}</ref> and Liu implemented a "profoundly Chinese scheme for the city's architecture".<ref>{{cite book |title=Chinese imperial city planning |first=Nancy |last=Shatzman Steinhardt |publisher=[[University of Hawaii Press]] |year=1999 |page=153 |isbn=0-8248-2196-3 |quote=Liu Bingzhong implemented a preconceived and profoundly Chinese scheme for the city's architecture.}}</ref> In 1264 it was renamed Shangdu by Kublai Khan. At its zenith, over 100,000 people lived within its walls. In 1369 Shangdu was occupied by the [[Ming dynasty|Ming army]], put to the torch and its name reverted to Kaiping. The last reigning [[Khagan|Khan]] [[Toghun Temür]] fled the city, which was abandoned for several hundred years.<ref name="man">{{cite book|last=Man |first=John |title=Kublai Khan: From Xanadu to Superpower |year=2006 |publisher=[[Bantam Books]] |location=London |isbn=9780553817188 |pages=104–119}}</ref>

In 1872, Steven Bushell, affiliated with the British Legation in Beijing, visited the site and reported that remains of temples, blocks of marble, and tiles were still to be found there. By the 1990s, all these artifacts were completely gone, most likely collected by the inhabitants of the nearby town of [[Dolon Nor]] to construct their houses. The artwork is still seen in the walls of some Dolon Nor buildings.<ref name="man"/>

Today, only ruins remain, surrounded by a grassy mound that was once the city walls. Since 2002, a restoration effort has been undertaken.<ref name="man"/>

==Astronomy==

In 2006, the [[International Astronomical Union]] (IAU) gave a continent-sized area of [[Saturn]]'s moon [[Titan (moon)|Titan]] the name [[Xanadu (Titan)|Xanadu]], referring to Coleridge's poem.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/6958 |title=Planetary Names: Albedo Feature: Xanadu on Titan |publisher=[[IAU]]}}</ref> Xanadu raised considerable interest in scientists after its radar image showed its terrain to be quite similar to earth's terrain with flowing rivers (probably of methane and ethane, not of water as they are on Earth), mountains (of ice, not conventional rock) and sand dunes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20060719.html |title=Cassini Reveals Titan's Xanadu Region to Be an Earth-Like Land |publisher=[[NASA]]}}</ref>

== Literary descriptions ==

=== Marco Polo ===

The Venetian explorer [[Marco Polo]] is widely believed to have visited Shangdu in about 1275. In about 1298–99, he dictated the following account:

{{Blockquote|And when you have ridden three days from the city last mentioned, [[points of the compass|between north-east and north]], you come to a city called Chandu, which was built by the Khan now reigning. There is at this place a very fine marble palace, the rooms of which are all [[gilding|gilt]] and painted with figures of men and beasts and birds, and with a variety of trees and flowers, all executed with such exquisite art that you regard them with delight and astonishment.

Round this Palace a wall is built, [[wiktionary:inclose|inclosing]] a [[wiktionary:encompass|compass]] of 16 miles, and
inside the Park there are fountains and rivers and brooks, and beautiful
meadows, with all kinds of wild animals (excluding such as are of
ferocious nature), which the Emperor has procured and placed there to
supply food for his [[gyrfalcon|gerfalcons]] and hawks, which he keeps there in mew.<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Mew |volume=18}}</ref> Of
these there are more than 200 gerfalcons alone, without reckoning the
other hawks. The Khan himself goes every week to see his birds sitting in
mew, and sometimes he rides through the park with a leopard behind him on
his horse's [[rump (animal)|croup]]; and then if he sees any animal that takes his fancy, he
slips his leopard at it, and the game when taken is made over to
feed the hawks in mew. This he does for [[Sport#Etymology|diversion]].

Moreover at a spot in the Park where there is a charming wood he has
another Palace built of [[wicker|cane]], of which I must give you a description. It
is gilt all over, and most elaborately finished inside. It is [[wiktionary:stay#Etymology 2|stayed]] on
gilt and [[lacquerware|lacquered]] columns, on each of which is a dragon all gilt, the tail
of which is attached to the column whilst the head supports the
[[architrave]], and the claws likewise are stretched out right and left to
support the architrave. The roof, like the rest, is formed of canes,
covered with a [[varnish]] so strong and excellent that no amount of rain will
rot them. These canes are a good 3 [[palm (unit)|palms]] in girth, and from 10 to 15 [[pace (unit)|paces]]
in length. They are cut across at each knot, and then the pieces are
split so as to form from each two hollow tiles, and with these the house
is roofed; only every such tile of cane has to be nailed down to prevent
the wind from lifting it. In short, the whole Palace is built of these
canes, which I may mention serve also for a great variety of other
useful purposes. The construction of the Palace is so devised that it can
be taken down and put up again with great [[wiktionary:celerity|celerity]]; and it can all be
taken to pieces and removed whithersoever the Emperor may command. When
erected, it is braced against mishaps from the wind by more than 200
cords of silk.

The Khan abides at this Park of his, dwelling sometimes in the Marble
Palace and sometimes in the Cane Palace for three months of the year, to
wit, June, July and August; preferring this residence because it is by no
means hot; in fact it is a very cool place. When the 28th day of [the Moon
of] August arrives he takes his departure, and the Cane Palace is taken to
pieces. But I must tell you what happens when he goes away from
this Palace every year on the 28th of the August [Moon]..."<ref>{{cite book |last=Polo |first=Marco |author-link=Marco Polo |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Travels_of_Marco_Polo |title=The Travels of Marco Polo |volume=1 |translator-last=Yule |translator-first=Henry |chapter=Chapter 61: Of the City of Chandu, and the Kaan's Palace There |chapter-url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Travels_of_Marco_Polo/Book_1/Chapter_61}}</ref>
}}

=== Toghon Temur ===

The lament of [[Toghon Temür|Toghon Temur Khan]] (the "Ukhaant Khan" or "Sage Khan"), concerning the loss of Daidu (Beijing) and Heibun Shanduu (Kaiping Xanadu) in 1368, is recorded in many Mongolian historical chronicles. The ''[[Altan Tobchi]]'' version is translated as follows:

{{poemquote|My Daidu, straight and wonderfully made of various jewels of different kinds
My Yellow Steppe of Xanadu, the summer residence of ancient Khans.
My cool and pleasant Kaiping Xanadu
My dear Daidu that I've lost on the year of the bald red rabbit
Your pleasant mist when on early mornings I ascended to the heights!
Lagan and Ibagu made it known to me, the Sage Khan.
In full knowledge I let go of dear Daidu
Nobles born foolish cared not for their state
I was left alone weeping
I became like a calf left behind on its native pastures
My eight-sided white stupa made of various precious objects.
My City of Daidu made of the nine jewels
Where I sat holding the reputation of the Great Nation
My great square City of Daidu with four gates
Where I sat holding the reputation of the Forty Tumen Mongols
My dear City of Daidu, the iron stair has been broken.
My reputation!
My precious Daidu, from where I surveyed and observed
The Mongols of every place.
My city with no winter residence to spend the winter
My summer residence of Kaiping Xanadu
My pleasant Yellow Steppe
My deadly mistake of not heeding the words of Lagan and Ibagu!
The Cane Palace had been established in sanctity
Kublai the Wise Khan spent his summers there!
I have lost Kaiping Xanadu entirely – to China.
An impure bad name has come upon the Sage Khan.
They besieged and took precious Daidu
I have lost the whole of it – to China.
A conflicting bad name has come upon the Sage Khan.
Jewel Daidu was built with many an adornment
In Kaiping Xanadu, I spent the summers in peaceful relaxation
By a hapless error they have been lost – to China.
A circling bad name has come upon the Sage Khan.
The awe-inspiring reputation carried by the Lord Khan
The dear Daidu built by the extraordinary Wise Khan (Kublai)
The bejeweled Hearth City, the revered sanctuary of the entire nation
Dear Daidu
I have lost it all – to China.
The Sage Khan, the reincarnation of all bodhisattvas,
By the destiny willed by Khan Tengri (King Heaven) has lost dear Daidu,
Lost the Golden Palace of the Wise Khan (Kublai), who is the reincarnation of all the gods,
Who is the golden seed of Genghis Khan the son of Khan Tengri (King Heaven).
I hid the Jade Seal of the Lord Khan in my sleeve and left (the city)
Fighting through a multitude of enemies, I broke through and left.
From the fighters may Buqa-Temur Chinsan for ten thousand generations
Become a Khan in the golden line of the Lord Khan.
Caught unaware I have lost dear Daidu.
When I left home, it was then that the jewel of religion and doctrine was left behind.
In the future may wise and enlightened bodhisattvas take heed and understand.
May it go around and establish itself 
On the Golden Lineage of Genghis Khan.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hicheel.com/?category_name=%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD-%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%87&paged=5 |script-title=mn:Алтан Товч |language=mn |title=Altan Tovch |trans-title=Golden Button |website=hicheel.com |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817205333/http://hicheel.com/?category_name=%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD-%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%87&paged=5 |archive-date=17 August 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

=== Samuel Purchas ===

In 1614, the English clergyman [[Samuel Purchas]] published ''Purchas his Pilgrimes – or Relations of the world and the Religions observed in all ages and places discovered, from the Creation unto this Present''. This book contained a brief description of Shangdu, based on the early description of Marco Polo:

{{blockquote|In Xandu did Cublai Can build a stately Pallace, encompassing sixteen miles of plaine ground with a wall, wherein are fertile Meddowes, pleasant Springs, delightfull streames, and all sorts of beasts of chase and game, and in the middest thereof a sumpuous house of pleasure, which may be moved from place to place.<ref name="archive.org">{{cite book |last1=Purchas |first1=Samuel |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/purchashispilgri00purc/page/415 |title=Purchas his Pilgrimage: or Relations of the world and the Religions observed in all ages and places discovered, from the Creation unto this Present |last2=Featherstone |first2=Henry |last3=Stansby |first3=William |last4=Adams |first4=John |publisher=William Stansby |year=1614 |location=London |pages=415 |language=English |chapter=Chapter XIII: Of the Religion of the Tartars, and Cathayans}}</ref>}}

In 1625 Purchas published an expanded edition of this book, recounting the voyages of famous travellers, called ''Purchas his Pilgrimes''. The eleventh volume of this book included a more detailed description of Shangdu, attributed to Marco Polo and dated 1320:

{{blockquote|This Citie is three dayes journey Northeastward to the Citie Xandu, which the Chan Cublai now reigning built; erecting therein a marvellous and artificiall Palace of Marble and other stones, which abutteth on the wall on one side, and the midst of the Citie on the other. He included sixteene miles within the circuit of the wall on that side where the Palace abutteth on the Citie wall, into which none can enter but by the Palace. In this enclosure or Parke are goodly meadows, springs, rivers, red and fallow Deere, Fawnes carrying thither for the Hawkes (of whom are three mewed above two hundred Gerfalcons which he goeth once a week to see) and he often useth one Leopard or more, sitting on Horses, which he setteth upon the Stagges and Deere, and having taken the beast, giveth it to the Gerfalcons, and in beholding this spectacle he taketh wonderful delight. In the middest in a faire wood he hath a royall House on pillars gilded and varnished, on every inch of which is a Dragon all gilt, which windeth his tayle about the pillar, which his head bearing up the loft, as also with his wings displayed on both sides; the cover also is of Reeds gilt and varnished, so that the rayne can doe it no injury; the reeds being three handfuls thick and ten yards log, split from knot to knot. The house itselfe also may be sundered, and taken downe like a Tent and erected again. For it is sustained, when it is set up, with two hundred silken cordes. Great Chan useth to dwell there three moneths in the yeare, to wit, in June, July and August.<ref>{{cite book |last=Purchas |first=Samuel |url=http://archive.org/details/hakluytusposthu25purcgoog |title=Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes |date=1625 |publisher=Glasgow, J. MacLehose and sons |edition=1906 reprint |volume=14 |page=231 |language=English |chapter=Chapter III: The first booke of Marcus Paulus Venetus, or of Master Marco Polo, a Gentleman of Venice, his Voyages}}</ref>}}

=== Samuel Taylor Coleridge ===

In 1797, according to his own account, the English poet [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] was reading about Shangdu in ''Purchas his Pilgrimes'', fell asleep, and had an opium-inspired dream. The dream caused him to begin the poem known as '[[Kubla Khan]]'. Unfortunately Coleridge's writing was interrupted by an unnamed "[[person on business from Porlock]]", causing him to forget much of the dream, but his images of Shangdu became one of the best-known poems in the English language.

Coleridge described how he wrote the poem in the preface to his collection of poems, ''Christabel, Kubla Khan, and the Pains of Sleep'', published in 1816:

{{blockquote|In the summer of the year 1797, the Author, then in ill health, had retired to a lonely farm-house between Porlock and Linton, on the Exmoor confines of Somerset and Devonshire. In consequence of a slight indisposition, an anodyne had been prescribed, from the effects of which he fell asleep in his chair at the moment that he was reading the following sentence, or words of the same substance, in 'Purchas's Pilgrimes':

{{blockquote|style=font-size:inherit|Here the Khan Kubla commanded a palace to be built, and a stately garden thereunto. And thus ten miles of fertile ground were inclosed with a wall.}}

The Author continued for about three hours in a profound sleep, at least of the external senses, during which time he has the most vivid confidence, that he could not have composed less than from two to three hundred lines; if that indeed can be called composition in which all the images rose up before him as things with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation or consciousness of effort. On awakening he appeared to himself to have a distinct recollection of the whole, and taking his pen, ink, and paper, instantly and eagerly wrote down the lines that are here preserved. "A person on business from Porlock" interrupted him and he was never able to recapture more than "some eight or ten scattered lines and images."<ref>{{cite book|first=Samuel Taylor |last=Coleridge |author-link=Samuel Taylor Coleridge |title=Christabel, Kubla Khan, and the Pains of Sleep |edition=2nd |publisher=William Bulmer |location=London |date=1816}}</ref>}}

Coleridge's poem opens similarly to Purchas's description before proceeding to a vivid description of the palace's varied pleasures:

{{poemquote|In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. (lines 1–11)<ref>{{cite book|first=Samuel Taylor |last=Coleridge |author-link=Samuel Taylor Coleridge |title=Selected Poetry |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1997 |pages=102}}</ref>}}

== See also ==

* {{anl|List of mythological places}}
* {{anl|Karakorum}}
* {{anl|Shangri-La}}
* {{anl|Shambhala}}

== References ==

{{refs}}

== External links ==

* [http://www.maplandia.com/china/nei-mongol-zizhiqu/shangdu/ Shangdu Google Satellite Map]
* [https://www.worldhistory.org/Xanadu/ Xanadu – World History Encyclopedia]
* [https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5326/ Sites of the Yuan Dynasty Upper Capital (Xanadu) and Middle Capital ] ([http://whc.unesco.org UNESCO World Heritage])

{{Yuan dynasty topics}}
{{World Heritage Sites in China}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Medieval cities]]
[[Category:Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Inner Mongolia]]
[[Category:Yuan dynasty]]
[[Category:Ancient Chinese capitals]]
[[Category:Former populated places in China]]
[[Category:World Heritage Sites in China]]
[[Category:Kublai Khan]]
[[Category:Capitals of the Mongol Empire]]