Download ebook FREE - Allemandi
Download ebook FREE - Allemandi
Download ebook FREE - Allemandi
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Fig. 1.<br />
The virtual recovery<br />
view of Daming Palace<br />
(635 AD); from www.<br />
damingpalace.com.<br />
Communication with the Relics in Oblivion:<br />
Studying the Musealization of “Daming<br />
Palace Open-air Museum” in China<br />
xianya xU, Politecnico di Milano<br />
In 904 AD, a tremendous war destroyed one of the most glorious<br />
royal palaces in the history of China, the Daming Palace (635 AD).<br />
During the following thousand years, it had been demolished and<br />
forgotten. When the archaeologists discovered the relic in the centre<br />
of Xi’an, in 1957, only pieces of loam walls left. Citizens didn’t notice<br />
that they were building their homes upon the royal palace, until<br />
they were restricted to do more constructions upon their lands. At<br />
that moment, the development of the area was delayed for reasons.<br />
On the one hand, due to the inadequate technology and academic<br />
knowledge on preservation, government hesitated to inaugurate the<br />
reservation project. On the other hand, the citizen who lived on<br />
this precious land hardly appreciated the value of these relics under<br />
their feet, they took those ruins as the barriers to impede their<br />
life improvement. The controversy between the preservation and<br />
citizen livings had been lasted for fifty years, till 2007 the project of<br />
musealization started. Now there stands an open-air museum with<br />
materialized culture treasure as well as a central park for the city,<br />
coving 32 hectors.<br />
Daming Palace was built in Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), which<br />
is the climax era in the history of China (fig. 1). It represents the<br />
peak intelligence of that period. At that time, Xi’an area was named<br />
“Tang Chang’an”, and the population reached to 500,000. There<br />
were three palaces in that city at the moment: Taiji Palace (583<br />
AD), Daming Palace (625 AD), and Xinqing Palace (714 AD).<br />
Daming Palace was the most enormous and important among these<br />
three, it stood for the political heart of Tang Dynast, even the spirit<br />
of entire country. The Daming Palace was started in the spring of<br />
635 AD, by the second empire of Tang Dynast, Li Shimin (599-<br />
649 AD). In 626 AD, Li Shimin seized the throne by murdering<br />
his brothers and threatening his father empire, therefore, in the following<br />
years Li Shimin constantly felt guilty to his father Li Yuan<br />
(566-635 AD). He inaugurated the Daming Palace to the north<br />
115