The archaeoastronomy and feng shui of Xanadu: Kublai Khan’s imperial Mongolian capital

ABSTRACT

Xanadu was Kublai Khan’s imperial summer capital during the Yuan dynasty (ad 1271–ad 1368). In this article I show how Xanadu was designed in accordance with feng-shui principles that brought the site into harmony with visible and invisible forces of earth, sky, and water. New data presented here show that one way Xanadu was brought into feng-shui harmony was through multiple celestial alignments.

KEYWORDS:

• Archaeoastronomy
• feng-shui
• Kublai Khan
• Xanadu
• Mongolia

Acknowledgements

Crossing from China into Inner Mongolia in November was a bit of a challenge. For safely getting me through the snow-covered passes of the Yanshan Mountains my sincere thanks to Mr Liu Bao Jun. What an adventure! Many thanks also to Mr Yang Zheng for his translation skills, for answering my many questions, and finding great roadhouses for our meals. Special thanks to the staff at the Xanadu Site Museum for literally unlocking the gates into Xanadu for me; and in particular, thanks to Mr Mang Lai for showing me the Xanadu treasures. For taking me around Xanadu I owe a huge debt of thanks to my local guide Aliya Narensachula and her fiancé Zayahu. Aliya made my visit an absolute delight. Thank you all. I hope one day we will laugh again as we sip hot Mongolian tea.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I am familiar with the suggestion that the Outer City walls were built in A.D. 1290, years after the Imperial City and Palace City walls were built (PRC 2012, 2.80). For a variety of reasons (including reports that Marco Polo visited Xanadu in A.D. 1275 [PRC 2012, Table 2.10] - at which time he described the outer walls as enclosing a park that matches the dimensions of the Outer City – see below), I believe it is likely that work on the wall around A.D. 1290 refers to efforts to re-enforce and strengthen the outer walls against flooding. Xanadu was flooded on multiple occasions. As a result, massive flood mitigation projects were undertaken including construction of the Tiefan’gan Canal in A.D. 1298. This was a massive canal, dike, and dam system immediately northwest of the city. Very likely, strengthening the city walls would have been part of this infrastructure improvement.

In any case, even if the outer walls were built years after the Palace City and Imperial City walls, if the design principles originally established for the site by Liu Ping-chung were followed and/or expanded upon, the end result would appear as an integrated design. Either way, date of wall construction does not impact the astronomic and geometric findings proposed herein.

2. Marco Polo describes Xanadu as enclosing 16 “miles” of land (Latham 1958, 108). Presuming that translation is inaccurate and that the correct translation should read 16 ‘li’; and using the length of the Song li (PRC 2012, note 37), calculations reveal that Marco Polo’s description is in agreement with the actual dimensions of the site. This point is made in the PRC (2012:3.23) nomination document; and is verified as follows. Measurement using the Google Earth measurement tool shows that the Xanadu Outer City walls are 2,200 meters in length, measured from crest to crest. If this distance is divided by four, the result is 550 meters – equal to the Song li. From this it follows that the 2,200-meter Outer City square contains 16, 1-li squares. Thus the area of Xanadu is 16 square li – not 16 miles.

3. The idea that dragon Qi is found in mountains (and rivers) may have its genesis in findings of major fossil beds yielding hundreds of fossilized dinosaur bones in China and Mongolia (see e.g., Mayor 2011).

At another level of understanding, however, Chinese dragons can be thought of as metaphors for the hydrologic cycle (Brook 2010; Skinner 2006, 76). Mountain dragons are found in the mountains. When they rise into the sky they are seen as clouds and mist. In their celestial form dragons bring rain that flows into rivers, giving rise to river dragons. Rivers carve the landscape into mountains and valleys where mountain dragons live. As the wind (feng) carries aloft evaporating water (shui) from rivers, celestial cloud dragons are born - thus the cycle continues. Some dragons are beneficial – for example, those that bring rain; others are harmful as in those that bring floods and storms. Ascending dragons are yang; descending dragons are yin. Feng shui literature includes manuals devoted to identifying and controlling water dragons and mountain dragons – e.g., the Qing dynasty, Water Dragon Classic (Skinner 2016a) and Mountain Dragon Classic (Skinner 2016b).

4. According to the Five Elements Theory the universe is comprised of five elements – namely, fire, earth, wood, metal, and water. All things are influenced by the interaction of these elements. But this is an oversimplification. The five elements are perhaps better understood as energy states or phases of matter that have been given simple elemental names that people can relate to. The interaction between these energy phases results in cycles of productive or destructive movement. Each phase generates the succeeding phase. For example, Metal produces Water because metal can turn into a liquid. Water helps Wood to grow. Burning Wood produces Fire. The residue of Fire produces Earth. Earth is the source of Metal (Sang 1994, Figure 3.4). In the opposite cycle Fire melts Metal, Metal pierces Wood, Wood draws from the Earth, Earth blocks Water, and Water puts out Fire (Sang 1994, Figure 3.5). This is the movement of the Tao. Applied to the luoshu, the magic square becomes a symbol of the Tao.

5. An intriguing question is why the Imperial City and Palace City luoshu squares occupy the southeast section of the Outer City square rather than being precisely located at the center of the Outer City. One possibility – suggested in the UNESCO nomination document (PRC 2012, 2–29) is that the Palace City and Imperial City were built first, with the Outer City walls constructed sometime later. In this scenario, expansion of the site to the south would have been precluded by the Xandii Gool River.

Alternatively, it may be that the southeast quadrant was favored due to the auspicious directional associations of south (fire, red, summer) and east (wood, green, spring) in terms of providing positive Qi. Moreover, if as Marco Polo states, the Outer City included a large park that served as a nature preserve and hunting grounds stocked with exotic plants and animals, that would ostensibly create a yang life Qi force in the north and northwest – which might serve as a shield against negative Qi forces carried by winds and storms from the north and northwest.

6. Emperor Wudi was the seventh emperor of the Han dynasty (206 B.C – A.D. 220). He was introduced to the sky god Taiyi by shamans in his court. Soon thereafter, Emperor Wudi elevated Taiyi to special importance in the pantheon of gods. Taiyi was believed to rule from his palace at the center of the night sky – identified with the celestial pole around which the circumpolar stars revolve. According to Swetz (2002, 48–49), “Taiyi’s prominence was further enhanced under the reign of the Han usurper Wang Mang (9 – 23 C.E.) who elevated him to the status of ‘Supreme Unity’ and worshipped him in the Mingtang.”

7. For Xanadu, solstice azimuths were calculated for A.D. 1250 using standard protocols discussed in detail elsewhere (Romain 2000, 2004, 2015). Basically the method relies on the formula:

where, A stands for the azimuth, h is the horizon elevation, φ (phi) represents the latitude of the site, and δ (delta) is the declination of the sun for the relevant year. In the present case, a horizon elevation of 1 degree corrected for refraction and lower limb tangency (the instant when the bottom of the sun touches the horizon) was used. Unfortunately I did not have a total station instrument with me at Xanadu to precisely measure horizon elevations. Nor am I able to locate an accurate 7.5-minute series map for the area that would allow me to make those calculations. I was, however, able to establish an average horizon elevation of 1 degree plus or minus ½ degree, using a handheld Suunto clinometer. The distant horizons at Xanadu have low hills in some directions; whereas other areas are nearly flat – hence I would opine that the azimuth values presented here are likely accurate to plus or minus one-half degree – depending on the direction of the sightline and consequent horizon elevation.

8. Subsequent to completing my work at Xanadu I found that researcher Amelia Carolina Sparavigna (2013) independently and earlier proposed solstice alignments for Xanadu (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275946208_A_solar_orientation_of_the_town-planning_of_Xanadu). Our methods are differ considerably. In any case, of the 14 alignments I identified, Sparavigna earlier discovered three. These are the solstice aligned sightlines extending between points 5 and 10, 11 and 6, and 11 and 10.

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William F. Romain

William F. Romain, PhD, is an archaeologist specializing in archaeoastronomy and ancient religions. He has conducted archaeoastronomy fieldwork in China, Inner Mongolia, and the United States. He is a Fellow of The Explorer’s Club and the author of several books, book chapters, and articles about prehistoric Native American earthworks and religion.