What Luoyang Was Like in the Han and Jin Dynasties Imagined by the Luoyang People in the Northern Wei Period: Space, Historical Site, and Memory

Abstract

The overlapping capital spaces of Luoyang in the Northern Wei period and its predecessor in the Han and Jin dynasties created an environment where residents developed rich imaginations about the historical sites, figures, and events during the Han and Jin dynasties within the same physical locations. This imaginative layer cultivated a distinctive urban sentiment that, on an atmospheric level, shaped a sense of continuity between the Tuoba regime and the Han-Jin states. The account of the hermit Zhao Yi and his identification of historical sites, recorded in the Record of the Monasteries of Luoyang, occurred against this backdrop. However, Luoyang in the Northern Wei period also exhibited clear differences from its predecessor in the Han and Jin dynasties. Beyond the well-known abundance of temples, pagodas, and precincts, a notable distinction lies in the absence of bronze casting installations. During the Han and Jin dynasties, bronze casting installations such as the bronze generals, bronze camels, bronze horses, and bronze feilian formed part of a continuous decorative tradition from Chang’an to Luoyang. After the Disaster of Yongjia, many of these bronze casting installations were relocated, and the Northern Wei court, upon moving its capital to Luoyang, did not attempt to restore them through recasting on their original sites.

Keywords

Northern Wei / Han and Jin dynasties / Luoyang / historical site / memory

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Higher Education Press