Chinese fortification: an overview of parts and terminology — Part 2: Gate and moat

UPDATED JUNE 10, 2024

2. The gate

The second part of this series will provide an overview on various components of Chinese gate, as well as their names. As before, italicised names are likely modern terminology.

2.1 Cheng Men (城門, lit. 'Wall gate')

As with all fortifications around the world, the gate is the most vulnerable—and often the most heavily fortified—part of a Chinese city. The Chinese term Cheng Men can refer to both the gate door itself, as well as the gatehouse securing the entrance. For clarity's sake I will separate gatehouse, gateway tunnel, and gate doors into three sections.

Gatehouse

Zhonghua Gatehouse of the city wall of Nanjing.

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Chinese fortification: an overview of parts and terminology — Part 1: The wall

UPDATED JUNE 10, 2024, minor update JULY 9, 2025

A recent discussion in the comment section of my previous blog post has sparked my interest in learning more about Chinese fortification (that and marathoning Castles! YouTube video series). To my surprise, despite having some of the most well-known fortifications in the world such as the Great Wall of China, Chinese fortification is very little studied and understood, and researching for information proved more difficult than my anticipation due to various reasons. Chief among the reasons is the large-scale movement to demolish old city walls in the 1920 to 1950s as China tried to modernise (in fact there are only three places with authentic and relatively intact major city walls: Pingyao, Jingzhou, and some parts of Xi'an), meaning that many historical sites, along with the knowledge about their designs, were wiped out. Modern historians also tend to overlook military history, so many design features on the surviving walls are either misunderstood, misnamed, or forgotten altogether. It doesn't help that many available information are diluted for tourist consumption, and tour guides certainly don't make good historians!

Overview

For most of its long history, China was ruled by a centralised bureaucratic government and had a highly nationalised military establishment. As China's centralised government could mobilise more resources and form cohesive defence strategy on a grand scale, Chinese fortification strategy focused on building up an interconnected network of fortified settlements, military fortresses, outposts, chokepoints, postal/relay stations, watchtowers, and most importantly, the Great Wall. As such, Chinese people generally did not build fortified private residence in the manner of European medieval castle (barring a few notable exceptions, such as the late Ming-high Qing period House of the Huangcheng Chancellor), and the state would've actively discourage such practise.

Due to the emphasis on protecting the settlement, fortified wall became the centrepiece of Chinese fortification. A wall was the last line of defence against the attackers, and very often the first line as well. Thus it is no surprise that Chinese people became the world's greatest wall builders. Virtually all cities and towns in China, as well as a significant numbers of villages, were walled. In contrast, Chinese fortification layout tend to be very simple. The vast majority of Chinese walled cities were nothing more than settlements surrounded by a wall and a moat, with the main city gate almost always placed facing the south.

Parts of a Chinese fortification

Basic layout of a Chinese city gate, from 'Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》)'.

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Bastion and Star Fort

Drawing of a simple star fort, from 'Shou Wei Quan Shu (《守圍全書》)'.

Star fort or trace italienne was one of the great inventions that truly put the Europeans ahead from the rest of the world militarily. Star fort, along with sailing ship and great cannon, were what make the colonial era possible, as it allowed the Europeans to hold and defend occupied territory with relatively few manpower.

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