A Study On The Changes Of Urban Forms And Spatial Structures In Hanzhong City (1370-1949)

This paper starts with the geographical condition of the Hanzhong（汉中）City,and introduces the geographical condition of the urban rise and development fromdifferent dimensions. In the main part, it researches on the evolution of urbanmorphology and spatial structure.Firstly, in the light of clarifying the evolution of the fortification history as well asthe plane form in the Hanzhong City for a period, it argues that the City goes throughan original build-up in Ming Dynasty, a northward expansion during the period ofEmperor Wanli, then a suburban block expansion in Qing Dynasty, finally to thestability in the Republic China period..Next, at the premise of determining the premise of city, analyses the streetpattern in and out of town in different periods,and reconstructs urban blocks,architectures and other elements. On this basis, selecting the most obvious changeof the commercial space in urban spatial structure as an object, and combining urbangeographical condition, it analyses the urban commercial development andcommercial spatial distribution in the Hanzhong City. It maintains that thecommercial space of Hanzhong experiences a process from only one urban square,with continuous development, to form a trading area out of city beyond the tall wall,and eventually to the comprehensive development in and out of city, while amongthis long process, the most important impetus is the regional entrepot trade.In the end, it differentiates the meaning of Fang（坊）, and focuses on the formand evolution of the Fang Square. In view of the continuous urban space expansionin Qing Dynasty, Fang as a kind of the spatial concept in cultural dimensions, itsformation and evolution reflect the change of urban morphology and spatialstructure on the material level.