Chang'an

Capital of the Han dynasty and one of the great cities of the ancient world. Here Dong Zhongshu advised the emperor and built the Confucian synthesis that shaped Chinese thought for two thousand years.

Chang'an was laid out on a grid inside walls enclosing more ground than any other city of its time, its wards locked at night by drum signal. Dong Zhongshu served the Han court there and argued for a state staffed by Confucian learning, with an academy to train officials and an examination to choose them. He also held that heaven comments on government through disasters, an idea that gave scholars leverage over emperors and very nearly got him executed once he applied it.