Arts, East Asian, Architecture

The Sui capital, Ta-hsing, was designed in 583 on Imperial order by the great architect Yü-wen K'ai; renamed Ch'ang-an, it was further developed by the T'ang after 618. This vast city, six times the size of present-day Sian, was laid out in nine months on a grid plan, with eastern and western markets and the Imperial City placed in the central northern section, a plan later followed at Peking.