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Daomaguan. Daomaguan was one of the three inner passes. It is located 60 kilometers to the northwest of Tang County, Hebei Province, and about 17.5 kilometers to the south of the Great Wall. It was called ‘Hongshangguan’ in the Warring States Period and ‘Changshanguan’ in the Han Dynasty. It is said that the steed of Yang Liulang—a famous commander in the Northern Song Dynasty who gained great battle achievements in fighting back Jin—once slipped down there. Later people named the place ‘Daomaguan’ (the horse-slip-down pass) in memory of Yang Liulang and his achievements in guarding the three passes. In 1520 a white marble ‘Liulang Tablet’ was carved out and set up on the Stable Mountain 3 kilometers to the west of the pass city. The tablet is 1.8 meters high and 60 centimeters wide.
In the Ming Dynasty Daomaguan was divided into the Upper and Lower cities. The former was built in the first year of the Hong Wu Period, and later was called ‘Shangchengkou’ (the upper city pass). The city has been totally destroyed. The latter is today’s Daomaguan city. In 1452 because the upper city was too narrow to be used by the government army，another city was built 1 kilometer in the south of the city, called the lower pass. Today in the township government of Daomaguan, there is still kept a medially broken white marble tablet, called ‘the tablet of Daomaguan’s construction’. The tablet recorded the construction in 1465. So we can infer that Daomaguan was first constructed in 1452, and was massively rebuilt in 1465.
The perimeter of Daomaguan is 2.5 kilometers. The rampart is 6 meters wide at the bottom, 4 meters wide on the top, and the height is about 10 meters. Rammed loess was used inside the rampart and bricks outside. There are the eastern, western and northern city gates. Daomaguan was a crucial pass on the defensive line of the inner Great Wall, having been played an important role in keeping back the Mongolian troops. It was embraced by mountains and streams, half of it lying in the valley and half on the mountain. The Tang River is running around it to the west, north and east, and forms a natural barrier.
