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Niangziguan. Niangziguan was an important pass of the Great Wall. It is located 45 kilometers to the northeast of Pingding County, Shānxi province. It is in the mountainous region between the Grand North China Plain and the Taiyuan Basin, and the central zone of the Taihang Range running from north to south. The Taihang Range is higher in the north. Most parts of the Range are at least 1200 meters above sea level. The east side of the Range is steep and the western much flatter. To the east there is the vast and productive Central Hebei Plain; to the west there is the Shānxi Plateau that is on the west of the Loess Plateau. The Great Wall is along the Taihang Range.
Niangziguan was formerly called ‘Weizeguan’ (the reed swamp pass). It is said that in the early days of the Tang Dynasty Princess Ping Yang— the third daughter of Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan—personally commanded women soldier to station there and set up the pass city, and henceforth the place was called Niangziguan (women soldiers pass). In 167 when Li Yuan raised troops against the Sui Regime, Ping Yang tried to recruit followers with a lot of money and the number of women soldiers rapidly increased to over 70 thousands. Later Ping Yang led tens of thousands of picked troops to Weibei where her brother Li Shimin and she joined forces and took part in the battle of besieging the Capital. After the death of this beloved daughter, Li Yuan made an exception to send a drum corps of over 40 people for her funeral. According to the rituals of the time, drums and music could not appear in a woman’s funeral, so some people argued against the Emperor. Li Yuan scolded at them, ‘The Princess could command a large number of troops. She was too much for a woman. How dare you say that?’
Niangziguan was formerly divided into the Upper Pass and the Lower Pass. The eastern part was the upper pass, on the city gate of which a stone tablet with an inscription of ‘Niangziguan’ was inlayed. The western part was the lower pass, and the stone tabled on the city gate was carved out ‘the Qin and Jin’s Barrier’. In the Jia Jing Period of the Ming Dynasty the pass was rebuilt with two city gates. The eastern gate built with bricks in arched form. The tablet hanging on the top was carved out ‘Niangziguan of Hebei Province’. Upon the rampart there was built a platform battlements. The southern gate was built with limestone in arched form, the tablet upon which was carved out ‘the Capital’s Barrier’. Upon the city platform there was built ‘the Veteran General Building’. On the stone poles of the building there were two pairs of famous couplets that read ‘Which is the greatest in the hundreds passes? People within 3000 li will all recommend this.’ and ‘ancient watch towers in the front and camps at the side; green mountains outside and clear rivers the underside’. On a wall of the veteran building there was inlayed a blue stone tablet. It records happenings in 1634 when Commander Qian Zong in the middle troops of the Dingzhou Camp directed 500 army craftsmen to construct the 3rd class brick city of Niangziguan.
