Visualizing Everyday Life in the City: A Categorization System for Residential Wards in Tang Chang’an

Chang’an, the capital of the Tang Empire, was built from scratch in 582 CE. Its layout became the paradigm for many East Asian cities. Its residential wards have not been closely studied. Heng Chye Kiang’sVisualizing Everyday Life in the City: A Categorization System for Residential Wards in Tang Chang’an builds on the author’s research on the structure of a typical ward, its parcellation of residential land, residential density, the layout of houses, and a digital reconstruction of Yongning ward based on the theoretical framework the author established. The current study proposes that Chang’an’s wards be categorized according to their form, size, and content to construct a framework that offers a better understanding of their sociospatial complexity. After establishing a system of categorization, the author chose three representative wards—Taiping, Liquan, and Pingkang—for digital reconstruction, taking into account the road networks, estimated population density, size of residential plots, and type of residential compound, according to their owners’ social status, as found in historical records.