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Tang liangjing chengfang kao 唐兩京城坊考 is a book about the two capital cities of the Tang dynasty 唐 (618-907), Chang'an 長安 (today’s Xi'an 西安, Shaanxi), and Luoyang 洛陽 (in Henan province). It was compiled by Xu Song 徐松 (born 1780), courtesy name Xingbo 星伯, from Daxing 大興, Jiangsu. He began work on it in 1809, drawing from sources he used while compiling the complete prose writings of the Tang period, Quantangwen 全唐文. These sources included rare ones, such as the local gazetteer Henan zhi 河南志, which only survived as a quotation in the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) encyclopaedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典. The book, with a length of 5 juan and with 10 illustrations, was completed in 1848. Zhang Mu 張穆 (1805-1849) added critical notes and additional contributions.
It is an important work for the study of ancient Chinese capitals and the development of their architectural and urban planning systems. Its most notable feature is its substantial documentary value through citing over 400 Sources. The book emphasises the reconstruction of the layout of the capitals and their buildings. carefully producing multiple overall plan diagrams. At the time, accomplishing this was a considerable challenge.
The first four fascicles focus on the "Western Capital" (Xijing 西京), Chang'an. The author describes the imperial palace (gongcheng 宮城), the imperial city (huangcheng 皇城), the Daming Palace 大明宮, the Xingqing Palace 興慶宮, and the three gardens (sanyuan 三苑), detailing their historical development, structural forms, scale, unit composition, functions, and names. The work extensively draws on a wide range of sources to provide thorough explanations. Juan 2 through 4 introduces the Outer City (waicheng 外城) of the Western Capital, offering a relatively detailed description and record of the streets, temples, wards, residences, gates, shrines, courtyards, and monasteries of Chang'an. It covers their historical development, architectural scale, and related information. Fascicle 4 focuses on the Longshou Canal 龍首渠, the Huang Canal 黄渠, the Yong'an Canal 永安渠, the Qingming Canal 清明渠, and the Cao Canal 漕渠, providing details on their construction dates, lengths, courses, areas they pass through, and branch canals. The work cites a substantial number of sources.
The last fascicle covers the "Eastern Capital" (Dongjing 東京), Luoyang. Its individual chapters include the Imperial Palace, the Imperial City, the Eastern City (Dongcheng 東城), the Shangyang Palace 上陽宮, the Shendu Park 神都苑, he Outer City (wai guocheng 外郭城), the Luoqü Canal 雒渠, the Tongji Canal 通濟渠, the Tongjin Canal 通津渠, the Yun Canal 運渠, the Cao Canal, the Gu Canal 穀渠, the Chan Canal 瀍渠, the Xiecheng Canal 洩城渠, and the Xiekou Canal 寫口渠. The author dedicates considerable attention to recording the historical development of these structures, changes in their names, their scale and extent, the arrangement of streets, temples, and wards, and their spatial layout.
Xu's book is not only a valuable resource for studying classical Chinese architectural art, but it also holds significant historical and documentary importance for research on ancient capital culture, history, geography, customs, and administrative systems.
Two years after the publication, in 1850, Cheng Hongzhao 程鴻詔 compiled a single juan titled Tang liangjing chengfang kao jiaobu ji 唐兩京城坊考校補記, which effectively marked the first scholarly engagement with the work.
The text is included in the series Lianyunyi congshu 連筠簃叢書. In 1988, the book was included in the series Zhongguo gudai ducheng ziliao xuankan 中國古代都城資料選刊.