ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how Ye became a national capital and describes the layout system of the city. Cao Cao established the capital of his dynasty in the Ye city and conducted city planning according to the celestial phenomena. The Palace City lay in the northern center of Ye and its main building, a hall, was named after the god of literary prosperity. The meridian south of the Hall of Literary Prosperity and the Big Dipper was regarded as the south–north central axis of the entire Ye city. This left–right and front–rear symmetry initiated the layout of Sinic cities in the medieval period.
