Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, is an important center of science and education in China. Since ancient times, it has been a city that values culture and education. It is known as the "cultural hub of the world" and "the first school in Southeast China". During the Ming and Qing dynasties, more than half of China's top scorers were from Nanjing Jiangnan Gongyuan.
Zhonghua Gate is one of the thirteen Ming Dynasty city gates on the Nanjing Ming City Wall, formerly known as Jubao Gate. It is located at the southern end of Zhonghua Road in Qinhuai District, Nanjing City, facing south. It is the largest existing city gate in China and an outstanding representative of ancient defensive architecture. It holds an important position in the history of world city wall architecture and is also the most well preserved, complex structure, and largest fortress city in the world. It is known as the "world's largest urn city". The Zhonghua Gate has a strict layout and unique structure, which is an important physical material for studying ancient Chinese military facilities. It holds an important position in military, historical, cultural, and urban construction history. The inscriptions on the city bricks of the Ming Dynasty city walls in Nanjing have left rich cultural information and precious historical materials for future generations, some of which have filled the gaps in historical materials. To further study the distribution of Nanjing city brick production areas; Simplified and variant Chinese characters in the early Ming Dynasty; Chinese folk calligraphy and seal cutting art; The evolution of Chinese surname culture in the early Ming Dynasty and the implementation of the responsibility system provide detailed first-hand information. Through the study of the inscriptions on city bricks, it can be found that many city bricks were fired before the Ming Dynasty and a certain number of Qing Dynasty city bricks were fired after the Ming Dynasty to repair the city walls, providing physical evidence for understanding the development and changes of Nanjing's city walls.