中山门是南京明城墙的十三座城门之一，原名朝阳门，因其位于南京城东，最先迎接太阳。1366年朱元璋向东北两面拓展南京城时修建此门。当时城门为单孔券门，门外还有一道。此门是瓮城连接城内的宫城和城外的明孝陵的通道，太平天国和曾国藩的湘军曾经多次在此激战。辛亥革命时江浙联军也是从这里进攻南京城。民国时，因迎奉中山先生灵柩归葬中山陵，国民政府将门洞狭小的朝阳门拆除，挖低门基，改筑为三孔券门。1928年7月，国民政府将七处城门改名，并加以整修，其中朝阳门即改名为中山门，并沿用至今。

　　As one of the thirteen city-gates of the city-wall built in the Ming dynasty in Nanjing, it was originally named Chaoyang (facing the sun) City-Gate, since it meets the sunshine first due to its location in eastern Nanjing. In 1366, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, had this city-gate constructed when Nanjing was then being expanded eastward and northward. At that time, this city-gate was of a single arch, with another one outside it. It was the passage linking the doli-formed city with the palace-city inside the city and the Ming Tomb outside the city. For several times, troops of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fought fiercely here against Zeng Guofan's troops from Hunan province. During the Revolution of 1911, allied forces of Jiangsu province and Zhejiang province also attacked Nanjing from this city-gate. In the period of the Republic of China, in order to meet the coffin of Dr. Sun Yat-sen to be buried in his mausoleum, the nationalist government dismantled Chaoyang City-Gate with a narrow and small arch, dug deeply into the gate-base and turned it into a three-arch gate. In July 1928, the nationalist government renamed seven city-gates and renovated them, among which Chaoyang City-Gate was changed into Zhongshan City-Gate, a name still used so far.曹建新 译