Sui and Tang Dynasties unified China, and the capital moved north. It was not until the demise of the Tang Dynasty 350 years later that China was divided again. Nanjing, the capital of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, was renamed "jiangning house". Southern Tang Dynasty was the most powerful country among the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The imperial city in the southern Tang Dynasty moved down, and its scale was much larger than that of Jiankang City. Jiangning City in the Southern Tang Dynasty opened four gates, the South Gate (Jubaomen) is now Zhonghua Gate, the West Gate was changed to Shichengmen in the Ming Dynasty, and the North Gate (Xuanwu Gate) is located at the intersection of Zhujiang Road and Beimen Bridge. However, the "Xuanwu Gate" we saw by Xuanwu Lake was not the Xuanwu Gate in jiangning house in the Southern Tang Dynasty, nor the gate of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty, but the later gate. Xuanwu Gate is an ancient god beast. The north gate of an ancient palace or ancient city is usually called "Xuanwu Gate" (including Shenwumen in the Forbidden City in Beijing, which was also called Xuanwu Gate in the past).

The newly-built palace (Nantang Palace) in the north of Jiangning is missing. Now Hongwu South Road and Zhonghua Road are the central axis (Imperial Street) from Nantang Palace to South Gate at that time.