The picture shows the ruins of the Chu Great Wall in Crooked Mountain in Ye County, provided by the Propaganda Department of the Pingdingshan Municipal Party Committee
Zhongxin Network Zhengzhou December 31 Title: Henan Ye County: The Great Wall of Chu Awakens the Sleeping "Earth Dragon"
Reporter Han Zhangyun
In the cold winter, the mountains of the Central Plains are rarely green, and on the ridge southwest of Liu Wenxiang Village in Xindian Town, YeXian County, Henan Province, a low and low earthen beam that is faintly raised is like a wrinkle of the earth, stretching for more than ten miles.
"In our local area, the villagers called it 'Earth Dragon', and then archaeologists came and said that it was the Great Wall of chu and erected boundary monuments for it." Pointing to the dilapidated earthen beam on the ridge, Liang Liuen, a villager in Liu Wenxiang Village, stressed to reporters, "Don't look at it now, it is inconspicuous, it has a history of more than 2,600 years, it is the earliest Great Wall in China, and it is called the 'Father of the Great Wall' by relevant experts." ”
The picture shows the ruins of the Great Wall of Chu in Ye County. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Pingdingshan Municipal Party Committee
Look for the Great Wall of Chu
The Great Wall is a cultural business card of China and a world cultural heritage. When it comes to the Great Wall, the people are mostly familiar with the Ming Great Wall located in and around Beijing. In fact, there is also a Great Wall in Henan in the Central Plains, and in 2020, it was included in the list of the first batch of important points of the National Great Wall by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, that is, the Warring States Chu Great Wall located in Ye County.
Every once in a while, 68-year-old Li Yuanzhi would walk into the mountains around Ye County and take photos of the Chu Great Wall scattered on the ridge like an old friend to see if there were any violations of the law that destroyed the construction of the Great Wall. Li Yuanzhi was a scholar of local literature and history in YeXian county and a protector of the Chu Great Wall in Yexian County, and before his retirement, he was the director of the Yexian Cultural Bureau.
"Since the discovery of the ruins of the Chu Great Wall, Ye County has confirmed the connection line of important relics consisting of the ruins of the city wall, the ruins of Guancheng, the foundation of the house, the well, the reservoir, the beacon tower, etc., with a total length of about 100 kilometers." Li Yuanzhi introduced to reporters that the Chu Great Wall in Yexian County is mainly centered on the Fangcheng notch of Bao'an Town in Yexian County and gradually stretches to both sides, and archaeologists believe that this may be the important Guancheng on the Chu Great Wall, that is, the "Fangcheng" or "Rolling City" of the Chu State.
In Henan, a Wenbao stone stele was erected for the Chu Great Wall in Yexian County. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Pingdingshan Municipal Party Committee
Judging from the investigation and excavation of the ruins of the Chu Great Wall in Yexian County, the base of the artificial wall on the mountain is generally about 15-20 meters wide, and the width on the flat ground is widened to about 40 meters. "In the fangcheng notch, a layer of charcoal is generally piled up at the bottom of the artificial wall." Li Yuanzhi said that this phenomenon is rare in the history of ancient Chinese architecture and the city pool.
Compared with the world-renowned Ming Great Wall, the ancient Warring States Great Wall is rarely known to outsiders, and the Chu Great Wall in Yexian County has also experienced such an encounter.
As a cultural worker, Li Yuanzhi had long heard of the local "Earth Dragon" during his tenure, but he was not sure whether the "Earth Dragon" was the Great Wall or not, and he did not have time to find out until he retired to the second line in 2005.
"Since May 2005, six or seven of us have been looking for the Great Wall of Chu in Ye County, climbing through the large and small mountains of Ye County like a sieve, carrying water and dry food on the mountain for a day." Li Yuanzhi recalled that due to the age is too old, it is not easy to find and identify the Great Wall of Chu, the original city wall has long been weathered, the soil layer has been lost, the bricks and stones have also been broken and scattered, and some parts have been buried in the ground due to the construction of mountain vegetation protection.
Although more than two thousand years have passed, the endless characteristics of the Great Wall have not completely disappeared. "Seeing the continuous soil layer on the ridge that is obviously higher than the ground, we can basically conclude that it is the remains of the Great Wall, and in some places you can still see the city wall and the beacon tower." Li Yuanzhi told reporters that combined with historical documents and the introduction of surrounding villagers, it took more than two years for Yexian to basically find out the direction, distribution and length of the Chu Great Wall, which provided important information for subsequent archaeological excavations and official confirmation of the ruins of the Chu Great Wall.
The walls of the Chu Long City in some sections of Ye County are still clearly visible. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Pingdingshan Municipal Party Committee
Protect the Great Wall of Chu
Retired for more than ten years, protecting the Great Wall of Chu is the most important thing in Li Yuanzhi's life. "The Great Wall of Chu is the ancient Great Wall of China recorded in the history of faith, and the purpose of the Great Wall built by the State of Chu was to use this as a springboard to dominate the Central Plains and win the Central Plains." Li Yuanzhi said that the Chu Great Wall in Yexian County is an indispensable part of the study of the budding, initiation, construction, and improvement of the evolution process of the Chu Great Wall, and it is an indispensable part of the study of the Chu Great Wall, and at the same time, the emergence of the Chu Great Wall reflects the national centripetal force and cohesion with the Central Plains as the core, which are all important factors in the protection and study of the Chu Great Wall.
Nowadays, with the solid advancement of cultural relics protection, the protection of the Warring States Great Wall has been valued by governments at all levels. The reporter learned from the Ye County Cultural Relics Department that the local plan is to take the Chu Great Wall Fangcheng Depression as the center, add an isolation and protection layer to the upper layer of the existing wall, protect the Wall of the Great Wall, and plan to restore a section of the Chu Great Wall, so that modern people can understand the basic structure and appearance of the Chu Great Wall.
During his visit to Ye county, the reporter noticed that although the official has erected boundary monuments and Wenbao name plates along the Chu Great Wall, in the mouths of local villagers in Ye County, the earthen beam on the ridge is still an "earth dragon", as sacred and inviolable as a dragon totem.
"The rule left by ancestors for generations is that you can't take soil and stones from the 'earth dragon', and you can't cut down the long trees on the 'earth dragon'." Liang Liuen said that before everyone did not know that it was the Great Wall, now that it is known, just like the "earth dragon" has been awakened, it is even more necessary to protect it and leave something for future generations, so that they can all understand and remember the wisdom and fighting spirit of the ancestors more than two thousand years ago. (End)
Source: China News Network