On the outskirts of Datong City, Northern Wei stone carvings were excavated
Cultural Relics, No. 07, 1979
In 1970, a Northern Wei architectural site in the southern suburbs of Datong City was excavated with exquisite Northern Wei stone carvings.
The square stone is carved from light gray fine sandstone, square, with a length and width of 21.6, and a height of 9.1 cm. Beautifully shaped. In the center, a square stone plate with a length and width of 12 cm protrudes, with a bead pattern and a lotus pattern as lace. There is an ear cup-shaped pool and a square pen lick on both sides of the yanxin, there are birds and beasts at both ends as drinking water, the yan face has a lotus seat pen insert and a beaded circular pen lick, and there are four groups of carved character patterns around the perimeter: riding beast, horn knocking, dance, and monkey. On the four sides of the stone, there are also patterns, carved lux, cloud dragon, suzaku, waterfowl and so on (Figures 1, 2, 3). A lotus flower is carved in the middle of the bottom of the stone, with it as the center, and eight lotus flowers are carved around it, and nine lotus flowers are used to form a pattern of the bottom of the stone. Observations of this square stone from the embossed ear cup-shaped pool on the brick surface, the ornaments such as the cloud dragon, the suzaku, the waterfowl and the fish on the side of the brick, and the preservation of the square form of the lower gate indicate that it is slightly earlier than the stone carving of the tomb of Sima Jinlong, the king of The Eighth Year (484) of shijiazhai in the eastern part of Datong.
Datong was Pingcheng during the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the nearly one hundred years before Emperor Xiaowen of Wei moved the capital to Luoyang, Pingcheng had been the political and cultural center of Northern Wei. Therefore, the cultural relics preserved above and below ground are very rich. This exquisite stone carving, fang yan, was found outside the southeast city wall near the old city, and according to the "Notes on the Water Classics" and the "Chronicle of Datong County", this area is the former site of the Yongning Temple of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The cultural relics also produced include Seven pieces of Persian gold and silverware (sea beast pattern eight-curved silver wash one, gilded high-footed copper cup three, gilded gold and silver bowl two, silver plume two pairs). This batch of metal artifacts was probably introduced to Pingcheng during the southward migration of Baowei capital in the middle of the fifth century.
(Datong City Museum Xie Tingqi〉