"The fire shines on the heavens and the earth, and the red stars are filled with purple smoke."
Step into a faraway place
Anxi Qingyang Xiacaopu iron smelting site
Thoughts return to the roaring furnace of a thousand years ago
This is the country's first contra-block ironmaking
Archaeological sites where scientific archaeological excavations are carried out
It is also Quanzhou during the Song and Yuan dynasties
A precious testimony to the iron smelting handicraft industry
The site was included in the provincial cultural protection unit in 2020
Recently, reporters explored
Qingyang Xiacaopu iron smelting site
Feel the prosperity of the ancient smelting iron yard in the past
▲Qingyang Xiacaopu iron smelting site
Look back at the millennia of iron smelting time
With a beautiful sunny day, lined with a clear blue sky curtain and faint floating clouds, the Qingyang Xiacaopu Iron Smelting Ruins Exhibition Hall is particularly quiet and peaceful. The exhibition hall next to this site has a leisurely ancient charm, with white walls, angled cornices, and a beam and a tree that can't help but let people cross the long river of history and look back at the iron smelting time of a thousand years ago.
Walking into the exhibition hall, the reporter saw
There are five parts: the Preface Hall, the Millennium Iron Yard, the Smelting Divine Work, the Distant Heavy Ocean and the Conclusion
Show visitors Qingyang iron smelting
Related historical facts and some excavated cultural relics
Tell the past and present lives of the site
Quanzhou's 22 heritage sites are both independent and closely integrated, which together constitute a highly integrated overseas trade system of production, transportation and marketing in Quanzhou, Song and Yuan Dynasties. Therefore, in order to understand the Caopu Iron Smelting Site in Qingyang, it is necessary to have a general understanding of the 22 heritage sites. In the prologue, through the distribution map of heritage points, the Qingyang Xiacaopu Iron Smelting Site is placed in the grand time and space vision of the overseas trade in Quanzhou, Song, Yuan, and Quanzhou, and the narrative is slowly unfolded, which is fascinating.
"You see, our "Anxi County Chronicle" records that 'the people cultivated silkworms, smelted silver and iron, levied bamboo and wood, and were dangerously solidified by streams and mountains', indicating that at that time, the natural and economic conditions were rich, and it was possible to establish a county. Later, in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Qingyang Iron Yard was set up here. Coinciding with the visit of many tourists, Yu Zhuanglin, the docent in the museum, pointed to the exhibition of historical materials to explain to the tourists in detail.
▲Qingyang Xiacaopu Iron Smelting Ruins Exhibition Hall
Tourists followed Yuzhuanglin
Listening to the explanation, I stared at it
A dazzling array of precious artifacts
From smooth white porcelain to delicate tiles
From exquisite blue and white porcelain bowls to varied clay pots
From the quaint barrel tiles to the small Imperial Song Tongbao
……
Everything seems to tell the bustling past
"There are more than 80,000 ceramic fragments unearthed at the site, but what is one of the most distinctive pottery? It is this blue-black jianzhan, mainly produced in the Two Song Dynasties, as a socialite tea drinking and tea fighting utensils at that time, its excavation indicates that there may be high-status managers living and activities in the site. Yu Zhuanglin said eloquently.
▲The exhibition hall restores the smelting scene at that time, creating an intuitive scene experience for visitors
While viewing the exhibited historical materials, ancient maps and archaeological photos, you can see a Song and Yuan ocean ship restored in the exhibition hall, the background is the vast sea, seagulls flapping their wings, from near and far, large and small merchant ships are chopping waves and sailing to the distance.
"Bells and bells-bells--", the sound of striking iron echoed in the exhibition hall, and visitors could not help but be attracted by this group of lifelike sculptures, some of which were pulling the bellows hard, and some craftsmen were throwing ore into the hearth, where the furnace was on fire, and there were many pieces of iron waiting to be forged on the ground, as if they were in the iron smelting scene of that year.
Explore the wisdom of the ancestors to smelt iron
Under the leadership of Yu Zhuanglin
The reporter stepped out of the exhibition hall and walked through the wide square
A fun trail paved with sandbags
You can see the terraces
The core area of the Qingyang Xiacaopu Iron Smelting Site
A cool breeze blows through the protective shed built against the mountain
Walking in it, you can touch the traces of the ancestors' activities. The smelting furnace built on the hillside has a curved wall, the discarded slag is clearly visible, there are few walls that were once cushioned with small stones and flat stones, and some broken tile piles are left on the foundation of the room.
Yu Zhuanglin introduced that the core area of the entire site is about 5,000 square meters, and about 2,000 square meters are currently excavated. The site includes not only a remnant of iron smelting, but also the surrounding ancient mine caves, ancient roads, as well as the ancestral house ruins of the Qingyang Yu family and a mountain that provides fuelwood for smelting.
Wander through pieces of slag, ore, and crushed ceramics
Stacked hardened movable surfaces
Think back to how the ancients were on the spot
Pile up, level and compact this flat
Let the smelting waste be treated simply and efficiently
It has become the operating platform for later smelting
This has left the site in existence for nearly 500 years
The smelting operation is impressive
The site can be seen smelting furnaces 6, 3 house foundations, 6 furnaces have their own characteristics, fully prove that the smelting technology of Xiacaopu is superb, pig iron, wrought iron, and even steel, all kinds of work. The foundation of the house is either a work room or a management area, low walls, slope protection, small stone steps, rubble, porcelain pieces, etc., one grass and one tree, one brick and one stone, broken tiles and ruins, the wind and bones of the millennium are still the same, and the wisdom of the ancestors makes people awe-inspired.
Every corner of the Caopu Iron Smelting Site under the Qingyang Seems to be telling stories closely related to that era... It is not difficult to imagine that more than a thousand years ago, craftsmen gathered here from all over the world and began to work feverishly. Countless days and nights, the raging fire burned wildly, they skillfully knocked pieces of red-hot iron, dazzling sparks splashed everywhere, and everyone was full of energy.
"How wise our ancestors were, they found that this is a natural outlet for smelting, and there are rich iron ore resources, coupled with the dense surrounding forests, which can provide sufficient fuel for smelting." In the east of the site, there is an ancient road leading to Xixi, which serves as a route for the export of products, which forms an industrial chain from raw materials to processing to transportation. Yu Zhuanglin said with emotion.
Iron art Anxi vine iron continued
▲Rattan iron craft industry is well-known at home and abroad
To the north of the site, there are ancient artificial mines, as well as large pits left by modern mechanical excavation and mining; on the side of the main road of the site, there are small hills with green grass, which are the local artificial green plant restoration of the slag accumulated after mining - exploration or conquest, for thousands of years, the footsteps of humans and nature have been running in parallel. On the way, you can enjoy the large pit left by modern mechanical excavation and mining in the past 20 years, and the lake in the pit is like a jasper decoration, and the breeze is gentle and the water waves are not happy, just like a natural beauty.
In the seemingly hard mountain rock, there are ancient mining caves with thousands of years of history, these "holes" left by the artificial mining era, the appearance is bland, but the iron products such as ironware, iron blocks, and iron dings that are smelted are continuously sent out of the mountains, setting sail from Quanzhou, and along the ancient Maritime Silk Road, "far away from the country", continuously sold to Southeast Asia and other countries and regions.
Leaning over to explore the blackened mines, the small holes in the rock walls are stunning. "These artificial caves not only allow craftsmen to travel freely, but they also put candlesticks in small holes they have chiseled out to facilitate mining in a dim environment." Yu Zhuanglin introduced.
Then follow the winding mountain road
Come to the Yu family
Ancestral home "Shucaotang" after migrating to Anxi
After 2000, this ancestral home
They were buried under the slag piled up by modern mining
The valley has since been flooded
Filled with silt and rubble
Water gradually accumulates in the eastern part of the site
Form a paddy field
According to oral traditions and genealogical records of local villagers, Yu Fang, the ancestor of the Yu clan, was the governor of Quang Nam, led his soldiers to fight and fight horses all his life, and after retiring from the battlefield, he traveled all the way to find a hermitage. After passing through the Intersection of Qingyang Road, I saw the vegetable leaves floating in the Jiuche Creek, so I went up the creek to Qingyang and found that Qingyang was a place of iron ore mining, where craftsmen gathered, the fire was in full swing, and the living place was quite prosperous, so I chose a place to build a grass hall. According to legend, Yu Fang left a poem called "Idle Hidden Qingyang", and the whole poem is "Jiu Yan Bow and Arrow as a Cultivator, Idle Qingshan Iron Smelting Furnace." The messenger had to ask for weeds, and the bird's skin was fortunate not to be martyred. ”
"Although only the complete wall foundation of the ancestral house excavated by archaeology can be seen now, and the antique protection shed built later, some of the native descendants of the Yu clan are still famous blacksmiths in ten miles and eight townships, which can be said to be the inheritance witness of this iron smelting industry." Yu Zhuanglin said.
Today, after thousands of years of Anxi Songyuan iron smelting industry, has been precipitated into a unique local traditional handicraft and economic form, created a new process of "rattan + iron", become the country's largest rattan iron handicraft production and export base, the products are exported to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the United States and other more than 60 countries and regions, is "China's rattan iron craft town" and "the world's rattan iron craft capital".
END
Reporter: Chen Ying
Editor: Zhang Kunyu
Audit: First Instance | Lin Bailan Second Instance | Yang Weiyi Third Trial | Chen Zhiwei