On the afternoon of January 18, the Luoyang Hanwei Ancient City Ruins Management Office and the Luoyang HanweiCheng Team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences held a press conference to announce the new archaeological discoveries of the 2021 World Cultural Heritage - Hanwei Luoyang City Ruins. The reporter learned from the Luoyang Hanwei Ancient City Ruins Management Office that the new archaeological discoveries confirmed the location, shape and preservation of the Xianyang Hall, the Xianyang Hall Palace, the Qianqiu Gate, the Yongxiang and other ruins of the Palace City, further deepened the understanding of the architectural layout and functional partitioning of the Palace District, and provided reliable excavation data for scientific protection and display.
Han Wei Luoyang City ruins are located in the millennium ancient temple - East of the White Horse Temple, about 15 kilometers from the central city of Luoyang, was founded in the Western Zhou, during which after the Eastern Zhou, Qin, Western Han, Eastern Han, Cao Wei, Western Jin, Northern Wei, Northern Zhou and other dynasties of the construction and use, to the early Tang Dynasty abandoned, the history of the city before and after up to 1600 years, its Middle East Zhou, Eastern Han, Cao Wei, Western Jin, Northern Wei five dynasties as the capital of about 540 years, was the country's political, economic and cultural, transportation center.
As a typical representative of the capital city in the early and middle period of ancient China, Luoyang City of Han Wei played a major role in the development history of ancient Chinese capitals, and its cultural outlook also affected the entire East Asian region. In 1962, the Luoyang Han Weicheng team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences began to carry out archaeological excavations on the ruins of Hanwei Luoyang City, which has lasted for 60 years, and the overall layout and shape of Hanwei Luoyang City and some important sites have been basically explored. Among them, the archaeological excavation of the Taiji Hall, the first "neutral pole" in Chinese history, was selected as one of the "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2015".
The outer side of the base of the Xianyang Hall is wrapped in bricks (west-east). Luoyang City Han Wei Ancient City Ruins Management Office courtesy of the map
Barrel tiles from the Northern Wei period excavated from the site of the site. Luoyang City Han Wei Ancient City Ruins Management Office courtesy of the map
The Xianyang Hall is even larger than the Qianqing Palace in the Forbidden City
Guo Xiaotao, deputy captain of the Luoyang Han Weicheng Team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that the Xianyang Hall was originally built in the Cao Wei period and was originally named Zhaoyang Hall, and was renamed the Xianyang Hall in the Western Jin Dynasty to avoid Sima Zhao's name. According to the literature, the Northern Wei Xianyang Hall was built in the Xuanwu Emperor period after the relocation of Luoluo, and was built at about the same time as the Taiji Hall and the Luoyang Palace Castle, and is an important building in the palace after the Taiji Hall. According to relevant literature, during the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Xianyang Hall was slightly different from the Taiji Hall as a place for the Northern Wei Emperor to entertain the children of the Clan, or as an envoy of the Northern Wei Emperor to receive the surrendered Tribute, or as the residence of the Emperor before he ascended the throne.
Located in the south of Jincun, Pingle Town, Mengjin District, Luoyang City, the Xianyang Hall is a large rammed earth platform foundation building located on the north side of the Taiji Hall and on the axis of the Han Wei Luoyang City Palace. Archaeological excavations have shown that the foundation of the rammed earth hall of the Xianyang Hall is in a "convex" shape, with a width of about 70 meters from east to west, about 35 meters from north to south, a residual height of about 1 meter on the south side of the foundation, and some bricks and brick grooves remain on the outside of the foundation. Due to late destruction, no remains of the pillar pit were found on the top surface of the platform.
Guo Xiaotao said that in terms of the scale of the building, the Xianyang Hall is even larger than the Qianqing Palace in the Forbidden City. An autopsy of the Xianyang Hall and its surrounding outbuildings indicates that rammed earth buildings no later than those of the Eastern Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties, Northern Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties existed in the area. However, most of the palace structures built from Cao Wei to the Western Jin Dynasty were inherited by the Northern Wei Dynasty. Large-scale construction during the Northern Zhou Dynasty was not completed. This is also consistent with the previous discoveries and understandings in the Taiji Hall and the Taiji Hall Palace.
Around the base of the Xianyang Hall, there are also a large number of corridors, row houses, waterways and other relics, which together constitute a palace building with the Xianyang Hall as the core. On the north side of the foundation of the Xianyang Hall, there is an east-west corridor and a group of well-preserved row house buildings, which are not only an ancillary buildings in the palace courtyard, but also an important barrier building in the palace. According to the restoration of relevant archaeological findings, it can be seen that the Xianyang Palace is about 80 meters wide from east to west, about 130 meters deep from north to south, the foundation of the Xianyang Hall is located in the north of the central part, and the south side of the palace is connected to the Taiji Hall Palace. There are two corridors on the east and west sides, while on the north side there are large corridor houses and row house buildings, which together constitute a set of relatively closed architectural spaces.
In the north side of the row house, archaeologists found a large number of building collapse accumulation, not only a large number, a rich variety, especially rare is that as a native collapse accumulation, preserved rich and accurate location information, in-depth study, will provide rare information for the Northern Wei Dynasty architecture, especially the restoration of the tile system.
From the perspective of architectural layout, there is also a group of palaces on the east and west sides of the Xianyang Palace Courtyard, and the Xianyang Palace Courtyard and its east and west courtyards together form a building space with a total width of about 370 meters from east to west, with the Xianyang Hall and the attached palace as the core. This group of palaces, located on the north side of the Taiji Hall, is the same width as the east and west of the Taiji Hall Palace, but its spatial arrangement is dense, showing a great difference in architectural layout from the Taiji Hall Palace.
Yong Lane is the dividing line between the "former dynasty" and "harem" of Miyagi
On the north side of the North Corridor House and the North Row House, an east-west road about 6 meters wide from north to south was found. On the south side of the road is the north wall of the north row house, and on the north side is a large rammed earth wall about 2 meters wide. The road is well preserved, with ruts remaining on the road surface, and facilities such as paving and drainage ditches on both sides.
"The western end of this road connects to the Miyagi Senki Gate, which turns north after entering the city, then turns to the east, goes straight along the back wall of the north row of houses, turns south after reaching the north gallery house and the north row of landlords, and then folds east through the palace gate on the east wall of miyagi to get out of the city." Guo Xiaotao said that according to its location, it should be a documented YongXiang.
Yongxiang is an east-west passage in the palace of the Wei and Jin dynasties. The Yong Lane of The Han Wei Luoyang City Miyagi Castle is the part of the road connecting the jianchun gate of the eastern wall of the inner city to the gate of the western wall in the palace, according to the literature, there are two large palace gates at the east and west ends, that is, the Qianqiu Gate and the Banzai Gate.
Schematic diagram of the location of Qianqiu Gate, Yongxiang And Xianyang Hall (north on the top). Luoyang City Han Wei Ancient City Ruins Management Office courtesy of the map
Guo Xiaotao told the Beijing News reporter that preliminary excavations show that the ruins of the Qianqiu Gate are similar to the architectural patterns of the main gate of Miyagi, the Miyagi God and Tiger Gate, etc., and are all hall-style gate sites built outside the gate.
Yongxiang in the Wei and Jin dynasties and the Northern Wei Dynasty was a passage through Miyagi from east to west in Luoyang City of the Han Dynasty, and it was also the north-south dividing line of the functional layout of "former dynasty" and "harem" in Miyagi: south of Yongxiang, the Miyagi Chaodian area centered on the Taiji Hall, also known as the "Nangong"; north of Yongxiang, mainly the Chiyuan District centered on Hualin Garden, also known as "North Palace". As the entrance and exit of the west side of Yong Lane, the Qianqiu Gate has an important position.
Guo Xiaotao introduced that the archaeological excavations of the Xianyang Hall, the Xianyang Palace, the Qianqiu Gate and the Yongxiang Have clarified the distribution and characteristics of the buildings in this area, and further deepened everyone's understanding of the layout of the Miyagi system.
Map of the distribution of the remains of the Qianqiumen excavation area (north on the top). Luoyang City Han Wei Ancient City Ruins Management Office courtesy of the map
The axis of the Han Wei Luoyang City Palace was basically revealed
As one of the first batch of national large-scale site protection projects, in recent years, hanwei Luoyang city national archaeological site park takes the world cultural heritage protection requirements as the criterion, takes the planning of the site park as the guide, adopts ground simulation, plant identification, dew cover and other methods, and has successively completed the protection and display projects of the northern Wei Yongning Temple, the main gate of miyagi, the no. 2 palace gate stop gate, the no. 3 palace gate end gate, the tongtuo street, the xiyangmen inner street, the northeast city wall of the inner city, the west city wall and other site protection and display projects.
According to Lu Jinsong, director of the Ruins Management Office of the Ancient City of Han wei in Luoyang City, the current site park has begun to take shape, which has influenced the urban planning of later generations and buried the urban pattern of Han and Wei for 1500 years underground and the axis of Miyagi. In the next step, it is also planned to consider the overall protection and display project of Taiji Hall and Taiji Hall Palace Courtyard, and the overall protection and display of Taiji Hall and Taiji Hall Palace Courtyard, Xianyang Hall and Xianyang Hall Palace Courtyard, Jianchunmen - Zhangmen Street and other palace and urban road grid bureaus, to accelerate the construction of the heritage park.
Distribution map of rammed earth ruins in the excavation area of the Xianyang Hall (north on the top). Luoyang City Han Wei Ancient City Ruins Management Office courtesy of the map
In addition, Lu Jinsong also said that the Luoyang City Hanwei Ancient City Ruins Management Office will take the construction of the Hanwei Luoyang City Ruins Museum as the starting point, closely focus on the inner city wall, the historical road network, the Taiji Hall, the southern ceremonial area and other large sites and the Silk Road heritage protection display, continue to promote the construction of archaeological site parks, and build the Hanwei Luoyang City National Archaeological Site Park into a "cultural tourism punch card" integrating the protection of large sites, scientific research, cultural relics protection and tourism development.
Beijing News reporter Zhang Jianlin
Edited by Fan Yijing Proofreader Li Lijun