Abakan, a city in southern Siberia, Russia, is now the capital of the Republic of Khakas, and during the Han Dynasty two thousand years ago, it was a gathering place for the Huns, where the nomadic Huns left many tombs and ancient architectural sites. Among these Hun sites, many buildings related to the Han Dynasty have also been found, and the ruins of the Abakan Palace are the most famous of them.
The outskirts of Abakan
In the summer of 1940, a group of Russian construction workers were working on a power farm on the outskirts of Abakan, and at noon, just as they were about to eat, a worker suddenly dug up many broken tiles and masonry, and the worker saw from the texture of these tiles that these things were not modern products, so he reported the matter to the local archaeologists.
When Lydia, a Soviet female archaeologist who was working in the city of Abakan at the time, learned of this, she immediately went to the farm where the tiles were found and led the archaeological team to carry out a meticulous excavation of the area. Lydia's excavation of the ruins of the Abakan Palace lasted five years, and During the early excavations, Lydia always believed that it was an ancient Hun palace site, but it was not until a batch of Chinese tiles was unearthed that Lydia had a new speculation about the true origin of the palace ruins.
Lydia, who was responsible for excavating the ruins of the Abakan Palace
Lydia led a team to discover the ruins of twenty ancient houses at the site of the Abakan Palace, the largest of which is located in the central area of the site, with an area of about 200 square meters, which is a Chinese-style hall. During the excavation of this hall, Lydia found many cultural relics related to the Central Plains of the Han Dynasty, and a batch of tiles engraved with Chinese characters was found on the walls of the hall.
The discovery of these tiles allowed Lydia to redefine the origin of the ruins of the Abakan Palace, and later these tiles with Chinese characters were handed over by Lydia to colleagues familiar with ancient Chinese characters for study, after simple treatment and restoration.
The colleague pieced together the ten Chinese characters carved on the tiles into a paragraph: "Long live the Heavenly Son." ”
Restored Chinese character tiles
After understanding the meaning of the ten Chinese characters, Lydia judged that the owner of the palace was not a Hun, but a Han Dynasty general from the Central Plains Han Dynasty, and Lydia wrote in her book:
"The real owner of the ruins of the Abakan Palace was not the nomadic Huns, it was the residence of a Chinese general."
The Chinese general in Lydia's mouth was later firmly believed by Lydia to be a descendant of the fei general Li Guang, a famous general Li Ling during the Western Han Dynasty. This statement of Lydia was later endorsed by the Japanese archaeologist Fumie Kakuda.
After studying the artifacts excavated from the ruins of the Abakan Palace, Kakuda Fumie also determined that the palace was a house built by Li Ling and his Xiongnu wife after he surrendered to the Xiongnu.
Restoration of the Abakan Palace
In 99 BC, Li Ling followed the general Li Guangli on an expedition against the Xiongnu, as a vanguard, Li Ling led 5,000 cavalry to Junji Mountain to investigate the enemy situation, and was surrounded by the Huns, after several days of bloody battles, Li Ling failed to break through and surrendered to the Xiongnu after becoming a prisoner.
If the ruins of the Abakan Palace are really Li Ling's residence, then Li Ling can be seen from the Chinese characters on the tiles
"In the Xiongnu, in the Heart of the Han"
Although he had been helplessly serving the Huns in his later years, he could not stop his thoughts of his homeland.
Even praying for the han emperor on the tiles of the house, perhaps he still hoped in his heart that the Han army could conquer the Xiongnu as soon as possible and that he could return to his hometown as soon as possible.