Recently, the Beiting Gucheng Archaeological Team, composed of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Beiting Academy of Studies, found several pieces of pottery with inscriptions at the bottom in the site of No. 11 Beiting Gucheng. It is confirmed that the inscription on the bottom of the pottery is "Misedian Temple", which can confirm that the social welfare institutions set up in ancient China within the temple "Guandu Temple Office" were also promoted in the northwest frontier.
Lou Pengfei, a staff member of the Beiting Ancient City Archaeological Team, said that since the excavation began this year, two pottery pieces with the word "Sorrow" have been found one after another, and through the results of the latest pottery piece spelling, it can be considered that the pottery pieces found before are also pottery fragments with the inscription style of "Sadian Temple".
Fragments of pottery inscribed on the bottom of The No. 11 site of beiting Ancient City with the inscription "Misery Temple" were excavated. (Photo courtesy of the Beiting Ancient City Archaeological Team)
"Sadland" is a Buddhist term. Guo Wu, the leader of the Beiting Ancient City Archaeological Task Force and a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that the Sadland Nursing Home is a kind of half-official and half-citizen sanatorium set up in the temple, which gradually evolved into the charity of the monastery, including the functions of poverty relief, convalescence, medicine, and soothing loneliness.
This rescue agency originated during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. During the Chang'an period of Wu Zetian, he began to establish the Sorrowful Field Recuperation Workshop, initially in Chang'an and Luoyang, and later gradually spread to the various provinces and even the whole country.
In order to effectively administer the western region, the Tang Dynasty established Yizhou, Xizhou, and Tingzhou in the Eastern Tianshan Region, all of which were ruled according to the Tang system in the Central Plains. During the Wu Zetian period, in order to further consolidate the northwest frontier, the Beiting Capital Protectorate (located in present-day Jimsar County) was established, and the Anxi Capital Protectorate was divided by the Tianshan Mountains.
Guo Wu believes that the fragments of the "Sadian Temple" carved pottery found in the ruins of the Beiting Ancient City this time may be related to the fact that Wu Zetian began to establish the Sorrowful Field Nursing Factory during the Chang'an period and promoted it nationwide, and this rescue institution in the northwest frontier may have been named "Sorrowful Field Temple". At the same time, the new discoveries also confirm the consistency of the social assistance and welfare system between the northwest frontier and the central plains in this period, and the profound influence of Buddhist Futian thought on ancient China.
Overlooking the location of the No. 11 site of the Beiting Ancient City (Photo courtesy of the Beiting Ancient City Archaeological Team.) ）
Reporters: Zhou Ye, He Jun
Editors: Chen Dongshu, Luan Ruohui