When mentioning the Northern Wei Dynasty, people often think of Pingcheng (Datong) in the capital of emperor Tuoba Jue of Daowu and Emperor Xiaowen's reform and relocation of the capital Luoyang (the ruins of Luoyang City in Han Wei). But few people understand that in Inner Mongolia and Linger County, there was also an early capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Shengle City.
Shengle City (Linger Tuchengzi Ancient City Ruins) is 1.5 kilometers north of the administrative village of Tuchengzi in present-day Inner Mongolia and Linger County, the ancient city is adjacent to the Manhan Mountain in the east, daqingshan (Guyin Mountain) in the north, the Yellow River waterway in the west, and the Hukou in the south of the Ancient Road, located in the central plains to the north of the desert, the geographical location is very dangerous. Shengle City is an important political, military, economic and transportation and cultural center in the southern foothills of the Ancient Yin Mountains in the ancient north of the mainland and on the north bank of the Yellow River, which has experienced more than 2,000 years and is one of the largest ancient city sites in Inner Mongolia.
The range of ancient city ruins
The ancient city is 1450 meters from east to west and 2290 meters from north to south. The ancient city is divided into the southern district, the northern district and the central district.
The southern district includes the south wall, the southern section of the eastern wall and a horizontal wall connecting the north and south districts, 550 meters from north to south and 520 meters from east to west, which is a remnant of the Warring States to the Wei and Jin dynasties.
The northern district includes the east wall, the north wall, the west wall, the southwest wall, the southwest corner of the city was washed away by the Baby River, the central east and west 1450 meters, the north and south 1740 meters, is the Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty cultural relics.
There are still east walls, north walls, and the eastern section of the south wall in the central district, and the southwest corner of the city was also washed away by the Baby River, which is 730 meters from north to south and 450 meters from east to west. The deepest part of the cultural accumulation, the deepest up to more than 10 meters, including cultural relics of the Warring States, Han, Wei and Jin, Tang, Liaojin and other periods.
There is a very dense distribution of ancient tombs outside the ancient city, mainly concentrated in the eastern, northern and western parts of the ancient city.
In fact, Sheng Le City can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period.
From the two weeks to the Spring and Autumn Period, the "Xiang" land where the Foxes and Northern Di lived was Shengle City.
During the Warring States period, it belonged to yunzhong county of the Zhao state.
During the Qin-Western Han Dynasty, it was the county of Dingxiang County.
and Lingle Tucheng sub-site
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was changed to Yunzhong County, and the administrative structure was abandoned during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty. Later, Wuhu was chaotic, and Xianbei Tuoba Liwei began to live in its place.
The Book of Wei records Tuoba Liwei (ancestor of the Emperor of Northern Wei, who is said to have lived a long life, from three years in xiping in the Eastern Han Dynasty to three years in Xianning in the Western Jin Dynasty, spanning three kingdoms at the age of 104)
"Thirty-nine years (258) moved to Dingxiang No Shengle".
Li Wei's chosen relocation site was a location where the agricultural economy was important for a long period of time, when the Tuoba tribe may have paid more attention to farming. However, the Tuoba tribe did not significantly change its nomadic economy, so it still migrated from east to west and had no place to live.
In 313, Li Weizi Yilu was also "the city of Shengle, thinking that it was the northern capital" (Wei Shu Di Ji And Preface).
In 346 CE, Li Wei's grandson Shi Yijian (昭成) once again "moved the capital to the Shengle Palace in the clouds" (Wei Shu Di Ji Prologue).
In 347 AD, it moved south to Xinshengle City.
According to the archaeological findings of Shengle City, except for some livestock bones and bone tools that may be Tuoba relics, other certain Tuoba relics before the fifth century are extremely rare, and it is estimated that the Han people who operated agriculture here at that time should be the Han people under the control of Tuoba.
Nevertheless, Shengle as the capital of Tuoba had begun to stabilize during the Shiyijian period. Correspondingly, the Tuoba royal family began to build a fixed mausoleum, Shi Yi Jianmu "Pingwen Empress Wang... In the eighteenth year (355) of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he collapsed and was buried in Jinling in the clouds" ("The Biography of Empress Wei, Empress Pingwen of the Wang Clan"). According to the "Qianlong Nine-Year Great Qing Unification Chronicle", "in the northwest of the ancient Shengle City", although its remains have not been found so far, it is known from the literature that this is the location of the imperial tomb when Tuoba Du Shengle and Pingcheng were located.
At the same time, a large number of thick black tiles indicate that in the fifth and sixth centuries, that is, before and after the Northern Wei Dynasty moved to Luoluo, when Shengle became a military stronghold of the Northern Wei Dynasty, some large-scale buildings appeared.
In the last year of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the six towns revolted, and the north once again ushered in a period of great turmoil, after which the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi Dynasties rose, and the Northern Turkic tribes arose, and Shengle City once again became an important town for the Central Plains Dynasty to resist the nomads.
In the first year (664) of Emperor Gaozong of Tang,664, he established the Shan Yu Dadu Protectorate here (the issue of the Tang Dynasty's Qiang Prefecture and the Shan Yu Du Protectorate was very complicated, so I will not talk about it).
In the first year of Tianbao (742), Wang Zhongsi played the Zhenwu army.
In the second year of the fifth dynasty of Liang Zhenming, the Khitan Abaoji attacked Tuguhun and went to Zhenwu, capturing his people and going east. Zhenwu County, rear, belongs to Fengzhou.
Jin was abolished as Zhenwu Town, Yuan Dynasty was Zhenwu City, and Ming Dynasty belonged to Hongcheng Wei.
Painted pottery excavated from the Warring States Tombs around Tuchengzi
After archaeological excavations, a large number of relics from the Spring and Autumn Period, Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, Wei and Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties, and Liaojin Yuan have been unearthed from the Tuchengzi Ancient Site and the surrounding tombs. Archaeological excavations are consistent with documentary evidence. There are more than 2,000 tombs from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods that have been discovered.
As an ancient city with a history of more than 2,000 years, the name of Shengle City has undergone a series of changes such as Xiang, Dingxiang County, Chengle County, Shengle County, Shan Yu Dadu Protectorate, Fengzhou Zhenwu County, etc., and the rise and fall of the ancient city corresponds to the changes in the border situation of successive dynasties. Today, peace is in full swing, and Uchichi clarifies that perhaps only the rammed earth wall that remains on the surface of the earth can remind people of the distant drum horns.