In 1986, after graduating from the Department of Archaeology of Peking University, I embarked on a career as a cultural artist in Hangzhou. Looking back on half of his life, there are more than 30 years of closely related to the city of Hangzhou, and it is closely related to Hangzhou's cultural and expo work.
In the three independent and closely interdependent professional work I have engaged in, archaeology, cultural protection and museums, what impresses me most is the archaeological work. The excavation sites of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple, the Southern Song Dynasty Lin'anFu Ruins, the Southern Song Dynasty GongShengrenlie Empress Residence Site, the Southern Song Dynasty Xiunei Siguan Kiln Site, and the Southern Song Dynasty Royal Street Ruins have successively won the "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in The Country", making me the most awarded archaeological leader in the country. Among the several "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries", I presided over the excavation of the southern Song Dynasty Taimiao temple site for the first time, which is particularly proud and unforgettable.
A major discovery under the Ziyang Mountain
Since the autumn of 1994, Yao Guifang, director of the Hangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, has led us to carry out archaeological excavations of the six building sites in the three provinces of the Southern Song Dynasty in the reconstructed Hangzhou Cigarette Factory. Due to the large area of excavations, the excavations of the "Three Provinces and Six Ministries" lasted until the spring of 1995.
One morning in early April 1995, hangzhou gradually cleared up in the rain, when the excavation workers and archaeologists had not yet arrived at the site, I wanted to walk around alone, so I climbed along the mountain path of the Fourth Hospital to Ziyang Mountain. The air after the rain that day was exceptionally fresh, and there was a refreshing breath everywhere, and the fine breeze brought a hint of coolness, which made people feel relaxed. After a while, I climbed to the Jianghuhui Pavilion on Ziyang Mountain, looked east to the foot of Ziyang Mountain, and found that there was a large demolition site for the transformation of the old city at the foot of the mountain. Many houses can still see a red "demolition" word on the wall in the distance. At that time, there were still many traditional buildings preserved in Hangzhou, especially in the Upper District, where old houses occupied most of the area. Usually, after work, I especially like to read the map of Hangzhou, and often ride a bicycle through the streets and alleys of Hangzhou, in the words of young people now, I am keen to "punch in" on the map. Perhaps it was this interest that led to looking at the demolition site and suddenly having an idea that crossed his mind like lightning: "This should be the location of Taimiao Alley!" "I suddenly woke up and immediately walked down the mountain path of the Jianghu Huiguan Pavilion, and sure enough, it was Taimiao Lane, and the migrant workers were demolishing houses, and the scale of demolition and construction was not small.
After returning to the unit, I immediately reported the situation to Director Yao. Due to the large number of demolition sites in Hangzhou at that time, the personnel of our city's Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute were limited, and most of the manpower was concentrated on some of the more important site projects. Director Yao asked me to first inquire which unit was demolishing, and try to contact them to see if I could carry out archaeological excavations. At that time, unlike now, there was no need to consult the cultural relics department before demolishing and building the house, and the construction planning department could directly approve it.
Therefore, I immediately got in touch with the relevant person in charge of the Hangzhou Municipal Housing Development Corporation, which was responsible for the demolition and construction of that plot. At that time, I was received by Yan Shengxiong, director of the company's planning and finance department, who was very enthusiastic and interested in the history and culture of Hangzhou. I explained to Director Yan my intentions, and also introduced to him in detail the history of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple and its significance to the study of Hangzhou's history and culture. At that time, I was in my early thirties, and my experience was not enough, but because I was young, I had endless motivation to do any work and the courage not to be afraid of difficulties and hardships, in order to better persuade the other party, I read a large number of ancient and modern maps of Hangzhou and related literature and history classics before discussion, and did my homework. "Kung Fu pays off", Director Yan, after listening to my story, believed that the ruins of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple were indeed very important, and expressed his intention to support our archaeological excavations, but because the company's general manager Lou Yan'an was sent abroad, he had to let me come back after a while. At that time, the houses in Taimiao Lane had just begun to be demolished, and not much had been demolished, so I made a rough estimate in my mind, and the time was too late, so I gladly agreed to his suggestion. A month later, Lou Zong returned to China, and I went again to communicate about the ruins of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple. After listening, he was also very interested, clearly expressed his support for our archaeological excavations, and repeatedly said: "Our history and culture in Hangzhou should be excavated and protected more, and must not be destroyed in the hands of our generation." He also asked me to go to them more freely, talk to them more about the history of Hangzhou, and publicize and popularize Hangzhou's culture. Later, we negotiated with the Financial Planning Office a mutually agreeable agreement to carry out underground excavations of underground artifacts after the demolition of houses and before piling of residential areas. At that time, the idea of our two sides was relatively simple, that is, to dig up as much as possible and sort out more information about the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple, and as to whether the future project could be carried out, we did not consider this aspect at all. After the agreement was issued, in accordance with the provisions of the "Cultural Relics Protection Law", the funds for archaeological excavations should be borne by the construction unit, and the funds of our cultural relics department have always been relatively tight, and the Hangzhou Housing Development Corporation has funded 200,000 yuan as the fund for the archaeological excavation of the Taimiao site.
◎ Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Ruins Park
The ruins of the Taimiao Temple are beginning to shine
I remember the first consultation between the two sides was in mid-April. On May 1, the party organization of the Municipal Bureau of Gardens and Culture came to talk to me and made me the director of the Hangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the legal representative. Then the archaeological excavation of the Taimiao site became the first major project after I became the leader of the Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. On May 20th, the demolition work of the entire project was basically completed, and the conditions for archaeological excavation were met, and our archaeological team officially moved in to start the archaeological excavation of the Taimiao site.
We all know that the Southern Song Dynasty was more hurried and more tortuous, the real capital of Hangzhou was in 1138 AD, and the Taimiao Temple was built in 1134 AD before Emperor Gaozong of Song had not yet set the capital of Hangzhou, mainly to enshrine the tablets of the emperor and the place of worship to the emperor. Therefore, we initially judged that the construction of the Taimiao Temple may be relatively hurried, plus the emperors of the Northern Song and Southern Song Dynasties are only eighteen, and the number is not much, so the scale of the Taimiao Temple should not be very large.
Archaeological excavations began at the corner near the foot of Ziyang Mountain. At that time, Hangzhou was in the middle of summer, the construction site was bare and unobstructed, and our archaeologists began to excavate under the scorching sun and braving the 40-degree heat. To our disappointment, neither the first nor the second trenches were very successful, as if they were pools of sediment and nothing of value. In the two months of continuous excavation, it can be said that "nothing has been found". We gritted our teeth in the heat and disappointment until late July, when the foundation of the east wall of the Taimiao Temple finally appeared, and everyone's spirits were lifted. For us archaeologists, although the rammed earth platform foundation has been dug, it feels that only by digging the wall of the Taimiao Temple can it be regarded as a real success in the excavation of the site. So we continued our excavations, finally digging the eastern wall of the Taimiao Temple in late August, until this moment we were greatly relieved, and our faces full of mud and sweat showed a smile of victory like relief.
The groundwater level in Hangzhou is very high, and after we used a pumping machine to pump out the water from the excavation site, the appearance of the east wall was gradually revealed. The east wall is in a north-south direction, the wall thickness is 1.7 meters, the residual height is 1.4-1.5 meters, and the best preserved place is 1.7 meters high, all of which are made of stone staggered seams. The walls are regular and exquisitely worked, and a wall of about 90 meters long has been excavated, and there are still no corners. The inner side of the wall is tiled with rectangular green bricks to form grooves for water dissipation. The outer side of the wall is paved with "fragrant cake bricks" unique to the Song Dynasty, and the "Royal Street" in front of the Imperial City of the Southern Song Dynasty is connected.
We were very excited and excited, and we mustered up all our energy to excavate as far as possible to the two sides of the wall, and finally found the gate to the east of the Taimiao Temple at the end of September.
The east gate of the Taimiao Temple is located in the middle of the wall, about 4.8 meters wide, and the bottom of the gate base is made of rectangular bricks to form the foundation and sill base groove. Two stone anvils stand side by side outside the door, and inside the door there is a brick avenue equal in width as the door that leads directly to the main building of the Taimiao Temple. An underground drainage system was also found on the right side of the temple, and the sewers passed through the walls and injected into the Royal Street. On the outside of the northern end of the wall, a square stone foundation was also found, presumably the cornerstone of the stone lion. At the southern end of the wall, a large foundation made of loess rammed earth was found, about 0.5 meters high, and when excavating, a number of rectangular bricks were found with molded inscriptions, with the words "Official", "Shang'er", "Pingyi", etc., indicating that these bricks were not from the people, but were "supervised" and "customized" by the government and the government.
The initial excavations of the Taimiao Temple site are limited to the east entrance of the Taimiao Temple, covering an area of about 1,000 square meters, including a 90-meter-long section of the wall, the East Gate, and some of the ruins of the Partial Temple near the East Gate. From the results of this excavation alone, it can be inferred that the scale of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple is much larger than we can imagine, it is not only quite grand, but also the internal structure is perfect, and the degree of preservation is also good.
There was also a small episode during the excavation. In the last month of the excavation, the funds were insufficient, so we had to seek support from the Hangzhou Housing Development Corporation to show the dilemma of the Taimiao archaeological project, so they once again generously donated 100,000 yuan to support us to complete the archaeological excavation. In fact, the developers also had worries later, worried that the ruins of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple were so important, and we excavated them so well, and whether they would not be allowed to build houses if they continued to do so. I was very optimistic at that time, comforting them: "Hangzhou has not yet stipulated that houses cannot be built after archaeological excavations, even in the whole country, there have been almost no such cases, and for us archaeologists, the most important thing is to do a good job in the relevant materials of archaeological excavations, which will definitely be returned to you after this work is completed." Many of the developers, who came from architectural backgrounds, saw the excavated bricks, pillars and inscriptions on them, and praised them one after another: "The things excavated from the Taimiao ruins are really good, it is really rare, and it should be protected." "It is precisely because of the additional 100,000 yuan invested by the Municipal Housing Development Corporation that our archaeological excavation work has taken another step forward, otherwise the subsequent excavation of the east gate of the Taimiao Temple will not be carried out so smoothly." Later, in recognition of their sacrifices for the overall situation of Hangzhou, the municipal government awarded the "Spiritual Civilization Construction Award" to the Municipal Housing Development Corporation for their attention and support for the protection of cultural relics in Hangzhou.
Difficult choices for the protection of cultural relics and the construction of cities
At that time, the Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics Protection and Management were subordinate to the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Gardens and Cultural Relics. At a meeting of the bureau, I met Gao Nianhua, director of the Municipal Cultural Protection Institute, told him about the archaeological excavations of the Taimiao site, and invited him to come to the Taimiao Temple to guide the work. He was very interested after listening to it, and said that he would definitely go to see it when he had time. When the excavation of the site was completed in late September and almost ready to be backfilled, he brought Professor Yang Xinping, a cultural protection expert from the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, to the Taimiao site. Professor Yang Xinping said after reading it: "I have never seen such a perfect site, such an important site, we must do a good job of making materials." After he returned on the same day, he reported to the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, and soon accompanied Chen Wenjin, deputy director of the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau at that time, and Yao Zhongyuan, director of the Taimiao Temple. After they read it, they humorously said to me: "Du Zhengxian, why don't you report such a good thing when you dig it up?" I explained to them: "The important site was only excavated in late August, and we are concentrating and fully engaging on the excavations, and we have not yet had time to formally report it." They believe that such an important site should be reported to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and make several work instructions:
Excavated sites must not be backfilled,
It is necessary to make the relevant Taimiao materials solid and detailed.
The day after they returned, they reported to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
When the news of the discovery of the ruins of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple under the Ziyang Mountain in Hangzhou came out, it immediately shook The capital. I clearly remember that the National Day holiday in 1995 was only closed for one day, and the next day, October 2, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage sent a team of experts to Hangzhou to conduct a field inspection of the ruins of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple. It's so fast!
At that time, the expert group sent was accompanied by Meng Xianmin, director of the Cultural Relics Department of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and its members included Professor Xu Pingfang, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Yan Wenming, member of the expert group of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and Professor yan Wenming of the Department of Archaeology of Peking University, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and expert of the Ministry of Construction, and Researcher Wang Ruizhu, chief engineer of the Design and Research Office of the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning. Among them, Professor Xu Pingfang was the first captain of the Lin'an City Archaeological Team of the Southern Song Dynasty (a joint archaeological team established by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Zhejiang Province, and the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Cultural Relics in the 1980s), and the Lin'an City Archaeological Project was conducted in Hangzhou for more than ten years, with many important archaeological excavations and research results, and he also has a special affection for Hangzhou.
After arriving in Hangzhou, the experts completely ignored the heat of the weather and the fatigue of the journey, and devoted their minds to the exploration and research of the Taimiao ruins. While inspecting, they discussed, and it was difficult to hide their surprises and surprises between words, "The scale and momentum of the ruins of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple are so spectacular, and the level of construction is so high, it is really unexpected!" "Hangzhou discovered the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple, which is relatively well preserved, which is unique in the country, and can make up for the lack of representative monuments in Hangzhou as one of the six ancient capitals but lacks representative monuments that can reflect the style of the ancient capital..." "The ruins of the Taimiao Temple should be protected!" They also looked at the graphic materials we had collated and mapped, and gave full affirmation and high praise to our archaeological work, believing that we were very flexible in the excavation of the site, and it was really not easy to preside over the excavation to the present day. Although the archaeological excavation of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao site was carried out by my team, I did not obtain the qualification certificate of archaeological excavation leader at that time. At that time, this team leader qualification certificate had just been implemented in field archaeology work, and our municipal cultural relics and archaeology institute had to be attached to the provincial cultural relics and archaeology institute, so no one in the institute had yet obtained it. Experts believe: "Du Zhengxian can do the archaeological excavation work of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Site to this extent, then other sites can also do a good job, there is no need to let him go to the team leader qualification certificate, directly for him to apply for one." "The on-site special approval passed the archaeological leader qualification, which is also a windfall in my archaeological excavation of the Taimiao site."
After the on-site inspection, the experts listened to the work reports of the provincial and municipal cultural relics and archaeology departments, and put forward opinions and suggestions on further archaeological excavation and proper protection of the Taimiao site. They believe that Hangzhou should make great determination to strengthen the investment of human, material and financial resources to excavate the entire Taimiao site, and said that the funds for the archaeological excavation of the Taimiao site can be issued by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and the shortage of personnel can also be transferred to archaeological institutes across the country through the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
Among the six ancient capitals of the mainland, the Only Temple that can be seen and touched is Beijing, which is a national treasure left over from the Ming and Qing dynasties. This discovery can be called the earliest and best-preserved Taimiao ruins in the era of archaeological excavations in the mainland so far, which is not only a major event in the archaeological history of Hangzhou, but also a major event in the history of Chinese urban archaeology! To this end, the Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee and the Hangzhou Municipal Government attach great importance to it, and have organized relevant responsible persons and experts and scholars to conduct field visits for many times and listen to the opinions of all parties extensively. However, as a key area where the municipal government is determined to carry out the transformation of the old city, the transformation of this plot of Ziyang Mountain has been carried out for more than half a year, and the relocation, demolition and three links and equality work of more than 680 residents within the scope of the first phase of the project have cost more than 40 million yuan, and the second phase of the project also needs more than 60 million yuan of funds, adding up to a total of 100 million yuan! This is not a small price for the development of Hangzhou city! One hand is the protection of cultural relics, the other is urban construction, the balance of the two sides is difficult to balance, and the Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee and the Hangzhou Municipal Government are facing difficult choices.
At that time, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage had emphasized the closure of the Cultural Relics Department to Hangzhou, and he stayed in Hangzhou for more than 20 days. The two of us and Xu Xinmin of the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau often got together to discuss the protection plan for the ruins of the Taimiao Temple. At that time, we put forward many plans, considering excavating the entire Taimiao ruins and protecting them as a whole, but because the groundwater level in Hangzhou was too high, the technical difficulties were too great; we also thought that after the excavation of the site, the intact parts would be permanently protected, and the poorly preserved parts would be allowed to be built by developers. Later, after weighing the advantages and disadvantages of many parties, the Hangzhou Municipal Government made a decision:
Compensate the construction unit, stop the development and construction,
Archaeological excavations will be carried out on this plot until the conditions are available later.
At the same time, the documents are issued,
Stipulate that in the future, all the old towns of Hangzhou should be transformed,
Before doing the infrastructure project, you must first archaeology,
Once major sites are discovered, protecting them is more important than urban construction.
To this end, the Hangzhou Municipal Government, with the protection of the famous historical and cultural city as the most important, did not hesitate to invest hundreds of millions of yuan in demolition and relocation, and resolutely decided to stop the construction of Ziyang Community and permanently protect the 15,000 square meters of underground ruins. This is a big move and a big price in the protection of Hangzhou's famous historical and cultural city, and there is no precedent in China!
◎ June 25, 2001, Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Temple site
It was listed as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units
The archaeological excavation of the Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Site was the first project I led the team to carry out, and was responsible for and participated in the whole process, which has a special significance for me personally, and at the same time, this milestone archaeological excavation has also opened up a new situation and created a new atmosphere for the archaeological work in Hangzhou. Today, the excavated part of the Taimiao site has long been filled with soil and sealed for permanent protection. At the same time, a Southern Song Dynasty Taimiao Ruins Park was opened on the site, which is full of greenery, simplicity and tranquility, and has become a good place for citizens to relax and exercise. I occasionally go near the Heritage Park, I always walk in and take a look around, and I always have a sense of pride, for me to regard the cause of culture and bo as a lifelong love, and to be an archaeologist, a cultural conservator and a cultural communicator in the museum!
Du Zhengxian dictated Zhou Jia sorted it out
Editor| Zhou Jia
Co-ordinating | Liu Wanwei zhang xueyan
Transferred from the "Hangzhou Wenshi" WeChat public account