Public Press Jinan headline reporter: Guo Xuejun
Through five years of archaeological exploration and excavation, the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology found a building base site group about 150 meters south of the west side of Xiaoxu Village, Qidu Town, Linzi District, Zibo City, Shandong Province, about 150 meters outside the west gate of the small city of Qiguo, which is the only high-grade courtyard-style building complex in the Warring States period on the west wall and the outside of the south wall of the entire Qi Ancient City. According to the expert demonstration organized by the Shandong Archaeological Research Institute, this building base site group is the historical site of the famous Minoru Xuegong. At this point, the Jixia Xuegong, which once triggered the academic grandeur of the "Hundred Schools of Thought" in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and created a precedent for education in ancient institutions of higher learning in China and even the world, has been unveiled.
On February 25, the public newspaper Jinan headline reporter saw at the scene that the base site of the Jixia Xuegong ruins was connected to the small city of Qi in the east, the south width and north were narrow and slightly right angle trapezoidal, the maximum width from east to west was about 210 meters, the length from north to south was about 190 meters, the total area was nearly 40,000 square meters, and a total of four rows of building sites were found. The building site group is in a closed area, surrounded by walls and trenches, of which the trenches and the small city moat are connected as one, and the road is found between the building base site group and the small city, leading north to the west gate of the small city and south to the south gate of the small city.
According to Dong Wenbin, the person in charge of the archaeological excavation project and deputy research librarian of the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, this architectural style is very close to the style of the Later Taixue Architectural Site. Moreover, the building area is more consistent with the historical records of the Minoru Gakuen Palace, which has thousands of people attending school. In addition, the paving tiles excavated here, as well as a small number of architectural components decorated with screws, prove that these building specifications are higher, showing the high-grade building specifications.
Dong Wenbin, deputy research librarian, said that the excavation of this site began in June 2017. In that year, in order to cooperate with the construction of Theotai Road and also to find the ruins of the Jixia Xuegong, the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted large-scale detailed exploration of the old city and the west side of the small city, and found a large-scale Han Dynasty settlement outside the west gate of the small city, and a large-scale rammed earth building base site group was found outside the west gate of the small city, a total of 14 single building sites.
By 2019, they conducted another test excavation of No. 5 base site in the building base site group outside the west gate of the small city, excavated an area of 800 square meters, confirmed to belong to a long strip of large rammed earth foundation site, about 42 meters long and about 12 meters wide, and found a ash pit on the west side of the excavation area that broke the building base site, and unearthed a large number of Qi Dao Coin Money Fan fragments.
In 2020, based on the results of the previous year's excavations, they conducted a comprehensive exploration of the entire building site group, with the aim of understanding whether there are walled facilities on its perimeter, and its overall layout. Exploration found that there are trenches on the south and northwest sides of the building base group, the inner wall of the south trench remains, and there is no trench between the small city of Qi Gucheng, and found a north-south road, which is connected to the west gate of the small city in the north and may lead to the south gate of the small city in the south. At the same time, it was found that the outer trenches of the building base site group were connected with the moats of the small city, and the two formed an integrated pattern. The exploration was followed by excavations of Building 11 and the surrounding area in the southern part of the building base group, revealing an area of 500 square meters. Rich mint remains were found in the western part of the excavation area, including cellars, wells, ash pits, etc. for storing ore, breaking the foundation of the building. The southern part of the excavation area dissected the southern wall and the ring moat, and an east-west square was found between the south wall and the base site of Building 11.
In 2021, they continued excavations the previous year and found that the square was about 100 meters east and west, about 10 meters north and south, with an area of about 1,000 square meters, on which they found dirt and ruts, east-west, building site 11 was rectangular, there was a drainage ditch on the west side, and a corridor on the east side leading to another building site. This year, a large-scale comprehensive archaeological exploration was also carried out on the south side of the small city of the ancient city, and it was found that the overall terrain of the area was low-lying, a large area of silt was distributed, and there were basically no cultural remains. At this point, the west and south sides of the entire Qi Ancient City, in addition to this building base site group, basically ruled out the possibility of the existence of other building foundation sites. The north and south ends of the excavated outer trenches are connected with the small city moats of Qi Gucheng, of which the south trench is dissected to show that it is about 6 to 8 meters wide and 3 meters deep, and the inner remaining walls are about 6 meters wide, about 180 meters long, and about 0.2 to 0.8 meters high. The wall is made of yellow-brown silt soil rammed earth, with shallow base grooves visible in the local area, and some sections are preset with drainage pipes under the wall.
Dong Wenbin, deputy research librarian, said that every piece of evidence from this archaeological excavation pointed to the Minoru Gakuen Palace, and none of them denied it. Carbon-14 tests showed that the time line and bottom line of this building base site group were in the middle and late Sengoku period, which was fully in line with the construction time of the Minoru Gakugu. Combined with historical documents, it can be confirmed that this is the ruins of the Minoru Gakuen Palace.
First, the location of archaeological excavations is consistent with documentary records. The location of the Jixia Xuegong has a number of documents pointing to the west gate of the Qi Ancient City: Liu of the Western Han Dynasty told the "Beilu": "Qi has jimen, and Qicheng gate is also." The Talker will be under it." During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, the Southern Yan Kingdom Linzi people Yan Mo "Qi Di Record": "On the west side of the west gate of QiCheng, there are lecture rooms on the left and right of the water, and the toes are often stored", "Outside the west gate of Linzi City, there is an ancient lecture hall, the foundation pillar still exists, and the Qi Xuanwang Repair Literature Office is also". The Northern Wei geographer Li Daoyuan's "Water Jing Zhu Zi Shui" records: "The water flows north of the city, the west of the Yang Gate, and the water is sealed, the so-called Qi Zhi Ji Xia Ye".
In addition, the official schools run in history were all attached to the political center, often on the west side of the national center, and the literature often mentioned that the Jixia Xuegong was near the water system, and the water was on the west side of the ancient city of Qi. Therefore, the Minoru Academy Palace will not be built under the barren Jishan Mountain, but will only be near the Qi Ancient City. Through archaeological exploration and excavation, except for the building base site group outside the west gate of the small city of Qi, the rest of the places mentioned in the literature have been excluded through archaeological exploration work.
Dong Wenbin, deputy research librarian, said that archaeology found that the group of building sites outside the west gate of the small city of Qi's ancient city was built close to the small city, and the small city moat directly protected its circle. It can be seen that the two are planned and built as one, and when the Tian clan moved Miyagi from the big city to the small city after the First Tian Dynasty, it was decided to build the Minoru Gakuen Palace at the same time, which not only placed this official school at the elbow, which was convenient for use and control, but also separated from the center, and there was a difference between the inside and outside.
Another point is that from the existing ancient place names, it can also be seen that this place has historical traces of Minoru Gakuen. The country road through the middle of the building site has traditionally been called The Road, and the gate that leads to the village is called the Gate of the Dragon. "黉" means a school, and the names of the roads and gate sites here are still used today, which is likely to be an inadvertent historical memory.
For individual experts to suggest that this will not be a special facility such as barracks? Zheng Tongxiu, chairman of the Shandong Archaeological Society and director of the Shandong Museum, said that the building base site group is in a closed courtyard, with an area of nearly 40,000 square meters, a large scale and high specifications. However, from the perspective of architectural layout and base site shape system, it is not a palace building, and it is also different from high-level buildings such as general offices and temples. If it is a special facility such as a military camp, it seems to fit the pattern of row buildings, but the military camp does not need to be built on such a high-standard rammed earth foundation site, nor will it be built outside the city gate. In terms of location, shape, architectural pattern and relics, this building site group is quite consistent with facilities such as yongtaixue in the historical period. Therefore, the nature of this building base site group should be more related to official buildings such as the Minoru Gakugu, and the discovery of the city wall further confirms the title of the Palace of the Gakumiya.
Dong Wenbin, deputy research librarian, said that Jixia Xuexue is the root of traditional Chinese culture, and its political, economic, military and cultural influence on future generations is far-reaching, and the discovery of the ruins of Jixia Xuegong is of landmark significance. This area will be protected and an archaeological site park will be built.