Lu Yu, Wang Jiasheng, and Zhou Xueze, reporters of Dazhong Daily
The picture shows the cultural relics excavated from the ruins of the Minoru Gakugu Shrine.
On February 24, after nearly five years of archaeological excavations, the building base site group outside the west gate of the small town of Qi's ancient city in the west of Xiaoxu Village, Qidu Town, Linzi District, Zibo City, was identified as the site of the Jixia Xuegong.
The Qi Guo Jixia Xuegong is very important in the history of Chinese cultural development. From the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, along with the great social turmoil and great changes, there was the first golden age of great ideological emancipation and great academic prosperity in Chinese history, and various academic schools sprung up after the rain, forming a grand view of "a hundred schools of thought contending" that has never existed in ancient times. During the Warring States period, the Jixia Xuegong in Linzi, the capital of Qi, was the main garden and center for academic exchanges and cultural dissemination at that time when the sons gathered and a hundred schools of thought contended. Guo Moruo wrote in the Ten Criticisms: "The grandeur of the Sons of Zhou Qin formed a highest peak here. "The setting of this school is really of epoch-making significance in the history of Chinese culture."
Jixia Xuegong was built in the Tian Qi Huan Gongtian Wu period, named after its near the Jimen Gate west of linzi, the capital of the State of Qi, which was basically consistent with the Tian Qi regime and withered away with the qin annihilation of Qi to unify China, lasting about 150 years.
The Jixia Xuegong is very famous in history, and there is no doubt about the location of the "Jimen gate of Linzi, the capital of the State of Qi", but the location of the "Jimen" has not been determined for a long time. In the "Brief History of Linzi Jixia Xuegong" compiled by the Linzi District Party Committee and the District Government in September 2016, there are four theories about the location of Jimen: the first, Jimen is the one north of the two west gates of the Great City of Qi, in the east of shaojiaquan Village in present-day Qidu Town; the second, Jimen is the west gate of the small city of Qi, located at the source of the Shuihe River, south of Shenchi, northwest of Xiaoxu Village in present-day Qidu Town; the third, Jimen is the one west of the two south gates of the small city of Qi, facing the jishan mountain in the south of Linzi, southwest of anhezhuang in present-day Qidu Town; the fourth, Jimen was originally built in the southwest of the qi ancient city in the spring and autumn, and a small city was built during the Warring States period, but this gate is gone, but the place name "Jixia" is left, which is located west of today's Qiguo History Museum.
Judging from the information currently available, the location of the Jixia Xuegong adopts the "second" theory, that is, the building base site group located outside the west gate of the small town of Qi's ancient city in the west of Xiaoxu Village, Qidu Town, Linzi District, has been confirmed as the ruins of the Jixia Xuegong.
The basic confirmation of the location of the Minoru Gakuen Palace is inseparable from an argumentative meeting. On August 6, 2021, many senior experts from all over the country came to the Linzi Workstation of the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology to participate in the symposium on important archaeological discoveries in qi ancient city, and to carry out expert demonstration on the group of building sites outside the west gate of the small city of Qi. At the meeting, the experts had a heated discussion.
Ren Xianghong, professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of History and Culture of Shandong University, participated in the demonstration meeting, and from the perspective of archaeology, he demonstrated the location of the Jixia Xuegong, and basically agreed that "Xiaoxu Village West of Qidu Town" was the site of the Jixia Xuegong.
Archaeology is to determine the age first, and then determine the nature. Ren Xianghong believes that the confirmation of the base site group of the building outside the west gate of the small city of Qi's ancient city is the Jixia Xuegong, which is more consistent with the shape and volume of the building. Qi Ancient City Small City Outside the West Gate Building Site Group, for the row of group of palace-style buildings, at least 4 rows, very standardized, almost the same age, there is a wall, outside the wall is a moat, the whole appears relatively independent, not in the big city, not in the small city, the east wall of this group of buildings is the western wall of the small city, in fact, it is part of the small city, the small city is connected to the big city, like an urn city, together constitute the entire qi country ancient city. It can be seen that at the beginning, this group of buildings was planned and built together with small cities and big cities, and the city walls could not be compared with large cities and small cities, but they were all in the moat and shared a moat.
Of course, there are some doubts about this group of buildings. Judging from the rammed foundation and excavated pottery, before this group of buildings, there were other cultural relics in this area, what is specific, it is not clear; after this group of buildings, there are new uses here, and mint remnants have been widely unearthed in the western part of the building base group, there are "mint" relics, and more than 2,500 fragments of Qi Dao coin fan have been found, which is the largest number of Pre-Qin Qian Fan unearthed in the country in recent years, and the face fan characters are "Qi Da Dao", and a small amount of "Yihua" Fan Mu and Qian Fan and a large number of sulfur slag, pouring bags, blower mouths, smelting and casting sand and other relics have been found. It can be judged that this building site group was abandoned and used as a money minting workshop.
That is to say, there have been "three phases" of cultural relics in this place of Jimen, how to explain? Ren Xianghong believes that the use of the "second phase" and "phase iii" of the building base site group outside the west gate of the small city does not affect the possibility that the "second phase" is the Minoru Gakuen Palace. If you use the "end of the first period" as the "upper limit" of the building base site group outside the west gate of the small city, and the "beginning of the third phase" as the "lower limit" of the building base site group outside the west gate of the small city to "card position", it is exactly the time period under Tian QiJi, but it can be determined that the "second phase" building is basically the Minoru Xuegong.
Ren Xianghong came here to investigate since 2000, and later came several times, the relics of the "first phase" cultural relics are inlaid with shells, which is very unusual, and the judgment time is the end of the Spring and Autumn Period or a little later; the third period from the excavated Qi state knife coins and other judgments belong to the late Warring States period, but when it is late, it is difficult to say, but it can be determined that it cannot enter the Han Dynasty. From the perspective of the "upper limit" and "lower limit", there is basically no problem in the construction of the base site group outside the west gate of the small city and the use of the Warring States Tian Qi period. The only regret is that because of the emergence of the mint, the "lower limit" era is not very sufficient, which reminds of the gradual decline at the end of tian qi, and it is impossible for the minor school palace not to be affected.
The building base group outside the west gate of the small city was built together with the small city, Ren Xianghong found the fire site in the palace building ruins of the No. 10 construction site in the small city, and it was judged that it was not a normal fire, Ren Xianghong thought of the "Le Yi Fa Qi" incident in the Warring States period, because "Le Yi Fa Qi" has a record of burning the temple chamber of the Qi Du Palace.
In the 28th year of The Reign of Yan Zhao (284 BC), Bai Leyi was made a general and united with the four kingdoms of Qin, Han, Zhao, and Wei to jointly fight Qi (After the war began, Chu also joined the coalition army). Fierce battle at Jixi, defeated the Qi army. Le Yi led the Yan army to take advantage of the victory to conquer the 72 cities of Qi and directly enter the capital city of Linzi. And burned the temple room of qidu palace, plundering treasures and huge wealth to return to the Yan kingdom.
If the change in the base site group of the buildings outside the west gate of the small city is explained by the burning of the palace building in 284 BC of "Le Yi Vaqi", then the mint of the "third phase" here can make sense. After Le Yi cut qi, the state of Qi was left with only Ju and Jimo, and Le Yi besieged the city for no more than three years; after the death of King Zhao, king Hui of Yan, who had just taken the throne, won the counter-plan of the Qi general Tian Dan, removed Le Yi, and attacked the city by cavalry; after a long time, he could not attack, but Zhongtian Dan's fire bull array was defeated. The State of Qi took advantage of the situation to recover all lost territory. Le Yi Vaqi's work was lost.
After the restoration of the State of Qi, King Xiang of Qi restored the capital and restored and continued the Minoru Palace, but the scenery was no longer beautiful. In 265 BC, King Xiang of Qi died, and his son Tian Jian succeeded to the throne, known in history as King Jian of Qi, who was cowardly and incompetent, the country was weakening, the Palace of Jixia Xuegong lost its vitality, and many mr. Jixia was bribed by the State of Qin, or entered Qin or "was in cao camp in han". One hypothesis is that the western part of the building base group became a "mint" after the restoration of Tian Qi.
According to the "upper and lower limit years", Ren Xianghong tended to think that the base site group of the building outside the west gate of the small city was the Minoru Gakuen Palace. Moreover, with the "exclusion method", this can also be basically confirmed, for example, the east is a moat, the east is impossible; the north is a water system, nor is it possible; previously some people thought that it was in the south of the small city, but the qi ancient city is sitting north to the south, and the Xuegong palace cannot be built near the central axis; the west is a small city, and no similar architectural traces have been found.
Many of the experts present held similar views. Sun Bo, president of the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, explained the changes in the cultural remains of the "three phases": Although Tian Qi fuguo restored the Minoru Xuegong, it is likely that it will be difficult to use for a long time, so it will be used for other purposes. At the same time, this building can later be used as a mint workshop, which proves to belong to the King of Qi, and is consistent with the attributes of the Minoru Gakuen Palace. In addition, from the perspective of orientation, the base site group of the building is located on the south side of the west gate of the small city, north and south, and is in line with the bottom of the minor.
Jiang Linchang, doctoral supervisor of the School of History and Culture of Shandong University, believes that "Mr. Minoru" is a foreigner with a different surname and a foreign nationality, and his place of discussion cannot be the same as that of the foreign dynasty where the chinese people are deliberating, but should be outside the foreign dynasty. The location of the suspected "Minoru Gakugu" found this time is in the southwest corner outside the inner castle walls. This location is both outside the city and close to the outer facade on the south side of the city, and it is more reasonable to have the west gate connected. In summary, it was preliminarily agreed that the building base site group on the south side of the west gate of the small city should be related to the "Minoru Gakuen Palace".
Wang Yongbo, honorary chairman of the Shandong Archaeological Society and a second-level researcher, believes that from the perspective of location, layout and scale, the site of the formation cannot be an official office, a private building, let alone a military camp. Because it was impossible for official offices and private buildings to be built outside the city according to the city walls, and the specifications of the barracks should not be so luxurious, and the location was not appropriate. In short, the site of the establishment can only be the Minoru Gakuen Palace, where Mr. Minoru and scholars give lectures, or has the function of "Pavilion Station" - the temporary residence of students.
Zheng Tongxiu, director of the Shandong Museum, said: "The discovery of the building base site group outside the west gate of the small city of Qigucheng is very important, and the rammed earth building sites are neatly arranged, especially the courtyard wall has been found, which has the basic layout requirements of the palace." Moreover, the relationship between the layers is clear, and the age is relatively clear, which is in line with the literature records of the Minoru Gakugu, and its belonging to the Minoru Gakumi Palace is not a big problem. ”
At the meeting, some scholars suggested further arguments. Bai Yunxiang, deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: According to its spatial location, shape and layout and combined with the analysis of relevant literature records, the base site group of buildings outside the west gate of the small city of Qi should be the site of the Jixia Xuegong, which is systematically discussed in the "Notes on Archaeological Research of the Ancient City of Linzi Qi", but the evidence is not sufficient enough, and further field work and in-depth research are needed for the existence of doubts.
Xu Longguo, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that this kind of long row house building has been found in the southwest outside the Han Chang'an City, and the specific location is outside the Xi'an Gate, on the south side of the South City Trench. So this aspect also needs to be excluded. In the case of time determination, if everything else is excluded, then it is very likely that this is the Minoru Gakuen Palace.
In short, the building base site group outside the west gate of the small city of the ancient city of Qi is basically confirmed as the Minoru Xuegong in the Warring States period. However, due to the lack of physical data with written evidence, and the surrounding situation of the entire building site group is not very clear, the evidence chain needs to be further improved in the future.
The gate of the "Minoru Gakuen Palace" slowly opened
Remains of the main building of Minoru Gakugu No. 11
In the early spring, in the west of Xiaoxu Village in Linzi Qidu Town, archaeologists are busy cleaning up the site in the exploration.
"After nearly 5 years of archaeological excavations, it can be determined that this is the site of minoru Gakuen Palace." Dong Wenbin, deputy research librarian of the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, waved his hand from the southern end of the site to the north.
For more than 2,000 years, like a white colt passing through the gap, the door of the "Minoru Gakuen Palace" has slowly opened to the present.
Why did the Qi people name their own xuegong "Jixia"? This is related to the city gate called "Jimen" in Linzi, the capital of the country at that time. According to historical records, Qi Huan Gongtian built a school palace near Jimen, so it was named "Jixia Xuegong". After the establishment of the Palace, it attracted bachelors from all over the world, which lasted for more than 150 years and reached "hundreds of thousands of people" at the time of prosperity.
At that time, many well-known literary lobbyists from various countries wrote books and lectured here successively or for a long time, and exchanged views and refuted difficulties with each other, which set off a big wave in the ideological circles at that time. There are often thinkers, scholars, and celebrities in the Minoru Gakuen Palace. Chun Yu, who was born as a slave and had the status of a son-in-law, Tian Biao, an eloquent, a Taoist, a Zhao, and Xunzi, a Chu person who was full of splendid complaints, and Mengzi, a Zou ren, and so on. Sima Guang once said in the "Jixia Fu" that Jixia "to the wonders of a thousand miles, the great saying of the total hundred families", which is what later generations call the envy of "a hundred schools of contention".
Later, the Minoru Academy ended with the decline of the State of Qi. As for its former site, in the records of the ancients, there are also clues, and there are many documents pointing to it outside the west gate of the Qi Ancient City. For example, Liu of the Western Han Dynasty told the "Beilu": "Qi has a ji gate, and the Qi city gate is also." During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, the Southern Yan State Linzi ren Yan Mo 's "Records of Qi Di": "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 Xiu Literature Office also"; the Northern Wei geographer Li Daoyuan's "Water Jing Zhuan Zi Shui" records: "The water flows north of the city, the west of the Yang Gate, and the water has a place of old sealing, the so-called Qi Zhi Ji Xia Ye".
For more than 2,000 years, several scholars have visited the former site of the Minoru Xuegong, but due to various restrictions, they have not written clearly in writing whether the ruins of the barren grass and grass they saw were located outside the west gate of the great city of Qi's ancient city or outside the west gate of the small city. This also led later scholars to believe that the Minoru Gakuen Palace may also be outside the south gate of the small city, even under the Minoru Mountain.
Judging from the historical role of the Minoru Gakugu Palace, it belongs to the ideological and cultural functional areas of ancient cities, and is different from the palace area where the ruler lived and handled political affairs, the ceremonial activity area for commemorating ancestors or performing sacrifices, the handicraft workshop area for the production of material products, or the market area for commodity trading, and its unique functional attributes will inevitably present archaeological characteristics that can represent its own nature.
"Historically, all the official schools were attached to the political center, often on the west side of the center of the state, so the Jixia Xuegong would not be built under the Jishan Mountain in the barren suburbs, but only near the ancient city of Qi." Dong Wenbin, who is the main participant in the archaeological project, said that through archaeological exploration and excavation work, it can be known that the building base site group outside the west gate of the small city of Qi is the only high-grade courtyard-style building complex in the warring states period on the outside of the western wall and the south wall of the entire Qi ancient city. "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 by us through work."
In the courtyard, the distribution of building base sites is regular, with a total of 14 rammed earth foundation sites in rows of east and west, north and south rows, and four columns in north and south. These building sites can be divided into large, medium and small three grades, the large one is about 650 square meters, the medium one is about 400 square meters, and the small one is 100 to 200 square meters. On the whole, there is a regular blank belt running from north to south between these building sites, and although the entire courtyard is not a symmetrical layout of the central axis, this blank belt seems to divide the entire building area into two in space.
On the architectural ruins that came out, Dong Wenbin introduced the relatively core No. 11 main building to reporters. "It's a corridor style building. From the architectural form, unlike ordinary houses, it is lined up with houses in front of and behind, similar to today's schools. As can be seen from the cross-section of the building, all the buildings are rammed. It is relatively small in the complex, only more than a hundred square meters. ”
From the smaller Building No. 11, it can be seen that when it was first built, the construction party had overall planning and careful design. On the architectural site, the tadpole text and gluttonous pattern paving tiles unearthed were even more unbearable for the common people at that time. As roofs, eaves waterproofing, decorative tiles, can also reveal a message, "If you use these tiles, the foundation of the house, the load-bearing columns must be very strong and strong." Dong Wenbin said.
In the past five years of archaeological excavations, more than 1,000 cultural relics have been unearthed. Among them, what impressed the reporter was that the screw process was used in the building components. "This decoration is of a high grade, when the screw components are newly installed on the building, and the sun hits it, it will show a colorful light, which is very beautiful, and it also proves the grandeur and grandeur of the building." Dong Wenbin said. In the ruins, pottery beans have also been unearthed for food, or used by scholars to share meals.
More critically, this building base site group was broken by the remains of the Qi state coinage at the end of the Warring States period, and at the same time, the ash pit in the middle of the Warring States period was superimposed on the base site, which showed that the upper limit of its construction age was the middle warring states period, the lower limit was the end of the Warring States period, and the overall age should be in the middle and late warring states stage.
Through the dating of animal bones excavated from the superimposed ash pit at the foundation site of the building, it was found that it was slightly earlier than the noon reign time of Tian Qi Huan Gongtian recorded in the literature. According to the literature, "The official of the Xiqi Huan Public Jixia set up the title of Doctor, which attracted the favor of the wise and the favored. The disciples of Meng Ke have all swam in Qi. ”
In this way, the timeline of the building can be matched with the historical records.
There is a site on the east side of the archaeological site, and the reporter saw from the section that there is a road between the east wall of the entire jixia Xuegong site and the west wall of the small town of Qidu, and the ruts on the road are clearly visible.
"The small city of Qi's ancient city is the newly built political center of the Tian clan after the Qi Dynasty, which is nothing more than a relocation of the capital, with the purpose of reorganizing the political order. We 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 moat of the small city was directly enclosed inside, which showed that the two were planned and built as one. When the Hara clan moved Miyagi from Oyoshiro to Kojo after the Unification of the Dynasty, it was decided to build minoru Gakugu Shrine at the same time. Dong Wenbin's interpretation of this is that in this way, this official school is placed at the elbow and armpit, which is convenient for use and control, and it is also separated from the center, and there is a difference between the inside and outside.
"In the Warring States War, there are also spies between countries, spying on each other. Many scholars and students may have multiple identities, and it cannot be denied that there are no spies among them. The Jixia Xuegong was set up outside the city, first, scholars and students came and went freely from other places, just a little farther away from the core of power and the place where there was a lot of news; second, the distance was moderate, which also made it convenient for the King of Qi to summon and consult this group of 'think tanks' at any time. Wang Yongbo, former deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics, honorary chairman of the Shandong Archaeological Society and second-level researcher, said.
At that time, Linzi was very prosperous, and its people built pianos, cockfighting dogs, and six bo bows. What does the "Minoru Gakuen Palace" look like in the middle of nowhere? Archaeology shows 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.
On the south side of the remains of Building 11 is a square. The entire square is also rammed, and the construction process is slightly "perfunctory" compared to the houses. The occasional circle-shaped remains on the ground are actually left by rammed objects of cylinders, and when they were first built, the craftsmen carried tools and beat them in a high place, trying to be smooth, so that the rammed nests were not continuous. This square, perhaps an activity venue for scholars and students, has an area of more than 1,000 square meters and may be used as a venue for keju competitions.
On the south side of the square are the remains of the walls of the Minoru Gakuen Palace. The information refracted in the middle is also very rich: first, the wall is very thick, six meters wide, and the height should not be low in comparison; second, such a thick wall should surround a closed courtyard, which shows that the courtyard level is relatively high, and it is more solid to sit on the title of the palace of learning.
In the western part of the building base group, there are also common excavations of coinage remains, of which more than 2500 fragments of Qi Dao coin fan were found, which is the largest number of pre-Qin qianfan unearthed in the country in recent years, the face fan text is "Qi Da Dao", and a small amount of "Yihua" Fan Mother Qian Fan and a large number of sulfur slag, pouring bags, blowers, smelting and casting sand and other relics were also found. It can be determined that this building site group was abandoned and used as a mint workshop.
"This group of building sites was abandoned and used as a mint workshop, and the change in nature may be related to major historical events, but the mint agency as the lifeblood of the state can be placed here, and it is also related to the fact that it is a closed area and under state control. This is also an indirect proof that this place was once a government-run institution such as the Minoru Gakuen Palace. ”
Interestingly, the country road through the middle of the building site has traditionally been called Huang Avenue, and the gate that leads to the village from this road is called Huangmen. "黉" means a school, and the name of this road and the site of the gate is still used today, which is probably the result of the memory of the place in those years.
Today, the true face of the "Minoru Gakuen Palace" has surfaced on the loess, but there are still many unsolved mysteries waiting for deeper exploration. "Our current excavation work can only be used as the beginning of the Minoru Gakugu Archaeological Project, and it is expected that it will take some time to complete all archaeological excavations, followed by more in-depth and detailed exploration and excavation." Sun Bo, president of the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that in 2022, we will continue to fully expose the south gate, and look for the western and north wall walls, and will also excavate the building base sites in the site to further explore the specific use of these buildings.