Anxi Qingyang Xiacaopu Iron Smelting Site Exhibition Hall. Photo by Sun Hong
Quanzhou, 24 Apr (Zhongxin.com) -- When the weather is good, the exhibition hall of the Anxi Qingyang Xiacaopu Iron Smelting Site, surrounded by green mountains and green waters, has white walls, black tiles, and a simple atmosphere, which looks like a painting from a distance. The exhibition hall integrates with the ruins not far away, as well as the surrounding mountains and rivers and houses, telling visitors the moving story behind the World Heritage site.
"How to express the results of professional and difficult archaeology in a language or way that the public can accept and understand is a problem we have repeatedly pondered." Yi Shufeng, director of the Anxi County Museum in Fujian Province, said so.
The exhibition hall recreates the scene of ancient iron smelting. Photo by Sun Hong
Looking back at the past life, the sound of the hammer sounded for a thousand years
In July 2021, the "Quanzhou: World Marine Trade Center of Song and Yuan China" project was successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List. For many people, the Qingyang Xiacaopu Iron Smelting Site in the 22 heritage sites is somewhat unfamiliar. It is both "old" and "new", and its "old" is not old, but a precious witness of the inheritance of Quanzhou's iron smelting handicraft industry for thousands of years; its "new" is based on cultural accumulation and re-starting.
At the southwest foot of Wulang Mountain, the Yu clan of Qingyang Village, Shangqing Township, Anxi County, has lived here for generations. Most of the villagers have heard that in ancient times, there was an iron smelting farm in the village, but the age is too old, and no one can tell where and how the ancestors smelted.
Until October 2019, the arrival of the archaeological team of the School of Archaeology and Archaeology of Peking University made the small village suddenly lively, and the villagers' curious history of iron smelting was revealed little by little.
"At the beginning, I looked for the stove and dug it for more than a month, and it was all slag." Yi Shufeng told the China News Network reporter that the archaeological team got up at 6 o'clock in the morning every day, went to the site to start work after breakfast, and returned to the station at night to hold a centralized meeting to exchange and analyze the archaeological findings of the day, often staying up until one or two o'clock in the morning of the next day, and the sleep time was only four or five hours.
With the deepening of excavation work, a site covering an area of tens of thousands of square meters, including smelting sites, ancient mine caves, ancestral house ruins, ancient roads and mountains that provide fuelwood for smelting, has gradually been seen by the world.
At present, the archaeological team has completed the first four phases of excavation work, and of the 6 smelting furnaces that have been excavated, 5 are judged to be block iron smelting furnaces and 1 is a forging furnace. In addition, coins minted in the early 11th century, iron products such as iron nails, iron sheets, and iron blocks, smelting relics such as slag, ore, burned earth, and furnace linings, as well as more than 80,000 ceramic fragments, were also found at the archaeological site.
After archaeological excavations, this thousand-year-old iron smelting field "lies" in the canyon, the terrain is high in the north and low in the south, surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the southern gap is breezy, forming a natural outlet, the climate is relatively dry, and it is convenient for smelting activities. Near the site, there are also iron ore caves, forest vegetation, ancient roads, water systems and other resources, and an industrial chain from raw materials to processing to transportation is about to emerge.
"This is a great place to make iron by nature." Yi Shufeng introduced that the Qingyang Xiacaopu Iron Smelting Site was selected as the preliminary list of China's Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in 2020. This year, the archaeology team of the School of Archaeology and Archaeology of Peking University will continue to carry out the fifth phase of archaeological excavation.
At the excavation site of the Caopu Iron Smelting Site in Qingyang Xiacaopu, more than 600 square meters of protective sheds were built according to the mountainous terrain. Photo by Sun Hong
Unintentionally inserted willow Quanzhou applied for the "iron" certificate
Quanzhou launched the application for heritage and successfully lasted a full 20 years, during which there were several twists and turns, and the theme was adjusted many times. The discovery of the Anxi iron smelting site, although it is "unintentionally planted willows into the shade", makes Quanzhou's side outside the trade port and as a manufacturing center plump, and also reflects from the other side that the world marine trade in Song and Yuan China is becoming clearer and clearer, and the story is telling more and more wonderfully.
In the 1970s, the wreck of the "Nanhai No. 1" was unearthed, and the iron artifacts found on the ship were the largest cargo after porcelain. The mainstream view of the archaeological community is that the "Nanhai No. 1" shipwreck should go to sea in Quanzhou Port, and the porcelain from the shipwreck is mainly the porcelain of Quanzhou Dehua Kiln, Magnetic Stove Kiln and Minqing Yi Kiln, which speculates that the source of iron from the water in the shipwreck may be the same as the Quanzhou area, and it is likely to come from Qingyang Xiacaopu.
In the "Excavation and Preliminary Study of the Anxi Qingyang Iron Smelting Site in 2019-2020", Shen Ruiwen, dean of the School of Archaeology and Archaeology of Peking University, said that the Anxi Qingyang Xiacaopu Iron Smelting Site is the first block iron smelting site excavated in China, and the carbon 14 dating and ceramic typology studies have shown that its production was concentrated in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. At that time, the iron products produced here became an important commodity of the "Maritime Silk Road" trade.
According to archaeological findings, Anxi iron smelting has a complete production chain. Anxi iron smelting products can be divided into wrought iron (block ironmaking) and pig iron, natural steel, most of the "Xing selling into the sea" and "far away from the country", through the Quanzhou port continues to sell overseas.
As Shen Ruiwen said, the Qingyang Xiacaopu Iron Smelting Site is a representative heritage element of quanzhou world cultural heritage that embodies the export commodity production of the World Marine Trade Center, and its discovery occupies an important position in the history of iron smelting and trade in China and even the world.
After the successful application for heritage, the Qingyang Xiacaopu iron smelting site has received more attention. At the excavation site, more than 600 square meters of protective sheds were built according to the mountainous terrain, protecting the furnaces, strata and important architectural remains found by archaeology. Yi Shufeng introduced, "In order to coincide with the local traditional residential architectural style, the protection shed adopts an antique 'herringbone' sloped eaves, and each eaves is equipped with a sink and a diversion pipe to prevent the destruction of the site by rainwater." ”
In addition, Anxi has also configured a management team to improve safety protection facilities, strengthen daily management and maintenance, and implement 24-hour monitoring and supervision of exhibition halls and cultural relics warehouses through the purchase of services.
Anxi rattan iron home modern handicrafts are exported overseas. Photo by Sun Hong
The vine iron craft spread all over the world
After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, with the decrease of marine trade activities, the iron smelting handicraft industry in Quanzhou gradually declined, and the Qingyang Iron Works represented by the following Caopu iron smelting sites withdrew from the historical stage. But the art of iron has not been interrupted, but has been passed down from generation to generation.
In Qingyang Village, there is still no shortage of famous blacksmiths in ten miles and eight townships, which have become living witnesses of this traditional industry. In Anxi County, where Qingyang Village is located, craftsmen inherit innovative bamboo and rattan weaving skills, so that they can continue to be at the forefront of iron in this hot land where fires are thriving and molten iron flows, and transform ordinary materials into exquisite rattan and iron home crafts, which are sold to more than 60 countries and regions in the world. In August 2019, Anxi was awarded the title of "World Rattan Iron Craft Capital" by the World Handicraft Council.
With the rise of the Internet, with the help of the unique industrial advantage of rattan iron craft, young people who originally went out to work have returned to their hometowns to start businesses and help industrial development.
In Fulin Village, Shangqing Township, almost every household has a Taobao shop. On the one hand, there is an orderly processing of rattan iron craft workshops, and on the other hand, there is a booming network sales, which has almost become the daily life of the villagers.
"At the end of 2021, the design and construction of the ring road will begin, and it is expected to be completed and put into use in two years." Wu Jiangnan, chairman of Anxi Hexing Crafts Co., Ltd. and secretary of the party branch of Fulin Village, told reporters that at present, the annual output value of fuji iron craft in Fulin Village is about 200 million yuan (RMB, the same below), and after the ring road is put into use, it will promote the second take-off of the e-commerce industry in Fulin Village.
Up to now, Anxi has more than 2,200 household craft enterprises and 150,000 employees. In 2021, Anxi rattan iron home crafts will achieve an output value of 23 billion yuan.
Nowadays, walking into the caopu iron smelting site under Qingyang, although the furnace fire of iron smelting has been extinguished, the people can still explore the iron smelting wisdom of the ancestors in ancient times. More importantly, the thousand-year-old iron smelting technology has been passed down endlessly, and the "iron bone" legacy of the Song Dynasty has been extended to this day. (End)