Source: "Dao Zhonghua" WeChat public account
Empty Gobi, broken walls, this is the Loulan you imagined? Who has walked through Loulan for thousands of years? What is the story? Who unveiled the mystery of this ancient city? How was "Loulan Beauty" discovered? Can it be said that "Loulan beauty" is a Loulan person? Is Loulan the key place to communicate between China and the West? What evidence is there that thousands of years ago, the Loulan area was an important place for multi-ethnic cultural exchanges and exchanges? Cong Dexin, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was interviewed by the China Nationalities Daily "Dao Zhonghua" and took us into this "mysterious" land.
Find the mysterious "Loulan Ancient City"
Reporter: Before the official discovery of Loulan Ancient City, how was Loulan Ancient City recorded in the literature? Who first discovered the ancient city of Loulan and unveiled the mystery of this ancient city?
Cong Dexin: When it comes to Loulan, probably the first thing that comes to mind is the famous poem "Qinghai Changyun Dark Snow Mountain, Lonely City Looking at Yumen Pass." Yellow sand wears gold armor in a hundred battles, and Loulan will not be returned if it is not broken." (Wang Changling's "From the Army") The "Legend of the Xiongnu" and "The Legend of Dawan" in the "History" all mention Loulan, which should be the earliest known era of "Loulan". After the rendering of Wang Changling, Li Bai and future generations of poets in the Tang Dynasty, Loulan has almost become synonymous with pinning on the feelings of the border and serving the country on the side.
The record of Loulan in the historical books is the first "Shiji" mentioned in advance. In the "Legend of the Xiongnu", in the fourth year of the Western Han Dynasty (176 BC), Emperor Wen of Han received a letter from the domineering Xiongnu Shan Yu, in which he boasted of the Xiongnu's control over the surrounding areas, saying that "Dingloulan, Wusun, Hujie, and the twenty-six kingdoms around them all thought of them as Xiongnu." The "Legend of Dawan Lie" mentions the landscape characteristics of Loulan, "In the west of Khotan, the water flows west, and the West Sea is injected; Its east water flows east, pouring salt. Shiozawa sneaks underground, while the South River flows from its source. Many jade, river injection China. And Loulan and Gushiyai have the city of Guo, and Linyanze."
Or this Loulan, which later only appeared in the feelings of the literati (poets), that is, what is often said now in "poetry and the distance", gradually forgotten, only in the 19th century, a camel bell broke its silence...
In the second half of the nineteenth century, China was poor and weak, and European intellectuals were in the heat of feverish geographical discoveries, and the wave of Western geography chasing empty spots in the world reached its peak. Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Sven Hedin graduated from Mappsala University and in 1891 studied at the University of Berlin in Germany, where he studied under the famous geographer Richthofen. Li himself was an Asian explorer and traveled almost everywhere in Chinese mainland and frontiers. He was also the first scholar to coined the term "Silk Road".
Beginning in 1895, Sven Hedin conducted expeditions in northwest China, and his first expedition to Taklamakan was a failure that summer, and he himself nearly lost his life. In September 1899, he re-entered the Taklamakan Desert and arrived near the north shore of Lop Nur on February 29 of the following year, and because the shovel in the team was lost on the way, he sent a guide back to find it. After a sandstorm on his way, he found himself in an abrupt ancient city where he could see stupas and houses (locals around Taklamakan had heard about the "treasures" in the desert at the time). The guide, whose name was Eldik (also written Oldek), returned to Sven Hedin about his discovery. Sven Hedin sent him over to retrieve several patterned wood carvings (components of wooden furniture).
In March 1901, Sven Hedin couldn't wait to return to Taklamakan to excavate the ancient city. He obtained precious cultural relics such as Han Chinese, Balu Wen Mujian, paper documents and exquisite woolen fragments, and also investigated the remains of temples and houses in the ancient city. Later, Sven Hedin deduced that the ancient city was Loulan in Chinese historical texts based on the unearthed Han Mujian "Loulan" and the word "kroraina" on the Baluwen Jian. At this point, Loulan began to be known to the world.
The British explorer Stein, with the support of the British Indian authorities, entered the Loulan City site twice in 1906 and 1914, and excavated a large number of Chinese and Balu documents, wooden tablets and other precious cultural relics. In addition to the extensive excavation of the architectural remains in the Loulan City site, Stein also excavated a number of ancient tombs on the terrace outside the city, and it was speculated that it may be relics of the Eastern Han Dynasty from the Han Dynasty brocade and copper mirrors unearthed. Stein's excavation of the ancient city of Loulan was more comprehensive than that of Sven Hedin, and a more accurate mapping of the city of Loulan was included in his records, numbered LA.
Amazing discovery
Reporter: How was the "Loulan beauty" discovered? Please tell us about the situation and specific process of the discovery of "Loulan Beauty".
Cong Dexin: At the beginning of the founding of New China, everything was in ruins. Archaeologists in Xinjiang are obsessed with the investigation and excavation of the ancient city of Loulan. In the 50s, Huang Wenbi and archaeologists from the Xinjiang Museum successively carried out archaeological investigations in and around the Porbu Nur area, and carried out small-scale excavations of the Milan site and the Nya site. From 1979 to 1980, the Institute of Archaeology of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences cooperated with the Central Television Station to shoot the TV film "Silk Road", organized archaeologists, and entered the Loulan area three times. This is the first large-scale archaeological work by Chinese archaeologists on the ancient city of Loulan. Investigated and excavated some of the remains of the ancient city of Loulan including stupas, beacons in the northwestern suburbs, architectural remains outside the city, and a series of tombs.
One of the most important of the archaeological work in 1979-1980 was the discovery and excavation of the Tiepan River tombs and the ancient tomb gou cemetery on the banks of the Peacock River. In April 1980, the expedition team crossed the natural barrier Bailongdui east of Lop Nur and entered the range of Lop Nur waters, although the weather was hot, most of the archaeological team members entered this area for the first time, naturally they would not miss the "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity, they searched carefully, and in the south of a river bay called the Iron Plate River, on the edge of the high Tufu (fu), the expedition members found exposed branches and reed poles. Most of these branches and reed poles appear to have been placed intentionally, which is not a natural feature based on past experience. Sure enough, after clearing the pile above, the archaeologists found the tomb below. The entrance part of the tomb is covered with dry branches and reed poles, and the top is compacted with earth. For thousands of years, strong winds have continuously eroded the earth, and one side of the ancient tomb has been cut by the wind, revealing part of the silhouette, which is presented in front of the archaeological team, which may be a kind of chance.
The archaeological team named the tomb Iron Plate River No. 1. The tomb has an approximately rectangular earthen pit, known in technical terms as a pit shaft tomb, 1.7 meters long, 0.7 meters wide and nearly 1 meter deep. Bury (place) a complete human bone at the bottom of the grave, dry corpse (Lop Nur area drought and little rain, large evaporation, after the human body is buried, due to the extremely dry environment, the water is rapidly lost, keep the body after thousands of years of undecomposed, intact. The biggest difference between dried corpses in Xinjiang and Egyptian mummies is that the body is not embalmed, so we call it dried corpses, not mummies).
This discovery made the archaeology team present extremely excited, they carefully examined the ancient man in front of them, a woman, wearing a woolen round-pointed hat on his head, with two feathers obliquely inserted into the hat; The body is wrapped in a rough felt, folded on the chest, pinned with pointed branches, and the lower body is wrapped in sheepskin, which is tanned. Shoes on the feet are sewn from leather. The female is about 1.5 meters tall, brown skin, beautiful face, skin and nails are well preserved. Eyes slightly closed, straight and pointed nose, thin lips, thin cheeks. The hair is brown, fluffy and loose over the shoulders;
The funerary goods were simple, consisting of a piece of sheepskin covered by the body, and a flat basket woven from splendid and cattail grass leaves, similar to today's dustpans. A straw basket of the same texture is placed next to the head, and a woolen rope is placed at the mouth of the basket for carrying.
Archaeologists have found some very valuable contents from this tomb, including the shape of the tomb, the burial method, the characteristics of the burial objects, and especially importantly, a tree trunk at each end of the tomb as a symbol, which was also seen in the ancient tomb gou cemetery and later in the discovery of Xiaohe No. 5 cemetery.
The archaeological team carefully brought the dried body of the woman from the Tiepanhe River back to Urumqi. Later, the dried corpse was exhibited in Japan along with cultural relics related to the Loulan area, and the organizers used the title "Loulan Kingdom and Ancient Beauty" and restored her imaginary picture, and the name "Loulan Beauty" became widely known.
Wait once in a thousand years
Reporter: What era do "Loulan beauties" and "Loulan ancient city" belong to? Can it be said that "Loulan beauty" is a Loulan person?
Cong Dexin: The name Loulan appeared in the Western Han Dynasty. There are different views on the origin of the name "Loulan", and the Japanese scholar Nagasawa Kazujun in his book "The Kingdom of Loulan" believes that it is derived from the Luwen "Kroraina", and the Chinese "Loulan" is translated accordingly. The Chinese scholar Meng Fanren believes that the introduction of Baluwen to Xinjiang was around the end of the 2nd century AD, and it is most likely that the local people used the Baluwen to record the long-standing "Loulan" phonetics. It can be seen that Loulan is the name used by the local aborigines, and the Loulan in the Chinese historical book is a truthful record of this pronunciation.
Another Chinese scholar, Feng Chengjun, in the 50s of the last century, also proposed that Loulan and "Lop Nur" are related, believing that it is likely that the two are closely related, "either taking the name of the country as the name of the lake, or taking the name of the lake as the name of the country". He further said that the "Records of the Western Regions" quoted in the "Notes on the Classic of Water" refers to Lop Nur as the Prison Lanhai, which is probably an ancient name. So this Loulan is most likely the ancient name of Lop Nur, and Loulan City is named after the lake.
In the Book of Han, it is mentioned that "Loulan and Gushi were in the throne, and they attacked and robbed the Han envoy Wang Hui and so on, and they were the eyes and ears of the Xiongnu, so that their soldiers covered the Han envoys." The Han faction Fu Jiezi assassinated King Loulan in the fourth year of Yuan Feng (77 BC) and changed Loulan to the state of Shanshan, whose capital is believed to be in present-day Ruoqiang County, with the political center heading south into the southern edge of the Tarim Basin.
The age of the ancient city of Loulan itself is believed by most scholars to be the Eastern Han-Wei-Jin Dynasty, but it cannot be ruled out that it was as early as the Western Han Dynasty or even earlier. Chinese character documents (paper documents, wooden tablets, etc.) unearthed in the ancient city show that the age is concentrated in the Wei and Jin dynasties. Among the known wooden jian, the earliest era name is the fourth year of Cao Fang Jiaping, the king of Weiqi during the Three Kingdoms, that is, 252 AD, followed by the era name of the Western Jin Dynasty. Based on the content of the Han script and documents unearthed in the city, most of which are related to the documents and archives of the officials and tuntian generals of the Western Regions during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, scholars believe that the existing relics of Loulan City show that it is most likely to be the Changshi House of the Western Regions during the Wei and Jin Dynasties. The Long History of the Western Regions began in the Eastern Han Dynasty and lasted for five or six centuries during the Wei and Jin dynasties.
As mentioned earlier, the era of "Loulan beauty" was much earlier than that of Loulan country or city, and the times were different, so it cannot be said in general that "Loulan beauty" is Loulan people.
Contemporary or slightly earlier remains with the Tiepanhe Ancient Tomb are also famous relics such as ancient tombs and Xiaohe cemeteries, which show the living conditions of the ancient inhabitants of the Lop Nur area about 4,000 years ago, and the later Loulan Kingdom or Loulan City period, with a long period of time, from an archaeological point of view, can not be confused. In physical anthropology, it is not a continuation of the same group.
Speak with facts
Reporter: The Loulan hometown where "Loulan Beauty" and "Little River Princess" were unearthed is the key place to communicate between China and the West? What evidence can show that thousands of years ago, the Guloulan area was an important place for multi-ethnic cultural exchanges and exchanges?
Cong Dexin: The Xiaohe cemetery where the "Princess of Xiaohe" is located has unearthed cattle, sheep, wheat, millet, as well as jade beads and bronze (knives?). ) and other different kinds of items, and even camel droppings have been found in the surrounding area. These are of great significance for studying the propagation routes of ancient Lop Nur in areas such as wheat, millet, cattle, sheep and even bronzes, as well as the production industry at that time. It is conceivable that 4,000 years ago, the area that now seems to be the "Sea of Death" had such a developed ancient culture, which is one of the rich cultural contents of China's ancient Xinjiang region, and also shows the characteristics of this region as an important node of cultural dissemination.
In the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian chiseled the Western Regions, opening the way for the central government of the Han Dynasty to develop the Western Regions and other vast regions. This opened the thousand-year-old "Silk Road" and highlighted the importance of the region's communication routes between East and West.
Located on the eastern edge of the Tarim Basin, Lop Nur is the "bridgehead" of the Hexi Corridor into Xinjiang. Loulan is located in the traffic from Dunhuang to Lop Nur (north bank) area, and has an advantageous geographical position. At that time, the concept of the Western Regions was divided into a narrow sense and a broad sense. In a narrow sense, it refers to the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, east of the Green Ridge, and later refers to the area under the control of the Western Regions Protectorate; In a broad sense, it includes the above areas, but also refers to the vast area west of the Green Ridge, whether narrow or broad, Loulan is a key place.
After the opening of the Silk Road, the most important section was the "Loulan Road", which ran from Yumen Pass or Yangguan Pass west of Dunhuang, crossed Sanlongsha, passed through the Aqike Valley and Bailongdui, and then passed through Tuyin or Loulan Ancient City, along the Peacock River to the hinterland of the Western Regions. Especially during the Western Han Dynasty, the eastern part of the Tianshan Mountains was occupied by the Xiongnu, and the route from Dunhuang to Yiwu (Hami) and then west was not accessible, and this road became the main communication route from the mainland to the Western Regions. The aforementioned historical events such as Fu Jiezi's assassination of King Loulan and Li Guangli and Dawan are all related to this communication route.
The opening of this communication route in the Han Dynasty, from the most intuitive factor or reason, is related to the conflict of interests between the Western Han and the Xiongnu at that time. Not only for a series of political and military purposes, but also for thousands of years of cultural exchanges and integration in different regions, this is the historical background of Emperor Wudi of Han sending Zhang Qian to the Western Regions to open up the Silk Road.
If we say that the cultural exchanges of the Xiaohe period show more ancient cultural exchanges with Central Asia and North China; Then, when the Silk Road was opened, the Loulan area reflected a richer and more diverse phenomenon of cultural exchange. As a region under the jurisdiction of the Western Regions of the Han Dynasty, the central government exercised administrative powers, and silk, lacquerware, copper mirrors, and even writing from the Central Plains appeared in large numbers here. At the same time, the region has also absorbed cultural factors and traditions from the West, presenting a multicultural appearance.
Respondent Profile:
Cong Dexin, Director of the Frontier Archaeology Research Office, Director of the Frontier Archaeology Research Center, and Researcher, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Director of the Archaeological Society of China, Deputy Director of the Frontier Archaeology Special Committee of the Archaeological Society of China. His academic expertise is in the fields of Xinjiang prehistoric archaeology and Han and Tang archaeology. He has published more than 40 related articles and reports in journals such as "Archaeology"; Among them, "The Lost Ancient City-The Mystery of the Loulan Kingdom" (1996) won the second prize of the Outstanding Youth Achievement Award of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He presided over the excavation of the Xinjiang Hot Spring Adun Qiaolu site and burial project, which won the honors of 2012 National Top Ten Archaeological New Discoveries and New Discoveries of the Archaeology Forum of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; In 2019, he won the major project project of the Social Science Fund "Comprehensive Research on Xinjiang Hot Spring Adun Qiaolu Site and Cemetery".