"The turbulence of the wind sobers up the wine, and the boat returns to the fog and rises the embankment."
As early as 1,000 years ago, Maha Pond let many literary heroes such as Shi Sheng Du Fu sail in the pool, "drunk and do not know the way back". Maha pond is Sanskrit, translated as "vast dragon" meaning, in 2014, a corner of the pool was found in the Chengdu Sports Center, combined with historical facts, experts infer that this pool is at least thousands of acres.
Recently, with the end of archaeological excavations at a construction site near Qinglong Street in Chengdu, archaeologists accidentally discovered the northwest corner of the Maha Pond here and found a section of more than 80 meters long city wall ruins. In this excavation, the urban coordinates of ancient Chengdu, Maha Pond, can further restore its location, scope and appearance, and restore the historical appearance of Chengdu.
Unearthed a large number of piles Experts speculate on the garden boundary
With the construction of the comprehensive building of the Third People's Hospital of Chengdu, the Chengdu Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team entered the construction site to investigate, and launched an archaeological survey at the construction site on April 13. Recently, the excavation work has come to an end, although the excavation area is not large, but it has been very fruitful. In addition to a section of the city wall from the Five Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty, the northwest corner of the Maha Pond in the Ming Dynasty can also be basically determined.
According to historical records, The Maha Pond played a role as a park in the Tang Dynasty, when Yang Xiu, the King of Shu of the Sui Dynasty, built the sub-city of Chengdu, taking soil from the south and west of the sub-city to form an area of 500 mu, and in the Tang Dynasty, with the introduction of the water of the Pi River and the water of the Yuxi River into the Maha Pond, and after the expansion of the Later Shu, the water area once reached about 1,000 mu, but in the late Yuan and early Ming and Ming Dynasties, the Maha Pond gradually declined and was backfilled. In the eighteenth year of Ming Hongwu, Zhu Chun, the king of Shu, filled in most of the Maha Pond and built the Shu King's Mansion on the site of the Later Shu Palace, which is the Ming Dynasty version of the Maha Pond, which completely became a private garden.
"This time we found a lot of backfill accumulation, similar to what was found on the Donghua Gate side of the year." According to Yi Li of the Chengdu Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team, the Ming Dynasty built the Shu King's Mansion and filled in a part of the Maha Pond, in these piles, there are Ming Dynasty rubble, blue and white porcelain and other things, combined with historical documents and excavated cultural relics can be judged, Chengdu City Three Hospitals This place, can basically be determined to be the northwest corner of the Maha Pond.
Yi Li said that although most of the Maha pond was filled, the pool body still had a lot of water, and this time it was only a margin. However, the excavation of a corner this time at least shows that in the Ming Dynasty, if not the Shu Royal Palace, the Maha Pond still has an area of at least thousands of acres, "so according to archaeological excavations, it can be speculated that the area of the Maha Pond before the Ming Dynasty repaired the Palace was more than a thousand mu, and it should be larger in the Tang Dynasty." ”
Continue the archaeological excavations
Restore the historical appearance of Chengdu
Chen Weizhong, a famous water conservancy expert in Chengdu, said in the book "The Rise and Fall of Maha Pond" that at the beginning of the construction of Maha Pond, the area reached 500 mu, and with the Tang Dynasty's introduction of pi river water and Yuxi water into maha pond, the amount of water in maha pond became very sufficient, and after the expansion of Houshu, the water area reached about 1,000 mu.
With the advancement of archaeological excavations, Experts of Chengdu Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team said that the southern boundary of Maha Pond should be on the west side of today's Fu Square, around the new site of Chengdu Museum, according to judgment, the formation date of the accumulation in the new site of Chengdu Museum should be no later than the early Ming Dynasty, and there are a large number of pebbles mixed with sand particles and a small number of porcelain pieces and brick fragments in the pit, which is more consistent with the archaeological findings of the Donghuamen site.
The southeast boundary of The Maha Pond should not exceed the Sichuan Grand Theatre site, because in the archaeological excavations carried out at the Sichuan Grand Theatre site in 2012, no relics consistent with the Site of the Maha Pond were found; the northern boundary of the Maha Pond is about the line of present-day Yangshi Street and West Yulong Street, because the street north of this control line is basically the same as the direction of Chengdu City in the Tang and Song Dynasties (about 30 degrees east-by-north). The western boundary of The Maha Pond, about the line of present-day DongchengGen Street, was located for the same reason as the northern boundary.
Yi Li said that when the area of Maha Pond is the largest, it should have an area of thousands of acres, and the specific location and functional partitions need to be further excavated. In this excavation, the urban coordinates of ancient Chengdu, the Maha Pond, can further restore its location, scope, and appearance, and at the same time restore the historical appearance of Chengdu, such as the construction of the Shu Palace Garden before and after.
Excavation of the ruins of the city walls
Or temporary fortifications for war
In addition to the garden boundary, the Three Hospitals also unearthed an 80-meter-long remnant of the city wall, which archaeologists initially concluded was built during the Fifth Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty.
Qiu Yan of the Chengdu Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team believes that this may be the wall of the sub-city, and now it seems that it is relatively rough. According to the excavation site, the ruins of this section of the city wall do not even have a base groove, which should be a temporary construction of the city wall, which was basically abandoned in the Northern Song Dynasty. The eastern side of the wall was badly damaged, the curves were narrow and narrow, and now it was broken, about a meter high. For the specific nature of the city wall, archaeologists are still studying further.
However, according to the Five Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty, the Shudi conquests were continuous, and the two divided regimes of the Shudi were destroyed successively, so experts preliminarily concluded that this section of the city wall is likely to be a temporary fortification built during the war, so unlike other regular city walls, there are signs of haste.
According to historical records, in November of the second year of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Taizu sent troops to attack Shu, and the Later Shu regime collapsed, and this section of the city wall is likely to witness the shadow of the sword and light at that time.
Chengdu Business Daily reporter Eun Xiaohuai photojournalist Wang Qin Zhang Zhi Editor Zhang Bo