The beacon, which has been stationed in the Western Regions of China for thousands of years, is the most basic military facility in the ancient Chinese border defense system.
Many people's understanding of Fengsui starts from the famous lines of Tang Dynasty poets.
In that era when fantasy and reality were intertwined, beacon and beacon were like totems and benchmarks in the poet's mind, depicting the rise and fall of a dynasty.
In their writings, there is the momentum of "the fire in the kitchen leads to the army wall, and the smoke of the beacon goes up to the garrison", and there is also the anti-war sentiment hidden in "when the beacon on the river closes, and the people on the river are full of snow", even the poetess Xue Tao can write it. "The captives still disobey their orders, and the beacon smoke goes straight to the north." The sentence.
In 2019, in the vast desert by the Peacock River, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted an active excavation of the Keyakekuduke Fengsui site.
A thousand years ago, the sergeants of the frontier were stationed here. There were not only gold and iron horses, but also the tenderness of iron men. They even expanded the extension of Tang Dynasty frontier poems, allowing us to see a "same but different" with Tang Dynasty frontier poems. world.
"Boiled oxen to cook wild camels"
Fengsui Ruins Deciphering the Life of Soldiers in the Western Regions
"But the Dragon City will be here, and I won't teach Huma to ride the Yin Mountains." "Grim Reign of Drunkenness, how many people have returned from the war in ancient times?" "The north wind blows the ground and the white grass is folded, and Hu Tian flies snow in August." ... The "outside the fortress" in these frontier poems has a relatively fixed meaning in the eyes of ancient Chinese literati, referring specifically to the areas beyond the western and northern frontiers of the unified central dynasty.
The Keyakkuduke Fengsui Site is located in the desert area of Yuli County, Bazhou, Xinjiang. It is 47 kilometers away from the ancient city of Yingpan in the east and 233 kilometers away from the ancient city of Loulan in the southeast. .
Its location is not only geographically outside the Great Wall, but also culturally outside the Great Wall.
After the beacon was abandoned, it did not leave many traces in the history books. It was not until the late 19th and early 20th centuries that many Western explorers entered the area under the guise of archaeological expeditions, and the Keakkuduk beacon site fell asleep. Thousands of years later, it has entered people's field of vision again.
In 2019, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology applied to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage for the approval of the active archaeological excavation project of the Keyak Kuduk Fengsui site, with an excavation area of 600 square meters; an additional excavation area of 500 square meters in 2020; a new excavation area in 2021. The excavation area was increased by 1200 square meters.
At the excavation site with a total area of more than 2,000 square meters, a large number of relics were unearthed, including not only documents and wooden slips, but also coins such as Kaiyuan Tongbao and Qianyuan Tongbao, as well as pottery, copper, iron, wood, bone, paper, leather, All kinds of relics, such as grass and textiles, are the utensils used in the daily life and work of the soldiers on the frontier, which outlines a real picture of life outside the fortress in the Tang Dynasty.
Life outside the Great Wall has repeatedly appeared in the frontier poems of the Tang Dynasty. Cen Shen once wrote "The simmering plough and the ox cook the wild camels, and the wine is returned to the Luoluo".
The excavation of the Keyak Kuduk Fengsui site has made the life in these poems more three-dimensional. The animal specimens excavated at the site include the bones of red deer, wild boar, yellow sheep, camels and other animals, which proves that Du Fu sent Cousin Xi Que's eating habits of "yellow sheep are not stinky, and too much reed wine is drunk" are indeed true.
On the gourd fragments unearthed in the ruins, the ingredient of wine - lilac acid was found, which confirmed the heroism of the Tang Dynasty sergeant "drunk on the battlefield, Lord Grim".
"There is no ancestry in the west out of Yangguan"
Not many Tang Dynasty poets have been to Xinjiang
Wang Yongli, an associate researcher of the Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences, has studied frontier poetry for many years. She once mentioned in "Tang Dynasty Frontier Fortress Poems and Northwest Regional Culture" that the "sai" in frontier fortress poetry in the Tang Dynasty actually has a double meaning. The geographical boundary landscapes in the northwest frontier, such as the Yellow River, Helan Mountain, Yanshan Mountain, Liaoshui, etc., which have the function of isolating the Chinese and foreign countries, are also the cultural and psychological boundary landscapes in the minds of the poets of the Central Plains in the Tang Dynasty, such as Yangguan, Yumenguan, the Great Wall, etc. The poems have poets' thoughts on the changes of the country's territory, the relationship between the central dynasty and the nomadic peoples in the northwest, and the historical and cultural background.
Wang Yongli told reporters that although there were a lot of frontier poems in the Tang Dynasty, such as "Yangguan Road, Hu Sha and Saichen", which mentioned "Yumen Pass" and "Yang Pass", there are many poems, but in fact they really walked out of Yumen Pass and set foot in Xinjiang. There are not many poets in this area.
"What we can confirm now is that Cen Shen and Gao Shi have been there, and there are many poets who also write frontier poems, but so far we can't confirm that they have been there. For example, Wang Wei, who worked as a censor in Liangzhou, When he was a judge of Jiedu, he went to Hexi at most, and his footprints were mainly around Liangzhou, and he should have never crossed Yangguan."
As a subordinate of Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing, Cen Shen went to Xinjiang twice. "Especially when he went to Xinjiang for the second time, as the deputy envoy of Du Zhi under Feng Changqing, his official position was already relatively high. After work, within the control of Tang Jun, you can walk around and take a look." Wang Yongli said, "Therefore, in Cen Shen's poems, there are some scenes that can only be seen in the Western Regions."
Cen Shen wrote a poem called "Ubala Flower Song" in 756 AD.
Ubala is the Tianshan Snow Lotus.
"He mentioned in the preface that he had heard of such a flower before, but had never seen it before. When he was an official in Beiting, a clerk sent him a Ubala flower. He wrote 'The leaves are six petals, the flowers are nine rooms' is to describe the Tianshan snow lotus." Wang Yongli introduced.
"Several expeditions to the west, together to shatter Yecheng"
related to the recovery of the four towns of Anxi
Zhang Ji, a poet in the middle Tang Dynasty, once wrote "Generals to the West": "The north wind blows from the yellow sand, and the camp is overturned in the middle of the night. The war horses sleep in the snow, and the explorers climb the ice. The flags in the deep mountains are not displayed, and the moraine drums are silent. General, I will also collect the broken Yecheng." Forty words describe the process of the Tang army's expropriation of the broken Yecheng in the Western Regions.
This poem recalls the process of Wu Zetian sending Wang Xiaojie and Ashina Zhong to lead an army to the northwest to recover the four towns of Anxi.
The historical event described in the poem is likely to be related to the construction and use of the Keak Kuduk beacon.
The various relics unearthed in the site are typical Tang Dynasty artifacts, and the unearthed documents and wooden slips have a clear chronology; the eight carbon 14 specimens collected from the remains of the beacon tower body and the ash heap were tested in different laboratories. Around 700 years ago.
Combined with historical documents, archaeologists initially believe that the construction of the Keakkuduk beacon was about the first year of longevity, that is, 692 AD.
Wang Yongli said that the recovery of the four towns in Anxi was a major event at the time: "The relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the Western Regions was not a static relationship, but was always in a state of change. When Tang Gaozu was Li Yuan, the power of the Tang Dynasty did not extend to Yangzhou. Outside the customs, the four towns of Anxi were not established until the time of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Strictly speaking, the four towns of Anxi in the Wu Zetian period should be called 'recovery', which means that the four towns of Anxi were occupied by Tubo for about 20 years. Yes, it was not until the time of Wu Zetian that the four towns of Anxi were recovered."
"Actually, there was a huge controversy over whether to recover the four towns of Anxi. One of the opponents was Di Renjie. Di Renjie believed that the distance from Chang'an to Anxi was a long way, and the fields in the desert areas were difficult to use for production, so he opposed the restoration and management of the imperial court. The four towns of Anxi. Wu Zetian thought that the territory laid down by the previous emperor could not be thrown away in her hands, so she insisted on sending Wang Xiaojie to fight." Wang Yongli introduced that as a female emperor, Wu Zetian, as a female emperor, had very strong political skills, so he was able to promote the four towns of Anxi. recover.
After recovering the four towns of Anxi, the central government needs to carry out effective governance here, and decided to station 30,000 troops.
The Keyak Kuduk Beacon Tower was probably built after Wang Xiaojie recaptured the four towns of Anxi, and it has been in use for nearly 100 years.
After the "Anshi Rebellion", in order to pacify the Anshi rebels, the Tang Dynasty government had to withdraw the troops stationed in Anxi, Beiting, Hexi, and Longyou. The troops in Longyou were empty, and Tubo took the opportunity to occupy a large area of Hehuang, between the four towns of Anxi and the Central Plains In the eighth year of Emperor Dezong's reign (792), Anxi and Beiting fell into the hands of Tubo.
"Tuntian cloth brocade a thousand miles a week"
Farming during wartime
During excavations around the beacon, archaeologists also discovered 40 different plants.
Among them, food crops include rice, barley, barley, wheat, millet, millet, etc., and horticultural crops include peaches, apricots, jujubes, melons, walnuts, jujubes, and prunes.
Wang Yongli introduced that in the Tang Dynasty, the operation and development of the Western Regions usually carried out large-scale farms: "After Wang Xiaojie recaptured the four towns in Anxi, the Tang Dynasty stationed soldiers here. When the geographical conditions and the environment permit, these soldiers can spend their free time. Ploughing land, planting grain, that is, replenishing supplies, and going to war when there is a war. Therefore, these town soldiers have two jobs, both farmers and sergeants."
In fact, in addition to Juntun, there are also Mintun, which recruited some landless peasants from the Central Plains to reclaim new land: "For example, Gaochang Kingdom, the residence of Anxi Duhufu, was built on an oasis. The local land environment and conditions are good. After the demise of the Gaochang Kingdom, the Tang Dynasty government set up Xizhou in the local area, and openly recruited some farmers who had no land in other areas to reclaim; Prisoners of petty crimes, such as those who fight and fight, will be imprisoned in the Central Plains, but if they are willing to farm in the Western Regions, they can be pardoned."
Due to various policies, agriculture in Xinjiang was well developed during the Tang Dynasty, whether it was military or civilian.
After the Middle Tang Dynasty, the connection between the Xinjiang region and the Central Plains was interrupted. It was not until the Qing Dynasty unified the north and south roads of the Tianshan Mountains that the local economy began to gradually recover and prosper.
Cover reporter Yan Wenwen Zhou Qin