A cultural treasure called the "Past Life" of the Forbidden City in Beijing by archaeologists, it was buried for 600 years
Fengyang Ming Zhongdu: "Trilogy" of Archaeological Discovery, Protection and Utilization
Our reporters Zhang Ziyun, Liu Meizi, Cao Jiayue
The phoenix is roaring, at his high hill.
The phoenix tree is born, and the sun rises there.
Fengyang, Anhui, was the land of Huaiyi in ancient times. It was the ancient country of Zhongli during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Haozhou was established in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The meaning of "Danfeng Chaoyang" is still in use today.
In the evening, in the National Archaeological Site Park of the Imperial City of Ming Zhongdu in the middle of Fengyang County, the tourists had already dispersed.
As far as the eye can see, in addition to lush grass, prosperous flowers, and people sweating like rain in the earthwork pit.
The archaeological team is excavating the northwest corner of the former palace area of the Ming Dynasty.
Walking along the walls of the Imperial City, at that time, people could only see the broken walls and ruins, but that history has always existed only in legends.
Today, the white jade stone carvings and giant stone foundations that have seen the light of day lie quietly in the earthwork pits, showing the world a real capital city.
Both Ming and Zhong were the first capitals built in accordance with the capital system in the early Ming Dynasty. They were once known as the blueprint of ancient Chinese complete palaces, and were even called the "previous life" of the Forbidden City in Beijing by archaeologists, but were abandoned due to various reasons. , is rarely recorded in historical documents.
In March 2022, the top ten new archaeological discoveries in the country in 2021 were announced, and the Ming Zhongdu site in Fengyang, Anhui, was selected, and a Ming Dynasty capital that had been submerged in the long history of 600 years was once again brought into focus.
shake off the dust
More than 600 years ago, on the south bank of the Huaihe River, a magnificent capital was under construction.
"The remains of Fenggao in the central capital, the palace and the two capitals in the palace. Wangji of Qianlikou, Gongchenji of Batun." This poem is a portrayal of the grand occasion of the Central Capital of the Ming Dynasty.
In the second year of Hongwu (1369), the country was settled, and Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the establishment of the central capital.
Six years later, Zhongducheng had been "completed", but Zhu Yuanzhang, on the grounds of "labor and expenses", suddenly "stopped the work of Zhongdu" and changed Nanjing as the capital. Since then, Zhongducheng has been forgotten by the world for 10 Jiazi until someone shows up.
"There is also an 'old county town' hidden in the county seat." This saying has been passed down in Fengyang for hundreds of years.
As for why there are two county towns, and what is the origin of the "old county town", no one has verified it.
In the early summer of 1969, Wang Jianying, a 49-year-old editor of the People's Education Publishing House, was sent from Beijing to Fengyang.
The historical geographer who used to focus on Ming history at Yenching University was curious about this statement, and was even more shocked when he walked into the "old county town".
The exquisite white jade carvings on the Xumi seat inside and outside the south gate of the city, the huge and majestic Panlong stone foundation in the city, and the high-grade bright bricks engraved with the names of dozens of prefectures and counties in the early Ming Dynasty, these architectural components that were rarely seen in Beijing, why did they appear at that time? In a well-known poor county?
Why do experts and scholars know nothing about this?
A series of questions emerged in his mind, and Wang Jianying began to search for all historical materials related to Fengyang.
Since then, a foreigner who speaks a strong Wu sound, inquires about the history of the "old county town" whenever he meets anyone, which has become a local scene.
As long as he is free, Wang Jianying will carry out field investigations. If there are relics in the literature, he will collect tiles everywhere.
"Father's fascination made some fellow villagers incomprehensible, and some even called him a 'madman'," recalled his daughter Wang Hong.
Over time, the local people's attitude towards "broken bricks and tiles" began to change.
Years later, Wang Jianying often recalled fondly that the common people would take the initiative to give him the dragon tiles, phoenix drops, and ornaments they had picked up when digging ponds on the farmland, and also told him many pieces of information that were not recorded in the literature, such as "the east side of Chengtianmen Gate." There have been rows of relief sculptures in the ditch," and "there are bridges underground at the inner side of the East and West China Gates" and so on.
The locals commented on Wang Jianying: "This person can endure hardships, has no air, has the ability, and can tell a lot of Fengyang's history, which we don't know for eight lifetimes!"
In 1972, Wang Jianying was transferred to prepare for the reopening of the Chinese History Museum.
In his spare time, he strolled around the Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City and found that its shape is basically the same as the south gate of the "old county town" in Fengyang.
At the beginning of 1973, during a meeting at Fudan University, he came across the "Fengyang County Chronicle" during the Qianlong period, and found that the "old county seat" was likely to be the part of the palace city in the middle capital of the Ming Dynasty.
He immediately applied to end the secondment and returned to Fengyang.
Today's Fengyang County Museum displays Wang Jianying's measuring tools.
In that era of scarcity, a broken bicycle, a borrowed camera, and a large tape measure that was missing 3 meters were all his "property".
He measured steps over and over around palaces and city walls, or measured laps with red ropes tied to wheels.
According to the planning ideas, architectural patterns and inheritance laws of the capitals and palace buildings of the past dynasties, Wang Jianying surveyed and mapped every part and every remains of the Ming Zhongdu one by one.
Wang Jianying has a very deep background in drawing. On the sketches of the ruins he hand-painted, the signs are still clearly visible. The solid lines are known, the dotted lines are intermittent, and the points are roughly inferred.
The label reads: Measured on May 27, 1973, retested and corrected in the morning on 28 (Sun), each pair of pedals pedals a 28-inch (inch) bicycle for one lap, (on the map) 1 mm.
Later archaeological research found that the results obtained by Wang Jianying with the "earth method" were almost identical to those obtained with modern instruments.
Liu Jianqiao was the only cadre in charge of cultural relics and archaeology at the Fengyang County Cultural Center at that time. Decades later, the first sight of Wang Jianying was still fixed in his mind.
The 7-meter-high imperial mausoleum monument, Wang Jianying climbed on the big wooden ladder, holding the "Inscription on the Imperial Mausoleum" in his hand, which was compared with the words on the monument one by one.
Every time I look at a line, I have to climb up and down, a few back and forth, and my vest and shorts are all sweaty.
Later, with the efforts of Liu Jianqiao, Wang Jianying was transferred to the Cultural Center to study the Ming Zhongdu full-time.
It took Wang Jianying 6 years from the "discovery" of the Imperial City of the Central Capital of the Ming Dynasty to the revealing of a real Central Capital of the Ming Dynasty.
It is hard to imagine how he could complete the survey, photography, textual research, drawing, and writing research reports with his bare hands without computer retrieval and surveying and mapping instruments.
In the spring of 1975, the final draft of "The Examination of the Capitals in the Middle Ming Dynasty" (historical chapter) caused a sensation in the academic circles.
This forgotten capital has regained its memory: Zhongdu was built according to the specifications of the capital, that is, the capital; the outer Guocheng covers an area of 50 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the capital of the Yuan Dynasty; the palace city is 840,000 square meters, which is more than The Forbidden City in Beijing is also 120,000 square meters in size; there are 104 squares in the city, all kinds of government offices, temples, and houses are readily available...
Wang Jianying clearly pointed out that the Ming Dynasty has a very important position in the history of ancient Chinese capitals.
Many of the buildings in the Ming Zhongdu were "learned from the capital of the Yuan Dynasty", and the urban planning and architectural design of the construction of the Zhongdu "had a great influence on the later reconstruction of Nanjing and the construction of Beijing".
In March 1981, Wang Jianying once again inspected the Ming Zhongdu site and wrote the "Ming Ming Zhongdu Site Investigation Report".
On March 10, 1982, the State Council announced the "Ming Ming Dynasty Imperial City and Imperial Mausoleum Stone Carvings" as the second batch of national key cultural relics protection units. excavate.
In the following decades, with the advancement of archaeological excavations, this city, which was buried in the clouds of history, has returned to people's sight.
Polish "Business Cards"
"I have lived here since my ancestors, and I used to graze cattle there every day when I was a child." Chang Zhengbao, 69, at the excavation site of the Mingzhongdu site, put down his work of cleaning earthwork and pointed to the unexcavated area in the west.
After moving out of his "homeland" in 2016, he became a worker in the archaeological team.
At this moment, the land under our feet has become a "business card" in the national historical and cultural heritage.
At that time, there was also an administrative village in the old city of the Ming Dynasty, the county town village.
"I often heard the old people say that this is the place where the emperor went to court", but in Chang Zhengbao's memory, except for the farmland and weeds, there are tile houses and mud roads. Everything is ordinary, only the broken walls above the city wall Kagura seems to be hiding some secret.
Until 1982, this "unremarkable" piece of land became a national key cultural relics protection unit.
Fengyang Ming Zhongdu cultural heritage protection has also experienced a long game with economic development and urban construction.
From the early 1980s to the early 21st century, both Ming and Chinese did not escape the impact of the "development" tide.
The ruins of the Taimiao Temple and the Temple of the Founding Heroes have been sold to developers one after another; the Changchunmen site and the Hongwumen site have been leveled and roads have been built; Dushan, where the Guanxingtai site is located, has become riddled with rocks after decades of quarrying. hole……
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee has placed the protection and utilization of historical and cultural heritage in a more prominent position, and China's modern archaeology has ushered in a golden age of vigorous development.
In 2013, the ancient city of Ming Zhongdu was included in the list of national archaeological site parks.
In 2015, the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology launched the archaeological excavation of the capital of the Ming Dynasty. With the central axis as the core, the Jinshui River, Yuqiao, Chengtianmen, Donghuamen and other relics were gradually revealed, but the contradictions became more and more prominent.
"In the beginning, many private houses were occupied on the site, and archaeological excavations often could not proceed for several months." Wang Zhi, associate researcher of the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and leader of the archaeological excavation team at the Ming Zhongdu site, recalled that the excavation work was almost difficult at that time.
"In the Ming Dynasty, we must understand, master, protect and use the site from the long river of history and the macroscopic view of the site." Wang Jianying described in the "Ming Zhongdu City Examination", currently the deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Chuzhou Municipal People's Congress, and then the Fengyang County Party Committee. Secretary Xu Guangyou has been able to recite it without a word, which is also the confidence and motivation for him to fully promote the protection of the Ming Zhongdu site at that time.
On the one hand, it is "protected" by the title of "National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit", and urban construction cannot be carried out. urban village".
"For a small city like Fengyang, the core area where the Ming Zhongdu site is located is an inch of land and an inch of gold." Xu Guangyou faced great doubts and opposition at that time, and the relocation was once regarded as "unfinishable work". .
Since October 2016, the Fengyang County Party Committee and the County Government have broken down and started to carry out the difficult land acquisition and demolition and environmental improvement of the site. A total of 1.38 billion yuan has been invested in compensation for demolition and resettlement. 4 factories were demolished, 10 breeding farms were relocated, houses with an area of 140,000 square meters were demolished, and 382.3 hectares of land was adjusted to be used for cultural relics protection.
Xu Guangyou rarely talks about his "important land" back then.
On the north side of Yunji Street today, it has been confirmed by archaeology that there used to be the Founding Hero Temple, covering an area of 33 acres. It was bought by a developer from another place many years ago. After several discussions, the developer only agreed to sell half of it to the government. Xu Guangyou always has his heart. unwilling.
One night in September 2019, he made three trips to and from the construction site from the dormitory, stood on the old site that was about to be demolished, and pondered for a long time.
Finally, he called Chen Huairen, a local expert on the history of the Ming Dynasty: "Lao Huaizi, I have decided that as long as the ruins can be preserved, I will not give any land to the developers!"
The sold sites have been redeemed one by one, and planning, requisitioning, and legislation have been carried out in an orderly manner.
In strict accordance with the cultural relics protection plan, Fengyang County adjusted the "Fengyang County Urban Master Plan (2010-2030)", and put forward the urban master planning concept of "a central capital city, Fengyang city soul".
The volume, height, appearance and nature of use of newly-built buildings and structures are stipulated; the Yuanqiu site, Fangqiu site, Guanxingtai site and Tushanmen site located outside the Mingzhongducheng Ruins Park are included. Included in the protection; In August 2021, the "Regulations on the Protection of the Ming Zhongdu City and the Ming Emperor Mausoleum Site in Fengyang" were voted and passed by the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth Anhui Provincial People's Congress.
When it comes to Ming and Zhongdu, they are always eloquent and emotional. This is Xu Haifeng's impression of Xu Guangyou, director of the Palace Museum's Institute of Archaeology.
At most, Xu Guangyou went to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage five times a year to visit experts in Ming history to seek support for archaeological excavations.
"The protection of cultural relics is inseparable from the support and attention of the local government." Xu Haifeng said.
In 2017, the archaeological force of the Palace Museum also joined in, and jointly with the Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted a systematic excavation of the Jinshui Bridge and other sites.
"If a nation does not have cultural self-confidence, it will not go far. It must engrave its precious history and culture on the earth." Xu Guangyou always believes that cultural heritage protection and economic development are by no means contradictory.
"In the short term, investing great efforts in cultural heritage protection may be 'losing money', but it is invaluable from the perspective of cultural confidence. In the long run, cultural development will inevitably promote social and economic prosperity."
In December 2017, the Imperial City of the Central Capital of Ming Dynasty was announced by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage as the third batch of national archaeological site parks, becoming the first national archaeological site park in Anhui.
The archaeological excavation of Ming Zhongdu ushered in a new historical stage.
Create a "soul" for the city
"Archaeological excavation is a long and tedious process, and it is also a process of dialogue with history." For seven years, Wang Zhi has almost settled his home on the construction site.
"Zhongdu Zhi" records that the Ming Zhongdu "regulates the prosperity, and really dominates the world".
In fact, when the construction of the Central Capital of Ming Dynasty was abandoned, the scale of the capital had begun to take shape. The main official buildings and streets such as city walls, palaces, temples, bell and drum towers had already taken shape, but they had been hidden in the fog of history for a long time.
Fortunately, several generations of historians and archaeologists have continued to work hard to clear the clouds and fog, search for traces, and gradually "reveal their true colors".
Only the shape of the palace in the former imperial district of the Ming Dynasty has remained a mystery due to the lack of historical records.
This round of excavations lasted for 7 years, covering an area of more than 10,000 square meters. For the first time, the layout of the main hall and ancillary buildings in the former dynasty area of Ming Zhongdu was clarified. It was confirmed in kind that Ming Zhongdu was in the planning of ancient Chinese capitals, and it was inherited from the Song Dynasty. Yuan and Xia enlightened the historical role of Ming and Qing Dynasties, and were therefore selected as the top ten new archaeological discoveries in the country in 2021.
At the site of the excavation, Wang Zhizheng and his team of archaeologists were working in the northwest corner of the palace area under the scorching sun.
Not far away, is the huge stone foundation unearthed in the main hall of the former Dynasty, which is spectacular.
The side length of the foundation surface is 2.5 meters to 2.6 meters, and the diameter of the raspberry is 1.8 meters.
The palace in the Qianchao District is the core palace building in Zhongdu City, and its building has the highest level of regulation.
The new round of excavation work has clarified for the first time that the layout of the palaces in the former imperial district of the Central Capital of the Ming Dynasty is in the shape of "Gong", which is a structure with front and rear halls and halls. Palace of Song and Yuan Dynasties.
Ming Zhongdu and Song and Yuan capitals have both inheritance relationship and a lot of innovation.
According to Wang Zhi, according to archaeological discoveries, both Ming and Zhongdu used a strict symmetry system to create the east-west axis of the city. Chengtianmen’s “3+2” doorway layout was the first to appear after the Tang Dynasty, and was considered by experts to be the fifth of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The prototype of the doorway pattern.
"If it is stated that the Palace City of the Central Capital is version 1.0 and the Nanjing City of Ming Dynasty is version 2.0, then the Forbidden City in Beijing is version 3.0." Xu Haifeng put it in such a humorous way, "The Central Capital of Ming Dynasty gave birth to the planning concept of the Forbidden City, the layout of the palace and the configuration buildings, the water system. The road grid is consistent, the construction techniques are similar, and the overall pattern of the palace is in the same line.
Wang Wei, a member and researcher of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the development of ancient Chinese capitals in both the Ming Dynasty and the Middle Kingdom is a master of the past and the future. The continuation of the idea.
Wang Zhi said that the excavation of the relevant sites of Ming Zhongdu has connected Song Kaifeng, Jin Zhongdu, Yuan Dadu, Ming Nanjing and Ming Beijing, which is a manifestation of the inheritance of Chinese cultural genes from generation to generation and the continuity of Chinese civilization.
In today's Fengyang, the shadow of Beijing in Ming and Qing Dynasties can still be found: a central axis runs through the north and south, Hongwumen, left and right Qianbu Corridors, Damingmen, Chengtianmen, Duanmen and other positions are vaguely recognizable, and the east-west Yunji Street At both ends, the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower stand opposite each other.
Some geography and history lovers will also go to Fengyang to look for the "past life" of Beijing city.
Chang'an Avenue, Meridian Gate, Donghua Gate, Xihua Gate, Corner Tower and many other titles give them a natural intimacy.
"On the central axis of Damingmen, there is an east-west-oriented Yunji Street, which crosses the north-south axis and connects the Bell Tower, Drum Tower, and Sacrificial Temple in Zhongdu City. It is like the prototype of Beijing's Chang'an Street." The animation major of Communication University of China The fourth student, Yuan Xinman, likes to study the history of the Ming Dynasty. Last summer, he made a special trip to Fengyang to experience this wonderful connection.
The cause of historical and cultural heritage protection is undergoing creative transformation and innovative development, radiating new vitality.
In recent years, Fengyang has taken "a central capital city and the soul of Fengyang city" as the core IP of urban construction, creating two axes of east and west and north and south; restored and displayed landmark buildings such as Hongwumen, Drum Tower and Bell Tower; built Wenhua Park based on the original site , Wuying Park, Hongwu Park and a number of theme parks; based on history, re-arranging the urban framework and naming blocks, the historical and cultural connotation has become a distinctive feature of urban development.
Walking in the streets and alleys of the ancient city, there are scenes everywhere, and a picture scroll with the ancient charm of the Central Capital unfolds slowly, which also makes Fengyang people feel the influence of history and culture.
Qian Jiawen of Yunji Community, every day after dinner, she and her old sisters go to the Hongwu Park in front of the house to dance square dance, and tell the story of each site in a straightforward manner, "In the past, the common people knew little about the history of Fengyang, and they gave them wherever they went. People leave a poor impression. Now anyone can say a few words about the history of Zhongdu City, full of pride."
According to the main economic data of counties (cities) in Anhui in 2021, Fengyang County's county-level economic aggregate (GDP) will reach 45.85 billion yuan, jumping from 33rd in the province in 2015 to 12th.
"The effect of cultural heritage protection is long-term and will not be immediate. On the difficult road of protecting the capital of Ming Dynasty, Fengyang gradually integrated the concept of historical and cultural protection of the ancient city into urban planning, park construction, urban sculpture, road and community naming and other modern urban construction. Among them, the organic connection between history and reality will benefit people's livelihood while inheriting traditional Chinese culture." said Zhu Lin, secretary of the Fengyang County Party Committee.
The blue bricks of the ancient city wall are still watching the ups and downs of the city.
Chang Zhengbao's family lives in a brand-new building, and he has already become an experienced old employee in the archaeological team; Fengyang County Museum receives about 100,000 visitors from all over the country every year, curator Tang Gengsheng said with a smile, "Every day is busy "Foot does not touch the ground"; at the site of the excavation site, the archaeological team led by Wang Zhi is still exploring the unknown; in the Xi'an Gate not far away, the statue of Mr. Wang Jianying is smiling and looking into the distance.