As we all know, Princess Taiping was the younger daughter of Wu Zetian and Emperor Gaozong of Tang, and princess Taiping was a gossip figure in history, which is somewhat similar to her mother. Princess Taiping was deeply favored by her parents and brothers from an early age, and she had a lot of power and power, and her first husband, Xue Shao, the nephew of Emperor Gaozong of Tang. Later, because Xue Shao's brother participated in the rebellion of Li Chong in the Tang Dynasty, he implicated Xue Shao, and was eventually imprisoned and starved to death by Wu Zetian. Princess Taiping's second husband was Wu Youji, and after marriage, Princess Taiping wantonly adopted male pets, committed adultery with courtiers, and even dedicated her male favorite Zhang Zongchang to her mother Wu Zetian. In the first year of shenlong, Zhang Kamzhi, the chancellor who supported Li's Jiangshan, launched a mutiny, killing Zhang Zongchang and Zhang Yizhi, and forcing Wu Zetian to abdicate to the crown prince Li Xian. Princess Taiping was given the title of "Princess Taiping of Zhenguo" for her participation in the murder of Erzhang Yougong, and later for supporting the restoration of Li Dan, the Prince of Xiang, she was promoted to the throne for this merit, which was the peak of the power of the Tang Dynasty princess. In the second year of the first day, Princess Taiping was suspected of launching a rebellion, and was captured and executed by Li Longji of Tang Xuanzong.
Today I want to tell you about the discovery of the Taiping Princess Mansion at the Zhengpingfang site in Luoyang, Henan. Zhengpingfang Ruins, one of the Lifang in the Chengfang District of Luoyang city in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, is located east of Longmen Avenue in Luoyang City, Henan Province, across Lotte Road and Zhaocun North from north to south. The total area of Luoyang Zhengpingfang ruins is about 250,000 square meters, and it is adjacent to Dunxingfang in the east, Yirenfang in the west, Xiufang in the north, and Lehefang in the south. In 2020, with the construction of the Sui-Tang Luoyang City National Historical and Cultural Park, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute of Archaeology of Luoyang Cultural Relics and Archaeology formed a joint archaeological team to excavate the zhengpingfang site, and after nearly a year and a half of archaeological excavations, the sites have excavated more than 10 areas. The excavation basically determined the four-to-four extent, accurate location, road network structure and layout and location relationship of the Zhengpingfang site.
The plan of the Zhengpingfang site is rectangular, about 533.6 meters long from north to south, about 464.6 meters wide from east to west, and the width of the square wall is about 1.3 meters to 1.4 meters. The east-west street in the square is about 10 meters wide, and the north-south street is about 8.7 meters wide. The width of Yongtongmen Avenue and the east side of Zhengpingfang is about 71.7 meters, and the width of the north side street is 33.4 meters. According to archaeological excavations, combined with historical records, archaeologists preliminarily judged that the large courtyard building complex in Zhengpingfang was an official residence building. The ruins of Zhengpingfang are the location of the Tang Dynasty Confucius Temple, Guozijian, and Taiping Princess Residence (later changed to An guo nu Taoist Temple) in the Tang Dynasty. The square is divided into three parts by a "D" shaped road: the western half of the square, the southeast district and the northeast district.
The western half of the house is a large mansion, the southern half of the house is speculated to be a garden area, and the northern part is a courtyard area. The courtyard is symmetrically arranged in the central axis, with three roads in the east and west, and a total of five entrances in the middle road. Five large rammed earth platforms are distributed from the central axis to the south to the north, and are surrounded by walls (or corridors), which are presumed to be the residences of the Taiping Princess. In order to further explore the internal layout structure of the square, this archaeological excavation determined the remains of the square wall, street, and square gate. Understand the architectural forms in Lifang, explore the urban living mode of the Tang Dynasty, study the spatial structure model and management system of lifang in ancient China, and the living space and lifestyle of urban residents in the Tang Dynasty.