In the midst of a modern city, what is our first impression when it comes to the city? Is it the rows of buildings, the bustling streets, the endless streams of people, or the dazzling goods, the brilliant neon... All of this is connected with the words bustling, bustling, and convenient. In terms of cultural relics and archaeology, the city is the core and the most important representative of the ancient cultural heritage, so what was the earliest city like? How was it built? What role does it play in the history of China's five-thousand-year civilization? The "Xuanyuan Benji" records that "the Yellow Emperor built five cities", is it a historical fact or a legend?
Zhang Yushi was interviewed by reporters and introduced the general situation of the Xishan site
On March 31, this reporter visited the xishan ruins in Guxing Town, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, to visit The Ancient City of Xishan, known as the "First City in China". Xishan ruins are a Neolithic cultural city site, dating from 5300-4800 years ago, which is the site of the earliest ancient city in China and the most advanced construction technology, and the archaeological age is the late Yangshao culture. Its discovery has opened a new and glorious page in exploring the origin of Chinese civilization.
The earliest city in China was discovered in Xishan, Zhengzhou
As the earliest prototype city found in the mainland, in the 1990s, the emergence of the Xishan ruins can be described as "stone breaking the sky".
"In the 1970s, prehistoric city sites sprang up in many areas, but most of them were relatively mature, and it is speculated that there should be a more historical settlement in China." Zhang Yushi, a researcher at the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Architecture Protection and the leader of the excavation team of the Xishan ruins, said that history and reality have called for the early emergence of early prehistoric city sites in China, and the excavation of the Xishan ruins has made up for this historical shortcoming.
As an archaeological leader for 15 years, the Xishan site is the last project of Zhang Yushi's excavation, and this "archaeological report card" is the "final work" that he is most proud of in his life. Even though he had retired, he was still happy to go to the fancy hill site with the work that required his cooperation.
Speaking of the story of archaeological excavations, Zhang Yushi is even more gushing. At the Xishan site, with his description of the original excavation scene and the emotional narration of the story behind it, our eyes seem to emerge from the original appearance of an ancient city.
West Hill Ruins
Overlooking the Ruins of West Hill
"National Team" on-site teaching, Zhengzhou Xishancheng Archaeological Circle "Huangpu Military Academy"
From 1993 to 1996, the seventh, eighth and ninth archaeological team leader training courses of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage were held in Zhengzhou, and 75 trainees from 37 cultural and cultural institutions in 24 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country received rigorous training here. The Xishan ruins are one of the teaching bases. Zhang Yushi said that this training class is jokingly called the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the archaeological field, and today's leading figures in the field of archaeology in the country, such as Li Mingbin, the leader of the Jinsha site, and Yang Jun, the leader of the Tomb of the Marquis of Haixia, are all from this class.
For the sake of teaching needs, and considering that the real face of the Xishan ruins could be clarified by taking the opportunity, a comprehensive layout of the Xishan ruins was carried out at that time. From 1993 to 1995, the continuous excavation, in three years, the total excavation area reached 6385 square meters, and a Yangshao cultural site with the city as the core was unveiled.
A huge trench that surrounds the entire site, a strange and confusing architectural form, a technologically advanced rammed earth version of the building... The excavation site is full of seductive charm, when you look at this mysterious history book spread underground, just figure out a problem, before you can rejoice, you fall into another confusion, it urges you to explore a new unknown.
Push forward the origin of Chinese civilization for a thousand years
The scene of the block slab construction of the northwest section of the city wall
The bottom plan of the city wall
With the deepening of archaeological work, one discovery after another made Zhang Yushi and other archaeologists overjoyed and excited.
Excavations in 1993 found important remains such as rammed earth building sites and trenches outside the site of the late Yangshao era for the first time;
Excavations in 1994 further understood the planar extent, shape and relationship between the rammed earth foundation site in Xishan and its relationship with the surrounding remains, and basically determined the existence of the city site in the late Yangshao era in Xishan;
In 1995, the appearance of the city site was basically clarified. Finally presented in front of the archaeologists, the Xishan ruins, an area of 200,000 square meters, Xishan City Pool is located in the center of the site, the plane is between the square circles, the shape of the Yangshao culture circular moat settlement, the next generation of square city pool precedent, is the basic form of the beginning of the ancient Chinese city pool.
Buried in the ancient city of Xishan, which has been sleeping for thousands of years, it finally whisked away the thick dust, revealed its true face, and saw the sky again, ushering in her highlight moment.
On September 5, 1995, Yang Huancheng, then director of the Henan Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics, solemnly announced to the press that after three consecutive years of large-scale excavation and unremitting exploration by the Training Course for Archaeological Leaders of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage from 1993 to 1995, an ancient city site of the Yangshao Era, which had been buried for thousands of years, had recently been re-unveiled in Xishan, Zhengzhou. Experts have confirmed that this is the earliest and most advanced construction technology found in China so far. Its discovery is of great significance for exploring the origin of early cities on the mainland, studying the origin and formation of early civilizations on the mainland, and the historical role played by the Central Plains in them.
"XishanChengchi was built at least 5,300 years ago, and the previous archaeological discoveries of the city were only more than 4,000 years ago, and the advent of Xishanchengchi pushed forward the history of Chinese city building by more than 1,000 years, becoming the earliest city discovered in China at that time." Cultural scholar Yan Tiecheng said that she confirmed to people that 5300 years ago, the Zhengzhou area took the lead in opening the ancient period and began to move towards the era of civilization.
The ancestors of the "First City of China" "rammed" the earliest version of China's city wall
Northwest corner of the city wall plan
Trench outside the western wall
Remains of the beast sacrifice on the site of Nishiyama Castle
When we think of "ancient cities", we may think of sparsely populated isolated cities in the desert, or grotesque towns full of bizarre stories. What does Xishan, a real ancient city from 5,000 years ago, look like? How do the Xishan people, who have been separated by us for thousands of years, live? And why build this city?
Yan Tiecheng said that more than 5,000 years ago, the Western Mountains, nourished by the Mother River, the loess was richly developed, and the climate was warmer and more humid, which was the ideal place for ancient human beings to multiply and live. Through the detection of the bones of the people in Xishan, experts found that the people of Xishan took millet as their main food, and with some meat, they did not worry about eating and drinking, and what the People of Xishan needed to worry about was the safety of the personal and property of the clan members.
"The ancient city built by the Xishan people is composed of three defensive facilities: the outer ring trench, the inner ring trench and the city wall, with a circular plan and an area of about 35,000 square meters inside the city wall. Among them, the West Hill City Wall was rammed with plate construction technology. Zhang Yushi introduced that the so-called rammed earth version of the building is a process of ramming the loess with a processed wooden board as a template, enclosing a rectangular square, laying the soil in layers, and ramming the loess with a wooden stick (also known as a rammed pestle). Large-scale walls and large building foundations were built in this way. The city wall has undergone the main steps of excavating the base trough, repairing the bottom plane of the trough, filling in the earth to build the wall, and when building the wall, it adopts advanced and mature technologies such as segmentation, blocking, and layer-by-layer ramming, which is the earliest city wall built with plate construction technology found in China so far.
If it is said that the excavation and foundation building technology of Xishan City Pool is a pioneering work in the history of Chinese city wall architecture, then the construction of the city gate reflects a number of creations of military defense functions and shows the excellent wisdom of xishan people. The city found the west city gate and the north city gate, the shape and structure are quite different, which can not only meet the needs of the special period of war, but also facilitate the passage of the residents in the city.
Although the city is not large, the people who live in it also have a good taste. Zhang Yushi introduced that more than 200 house buildings were found in the city, a 400-square-meter square that can carry out public activities, more than 2,000 cellars and ash pits, and more than 20 abandoned cellars with large animal skeletons, etc., and many pottery, stones, bones and other artifacts were unearthed, revealing the clear and orderly living conditions of the ancestors.
In ancient times, the ancestors believed that animism was animistic, and that any human action would be perceived and manipulated by the gods. At that time, the sacrifice activities were extremely frequent, and the large number of foundation stones and the discovery of sacrificial relics were another important harvest of the excavation of the Xishan site. Zhang Yushi introduced that in the excavation, it is often seen in the cushion layer at the bottom of the foundation, buried one or more pieces of pots, ding and other pottery, some pottery has the bones of babies, some bones are not complete, only skulls or part of the limb bones, in the city wall, especially the north gate and the west gate excavation, similar situation is particularly eye-catching, "according to the analysis, it can be determined that these are a kind of ritual sacrifice with special religious significance in architectural activities." ”
As an ancient city site in the late Yangshao culture, the Xishan site is of course indispensable to the iconic element of Yangshao culture - faience pottery. Excavations at the site have unearthed a large number of pottery, including dings, pots, pots, bowls, etc., among which the clay red clay red color high-necked pot, white brown color pottery bowl, etc., are precious works of art, opening a window for us to understand their original artistic concepts.
The remains of the foundation stone on the west side of the North Gate
Faience bowls excavated from the Xishan site
Who is the master of the "First City of China"?
There is little controversy in the academic community about the age and historical value of the Xishan site, but who is the "city lord"? But there are many opinions.
Xishan Ancient City site is located in the Central Area of the Yellow Emperor's activities, the ancestor of the Chinese nation, Xuanyuan, and is the earliest and most advanced city site discovered in the Central Plains so far, some scholars believe that Zhengzhou Xishan Ancient City is one of the capitals of the Yellow Emperor, or directly called the Yellow Emperor City.
In this regard, Wei Xingtao, director of the Chinese Archaeological Society, deputy director of the Neolithic Archaeology Committee, vice president of the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Archaeology Society, and vice president of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said: "At present, a major view in the academic community is that the Yellow Emperor era corresponds to the middle and late Yangshao culture. The age of the Xishan ruins is exactly the same as the period in which the Yellow Emperor lived, and it cannot be said that the 'Yellow Emperor City' claim is unfounded, but there is no conclusive academic evidence to prove that the owner of the Xishan ruins is the Yellow Emperor. ”
Wei Xingtao said that although it is still uncertain who the owner of the Xishan ruins is, however, there is no doubt that the Xishan ruins and the ruins of shuanghuashu, the ruins of Dahe Village, dianjuntai and other sites in the northwest of Zhengzhou in the same period, with the same roots and the same origin, living next to each other, various archaeological results show that together they represent the advanced, leading, and core development achievements of the Yangshao culture in the central plains, and have presented a magnificent landscape representing the early civilized society. It is promoting the eventual formation and growth of china's ancient civilization of pluralism and integration.
Zhang Zhichao, secretary general of the Zhang Liang Committee of the Henan Provincial Family Name Culture Research Association, believes that it is extremely necessary to clarify this issue and clarify the lineage of the Yellow Emperor. "In ancient times, in the process of changing from a matrilineal clan society to a patrilineal clan society, the marriage system gradually developed into a patrol system. The various tribes married him through the Great King's Patrol, established strong political alliances, maintained legitimacy, and had legitimate rule. Gongyi River Luo Ancient Kingdom is located in Lianshan, historically known as Shendu, is the grandson of Shennong Lianshan created, each tribe around this capital city built an acropolis, Xishan Ancient City is the son of Lianshan clan has the city of the Xin clan, the original meaning of the city is the giant turtle, the ancient city site is circular. There are the Xuan clan through the Tianfei clan, the Dihong clan to the Xuanyuan clan. ”
"Xinzheng City is where Guyun Bay is located, and Mount Guci is a place dedicated to ancestors, 'there is more jade on it and less stone, and there are more snakes under it, so the inhabitants are the tribe of you tos', that is, the tribe of the Yellow Emperor's mother with treasure, which is the place where the Yellow Emperor was born and grew up. The Yellow Emperor of Xuanyuan strengthened the centralization of power, unified China, did not have a surname, fixed marriage, and became our humanistic common ancestor. Zhang Zhichao said that as the birthplace of Chinese civilization, the phenomenon of stacking cities in and around the Zhengzhou area and surrounding cultural sites is extremely common, and there are rich underground treasures waiting for us to excavate, I believe that many doubts, as well as many contradictions about historical records, will be revealed and confirmed with the progress of archaeological work.
The ecological and cultural park will become a spark of civilization on the banks of the Yellow River
More than 5,000 years ago, Xishan, nourished by the Mother River, the loess is richly developed, and the climate is warmer and more humid, which is the ideal place for ancient human beings to reproduce. No matter who has ever owned the city, it has opened a precedent for the regulation of large-scale city wall architecture in future generations, which is of landmark significance in the history of Chinese capitals and Chinese architecture.
Today's Xishan Ancient City site, all buried under the surface, lush trees, wildflowers and green grasses, permeated with idyllic tranquility and simplicity. Archaeologist Sun Jianguo applied to live here after retirement and volunteered to be the "guardian" of the land. Farming and labor, chickens and dogs smell each other, and the lingering loess complex is smudged every day and night.
"I have lived next to the Xishan ruins for almost 20 years, and I have seen that this place has become more and more livable, the cultural atmosphere has become more and more intense, and my relatives and friends around me have envied me for living in the scenic spot." Liu Tianhua, who lives in Xishan Community, said that it is close to the Yellow River, has a splendid culture and a long history, attracting more and more people to come here to explore the echoes of history, "Five thousand years ago, the ancestors of Yangshao also built a city in this land and lit the sacred flame of civilization, which makes us living here feel extremely proud."
The ancestors have gone, the city site is hidden, but the long cultural atmosphere remains in this land, which continues to nourish the people who live here.
"The Xishan ruins are the fourth batch of national key cultural relics protection units, in order to further highlight the value of the sites, Huiji District has planned the Xishan Ruins Ecological and Cultural Park project around the protection of the sites." Wang Xinfang, director of the Huiji District Bureau of Culture, Tourism and Sports, introduced, "On the basis of echoing the overall landscape environment, the park will highlight the pattern of the city site, strengthen the image of the prehistoric 'city', and form a spatial layout of 'one core, one museum, one belt, one ring' through strategic means such as 'plastic city', 'camp environment' and 'rongye', create a landscape environment space with a sense of historical vicissitudes, create a civilization spark on the bank of the Yellow River, reshape the ancient city of Yangshao 5,000 years ago, and realize the immersive experience through time and space." ”