Taoping Qiang Village

--Taoping Qiang village is the best preserved combination of watchtower and residential buildings in the world, enjoying the reputation of "natural air conditioning".

--Diaolou is the landmark of the whole stockade. At present, there are only two remaining buildings, one in the middle of the stockade and the other on the river bank opposite the stockade.

--Eight entrances and exits radiate from the watchtower as the center of the whole stockade, and 13 corridors form a road network extending in all directions, which is like a maze for non local people.

--There are two 9-story watchtowers in the stockade overlooking the entire Qiang stockade. As there are still people living in the stockade, there are some fees to pay for the visit.

Taoping Qiang Village

Taoping Qiang village is located in Taoping Township on the Bank of Zagunao River in Lixian County. Qiang village is 40 km away from Lixian City, 16 km away from Wenchuan city and 139 km away from Chengdu City. It is a national key cultural relics protection unit and an important scenic spot in Jiuhuang line tourism circle.

Taoping Qiang village is the world's most complete preserved and inhabited watchtower and residential complex, enjoying the reputation of "natural air conditioning". Its perfect underground water network, well-developed passageways and labyrinth architectural art of watchtower integration are praised as "living fossil of Qiang architectural art" and "oriental ancient castle of fascination" by Chinese and foreign scholars.

Traffic information

Chengdu chadianzi passenger station has more than ten shuttle buses to Wenchuan county every day. There are minibuses or minibuses from Wenchuan county to Taoping, and the ticket price is about 10 yuan.

geographical environment

Taoping Qiang village is 40 km east of Lixian County, about 180 km away from Chengdu. The village is a typical representative of the Qiang architectural community. The tawny stone houses in the village are built along the steep mountain slope by slope. There are many blockhouses in the village, which is known as the most mysterious "Oriental Castle".

Taking the ancient castle as the center, Taoping Qiang village has built eight radial exits, which are connected with the corridor to form a road network. The people in the village can move forward and backward freely, and the outsiders can enter the maze. The houses are connected with each other. The outer walls are made of pebbles and schists. The tunnels are vertical and horizontal in the village. Some houses are built with low walls, which retains the habit of "dome house" of the ancient Qiang people. There are two or three storeys of wide rooms with vertical and horizontal beams and columns. The upper part is used as a house, while the lower part is used as a shelter for cattle and sheep or for stacking farm tools. A "small tower" is often built on the roof of the house to worship the white stone God (an egg shaped white stone) of the Qiang people. The underground water supply system in the fort is also unique. The spring water from the high mountain flows to every household through the underground ditch. It can not only adjust the indoor temperature and be used as fire-fighting facilities, but also be used as a secret passage to avoid the enemy's water cut-off and escape in case of war.

History and culture

Taoping has a long history. According to historical records, Zhaizi was built in 111 B.C. and guangrou county was set up here in the Western Han Dynasty. Taoping, as a pass under the jurisdiction of the county and an important defense area, has a history of more than 2000 years.

Taoping Qiang village, the Qiang language "Qizi", is close to mountains and rivers, rich in soil and water, outstanding in people and land. Zagunao River, a tributary of Minjiang River, passes by the village. The village is a collection of simple and rich folk customs, magical and unique Qiang ethnic architecture, natural and authentic Qiang Cixiu and unrestrained Qiang song and dance, showing the simple and confusing history of Qiang people. As night falls and bonfires are raging, the Qiang people sing and dance around them, often "dancing and singing all night, I don't know the red sun is shining."

"It's a long journey to Diqiang Yellow River head for autumn." So far, the oldest and more mature writing found in China is oracle bone inscriptions, the representative writing of yin and Shang Dynasties more than 3000 years ago. In the oracle bone inscriptions, there is one and only character about the title of a nation (or clan or tribe), namely "Qiang", which is the earliest record of Chinese human race number. Shuowen Yangbu: "Qiang, Xirong shepherd also, from people from sheep, sheep also sound." Qiang, belonging to his name, is the general name of the nomadic people in the West (Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan) of the Central Plains tribes at that time. Therefore, it is certain that the Diqiang ethnic group is by no means a single ethnic group. They have different languages, costumes, customs and so on. The only common point may be the nomadic lifestyle of "living by water and grass".

The end of Yangshao culture

At the end of Yangshao culture (about 3000 BC), two tribes, Yan and Huang, appeared in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. The Yan Emperor's surname Jiang, the division of the word Jiang and Qiang, is a different expression of matrilineal society and paternal society. Jiang and Qiang are like people wearing sheep horn headdress, representing the primitive nomadic tribes originated in Northwest China with sheep as totem. "In the past, Shaodian married chongqiao and gave birth to Huangdi and Yandi. Yellow Emperor with Ji Shui Cheng, Yan Emperor with Jiang Shui Cheng. Cheng is different in virtue, so the Yellow Emperor is Ji and the Yan Emperor is Jiang. " Yandi is an ancient Qiang tribe with many tribes.

In the later wars, most of the Yandi tribes and the Huangdi tribes merged with each other and became the Huaxia people (the ancestors of the Han nationality today). The other part went westward or southward to integrate with the local indigenous people and became the ancestors of other ethnic groups, such as Tibetan, Yi, Naxi, Bai, Hani, Susu, Pumi, Jingpo, Lahu, Jinuo and so on.

Ancient times

Around 2100 B.C., Dayu, a Qiang who was good at water control, succeeded to the chief of the tribal alliance. Yu bid farewell to the mountains of his hometown and began the long road of water control for the safety of the people in the world. He devoted himself to flood control, dredged the Jiuhe River, and achieved great achievements in the war. There is also the legend of Dayu king that he "never entered his family three times"!

Dayu King later broke the "abdication system", which was handed down to his son Qi and was known as "Xiaqi" in history. After he ascended the throne, he united with other tribes to establish the first official country in Chinese history in Yangcheng (now Gaocheng Town, Dengfeng County, Henan Province), which has been handed down for more than 500 years.

The Qin Dynasty

In 221 B.C., King Ying Zheng of Qin (known as "the first emperor of Qin") conquered Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao and Wei, unified China, established the first centralized feudal state in Chinese history, and began the feudal society that lasted more than 2000 years. The first emperor of Qin was born in Tianshui, Gansu Province, the former residence of Qiang people. The Qiang people in Tianshui are of the same species (in songpinggou, Maoxian County, where the Qiang people live today, there is still a saying that their ancestors originated from the first emperor of Qin). Qin's clan is determined by Professor Meng Wentong as "Qin is a military, so there is no doubt about it.". After the founding of the people's Republic of China, he moved eastward to Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, and issued laws forbidding the use of troops against the Qiang Rong tribes in the West.

Han Dynasty

In the Han Dynasty, the Qiang Nationality in Sichuan Province established a state of yak and Qingyi Qiang, which governs today's Xichang, Ganzi, Ya'an and Leshan. The capital of the state is Lingguan Town, Baoxing county. In the Western Han Dynasty, the population of Qiang Nationality in the five counties of Hanyang (Tianshui), Jincheng (Lanzhou), anbeidi and Longxi reached 259990 households and 1001802 people. In the Western Han Dynasty, Qiang people lived in Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and other provinces, with a population of more than 12 million, accounting for one fourth of the national population (59.95 million at that time). In the period of the Sixteen States in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Diqiang people in the northwest established Cheng (Cheng Han), pre Qin, Xia, Hou Liang, Hou Zhao and other countries, but all of them were just a flash in the pan with weak vitality and little influence.

the tang dynasty

In 881 ad (the end of the Tang Dynasty), Tuoba Sigong, a Qiang Nationality in Dangxiang, established the Daxia regime in xiazhou (now baichengzi at the junction of Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi), which governed Xia, Sui, yin and you. Xia state is a country mainly composed of Dangxiang Qiang people in Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai, including other nationalities in Northwest China. There are eight clans in Dangxiang Qiang, including Xifeng clan, FeiTing clan, Xiangli clan, pochao clan, Yeli clan, Miji clan and Tuoba clan. Later, due to the continuous invasion and harassment of Tubo, he applied to the Tang government for moving to Shaanxi and Ningxia.

In 1031 ad, Li Deming, the eleventh Taizu, died, and his son Li Yuanhao succeeded him as Xia Jingzong. In 1032, Yuanhao changed his surname to Wei, calling himself "Wuzu" (qingtianzi), and established his name as "Daxia" (because it was in the west of Song Dynasty, it was called "Xixia" in Song Dynasty). The chronology was the first year of Xiandao of xiajingzong. The territory of Xixia includes most of Gansu, Ningxia, Northern Shaanxi, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia. It governs 32 states, and the capital of Xixia is Xingqing prefecture (now Yinchuan City). In 1226 ad, the Mongolian Tiemuzhen (Genghis Khan) led his troops to attack the Xia Dynasty. The next year, the Mongolian army stormed and occupied the cities of Daxia state, causing heavy casualties. Genghis Khan was also seriously injured in the war. In order to avoid greater casualties and losses of the people, Emperor Xia saw Qu surrender at the end of the 21st century. The Mongolian generals respected Tiemuzhen and killed Xiajian and destroyed the mausoleum of the great Xia. So far, the state of Daxia perished in A.D. 1227 in 346, and its descendants are still distributed in Taoping Township, Lixian County, Aba Prefecture, and Danba, Ganzi Prefecture.

Jurisdiction area

Sichuan was a state of Bashu in ancient times and Liangzhou in Xia Dynasty. Bashu comes from Diqiang nationality. Cancong (former residence of Canling, Diexi Town, Maoxian County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, whose ruins were destroyed by Diexi earthquake at 15:00 on August 25, 1933) is the king. Li Bai chanted in "the road to Shu is difficult:" cancong and Yufu are at a loss when the country was founded. " In the same area, the ancient Qiang people also built the state of ranju, which is the former residence of 300000 Qiang people today. Its governing areas include Maoxian, Wenchuan, Lixian, Heishui, Songpan, Jiuzhaigou, malkang, Jinchuan, Xiaojin, Rangtang, ABA, Hongyuan, Ruoergai, etc County

Chinese PinYin : Tao Ping Qiang Zhai