The ancient city of Milan

Milan ancient city site is located 80 Li to the east of Ruoqiang county. It is composed of the ancient garrison fort of Tubo in Tang Dynasty, the ancient architectural complex sites of Wei and Jin Dynasties, the tuntian water conservancy project of Han Dynasty and the Yixun city site. According to historical records, in the Western Han Dynasty, it was Yixun city of Loulan state in the western regions. In the fourth year of Yuanfeng, Emperor Zhao of Han Dynasty (77bc), Tu Qi, the commander of Shanshan King (ancient Loulan state), asked the Han Dynasty to send a general to tuntian Jigu. In the Han Dynasty, he sent a Sima and 40 officials to tuntian Yixun. In the Tang Dynasty, this place was occupied by Tubo, and the ancient castle was a military fortress built by Tubo. In the 19th century, Stein, an Englishman, once carried out excavation here and stole some important documents such as sculptures and murals. In the 1950s, the image exploration team of the second agricultural division of the Xinjiang production and Construction Corps discovered a complete water conservancy engineering system such as canals in the Han Dynasty and a large area of fertile land buried in the desert. 　　　

In 1973, archaeologists in Xinjiang excavated the ancient fortress site of Tubo in Tang Dynasty near the ancient river of Milan. The ancient garrison fort is a representative building in the ruins of the ancient city of Milan. It is located on the main road of the new Gansu highway. It is 56 meters wide from north to South and 70 meters long from east to west. It is irregular square. The city wall is made of rammed earth. There are red willow branches in the rammed earth layer. The rammed earth layer is made of adobe. There are two gaps of 5-6 meters in the west wall, which may be the gate of ancient garrison fort. In the north, there is a large terraced earth slope. From the low depression to the north wall of the garrison, the house is built according to the slope. The house has a flat roof and no entrance. Its structure is similar to the Potala Palace in Tibet. The eastern part of the fort is a large house, and the southern part is an earth platform with a height of nearly 13 meters. There is a pole on the earth platform, which seems to be a peak fire platform. On the East and west sides of the castle, there are many pagodas and large-scale temple sites. According to historical records, FA Xian, a famous monk in ancient China, once preached Buddhism here on his way to Tianzhu in the West or back to his hometown in the East.

Ruins of the ancient city of Milan

synonym

The ancient city of Milan generally refers to the ruins of the ancient city of Milan

Milan ancient city site, a national key cultural relics protection unit, is located 80 Li to the east of Ruoqiang county. It is composed of the ancient Tibetan garrison fort in Tang Dynasty and the surrounding ancient buildings in Wei and Jin Dynasties, as well as the tuntian water conservancy project facilities and Yixun city site in Han Dynasty.

The origin of history

According to historical records, in the Western Han Dynasty, it was Yixun city of Loulan state in the western regions. In the fourth year of Yuanfeng, Emperor Zhao of Han Dynasty (77bc), Tu Qi, the commander of Shanshan King (ancient Loulan state), asked the Han Dynasty to send a general to tuntian Jigu. In the Han Dynasty, he sent a Sima and 40 officials to tuntian Yixun. In the Tang Dynasty, this place was occupied by Tubo, and the ancient castle was a military fortress built by Tubo.

The ruins of the ancient city of Milan are a group of cross-cultural sites of different ages, including Yixun city site of Shanshan state, tuntian site of Han Dynasty, ancient garrison Fort site of Tang Dynasty, etc.

Experience

Ancient Milan is an ancient oasis city in the south of Taklimakan Desert, located at the intersection of Lop Nor and the Altyn Mountains on the silk road. Once upon a time, it was a busy trade center on the South Road of the Silk Road and an important passage to and from Central Asia. In order to avoid crossing the "great desert" ("Taklimakan" in Uighur means "sea of death") and Tarim Basin, caravans often choose to bypass the north and south of Milan.

Ancient Milan was an important base for the central government to manage the western regions at that time. According to historical records, in the Western Han Dynasty, it was the Yixun city of Loulan in the western regions.

In the fourth year of Yuanfeng, Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, Tu Qi, the king of Shanshan, asked the Han Dynasty to send a general to lead the troops here to tuntian Jigu. In the middle of Tang Dynasty, Milan was occupied by Tubo, and the ancient castle was a military fortress built by Tubo.

In the 19th century, Stein, an Englishman, excavated here and stole a large number of cultural relics such as statues and murals.

In the 1950s, the image exploration team of the second agricultural division of Xinjiang production and Construction Corps discovered a complete water conservancy engineering system such as canals and large fields buried in the desert in the Han Dynasty. In 1973, archaeologists in Xinjiang excavated the ancient fortress site of Tubo in Tang Dynasty near the ancient river of Milan.

Rammed earth building

The ancient garrison castle is a representative building in the ruins of the ancient city of Milan. It is located on the main road of the new Gansu highway. It is 56 meters wide from north to South and 70 meters long from east to west. It is irregular square. The city wall is made of rammed earth. There are red willow branches in the rammed earth layer. The rammed earth layer is made of adobe. There are two gaps of 5-6 meters in the west wall, which may be the gate of ancient garrison fort. In the north, there is a large terraced earth slope. From the low depression to the north wall of the garrison, the house is built according to the slope. The house has a flat roof and no entrance. Its structure is similar to the Potala Palace in Tibet. The eastern part of the fort is a large house, and the southern part is a earth tower with a height of nearly 13 meters. There are poles on the earth tower, which seems to be a beacon tower.

On the East and west sides of the castle, there are many pagodas and large-scale temple sites. According to historical records, FA Xian, a famous monk in ancient China, once preached Buddhism here on his way to Tianzhu in the West or back to his hometown in the East.

Building courtyard wall

Dongda temple is another representative building in the ruins of the ancient city of Milan. It is divided into upper and lower floors. It is surrounded by a high courtyard wall outside. There is a 12 m × 0.6 m × 2.4 m Buddhist niche in the temple. There are still half floating statues of Bodhisattvas and heavenly kings in the niche, and there are also floating statues of cirrus pillar heads below. Under the buildings on the east side of the ruins of the temple, there are still large Buddha statues and abandoned Buddha heads. Xida temple is a Buddhist temple building opposite to Dongda temple. It has a 5.6 m × 12.2 m rectangular Xumi base as the center, a corridor around the base, and a circular building about 3 meters in diameter on the base. The Buddhist sites of temples are typical of the early Buddhist culture in the western regions. With vivid posture, beautiful patterns and concise lines, Buddha statues provide valuable material for the study of Chinese and Western culture and art history.

Xinhua News Agency (Zhang Huijiang, Yang Yingxin) Yu Zhiyong, deputy director of Xinjiang Institute of cultural relics and archaeology, announced that through the analysis of satellite remote sensing data and on-site scientific survey and investigation, the location of each existing cultural relic site and the ancient irrigation canal site in the ancient city of Milan has been further confirmed. The specific location of each cultural relic site in Ruoqiang County of Xinjiang has also been further confirmed.

An expert group composed of seven Chinese and foreign experts in geography, history and archaeology has carried out on-the-spot survey of the ancient irrigation canal of Milan and the 14 cultural relics points marked during the excavation of the ruins of Milan. At the same time, the expert group also confirmed the ruins of atashijia ancient city and qierqiduke ancient city around Ruoqiang county.

Buddhist activities

The cultural relics of early Milan can be divided into two types: one is the relics reflecting the Buddhist activities at that time (i.e. pagodas and temples), the other is the relics reflecting the production activities (i.e. irrigation canals).

Milan's eight pagodas are distributed around Fort Xu, and five of them are about 1.8 km southwest of Fort Xu, tens of meters to hundreds of meters away from each other. There are two pagodas about 300 meters to the south of Xubao, and the other one is about 2 kilometers to the northeast of Xubao. The pagodas are built by adobe masonry and rammed earth. The residual height of the pagoda is about 3-6 meters, the base width is about 4-10 meters, and the top of the pagoda is round arch, most of which are broken.

A number of precious cultural relics have been unearthed around the pagodas and temples in Milan. In 1906, the British explorer Stein stole many precious cultural relics, such as the head of Buddha, the remnant paper of Brahmi, etc., especially the fresco of "winged flying statue" which he stole from the outer wall of the cloister of a pagoda (Stein No. m3). In 1989, the archaeological team of the Taklimakan Desert comprehensive investigation team, composed of Wang Binghua from Xinjiang Institute of cultural relics and archaeology, discovered two murals of "winged flying statues" similar to the former in Milan Buddhist Temple (No. m2). The discovery of these cultural relics provides valuable material for the study of ancient ethnic religion and painting art in the western regions.

Milan's irrigation channel is located in the above-mentioned site area. It is composed of a main canal, seven branch canals and many ditches and hairy canals. It is in a fan shape and spreads from north to south. The irrigation range is about 6 km from east to west and 5 km from north to south. According to experts' research, the irrigation canals in Milan were roughly in the Han and Tang Dynasties (that is, they began in the early period and continued to be used in the late period).

Many experts in academic circles think that Milan is the city of Yixun in Han Dynasty. Experts believe that: the discovery of irrigation channels in Milan proves that it is a production area of tuntian, and its age and location are consistent with the literature records. Therefore, combined with the study of the rich cultural relics in this area, they believe that Milan is the Yichun city of Shanshan in Han Dynasty, the political and cultural center of Shanshan country, from Dunhuang along the Shule River to Loulan, along the north of Kunlun mountain It is the main point on the South Road of the "Silk Road" on the westbound route.

Ruins of Xubao

The cultural relics of the late Milan period mainly include the remains of beacon and Xubao. According to the records in the new and old Tang Dynasty biography of Tubo, this area used to be the area where the Tuyuhun tribe lived in the early Tang Dynasty. In 638 ad, the Zanpu sect of Tubo sent troops to attack Tuguhun, and Tuguhun fled to the north of Qinghai, so this area was under the control of Tubo forces. From the analysis of the architectural structure, layout and unearthed cultural relics of Fengsui and Xubao, it can be seen that the relics of Fengsui and Xubao were the relics of Tubo occupation.

More than 300 pieces of Tubo wooden slips and documents have been unearthed from the ruins of houses in the city. According to the research of experts, they are a group of precious materials related to the economy of Tubo people, such as wheat planting, farmland sharing, silk clothing, etc. In addition, there are also unearthed: weapons, lacquer armor, fabrics and tools, and raw materials made of wood, pottery and stone

Chinese PinYin : Mi Lan Gu Cheng