Yingguo cemetery

Yingguo cemetery

Yingguo cemetery is located in Xifu village, Xuezhuang Township, Xinhua District, Pingdingshan City, Henan Province. Yingguo cemetery is mainly the burial place of Yingguo nobles in Zhou Dynasty, including some Chu nobles' tombs and some civilian tombs in Han Dynasty.

Brief introduction of the site

Pingdingshan Yingguo cemetery is located in fuyangling, Beifu village, Xuezhuang Township, Xinhua District, Pingdingshan City, Henan Province. The south section of fuyangling is the East Bank of Yinghe River, a tributary of Shahe River. The south end of fuyangling is close to Baiguishan Reservoir, and the west is across Yinghe River and Yingshan river. Since ancient times, this is the place where treasures are unearthed. There are many bronzes and jades unearthed on the ridge, and there are also many people who steal and dig ancient tombs on the ridge. In 1979, the brick factory in Beifu village dug out a copper cuvette while taking soil, and sold it to the scrap purchasing station. After several setbacks, it was recovered by the comrades of Pingdingshan Municipal Cultural Relics Management Committee. According to the inscriptions on the bronze Cuzhen, it is known that it is the dowry ritual for the daughter of the emperor of Deng to marry Yingguo. Thus, the cemetery of the nobles in Yingguo was found.

In the second half of 1986, Henan Institute of cultural relics and Pingdingshan Municipal Cultural Administration jointly formed an archaeological team of Yingguo cemetery, which carried out 11 years of archaeological excavation from 1986 to 1997. More than 310 tombs have been excavated, including nearly 20 tombs of the king and his wife of Ying State. More than 10000 cultural relics have been unearthed, including more than 200 bronzes with inscriptions.

A total of 42 Yingguo tombs have been excavated in Yingguo cemetery, which are arranged orderly and have the characteristics of "ethnic tombs". Thousands of cultural relics have been unearthed, mainly bronze and jade. The bronze inscriptions are related to the big shooting ceremony, the bride price, the imperial temple name and the funeral dress system, which are of great value to the study of the ancient etiquette system and the history of the princes. The orderly arrangement of the monarch's tombs provides valuable information for the study of the chronology of tombs in the same period.

General situation of the base

Yingguo cemetery is mainly the burial place of Yingguo nobles in Zhou Dynasty, including some Chu nobles' tombs and some civilian tombs in Han Dynasty. It is located in Xuezhuang Township, Xinhua District, Pingdingshan City, Henan Province. A total of 42 Yingguo tombs have been excavated in Yingguo cemetery, which are arranged orderly and have the characteristics of "ethnic tombs". Thousands of cultural relics have been unearthed, mainly bronze and jade. The bronze inscriptions are related to the big shooting ceremony, the bride price, the imperial temple name and the funeral dress system, which are of great value to the study of the ancient etiquette system and the history of the princes. The orderly arrangement of the monarch's tombs provides valuable information for the study of the chronology of tombs in the same period.

On May 25, 2006, Yingguo cemetery, as an ancient tomb from Zhou Dynasty to Han Dynasty, was approved by the State Council to be listed in the Sixth Batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Explore history

Yingguo cemetery is a large-scale burial area with the tombs of the nobles of Yingguo and Chu in the two Zhou dynasties. There are also civilian tombs of the Han Dynasty on it. It is a cultural relic protection unit in Henan Province.

In the late 1970s, local villagers found a large number of bronzes in the process of water conservancy construction and production construction, which were verified by experts to be the bronzes of Yingguo in the Western Zhou Dynasty, thus confirming that Tuling was the noble tomb group of Yingguo, a vassal state in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Since 1989, the Henan Provincial Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology and the Municipal Administration of cultural relics (Office of the Municipal Administration of cultural relics) have formed an archaeological team to excavate the cemetery. More than 300 ancient tombs have been excavated, including more than 60 noble tombs in the two Zhou Dynasty, and a large number of precious bronzes, jades and ceramics have been unearthed.

Discovery experience

Yingguo cemetery mainly refers to the tombs of Yingguo nobles from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the early spring and Autumn period. It also includes the tombs of Chu nobles from the middle spring and Autumn period to the middle and late Warring States period, as well as some civilian tombs in the western and Eastern Han Dynasties. However, the discovery of such a large cemetery is related to a waste purchase.

One day in December 1979, Pingdingshan Cultural Relics Management Committee received a phone call from Baofeng cultural center. According to the phone call, a farmer came to the cultural center with a bronze cudgel, saying that he dug it from the brick kiln of Beifu brigade of Xuezhuang commune in the suburb of Pingdingshan (now Beifu village, Fuyang town). It's said that the cultural center purchased antiquities. The farmer wanted to know if he could change some money. The staff patiently explained to him the state's cultural relics policy and some common sense of cultural relics, hoping that he could hand things over to the Pingdingshan Municipal Cultural Administration Department.

After learning of this situation, sun Qingyuan and two other colleagues attached great importance to it. However, they waited anxiously in the office for a day, but no one came to see them. "Will he deal with the cultural relics separately?" The next morning, the three rushed to Beifu brigade together. After explaining his intention to the Party branch secretary of the brigade, the Party branch secretary immediately sent someone to help them find the whereabouts of Tongzhen. At the same time, he led them to investigate the environment around the brick and tile kilns, and told them some important situations and rumors in recent years.

In the kilns, the masses say that they often find night pearls, golden ponies, copper pots and jade bowls in the soil. As the filling in the upper part of the tomb is removed, the ancient objects scattered in the tomb passage and the filling in the tomb chamber will be washed out by the rainstorm. Therefore, they speculated that fuyangling was probably related to the cemetery of Yingguo nobles. During this visit, they found important clues for the location of guying state, but they did not find the shadow of Tongzhen.

The next day, they took a bus to Baofeng County Cultural Center and continued to search for the whereabouts of Tongzhen. They suspected that the farmer might be afraid of being confiscated and took the copper ore to the waste station to sell it. So, several people set out to Baofeng waste purchasing station to explain their intention, and reiterated that Tongzhen was a national treasure and should be owned by the state. After that, the person in charge of the waste purchasing station did not dare to neglect, so he quickly found the person on duty that day to ask. As expected, the farmer sold the copper to the waste station.

Holding a bronze cudgel in one's hand, a few people are like treasures. This copper cudgel weighs 4.8 kg and the purchase price is 19.5 yuan. They paid the purchase price to the purchase station, and then took away the copper, which is the valuable "Deng Gong Zhen".

essential information

Time: Zhou Dynasty

Excavation site: Beifu village, Xuezhuang Township, Xinhua District, Pingdingshan City, Henan Province

Excavation units: Henan Institute of cultural relics, Pingdingshan Municipal Council of cultural administration

Selected time: 1996

Admission: adult ticket: 15 yuan, child ticket: 10 yuan

Opening hours: 7:30-18:00

Best travel time: October, September

places of historic figures and cultural heritage:

Travel preferences:

National certification:

Cemetery traffic

Bus: take bus No.29 and get off at the intersection of xifucun.

Self driving: 1. Start due south from the starting point, drive 5.8km, turn left slightly. 2. Drive 3.7km, turn left ahead and enter S234. 3. Drive 2.2km along S234 to the terminal.

historical value

The lost Dynasty

Zhen: ancient food utensils. In ancient books, it is written as "Zhen", also as "re" and "track". Zhou Li? Land official? Sheren: "all sacrifice, a total of Zhen.". Cuan is a kind of utensil for holding millet, millet, rice and beam. It is equivalent to the present big bowl. Its shape is generally round belly, extravagant mouth, round foot, with or without ears, two ears, three ears, or even four ears. In the Shang and Zhou dynasties, like tripods and other utensils, it symbolized the level of slave owner status. After the Warring States period, Zhen was rarely seen. This discovery reminds archaeologists of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which has long disappeared.

In 1964, in order to solve the problem of water supply in Pingdingshan City, the government built a dam in the middle reaches of Shahe River and built the famous Baiguishan Reservoir. The prosperous Fuyang town has become a reservoir inundation area. The town, which sank in the Baiguishan Reservoir, was originally called guyingcheng, and was granted by the son of King Wu of Zhou, the founder of the Western Zhou Dynasty. For more than 3000 years, though the ancient Yingguo has experienced countless wars and the changes of the times, it has already declined and fallen, but the people there are still living and reproducing tenaciously and continue to this day.

It is said that the walls of the village around Fuyang town before inundation were as high as a castle. There is also a stone inscription on the forehead of the gate, which records the glorious history of Yingguo in the past. The title of the east gate is "Yingxu", the south gate is "wangchu", the west gate is "guying", and the north gate is "Tongbao". A few years ago, the cultural administration department of Pingdingshan City collected a stone tablet from Xiyang town in Xiyang village, on which the words "Jiacheng is close to the monument of Yingguo, Zaishu canlongguang" were written. And? Yangling is a high platform with mountains and rivers, which is an ideal place for ancient human life. Therefore, sun Qingyuan and others concluded that? Yang town is probably the capital of ancient Yingguo, because these splendid ancient cultural relics are the best proof.

Bury together

Yingguo was originally a feudal state with Ji surname in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. According to historical records, after King Wu of Zhou destroyed the Shang Dynasty, Dafeng brothers and their sons ruled and supervised the adherents of the Shang Dynasty. According to Zuo Zhuan? In the 24th year of Yugong, it is said that the first Fengjun of Yingguo should be the son of King Wu of Zhou and the brother of King Cheng of Zhou. Han Shu? In geography annals, there is "Ying Xiang, Gu Guo, Wu Wang's younger brother granted." That is to say, Yingguo was the vassal state of the brothers of King Wu. Whether Yingguo was the vassal state of King Wu's younger brother or prince Wu, or neither, is still a major issue for historians to explore. But we can be sure that Yingguo existed in the early Western Zhou Dynasty and played an important role.

After 1986,

Chinese PinYin : Ying Guo Mu Di