Shaoshique

Shaoshi towers, one of the national cultural relics of historical buildings in heaven and earth, is located at the foot of Shaoshi mountain, six kilometers away from the city, in the west of xingjiapu village, south foot of Songshan Mountain, Dengfeng City, Henan Province. It was built from the fifth year of the Yuan Dynasty to the second year of Yanguang (118-123) of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is the Shinto que of Shaoshi mountain temple in the Han Dynasty.

Shaoshique

Shaoshi que is located at the eastern foot of Shaoshi mountain in Dengfeng City, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. It is a Shinto Que in front of Shaoshi mountain temple. It was built in the second year of emperor Yan'an of Han Dynasty (123). It is also called "three Han Que in Zhongyue" together with Taishi Que and Qimu que.

The shaoshique is built with bluish gray stone blocks, which is divided into two parts: the East and the West. The structure of the two que is the same, which is composed of three parts: que base, que body and que top. The East que is 3.37 meters high and the West que is 3.75 meters high, with an interval of 7.60 meters. In the middle of the three floors to the north of the Xique, there are six characters of the seal script "Que of Shaoshi Shinto". The inscription of the que is also a seal script, about 55 lines, 4 characters in each line, which are all eroded and unrecognizable. The carvings on the shaoshique include chariots and horses traveling, banquets, feathered men, xuanniaoshang, Siling, animal fighting, fencing, hunting, dog chasing rabbit, elephant training, cockfighting, Cuju, sheep's head, deer, tiger, horse skill, Moon Palace, evergreen tree, cypress and so on. Among them, circus and hunting are the most popular. Shaoshi que is an important physical witness of ancient sacrifice to Shaoshi Mountain God, and it is also one of the models of ancient Chinese sacrificial architecture.

On March 4, 1961, shaoshique was announced as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council of the people's Republic of China

On August 1, 2010, the historical building complex in Dengfeng, including shaoshique, was listed as a world cultural heritage.

Historical evolution

The date of the shaoshique's founding is unknown because only four words "March 3" remain in the inscription.

According to Ye Jingshu's Songyang stone inscriptions, the titles below Juncheng's Ling mausoleum are the same as those of Qimu's, such as "Quanling Xuezheng", "Wuguan chuanyinlin", "Hucao Shixia Xiao", "Lianghe Yuanyang Changfeng Bao", "tingchuan Zhaomu", "Hucao Shizhang Shi", "Jiangzuo Chuanyan Shou", and so on. Moreover, the shapes and systems of the two que are very similar, which can infer the construction age of Shaoshi que Probably the same as Qimu que, Zhu Chong, also the governor of Yingchuan, was built around the second year of Yanguang (123) of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty.

In the "Cultural Revolution", the shaoshique was destroyed, the area of the protected houses was small, and the roof was in disrepair for a long time, which eroded the sanque to varying degrees.

Architectural features

The wall of the shaoshique is decorated with color paintings carved by the method of reducing the ground level. In the circus, there are two horses flying in the air. On the first saddle, there is a girl in a bun, wearing tight clothes and trousers, standing upside down on the horse's back. On the second horse, there is a woman with long sleeves fluttering in the wind, and the human body leans back naturally. These techniques fully show the time when the horse is running And the thrilling art of the circus.

Shaoshique color painting is a representative work of Han Dynasty carving art, with exaggerated carving technique and elegant and natural style

. The inscriptions on the shaoshique are broad and simple, with the style of boundless ocean.

Cultural relics

overview

Shaoshique is well preserved, and the structure of the East and the west is basically the same. The two que are facing each other in the South and the north. The East que is 3.37 meters high, the West que is 3.75 meters high, and the distance between the two que is 6.75 meters. The body of the que consists of two parts: the main Que and the auxiliary que. The main que is built with rectangular stones, and the top is carved into si'a style with huge stones, which is 3.96 meters high and 1.82 meters wide. The auxiliary que symbolizes the wall, so it is 1.31 meters lower than the main que, and the top is half si'a Ding. Shaoshi stone que Ming, a seal script, is carved in the south of Xique, with 20 lines of characters and four characters in each line. On the north side of the Xique, there are six characters of "Shaoshi Shendao Que" in the seal script of Yin script with double hooks. On the south side, most of the official script titles have been peeled off and can't be recognized. To the north of dongque, there are four lines of Lishu titles, which have no date.

 

 

More than 70 patterns, such as fox chasing rabbit, horse racing, Cuju, animal fighting, chicken fighting, circus, xuanniaoshang, four spirits, badminton figure, Double Dragons piercing the wall, chariot and horse travelling, double animals competing for food, sheep's head, dispelling evil cypresses, head ring and landscape, are respectively embossed on the stones of shaoshique.

 

Partial drawing

There is no "list title" in the portraits of sanque in Songshan Han Dynasty, and the theme is completely set according to the content of the picture.

The picture of training elephant shows an elephant slave holding a long rod with a hook to train an elephant.

Jinyetu is 37 cm high and 53 cm wide. All of the four were wearing Jinxian crowns and long clothes. One on the left was facing the right, and the other three on the right were facing the left.

The deer shooting map is 38cm high and 107cm wide. The two hunters, one in front of the other, gallop on horseback and chase a deer. The former looks back to shoot, while the latter bows to shoot.

 

History and culture

Stories and legends

Taishique and shaoshique are the Shinto Que in front of taishishan temple and shaoshishan temple in Han Dynasty. For a long time, there is no final conclusion about which gods are worshipped in the temple of taishishan and the temple of shaoshishan. Some local cultural workers and most of the people believe that the two temples are dedicated to the two wives of Dayu, the sisters of the Tushan family.

Taishishan and shaoshishan, which is popular in Dengfeng, narrates the myth that Dayu married his second wife: it is said that after he married his wife Tu Shanjiao, Dayu wanted to take his wife back to chongdi. Tu Shanyao, Tu Shanjiao's younger sister, was unwilling to leave her sister and went to chongdi to settle down. Dayu arranged Tu Shanjiao at the foot of Chongshan mountain and Tu Shanyao at the foot of Jishan mountain. Later, people called the place where Tu Shanjiao lived taishishan, and Ji mountain where Tu Shanyao lived shaoshishan. Because Dayu's two wives were actually sisters, the local people called shaoshishan Temple "Shaoyi Temple". Therefore, taishique and shaoshique became the important media to tell the myth of Dayu's second wife.

 

Ancient poetry

When Yang Huan visited Zhongyue in the Yuan Dynasty, he wrote an impromptu poem in Shaoyi temple, saying: "there are two old buildings beside the road, and the grass goes to the temple of desolation; when he sees the mountain girls, he burns incense and asks for silk."

 

Scholar's account

"Out of the west gate of Dengfeng County, ten miles to xingjiapu. Another two Li to the west, there are two stone towers facing each other in the field, namely the stone tower of Shaoshi temple in the Han Dynasty. It is located in the east of Shaoshi mountain, several miles away from the foot of the mountain... " Liu Dunzhen of China construction society gave few words to Shaoshi que. He indirectly explained the reason in his diary: "all the patterns of Shaoshi que are similar to those of Taishi Que and Qimu que

 

Hand painted by Lu Xun

In Lu Xun's manuscripts about Han Dynasty portraits, there are six Han Dynasty portraits drawn by Lu Xun, two of which are marked with "Shaoshi", which is the Shaoshi palace in Song Mountain of Dengfeng, Henan Province.

 

Cultural relic value

The portraits and decorative patterns of the shaoshique are precious materials for studying the history of ancient Chinese sculpture and art, and the inscriptions are treasured by the ancient scholars of epigraphy. As the Shinto Que in front of the ancestral temple, Shaoshi que is not only carved with strange birds and animals, characters and stories, but also carved with the frame structure of the building and the shape of each component, which provides a rare physical example for the study of Han Dynasty architecture.

 

With a special architectural form and artistic content, shaoshique represents a tradition in China's thousands of years of history -- ancestor worship. This tradition is a basic concept and criterion of Chinese consanguinity politics, family relations and ethics, and is also one of the models of ancient Chinese sacrificial architecture. Han sanque is the ancient capital built in the middle of heaven and earth. The site selection of Dengfeng proves the belief of early human beings in the middle of heaven and earth.

 

Shaoshi que Ming is the best stone carving of Han Dynasty. Kang Youwei once said: "the dense and vigorous is like Shaoshi and Kaimu. There are only two kinds of seal steles in Han Dynasty. It can be said that they are the most precious stones in the world, and the seal script is the most elegant."

 

The vivid pictures of Cuju on the shaoshique show that there was football in China as early as the Han Dynasty.

 

protective measures

In 1953, in order to protect the sanque of Han Dynasty, the local government of Dengfeng built protective houses around the sanque.

 

On March 4, 1961, shaoshique was announced as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council of the people's Republic of China.

 

In December 2006, the State Administration of cultural heritage released the revised "China's world cultural heritage preliminary list", among which Dengfeng's "in heaven and earth" historical buildings are listed. During the period of applying for the world heritage, the State Administration of cultural relics has repeatedly sent personnel and organized experts to visit the site to guide the work. Henan provincial Party committee and government and Zhengzhou municipal Party committee and government have conscientiously implemented the opinions of the State Administration of cultural relics, and have successively completed the compilation of the application documents, the protection and display of the heritage, the environmental improvement, the construction of special laws and regulations, the construction of management institutions, the construction of archives, the monitoring of heritage, and social publicity.

On August 1, 2010, shaoshique was listed as a world cultural heritage as an integral part of Dengfeng's "heaven and earth" historical building complex.

 

In July 2011, the shaoshique protection project was officially started in Dengfeng. According to the "Dengfeng shaoshique protection plan" approved by the State Administration of cultural relics, the shaoshique protection project was completed

Chinese PinYin : Shao Shi Que