Iron urn City

Iron urn City

Iron urn City, also known as Beijing (Jingkou) city, Zicheng. The earliest and more authoritative record is that Gu Ye Wang of the Southern Dynasty described in his book Yu Di Zhi: "it was built by Sun Quan, the great emperor of Wu. It took 630 steps in the Zhou Dynasty to open the South and West gates. Inside and outside, it was built with brick walls." Although it is simple, the basic elements of the city have been explained clearly. In 208, Sun Quan moved the center of his political power from Wu (Suzhou) to the capital (now Zhenjiang). The battle of Chibi took place in that year. Although Sun Quan was not yet king at that time, the iron urn city actually had the status and pattern of King City. In the poems of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, he once described the iron urn city as "half covered with smoke and haze, and one side controlled the east Wu". In May 2013, it was approved and announced as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Zhenjiang's "iron urn city" is one of the three ancient capitals in the period of the three kingdoms that have been preserved up to now. Zhenjiang's iron urn city is unique for its earliest construction, the most complete preserved relics, and the only brick wall built to protect the city. Researcher Liu Jianguo, honorary director of Zhenjiang ancient city Archaeology Institute, devoted 15 years to the archaeology of iron urn city. Recently, the reporter interviewed him specially.

Many people in Zhenjiang know a good story. There is an ancient road in downtown Zhenjiang, which has not been completed because of the iron urn. As the earliest city in Zhenjiang and the political, military and cultural center of the state and government departments, the iron urn site can be completely preserved, which is a miracle in itself.

The age of Architecture

According to the existing literature, there are three different exact years, namely 195, 204 and 208, which are more than ten years apart.

(Jin) Chen Shou's Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms. Biography of Sun Shao: in 195, sun CE occupied Jiangdong and sent General sun he to "garrison the capital city";

In the same book, there is also a record of Sun Shao's "repairing the capital and setting up Loulu" in 204 ad;

(Tang Dynasty) Xu Song's Jiankang Shilu Volume 1: in 208 ad, the 13th year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Sun Quan "moved from Wu (today's Suzhou) to Jingkou (today's Zhenjiang);

According to Yu Di Zhi, the iron urn was built by Sun Quan, the great emperor of Wu Dynasty, with 630 steps in Zhou Dynasty. It opened the South and West gates, and was built with brick walls inside and outside;

(Qing Dynasty) Gu Zuyu's "summary of history reading Fang Yu" Volume 25 also contains: in the 13th year of Jian'an, Sun Quan moved to the town and built the capital here.

According to the above documents, although there are different records about the beginning of the construction of the iron urn, the first people to build the city are Sunhe, sunshao and Sunquan. But one thing is clear, that is, the iron urn was built after the sun family occupied Jiangdong in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. The city was built by the sun family of Jiangdong, that is, the eastern Wu in the later Three Kingdoms period.

From the archaeological data, it is also confirmed that the beginning of the construction of the iron urn should be in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, such as the discovery of ramming 3-9 in Xiyuan, and the related brick wall, slope protection brick surface and other relics.

From the unearthed relics, there are a number of relics with the characteristics of the Six Dynasties, the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, mainly brick, tile, tile, clay pottery, hard pottery, glazed pottery and so on. Brick has character brick and decorative brick.

Masonry characteristics

In the Han Dynasty, Dantu County was set up in the area of Zhenjiang today, and the county governance was roughly in the area of Dantu town in the eastern suburb of Zhenjiang today. It is difficult to determine the specific location. When sun's group was operating Jiangdong, one of the important reasons why it chose to build the city in front of Beigu mountain was that Beigu mountain had geographical and topographical advantages. The whole tieweng city was backed by the middle and main peaks of Beigu mountain, and the vast natural danger of the Yangtze River was on the East, West and north sides. Looking to Nanxiong, the vast hills and plains of Southern Jiangsu could be said to occupy a unique place It is narrow in the north and wide in the south, with an average width of 220-250 meters between the East and the West and a length of 300-350 meters between the north and the south. As mentioned above, this closed unit itself is equivalent to the semi-finished product of a small city site. The iron urn city was built on the basis of making the best use of this natural condition. From the specific construction methods of the city wall In order to protect the rammed city wall, rammed earth is added at the foot of the hill slope, and the outer side is wrapped with brick for reinforcement. In the middle of the hill, a two-layer platform is made by using the natural conditions as a crossing. At the same time, it is also convenient for people to move and maintain the city wall. In the upper part of the hill, the slope is rammed The slope like rammed earth and paving slope protection brick are not only the components of the city wall, but also play the role of protecting the vertical rammed earth city wall and brick wall on the lower side, so that the artificial buildings and natural mountains are integrated into a solid city wall of the iron urn city. The mountain is a city, the city is a mountain, and the city and the mountain contract are integrated into an organic whole. In the last 1800 years, although the city walls were reinforced and repaired in different historical periods, the architectural type formed at the beginning of the construction of the city was basically unchanged, and the architectural thought at the beginning of the construction of the city was not broken, forming a distinctive architectural culture of the iron urn city.

name

The reason why the city is called tiewengcheng should be understood from two aspects. First, from the geographical and geographical environment of tiewengcheng, the whole Beigu mountain is divided into Houfeng, Zhongfeng and Qianfeng from north to south, and the three peaks are connected by Changgang. Tiewengcheng is located in the front peak of Beigu mountain. It is separated from the middle peak and the front peak to the East and West, and extends about 300-400 meters to the southwest and Southeast respectively. It is connected with the East extending mound of Yuehua mountain. Thus, it forms a sky with narrow north, wide south, high north, gradually decreasing south, oval plane and about 20-30 meters above the surrounding ground However, the enclosed unit, as seen from the outside of the city, stands like a huge urn.

Secondly, (yuan) Yu Xilu said in Zhishun Zhenjiang annals that "the city is surrounded by 630 steps, with brick walls inside and outside, and is called iron urn city.". The reason why the city is called the iron urn city is that the walls around the iron urn city are wrapped with bricks inside and outside, and the city is as solid as an iron urn. From the archaeological findings, the actual situation is indeed as recorded in the literature. Rammed earth walls are found in the East, West, South and North walls of the city, and there are brick walls outside the walls. However, slightly different from the literature, there is no case of "fixing brick walls" inside the walls.

Historical legend

According to the records, there are two gates in tiewengcheng, the south gate is called gujiaomen, and the Song Dynasty is also called Qiaomen. The drum tower was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty, and today's name of gulougang comes from this. The discovery of the gujiaomen remains is not only an important demonstration of the iron urn City, but also the first case of the gate Archaeology of the Six Dynasties in southern China. But the brick and tile facilities of the South Gate of the iron urn City show its advanced nature in the ancient city wall buildings.

The middle and back peaks of Beigu mountain are about 50 meters above sea level, and the rock mountain is below 2-3 meters of the surface. During the Southern Dynasties, when Emperor Liang Wu ascended Beigu mountain, the mountain was "ten feet high, facing water on three sides", just like a natural "stone city" on the river. In 1999-2000, archaeologists excavated the Yaotai of Houfeng in Beigu mountain (where the famous Ganlu temple is located), and found that under the site of Ganlu temple in Tang Dynasty, there were cultural accumulation of Six Dynasties and pre Qin period: early rope pattern, leaf vein pattern or filling line pattern, lining tile, rope pattern brick, celadon pot, pot and bowl fragments were unearthed from the Six Dynasties; Zhou Dynasty pottery was unearthed from pre Qin period This indicates that the Houfeng of Beigu mountain had a considerable scale of cultural activities as early as before the Six Dynasties.

The iron urn is an important part of the capital of the Three Kingdoms, but not all of it. The capital of the Three Kingdoms should include all of Beigu mountain, namely the front, middle and back peaks, with a length of about 1000 meters from north to South and a circumference of nearly 6 Li.

The capital built by Sun Quan is similar to the imperial palace. According to the etiquette rules of ancient palace city, the court district and the dormitory district are separated, that is, the so-called "former court and later dormitory". Looking at the iron urn City, it is located in the southern half of the capital, rising gradually from the south to the north. The northernmost floor is the highest and majestic, which should be the place of the imperial government. The middle of Beigu mountain and Houfeng should be the hougongyuan District, as well as the Armory and granary.

Liu Bei, as Sun Quan's son-in-law, was arranged to spend his honeymoon in the palace and garden area of the capital during his activities in Jingkou. From this point of view, Liu Bei's newlywed life in Beigu mountain, as well as the legend of sun and Liu walking horses with bridles and testing swords with boulders, are all revived and brightened by the archaeology of the iron urn city.

Site protection

Excavation process

In order to uncover the mystery of the iron urn City, the State Administration of cultural relics has listed the site of the city as one of the key projects of national cultural relics and Archaeology since 1991, which lasted for 15 years. Liu Jianguo, who has been leading the participation, told reporters that in those years, the teachers and students of the History Department of NTU cooperated with archaeologists in Zhenjiang to investigate the landforms of Nanfeng in Beigu mountain according to historical clues. The archaeologists found that there are residual ridge like mounds on the East, West and north sides, which are U-shaped, high in the north and low in the south, about 7-20 meters above the ground. Archaeologists first selected a section of mound on the northwest side for trial excavation, and found the remains of rammed earth and brick wall of the Six Dynasties. The wall was built according to the mountain, with one side, straight and inclined. It can be inferred that the U-shaped mound connected with it should

Chinese PinYin : Tie Weng Cheng