Cuanxia site

Cuanxia site

The cuxia site is the headquarters of Xiang Yu during the decisive battle of cuxia between the late Qin Dynasty and the early Han Dynasty, as well as the hometown of jiaoguo and Wenxian in the Han Dynasty,

Also known as bawangcheng. In the Western Han Dynasty, it was used as the city site of He county.

The age of cuxia site is mainly in the late Dawenkou Culture and Han Dynasty,

The main body of the site is a city site with irregular arc angle rectangular plane. There are remnants of the city wall around. The outline of the city wall is clear. Except the west city wall was eroded by the old road of Tuohe River and damaged to some extent, the other walls are well preserved. The total area of the city is about 150000 square meters. Outside the city wall is surrounded by HaoGou, which is 15 meters to 30 meters wide. The whole site is a platform landform. Tuohe river flows eastward from the west side to the north side of the site. The upper and southern half of the site is now residential land, and the northern half is cultivated land.

In 1980, the cuxia site was declared as a cultural relic protection unit at the county level by the people's Government of Guzhen county,

On July 3, 1986, it was announced as a key cultural relics protection unit of Anhui Province by the people's Government of Anhui Province,

In 2013, it was announced as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Historical evolution

In the Western Han Dynasty, the cuanxia site was used as the city site of Cuan county.

In 202 BC, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang fought a decisive battle at the cuanxia site.

In the 1950s, the cuanxia site was discovered.

In December 1976, 3856 copper shell coins of Chu state, namely, ant nose coins, were once unearthed outside the south wall of the city site.

On May 11, 1991, the cultural relics department of Guzhen County rescued and cleared two stone chamber tombs, m < sub2 < / sub, m < sub3 < / sub, one kilometer south of the city site.

In 2007, with the approval of the State Administration of cultural relics, Anhui Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology and the cooperation of Guzhen County Cultural Relics Management Institute started drilling and the first excavation of the site in order to clarify the age and connotation of the site and prepare the site protection plan.

From 2008 to 2009, Anhui Provincial Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology and Guzhen County Cultural Relics Management Institute successively excavated the site, with a total area of more than 1000 square meters exposed in three excavations.

Site features

Cuanxia site is located on the platform. The city wall is built according to the terrain and made of rammed earth. It is not very regular square. Each corner of the city wall is built into an arc, the west wall is slightly curved, 340 meters long, and the middle part is destroyed by the old Tuohe river. The other three walls are straight. The south wall is 240 meters long, the east wall is 260 meters long and the north wall is 260 meters long. The city wall collapsed seriously due to soil extraction and wind and rain erosion in the past dynasties, almost level with the ground inside the city, only slightly uplifted in a slope shape. But it is still about 2.2-2.5 meters higher than the flat land outside the city. Outside the city, there are moats on the East, West and south sides, which are connected with Tuohe River, forming a defense line of the city.

The South half of the city is the residential area, and the north half is the farming area. The broken rope pattern tube tiles, cloud pattern tiles, plate tiles, broken green bricks, pottery fragments and so on can be seen everywhere on the surface of the city.

Outside the city is farmland. Tuo River flows from the southwest of cuxia site to the north, flows through the West and North walls of Bawang City, and flows eastward. The moat is connected with Tuo River, and the South Gate of the city is connected with Bawang street of Haocheng town.

Cultural relics

A well preserved wall built in the late Dawenkou Culture and the additional wall built in the Han Dynasty was found in the cuxia site. A group of Paifang, a platform shaped base site, a pottery kiln and 11 tombs from the late Dawenkou Culture to the early Longshan culture and the Qin and Han Dynasties were also found, including 74 ash pits, 12 ditches, 1 large water tank excavated in the Han Dynasty, 3 wells and 2 tombs of the Song Dynasty.

In 1976, in dongcaiyuan, Haocheng village in the south of the city, a set of bronze ware was unearthed: Ding, box, pot, Fang, steamer, lamp, stove, etc.

On May 11, 1991, two stone chamber tombs (m < sub2 < / sub, m < sub3 < / sub) were rescued and cleared one kilometer south of the city site. M < sub2 < / sub unearthed pieces of jade clothes, dyeing furnaces, bronze mirrors, seashells, iron swords and tomb holding beasts; m < sub3 < / sub unearthed a complete set of glazed pottery with exquisite shape and new color, including pots, bottles, pot tripods, buildings, warehouses, pigsty, and bronze tripods, washing and mirrors.

The cultural relics unearthed at the cuxia site over the years include: Pottery tripod, pot, pot, bottle, warehouse, stove, well, building, circle, etc.; bronze tripod, box, wash, Fang stove, Cha, pot, ZA, Dai Gou, gilded tortoise, mirror, etc.; mace coins include Qin banliang, wuzhu coin, xinmangbu coin, Qidao 500, Daquan 50, etc. As well as large iron cauldron, jade wall with cloud pattern, jade cicada and other utensils.

History and culture

The battle of cuxia

In 202 BC, in the later period of the Chu Han war, Xiang Yu led more than 100000 troops to retreat to cuanxia. He used the river as a screen and piled up soil as a camp to resist the enemy. Han Xin set up an ambush on ten sides, forcing Xiang Yu to frustrate and run for his life. At the same time, he made the battalions play Chu Music in the night, besieged on all sides, and made Xiang Yu's army loose. Xiang Yu saw that the situation was over. He led his 800 children to break through the encirclement at night and lost to Wujiang. He realized that he had no face to see Jiangdong and his father. So Wujiang committed suicide at the age of 31.

The battle of cuxia is a decisive battle in the battle between Chu and Han. It is not only the end of the battle between Chu and Han, but also the starting point of the prosperity of Han Dynasty. It is also a milestone in Chinese history. It ended the scuffle at the end of Qin Dynasty, unified China, and laid the foundation for the four hundred years of Han Dynasty.

Research value

There are traces of early earthquake faults on the wall of Dongcheng, which provide important data for the study of earthquake history.

Located in the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River, the cuxia site is the intersection zone of ancient Chinese cultures. The discovery of Dawenkou city site fills the gap that no prehistoric city site has been found in Anhui before. As the first prehistoric city site found in the Huaihe River Basin, it is to explore the relationship between the archaeological culture of Dawenkou period in this area and the culture of the Central Plains in the same period, as well as the origin of Chinese civilization It provides a new clue for the evolution of the early city site form and construction technology.

The discovery of Han Dynasty city not only proves the historical fact that cuxia was the capital of Wenhou state built by lvchan in the Western Han Dynasty, but also has great significance for the study of the layout, political economy and culture of Han Dynasty City in Huaibei area.

At the end of Qin Dynasty and the beginning of Han Dynasty, the cuxia site belongs to Peijun and is an important military town. Liu Bang and Xiang Yu fought the Chu Han war in cuxia and its surrounding areas. At the same time, historical records record that "the overlord once fought in the city". The cultural relics unearthed from the site, such as copper arrowhead, iron arrowhead and Chu ant nose money, are of great value for us to understand this period of history.

protective measures

In 1980, the cuxia site was declared as a cultural relic protection unit at the county level by the people's Government of Guzhen county.

In order to protect cultural relics and historic sites, from July 19 to 22, 1985, the CPC Guzhen County Committee and the county government invited the heads of provincial and municipal cultural relics departments, as well as experts, professors and scholars inside and outside the province to hold a forum in Guzhen.

On July 3, 1986, Anhui provincial government approved the Haocheng jilongxia site as a key cultural relic protection unit at the provincial level according to Wanzheng Zi No. 51 document.

In 2009, the excavation of the late Dawenkou city site in gaxia was rated as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 2009.

In 2013, the cuanxia site was announced as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Controversy over the site

The specific location of the site is controversial, including "Lingbi theory" and "Guzhen theory". Lingbi is on the roadside of Guzhen, and there are also protection tablets of cuxia site. Lingbi's theory is due to the fact that Haocheng in Guzhen was under the jurisdiction of Lingbi in history.

Address: longxia village, Haocheng Town, Guzhen County, Bengbu City

Longitude: 117.559789

Latitude: 33.321986

Chinese PinYin : Gai Xia Yi Zhi