Ancient city of Jin

Xintian site of Jindu in Houma

synonym

The ancient city of Jin state generally refers to the Xintian site of the capital of Jin in Houma

Houma Jindu Xintian site is the first batch of national key cultural relics announced by the State Council on March 14, 1961. It is also the location of Xintian, the capital of the spring and Autumn period and the Late Jin Dynasty, which has long been confirmed by historians and archaeologists. From 585 B.C. to 369 B.C., after 13 generations of monarchs, Jin was divided into Han, Zhao and Wei families, and the capital of Jin was established in 217. The site of the Jin State in Houma covers an area of 45 square kilometers, accounting for about a quarter of the area of Houma City.

After 50 years of archaeological excavation, more than 100000 pieces of various cultural relics have been unearthed from the site of the state of Jin in Houma. Published monographs include: Houma alliance book, Houma cast copper site, Shangma cemetery, Jindu Xintian, Houma pottery model art, Qiaocun cemetery, etc., and published more than 200 materials and research articles in various magazines. Su Bingqi, former president of the Chinese archaeological society, said that the focus of the study of Jin culture is three horses. That is, Tianma in the Western Zhou Dynasty, Houma and Shangma in the spring and Autumn period are in Houma, which shows that the site of the state of Jin in Houma plays an important role in the study of Jin culture.

Textual research process

In 1952, Cui douchen, the former director of Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee, went to Houma, West Houma and Baidian for investigation, and discovered ancient sites, which aroused the attention of archaeologists to Houma.

In July 1955, Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee cooperated with the central urban design institute to organize all kinds of professional scientific and technological personnel to conduct a comprehensive investigation on the natural environment and historical geography of Houma City, and found a large number of cultural layers of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty on the cliffs beside xihouma, songguo, Baidian, Niucun, nanxizhuang, beixizhuang and other villages. It is preliminarily found out that this is an ancient site with rich cultural relics and wide distribution. It is confirmed by the literature that it is closely related to Xintian, the capital of the Late Jin State in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.

From March to July 1956, the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Ministry of culture conducted a general survey of cultural relics in southern Shanxi Province, and confirmed that the Houma site was not an ordinary tribal site, but a very complex and important site. In May of the same year, the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Ministry of culture and the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences came to Houma to inspect the sites of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. In July, the wall of Fengcheng ancient city was found in the east of Fengcheng village.

On October 3, 1956, the Houma work station of Shanxi Cultural Relics Working Committee was established to be responsible for the archaeological investigation, excavation and research of the site of the Jin State in Houma and the whole southern Shanxi.

Although the Houma site of Jin state was discovered in 1952, it was later confirmed that it was the capital of Jin. In the initial process of many investigations, he thought that it was very possible, but for the sake of studying major academic issues, he should hold a rigorous attitude and style, and he has not given a clear indication. From March to may in 1957, Houma work station discovered Niucun and Pingwang ancient cities one after another, and surveyed the palace foundations in these two ancient cities. Mr. Yang Fudou put forward the possibility only in the investigation bulletin "a new ancient city site found in houmaxi". He said, where is the ancient city of Xintian? Scholars of past dynasties have different views. Some say that it is an ancient city two kilometers southwest of Quwo, and some say that it is around houmayi (Houma town in Quwo County in the past, now the west old street of Houma road). It is difficult to be sure which statement is correct before scientific data are available. However, from the location of the newly discovered ancient city of Houma, it is located on the plain at the intersection of Fen and Hui. The land is flat and fertile, with Jiangshan mountain in the south, emeiling mountain in the southwest and Quwo mountain in the East. As the Qianlong Wuyin year "Quwo County annals" and Jiaqing two years renewal "Quwo County annals" said: "Xintian ancient city in the present rule of Southwest 30 Li." "It's also located in Jiangshan, with Emei standing in front and fenhuan on the right." It is also consistent with Han Xianzi's saying in Zuozhuan that "the soil is thick and the water is deep, and there are fens and Huis to flow their evils". So the ancient city of Eastern Zhou discovered by Houma is probably Xintian of Jin Dynasty. This brief report was published in the 10th issue of cultural relics reference in 1957.

The determination of Xintian, the capital of Jin Dynasty, was a major event for the archaeologists of Shanxi and even China at that time, and everything was going on in an orderly way.

In July 1958, with Houma as the center, the survey and exploration work with a total area of about 40 square kilometers was carried out to preliminarily understand the general distribution of the ruins of the Jin State in Houma.

In April 1959, more than 10 pieces of Eastern Zhou bronzes were found in Shangma village.

On March 4, 1961, the site of the Jin State in Houma was announced by the State Council as one of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

In April 1960, the Shangma cemetery was reexamined and determined to be a large tomb of the Zhou Dynasty. At the same time, a cultural site of the Zhou Dynasty was found on the second terrace of Huihe River and the north of Shangma village, 120 meters northwest of the cemetery.

From October 1960 to June 1961, the bronze casting site was excavated for the first time, and a large number of pottery models and other relics were unearthed.

In March 1961, two ancient cities, Taishen and Mazhuang, were discovered.

In November, the first excavation of Shangma cemetery was carried out. 14 tombs of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were cleared, and a number of exquisite bronzes were unearthed, including the bronze "geng'er Ding" unearthed from tomb 13.

From November 1962 to the first half of 1963, the second large-scale excavation of the cast copper site was carried out.

In April 1962, the ancient city of Baidian was investigated.

From November to the first half of 1963, large-scale excavation of Houma copper casting site was continued.

In March 1964, the protection planning for the "Four Haves" (with organization, protection scope, protection marks and cultural relics archives) of the site of the Jin State in Houma was carried out. After two years of investigation and exploration, the protection scope and key protection areas have been basically delimited. At the same time, the two ancient cities of Niucun and Pingwang are explored.

In January 1965, Chengwang ancient city site was found.

There are so many ancient cities, as well as cemeteries and bronze casting sites. The ruins of the state of Jin in Houma and Xintian, the capital of Jin, are still not as solid as they are. Finally, in November 1965, with Houma power plant, Houma oath site was excavated in the northwest of Qincun village and Houma oath was found. More than 400 sacrificial pits for cattle, sheep and horses were found at the site of the oath of alliance in Houma. Limited to the situation at that time, only 326 pits were excavated. Among them, the letters of alliance were buried in 42 pits, and more than 5000 specimens of the letters of alliance were unearthed. Zhang Han published the good news of the discovery of Jin Zhu script at the site of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in the second issue of cultural relics in 1966, It proves that this is where the "Shanggong" of the ancestral temple of the "Jin State" (the "Houma alliance" was changed to "Er Gong"). The appearance of the word "Dinggong" further proves that the Eastern Zhou site of Houma is closely related to Xintian, the capital of the Late Jin Dynasty. "

In the report of Houma alliance published in 1976, 656 copies were published, among which 251 participants and 26 targets could be identified. Zhang Han said in "the trial explanation of" Jin Bang Zhong "in Houma Lianshu congkao Xu (the first volume of ancient Chinese characters in 1979),

The main content of the words of "zongmeng" in Houma's alliance is to prevent Zhao Ni and his descendants and Zhao Ni's party from "returning to the land of Jin", which is also regarded as a main content in "Weizhi" in the alliance. The so-called "land of Jin" almost refers to the territory of Jin. It is worth noting that there is an example of "Jin Bang Zhong" in the chapter of "Zhen Zhang" (156:20). The meaning of this case seems to be different from that of other "places of Jin State", and it is more prominent than the general term "places of Jin State". Whether the people who wrote the alliance at that time intended to be unconventional or not, let's not speculate. I only take it as a special example and try to explain it from the word meaning. Specifically, the explanation of "Jin Bang Zhong" refers to the capital (Jiang, Xintian) of Jin state at that time, because all the states at that time were called "bang Zhong". "Zhou Li. Tian Guan Tai Zai" is "Fu in one country; Fu in two suburbs...". Zheng Zhuyun's "Bangzhong" refers to the city, while "Sijiao" refers to "going to the country for a hundred Li". It can be seen that there is a regional boundary between "Bangzhong" and "Sijiao". "Bang Zhong" is the capital of the emperor or princes.

"In the state of Jin" in Houma alliance also explains "in the state of Jin". It is also the capital of the king of Jin at that time. So the site of Houma oath of alliance, as mentioned in the previous research, is exactly the location of Xintian, the capital of the Late Jin State, after 582 BC. This is consistent with the historical fact reflected in the letter of alliance of Houma: "Zhao Yang entered Jiangjiang and allied himself with Gonggong palace..." And the records about the oath of alliance in the fourteenth year of Dinggong in Zuozhuan are very consistent. 、

In order to avoid Liu Bang's taboo, Han Dynasty changed "bang" into "Guo". If the "land of Jin State" still refers to the whole territory of Jin State, at least the "land of Jin State" really refers to Xintian, the capital of Jin State. In addition, the words of "Weizhi" in Houma's letter of alliance all say that "Pixian grand Tomb of Duke of Jin", "grand Tomb of Duke of Jin" is the temple and dormitory of Duke of Jin. What is it if it is not Xintian, the capital of Jin?

In 1979, the tomb of the Duke of Jin also had an appearance, which is Xiliu, Xinjiang county, bordering on Houma

Chinese PinYin : Jin Guo Gu Cheng