The old city of Southern Chu

The old city of Southern Chu

The ancient city of Southern Chu, the capital of Chu in the Warring States period, also known as Ying capital

It is located in the south of Jinnan Town, Jingzhou District, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province. It is about 5km away from Jingzhou City in the south. Because it is in the south of Jishan mountain, it is called Jinan City

The total area is about 16 square kilometers

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There are tens of thousands of pottery, copper, iron and other relics unearthed from the site of the ancient city of Southern Chu, among which building materials and daily utensils are the majority. There are also Chu coins such as "Yingying" gold plate, ant nose money, a set of 25 painted stone chimes, wooden arm copper crossbow machine of the first year of Huangwu and other important cultural relics. Fenghuang Mountain in the city became a graveyard of Qin and Han dynasties after Chu moved to Chen (Huaiyang, Henan). Ancient corpses of Western Han Dynasty, a large number of Han bamboo slips and painted lacquerware all came from it. The northern and western suburbs outside the city are large and medium-sized tombs, and the eastern suburbs are small tombs

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

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Historical evolution

From the first year of King Wen of Chu (689 BC), Ji'nan City (the old city of Ji'nan of Chu) was the Ying capital of Chu

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In 278 BC, Jinan City (the ancient city of Southern Chu) was conquered and abolished by Baiqi. The capital of Ying moved to Chen (Huaiyang, Henan), and then to Shouchun (Shouxian, Anhui). Jinan City (the ancient city of Jinan in Chu) is the Ying capital of Chu. There were 20 generations of Chu kings in Chu state who established the capital here for 411 years

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In the 1950s, Hubei Provincial Bureau of cultural relics began to investigate the old city of chujinan

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Since 1965, Hubei Provincial Bureau of cultural relics has carried out many surveys on the old city of chujinan

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From 1972 to 1973, the Hubei Provincial Bureau of cultural relics excavated the water gate of Nanyuan, the ancient city of Southern Chu Dynasty, and cleared out a wooden structure relic. The plane was rectangular, about 15 meters long from east to west and 11.5 meters wide from north to south. A total of 49 column holes were found, which were divided into six rows. Among them, 37 column holes retained wooden columns

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In 1975, the Hubei Provincial Bureau of cultural relics excavated the old city of chujinan, and cleared up the remains of the west wall, internal and external slope protection, three gateways and two gatehouses

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Site features

City scale

The old city of chujinan covers an area of about 16 square kilometers

The plan of the city site is irregular square, about 4.5km long from east to west and 3.5km wide from north to south. In the south, the eastern part protrudes, with a perimeter of 15506 meters. The city is high in the South and North, low in the middle, especially in the area of Fenghuangshan in the southeast and Motianling in the northwest

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Walls and gates

It is built of rammed earth, with a bottom width of 30-40 meters and a top width of 10-20 meters. It is generally 3-5 meters higher than the ground, and the highest is 7.6 meters. From the section of the eastern section of Beiyuan, we can see that the wall is composed of wall body, foundation trench and internal and external slope protection. When building the wall, first clear the foundation and dig the groove, then take the groove as the foundation and tamp the wall body. The foundation trench is about 50 meters deep and 10.5 meters wide. The wall is slightly trapezoidal in shape, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. The ramming layer is clear, flat and uniform, and the layer thickness is generally 10 cm. There are two kinds of ramming pits: one is round square ramming pit, and the other is round ramming pit. The first type is the main one, which is 7x7 cm. The diameter of tamping pit is 5 cm. The tamping pits are overlapped repeatedly and are very dense. There is a slope protection inside and outside the wall, the profile is triangular, and the bottom of the two slope protection is about 10 meters wide. The slope of inner revetment is about 75 ° and that of outer revetment is about 78 ° which is built at the same time with the wall body. That is to say, a layer of revetment is filled in the wall body to facilitate the upward transportation of soil

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There are seven gate sites on the wall of the southern ancient city of Chu Dynasty, including one in the East, two in the west, two in the South and two in the north. In addition, there are two water gates in the western part of Nanyuan and the eastern part of Beiyuan. There are three gateways at the north gate of Xiyuan. Wide in the middle, narrow on both sides. The width of the middle gate is 7.80 m, the width of the south gate is 3.80 m-3.90 m, and the width of the north gate is 3.84 m-4.00 M. The three gateways are separated by two earth walls, which are 3.60M wide and 10.10m long. There is a road about 8 meters wide in the middle of the road. The road is high in the middle and low on both sides, slightly turtle shaped. Two parallel ruts were found in the center of the south gate, with a distance of about 1.80 meters. Rammed earth foundations were found at the relative positions on both sides of the inner side of the gate, which are similar to gatehouses

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Moat

There are moats outside the walls of the old city of Southern Chu. The north part of the estuary is still exposed on the ground, and the rest is generally 2.5 meters to the right. The river is about 40 meters wide, with some sections as wide as 80 meters. Hanoi has accumulated to several meters deep. The soil is mostly gray black, with abundant tiles and pottery fragments. From Nanyuan to Dongyuan, part of the riverbed of Zhuhe river is covered by ancient channel, and the rest is close to the channel. There are also three forked rivers connected with it at about the same time: the first one turns south in the east section of Guhe road and flows through the palace area in the southeast of the city; the second one turns north out of Beiyuan in the city; the third one and the second one turn west and flows to Motianling. The ancient channel is generally 40 meters wide and nearly 10 meters deep

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Site distribution

There are a large number of ash pits, smelting and casting relics, architectural relics, more than 400 wells and rows of kiln sites in the old city of Southern Chu. The most important are 84 rammed earth abutments, the largest of which is about 130 meters long and 100 meters wide. It is mainly distributed in the southeast, northeast, southwest and northwest. In the southeast, there are 61 platforms, some of which are only 5 meters apart and arranged according to a certain rule, surrounded by a thick layer of rubble, which is the palace area of Jinan City. In the north and East, the wall base of the palace city has been protruded, with a width of about 10 meters and a length of about 750 meters and 690 meters respectively. On the excavation site of No. 30 palace, there are 63 meters long and 14 meters wide house foundations, piers, pillar holes, aprons, drainage pipes, ditches, wells and other relics

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Cultural relics

Many rammed earth foundations have been found in the old city of Southern Chu. The rammed earth foundation No. 30 is 80 meters long from east to west and 54 meters wide from north to south. The foundation site of early and late house building was found on the foundation. In addition, rammed earth wall foundation, red burnt earth column foundation with tiles, tile paved apron, ceramic circular drainage pipes and more than 400 ancient wells were found. Pottery, copper, iron and other relics, such as silver door rings, bronze components, hooks, knives, etc., were unearthed in the old city site of Southern Chu Dynasty. Some iron implements, such as axes, chisels, cones, sickles, knives, cauldrons, concave iron hoes, were also found Especially important is the discovery of Leifu (a tool of production in the Warring States period). There are baling mountain in the west, Changhu bank in the East and Jishan tomb area in the north. There are more than 700 large and medium-sized earth mounds in the city. There are three cemeteries in the city, two of which are small earth pit tombs in the spring and Autumn period, and the other one is Fenghuangshan tomb area. A number of important cultural relics were unearthed from Chu tombs, Qin and Han tombs, including the sword of King Gou Jian of Yue, lots of bamboo slips, and a large number of lacquerware

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Research value

Ji'nancheng site is a well preserved and large-scale ancient city site discovered in southern China. It has relatively complete earthen walls, moats, beacon towers and other military facilities. There are many ancient tombs and cultural sites of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty inside and outside the city, which are important materials for studying Chu culture and Chinese history

. The old city of Jinan is the political, economic and cultural center of Chu, and also a metropolis in the south

It is the most typical capital site in the pre Qin period, with huge scale, complete pattern and rich remains. It is an important material evidence of Chu culture and Jianghan area as the origin and development center of civilization, and occupies an important position in the history of Chinese urban construction

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protective measures

In 1956, the old city of chujinan was declared as a provincial cultural relic protection unit by the people's Government of Hubei Province

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

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In 2005, the old city of chujinan was included in the first batch of 36 large sites protection projects of the 11th five year plan by the State Administration of cultural relics

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In 2006, the old city of chujinan was listed in the 100 major sites protection project library by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of cultural relics of the people's Republic of China

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In 2010, the State Administration of cultural relics and the people's Government of Hubei Province signed the "framework agreement on the protection of Jingzhou area for the construction of large-scale archaeological sites", which made Jingzhou area one of the six areas for the protection of large-scale archaeological sites in China during the 12th Five Year Plan period, and won the first batch of national archaeological sites parks

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In 2016, the State Administration of cultural relics listed the old city of chujinan and Jingzhou area in the 13th five year plan for the protection of large sites

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History and culture

Chu culture

Jingzhou is the birthplace of Chu culture. In the 51st year of King Wu of Chu (690 BC), Xiong Qian, King Wen of Chu, took charge of state affairs. The first year of King Wen of Chu (689 BC). He moved the capital from Danyang to Ying on the North Bank of the Yangtze River and to the south of Jishan (now jinancheng, Jingzhou District, Jingzhou City). From then on, until the 21st year of King Qingxiang of Chu (278 BC), Qin general Baiqi captured Yingdu, which lasted more than 400 years and passed 20 Chu kings

. In Shiji · Chu family, the first year of King Wen of Chu (689 BC) "the first capital Ying". Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei Dynasty said in mianshuizhu of Shuijing: "there is Ji Nancheng in the northwest of Jiangling, and King Wen of Chu moved here from Danyang.". Du Yu, quoted from kuodizhi in Shiji Zhengyi, said: "Chu's capital is located in Ying, and its present south county is located in the north of Jiangling County

Chinese PinYin : Chu Ji Nan Gu Cheng