Ganquan Palace Site

Ganquan Palace Site

Ganquan Palace site is located in Liangwudi village, tiewang Township, Chunhua County, 75 kilometers north of Xianyang City, 100 kilometers away from Xianyang city. Qin and Han architectural sites, the national key cultural relics protection units.

Brief introduction of the site

Ganquan Palace site, with a total area of about 6 million square meters. The time of the rise and fall of Ganquan palace remains to be studied. The extant relics include city walls, rammed earth foundations of large buildings, pottery kilns, etc. The south wall is 1948 meters long, the west wall is 890 meters long, the north wall is 1950 meters long, and the east wall is 880 meters long. The remnant walls are about 5668 meters in circumference and are made of rammed earth. In the center of the site, there are one stone bear from the Western Han Dynasty and one stone drum from the Song Dynasty. Near the discovery of pentagonal ceramic water pipes, a variety of ceramic building materials and living utensils.

Stone carvings

Ganquan palace is the general name of the rich and luxurious palaces. Liangwudi village is the main building of Ganquan palace. There are many ancillary palaces, temples and platforms around it. The scale of Ganquan palace is second only to Weiyang palace in Chang'an. Historical records record that after the expansion of Ganquan palace in the Jianyuan period of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, "there are 12 palaces, 12 platforms and 11 palaces in 19 Li and 120 steps in Zhou Dynasty" (Guanzhong Ji). From the ancient palace two thousand years ago to today, we can see scattered building foundations and city walls on the ruins. The relics we can see are mainly building materials, such as floor tiles, hollow bricks, mother and son bricks, plate tiles and tube tiles.

There are stone bears in Han Dynasty and stone drums in Song Dynasty. These cultural relics are valuable materials for the study of ancient palaces.

Historical records

According to historical records, the location of Ganquan palace is "the place where the Yellow Emperor has worshipped heaven since then", and it is the place where the yellow emperor ascended to immortality. It is also recorded that "at the place where Xiongnu worshiped heaven, at the foot of Ganquan mountain in Yunyang, Qin seized the land.". The Yellow Emperor offered sacrifices to gods, and the wanlingmingting of the princes was in Ganquan. Guanggong was planted here in the Qin Dynasty, and Ganquan palace was built next to it in the Han Dynasty. "Historical records of the first emperor of Qin Dynasty" says: "in the 27th year, the first emperor visited the West and north of Gansu, went out of Jitou mountain and passed Huizhong. Weinan, where Yan Zuoxing temple was built, has even ordered it to be a temple like the heaven. From jimiao road to Lishan (namely "Lishan") as the front hall of Ganquan. The building of the corridor comes from Xianyang. It's a year old. It's a rank of nobility. Zhichi road. " According to Shiji Xiaowu Benji, "it is also called Ganquan palace. The middle part of the palace is a terrace. It depicts the gods of heaven, earth and Thailand, and sets sacrificial utensils to the gods of heaven." According to the records of Jiao Si in the book of Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu, according to Li Shaoweng, a Qi man, "made the site of Ganquan palace, with the center of it as a platform, painted heaven and earth, a ghost and God, and set sacrificial utensils for the God." These records show that the ancient god worship is very grand, he is one of the important activities of the Yellow Emperor, Qin and Han emperors in Ganquan palace.

In ancient times, great importance was attached to the site of Ganquan palace. The Qin and Han Dynasties built palaces here because Ganquan area was famous for its dangerous terrain in ancient times. Fan Ju "Warring States policy" records: "king of the country, north of the spring, valley mouth." Ganquan mountain is the outpost of Xianyang. In order to defend against aggression, the first emperor of Qin built Lin Guang Palace at the site of Gan Quan palace, and built a straight road from Gan Quan to Jiuyuan in Inner Mongolia for the benefit of armament. Ganquan Palace site is a summer resort with high mountains and cool air. The first emperor of Qin went to the forest light palace in Ganquan not only to avoid the summer, but also to deter the Huns.

The Western Han Dynasty

In the Western Han Dynasty, the scale of Ganquan Palace site was second only to Weiyang palace in Chang'an. According to historical records, after the expansion of Ganquan palace in the Jianyuan reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, "there are 12 palaces, 12 platforms and 11 palaces in the 19 Li and 120 steps back in the Zhou Dynasty" (records of Guanzhong).

It is also recorded that at the site of Ganquan palace, "compared with Jianzhang, every official has his own residence" ("Kuo Di Zhi"). This shows the magnificence of the palace. According to the records of Jiaosi in Hanshu, the emperor of Han Dynasty came to Ganquan Palace: "emperor Gaozu came five years ago, Emperor Wendi came twenty-six years ago, Emperor Wudi came twenty-six years ago, Emperor Wudi came seventy-five years ago, Emperor Xuandi came twenty-five years ago, and since the first year of the Yuan Dynasty also came twenty years ago." According to Zizhi Tongjian, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty Li Shimin visited Ganquan palace in 646.

Activities

From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, the emperors went back and forth to the site of Ganquan palace because there were many important political decisions, such as meeting princes, dining with foreign envoys and so on.

Exploration Archaeology: many large rammed earth foundations, Xicheng city wall, Xicheng Gate site and stone bears of Western Han Dynasty are preserved on the surface of Ganquan Palace site. Over the years, a number of stone column foundations, stone apron (temporary name), hollow bricks and tiles have been found on and around the site. The characters of tiles include Ganlin, Wei, Changsheng Weiyang, Changsheng Wuji and cherry zhuanshe. Others include Taotie half tiles, plain half tiles and Kui There are many kinds of pottery tiles, such as round and pentagonal drainage pipes, rope patterns on the outside, big and small pits on the inside, tube tiles, board tiles, wuzhu copper coins and so on.

Exploration discovery

In 2015, experts from Shaanxi Academy of archaeology completed the exploration of Ganquan Palace site, and found 5 large-scale architectural sites and a number of relic phenomena around No. 1 and No. 2 piers (tongtiantai), including 150 rammed earth foundation sites, 177 column foundation stones, 6 stone foundation sites, 4 treading surfaces and 3 pebble aprons.

The purpose of this archaeological exploration is to define the farthest four places of Ganquan Palace site and to understand the distribution and connotation of the site outside the outer wall. Through the investigation, 12 sites of the same period were identified, including two pottery kiln sites, one rammed earth wall site, and 42 tombs or building foundations. There are many pieces of pottery from Qin and Han Dynasties on its surface, which can be observed as early as the late Qin and early Han Dynasties.

What's gratifying is that more than 10 pieces of pottery with "Yunshi" and "Yunting" characters were found in the peripheral investigation, which further confirmed that the county seat of Yunyang in the Qin and Han Dynasties was located near the site of Ganquan palace. The investigation of the site outside the wall of Ganquan palace not only clarifies the farthest four reaches of Ganquan Palace site and the distribution law of the site outside the wall, but also confirms that the site area is more than 10 million square meters. It also provides useful clues for exploring the relationship between Qin Zhidao and Ganquan Palace Site and the flood control facilities of the palace buildings in front of the mountain.

Overall layout

The Tongtian platform built during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty has been identified as the No.1 and No.2 piers in the center surrounded by many architectural sites. According to the archaeological work on the No.2 pier, it is found that it is a three-layer rammed earth foundation structure with a height of about 15 meters. The bottom is rectangular, 74 meters long from north to south, 57 meters wide from east to west, and 2 to 4 meters high; the middle is approximately square, 40 meters long from north to south, 36 meters wide from east to west, and 4 to 6 meters high; the top is approximately square, 21 meters long from north to south, 20 meters wide from east to west, and 4 to 5 meters high.

On the three-layer foundation of pier No.2 (tongtiantai), 18 pillar foundation stones were found. On the east side and north side of the pier No.2 (tongtiantai), the square shaped stone foundation sites were found, which provided important information for later generations to imagine and even reconstruct the version of "tongtiantai" by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty.

Longitude: 108.53800201416

Latitude: 34.96009826602

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