The old town of Zheng and Han

The old town of Zheng and Han

The ancient city of Zheng and Han is located around the urban area of Xinzheng City, Henan Province, at the intersection of Shuanghe River (ancient river) and Huangshui River (ancient Qinshui River). The plane is irregular triangle. The perimeter of the city wall is 20 kilometers, and the area of the city is 16 square kilometers.

The old city of Zheng and Han was one of the capitals of the states in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The old city was built by Zheng State in the spring and Autumn period. After Han destroyed Zheng, he moved his capital here. Zheng and Han established their capitals here for 539 years. The plane of Zheng and Han's old city is an irregular triangle, in which there is a north-south wall, which divides the old city into East and West Cities: the west city is the political center, and the palaces and noble mansions of Zheng and Han are concentrated in the west city. Dongcheng is the economic center, which is distributed in the industrial workshop area, the civilian residential area, the religious ritual sacrifice area and the Zheng noble tomb area.

A large number of cultural relics and architectural sites have been unearthed in the ancient city of Zheng and Han, which has high archaeological value.

In 1961, the old city of Zheng and Han was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

In April 2001, the old city of Zheng and Han was listed as one of the 100 major archaeological discoveries in the 20th century.

On April 10, 2018, the site of Zheng Han's old city was selected as the "top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 2017".

Historical evolution

In August 1923, a group of workers were drilling a well in the old house of Li Rui, a retired military officer of Xinzheng. When the workers dug more than 10 meters underground, they accidentally found four bronzes. Jin cunqing, commander of the 14th division of the Beiyang army stationed in Zhengzhou, believed that Zhongding was not an ordinary cultural relic and should be returned to China. More than 70 pieces of bronze tripods and bronze tripods unearthed in the early period were transported to Zhengzhou for preservation, and officers and soldiers were sent to supervise the scene. By October 5, more than 1500 pieces of bronzes, pieces of broken copper, pottery and shellfish coins have been obtained. They are uniformly named "Xinzheng Yi ware", and the excavated ancient tomb is also called lijialou tomb.

In May 1966, the Henan Provincial Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology came to lijialou again to clean up the site of that year, and determined that the tomb should be a male noble Tomb of Zheng Guoyi, so it is also called "Zheng Gong tomb".

In the 1960s, through the drilling survey, we initially understood the cultural distribution in the ancient city of Zheng and Han, and found the palace and temple sites, cast iron sites, the Warring States cold storage room sites and many rammed earth platforms in the two countries, which laid the foundation for the cultural relics protection and excavation of the ancient city of Zheng and Han.

In the 1970s, Baimiao fan bronze weapon pit, houjianwan cemetery, Cangcheng senior noble cemetery in the spring and Autumn period, dressing table site and so on were successively excavated. More than 220 pieces of weapons such as spears, swords, etc. of the Warring States period were unearthed from the bronze weapon pit of Baimiao, including more than 180 inscriptions. The excavation of these weapons with inscriptions is of great significance to the study of the casting technology and system of Korean weapons, the military system, the treasury system, and the historical geography and ancient characters of the Warring States period.

In the 1980s, he Li cemetery, the West Palace site of Ge Lao Fen Village, the Warring States palace building site of the family home of the tax bureau, the pharmaceutical factory imitation Chu dabufan and Lian buqianfan sites, the spring and autumn cold storage cellar of the glass factory, the rear end Bay cemetery, and the spring and autumn Chema pit of Li Ma cemetery were all important discoveries in this period. In particular, the discovery of Han Hou Wang's Mausoleum fills the gap that there has been no large-scale Korean mausoleum in Zheng Han's ancient city for a long time.

In the 1990s, in order to coordinate with the capital construction of Xinzheng City, three sacrificial sites of similar age and nature were found in Jincheng Road, urban credit cooperatives and the Bank of China site. 28 bronze ritual musical instrument pits were found, 470 bronze ritual musical instruments were unearthed in Zheng State Office, and 93 sacrificial horse pits were found. Among them, the excavation of Zhonghang site (the sacrificial site of Zheng State, the ancient city of Zheng and Han in Xinzheng, Henan Province) was rated as "the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China" in 1997.

Since the 21st century, the initiative and rescue excavation has not only excavated the large-scale official pottery workshops in the Warring States period, but also cleaned up the private pottery workshops in Fengzhuang during the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. The discovery of official and private pottery workshops is of great significance to understand and study the productivity level and socio-economic status of Zheng and Han's old city at that time.

The cemetery of Xinghong garden and thermal power plant excavated in this period for the first time completely revealed a public cemetery dominated by low-grade nobles and civilians from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle Warring States period, which has high academic value for the study of the urban layout and funeral system of Zheng and Han's old city. In February 2017, Chengmen and Wengcheng were first discovered in Zheng Han's old city. In particular, with the south to North Water Diversion Project, the rescue excavation of Hanwang mausoleum in Huzhuang (Huzhuang cemetery in Xinzheng, Henan Province) has made important achievements, and the project has been rated as "the top ten new archaeological discoveries in 2008".

In the 21st century, Xinzheng work station of Henan Institute of cultural relics and Archaeology carried out archaeological excavation of beichengmen, nanchengqiang, No.3 chemacheng, Shuanglou, Tianli and other sites and cemeteries, covering an area of more than 100000 square meters. Roads, urn cities, tombs, ash pits, pottery kilns and chemacheng from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Tang and Song dynasties were discovered In addition, tens of thousands of cultural relics of various materials have been unearthed.

Site features

There are many cultural relics in the old city of Zheng and Han. There are four ruins of Chengmen. There is a wall in the north-south direction of the city, which divides the old city into East and West cities. There are Korean Palace City, palace area and silk reeling workshop sites in Xicheng. There are many sites in the east city, such as Zheng State Temple site, sacrificial site, copper casting site, Korean cast iron, bone making, jade making, pottery making and so on. Inside and outside the old city, there are many tombs of Zheng and Han nobles, including 12 large tombs of Han king. The civilian tombs are mainly distributed in the East Bank of Huangshui River in the east of the city, the South Bank of the city and the West Bank of Shuanghe River in the west of the city, and there are few tombs in the north of the city.

The layout of the ancient city of Zheng and Han reflected the typical pattern of the capitals of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty at that time;

It is the most complete, highest walled and largest ancient city in the world at the same time.

Cultural relics

chariot pit

In 2017, after nearly nine months of excavation and cleaning, the excavation of Zhengguo No. 3 Chema pit with more than 2400 years was basically completed. As of November, 4 carriages and 90 horses have been cleared, which is the largest pit excavated in Zheng Han's old city.

The No. 3 chariot and horse pit of the state of Zheng excavated this time is located in the cemetery of the nobility of the state of Zheng in the southwest corner of the east city of the old city of Zheng and Han. It is a special chariot and horse burial pit for the tomb of the monarch of the state of Zheng in the late spring and Autumn period. Since the excavation in February 2017, four chariots and 90 horses have been found, along with bronze parts and other decorations.

Among them, the No. 1 car body excavated is huge, 2.56 meters long and 1.66 meters wide. The top of the car is equipped with rain proof and sunscreen facilities, and the decoration is luxurious. There are traces of colorful mats on the hood of the car. The top of the car is decorated with tubular bronzes and bone artifacts, which is a new record of the volume of carriages unearthed in the ancient city of Zheng and Han.

In addition, the excavation showed that No. 1 and No. 2 cars were side by side in the north and south, and the buried horses were placed horizontally on the side, and no horse utensils were found on the horse bones, which was in line with the records of "dismantling the car for burial" in the Zheng State. The funeral vehicles were generally divided into different forms, such as "vehicle burial", "vehicle removal burial" and "vehicle horse mixed burial". That is to say, first kill the horse and discharge it to the bottom of the pit, then disassemble the complete vehicle and put the parts on the dead horse.

According to the excavation, the carriage buried in No. 3 chariot pit may be the daily vehicle of Zheng Guojun and his wife. However, there is no final conclusion on which generation of monarch of Zheng State. According to the excavation, it may be the late spring and autumn monarch.

Pottery making sites

A large pottery making site from the late Warring States period to the early Western Han Dynasty was found in the old town of Xinzheng, Henan Province. Its scale and integrity are rare in China.

The large-scale pottery making site is located in the inner side of the ancient city wall of Zheng and Han in the northeast of Xinzheng City. It is northwest southeast along the city. From west to East, the site is divided into three areas: living area, workshop area and firing area, covering an area of tens of thousands of square meters.

According to cultural relics archaeologists, the site has been fully explored, and more than 3000 square meters have been excavated with infrastructure construction. Judging from the excavation, this site is likely to be the official pottery making site of South Korea. Experts judge that there should be finished product area and waste area nearby.

This is a large pottery making site from the late Warring States period to the early Western Han Dynasty, about 2300 years ago. Due to the remote location, the whole site is well preserved. In the firing area, three large-scale kilns are buried in the ground, and the deepest cave is more than 3 meters.

city wall

The walls of the old city of Zheng and Han are all rammed with soil. The height of the walls is generally about 10 meters, up to 16 meters. The base width of the walls is 40-60 meters, and the top width is 2.5 meters. It is one of the most complete ancient city walls in the world. It is not only an important material for the study of history, but also an important historic site for people to visit.

There are several horse faced buildings on the outside of the north wall, which are the earliest new defense facilities of the city wall in China.

The first monument in China

The "wordless stele" unearthed from the old city of Zheng and Han in Xinzheng City, Henan Province, is a monument

Chinese PinYin : Zheng Han Gu Cheng