Pingliang terrace

Pingliang terrace

Pingliangtai is an ancient city of Longshan culture, located 4 kilometers southeast of Huaiyang District, Zhoukou City, Henan Province. The site is about 5 meters high and 100 mu square. Pingliangtai ancient city site is the place of wanqiu. It has a history of more than 4600 years. It is the earliest and well planned high-level prehistoric city site in China. It is the first of China's urban construction planning and has a milestone significance in the history of China's urban development.

brief introduction

There are records in Chen Feng Wan Qiu, Er Ya Zhu Shu and Jin Shu in the book of songs. According to historical records and geographical analysis, pingliangtai is the ancient wanqiu capital of Taihao and Shennong. This ancient city is the earliest, largest and best preserved, which is of great value and significance to the study of the emergence of ancient cities, the origin of the country, early slavery and other major academic issues.

A large number of precious cultural relics have been unearthed here, including production tools, daily necessities and decorations used by primitive people, traces of earth houses where primitive people lived and kiln sites where primitive people fired pottery, etc. Based on the analysis and research of a large number of unearthed cultural relics and historical documents, archaeologists unanimously believe that pingliangtai ancient city site and wanqiu, the ancient ruins of Taihao, are the same place. So far, the records of historical documents such as "Chen is the ruins of Taihao" and "Chen, the early capital of Shennong, Emperor Yan" have been preliminarily confirmed.

Following the discovery of the earliest drainage pipe in China in the 1980s, a new discovery was made at pingliangtai ancient city site in Huaiyang in 2019. Three groups of ceramic drainage pipes were newly found under the outdoor bedding soil of the south wall and the high terrace houses in the city. This major discovery confirmed that this structure is the earliest and most complete urban drainage system in China. At the same time, rutting marks were found on the early road near the south gate. Among them, a group of parallel rut spacing of 0.8m is the "two wheeled vehicle" rut mark. The absolute age of C 14 dating is 4200 years ago. This is the earliest track of two wheeled vehicle in China so far.

site of an ancient city

The original excavation of pingliangtai ancient city was built on a platform 5 meters high, covering an area of 50000 square meters, commonly known as pingliangtai. The plan of the city site is square, 185 meters long. The remnant height of the city wall is 3 meters and the width is 10 meters. It is made of small plates. The ramming layer is clear and the ramming nest is obvious. There is a gate in the north and south, and a ceramic drainage pipe is buried in the south gate. There are high buildings in the city. The walls of the houses are built with adobe, and there are also ash pits around. At that time, the pingliangtai ancient city site is about 4300 years ago. It is a Longshan cultural site, which is one of the earliest ancient city sites in China. Since last April, the management of pingliangtai ancient city site was officially handed over to Huaiyang county by the Municipal Bureau of culture, the county has taken the opportunity of building a cultural reform and development pilot area to strengthen the protection and development of pingliangtai ancient city site. Experts such as Cao guicen and Yang Zhaoqing from Henan Institute of cultural relics and archaeology have been invited to sort out pingliangtai archaeological excavation report and explore the width and width of pingliangtai ancient city trench The largest area of the site. Through drilling and investigation around pingliangtai ancient city site, experts and their staff found that the ancient city site is a large oval site with a width of 860 meters from east to west and a length of 670 meters from north to south, covering an area of more than 500000 square meters. Pingliangtai ancient city site is located in the central and southern part of the great site. Most of the site is submerged by the silt of the Yellow River in Song Dynasty, which is 0.4 meters thick. The middle part of the site is exposed. From the pottery pieces and other relics found in the exploration, it can be seen that in the early and middle period of Yangshao culture, i.e. as early as 6300 years ago, there were ancestors who lived and produced here. It was not until the Longshan culture that the ancient city was built and a new civilization was reached.

According to archaeological experts, the newly discovered pingliangtai site is ten times the size of pingliangtai ancient city. Judging from the unearthed relics, the ancestors of shangyangshao culture lived and produced here as early as 6300 years ago, which shifted the time of pingliangtai ancestors' residential area from Longshan culture to Yangshao culture, pushing forward the history of Huaiyang civilization by 2000 years. This is of great historical value to the study of the emergence of ancient cities, the origin of the state, early slavery and other major academic issues.

The originator of square city

Maybe it's because of the fact that pingliangtai has been together for more than 20 years, or maybe it's because he took part in the excavation of pingliangtai at the beginning. Zhang Zhihua, the curator of pingliangtai Museum, knows everything about pingliangtai.

For more than 20 years, it is enough to make a person with a heart become an expert in the industry; for more than 20 years, it is enough to make plants grow in love and stones cry.

Zhang Zhihua is like this.

"Since the 1980s, with the continuous development of urban archaeological work, dozens of prehistoric cultural city sites have been found throughout the country. These cities are widely distributed, mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and north of the Great Wall in Inner Mongolia. According to the dating of carbon-14, the upper limit of these ancient cities is more than 5000 years ago, and the lower limit is more than 4000 years ago. Although pingliangtai ancient city is inferior to some prehistoric cultural sites in terms of age and scale, it occupies an irreplaceable historical position in many prehistoric cultural sites in terms of its architectural features, social nature and overall urban layout. " Zhang Zhihua said with emotion.

He believes that pingliangtai ancient city is the ancestor of square city in China.

Among the dozens of prehistoric cultural city sites that have been officially announced, there are few square city sites, most of which are round, rectangular, irregular, and a small number of parallel twin cities. Pingliangtai ancient city is a square system.

Why? The reason is that pingliangtai is the capital of Fuxi family of Taihao. The Fuxi family of Taihao is the founder of congenital eight trigrams. Therefore, the guiding ideology of architecture is bound to be influenced by the concept of "heaven is round and place is round".

In a civilization with words, it may be more direct to pursue the purpose of a form. Through Fuxi's profound eight trigrams, we may be able to capture the context of the city in that era: the city should be square, regular, facing south, emphasizing enclosure, city gate, sequence, meaningful direction and left-right symmetry, which actually expresses the idea of the eight trigrams: the harmony of man and nature. The Chinese ancients may have suffered too much irresistible natural destruction, and they just wanted to pursue a kind of harmony of natural state. If harmony is destroyed, then maybe disaster will come, so we need such a social structure with position order, rules and regulations, and even hierarchical order.

The appearance of this kind of authentic square city has a great influence on the shape of future generations' cities and has become a model for the standard shape of future generations' cities. It has also influenced the formation of China's traditional hierarchy.

Traffic tips

Take bus from Zhoukou bus station to Huaiyang District, then take bus No.3 to pingliangtai ancient city site

Or take bus No.36 from Zhoukou East high speed railway station to Huaiyang District, and then take bus No.3 to pingliangtai ancient city site

Address: 4 km southeast of Huaiyang County, Henan Province

Longitude: 114.90573120117

Latitude: 33.714893341065

Chinese PinYin : Ping Liang Tai