Ningxia Culture·Falling through the wind and recognizing the previous dynasties·Channels and cultural relics of the Han Dynasty
At the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu slave-owning group took advantage of the opportunity of "the soldiers stopped fighting" along the Great Wall to carry out large-scale Send troops to invade and occupy the vast area south of the Yellow River Hetao. The earth is blocked, and the sky is on fire. In 140 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che succeeded to the throne, and the central government of the Western Han Dynasty began to attach great importance to the strategic position of the Ningxia region in resisting the Xiongnu invasion. The Western Han Dynasty moved a large number of people from the mainland to Ningxia several times. The government provided them with clothing, food, seeds and cattle, and guided them to open up wasteland for farming, build canals and divert water, and develop food production. After the hard work of the working people during the Western Han Dynasty, the originally desolate Ningxia Plain saw the initial prosperity of "the crown and the cover facing each other". To this day, cultural relics from the Western Han Dynasty can still be seen everywhere in Ningxia.
In 1972, a number of Han Dynasty tombs were discovered in Pingjibao, Yinchuan City. One of them was a wooden coffin tomb from the Western Han Dynasty, and several wooden ox models in the shape of cattle were excavated inside. The burial of wooden oxen shows that the deceased attached great importance to oxen during his lifetime, and also shows that oxen were widely used in society at that time for farming. Also unearthed were grains in pottery warehouse models. Although they had decayed, judging from their appearance, the variety was millet; millet has been cultivated in the Yellow River Basin for more than 7,000 years.
There are still some water diversion channels dug in the Han Dynasty in the Yinchuan Plain, and they still exert huge irrigation benefits. Han Bo Canal, also known as Han Canal, is the Guanglu Canal mentioned in ancient history books. According to the 154th volume of "New Book of Tang": "There was Guanglu Canal in Lingyan Department, which had been abandoned for a long time. (Li) Ting began to resume farming to save money and transfer wages. He diverted the canal to irrigate thousands of hectares of land, and later relied on it. "Qi Rao." Volume 62 of "Du Shi Fang Yu Ji Yao" records more clearly: "The canal was in Lingzhou, where it was used to irrigate the fields during the Han Dynasty." The Han Yan Canal started from the southeast of Qingtongxia City and diverted the Yellow River. The water flows through Yongning County and Yinchuan City, and joins the Huinong Canal to the north, with a total length of more than 100 kilometers. As famous as the Han Yan Canal is the Tang Lai Canal, which was also a canal dug in the Han Dynasty to divert water from the Yellow River to irrigate fields. These famous channels were all dug during the Western Han Dynasty. According to Volume 29 of "Historical Records", during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, "Shuofang, Xihe, and Jiuquan all diverted rivers and valleys to irrigate fields." In 106 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty divided the country into 13 governors, which administered counties and counties. Today, cities and counties such as Yinchuan, Wuzhong and Lingwu in northern Ningxia are all under the jurisdiction of Beidi County under the jurisdiction of the Shuofang governor.
The use of cattle farming and the construction of Yellow River diversion channels promoted the development of agriculture in Ningxia, and handicrafts and commerce also prospered.
Various pottery, lacquerware and bronze artifacts unearthed from the Western Han Dynasty tombs in Pingjibao, Yinchuan, all show the level of handicraft industry in Ningxia during the Western Han Dynasty. The unearthed pottery is of two types: glazed pottery and gray pottery. They are all processed by wheel-making technology, so the shape of the pottery is regular and the thickness of the wall is uniform. The glazed pottery is reddish yellow and is eye-catching. The reddish-yellow glaze is made by smelting the ferric oxide contained in the glaze through an oxidation flame. To fire the predetermined color, not only requires the preparation of an accurate amount of glaze, but also strict control of the temperature and ventilation conditions during the kiln firing. Without excellent craftsmanship, it is difficult to make it successfully. Among the pottery, there is a Boshan furnace. Its furnace cover is in the shape of mountains and mountains, which has a strong sense of artistic reality. Also unearthed is a black lacquer plate vessel with a red background. Although the wooden body has decayed, the painted patterns are still clear, bright, slender and smooth, showing my country's highly developed and perfect lacquerware manufacturing technology during the Western Han Dynasty. In addition, some models of chariot and horse parts made of bronze, bronze mirrors with curved patterns and other objects were also discovered. Bronze mirror is a bronze mirror cast from an alloy of copper, tin, and lead. Its surface is not easy to oxidize and rust, and can keep the mirror surface clean and bright for a long time. The patterns on the back of the bronze mirror vary. The skill of making bronze mirrors not only reflects the improvement of metal smelting level in the Western Han Dynasty, but also shows people's deep understanding of the principle of light reflection. A gold-inlaid copper sheep was also discovered in the ancient city of Guyuan County, which was made of bronze.
The sheep lies on the ground and looks back, gazing with eyes, which is lifelike. Moreover, the curly hair on the sheep's body is made of gold and silver threads as thin as hair, making it appear that the gold and silver colors complement each other. It is a lively and interesting artistic masterpiece. The cultural relics of the Western Han Dynasty unearthed in Ningxia indicate that the development level of agriculture, handicrafts, etc. in Ningxia during that period was very close to that of the Central Plains.
After more than two hundred years of development in the Western Han Dynasty, the cultural relics of the Eastern Han Dynasty discovered in Ningxia are even more colorful.
The improvement of agricultural tools in the Eastern Han Dynasty marked the further development of Ningxia agriculture. A plowboard made of pig iron was unearthed from the Eastern Han Dynasty tomb at Nuanquan Farm in Helan County. Its shape is a rectangular leaf, fifty centimeters long and twenty-two centimeters wide, with a rounded corner and two nose buttons on the back. The plow wall and plow tip are used together to turn the plowed soil aside to expose it to the sun, which can more effectively kill pests and improve land fertility. According to records, European plows were not equipped with plow walls until the 11th century AD. However, my country had plow walls in the Western Han Dynasty, nearly a thousand years earlier than Europe, which fully demonstrates the wisdom and ability of the Chinese nation. The widespread use of iron farm tools increased the grain production in Ningxia. Therefore, in the fourth year of Yongjian of Emperor Shun of the Eastern Han Dynasty (129), the court ministers reported the development of the northern and Anding counties in a memorial to the emperor (Ningxia was under the jurisdiction of Ningxia at that time). Beidi and the jurisdiction of Anding County), "the fertile fields are thousands of miles away, the crops are abundant, the soil is suitable for raising livestock, the cattle and horses are connected to the tail, and the sheep are blocking the roads... Because the canals are irrigated and the water is pounded, the labor is less, and the military rations are sufficient" ( "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" Volume 87). It can be seen that the economy in Ningxia was very prosperous at that time.
Economic development has promoted the construction of cities. Nowadays, city ruins from the Eastern Han Dynasty have been found in Zhongning, Helan, Yanchi, Guyuan and Zhongwei counties, and some building materials and many relics used in those years have been excavated from time to time. Excavated from the ruins of the Eastern Han Dynasty ancient city of Zhangjiachang, Yanchi County, there are square bricks with inscriptions on which are printed auspicious words popular in the Han Dynasty, such as "Da Fuchang, Le Weiyang, Zi Yi Sun" and so on. In the ruins of the ancient city in the southern suburbs of Guyuan County, pottery wells built with circular pottery well circles and pottery water pipes for drainage in the city were also discovered. There are two types of clay pipes: straight cylindrical and curved. They show that some towns at that time already had relatively complete water supply and drainage facilities. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the economy of landowners' large estates developed rapidly. Many people with similar wealth and status were often buried in the same cemetery according to their surnames. Therefore, some cemeteries were dotted with hundreds of tombs, stretching for several miles. In some of the tombs that have been excavated, a large number of cultural relics reflecting the economic and cultural characteristics of that time have been unearthed, including pottery, bronzes, jades, etc.
There are many types of pottery, including almost all the daily necessities of the residents at that time. A green-glazed pottery pot of the Eastern Han Dynasty was unearthed in Nuanquan, Helan County. It is as green as emerald in color, delicate and elegant, and shows its skillful and superb baking technology. A model of a pottery house was unearthed at Guanma Lake in Wuzhong City. It has a three-story structure with doors, windows, railings, brackets and a roof. It is also painted with red and white colors. It is a true microcosm of the residential architecture of the Eastern Han Dynasty and a modern example. It is an important information for people to understand the life of the people in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Bronze wares include mirrors, pots, currency, carriage and horse equipment, etc. A copper seal was unearthed in Caomiao, Guyuan County. It is square in shape, painted with gold on the outside, and 2.3 centimeters long on a side. The seal has no border and the five characters "Fubo General Chapter" are engraved in seal script. According to research, it is the seal of Ma Yuan of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Volume 43 of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" records that in the 17th year of Jianwu (41), Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty "worshiped Ma Yuan as General Fubo and...attacked Jiaozhi southward", and Ma Yuan lived in Beidi County when he was young. Pass. An iron sword from the early Eastern Han Dynasty was also found in the western suburbs of Guyuan. It was 1.05 meters long. Although it had been buried underground for more than a thousand years, the blade was still sharp. A painted bone ruler was also unearthed in the same place. The surface of the ruler was painted in ocher red with a smooth variant flowing cloud pattern. There were ten scales on it. The full ruler is 23 centimeters today. This bone ruler is very valuable for the study of ancient Chinese measuring instruments.
Some cultural relics of the Huns from the Han Dynasty were also found in southern Ningxia. After the Xiongnu were defeated by the Han Dynasty, some of the Huns surrendered to the Han Dynasty and were placed in designated places by the Han Dynasty. In 1976, a Xiongnu open-carved rectangular bronze medal was discovered in the ancient city of Guyuan County. The image shows two long-antlered deer facing each other.
An iron sword used by the Xiongnu was also found in the western suburbs of Guyuan. The head of the sword was cast in bronze and made into a circular shape with two sheep heads facing each other. It has a strong style of Xiongnu cultural relics. These cultural relics are precious historical witnesses of the Han and Xiongnu people living together and integrating with each other.