What is the spread of civilization to the east?

After five counties were established in Yan Zhaowang in 300 BC, the southern part of Northeast China was formally brought under the effective management of the Central Plains Dynasty, which was an epoch-making event and had a far-reaching impact on the development of Northeast China. To sum up, it is mainly manifested in the following aspects:

First, the Great Wall defense system constructed by Yan played an important role in preventing nomadic tribes such as Donghu from invading the south, protecting the agricultural and economic civilization south of the Great Wall and consolidating the development of the five counties.

Second, the establishment of counties and counties brought these areas under the effective management of the feudal regime in the Central Plains for the first time, which made these remote and backward areas quickly transition to the feudal system and shortened the gap with the Central Plains.

Thirdly, with the construction of the Great Wall and the establishment of five counties, a large number of guards, officials, businessmen and immigrants from the Central Plains came to the northeast, which strengthened the political, economic and cultural exchanges between the inland areas of the Central Plains and the north and south areas of the Great Wall. The advanced farming civilization in the Central Plains has greatly promoted the economic and social development of all ethnic groups in Northeast China and laid the foundation for the formation of a unified multi-ethnic country.

In short, after the establishment of Liaodong and other five counties, the wind of feudal civilization in the Central Plains quickly spread to the northeast. After nearly 80 years of management and development in Yan State, great changes have taken place in Liaodong, including Shenyang. However, this social progress is rarely recorded in historical documents, while archaeological discoveries highlight this great change. Next, with the help of archaeological data, we look at this social progress from three aspects.

"Long Live the Millennium" Ceramic Tiles Unearthed from Weijialouzi City Site in Sujiatun

The emergence of cities is one of the important signs that human society has entered a civilized society.

Archaeological discoveries in recent years have proved that cities appeared in the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin in China about 6,000 years ago in the late primitive society, and the city walls were made of rammed earth.

It turns out that the city is just the center of the tribe, and its main function is defense, so Mencius said:

"City, take care of yourself." In the class society, the city has become the center of politics, economy and culture, and there is a fixed "city" to trade in the city, so the proper term "city" has appeared again. The northeast is located in the border, and the emergence of cities is later than that of the central plains. About four thousand years ago, the lower culture of Xiajiadian in western Liaoning appeared as a city. Most of these cities are built by mountains, and the walls are mostly made of stone, and the scale is generally small. These stone towns are often distributed in the east and west, which are obviously built to prevent the northern nomadic tribes from invading the south.

The real rammed earth wall in Northeast China appeared after the establishment of five counties, such as Yan State and Liaodong, after 300 BC. In Shenyang area, the ancient city of this period, in addition to the waiting city of the old city, also has the ruins of Weijialouzi ancient city in Shahe Township, Sujiatun District. Urban construction is located on the hill on the south bank of Shahe River in the northwest of Weijialouzi Village, and the highest point of the city site is 7 meters above the ground outside the city. The city is slightly square, with a length of105m from north to south and a width of10/m from east to west, and a gate in the south. The city wall is rammed earth, and the east, west and north walls are well preserved, and the residual height is generally about 3 meters. The underground cultural layer is1.8m thick, with the bottom being the rope-patterned gray pottery pieces from the Warring States Period and the early Western Han Dynasty, the top being the rope-patterned tiles, pipe tiles, rope-patterned tiles, mat tiles and gray pottery pieces from the Han Dynasty, and the top being the slab tiles, pipe tiles and various pottery pieces from the Liao and Jin Dynasties. In the cultural layer of the Han dynasty, there are also two seals for collecting round tiles, pottery dice and gambling. According to the stratigraphic relationship and the unearthed cultural relics in the city, the Weijialouzicheng site was built in the Warring States period and has been in use since the Han Dynasty and Liao and Jin Dynasties.

The "Long Live the Millennium" tile unearthed from the city site proves that this city site may also be one of the 18 counties under the jurisdiction of Liaodong County in Han Dynasty. 18 County has Gao County. Judging from the name of the county, the terrain of the high county should be relatively high. Weijialouzicheng is located on the hill on the south bank of Shahe River, next to the river cliff, and the surrounding mountains are undulating, which is indeed "high and obvious". In addition, Records of Counties and Counties in the Later Han Dynasty recorded that in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Gaoxian County, Houcheng County and Liaoyang County were transferred from Liaodong County to Xuantu County, indicating that the three cities were not far apart. Weijialouzi city site is about 20 kilometers away from Shenyang in the north and 30-40 kilometers away from Liaoyang county in the northwest (that is, Ciyutuo Pianpaozi in Liaozhong County). Therefore, the academic circles believe that Weijialouzi is the highlight of the Han Dynasty.

Dice unearthed from Weijialouzi

In the Han Dynasty, Liaodong County and Liaoyang County had jurisdiction over eighteen counties, which were not in Liaoyang City today. Li Daoyuan in the Northern Wei Dynasty wrote in the article "Notes on Water Classics: Xiaoliaoshui": "Liaoshui flows out of Liaoshan Mountain and southwest passes through Liaoyang County and Daliangshui." The Xiaoliao River or Liaoshui here refers to the Hunhe River, and the Daliangshui is now the Taizi River. In ancient times, the Hunhe River merged with the Taizi River in the south of Liaozhong County, and the water in the north was beautiful. So Liaoyang county should be on the north bank of Hunhe River. In 1950s, archaeologists discovered an ancient city in Pianpaozi, four kilometers northeast of Ciyutuo in central Liaoning. This city is located on the north bank of Hunhe River, 40 kilometers northeast of Shenyang, and its orientation is consistent with the location of Han Liaoyang County recorded in the literature. Although the rammed wall of the ancient city has long been lost due to the scouring of the Hunhe River, the rope-patterned tiles left in the city indicate that this is a city site of the Han Dynasty. Many warring States coins were found near ciyutuo, indicating that this city site may have been built in Yan state during the warring States period.

After the establishment of Liaodong County, most of these city sites built in Shenyang were chosen at the crossroads of traffic or rivers. As the earliest administrative center in Shenyang, due to the establishment of battlements and government offices, it became the ruling center of the region. Later, with the increase of population and the development of handicrafts and commerce, these towns quickly developed into economic and cultural centers.

The spread and popularization of ironware to the East After the establishment of Liaodong County, a large number of Yan people came from the East, but also brought advanced production technology and feudal culture from the mainland, among which the spread and popularization of ironware to the East was the most prominent.

In the mid-Warring States period, iron was popularized in the inland of Yan State, and the iron was cast by reduction method and quenching technology. A number of iron molds discovered in Xinglong, Hebei Province show that metal molds, single molds and compound molds composed of two or three pieces have been used at that time, and their design and casting technology have reached a fairly high level. Casting iron products with metal mold has good quality, long service time and low cost, which makes it possible to popularize iron products. With the construction of the Great Wall and the establishment of five counties, ironware spread eastward rapidly and was widely used. Archaeological data show that the discovery of ironware is very common in five counties, including Chifeng, Jianping, Aohan, Naiman, Chaoyang, Jinzhou, Huludao, Fushun, Anshan, Lushun, Pulandian and Kuandian. More than 80 pieces of ironware were unearthed from Lianhua Fort site in Fushun near Shenyang, among which agricultural tools accounted for more than 80%. It can be seen that the ironware at that time was mainly used for agricultural production. There are many kinds of farm tools, such as axes and pickaxes. Suitable for land reclamation, land leveling, weeding and sickle harvesting. Among these iron farm tools, the number is the largest, accounting for 60 of the 80 pieces of iron unearthed in Lianhua Fort, and can be divided into three forms. It is the most distinctive iron farm tool in this period. It is rectangular or trapezoidal, with a sharp blade at the lower part and a handle on it, which is most suitable for land reclamation and excavation. After the county was established, iron farm tools were used the most to reclaim land and develop agricultural production.

Bronze arrows unearthed from the back of the palace during the Warring States period

Cloth coins, knife coins and "unified" copper coins unearthed in Shenyang

The extensive use of ironware is conducive to cutting down trees, reclaiming wasteland, building water conservancy projects, drilling wells for irrigation, promoting the development of agricultural production, enhancing military strength, and rapidly changing the society in Liaodong area.

The currency of metal coins is the first country to cast knife coins. Knife coins cast in the early days were sharp first knives, and Ming knives appeared after the late Spring and Autumn Period. Later, cloth coins and square hole round coins were cast, and later they were cast in five counties. Before the Qin Dynasty opened up the county in Xinjiang, Liaodong's economy was relatively backward, commodity exchange was in the barter stage, and there was no monetary economy. After the establishment of the county, Yan coins began to circulate in five counties. Archaeological data show that Yan currency has been found in northern and eastern Hebei, southeastern Inner Mongolia, the whole territory of Liaoning and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Since 1970s, it has been found in Wujiagangzi Village, Laoguantuo Township, Liaozhong County (now Liaozhong District), Yingchengzi Village, Wusan Township, Dongling District, Shenyang City (now Hunnan District), Heshun Village, Baiqingzhai Township, Wang Bin Township, Xinchengzi District, Laolongtou Village, Masanjiazi Township, Yuhong District, Tawan, Heping District and the old city. Sima Qian, Taishi Gong, said: "The trade between agriculture, industry and commerce is smooth, but the turtle shell money is abundant." After the strict unification of Northeast China, it promoted the development of production and the circulation of commodities. The discovery of a large number of currencies reflected the development of commodity economy at that time.

In addition, it is worth noting that except for a few coins found in tombs and ruins, most of them belong to cellars, most of them are tied up with ropes or pimps and placed neatly, and some of them are still packed in clay pots. This situation shows that coinage was not only a means of payment at that time, but also a means of public and private storage of wealth. These hoards may have been deliberately hidden during the turmoil at the end of the Warring States period, and they are going to be taken out after returning from the refugees. However, due to various reasons, the owner failed to do so, which led to the fact that these coins have been buried underground for more than 2,000 years in broad daylight, and have become valuable materials for us to study this history today.