Historical Hezhang Leke Tomb Site: A Key to Yelang Ancient Country

(Originally published in Bijie Special Issue of chinese national geography 2065438+2008)

Author/Ding

The ancient Yelang kingdom has been a mystery for many years. When people first heard this name, most of them came from the idiom "arrogant". The idiom comes from Historical Records Biography of Southwest Yi, and I saw Yelang for the first time in written records.

When did the kingdom of Yelang exist? Where is the core position? What is the territory? According to historical records and archaeological excavations, scholars try to determine its temporal and spatial scope, but it is controversial and inconclusive.

Yelang was exterminated by Chen Li, the ambassador of Han Dynasty, in the second year of Han Heping (the first 27 years), which is clearly recorded in Hanshu. However, the starting time of Yelang regime can only be roughly defined to the Warring States period. About its territory, some scholars infer from historical records and have archaeological excavation results to support it. It is generally determined to be in northwest Guizhou, southwest Guizhou and northeast Yunnan.

The "Coke Tomb Site" is one of the most valuable achievements in these archaeological excavations.

"Class B Tomb" in Leke Tomb Site

In the autumn of 2000, Guizhou Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated11tombs from the Warring States to the Western Han Dynasty in Leke Yi and Miao Township, Hezhang County, Bijie City. This excavation was later rated as one of the top ten new archaeological discoveries in China in 20001year.

Leke Yi and Miao Township is located in the west of Hezhang County, in a mountain dam at the eastern foot of Wumeng Mountain. There are many loess hills with a height of tens of meters to hundreds of meters around the dam. The tombs excavated in 2000 were distributed on two earthen hills, Guoluobao and road town, among which more tombs were excavated in road town.

According to the topography, road town area is divided into two work areas: Area 1 and Area 2, among which the tombs in Area 2 are densely distributed. In less than 400 square meters, 80 tombs were unearthed. More than half of these tombs overlap and fracture each other, and the density is quite rare.

In order to accurately analyze and utilize the excavation results, archaeologists classified the excavated tombs, and extended the classification method in the excavation report of Hezhang Leke 1986, calling the excavated Han tombs "Class A tombs" and the local ethnic tombs "Class B tombs". According to this classification, among the four tombs excavated in Guoluobao, there are 3 tombs of Class A and 1 tomb of Class B; Tomb 107 excavated in road town belongs to Class B tombs.

The number of Class A tombs is relatively small. Although there are also local unique objects in the funerary objects, most of them are mainland Chinese-style objects, Bashu-style objects and Yunnan-style objects, and the tomb structure is basically the same as that of the Han tombs in the Central Plains. After analysis and speculation, the excavation personnel think that the owner of the tomb is probably a Bashu immigrant recruited by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty when he developed the southwest. Compared with these tombs, the most important discovery in this excavation is actually Class B tombs, which account for the majority, that is, local ethnic tombs.

Class B tombs, like Han tombs, are "vertical hole earth pit tombs (deep pits are dug vertically from the ground, and then the coffins are placed in into the pit)", but the scale is slightly smaller, and most of them are irregular rectangles. More importantly, archaeologists were pleasantly surprised to discover the special local burial customs such as hood burial in B-class tombs.

In fact, the so-called lead burial can be divided into many different types, most of which are buried with copper pots (pots with two ears), feet and arms, or washed with copper (pots) to cover or pad heads, feet and arms. During the excavation of Cork in 1970s, archaeologists have identified more than 20 buried graves. Among the 108 B tombs excavated this time, there are 8 more. Up to now, among the 276 scorched earth tombs that have been published, there are more than 30 tombs buried with them. This shows that head burial was not a special phenomenon at that time, but a common phenomenon. This custom is found in the ruins of Coke Tomb, but not found in other parts of China.

Whose Tomb —— A Key Step to Explore the Ancient Yelang Country

In 2000, the excavation report of He Zhangjiao divided the burial objects into three periods according to time: the first period was from the early to the middle of the Warring States, the second period was the late Warring States, and the third period was from the late Warring States to the early Western Han Dynasty. Its age seems to be basically consistent with the existence time of Yelang State inferred by scholars according to historical materials. So, is the site of Kele Tomb the site of Yelang Kingdom, or does it belong to other unrecorded local governments in the same historical period?

Regarding the geographical location of Yelang, there is such a record in Historical Records Biography of Southwest Yi: "Yelang people are near the river, more than a hundred steps away from the river, enough to sail" and "ten miles away from the river, out of Panyu City". Some scholars believe that "Suijiang" should be today's Panjiang (divided into north and south Panjiang). Panjiang River flows into the lower reaches of Hongshui River, and then it can go directly to Guangzhou, Panyu recorded in historical books. The location of the Leke Tomb site is also generally within the scope of the "North-South Panjiang River Basin".

Comparing Historical Records Biography of Southwest Yi with History of Han Dynasty Biography of Southwest Yi, it can be seen that Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty sent a doctor to send Tang Meng to Yelang country with a team of more than ten thousand troops in six years before the founding of Yuan Dynasty (135 years ago), and then set up Qianwei County in the location of Yelang country, which consisted of Qianwei County. The inscription of Wadang and the architectural remains of a large government office building were unearthed at Leke site during the founding of the Western Han Dynasty (33-29 BC). Archaeologists infer from this that this place is probably the land of Hanyang County at that time.

In addition, some scholars, through the comparative analysis of cultural relics unearthed from Class B tombs, think that the owner of their tombs should be the "Pu people" system to which Yelang belongs. In this way, from the aspects of existence time, territorial scope, administrative center location and ethnic affiliation, it is very likely that the site of Leke Tomb is the site of ancient Yelang State.

However, it can be seen from the excavation report that archaeologists are very cautious on this issue and did not attribute the site to the remains of any culture. On the one hand, the cultural relics unearthed from the site are not rich enough, and the distribution scope of the site has not yet been determined. More importantly, there is no direct evidence to prove the identity of the tomb owner.

In the Records of Historical Records, it was mentioned that the "small town next to Yelang" coveted the silk brought by Tang Meng, thinking that Yelang's road was difficult and the Han Dynasty could not occupy this place for a long time, so it accepted the covenant proposed by Tang Meng. Yelang at that time was probably a tribal alliance regime. Historical Records and Hanshu contain the names of "small towns" such as Galand, Mimo, Laojin and Louwo.

When evaluating the excavation report of Leke Tomb, Xie Chong 'an, who is engaged in the archaeological research of southwest nationalities, thinks that the temporal and spatial distribution of the site coincides with the Yelang State recorded in history. Tombs embody unique funeral customs, and cultural relics with local colors have been unearthed, which are not found in other areas, meaning that they belong to a unique national identity; They not only represent the main culture of Yelang, but also represent the culture of a small town next to Yelang.

For the exploration of the ancient Yelang Kingdom, the site of Leke Tomb has taken a key step.

Decipher Yelang's hometown

After the excavation of Leke tomb site, archaeologists and scholars who have read the excavation report are very curious about the identity of the tomb owner buried with unique funeral customs.

Among more than 30 tombs with human heads buried, weapons were unearthed in 29. However, the grave digger made anthropological measurements on the collected human bone specimens, and the result showed that most of the 9 tombs as samples were young and middle-aged when their owners died. According to this analysis, Wu Xiaohua of Guizhou Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology thinks that these people are probably soldiers who died in the battle.

She believes that the two types of tombs, A and B, are generally separated, and the weapons unearthed in them are very different, which may indicate that there was a conflict or even war between the local ethnic groups and the Han nationality at that time. Compared with the excellent weapons in A-level tombs, the weapons in B-level tombs are mostly swords from Bashu and local imitation rough weapons. This is most likely because the Han people have strengthened their control over weapons, so that local residents can only import portable weapons from Bashu privately. There are few pottery and decorations in the early tombs unearthed at Leke site, which further shows that the area where the site is located is in a relatively turbulent environment and may even be on the front line of war.

Other scholars have found that more than one third of the graves with weapons have copper or iron containers. One of the tombs unearthed the only Tiege in Jiaozuo site. Together with Brother Tie, there are also bronze seals engraved with the word "respect for things" and bronze pots with standing tiger ears. All these mean that the owner of this tomb has a special status and may have a higher level. Another interesting discovery is that the iron farm tools unearthed in this site are all from unarmed tombs with weapons buried with them. It can be seen that there is a clear division of labor between farmers and soldiers in this area, and there are also different ranks within the soldier group.

About the opening time of the Bashu-Guizhou passage in ancient history, the cultural relics unearthed from Kele Tomb also provide some new information.

According to historical records, Tang Meng wrote to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to persuade him to set up a county in Yelang, with the main purpose of conquering South Vietnam. From Changsha (now Changsha) and Zhang Yu (now Nanchang) to the south, there are "many waterways", taking Yelang Kingdom as a springboard, and the Han army can follow Suijiang to Panyu.

The process of Tang Meng's conclusion now seems to be not rigorous. Generally speaking, South Vietnam entertained Tang Meng with a kind of food called dog wing sauce, and told him that this kind of dog wing sauce was produced in Shu County and shipped from Songjiang. After Tang Meng returned to Chang 'an, he asked the merchants in Shu County. Businessmen say that only Shu County produces gouache sauce, and many locals secretly sell it in Yelang, which is called "stealing the city from Yelang". So there is such a history: Tang Meng wrote a letter, obtained the consent of Emperor Wu, and led an army to Yelang.

Stealing Yelang shows that there are folk trade exchanges between Shu and Yelang, but there have always been different opinions on the time of exchanges between the two places. Some people think that the passage from Shu to Guizhou should be completed at the earliest when the State of Qin opened Wuchi Road at the end of the Warring States, or after the reunification of the six countries. Some people think that the opening time of "Wuchidao" was much earlier than the end of the Warring States Period or the Qin Dynasty. Some Bashu-style cultural relics unearthed from Coke's tomb show that at least in the mid-Warring States period, there have been exchanges between Sichuan and Guizhou.

In addition to Bashu-style and typical Han-style cultural relics, Jade Jue, which is close to the tomb in Pingle County, Guangxi Province, has also been unearthed, and even some agate ornaments suspected to have been imported from the South Silk Road have been unearthed.

If the site of Leke Tomb really belongs to Yelang State, then all kinds of cultural relics unearthed in it indicate that Yelang at that time was already a local regime connected with today's Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Sichuan. There is an obvious division of labor and hierarchy inside, while there is a crisis of war outside.

At this point, the fog of history has become thinner due to the excavation of Coke's tomb, and the image of a local power has become increasingly clear.