Ningxia Culture, Fenghua Moxi, Channel Identification and Cultural Relics in the Han Dynasty

Ningxia Culture, Fenghua Moxi, Channel Identification and Cultural Relics in the Han Dynasty

At the end of Qin Dynasty and the beginning of Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu slave owners group took the opportunity of "stopping troops" along the Great Wall to send troops to occupy the vast area south of the Yellow River Hetao. Trapped on the earth, the fire is burning. In BC 140, Liu Che succeeded to the throne, and the Central Committee of the Western Han Dynasty began to attach great importance to Ningxia's strategic position in resisting the invasion of Xiongnu. The imperial court of the Western Han Dynasty immigrated to Ningxia from the mainland several times, and they were provided with clothes, grain, seeds and cattle by * *, which led them to cultivate land, build canals to divert water and develop grain production. After the hard work of the working people in the Western Han Dynasty, the initial prosperity of "top-down, facing each other" appeared on the originally desolate Ningxia Plain. Up to now, cultural relics and historic sites of the Western Han Dynasty can still be seen everywhere in Ningxia.

During the period of 1972, a number of tombs of the Han Dynasty were discovered in Pingjibao, Yinchuan City, one of which belonged to Guo Mu's tomb of the Western Han Dynasty, and several cow-shaped wooden cow models were unearthed. The use of wooden cattle as human sacrifices shows that the deceased attached great importance to farming cattle before his death, and it also shows that farming cattle were widely used in society at that time. At the same time, the lines in the pottery barn model were unearthed. Although rotten, the variety is millet in appearance. Millet has been planted in the Yellow River basin for more than 7000 years.

There are still some water diversion channels dug in the Han Dynasty in Yinchuan Plain, which still play a great role in irrigation. Hanbo Canal, also known as Han Canal, is called Guanglu Canal in ancient history books. According to the Book of the New Tang Dynasty (154): "There is a Guanglu Canal in Lingyan Department. How long has it been? Waste, (Li) listens to reclamation to save money, that is, the canal is filled with thousands of hectares, and then it is based on it. " The sixty-second volume of Reading History Yu Fang clearly records: "The canal is in Lingzhou, and the Benhan River irrigates the fields." The Han Yan Canal starts from the southeast of Qingtongxia City, draws water from the Yellow River through Yongning County and Yinchuan City, and joins the Huinong Canal to the north, with a total length of 100 kilometers. As famous as the Han Yan Canal is the Tanglai Canal, which was also a channel for irrigation of farmland from the Yellow River in the Han Dynasty. These famous channels were dug in the Western Han Dynasty, and Historical Records was published for twenty-nine years. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, "Shuofang, Xihe and Jiuquan all lead the valley to irrigate the fields". In BC 106, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty divided the whole country into thirteen secretariat departments, which administered counties. Today, Yinchuan, Wuzhong and Lingwu in northern Ningxia are all under the jurisdiction of Beidi County of Shuofang Secretariat.

The utilization of Niu Geng and the construction of the Yellow River Diversion Project have promoted the development of agriculture in Ningxia, and handicrafts and commerce have also flourished.

All kinds of pottery, lacquerware and bronzes unearthed from the tombs of the Western Han Dynasty in Pingjibao, Yinchuan, show the handicraft level of Ningxia in the Western Han Dynasty. Unearthed pottery includes both glazed pottery and gray pottery, and they are all processed by wheel-making technology, so the shape of pottery is relatively regular and the wall thickness is uniform. Glazed pottery is red and yellow, dazzling. Songkhla glaze is made of iron oxide contained in glaze powder by flame oxidation. In order to burn a predetermined color, it is necessary not only to prepare an accurate amount of glaze powder, but also to strictly control the temperature and ventilation during firing. Without excellent technology, it is difficult to succeed. There is a Boshan furnace in pottery, and its cover is mountain-shaped and peak-shaped, which has a strong artistic realism. Also unearthed is a lacquerware plate with black color on a red background. Although the wooden tire is rotten, the painted patterns are clear, gorgeous, slender and smooth, which shows the highly developed and perfect lacquer manufacturing technology in China during the Western Han Dynasty. In addition, some bronze chariots and horses models and bronze mirrors with arc patterns were found. A bronze mirror is a bronze mirror made of an alloy of copper, tin and lead. Its surface is not easy to oxidize and rust, and it can keep the mirror surface clean for a long time. There are various patterns on the back of bronze mirrors. The skillful production technology of bronze mirror not only reflects the improvement of metal smelting level in the Western Han Dynasty, but also shows people's profound understanding of the principle of light reflection. A bronze sheep was also found in the ancient city of Guyuan County, which was made of bronze. Looking back at the ground, the sheep's eyes are staring, lifelike, and the curly hair on the sheep is made of gold and silver thread as thin as hair, which looks like a fascinating work of art. The cultural relics of the Western Han Dynasty unearthed in Ningxia show that the development level of agriculture and handicrafts in Ningxia at that time was very close to that in the Central Plains.

After more than 200 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 farm tools in the Eastern Han Dynasty marked the further development of agriculture in Ningxia. A plow wall unearthed from the tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Nuanquan Farm, Helan County, was cast with pig iron. It is a rectangular leaf, 50 cm long and 22 cm wide, with a rounded corner and two nose buttons on the back. The plow wall and the plow tip can be used together, and the ploughed soil can be turned to one side for exposure, which can kill pests more effectively and improve soil fertility. According to records, European plows didn't have a plow wall until A.D. 1 1 century, while China had a plow wall device in the Western Han Dynasty, which was nearly a thousand years earlier than Europe, fully demonstrating the wisdom and ability of the Chinese nation. The extensive use of iron farm tools has increased the grain output in Ningxia. Therefore, in the 4th year of Shun Di Yongjian in the Eastern Han Dynasty (129), the imperial ministers reported the development of Beidi and Anding counties in their letters to the emperor (Ningxia was subordinate to Beidi and Anding counties at that time). "Woye is thousands of miles away, crops are abundant, the soil is suitable for livestock production, cattle and horses are at the tail, and sheep are blocked ..." It can be seen that Ningxia's economy was very prosperous at that time.

Economic development has promoted the construction of cities. Today, in Zhongning, Helan, Yanchi, Guyuan, Zhongwei and other counties, the ruins of the city site in the Eastern Han Dynasty have been discovered, and some building materials and many relics used in that year have been excavated from time to time. In the ruins of Zhangjiachang ancient city in the Eastern Han Dynasty in Yanchi County, there are square bricks with inscriptions, which are printed with auspicious words popular in the Han Dynasty, such as "Dafuchang, Le Weiyang, Descendants One" and so on. In the ruins of the ancient city in the southern suburbs of Guyuan County, ceramic wells built with circular ceramic wells and ceramic water pipes were also found for drainage in the city. There are two kinds of clay pipe: straight tube and curved ruler. They showed that there were relatively perfect water supply and drainage facilities in some towns at that time. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the landlord manor economy developed rapidly. Many people with equal wealth and status are often buried in the same cemetery according to their surnames after death, so some cemeteries are dotted with hundreds of graves, stretching for miles. In some excavated tombs, a large number of cultural relics reflecting the economic and cultural characteristics at that time were unearthed, including pottery, bronze and jade.

There are many kinds of pottery, including almost all the daily necessities of the residents at that time. A blue glazed pottery jar from the Eastern Han Dynasty was unearthed in the warm spring of Helan County. Its color is blue as jade, exquisite and elegant, which shows skillful and superb baking technology. A model pottery house was unearthed in Guanmahu Lake, Wuzhong. It has a three-story structure, including doors, windows, railings, arches and roofs. It is also painted red and white. It is the true epitome of residential buildings in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it is an important material for modern people to understand people's lives in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Bronzes include mirrors, pots, money and horses and chariots. A bronze seal was unearthed from Caomiao Temple in Guyuan County. It is square, with a gold-plated surface and a length of 2.3 cm. The seal is borderless, and the words "General Fu Bo" are engraved on it. According to research, this is the seal of Ma Yuan in the Eastern Han Dynasty. History as a Mirror (Volume 43) records that in the seventeenth year of Jianwu (4 1), Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty "worshipped Ma Yuan as General Fu Bo and ... touched his toes in the south", while Ma Yuan lived in Beidi County when he was young. There is also an iron sword in the western suburb of Guyuan in the early Eastern Han Dynasty, which is1.05m long. Although it has been buried underground for more than 1000 years, its blade is still sharp. In the same place, a painted bone ruler was unearthed, with smooth variant moire painted in ochre red and ten scales on it. The whole ruler is 23 cm today. This bone ruler is very valuable for studying ancient measuring instruments in China.

In southern Ningxia, some cultural relics of Xiongnu in Han Dynasty were also found. After the Huns were defeated by the Han Dynasty, some Huns joined the Han Dynasty and were placed in designated places to live. 1976, a carved rectangular bronze seal of Xiongnu was found in the ancient city of Guyuan county, and two deer with long horns stood opposite each other. An iron sword used by Huns was also found in the western suburbs of Guyuan. The head of the sword is cast in bronze, made into a ring, and has two opposite sheep heads, which has a strong style of Xiongnu national cultural relics. These cultural relics are precious historical testimony of the common life and mutual integration of the Han and Hungarian nationalities.