Ancient iron smelting site in Xuecheng site

Guo Xue ancient city iron smelting site

According to the archaeological excavations over the years, the iron smelting sites in Qin and Han Dynasties found near Xuecheng include Huangdiangang iron smelting site, Xuecheng Beimenli iron smelting site, Caobu iron smelting site and He Sui iron smelting site.

Huangdiangang iron smelting site

In Heguanqiao, Nanzhangwang Town, Tengzhou, Shandong Province, there is an ancient and tall earthen city with a circumference of nearly 28 Li. This is the world-famous ancient city of Xue Guo, which 1988 has been listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit. Xue's old city was sealed by Xi Zhong, the chief engineer of Dayu in early summer.

The present Old Town of Xue State is Meng Changjun and his son in the Warring States Period, which was expanded on the basis of the city in the Western Zhou Dynasty and Spring and Autumn Period in the southeast corner. This city in the Spring and Autumn Period of the Western Zhou Dynasty is a part of the inner city that has been buried underground. There are large areas of Longshan culture, Yueshi culture, Shang, Western Zhou, Eastern Zhou and Han dynasties outside the inner and northern walls. In the middle of the outer city expanded by Meng Changjun and his son, there is a large-scale iron smelting site from the Warring States to the Han Dynasty, with a large number of iron ore, smelting slag and tiles scattered on the ground.

In the middle of the old city, there is a village called Huangdiangang, which is slightly higher than the surrounding area. There are many "Long live the Millennium" cirrus tiles and bronze weapons, which are said to be the base site of Xue Guojun's palace. There is a vigorous pagoda tree in the middle of Huangdiangang village. In the 1990s, the injured roots gradually withered and died because of digging drainage ditches and repairing east-west roads in the village. It is rumored that its location is near the original Xue county government.

The original Centennial Pear Garden is located on the high platform on the east side of Huangdiangang Village. It is a square place with a length of about 300 meters from north to south and a width of about 200 meters from east to west. There are two drainage ditches on the east and south sides of the site passing through the high platform.

During the trial excavation at 1959, it was found that a large number of iron ore, iron slag, completely oxidized and rusted iron blocks, molds (sand-turning models) and iron filings were exposed on the ground, and the pile thickness was about 1 m. A large number of cast fragments have been unearthed, and the recognizable shapes include axes, shovels, plows, hoes and other farm tools. Many people cast models with figures, which can be divided into yin and yang, but they are all three figures, one is Yang Shan Er and the other is Juye Er. It is also found that the soil profile of the trial excavation also shows dense large and small iron ore and other ceramic tile fragments. In some places of the ruins, the kiln site and red-hot fragments of the kiln wall are also exposed. This should be a workshop for casting farm tools.

Problems of fuel for ironmaking;

According to many ash pits exposed at the ironmaking site, it can be seen that they are all surface ash, embers of wood burning, and there is no coke ash formed by coal burning. It can be concluded that the ironmaking fuel used by ironworks here in the late Warring States and Qin and Han Dynasties is wood, not coal.

1September, 1979, archaeologists from China History Museum and Shandong History Museum conducted another excavation and exploration on the iron smelting site of Han Dynasty on the high platform of Huangdiangang Village in Zhangwang Town.

According to research, Shanyang County has an iron official in Changyi (now northwest of Jinxiang County, Shandong Province). At present, no related iron relics have been found, but the shovel unearthed from the iron smelting site in Huangdiangang, Xuecheng is engraved with the words "Yang Shan II". It is known that there are iron officials and at least two iron workshops in Shanyang county, and the location needs to be checked. It should be noted that the words "Juye II" are found on some Tao Zhu models unearthed from Huangdiangang Iron Smelting Site in the ancient snow city. According to Hanshu Geography, there are "iron officials" and "Mang Ri Juye" in Shanyang County, which shows that Yang Shan was renamed "Juye" after Xin Mang, and Juye County also has iron officials.

Today, the ancient Xuecheng in Tengzhou was a county of Lu in the Western Han Dynasty, and Lu had an iron official. Therefore, Xuecheng Huangdiangang Iron Smelting Site should be the iron-making workshop of the iron official of Lu State. The west of Xuecheng is more than 0/00 kilometers away from Changyi (now Jinxiang, Shandong Province), where the iron official of Shanyang County is located. Why does the iron workshop in Lu use a casting model with the symbol of Shanyang County (Juye County)?

In other words, Xue was the county of Lu in Han Dynasty and never belonged to Shanyang County. In the Han Dynasty, an iron official was set up in Ludi, and Shanyang County (the ancient county was named in the northwest of Jinxiang, Shandong Province) was close to the west of Xuedi. Jinxiang area was also called Juye in the new dynasty of Wang Mang.

Iron-smelting stone reliefs unearthed in Yuan Hongdao, tengxian

However, Hanshu recorded such a great event: "In December of the third year of eternity (BC 14), 228 people, including the iron official Su Ling, attacked and killed the chief officer, stole weapons from the armory, called themselves generals, attacked the city slightly, went through 19 counties and 10 countries, and killed the magistrate and a captain in Runan (now Puyang, Henan)." During the Han dynasty, iron smelting craftsmen were mostly criminals, living a hard life, being oppressed and being exploited by feudal rulers, so riots often occurred. Perhaps because of this iron-smelting criminal riot, the iron factory in Shanyang County (Wang Mang's name is Juye) was abolished, forcing craftsmen to move the original molds and move eastward to the snow near Surabaya to continue smelting iron and cast iron. Therefore, the iron smelting site in Xuecheng has cast models of "Yang Shan" and "Juye", so it is also called "Yang Shan" iron smelting site in Han Dynasty.

In recent years, there are about 50 seals about Qin county in Qin seal, which can confirm that the Han Dynasty inherited the system of Qin county. Among them, "Xue Chengyin" and "Geography of Hanshu" note: "Therefore, the first year of the county is Lu." Subordinate counties have "Xue". There is also the Lu Xian County cloud "Notes on Surabaya (Volume 25)": "In the twenty-third year of Qin Shihuang (224 BC), Lu was considered in the first year after the Han Dynasty (BC 187 BC)." According to the seal of Xuecheng, which is the same as the seal of the above counties, this "Xuecheng" should be an assistant official of Xuexian (now Tengzhou Ancient School in Shandong Province).

According to the note of Longxi County in Hanshu Geography: "The Qin family ... has iron officials and salt officials." "Tieguan" and "Yanguan" were special subordinate officials of counties and counties in the Qin Dynasty, and Tieguan was one of them, and Han inherited Qin. It can be seen that the Qin Dynasty set up an iron official in Xue County, and the largest iron smelting workshop in Xue County is located in today's Huangdiangang high platform.

The painted stone of iron smelting unearthed in Hongdaoyuan, tengxian, in the lower left corner of the bottom line, vividly reflects the scene of iron smelting in the Han Dynasty, and the main production links are displayed. In the portrait, one person holds the crucible and three people forge it. On the left, someone blows with an oval leather bag, and on the right, someone looks at repairing weapons. On the right, he saw a man put iron sheets in a pool for cold quenching, and forged weapons hung on the front wall. Then, outside the right palace gate, there is a local map of iron plow and knife dance. This iron smelting map fully reflects the historical fact that the Han Dynasty continued to follow the system of "salt and iron monopoly" and "special currency casting" in the Qin Dynasty, illustrates the fact that the iron smelting industry flourished in the Han Dynasty, and more fully shows the great development of productivity and social progress in Xue County and Teng County, which were originally belonged to Houlu County.

There are many descriptions and sentimentality about the palace high platform and the ruins of the besieged city in the poems and songs of famous poets in the past dynasties.

Chen Yue, who used to be an "iron official" in the Northern Song Dynasty, was appointed as an "assistant of the Third Division of Iron Supervision" and came to Xue, a county where iron officials were specially set up in the Qin and Han Dynasties, to serve as a platform for the emperor and peace in the iron smelting center of Xue County in southern Shandong. When he faced the iron slag and Fan Tao scattered all over the pond in Xuegongtai, which was covered with weeds, and the old city wall that was still tall and towering, but had long been mottled and exposed due to disrepair, and the tall mausoleum in Meng Changjun, which is located in the northeast corner of the city wall and has become a good place for herding sheep and cattle, the once romantic atmosphere had already been wiped out by the wind and rain. All this made Chen Yue sigh sadly.

This poem says:

When I heard Yong Men's harp,

These words made my eyes water.

In addition, on the bank of the valley,

There's nothing to pursue on the pool platform.

Song Zhenzong's top literati and poets came to the ancient Syracuse to pay their respects to Ding's former residence, and also came in the name of admiring the long-standing culture of Snow. Song Yu walked around the ancient city, which was in disrepair for a long time, but still high. On the high platform on the east side of Gong's former residence, Song Yu saw and saw the tragic scene. At the same time, he also saw that the broad Gong Xue platform in Xue County had collapsed in the ditch, and the brick pool on the platform was still rippling in the blue waves, and the summer was still the same. The frog in the pond, staring at two big round eyes, can't recognize the rise and fall of the world, and is still learning to sing the advocacy when Xue County flourished.

Guo Xue ancient city iron smelting site

All this is really a heartbreaking pain that "a strong woman in business doesn't know how to hate her country, but she still sings backyard flowers across the river". The poet sighed and wrote a sentimental poem "On Dong Chi" written by Gu Xue and Ding. He said in the poem:

Xue county's high platform has been half tilted,

Bibo's legacy is full of beauty.

The pond frog doesn't know the meaning of rising and falling.

I still learn from past advocacy.

Huang Huisen, a poet in the Qing Dynasty, boarded the high platform in Gong Xue to pay tribute to Meng Changjun. Since then, he sadly wrote a poem "Meng Changjun":

"Scholar said Wen Sheng, ring the bell to spend money. I belong to my old friend, and the diners are scattered on the high platform. The industry is endless, and the rural storm is open. If there are spare foxes and rabbit holes, who will hold the piano? "

It is conceivable that the ironmaking site in Huangdiangang, the old city of Xue State, which is the high platform of Meng Changjun Palace, was called "Gong Xuetai" in ancient times and has long been famous all over the world.

Ancient Xuecheng North Gate Liliantie Site

The site is located between Chenzhuang Village and Dongquzhuang Village near the north gate of Guxuecheng, covering an area of about 50,000 square meters and 400 meters away from Huangdiangang Ironmaking Site.

A large number of smelting slag and iron slag were found there, and residual ironmaking condensate was also found, which looked like the corpse of a cow, commonly known as iron cow. Slate tiles were found on the ground, and the stone foundation of the house was dug underground in the south field, which should be attached to the original ironworks. Now ironmaking here is partly farmland and partly built by villagers' houses in Chen Zhuang.

Caobu iron smelting site

Caobu Iron Smelter is located in the southeast of Caobu Village, Zhou Ying Town, about10m, with an area of about1500m2.

Square meters, the surface can be seen in the Han Dynasty tiles, tiles, pottery and so on. There are many refinements.

Slag and iron slag. Now this place has become cultivated land.

He Sui iron smelting site

He Sui Ironmaking Site is located at the northwest of Suihe Village in Nanchang Township 10 meter, covering an area of about 654.38+10,000 square meters. According to the measurement, below 50 cm on the surface, 30 cm thick iron blocks and slag accumulation can be seen.