Xuanquanzhi Ruins - China Travel

introduce

The Xuanquanzhi site is a small square castle with a gate facing east, surrounded by tall courtyard walls with a side length of 50 meters, and a turret protruding from the dock at the southwest corner. The dock wall is made of adobe with a length, width and thickness of about 40, 20 and 11 centimeters. In the dock, there are 3 groups of 12 adobe wall bungalows (including a suite) in different periods built on the west and north walls of the dock, which are accommodation areas; the east and north sides are office buildings; the southwest corner and north have 3 stables ; In the southwest of the dock, there is a group of 3 stables about 50 meters long and facing north and south. The west of the dock is the waste accumulation area.

Xuanquanzhi is known as a major new discovery in the archaeological world in the 1990s. It is equivalent to the post station of later generations. Archaeological excavations have proved that in the same year when Li Guangli conquered Dawan and won the bloody horse (101 BC), the Western Han Dynasty set up an important institution in Xuanquan, which was specialized in delivering official documents and mail and receiving past official envoys and envoys. This Han Dynasty site was discovered in 1987. Since 1990, cultural relics and archeology experts organized by the cultural management department of Gansu Province have conducted a two-year excavation work on it, which has achieved remarkable results and caused a sensation in the academic circle.

More than 20 pieces of hemp paper with Chinese ink marks unearthed from Xuanquanzhi have been identified as Han paper. This discovery pushes back the invention of paper in my country by nearly a century, overturning the conclusion of Cai Lun's papermaking theory, and it is the earliest paper discovered at home and abroad so far.

The number of Han bamboo slips unearthed in Xuanquanzhi is astonishing, totaling more than 15,000 pieces. Its content is very rich, including edicts, judicial decrees, post office books, cultural technology and other miscellaneous matters. The connotation has expanded from the simple frontier defense and garrison in "Quick Sand Falling Slips" to administrative affairs of border counties, post office business, communication with the Western Regions, and business and trade activities.

Other relics unearthed at Xuanquanzhi are also more precious, with a wide variety, including various farm tools, currency weapons, pottery and clothing, grains and food, stone inkstones and brushes, etc. Although these relics have gone through thousands of years, they are preserved as intact as new. For example, the silk scripts and family letters are complete and readable, the lacquered chopsticks are exactly the same as the ones used today, the lacquered ear cups are colorful, and several pairs of leather shoes with full uppers and soles trace back the history of domestic production and wearing of leather shoes for thousands of years.

Reminder: For the sake of protection, the Xuanquanzhi site has been backfilled.