Chapter 21 Section 6 The Rise of the Cities of the Nations

During the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the frequent annexation wars and the development of handicrafts and commerce in the vassal states, the cities of the vassal states developed rapidly.Archeology found that most of the capitals of various countries were built from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, and many of them continued to be used until the Han Dynasty. First, from 1954 to 1960, in Luoyang, Henan Province, the site of the King City of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was investigated and excavated, located at the confluence of the Luo River and the Jian River.According to ancient documents, from King Ping of Zhou to King Jing of Zhou, all the twelfth kings used Wangcheng as the capital of Zhou; King Zhou Jing moved his capital to Chengzhou in the east due to the chaos of the Prince Dynasty, and King Zhou Nan [nan蝻] He moved back to Wangcheng.The city is roughly square in shape, the north wall is 2,890 meters long, the distance between the north and south ends of the west wall is 3,200 meters, and the south and east walls are about 1,000 meters long, with a total area of ​​about 10 square kilometers.The city wall is generally about 10 meters wide and is made of rammed earth.A five-meter-deep moat was also found outside the north wall.The central part of the city was the seat of Henan County during the Han Dynasty, so the architectural remains of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were destroyed.Two large rammed earth architectural ruins were found in the south of the city.The one on the north side is 344 meters long from east to west and 182 meters wide from north to south. It is surrounded by walls and has a rectangular building base inside. A large number of plate tiles, tube tiles, animal face patterns, and cirrus pattern tiles were found. It may be the palace of the king of Zhou. where.In the northwest of the city, ruins of handicraft workshops such as copper casting, pottery making, and bone making were found.This urban layout is consistent with "facing the future market" recorded in "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji".A large number of tombs from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were excavated along the current Zhongzhou Road in the city. Most of them are shaft tombs in earth pits with coffins.The large and medium-sized tombs were buried with ritual vessels such as bronze tripods, beans, 簠, pans, and 匜.The small tombs are mainly funerary pottery. According to the changes in the combination and type of funerary pottery, the excavators divided the tomb into seven periods, dating from about the 8th century BC to the 3rd century BC. It has now become a yardstick for dating Eastern Zhou tombs in the Central Plains.

Secondly, since 1952, the investigation and excavation in Houma, Shanxi Province has excavated the Xintian ruins of the capital city that was moved in the 15th year of Jin Jinggong (585 BC) in the late Jin Dynasty.Located in the northwest suburb of today's Houma City, where the Fen River and the Hui River meet, it consists of seven small towns including Pingwang, Taishen, Baidian, Niucun, Chengwang, and Mazhuang, with a total area of ​​about 35 square kilometers.Rammed earth platform foundations were found in the ancient city of Niucun and the ancient city of Pingwang.Among them, the rammed earth platform in the south of Pingwang ancient city is about 95 meters long from north to south, 75 meters wide from east to west, high in the north and low in the south, in the shape of three steps, and the highest existing one is about 8.5 meters.A rammed earth platform in the northwest of the ancient city of Niu Village is square, 52.5 meters long on each side and 6.5 meters high.There are many fragments of tube tiles and plate tiles scattered around the two, and dozens of rammed earth building foundations are distributed nearby, which may have been the location of the palace area at that time.In the south of the ancient city of Niu Village, the ruins of the aforementioned copper-casting workshops and handicraft workshops such as pottery and bone-making workshops were also discovered.A large number of tombs from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were found in Shangma Village, south of the Hui River.The cemetery is divided into sections, probably belonging to different families who were related.What is especially important is that in 1965, near the Qin Village in the southeast of the ancient city site, the oath site of the late Spring and Autumn Period was discovered.Including the foundation site of the ancestral temple, more than 400 earth pits ("kan") where Cuo Cuo buried sacrifices, and row burial tombs.According to literature records, in order to consolidate internal unity and attack hostile forces, the princes and ministers at that time often held oath activities.The words of the alliance are written in Zhushu or ink on the sacrificial jade or Shigui, which is called the alliance book or Zaishu.There are two copies, one is hidden in the League Mansion, and the other is buried in the ground or sunk in the river to win the trust of ghosts and gods.A total of more than 5,000 pieces of alliance books were unearthed from the Houma League Oath Site, most of which are in the shape of Gui, 18 cm to 32 cm long, and 2 cm to 4 cm wide.Each piece has less than 10 characters and more than 200 characters.Most of its content is a clan alliance letter expressing allegiance to the leader and unanimously punishing the hostile forces that have fled.According to research, Zhao Meng, the main ally of these alliance letters, may be Jin Shiqing Zhao Yang (Zhao Jianzi). The purpose of the letter of oath between other ministers and officials is to jointly oppose their political opponent Zhao Ni (Ji).Hou Ma's League Letter confirms the power-seizure struggle within the ruling class of Jin State in the late Spring and Autumn Period, and provides important materials for studying the great social changes and the oath system during this period.

Thirdly, since 1958, the site of Linzi, the capital of Qi State from the late Western Zhou Dynasty (the first year of Qi Xian, 859 BC) to the Warring States Period has been investigated and excavated in Linzi District, Zibo City, Shandong Province (Figure 16).The city site is located on the west bank of the Zi River in the northwest of Linzi District today, and consists of two connected city sites, the large and the small.The small city is Miyagi, which is located in the southwest corner of the big city. It is slightly rectangular in shape. The east wall is 2,195 meters long, the north wall is 1,404 meters long, and the circumference is more than seven kilometers.It has been ascertained that there are two south gates, one east gate, one west gate and one north gate, and three main streets.In the northern part of the city, there is a large area of ​​rammed-earth building foundations, where the palace area was located at that time. Unearthed trees have cirrus cloud patterns and half-tiles with double animal patterns on trees.Its central building "Huan Gong Terrace" is elliptical, 86 meters long from north to south, 70 meters wide from east to west, and 14 meters high.In the southern part of the small city, there are found the remains of handicraft workshops for casting copper and coins, which may be the location of the official handicraft industry directly controlled by the Marquis of Qi.The big city is Kuocheng, which is slightly rectangular. The east wall bends with the Zi River, 5,209 meters long, the north wall is 3,316 meters long, and the circumference is more than 14 kilometers.Outside the south and north city walls, there are moats with a width of 25 meters to 30 meters and a depth of about 3 meters.Outside the east wall is Zihe River, and outside the west wall is Xishui.It has been found that there are two city gates on the south and north sides of the big city, and one city gate on the east and west sides.It has been proven that there are seven main avenues in the big city, most of which are connected to the city gate, and are generally more than 10 meters to 20 meters wide.In the west of Dacheng, a drainage channel was found running from north to south, with a total length of 2,800 meters and a width of about 30 meters.A culvert with a narrow inside and a wide outside made of large stones was also found in the northwest corner where it passes through the city wall.It is 16.7 meters long, about eight meters wide, and about three meters high. There are three layers of water holes, with five holes in each layer, arranged in a staggered manner.Ayutthaya is a residential area for officials and civilians. In the northeast and central parts of the city, there are handicraft workshops such as copper casting, iron smelting, and bone making.On the pottery of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty unearthed in the city, a large number of stamped pottery inscriptions were found, most of which contained the curie and name of the creator, such as "the pottery of Gaolu Douli people is called bu" and so on.In the area of ​​Heyatou in the northeast corner of Dacheng, a cemetery of senior and middle-class nobles in the Spring and Autumn Period was found. There are more than 20 large and medium-sized tombs.One of the large stone tombs may be the Qijing cemetery, and there is a pit for martyrdom horses around it. Only a part of it was cleaned up, and as many as 145 martyrdom horses were found. It is estimated that the total number is more than 600 horses. is rare.In addition, in the Niushan area about 10 kilometers south of Dacheng, there are more than 10 tall tombs sealed with mounds, commonly known as "Siwang Tomb" and "Erwang Tomb", which may be the mausoleum of King Tian Qi.Archaeologists also unearthed a tomb of aristocrats from the Spring and Autumn Period in Langjiazhuang, 0.5 kilometers south of the city.It is worth noting that 17 young women were buried in the tomb, all with coffins and funerary objects.According to "Warring States Policy · Qi Policy" and other documents, there were 70,000 households in Linzi during the reign of King Xuan of Qi. The bustling city greatly surpassed the royal city of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.

Fourth, since 1973, the investigation and excavation of the ruins of Yongcheng, the capital of the Qin State, from the mid-Spring and Autumn period (the first year of Qin De, 677 BC) to the mid-Warring States period were carried out.The Yongcheng ruins are located in the south of Fengxiang City, Shaanxi Province, north of the Yongshui River. The plane is nearly square, about 3,200 meters long from north to south, and 3,300 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of ​​about 10 square kilometers.The city wall is rammed, 3-8.8 meters wide, and the highest remaining part is 7.9 meters.In Yaojiagang, Majiazhuang, and Tiegou in the city, large-scale palace architectural ruins were discovered.Among them, the Majiazhuang No. 1 architectural site found in the south-central part of the city faces south and is surrounded by walls.In the middle of the north is the ancestral temple, with a width of 20.8 meters and a depth of 13.9 meters, surrounded by corridors.On the left is Zhao Temple, on the right is Mu Temple, and on the south is the gate.In the central open space - the atrium, 181 sacrificial pits for people, carts, cattle, and sheep were found, which are obviously the ancestral temple of Duke Qin.The Majiazhuang No. 3 large-scale architectural complex site is 326.5 meters long and 59.5 to 86 meters wide, surrounded by walls.It is a group of buildings with five courtyards, five gates and three dynasties. It may be the residence of Qin Gong's palace.In the palace area of ​​Yaojiagang, a "Lingyin" (ice cellar) site that can store more than 190 cubic meters of ice was also discovered.300 meters east of the south side of the north city wall, the ruins of the "city" were found. It is rectangular in plane, 180 meters long from east to west, and 160 meters wide from north to south.It is particularly worth noting that three batches of 64 bronze building components were unearthed in the Yaojiagang palace area in the west-central part of the city, which may be the golden 釭 [gang] recorded in ancient documents.Most of them are in the shape of a rectangular tube, and some are in the shape of a ruler, and the surface is mostly decorated with panchi patterns.It is used to be set on wooden beams for both protection and decoration.Similar bronze architectural components have also been found in Lintong and Xianyang, Shaanxi, indicating that bronze architectural decorations were widely used in court buildings during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.These bronze architectural decorations are shining with gold, which can achieve a rich effect that cannot be achieved by painted paintings.In addition, the cemetery of Qin Gong was also discovered on Sanwanyuan, eight kilometers southwest of the Yongcheng site. The cemetery is located in Bachitun and Gaozhuang to the north of the cemetery as medium and small burial areas.

Fifthly, since the 1950s, the site of Ying City, the capital of Chu in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, has been continuously investigated and excavated.The city site is located five kilometers north of Jiangling City in Hubei Province. Because it is south of Jishan, it is also called Jinan City.The plane of the city site is slightly rectangular, 4450 meters long from east to west and 3588 meters wide from north to south.The rammed earth city wall is 3.9 to 7.6 meters above the ground, 30 to 40 meters wide at the bottom, surrounded by moats.Seven city gates have been identified, one on the east wall, two on the west wall, two on the south wall, and two on the north wall.There are two water gates among them. The place where Zhu River and Longqiao River pass through the city wall today is where the water gates in the east of the north wall and west of the south wall were located.The north gate of the west wall that has been excavated has three doorways, with gatehouses on both sides.The water gate in the west of the south wall also has three doorways composed of four rows of vertical wooden pillars.There are 84 rammed earth foundations found in the city, the most dense in the southeast of the central part, arranged along the central axis.The largest building base is 130 meters long and 100 meters wide. It is where the palace area is located, and there are also remains of the palace wall around it.More than 500 wells were also found in the city, and pottery well circles, bamboo well circles or wooden well circles were found.In some wells, a large pottery urn is placed at the bottom of the well, which is used as a cold storage cellar.The ruins of a bronze casting workshop were found in Chenjiatai in the southwest of the city, and the ruins of a pottery workshop were found on both sides of the Longqiao River in the north of the city.More than 30 large-scale burial areas were found within 30 to 40 kilometers around the city site, among which there were hundreds of large and medium-sized tombs, most of which were from the late Spring and Autumn Period to the middle Warring States period.The large tombs that have been excavated are rich in burial objects, Wangshan Tomb No. 1 (the King Goujian sword of Yue King was unearthed), Mashan Tomb No. Bamboo Slips for Ritual Prayer and Judicial Documents), etc.This also reflects the prosperity of Yingdu at that time from one aspect.