synonymXiadu (Yanxia Capital) generally refers to the site of Yanxia Capital
Yanxiadu Site（Remains of Secondary Capital of Yan）, located in the southeast of Yixian County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, 5 kilometers west of Taihang Mountain.It is the site of the capital city of Yan State in the middle and late Warring States Period and the largest capital city in the Warring States Period.[5]
The site of Yanxiadu Site is rectangular, about 8 kilometers long from east to west, and 4 kilometers wide from south to north. There is a partition wall in the middle, dividing the city into east and west cities.The eastern city is divided into five parts: palace area, handicraft workshop area, residential area, burial area, and ancient river area. The western city is a defensive annex.[5]The discovery and research of Yanxiadu site greatly enriched the content of Yan culture.The site is large in scale, well preserved, and rich in material and cultural relics. It provides excellent research materials for studying the capital shape, social economy, politics, military affairs, culture, people's social consciousness, social style, and the exchange and integration of Central Plains culture and northern culture during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.The site of Yanxiadu also reflects the perfect combination of urban planning concept and architectural technology during the Warring States Period, and the unearthed architectural components show the level of architectural technology and construction organization of the State of Yan that year.There are many weapons, cast iron, jade and pottery sites around the core area of Yanxiadu Site, which shows that Yandu was prosperous in economy and culture at that time, and it has extremely important academic value for studying the archaeological culture of the Warring States Period of China, especially the relationship between the archaeological culture of Yan State and other archaeological cultures.[6][13]
On March 4, 1961, Yanxiadu Site was announced by the State Council of the People's Republic of China asThe first batch of national key cultural relics protection units。[4]On October 18, 2021, Yanxiadu Site was listed as one of the "One Hundred Archaeological Discoveries in a Century" by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.[1]
Chinese name
Yanxiadu Site
Foreign name
Remains of Secondary Capital of Yan
geographical position
Southeast of Yixian County, Hebei Province, 5 kilometers west of Taihang Mountain
Times
the Warring States period
area covered
32 km²
Protection level
The first batch of national key cultural relics protection units
After King Wu of Zhou exterminated the Shang Dynasty, he granted Shaogong the title of Northern Yan, and later all of them were in Ji, the capital of Yan Shang, and later moved here to be the capital of Yan Xia.The city flourished mainly during the reign of King Yan Zhao (311-279 BC).
In the 25th year of the First Emperor of Qin Dynasty (222 BC), Qin destroyed Yan and abandoned Xiadu.
Since the end of the 19th century, the site of Yanxiadu has attracted the attention of scholars.
In the 19th year of the Republic of China (1930), the Yanxiadu Archaeological Group headed by Ma Heng excavated Laomudai.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, many investigations, explorations and excavations were carried out.[5][9]
Site pattern
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overview
Yanxia is located between Beiyishui and Zhongyishui, slightly in an irregular rectangle, about 8 kilometers from east to west, and about 4-6 kilometers from north to south.In the middle, there is a grain transporting river running through the north and south, and a partition wall on the east side of the river divides the city into east and west cities.The west of the Yunliang River is called the West City, which is a defensive auxiliary city set up to strengthen the security of the East City;The east of Yunliang River, called Dongcheng, was the center of people's living and gathering at that time.There are ancient rivers and trenches in the north and south to communicate with each other.The east city can be divided into five parts: palace area, handicraft workshop area, residential area, ancient tombs and ancient river.[8-9][12]
Plan of Yanxiadu Site
wall
City Wall Site
The old city of Yanxia Capital is rectangular, about 8 kilometers long from east to west, 4-6 kilometers wide from south to north, and covers a total area of about 40 square kilometers. In the middle, there is an ancient river that runs from north to south, which is said to be the Grain River.On the east bank of the river, there is a city wall parallel to the river, which divides Yanxia into east and west cities. The east city is similar to the square city in plane. In the north of the middle, there is an east-west partition wall that divides the east city into north and south parts.
The East City and the West City are composed of a thick wall and a manually excavated earth transporting wall. The wall base is about 40 meters wide and the perimeter is about 18 kilometers. There is also a partition wall running from east to west in the north of the central part, dividing the palace city into two parts.The wall foundation is about 20m wide and 4460m long.The west city, namely Guo City, consists of three city walls in the north, west and south, and the Yunliang River. The west wall is relatively straight, and the north wall has a turn. After several turns in the west, north and east of Xidou Village, it forms a double bucket shape. The south wall turns from the west of Yanzi Village to the south, crosses Yishui to the west entrance of Longwantou Village, and then goes eastward, connecting with the west bank of Yunliang River. The foundation of the city wall is 40 meters wide.The three walls are 14 kilometers long.[8-9]
Palace area
Wuyang Platform
The palace area is in the northeast of the city site and consists of three groups of buildings.This kind of rammed earth technology is used to build platforms with different heights and volumes on the ground level, and then build palaces on the platforms, which are scattered in height and magnificent.This kind of architectural style appeared many times on the bronze decorations of the Warring States Period.The ramming platform of Yanxiadu is tall and numerous.There are more than 50 high platforms that have been proved inside and outside the city. Centered on Wuyang Platform, there are "small platforms" in the northeast, "Lujiatai" in the southeast, and "Laoyemiao Platform" in the southwest.Related to the palace area are the "Wuyang Terrace", "Wangjing Terrace", "Golden Terrace" and "Laomu Terrace", which are built on a central axis, of which "Laomu Terrace" is built outside the capital city.[8-9]
Wuyang Platform
Wuyang Terrace, located in the center of the palace area, has a maximum length of 140 meters from east to west and a maximum width of 110 meters from south to north. It is the largest in the rammed earth building site of Yanxiadu.This architectural form was still popular until the Han Dynasty.[8-9]
Handicraft workshop area
The handicraft workshop area is centered around the palace area and distributed on the arc from northwest to southeast, including weapons making, iron smelting, coinage, jade making, bone ware, pottery and other industries.[8-9]
Residential area
The residential area is in the southwest, middle, east and northeast of Dongcheng.More than 30 workshops and residential sites have been found.[8-9]
Burial area
The burial area is located in the northwest corner of Xicheng and Dongcheng, and there are two tomb areas in the east, namely, "Nine Women's Terrace" and "Empty Grain Tomb".There are 33 Xinzhuangtou tombs in the west city.These tombs are all high and sealed with earth, belonging to the tombs of princes.Outside the south wall of the east city is the tomb of the poor and the "landscape site" (namely, the cluster tomb).[8-9]
Burial area
Ancient rivers and trenches
There are five ancient rivers and trenches, which shows that the river network in the city was interwoven at that time.It ensures the safety of the city and the convenience of transportation and drainage.[8-9]
Cultural relics
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After nearly a hundred years of continuous archaeology, many Warring States iron farm tools, bronze weapons, and mica red pottery were unearthed from the Yanxiadu site.A large number of ceramic drainage pipes and tiles were found around the palace foundation.All tiles are semicircular, with taotie patterns and mountain cloud patterns as the most common.
Yanxiadu Site is rich in cultural relics. Since the early years of the Republic of China, more than 100000 cultural relics have been unearthed.The four Qi marquis artifacts, bronze dragons and other precious cultural relics have caused an international sensation.After the founding of New China, the Warring States bronze men and the big copper shop head rings unearthed were identified as national treasures by experts.These cultural relics fill many historical gaps with their high historical, scientific and artistic values.The tomb cluster in the south of the city is the only tomb cluster with human heads in China. There are 14 human head pits side by side. Each pit has more than 2000 human heads, which are stacked up and down.[8]
Bronze shop head carved with dragon and phoenix patterns
Bronze head with phoenix and dragon patterns
The openwork bronze head with dragon and phoenix patterns (decoration on the palace gate) was unearthed in 1966 from Laomudai, the site of Yanxiadu, with a length of 74.5 cm and a weight of 22 kg.Make animal face and hold ring.The animal's face is curly eyebrows, protruding eyes, curly cloud nose, tusks are exposed between the flying whiskers, and the mouth holds an octagonal ring.Phoenix standing on the forehead with a corolla and a sharp beak, spreading its wings.Two long snakes twined the phoenix's wings and bent their necks to struggle.There is a climbing dragon on both sides of the shop head.The dragon head, phoenix head and snake neck are all round sculptures, with fine feather patterns and cirrus cloud patterns carved all over the body.It is huge in shape, ornate in decoration, vivid in image, and has a strong artistic appeal.It is a representative artifact of Yan State and has been used as the environmental decoration of the hall of the new museum.It is now in Hebei Museum.[7][10]
An iron helmet
An iron helmet
The iron helmet is made of 69 leaves, 31.4 cm high and 25.2 cm in diameter.The top of the helmet is an arc roof with a diameter of 10.5 cm. There is a circle in the middle, two circles near the edge, 14 circles around the outer circumference, and the distance between the two is 1 cm.There are 7 round penetrations in the inner circumference, and the distance between the two penetrations is 2.5 cm.The first layer on the top of the helmet is made of 14 binding leaves, which are in a slightly bulging arc shape and in a rounded trapezoid shape. The upper part is pierced with the outer part of the helmet top. There are two circular pierces on the left and right sides and the lower part respectively to pierce with the left and right and lower binding leaves. The canopy is in the middle of the second layer of forehead protection binding leaves, and the inner eave is folded up. There are two circular pierces on the middle and both sides, which are connected with the three binding leaves of the forehead protection.The two leaves on both sides of the jaw guard are inverted "convex" shaped, and the rest are rounded rectangular.There are two circles in the upper, lower, left and right of the binding leaves. The two binding leaves on both sides of the jaw guard are rectangular with corners, and the rest are rectangular with rounded corners.There are 4 round perforations at the lower part of the two jaw guard leaves, and 2 round perforations at the upper, lower, left and right sides of the other leaves. The two front leaves are larger.There are 4 round penetrations at the upper part, 2 round penetrations at the upper part and both sides, and no penetrations at the lower end. All the leaves are right angled trapezoids pointing outward.The excavation of the iron helmet provides new data for the study of the structure of the iron helmet in the Warring States Period.[11]
Remains of a mass grave
In 1965, a cluster burial pit was excavated near Wuyang Terrace. 1480 cultural relics were unearthed from the tomb, most of which were iron weapons, such as swords, spears, halberds, and scattered helmets and armor.Through the analysis of 9 weapons of 7 kinds, including sword, spear and halberd, 6 of them are pure iron or steel products, and 3 are pig iron products that have been softened or untreated.This shows that in the late Warring States Period, China was able to manufacture high carbon steel and understood quenching technology.The discovery of the quenched steel sword in Yanxiadu was two centuries earlier than the time of "quenching its edge with clear fire" in the book of Emperor Xuandi of the Han Dynasty written by Wang Bao in the Book of Han.[5]
Cultural relic value
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Yanxiadu has a history of more than 2000 years. Now the city wall, platform base and tomb enclosure can be seen on the ground. It is a representative city site reflecting the urban development in the Warring States Period.
Yanxia Capital Site is a large capital site of the Warring States Period with relatively complete and abundant cultural relics in China.The discovery and research of Yanxiadu site greatly enriched the content of Yan culture.The site is large in scale, well preserved, and rich in material and cultural relics. It provides excellent research materials for studying the capital shape, social economy, politics, military affairs, culture, people's social consciousness, social style, and the exchange and integration of Central Plains culture and northern culture during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.The site of Yanxiadu also reflects the perfect combination of urban planning concept and architectural technology during the Warring States Period, and the unearthed architectural components show the level of architectural technology and construction organization of the State of Yan that year.
There are a large number of relics and remains unearthed at the Yanxiadu site, which is extremely rich and diverse. Many weapons, cast iron, jade making and pottery burning sites are distributed around the core area of the city, which shows that the economic and cultural prosperity of Yandu at that time, and the study of the archaeological culture of the Warring States Period of China,Especially, the study of Yan's archaeological culture and its relationship with other archaeological cultures has extremely important academic value.[5][6]
In March 2001, Yanxiadu Site was rated as one of the "100 Archaeological Discoveries of the 20th Century in China". In the same year, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China listed it as one of the 100 major site protection projects.
On October 12, 2021, the site of Yanxiadu was selected into the list of major sites during the "14th Five Year Plan" period in the "14th Five Year Plan" of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.[2]
On October 18, 2021, Yanxiadu Site was listed as one of the "One Hundred Archaeological Discoveries in a Century" by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.[1]
In August 2023, the Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism of Yixian County, Hebei Province organized relevant units to test fly the automatic patrol UAV at Yanxiadu Cultural Relics Custody, to meet the needs of fine patrol within the designated range of Yanxiadu Site, check the preservation status of various cultural relics, and ensure that the inspection coverage of Yanxiadu Site is comprehensive.[3]
Historical culture
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Yanxia Capital was built in the 4th century BC, about the middle of the Warring States Period, when Yan Zhao was king. It has a history of more than 2000 years.According to the Records of the Historian, Yan Family, after King Wu of Zhou exterminated Zhou of Shang Dynasty, Zhao Gong was granted to Yan, located in Beijing, central and northern Hebei.The capital of Yan State is located in "Ji", called Shangdu, around Beijing.In the Warring States Period, Yan in the north became strong and powerful, striving to dominate the Central Plains, known as one of the seven heroes.In order to cope with the southern countries, the State of Yan established a military town in Yixian County, Hebei Province, called "Xiadu".It lies between Beiyishui and Zhongyishui.To the west is Taihang Mountain, to the south is Yishui, and to the east is Hebei Plain. The terrain is dangerous and commanding, which is convenient for defense.[6][9]
Tourism information
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address
Yanxiadu Site is located in the southeast of Yixian County, Hebei Province, 5 kilometers west of Taihang Mountain
Yanxiadu Site
Opening Hours
08:30-17:00
traffic
Take No. 981 bus from Yixian Bus Station to Shizhuang Station, and walk five kilometers to get there (Yanxiadu Site is currently a rural site, and there is no direct public transportation)
