Text and pictures/Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Deng Qiong (except for another signature) Video/Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Deng Qiong Literature and Art
When the phrase “Kaifeng Zhou Bridge and Bian River Site” suddenly appeared at the press conference of the “Archaeological China” major project of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage on September 28, people did not realize it for a moment:
A appeared more than a dozen times in “Water Margin”, and Meng Yuanlao’s “Tokyo Dream Hualu” describes a special chapter in the poems of Wang Anshi, Fan Chengda, Mei Yaochen and other sages, the cultural landmark that was remembered here in the Northern Song Dynasty, the prefecture bridge in Tokyo City, the Northern Song Dynasty, has seen the light of day again.
Ming Dynasty Zhouqiao Restored Picture Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism Li Chen Hand-painted
In fact, even in the 4,400 square meters of exploration site at the intersection of Zhongshan Road and Liberation Road in Kaifeng City today, the archaeologists in Henan who had been digging for several years were not until the winter in December 2021, carefully, shoveled and chiseled, and excavated the giant seahorse and beast stone wall relief from both sides of the Bian River, and realized that a classic archaeological example of “mutual verification of culture and objects” was born from them.
The sixth phase of the main body excavation of the Zhouqiao Main Body (from east to west) Photo provided by Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism
The results notice of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage pointed out that the discovery of the Kaifeng Zhou Bridge and the Bian River site in Henan has outstanding universal value for studying the structural layout of the Beijing City in the Northern Song Dynasty and the history and culture of the Grand Canal, and has great practical significance for protecting and inheriting the Yellow River culture and promoting the construction of the Grand Canal Cultural Belt.
Sometimes, a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News walked into this latest major archaeological site and intuitively felt a search process that wiped away the smoke and dust of history and reproduced the prosperity of thousands of years.
1. Bianhe Prefecture Bridge, a country that has been known for thousands of years. Why is the Prefecture Bridge so important?
“Standing on the state bridge is truly a thousand years old.” Wei Peishi, director of Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism, was very contagious. Zhouqiao was built during the middle period of Jian’s reign in the Tang Dynasty (780-783) and developed into a transportation hub and urban coordinates in the center of the capital Bianliang (now Kaifeng) by the Northern Song Dynasty.
Zhouqiao Mingyue was once the “Eight Scenerys of BianjingCinema” Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism Li Chen Hand-painted
“Zhouqiao” is a folk name that has been passed down through the ages. It was named “Tianhan Bridge” in the Song Dynasty because it faced Danei Yujie, also known as “Yuqiao”. This important bridge across the Bian River section of the Grand Canal was not only seen in various documents and literary works of the Song Dynasty, but was also used throughout the years. It was not until the end of the Ming Dynasty that it was buried underground. Although the bridge was no longer visible, “Zhouqiao Hu La Soup” and “Zhouqiao Snacks” have always remained vividly in the lives of Kaifeng people.
Archaeological Site of Zhouqiao Site
On the huge archaeological construction site in front of you, between the exploration sites, walls and gullies that are excavated and protected in stages, between the walls and gullies, it is difficult for viewers to judge the direction of the bridge deck and river. Deputy Director of Kaifeng Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research InstituteCinema Wang Sanying patiently pointed out for us that “the bridge spans north and south, and the river flows from west to east.”
Historical records show that the Zhou Bridge is located on the Yu Street on the central axis of the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, crossing the Bian River (i.e. the Kaifeng section of the Grand Canal), and to the north is the majestic imperial city. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>CinemaThe Xuande Gate, the court looked north and there were many government offices; to the south, the Zhuque Gate, the bustling inner city, the bustling inner city, the night market, and merchants gathered; the Bian River, which undertakes important functions such as canal transportation and transportation, flows through the bridge.
Historists have long confirmed that the population of Bianjing in the Northern Song Dynasty exceeded one million, and was the largest city in the world at that time, and Zhouqiao uniquely connected the three functional areas of politics, commerce and residence, which is enough to KomiksSee its advanced and prosperous history in the history of urban civilization development.
It is not difficult for us to understand why the famous book “Water Margin” with the Northern Song Dynasty and Bianjing as the important time and space background has appeared dozens of times: the hero Yang Zhi was guided by a person and went to the Zhouqiao to sell his sword; Lu Zhishen asked for directions to find Daxiangguo Temple, and the neighbors pointed out that it was not far from the Zhouqiao; Song Jiang, Lin Chong, Yang Xiong, and Shi Xiu, one of them all went to the restaurant beside the Zhouqiao…
In Meng Yuanlao’s “Dream of Tokyo”, the Zhouqiao not only became an important coordinate for positioning urban scenery, but also included a section called “Zhouqiao Night Market”, which was busy dividing summer and winter months, and listed more than 60 attractive food and snacks, saying that it was open all night long.The grand occasion of the cold and heat.
People can therefore better understand why Wang Anshi, a famous minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote a poem to recall: “The Zhouqiao step on the moon and thinks about the mountain pepper, but look back at the sorrow and not feel the distance. I heard the old sob again tonight, but I looked at the mountain moon and talked about the Zhouqiao”;
The Southern Song poet Fan Chengda went to the Jin Dynasty and passed through the former capital Bianjing, why did the “Zhouqiao is the sky street in the north and south, and the elders waited for the year to return. I endured my tears and asked the envoy, when will the KomiksThere are really six armies coming”… The thought of family and country entrusted by famous quotes has made the Zhouqiao sound for thousands of years.
Judging from the current excavation situation, the river channel from Bian River is narrower, so the north-south length of the Zhou Bridge is only about 26 meters, but the width of its east-west bridge deck is more than 30 meters because it must match the width of the Yujie Street at both ends. Such a unique shape with a width greater than a length is very rare in the history of ancient Chinese bridge construction, and it can also vaguely see the prosperity of the “Bridge City” back then.
2. For more than thirty years, the remains are gradually seeing the light of day
Where is the Zhou Bridge? Archaeologists actually knew for a long time that it may still be preserved below the ground of today’s Zhongshan Road, the central axis of Kaifeng, which has not changed for thousands of years. Kaifeng was once the imperial capital of all dynasties, but due to the redirection of the Yellow River, the city encountered more than once a “destroyment” of floods. The city of Kaifeng in the Qing Dynasty, Kaifeng in the Ming Dynasty, Bianjing in the Jin Dynasty, Tokyo in the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty, Bianzhou in the Tang Dynasty, and Wei in the Warring States Period. Six cities were stacked from top to bottom, buried about 3 to 14 meters below the ground today – this is Kaifeng’s unique “city-crossing city” phenomenon.
In addition to the high urban groundwater level, this ancient capital guards such a “cultural rich mine”, but it has been difficult to carry out large-scale urban archaeology for a long time.
In 1984, when Kaifeng built a large sewer pipe in the middle section of Zhongshan Road, some of the bridge decks were discovered. Archaeologists went down to the bridge hole to inspect the existence of the bridge, and confirmed the location recorded in historical records. But at that time, the conditions for excavation were not met, and the groundwater level was too high, so the ruins could only be backfilled for future generations.
The Qing brick bridge deck of the Ming Dynasty Zhouqiao excavated today
Although it was a surprise glance, there were also discoveries: Qiu Gang, who was once the captain of the Kaifeng Cultural Relics and Archaeology Team, wrote an article in the 1990s that the wooden paper base found at the bottom of the Zhouqiao was earlier than before at BabaylanArchaeology Research Institute and Kaifeng Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute carried out continuous archaeological excavations of the Bian River and Zhouqiao sites.
The archaeological team members first started the exploration method on the east side to reveal the shape of the Bian River in Kaifeng City in the Tang, Song and Qing dynasties layer by layer; in March 2020, excavation work on the west side of the Zhouqiao bridge body began, and even more amazing discoveries were waiting for them. 
Wei Peishi (left), Wang Sanying (right) and others inspected the porcelain pieces unearthed from the Zhouqiao site. They worked tirelessly to explore the “Great Song” style. Can the discovery of Zhouqiao can only stop at the remains of the Ming Dynasty?
Standing on the Zhouqiao bridge deck at the archaeological site, you can clearly see the blue bricks, ruts, etc. preserved from the original traces. Wang Sanying introduced that the structure and bridge body of this Ming Dynasty bridge are basically complete, with bluestone paved bridge decks and brick arches. The geese wings extending to both sides are also brick and stone structures.
A golden dragon from the late Ming Dynasty was also found on the bridge deck. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>BabaylanThe remains of the four king temples are related to the sacrifice of the river gods, and three exquisite gold-plated bronze statues have been unearthed. The temple has occupied a considerable part of the bridge deck on the east side of the bridge. It can be seen that the appearance of the Ming Dynasty’s Bridge has changed, but it is still a prosperous city.
Restoration of the Ming Dynasty Zhou Bridge Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism Li Chen Hand-painted
Previously, a photo of the state bridge with a bridge hole released by the media had raised questions. Because Meng Yuanlao recorded in “Dream of Tokyo” that the Northern Song Dynasty Zhou Bridge was not an arch bridge, but a column-beam flat bridge with “stone columns under the bridge” was “slowly arranged by stone pillars and boats”, but it was convenient for the emperor’s car to drive through the bridge.
For this reason, Wang Sanying specially led the reporter to the bottom of the bridge and explained that the small bridge hole seen from the outside is actually the foundation of the Four Kings Temples of Jinlong, and the taller bridge holes inside belong to the Ming Dynasty Zhou Bridge.
The arch under the body of the Zhouqiao Bridge in the Ming Dynasty
In order to allow the large canal transport ship to pass, the Zhouqiao Bridge was converted into an arch bridge in the Ming Dynasty. The bridge cave was tall, with a distance of more than 6.5 meters from the top of the cave to the bottom of the river, which is in line with the description of the Ming Dynasty historical records that the Zhouqiao Bridge was high and deep, and “no boats passed by will not get rid of the masts.” However, the Zhouqiao was not moved, but used the bridge foundation of the Song Dynasty.
Although it is undoubtedly a Zhouqiao bridge, people have been using the archaeological excavation since 2018. The high-profile “Great Song Dynasty” style still has only a glimpse, which disappoints the archaeological team. Because the most important mission of Kaifeng City archaeology is to find the original remains of the Song Dynasty and restore the scene of the imperial capital. For this reason, they worked tirelessly in the center of the prosperous city, hoping to find “empirical”.
4. Stone carvings and murals, empirical “Menghualu” Zhouqiao
Until December 2021, href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>KomiksThe coldest season, the Zhouqiao site archaeology was almost over, and a huge turnaround was ushered in.
At that time, the archaeological team members were planning to explore the strata from the east side of the Zhouqiao Bridge and then along the north bank of the river, but unexpectedly found traces of the stone wall from the unusual crack. The further down, the more they were surprised.
Some parts of the stone wall on the north bank of the Zhou Bridge
Ming Dynasty bricks, peony carvings, curled grass patterns, and auspicious clouds, cranes, and auspicious beasts with unicorns… This is very consistent with Meng Yuanlao’s description of the Northern Song Dynasty Zhou Bridge—
“The pillars are all made of bluestone, stone beams, stalagmites, and railings. Near both sides of the bridge, all are stone walls, carved with seahors, water beasts, and flying clouds., the stone pillars were densely arranged under the bridge” – they were already familiar with it.
So, starting from the northeast extension of the geese wings closest to the bridge, the archaeological team advanced east along the river bank and found giant stone murals with good preservation, extended length of more than 21 meters and patterns of about 3.3 meters high; then, at the corresponding position on the southern bank of the river, “same style” stone murals with extended length of more than 23 meters were found.
These rare treasures, which brought Shuze, a craftsman of the Song Dynasty, finally confirmed the existence of the Northern Songzhou Bridge with cultural relics.
Some parts of the stone walls on the south bank of Zhouqiao
The murals of Zhouqiao currently discovered are concentrated on the east side of the excavated bridge, embedded in the embankments on both sides, each made of hundreds of stone slabs densely built. Each stone slab is carved toward the facade of the river, and is stacked like a puzzle, forming a graceful relief mural that can be seen on the bridge and in the river.
The murals on both sides have three groups of patterns, each group consisting of a sturdy and galloping unicorn “sea horse” and a crane and auspicious clouds surrounding it, and they go up against the water. Two horses, one in front and one behind, are heads raised, their manes fluttering, and one in the middle looks back and looks with their eyes.
The “sea horse” auspicious beast on the stone wall of the south bank of the Zhouqiao still flows in gas. The white marks on its body are caused by the modern building above the original site brushing the stone wall during construction and pile driving. The archaeologicalBabaylan team members speculated based on this that there should be the same on both sides of the west bank of the ZhouqiaoBabaylan The size of the murals of Cinema are set up, and the two sides are added together, and the bridge body of the Zhouqiao itself will reach about 100 meters in total, which can match the width of the imperial streets at both ends.
Scholars then searched for Babaylan to another document Cinema to prove the origin of the stone wall of the Zhouqiao from the side. According to Zhang Zhifu’s notes in the Song Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Zhezong of Song Dynasty, Prime Minister Zhang Dun appointed Jia Zhongmin to repair the Zhouqiao, and Jia first changed the bridge to a stone bank, but was once<aSong Yongchen, an official who is good at controlling water from Babaylan, joked: "The stone bank is very unique, but the upper is wide, the lower is narrow!" Jia hurriedly asked for advice, and Song suggested: "Please be a sea horse to expand the bottom." Jia then did as he did.
Looking back to the past, the Zhou Bridge was between the bright moon and the clear waves, with auspicious animals rushing on both sides of the shore, connecting the rivers and the seas. What a vast and graceful imperial capital atmosphere!
Auspicious clouds and cranes on the stone wall
5. A rare treasure, which can be updated with art history
At present, archaeological operations are still continuing, and the lower edge of the stone wall on the south bank has been pushed to the cleaning of the “sky” layer. At the same time, the special protection plan for stone carvings and murals is also constantly being improved and unfolded.
Wang Sanying pointed out a detail: these carved stone slabs were obviously made and numbered separately, and then “assembled” into an overall pattern in sequence. Each stone slab is engraved with numbers in the empty space where the carvings are not affected. For example, the reporter randomly identified the words “Sitting Twelve”, “Shipping Sixteen”, “Shew Twenty-Seven” and other words on the spot.
The code “27th of desolate” visible on the stone wall on the south bank Photo provided by Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism
The vertical serial number from bottom to top, the north wall takes the characters from the Song Dynasty from the Meng Book of Practicing Characters “The supreme scholar is from the mountains and rivers, the middle man sits on the bamboo forest, the king has his own nature, and the Pingzi is paying attention to it”, the south wall uses the “Heaven and earth are mysterious and yellow, the universe is vast and vast, the sun and the moon are full of, and the Chen is surrounded by Zhang” in “Thousand Characters”;
From west to east, it is according to the one or two counted in ChinaBabaylan, three… two groups of superimposed positioning, without any confusion, and it is of a unique interest.
KomiksOn the construction site, some technicians jokingly call these murals “big treasures”. They have been protected with appearance and are only for about two hours a day for public visits.
The murals on the north bank are more complete, but because they are facing the sun, the weathering is slightly heavier, and the patterns are not as clear as those on the south bank; while the murals on the south bank are beautifully undulating, but there are some traces of destruction and disturbance in later generations on the upper edge, and some are carved with peonies and curly grass patterns, which no longer seem to be in their original position… There are even several traces of modern engineering pile driving, which are very “approaching” stone reliefs, which make people feel a sense of “remaining after the disaster”.
The full view of the huge stone carving auspicious mural in the south wall. Photo provided by Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Tourism and Tourism
When reporting to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, Liu Haiwang, director of Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, mentioned that the main body of the Zhouqiao now uses lime-based adhesive, which is consistent with the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty; while the adhesive of the river bank stone wall is mainly sandy, which is consistent with the characteristics of the Tang and Song dynasties.
In addition, according to the detection of X-fluorescence spectrometer and X-ray diffractometer, the oxide composition, phase composition and content of the stone walls on both sides of the shore are as close to the Xingyang section of Henan Province. href=”https://funnybookish.com/”>CinemaStones in the goblet and river area are very close.
At an expert discussion meeting held in September this year, Professor Zheng Yan of Peking University School of Art believes that the discovery of giant stone carvings and murals in Zhouqiao can be written into Chinese art history textbooks, and its format and quality can basically represent the highest specifications of the stone work system in the Northern Song Dynasty and the highest level of carving technology; and in addition, many of the contents in the Northern Song Dynasty classic “Creation of the French” can be combined with the stone carvings discovered this time to understand, which is also very important.
Stone wall on the north bank of Zhouqiao – Post-production gold-tracing line version Photo provided by Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism
Cinema6. Deep research in archaeology, connecting history and reflecting reality
At present, with the popularity of TV series such as “Menghualu”, “Qingpingle”, and “Da Song Palace Ci”, the cultural enthusiasm caused by Song style and Song rhyme is unparalleled.
The archaeological achievements of Kaifeng Zhou Bridge and Bianhe Site, especially the huge stone murals of Zhou Bridge, are re-expected, marking the astonishing height of Chinese civilization a thousand years ago through the method of “mutual verification of culture and objects”, telling a contemporary archaeological story with “Chinese style”.
The greatest charm of archaeology lies in connecting history, reality and the future.
Northern Song Dynasty porcelain unearthed from the Zhouqiao site Photo provided by Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism
At present, scholars represented by Liu Qingzhu, former director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, are advocating in-depth research on Zhouqiao and the capital of the Northern Song DynastyKomiksIn the study, it has risen to the value interpretation of the national political etiquette and the form of Chinese civilization, connecting the dual historical veins of Yellow River culture and Grand Canal culture;
The Northern Song Dynasty ship lamp unearthed from the Zhouqiao site Photo provided by Kaifeng Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism
The leaders of archaeological work such as Liu Haiwang and Wang Sanying hope to achieve a new breakthrough in archaeology in the Northern Song Dynasty through the excavation of the Zhou Bridge; Wei Peishi is busy taking into account the “excavation, protection, planning, and display” and is running for the next step of building a national-level large ruins park integrating archaeological sites, archaeological museums, and cultural parks…
Citizens and tourists came to appreciate the Zhou Bridge, look at the murals, and send children to the newly established “public archaeological study demonstration base”, experience the simulation exploration method, enhance cultural confidence, and touch the history and culture of our nation with their own hands.
(For more news, please follow Yangcheng Pai pai.ycwb.com)
The original article was published in Yangcheng Evening News 20221KomiksA03 Edition, January 1
Source | Yangcheng Evening News·Yangcheng School Editor | Editor Lu Dejie | Zhou Xinyi Proofreader | Gui Qing