Visit the mysterious Xixia Mausoleum
Xixia (1038-1227) was a political power established by Xixia in western China in the history of China. When it was founded, it was named "Daxia". Because of its influence mainly in the west of the Yellow River, the Song people called it "Xixia". Xixia Mausoleum is located in the west of Yinchuan City, with Helan Mountain in the west and Yinchuan Plain in the east. It is the mausoleum of Xixia emperors in past dynasties. Xixia Mausoleum is one of the largest royal cemeteries with the most complete ground site in China, and it is also the largest Xixia cultural site.
The gate of Xixia Mausoleum Scenic Area consists of two Xixia-style que buildings. There are four Xixia characters on the wall of Quelou. At first glance, they are thought to be Chinese characters, but you can't recognize them when you look closely. The tour guide said that the Chinese character corresponding to these four words from right to left is "White Country", which translates into Chinese as "White Country", that is, Xixia Country. In the square in front of the gate, there is a replica monument in the north and south.
The southern piece is engraved with Xixia characters, and I don't know what it is.
The one in the north is Chinese characters, so it's easy to read by searching on Baidu. We know that it is a remnant tablet unearthed next to a buried tomb, numbered M 182, which records the battle between Song Zhezong Fu Yuanyuan (1098) and Xixia Army (Huai Dejun) in Xiaping City. The relevant contents of the inscription are recorded in the history books of the two countries, which prove each other.
There are 9 mausoleums in Xixia Mausoleum Scenic Area, namely Yuling, Jialing, Tailing, Anling, Xianling, Xianling, Shouling, Zhuang Ling and Kangling. The arrangement of the nine tombs is in accordance with the order of Zhao Mu Temple in the ancient patriarchal clan system, with Zhao on the left, Mu on the right, Zhao on the father and Mu on the son, forming two rows. In addition, there are 254 buried tombs in the mausoleum area.
Now the tombs 1, 2 and 3 are open to tourists.
The first attraction to enter the scenic spot is Xixia Museum. Xixia Museum was built in1September, 998. Its basic display includes two parts: Xixia history, Xixia mausoleum and Xixia academic research achievements.
The preface hall is facing this large white portrait monument sculpture, which is made according to the national first-class cultural relic "Stone Monument" unearthed from Xixia Mausoleum. The figures on this pedestal have horns, bell-shaped eyes, stubby noses, prominent cheekbones, exposed fangs and ferocious faces. In particular, breast hypertrophy is particularly exaggerated and should have certain symbolic significance. In the Central Plains culture, most of the responsibilities of carrying monuments are carefully executed, which is incredible, but the Tangut people have to choose people to shoulder this heavy responsibility. This kind of portrait tablet is not an isolated case, and as many as eight or nine pieces have been found in the mausoleum area.
After the preface hall, there is the territory sand table hall. This sand table of Xixia territory was made at the scale of1:200,000, covering an area of 60 square meters. It is one of the largest sand table models in China Theme Museum.
In the exhibition of Xixia history, there is a list of laws on the creation of Xixia characters, which generally introduces the creation method of Xixia characters. Xixia language, also known as Hexi character, model essay and Tanggu language, is an ideographic language of A Qiang branch of Sino-Tibetan language family, which is closely related to Chinese. Xixia characters were created by Xixia ministers Li Yuanhao and Ye Liren Rong, with more than 5,000 characters. It is said that a dictionary was written to promote Xixia language at that time.
There are a lot of cultural relics on display in the exhibition, but time is limited and there is no time to savor them.
There is a regulatory model of Xixia Mausoleum in the exhibition, which intuitively shows the layout and architectural style of Xixia Mausoleum, which makes me dumbfounded as a person who thinks Xixia Mausoleum is a rammed mound. It turns out that there were brick and wood structures outside the rammed earth piles in those days. Years of wind and rain and man-made destruction have made those buildings disappear, leaving only these rammed earth piles.
Not far from the north of the museum is the Xixia Historical Story Art Museum. The tour guide didn't arrange for everyone to visit. I ran to the yard, took a picture of myself, turned around and caught up with the team.
From the Xixia Historical Story Art Museum to the west and then to the north, you can see the largest mausoleum in the whole mausoleum area-Tailing Mausoleum. Although there is no very direct evidence, it is inferred from the super-large scale of Tailing and its prominent position in the whole mausoleum area that Tailing belongs to Li Yuanhao, the founding emperor of Xixia.
Li Yuanhao is a descendant of Tuoba, a Xianbei nationality in the Northern Wei Dynasty. His distant ancestor Tuoba Sigong was the leader of the Tangut in the late Tang Dynasty. For helping Tang Jun to pacify the Huang Chao Rebel Army and long summer Lord protector, he was given the surname of Li and worshipped (now Hengshan County, Shaanxi Province) as our time. Since then, the influence of this Tangut has gradually expanded to Xia, Sui, Yi and Yin countries, with Zhou Xia as the center. After Xia Guogong acceded to the throne, he abandoned Li's surname and called himself the most popular surname. In the first year of Renzong Baoyuan in the Northern Song Dynasty (1038), he became emperor.
Tailing is not purely north-south, but slightly northwest. I don't know whether it is restricted by the terrain or intentional.
At the southernmost tip of the cemetery are the left and right quetai, which constitute the gate of the cemetery. Whether there is a quetai is one of the important differences between a mausoleum and a tomb buried with the grave. Quetai is rammed by loess, and its plane is circular. Judging from some traces left on the surface of the bird terrace, the surface of the bird terrace was originally covered with red wall skin. Decorative components made of red pottery, such as Gaya, Capricorn, sea lion and Tasha, were found under the ground near Ketai, which indicates that Ketai should be a Buddhist pagoda building with Lama style.
Quetai should be the location of the north pavilion. Now there are only two brick abutments, and the wooden pavilion building on them has disappeared. Because there is an iron fence around, you can't see the situation on the table. However, according to some data, there are four stone Lux statues lined up on the table, which are estimated to be supports for bearing historical sites. The statue in the center of the preface hall of the museum is based on the statue here.
In addition, it is said that a large number of Xixia inscriptions have been found on the platform.
After the pavilion, you can see an area surrounded by rammed earth walls. In the layout of the mausoleum, this area is called "Moon City" or "Weng City", which is located in front of the "inner city" where the mausoleum is located. The Moon City in Tailing is rectangular from east to west, with a length of 120m from east to west and a length of 52m from north to south. The wall base is about 2m wide and 0.7m high, covering an area of 10 mu, and the north is connected with the inner city south wall. Like the sparrow terrace, the walls of Yuecheng are all covered with red skin, and there are eaves and tiles on the top of the wall. According to the practice of past dynasties, there are generally stone statues on both sides of Yuecheng Imperial Road, namely, stone beasts and stone men.
But looking around, there is no shadow of the stone statue. After the guide's prompt, only a few stone fragments were found in the weeds beside the imperial road. Judging from the information released by these fragments, the formation of these fragments will not be caused by the wind and rain of nature, but obviously by man. The manpower mentioned here should not be piecemeal, but the organized destruction of powerful group forces. According to historical records, Xixia devoted himself to Baoyi for two years (1227). Xixia was destroyed by Mongolia, and Li Gang, the owner of Xixia, surrendered and was killed soon after. The tomb of Xixia was seriously damaged by Mongolian army. Destroying the ancestral graves of the defeated party is a common practice in China, but it is generally limited to symbolic destruction to vent the anger of the victors. The destructive destruction of the Xixia Mausoleum by Mongols not only completely burned the wooden structure, but also smashed the stone tablets and statues, which is rare since ancient times. Why do Mongols hate Xixia people so much? Is there any special reason for this? Turning over the history of Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties, it is actually easy to find the answer. Throughout the history of Xixia (189), we will find that this small country, sandwiched between Mongolia, Jin, Song, Tubo and Western Liao, has always pursued have it both ways's capricious foreign policy and strived to gain the greatest national interests among the neighboring powers. This is the way for weak countries to survive, and there is nothing wrong with it. But in the eyes of Mongolians who like to go straight, the Xixia people at both ends of the first mouse are all villains, so that they "hate their cunning and changeable." In addition, Genghis Khan died in the process of Mongolian conquest of Xixia, which also made the Mongols put this account on Xixia people, so that after Xingqing House (now Yinchuan City, Ningxia) was breached, extreme events such as massacre and destruction of tombs occurred.
Crossing the Moon City is the core part of the "inner city" of the cemetery. The inner city is rectangular from north to south, with a length of 180m from north to south and a length of 160m from east to west. The inner city wall is called the "God Wall", and the base of the wall is about 3 meters wide, which is rammed by loess section.
In order to make the wall more stable, the foundation of the wall was built in the shape of Sumitomo, so this kind of god wall is also called Sumitomo God Wall.
There are city gates in the east, west, north and south of the inner city, and city gates are built, and each city gate consists of three conical rammed earth bases; There are also corner platforms at the four corners of the God Wall.
Among the four gates in the inner city, the south gate has the highest level. There used to be a tower-shaped gate on both sides, but now only two piles of rammed earth can be seen. Inferring from the remaining column foot on the south gate abutment, the original south gate should be a gatehouse with a width of five feet and a depth of two feet.
About 25 meters north of the south gate, it is the site of the "sacrificial hall" for sacrifice. The remaining site is an octagonal brick abutment with compacted loess inside, and dozens of tiles are scattered on the table. The introduction next to it says that the dedication hall is a "9-square open hall", but I don't agree. Because judging from the shape of the abutment, the dedication hall should be an octagonal pavilion building, and where did the pavilion building come from? If it is a square building with 9 rooms, what scale should it be? You know, the Baohe Hall in the Forbidden City in Beijing is only 9 rooms wide and 5 rooms deep!
Unlike other tombs, which are buried deep underground and generally do not leave traces on the ground, the tombs in Tailing are filled with gravel and shaped like fish ridges. Grave filling with gravel, in addition to local materials, mainly uses the loose characteristics of gravel to threaten the grave robbers to retreat. This pyramid-shaped mound is a trapezoid with a narrow south and wide north, with a slope of more than 20 degrees from north to south and a length of about 50 meters.
There is a big pit with a diameter of more than 20 meters and a depth of 5 meters at the northern end of the uplift. There are two theories about the origin of this big pit: one is that it was stolen by grave robbers; One said it was caused by Japanese bombing. To "credit" this crater to the Japanese devils is actually flattering Japan, because the bomb that can cause such a huge crater may not have been built during Japan's invasion of China. If this is really a thief's pit, then this "thief" is definitely not an ordinary grave robber, but must be an organized criminal group like Captain Mojin. After the founding of New China, the cultural relics department carried out geophysical exploration of Tailing Mausoleum, and the exploration results showed that the Mausoleum was not disturbed by theft, and the "gold-hunting captain" failed.
Some people may ask, why don't grave robbers dig holes, but take a comprehensive excavation that requires a lot of manpower? The answer is simple: first, manpower is not a problem for grave robbers at all; Second, the tomb of the Xixia mausoleum is not under the mausoleum tower, but in the south of the mausoleum tower, where the pit is located. In other words, the huge rammed earth mausoleum tower does not actually have the function of sealing soil.
Bypassing the thief pit, it is the landmark building of the whole cemetery-Lingta. Tailing Tower remains as high as 24 meters, shaped like an inverted "Wotou", with seven layers of brick structure visible on its surface. Some scholars speculate that the original mausoleum should be a seven-story solid stupa-style building with dense eaves. After being reminded by the tour guide, it is found that the platform of the mausoleum is not on the central axis where the Lingmen and Xiandian are located, but slightly to the west, which is different from the mausoleum in the Central Plains. The reason is that some people say that it has something to do with the Tangut people's belief in Tibetan Buddhism, because in Tibetan Buddhism, only the Buddha has the treatment of facing south; Some people say that it is influenced by the geomantic concept of "five-tone surname".
Maybe it's too late. After visiting Tailing, the battery car didn't take us to the site of 1 and No.2 Mausoleum, and didn't even provide a chance to overlook it. Everyone knows in their hearts that without brick and wood buildings and inscriptions, the tombs of Emperor Xixia should be similar.