When the Western Han government controlled the Western Regions, there were thirty-six small countries in this land, collectively known as the "Thirty-six Western Regions". Unfortunately, in the later years, with the war and ecological changes, some of the "Thirty-six Plans for the Western Regions" retained their vitality and developed into border towns, while others disappeared into the vast yellow sand of Taklimakan for various reasons.
Graveyards and ruins in the desert
At the beginning of the 20th century, Stein, an Englishman, discovered the ruins of an ancient city on the Niya River on the southern edge of the Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang, and unearthed 12 boxes of various precious cultural relics that have been sealed for thousands of years. Western scholars were shocked when these cultural relics were brought back to Britain.
Niya ruins
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Chao, a famous soldier, had been stationed in the western regions with his entourage for decades in order to fight against the Huns and stabilize the western regions. He used his outstanding political, military and diplomatic skills to unite with 36 countries in the Western Region at that time to resist the invasion of Xiongnu. Wei Zhen's decades in the Western Region left an eternal story of "joining the army with one stroke". It has been suggested that the ruins of Virginia discovered by Stein are a perfect country recorded in China's history books.
The members of the bucket arch unearthed in the ancient city of Niya
"The Story of the Western Regions" said: "Wang Zhijing lost the city and went to Chang 'an for 8,820 miles. 480 households, 3,360 people and 500 soldiers. Jingjue, a captain, a left and right commander and an interpreter. It's 2723 miles from Duhufu in the north and four days' trip to Rong Lu in the south. The land is narrow and the west is 460 miles long. "
Half a piece of wooden slips in the sand
Han Shu Hou Han Shu first mentioned that there was a country called Jingjue in the southern margin of Tarim Basin, but after the baptism of time, its splendid civilization had already been submerged in the vast sand sea. First, Stein stumbled upon the wooden slips, and then found the words "Wang Jue, Han Jing" on a local wooden slip in China, which proved that the Kingdom of Jingjue did exist, and it was in the vicinity of the Niya site.
The remains of the reservoir surrounded by trees
The Niya River, which originated from the glacier in Kunlun Mountain, once opened up an oasis on the edge of the desert, nurtured the elite of the past and made it shoulder the heavy responsibility of the Silk Road traffic. The "Niya Site" is named after this river. The land of Niya was the refined country of 36 countries in the Western Han Dynasty, and it was incorporated into Shanshan territory in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was once restored as a country and eventually disappeared in the sand sea.
Central stupa
The landmark building in the center of Niya Site is a stupa. Compared with the Mohr stupa in Kashgar, this stupa is not high, and the remaining height is only about six or seven meters. Compared with the earlier pictures, the stupa has been obviously restored and strengthened in recent years. However, after more than 1000 years of wind and rain, the most "tall" building in the ancient river delta is fragile and in jeopardy-the original tower of the Tibetan Sutra has been in the air and is crumbling because of theft.
Bolovin discovered by Niya
With the support of the British government, Stan began a comprehensive investigation in Xinjiang. After discovering the buried ancient capital of Khotan and plundering a large number of cultural relics, he came to Niya, a small county town. I wanted to do some necessary repairs, but on his first day back, he accidentally found a miller with a board with words on it. With his profound writing skills, he recognized at a glance that the words on the board were Baluwen, an ancient Chinese character that had been lost for a long time in the era of the peacock dynasty in India.
The civil wooden slips discovered by Niya
Originally originated from ancient Gandhara, it was written by Ashoka of the peacock dynasty in India in the 3rd century BC, and its full name is "Chanlu Sidi". It was first used in northwest India and Pakistan today, and spread widely in Central Asia in the 2nd century. In the middle of the 4th century, with the demise of the Guishuang Dynasty, Boluwen also disappeared. At the end of 18, Boruwen had already become an unknown extinct language, and it was not until 1837 that the mystery of Boruwen was discovered by British scholar Princip.
The civil wooden slips discovered by Niya
At the same time, a number of documents in silk, Sanskrit and Chinese have been unearthed in Niya cemetery, which shows that Niya culture is a collection of many cultures and a harmonious society with many nationalities. Baluwen is an important trade language and Buddhist language on the Silk Road. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the disintegration of Guishuang Dynasty, Guishuang refugees moved into Tarim Basin, and Boluwen began to spread in Khotan and Shanshan.
The civil wooden slips discovered by Niya
A large number of wooden slips, imperial edicts, official documents, letters, legal documents, books and even literary works and Buddhist scriptures are recorded and preserved in this way. According to incomplete statistics, so far, there are more than 1000 bamboo slips unearthed in Niya.
Wood Carved Bodhisattva Unearthed from Niya Site
Stein was very excited to see this kind of writing appear in Xinjiang, so he bought these boards from the miller. Seduced by Stan's request and generous reward, the miller readily agreed to take Stan to the place where he found the plank in the desert.
Ruins of houses
Stan and his party headed north along the Niya River. After walking for a few days, they succeeded in reaching the ruins where the boards were found. Stein, who has rich archaeological experience, was dumbfounded by everything in front of him: the documents of that year were still sealed in the house, the millet accumulated in the storage room was orange, and the doors of the room and the house were still closed ... Time seemed to have stopped, and people seemed to have just left here.
Exquisite and fashionable crocheted leather shoes unearthed in Niya
Stan found that the site of Niya is located in an ancient oasis buried by yellow sand at the end of Niya River. Ancient relics are scattered in the sand dune chain of Gunia Valley, with the stupa as the center, extending 25km from north to south and 5-7km from east to west. In this long and narrow area, there are many housing sites, courtyards, cemeteries, pagodas, Buddhist temples, fields, orchards, barns, canals, ponds, pottery kilns and smelters with different scales and different degrees of preservation.
Bone beads unearthed in Niya
Stein named the ancient city "Niaster" after the Niya River. 16 days later, he packed 764 pieces of Luwen wooden slips and 58 pieces of Han bamboo slips collected from the ancient city, as well as precious cultural relics such as bronze mirrors, copper coins, musical instruments, bows and arrows, glassware, crystal ornaments, wood carvings, silk wool fabrics, carpets and lacquerware fragments into 12 boxes. This is the beginning of Niya's disaster. When Stein left Niya, he said, "This goodbye is by no means a permanent tactic"!
Silk unearthed from Niya site
As early as in Xinjiang, Stein realized that he wanted to stir up the world and influence it. This day has finally arrived. After Stein returned to London, the cultural relics he brought back first shocked Britain, and then caused a sensation in Europe. Stein guessed that the Niya site is one of the 36 countries in the Western Regions recorded in China's historical books. Based on Stein's investigation report and bamboo slips of Han Dynasty found in Niya site, Wang Guowei published the article "Slips of Quicksand", which affirmed Stein's inference.
Beads found in Niya site
This ancient and exquisite country was once considered very rich. Today, we can still see the remains of well-preserved large vineyards on the banks of the ancient river in the south of Niya site. 1700 years ago, grape roots and trees crawled on the ground, and the row spacing and spacing were quite neat. Grape planting and wine making really deserve to be written in The Perfect Country. This is an important leading industry, and almost every family has mastered the brewing technology.
Rows of neatly arranged vineyard ruins.
There are many records about grape planting, vineyard trading, wine brewing and wine tax management in the discovered wooden slips, which shows that grape planting occupied a considerable proportion in the agricultural economy at that time, and most of the vineyard land was owned by the royal family, nobles and temples. In essence, the brewing technology is quite mature. Besides making wine from grapes, people also know how to make several other wines and drinks.
A huge clay pot buried in the soil.
On the sand in the middle of the vineyard ruins, the upper part of a pot with a big belly is clearly visible, which may be a vessel used by Jingjue people to store wine or ferment. Large-scale cultivation of grapes is not only for eating fresh, making wine and feasting, but also an important source of national finance. In Guo Jing, the state has set up a wine bureau and sent tax collectors to collect wine tax. They must pay interest on wine or they will be punished.
Grape roots are very strong
A wooden slip records: "According to Su's report to others, he worked as a tax collector for four years. There is a lot of rubbish in his house. The wine bureau set up an account here. Sue, the tax collector, should be dismissed for wasting wine in her own house. Another person will be the tax collector. They owe the royal wine to the wine bureau, and the money for the wine must be paid off. They should still collect the old wine. As for the newly collected wine, it has nothing to do with Su and should be collected by other tax collectors. " The tax wine nationalized by the state is sold to neighboring countries such as Qiemo and Yutian through merchants, which is also a big income.
"Wang" pottery jar
From the calligraphy, exquisite cultural relics and dilapidated houses on the wooden slips, it is like an exquisite sketch. The map of the life of the nobles in the Niya site is vivid, which makes people feel the eternal Millennium culture through the limitation of time and space. It seems that we can see young men and women in brocade and silk singing and dancing to wine under the houses built by Populus euphratica and Liu Hong, while eating barbecue and drinking wine. This is also the significance of the Niya site.
Mysterious murals found in Niya site
The Niya site and the ancient country it represents are not only important sites of the ancient Silk Road, but also show people a long, ancient and splendid ancient desert civilization in the Taklimakan Desert, which Stein called "the sea of death". Especially the archaeological culture of the Niya River Delta will reveal many mysteries of the environmental changes and history and culture of the great desert. After that, more and more people pay attention to it, understand it and study it. People can't help wondering: Who founded the perfect country?