Jian Zhen is a famous monk in the history of China. He went to the sea many times and wanted to go to Japan to preach Dharma, but he failed for various reasons. Finally, I successfully went to sea for the sixth time and arrived in Japan to fulfill my wish. In the Japanese version of Biography of Great Monks in the Tang Dynasty, it is recorded that "(Jian Zhen monk) left longxing temple, took a boat to Jiangtou ... took a boat to Suzhou Huangsipu ... (November 15th) Renzi, and four boats were sent at the same time". Here is a clear record of monk Jian Zhen sailing from Suzhou Huangsi Shop. People only know that Huangsipu is in Suzhou, but the exact location is always a mystery.

It was not until June 5438+065438+ 10, 2008 that a site was discovered in Qing 'an Village, Yang Shezhen, Zhangjiagang City, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, that this Millennium unsolved case was solved.

If you drive to Huangsibao, you will find it is a natural and good port. Located at the junction of Qing 'an Village and Tan Li Village in Zhangjiagang City, it can flow into the Yangtze River 14 km to the north and the bustling downtown area of Zhangjiagang is 3 km to the west.

In 2008, the third national cultural relics survey was fully launched. Employees of Ma Jun Agriculture and Forestry Company in Zhangjiagang plant flowers and trees in the yard. Suddenly, an eagle-eyed employee found something shiny in the soil. When he opened the dirt, he saw a few pieces of porcelain that looked a little old. The alert staff thought it might be an ancient site and reported it to the local cultural relics department. 165438+ 10 In June, archaeologists thought it was probably an ancient site in the Tang and Song Dynasties, which was related to the port.

During the five years from 2008 to 20 13, Nanjing Museum led four excavations on the site and its surrounding areas, exposing the site area of 4,600 square meters, and initially finding out the relationship between the area and geographical location of Huangsipu site. Huangsipu site is a settlement integrating port, life and production, covering an area of 65438 0.2 square kilometers, with the south bank line of the ancient Yangtze River on the north side of the site.

Archaeologists combined with documents and unearthed cultural relics, preliminarily concluded that it should be an important port in the Tang and Song Dynasties, which played a decisive role along the busy Yangtze River, connecting the inland and the sea.

Since it is a port, the most crucial discovery is the remains of rivers and ports. As early as 2009, archaeologists had discovered the ancient river course in the Tang Dynasty, and many pieces of Tang Dynasty porcelain were unearthed in the river silt. These porcelain tiles came from various areas under the rule of the Tang Dynasty at that time, showing that the ports extended in all directions and the freight was busy.

The river course in the Song Dynasty further illustrates the navigation capacity of the port. Huangsipu was the main waterway in the south of the Yangtze River during the Tang and Song Dynasties. At present, it has been identified as the estuary of the Song Dynasty, with a width of more than 50 meters and a depth of nearly 5 meters. At that time, it could allow ships large enough to pass without running aground.

There is a positive correlation between the number of relics and the rise and fall of the site, and the most distributed relics in Huangsipu site are from the Tang Dynasty. Archaeologists discovered houses, wells, artificially restored ancient rivers, stoves and warehouses in the Tang Dynasty. These cultural relics outline a prosperous port town in the Tang Dynasty for us.

There are tiles, bricks, coins and building components in the ruins. Although the economic value of these cultural relics is not high, in the eyes of archaeologists, these cultural relics reflect people's material living standards and economic living conditions in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and truly reproduce the living world of the ancients. Busy ports, mountains of goods warehouses, endless trading and hawking, and well-planned urban patterns are all reflected in vivid history.

What is even rarer among the sites is the discovery of a large courtyard site in the Tang Dynasty. The buildings are in a long row, which meets the requirements of the palace, symmetrical left and right, and the central axis layout. The layout of the central axis is very common in temples in the Tang Dynasty. Could it be the remains of temples in the Tang Dynasty?

Perhaps thanks to the Buddha, archaeologists found a stone Buddha statue of the Tang Dynasty in the river near the courtyard, and also found a sculpture of the Buddha king of the Song Dynasty in the river.

Many bricks with words were unearthed near the building, which is the key evidence to solve the nature of the site! Nicodemus stupa, the benefactor of the people will become a Buddha! According to experts' judgment, this is a tablet brick in the Song Dynasty style, and its content is exactly the same as that of the Song Changgan Temple site outside the Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing. Such evidence can fully show that this compound was built in the Tang Dynasty and continued to be used in a temple in the Song Dynasty.

Before his sixth trip to Japan, monk Jian Zhen stayed in Huangsi for nearly a month. Judging from the current archaeological findings, it is very likely that a highly respected monk, Jian Zhen, lived in this archaeological temple. Archaeologists finally determined that this was the starting point of Jian Zhen's sixth eastward crossing!

Looking back on the past from Huangsipu site, we can vaguely see that on July 5th, the 12th year of Tang Tianbao (753)1/kloc-0, a blind old man went through hardships all his life, seeking for the sea and crossing to Japan. He boarded a big ship here and started his sixth and last trip to the East. He is the great monk Jian Zhen! The great historical event of Jian Zhen Dongdu also makes the smooth excavation of Huangsipu site more clear.

Now let's talk about the Belt and Road Initiative. The excavation of Huangsibao site in Suzhou is a historical witness of the Belt and Road Initiative. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the prosperous south of the Yangtze River concentrated its goods in Huangsipu Port and shipped them to the sea, east to Japan and south to Nanyang, which communicated with different cultures in the world. 2065438+On March 29th, 2009, ten new archaeological discoveries in China were officially released, and Huangsipu site was well-deserved.

Gu Qing: Excavation of Huangsipu Site in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, Southeast Culture,No. 1, 20 10.

Gao Wei: Jian Zhen Sixth Dudong and Huangsibao Ruins, China Heritage,No. 1, 20 13.

Zhou Runken: Important Gains and Significance of the Excavation of the Huangsipu Site in Zhangjiagang, 5th Edition of China Heritage Newspaper, 20 19 March.

Research Group on the Restoration of Huangsipu Tang Dynasty Architecture: Report on the Restoration of Huangsipu Tang Dynasty Ruins in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province F 19, F20, F2 1, Southeast Culture No.2, 20 14.

(Author: Haoran literature and history Zhao Yanfei research)