Text: Xu Jianyu.
Launching a new opportunity
The survival of the six towns almost determined the survival of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In 530, Erzhurong was killed. Rising from this turmoil were Gao Huan, a Xianbei Han Chinese, and He Bayue, a Le person. The power of the Northern Wei Dynasty was all vested in Gao Huan, and He Bayue controlled the Guanzhong and Longxi regions, and commanded a group of former Wuchuan Town soldiers. Later, He Bayue was assassinated and succeeded by Yu Wentai, who was born in Wuchuan Town. In 534, Gao Huan supported Yuan Shanjian, a descendant of the Northern Wei imperial family, as the emperor, moved the capital to Yecheng, and established the Eastern Wei Dynasty; In 535, Yuwentai supported another descendant of the Northern Wei royal family, Yuan Baoju, as the emperor, established the capital of Chang'an, and established the Western Wei Dynasty. The Northern Wei Dynasty was the Eastern Wei Dynasty (one master, seventeen years) and the Western Wei Dynasty (three masters, twenty-three years).
Because the Western Wei regime mainly divided the Guanlong region, the population of the country was far inferior to that of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, which occupied the vast Shandong region (including present-day Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, and Shandong provinces), and the Southern Liang in the south. "Although Yuwentai is Xianbei, there are few traditional forces entering the customs, and they have to be quickly sinicized." Gathering the Xianbei nobles of the Western Wei Dynasty and the Han people into a close Hu-Han alliance, "materially should be in the same environment of interest, spiritually must also have the same origin of faith, the same culture, in order to be able to calm the internal side, external resistance to strong enemies." Yuwentai established the government military system, set up the Eight Pillars State, supervised the 12 generals and the 24 Kaifu, and each position was compatible with the Xianbei people and the Han people; At the same time, the integration of the military and the government was adopted, and the Eight Pillars and the Twelve Great Generals were not only the commanders of the army, but also the political core. Yuwentai also adopted Su Sui's suggestion to pursue the Guanzhong-based policy, and attached himself to the ancient times on the land of secession, emphasizing that the Guanzhong area is the orthodoxy of Han culture, and "no longer takes Shandong and Jiangzuo as the center of Sinicization." Imitate the "Zhou Li" to establish six officials, and the governance is based on Confucianism, "first govern the heart, educate and educate, make the best use of the location, promote the virtuous, compassionate to prison lawsuits, and all are enslaved". Eventually, a new political scale was created for the Northern Zhou, which was replaced by the Sui and Tang dynasties. This is the foundation for the return of China's heyday in the future. "Since then, a ray of light has begun to be revealed in the north after a long night. to the Sui and Tang dynasties, and to see the dawn and the sky." (Qian Mu, Outline of National History, The Commercial Press, 3rd edition, 1996, p
Wuchuan County Miaogou Yushudian Ancient City (Northern Wei Dynasty Palace Guangde Palace).
In addition to reusing the local scholars in Guanlong, the Xianbei nobles who moved west to avoid disasters and the scholars who were originally from Shandong were changed to Guanlong, so as to cut off their homesickness and regional differences; At the same time, Hu and Han were encouraged to intermarry, eliminate ethnic barriers, and gradually form a new Guan sergeant clan (with Jingzhao Wei, Hedong Pei, Hedong Liu, Hedong Xue, Hongnong Yang, and Jingzhao Du as the surnames). The Eight Pillars, the Twelve Generals and the Guan Sergeant Clan are the foundation of the Guanlong Group. The Eight Pillars National Clan, headed by the Yuwen family, fought against the Eastern Wei Dynasty, usurped the Western Wei Dynasty, established the Northern Zhou Dynasty, destroyed the Northern Qi Dynasty and unified the North, and made brilliant achievements. In the Tang Dynasty, people still talked about the glory of the eight-pillar country, saying: "Today's name is the gate valve, and the eight-pillar country is pushed by salt; At that time, the glory was incomparable! ”
In 550, Gao Yang, the son of Gao Huan, a powerful minister of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, deposed the puppet emperor of the Yuan clan and established himself as emperor, establishing the Northern Qi Dynasty (Five Lords, 28th year). In 557, the descendants of Yuwentai, a powerful minister of the Western Wei Dynasty, no longer tolerated the puppet emperor of the Yuan clan and established themselves as emperors, with the state name Northern Zhou (Five Lords, twenty-five years). The two regimes of the Northern Qi and the Northern Zhou briefly confronted each other in the east and west. In 576, Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yuwen Yong, launched a war against the Northern Qi. In 577, the Northern Qi Dynasty died, and since then the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have been unified in the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
Tuchengliang ancient city.
Tucheng Liang unearthed tiles.
An important figure in the history of the Northern Zhou Dynasty appeared, this is Yang Jian. Yang Jian's ancestor was born in Wuchuan Town, and his father Yang Zhong served as an important minister in the Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties, and was one of the twelve generals of the Northern Zhou Dynasty (later promoted to one of the Eight Pillars). After the death of his father, Yang Jian himself inherited the title of Duke Suiguo and married his eldest daughter Yang Lihua to the crown prince as a concubine. In 578, Emperor Wu of Zhou, Yuwen Yong, died, the crown prince Yu Wenyun ascended the throne, Yang Lihua was named empress, and Yang Jian was promoted to the general of the Zhu State and the great Sima because he was the father of the empress. Emperor Xuan of Zhou Yuwenyun was short-lived, died at the age of 22, and his successor, Yuwen Xuan, was Emperor Jing of Zhou, who was only 7 years old at the time, and his biological mother was not the Empress Dowager Yang Lihua. The emperor is young, this is what the ancients called the lord and the country doubtful. Yang Jian took the opportunity to eliminate the opposition forces inside and outside the court, and forced Emperor Jing of Zhou to declare Chan Rang, and succeeded to the throne as emperor, the year was 581, Yang Jian established a new dynasty, and named the country "Sui". Later generations commented that Emperor Wen of Sui Emperor Yang Jian "won the country unjustly, and governed the country well".
By the Northern Weekend, the Han Chinese were the majority of military generals, and Yang Jian was able to easily usurp power and establish the Sui Dynasty. Yang Jian's wife, Dugu Jialuo (later Queen Dugu), was the seventh daughter of Dugu Xin, one of the Eight Pillars Kingdom. It can be seen that during this period, the various families of the Guanlong group strengthened their ties through intermarriage, and their political influence increased. The replacement of the Northern Zhou by the Sui was nothing more than a power transfer within the Guanlong group, with the Yang clan, also from Wuchuan, replacing the Yuwen clan. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, there were many rebellions, and Li Yuan's (later Tang Gaozu) grandfather Li Hu also came from Wuchuan, one of the Eight Pillars of the Western Wei Dynasty, and his father Li Yu was one of the Eight Pillars of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. And Li Yuan's mother is the fourth daughter of Dugu Xin, and Li Yuan is also the nephew of Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian and the aunt and cousin of Emperor Yang Guang of Sui. It can be seen that the Li Tang royal family and the Yang Sui royal family are both Guanlong Group, and their ancestors are all from Wuchuan, and they have a kinship relationship with each other.
In addition, the character to be said is Dugu Xin in the Wuchuan military group, originally a Xianbei nobleman, according to historical records, he was handsome, good at riding and shooting, and was one of the Eight Pillars of the Western Wei Dynasty. What amazes future generations the most is not Duguxin's own achievements, but that there are 3 queens among the 7 daughters, and when these 3 daughters first married, the 3 sons-in-law were not at all related to the emperor's position. Dugu Xin's eldest daughter is Empress Yuwenyu, Emperor Ming of the Northern Zhou Dynasty; The fourth daughter is the mother of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, and she was posthumously crowned Empress Yuanzhen; The seventh daughter is Empress Yang Jian, Emperor Wen of Sui. In the face of such a character relationship, Duguxin was called "the most bullish man in history" by netizens. The marriage between Dugu Xin and the emperors of the three dynasties is not only the glory of a family, but more importantly, they are all from Wuchuan.
Emperor Wen of Sui Yang Jian.
The reason why Li Yuan was able to easily capture Daxing (Chang'an) and pacify the princes to dominate the world was that the support of other members of the Guanlong group was crucial. Chen Yinke once commented: "The center of the three-hundred-year reign of the Tang Dynasty was also the center of the Li Tang royal family, from the founding of Gaozu and Taizong to the period before Gaozong's reign, and his ministers of civil and military affairs inherited the inheritance of the Western Wei, Northern Zhou and Sui dynasties, that is, the descendants of the group formed under Yuwentai's 'Guanzhong-based policy'. "As the core, the Guanlong Group basically dominated the political pattern and trend from the Sui to the early Tang Dynasty. The characteristics of gate politics in this period were very obvious, and the change of dynasty did not affect the political status of the Guanlong group.
As a result of the integration of Hu and Han, the Xianbei nobles and Xianbei Han people who moved west were finally sinicized, and the Guan sergeant clan was also infected with the former's fierce and martial arts. The mixed blood of Hu and Han and the confluence of civil and military have become a major feature of the Guanlong Group, "the armed and intelligent people of the Hu and Han ethnic groups in Guanlong", and their people "are in the phase, and out are generals, and there is nothing to do with the civil and military division". In addition, the Guanlong Group was not the most prominent and noble powerful clan in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the family's views were not so serious, and they also attached importance to talent and merit, which greatly accelerated this integration process. The Guanlong group was able to quickly integrate into a powerful elite group, which made the Western Wei and Northern Zhou prosperous and unified the north;He also unified the whole country twice in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and always occupied the ruling class.
Sacrifice to the sky at the top of the dam
As the boundary between the Mongolian Plateau and the Central Plains, the Yinshan Mountains are known as the "important places on the border", and the Northern Wei Dynasty set up six towns and built the Great Wall to resist the invasion of the northern tribes. From 398 Tuoba Jue Dingdu Pingcheng to 494 Emperor Xiaowen Tuoba Hong moved the capital to Luoyang, has always been Pingcheng as the main capital, with Shengle as the old capital (equivalent to the nature of the summer capital or accompanying the capital). In the old capital of Shengle, the royal mausoleum Jinling since the Tuoba Dynasty, the Book of Wei is mostly called "Jinling in the clouds" (individual or "Shengle Jinling"). According to the clear records and statistics of the Book of Wei, in 128 years (355-483), a total of 6 emperors, 1 crown prince, 10 empresses, 6 clansmen, and 18 meritorious heroes were buried in Jinling. Before and after Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang, he visited Jinling in the eighteenth year of Taihe and the twenty-first year of Taihe.
The Northern Wei Dynasty royal sacrificial site.
The emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty during the Pingcheng period of Dingdu, before the reign of the Empress Dowager Feng, took the patrol of Shengle and Yinshan as a common thing, and set up a palace and an altar to worship, "patrol the place of the palace, each set up an altar, sacrifice to the ether prison, and a sacrifice every year, all of them are shepherds and serve the worship." During the reign of Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao (423-452 years), he formed a fixed custom of "Yinshan but frost", and built the Guangde Hall of the Imperial Palace in Yinshan in 442 (now the ancient city of Nalinggou Pimple in Wuchuan County, Hohhot City), and often stayed in Yinshan and the area north of Yinshan for more than half a year. Since then, Emperor Wencheng Tuoba and Emperor Wen have continued this custom.
The palace of the emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty found by archaeology in the Yin Mountain, as well as the Ajitou Palace, is the ancient city of Tuchengliang in Wuchuan County, Hohhot City. About 4. southeast of Tucheng LiangOn the crest of the Daqing Mountain Centipede Dam 5 kilometers away, archaeological excavations have determined that there is the Temple of Heaven of Yinshan Temple in the Northern Wei Dynasty - the site of the dam crest. Daqingshan belongs to the middle section of the Yinshan Mountain Range, like a huge fan-shaped screen arching over the Hohhot Plain in front of the mountain. The area around the centipede dam of Daqingshan has been an important passage between the Hohhot Plain and the Wuchuan Basin behind the mountain since ancient times. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the road around the centipede dam was called Baidao, and the centipede dam was also named Baidaoling. The dam crest site is located at the northernmost end of Baidaoling - the top of the centipede dam about 1 km southwest of Bading Village, Daqingshan Township, Wuchuan County, with an altitude of 1,660 meters, and is a tall earth-built circular platform with an earth-built wall around the periphery, with a distribution range of about 10,000 square meters. The site is composed of five parts: the altar, the inner ring moat, the inner moat, the outer moat, and the outer ring moat. The shape of the round altar at the dam crest mound site is basically similar to that of the previous dynasties, and the mound is made of triple clay rammed structure, covering an area of 7,620 square meters. The altar is located at the highest round altar, with the remains of the "sacred wood" and the damage and carbonization of large wooden buildings. Pottery, stone tools, and iron tools from the Northern Wei Dynasty were unearthed inside the altar site, and animal bones used for sacrifice were unearthed in the accumulation at the bottom of the inner ring moat, mainly the skulls and limb bones of horses and sheep. According to the preliminary determination of archaeological experts, the age of the site is about 430-490 years. It is speculated that the entire building may have been destroyed in the "Rebellion of the Six Towns" that broke out in 523.
Structural diagram of the Northern Wei Dynasty "Huanqiu" sacrificial site.
The Temple of Heaven of Yinshan Temple in the Northern Wei Dynasty is closely related to the northern tour of Emperor Xiaowen in the eighteenth year of Taihe. Before moving the capital to Luoyang, Emperor Xiaowen made a special trip to the north to visit Shengle and Yinshan area, and successively "visited Jinling", "traveled to Yinshan, watched Yunchuan", "was fortunate to read Wutai, and visited Wuguan". From the perspective of "the major events of the country, in the worship and Rong", "Jinling" and "Guanyunchuan" belong to the category of worshipping ancestors and worshipping heaven respectively, while "Linguan and Wu" belong to the category of Rong. Yunchuan generally refers to the Milky Way, that is, the starry sky at night, and the Book of Wei refers to the entire worship of Emperor Xiaowen with "Guanyunchuan".
The ritual of sacrificing to the heavens is one of the earliest sacrificial activities in China, which began with the ceremonies held after the unification of the six kingdoms by the Qin Dynasty. Royal sacrifices often set up mounds, altars or shrines in the eastern, southern, western and northern suburbs to endow them with different sacrificial functions. The mound sacrifice to the sky was the patent of the royal family of the previous dynasties. Since the Han Dynasty, the places of worship are mostly in the southern suburbs, and the mounds are the main ceremonial buildings. In the shape of the altar, it is mainly circular, and the number of layers (weight) is three or four layers. According to the Book of Wei and the Ritual System, after the Northern Wei Dynasty moved its capital to Pingcheng (now Datong City, Shanxi Province), in addition to carrying out royal sacrifices in the western and southern suburbs of Pingcheng, it also carried out sacrifices in Yunzhong (the ancient city of Gucheng Village, Tuoketuo County), Shengle (the ancient city of Tuchengzi in Helinger County) and the altar of the Ajitou Hall of the Northern Wei Dynasty, that is, the royal sacrifice site at the top of the dam.
Ruins of Wuchuan Town in the Northern Wei Dynasty: Milk nails were unearthed in the city.
Worshipping the heavens is a very important cultural tradition and ritual of Tuoba Xianbei. According to the "Book of Wei", Tuoba Xianbei carried out rituals to worship the heavens at many important time nodes and occasions. The royal sacrificial site of Yinshan Mountain in the Northern Wei Dynasty combines the sacrificial ritual system of the Central Plains Dynasty and the tradition of sacrificing sacred mountains by the northern nomads in terms of shape, and is earlier than the Sui and Tang Yuanqiu in Xi'an and the Temple of Heaven in the Ming and Qing dynasties in Beijing. After Tuoba Xianbei moved the capital to Pingcheng, the transformation from a tribal alliance to a state was realized, and the ritual of worshiping the heavens was also correspondingly changed from the traditional tribal custom of worshipping the heavens to the institutionalized ritual of the state. In terms of sacrifice, the "suburbs" and "hills" are integrated, and although the dam crest mound is not close to the capital, it is attached to the palace. The dam crest site reflects the determination of the Northern Wei Dynasty to accept the traditional ritual system of the Central Plains and integrate into China.
In the political change of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the military group from Wuchuan stepped onto the stage of history with a vigorous temperament, bringing an unprecedented new atmosphere to the Tang Dynasty after several changes, as Mr. Chen Yinke said in the "Speculation of the Li Tang Clan": "The reason why the Li Tang clan is prosperous is to take the blood of the barbarians outside the Saiwai and inject it into the decadent body of the Central Plains culture. "The grand Tang Dynasty, that magnificence, that momentum, infiltrated the blood of the Wuchuan soldiers. Teacher Han Maoli pointed out that the emperors of the four dynasties will be evenly related to Wuchuan, it can be said that the heaviest place in the world is not Xi'an, not Luoyang, but Wuchuan, and there is no second place in China that is heavier than the "royal spirit" here.
Long live the wealth of Wadang.
The process of integration of Hu and Han cultures has been repeated from time to time, but on the whole, it has been gradually transformed into a new culture in the Middle Ages. (Xu Zhuoyun's "Ten Thousand Ancient Rivers", p. 177) history is gradually drifting away, the stretching Great Wall is still winding and clear, the sky of the Temple of Heaven in Yinshan Temple is still full of stars, and the ancient cities made of rammed earth are like wordless slices of history, telling the legendary past of different nationalities blending and colliding with each other. The ancient town of Wuchuan, the place with the heaviest "royal spirit" in the world, with green mountains like daisies and green water like screens, has been bursting out with endless energy for thousands of years, shining and shining in the historical process of cultural development and change in northern Xinjiang.
References: 1. Qian Mu, Outline of National History, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 3rd edition, 1996;
2. Meng Man: "Sui and Tang Dynasty and Wuchuan Heroes", "Today's Headlines", August 22, 2017;
3. Han Maoli: "Earth China", Shanghai, Wenhui Publishing House, 2023;
4. Zhang Wenping, "Examination and Debate of Several Issues in Wuchuan Town of the Northern Wei Dynasty", Frontier Time and Space, July 29, 2022;
5. Zhao Fei and Zhang Wenping: "The "Ancient Capital" Status of the Historical and Cultural City of Hohhot", Henan, Museum Exploration, Volume 1, 2023;
6. Zhang Wenping and Bao Guihong: "A Review of the Archaeology of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties in Inner Mongolia", Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Department of Culture and Tourism, WeChat***, November 25, 2019.