Wang Wei, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote a well-known poem "Chengwei Qu", which wrote: "Chengwei welcomes the rain with light dust, and the guest house is green and willow-colored. I advise you to drink more wine. The people in Yangguan, Xishan are unreasonable. " That sad parting touches people's heartstrings and fascinates people with the eternal rumors of Yangguan. From Dunhuang county to the southwest, you will soon enter the vast Gobi desert. The brown desert and the beacon towers that occasionally pass in the distance seem to bring people into an ancient and mysterious situation of "smoke and dust" (Wang Wei's "Send Liu Si straight to Anxi"). About 140 miles later, I climbed a stone mountain and suddenly a piece of green appeared in front of me. This is South Lake.
South Lake, a magical oasis, borders the Gobi at the end of Qilian Mountain in the east and the endless Bailongdui Desert in the west. In ancient times. There used to be a county town here, called Longle County in Han Dynasty, which was one of the six counties under the jurisdiction of Dunhuang County. In the Tang Dynasty, it was renamed Shou Chang County, which was under the jurisdiction of Shazhou. The ancient city of that year has been buried in the desert. It is said that it came out of the lying tile pool of Tianma, leaving a blue wave after vicissitudes, which is today's Yellow Dam. Today, the picturesque fertile land around the South Lake is an extremely precious jade held up by hardworking people at the bottom of the lying tile pool after a long struggle against sandstorms.
Passing through the Nanhu village with lush trees and criss-crossing rivers, you can see a ridge called Longleshan in an instant. Legend has it that once upon a time there was a dragon horse that headed for Xianyang and Bianguan at dusk, leaving Baole here, which also brought a good name to this hill. There are three beacon towers in this area, which are distributed on the wind erosion platform. There is a beacon tower towering high, surrounded by desolation, which makes this beacon tower look majestic and extraordinary. Beside the table stood a sign that read:
Dundunshan beacon tower was built in Han Dynasty, about11-102 BC. At present, the disabled height is 4.7 meters, the upper width is 8 meters from north to south and 6.8 meters from east to west, and the bottom width is 8.8 meters from north to south and 7.5 meters from east to west. It is a place waiting for customs in ancient Yangguan, so it is called "Yangguan eyes and ears".
Not far from the beacon tower, there is a vast beach, commonly known as "antique beach". From time to time, you can pick up ancient pottery fragments, copper arrows, copper belt hooks, stone mills and various ironware, as well as five baht coins in the Han Dynasty, Bao Tong in Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty, Bao Tong in a living spring, Yuqianqian and other ancient currencies, as well as decorative fragments such as colored beads and amber beads in the western regions. Sometimes you can also find black yangguan brick, which is delicate and solid, and it is Shi Shengjin. This kind of brick can also be used to make expensive inkstones. These ancient cultural relics buried in the wind and sand make people vaguely see the grand occasion of envoys and business trips on Yangguan Road.
From the antique beach to the west, you can see the real Yangguan site across several ridges. The ankle-high wall foundation is discernible, and broken bricks are scattered all over the floor. 1972, the cultural relics investigation team found a large wooden building site in Jiuquan area. After trial excavation, the building foundation is clear and orderly, covering an area of tens of thousands of square meters. It is also found that kiln sites, farmland sites, even ridges and canals are clearly visible, covering an area of ten square miles. It can be seen that in ancient times, it was also the other side of personal smoke and economic prosperity.
According to documents and geographical conditions, archaeologists believe that this is the Yangguan Pass in the Han and Tang Dynasties. According to Records of Historical Records and Biography of Dawan, Yi cited the Book of Parentheses and said that Yangguan was located in Xili, Shou Chang County, Shazhou. "Geography of the Old Tang Dynasty" in Shou Chang County: "Yangguan, in the west of the county." The remnant volume of "Sha Zhou Tu Jing" in the stone collection room in Paris records: Yangguan is "ten miles west of the county seat, which is now destroyed and traces of the base site are preserved." The above historical materials undoubtedly mean that Yangguan is in the west corner of Nanhu Lake.
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions, the Hexi Corridor was developed. In the sixth year of Ding Yuan (BC 165438+ BC 0 1), Dunhuang County was divided by Jiuquan County, which was called "four counties, according to the second pass" in the history books. Under the jurisdiction of Dunhuang County, Yangguan and Yumenguan in Longle County are all under the jurisdiction of a general commander, which divides the throat of the northern and southern Tianshan Mountains and becomes the only way through the Silk Road. Yangguan County was established in Wei and Jin Dynasties, and Shou Chang County was established in the hometown of Hanlongle in Tang Dynasty. Yangguan is still in use. Xuanzang, a monk in the Tang Dynasty, returned from India to learn the scriptures, and also took Tianshan South Road and entered Yangguan in the west. Cen Can Tang Tianbao, a famous frontier poet, once "served for two years and spent two days in sunshine" (Send Judge Yuwen). Tangyangguan has been eroded by wind and sand, and it is located on the edge of the desert, which has become synonymous with the border of the desert. Due to frequent wars and large-scale land reclamation in history, the vegetation and water resources in this area have been destroyed, the ecological balance has been destroyed, and the Huanglong has been rolling eastward. After the Song and Liao Dynasties, people moved away from Yangguan; After the Yuan Dynasty, Yangguan and Shou Chang counties were finally swallowed up by quicksand.
From Yangguan to Hongshankou, go north 135, and you can reach Yumen Pass. There is another road, from Dunhuang County to Ximen, crossing Danghe River, going northwest on Gobi, passing through a knot in one's head, and then going west along the south bank of Shule River to Dafangpancheng, south to Gobi or west to Yumenguan. Yumenguan is located in a place called "Pan Xiaofang" more than 0/60 miles northwest of Dunhuang. There is a poem in Liangzhou Ci by Wang Zhihuan, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty: "The Yellow River is far above the white clouds, and there is a lonely city-Wan Ren. Why bother to complain about the willow, the spring breeze is only Yumenguan. " He truly described the desolate and vast frontier fortress scenery in ancient times, and Yumenguan left a deep impression on people.
Yumenguan ruins, a dilapidated square castle, stands on a gravel mountain in the vast sand sea. Guancheng Joo Won? is still there, and a door in the west and a door in the north are blocked. The castle was built of yellow clay slabs. The city wall is 9.7 meters high, 24 meters wide from east to west and more than 26 meters wide from north to south, covering an area of more than 630 square meters. There are still camps, forts and ancient pagodas around. The Han bamboo slips unearthed from the abandoned wharf in the north of the city have the words "Yumen a captain". The remnant copy of the Stone Chamber in Paris, The Map of Shazhou, also contains Yumenguan Gate, saying, "One hundred and twenty steps a week, three feet high". These materials show that the location of Yumenguan and the size of the city wall are roughly consistent with today's Guancheng in Pan Xiaofang. Yumenguan has been located in Dunhuang since the third year of Yuanfeng (BC 108). After Sui and Tang Dynasties, Yumenguan moved eastward to Shuangta Fort in Jinchang, Guazhou (now Anxi County).
When you climb the Guguan Castle, you can see the vast and spacious scenery and dazzling charm around you. The low-lying area near Guancheng forms a circular basin with reeds and Populus euphratica in the swamp. Lying on the dry Shule River next to Guancheng, pebbles, large and small, glistened. There are countless sand dunes on both sides of this river. The dunes are mixed with clusters of red willows and wild flowers unique to the desert. In the distance, there are endless peaks of Beisai Mountain in the north and dark snow-capped mountains in Qinghai in the south. The vast desert and the ancient city walls set each other off and become interesting, which will suddenly give people a sense of pride that has a long history of the Chinese nation.
Xiaofangcheng is forty miles northwest, and there is a generous pancheng. The city is in Shule Henan, which is divided into two parts: inside and outside. The outer city wall has been exhausted, and there is only a little left in the north city wall. The inner city is divided into three rooms, each of which faces south. It turns out that there are watchtowers all around, and most of them are only ruins. The Dunhuang Records, written by Shi collection room in London, reads: "Hecang City is 230 miles northwest of Guangzhou, where ancient troops are stored." Beside the big house, Guhe Cangcheng was a big granary at that time, storing grain and grass for border defense and transportation. Archaeologists in our country once excavated a stone tablet in this area, and the words engraved on it show that the city was still under construction when Emperor Wu of Jin was here, and Yumenguan, not far to the west, was not abandoned.
Looking northwest from Yumenguan Castle, the ruins of the avenue are faintly visible under the cover of the desert. This is the northern line of the "Silk Road" in Han and Tang Dynasties. "Yuanhe County Records" contains: "Yumen is the north road, and the west is happy for driving." After the Yumenguan Pass, it goes west along Tianshan South Road, passes through Cheshi's former Wang Ting (now Turpan, Xinjiang) and Qiuci (now Kuqa, Xinjiang) to Shule (now Kashgar, Xinjiang), then goes southwest from there, passes through Da Yue and Daxia (now Amu Darya River Basin), and finally leads to India, West Asia and even European countries. In the 4th century, Kumarajiva, a famous Buddhist translator, went to Wuwei via Yumenguan and then to Chang 'an. According to legend, when Kumarajiva passed by here, the white horse he rode died in Dunhuang and was buried in a tower. Today, this White Horse Pagoda is still standing upright and jingling in the cotton field in the southeast corner of Shazhou Ancient City (now Red Star Pagoda Team 1 of Danghe Commune). Through Yumenguan, China's silk, silk products and local products were transported to the west, and grapes, pomegranates, walnuts, alfalfa, literature, art and religion from the western regions and western countries also spread to the Central Plains. The beautiful jade jewelry in the Western Regions is crystal clear and enjoys a world-renowned reputation. Zhuyu entered the Central Plains through Xiongguan, and Guancheng was named "Yumen". Silk symbolizes friendship and wealth, and the Silk Road has a long history.
The Great Wall of Han Dynasty winds and twists, bypassing the north of Yumenguan. Today, there are still more than 300 sites of the Han Great Wall from Beihu Lake at the junction of Dunhuang and Anxi in the northeast to the end of the West Lake 30 miles west of Yumenguan. The rest of the Great Wall is three meters high, three meters wide at the bottom and one meter wide in front. It is made of gravel, loess, reed and red willow, and it is still very strong. On the Great Wall Line, there are more than 70 beacon towers. From the end of the Great Wall to Mami Rabbit, there are several beacon towers on two different paths in the northwest and southwest, which continue to extend to Xinjiang. From Yumenguan to Yangguan and then to Danghekou, * * * has nine beacon towers. Some of these beacon towers built on the wind erosion platform are well preserved and towering. There is a hut at the top of the beacon tower, and the bedroom, fire pit, stove and stairs of the garrison are still faintly discernible. The pavilions and barriers are connected from a distance and extend into the distance. Usually, "a whip in ten miles, a horse in five miles" transmits information; Once you meet the enemy, light the paid reed torch and pass it on one by one. The ruins of pavilions and pavilions near Yumenguan remind people of the ancient life of "but we heard that Yumenguan was still besieged, and soon we put our lives on our light chariots".
Small square market, nearby ancient city and beacon tower, unearthed "quicksand falling slips", accompanied by camel bells in the desert, tell the rise and fall of Yumenguan and the changes of the times. What is more gratifying is that people today have begun to write a new chapter in history.