Archeologists dig deep to reveal the untold stories of Jiading
Print Edition
AN archeologist from Shanghai Museum has given a lecture at Jiading Museum on archeological findings and what they revealed about the Jiading’s untold stories.
In January 1958, the Chinese central government approved the transfer of the administration of Jiading County from Jiangsu Province to Shanghai Municipality.
In the second year after it became part of Shanghai, Jiading founded its own museum to carry out archeological activities in the county. The hard work of the archeologists uncovered important historical relics and valuable ancient books, said He Jiying, research fellow of Shanghai Museum’s archeology department.
Beishui Gate, one of the four well-known Jiading’s water gates, was a key finding.
In July 2009, workers rebuilding the old Jiading City’s water gates found relics of the Beishui Gate dating from Emperor Jiajing’s reign between 1522 and 1566 in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The relics were found at the junction of Jiading’s north moat and Hengli River.
According to Jiading’s County Annals, Japanese pirates invaded southern China from time to time in the Ming Dynasty so the then Jiading’s Magistrate Wang Yingpeng rebuilt Jiading walls and added the Beishui Gate, or literally, North Water Gate.
Archeologists found the lower stone structures of the west part of the ancient water gate relatively well-preserved. The stone structures are 14 meters long from south to north and 9.3 meters wide from east to west. The highest stone remains are 1.5 meters high. The ceramic pieces uncovered along with the stone relics were from the Jiajing Emperor’s reign in the Ming Dynasty, which accords with the annals.
The Beishui Gate was not only a water conservancy facility but also a defense project, representing Jiading residents’ resistance against Japanese pirates who ravaged the east coast of China from the 14th to 16th centuries.
In 2011, the Beishui Gate was included in the top 100 new discoveries of the third national relics survey, workers at the Jiading Museum said.
In 1967, residents of Chengqiao Village found a batch of valuable cultural relics when they were converting a family cemetery into an enclosure for pigs.
China’s existing earliest poetry librettos — the 12 volumes of “Collection of Libretto” in the Reign of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty are among the series of cultural relics discovered. The art represented in the collection is of great value in the study of the development of China’s ancient novels, traditional operas and librettos.
A village official who uncovered the rotting ancient books from the brownish red water from a coffin in the cemetery let the books bathed in the sun for a week.
These books were stored privately in his attic for five years before Shanghai Antique Book Shop sent staff to purchase two of the better preserved books as the shop was collecting ancient books from rural areas in 1972. Experts at Shanghai Cultural Relic Administrative Committee found the two books highly valuable in archeological studies so the book shop then sent its staff to collect the rest of the books.
Experts tried their best to repair these ancient books and they are now in the collection of the Shanghai Museum.
Archeologists also uncovered Jiading Bamboo Carving artist Zhu Xiaosong’s creation of an incense tube, a tomb of Warring State Period (476-221 BC), the family tomb of Tang Shisheng, one of the four elites of Jiading in the Ming Dynasty, the family tomb of Xu Xuemo, Minister of Rituals in the Ming Dynasty, the relics of Nanxiang Temple’s bell tower, the Hall of Sky and the Hall of Earth at Fahua Pagoda.
Jiading Museum also repaired existing cultural relics in Jiading such as the Confucius Temple in Jiading, Qiuxia Garden, Guyi Garden in Nanxiang, Fahua Pagoda, Qian Daxin’s Tomb, Nanxiang Brick Pagoda, Denglong Bridge in Nandajie Street.
“Archeology is a way to digging out relics to learn history directly,” said Jin Rong, the retired department director of Jiading Museum.
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