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December 23, 2016

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Home » Feature » Art and Culture

Pagoda site lays new foundation for local history

By Tan Weiyun | December 23, 2016, Friday | Print Edition

A recent archeological discovery in Baihe Town in suburban Shanghai’s Qingpu District has undermined the commonly held notion that Shanghai was little more than a sleepy fishing village before it opened its port in 1843.

A dig conducted earlier this month by a team of experts from Shanghai Museum suggests that the area was a busy trading hub and shipping center during the Tang (AD 618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, stretching the city’s urban history back further than many realize.

The team’s most important find was the foundation of the historic Longping Temple Pagoda, built in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), which includes an underground vault containing numerous cultural relics.

“The drillers just couldn’t go deeper that day and we realized that there might be something underneath. Then we found it,” says Chen Jie, an archeologist with Shanghai Museum who led the excavation.

The brick-laid vault was found to contain a four-layered case, with layers made of wood, iron, gold and silver respectively. The innermost silver layer enshrined a Buddha statue set on a bed of colorful gemstones, while silver chopsticks, silver spoons, silver hairpins and a bronze mirror were discovered in the wooden layer.

Also found in the vault were four small balls in a bronze bottle, three of them made from a crystal-like material. They later proved to be sarire, artifacts made after master monks were cremated.

The octagonal foundation implies that the pagoda, which has long since been destroyed, was larger than other ancient pagodas in the area. It was estimated to have had seven floors and stand 50 meters tall.

“The pagoda served as a religious site and also a lighthouse for merchant fleets sailing on the ancient Wusongjiang River (today’s Suzhou Creek) to and from the sea,” Chen says.

The discovery of the pagoda foundation is just one part of the excavation project that started in 2010 with the intention of learning more about the ancient Qinglong Town, an area previously known only through mentions in historical archives.

Over the past six years, archeologists from Shanghai Museum have unearthed buried sites with Song Dynasty-style architecture, large amounts of porcelain, an iron-casting workshop (the only one of its kind found in Shanghai so far) and a well from the Tang Dynasty, among other discoveries.

More than 6,000 restorable porcelain objects and about 100,000 shards were traced to well-known kilns in Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. Many similar porcelains from these kilns have also been found in ancient Korea and Japan.

“They were apparently shipped to Qinglong Town first and then transferred overseas,” Chen says. “This proves Shanghai had become a major port for foreign trade in the Tang Dynasty, as well as a critical stop along the ancient Maritime Silk Road.”

As more long-buried artifacts are brought to light, a picture of life in the ancient trading center of Qinglong Town has also emerged.

According to archives, the town once had three pagodas, seven towers, 13 temples, 22 bridges and 36 neighborhoods, all suggestive of its status as a prosperous urban center. With the vicissitudes of time most traces of these structures vanished long ago, but the foundation of the pagoda offers tantalizing evidence of its glorious past.

Before the underground vault was about to be opened, the archaeological team had held three seminars to develop an excavation plan. Because it was a sealed space, the experts tried nondestructive methods, such as using portable CT equipment and industrial endoscopes, to get a rough picture of what was inside. These efforts failed though because the vault’s brick walls were too thick.

Experts dug brick by brick, layer by layer, all while making sketches, taking pictures and numbering and packaging every item found.

“As the case was discovered in the vault, we didn’t open it. We sent it directly to the Shanghai Museum’s lab,” Chen recalls.

Passage of time

In 2015, one archeologist found a brick carved with the Chinese characters “pagoda entrance,” thus pointing the way to the pagoda excavation project. The team applied to the local government to set aside about 400 square meters for further digging.

“To be honest, we didn’t expect we would find anything valuable at first,” says team member Wang Jianwen. “But luck was on our side. The foundation’s unique octagonal shape tallied with the historical documents.”

Also telling were the pagoda’s bricks. Each brick was carved with a donator’s name. One couple sponsored the creation 84,000 bricks, while others contributed only one or two. But each name was clearly carved on the bricks to express gratitude.

“Shipping overseas was a risky job, so locals liked to hold various rituals and worship ceremonies to ensure a safe journey,” Wang says. “The temple was a religious place for locals but also a lighthouse for sailors.”

According to archival materials, the Wusongjiang River was so wide during the Tang and Song dynasties that many ships had no place to anchor. When local people built the tower, they meant it to serve as both a lighthouse and a temple.

However, with silt accumulating in the waterway, Shanghai’s coastline and economic center gradually began shifting east. For this reason, Qinglong Town gradually lost its place as a shipping hub. A war during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) sent it into terminal decline.

“The excavation reveals the prosperity of Shanghai in old times, but also provides important resources for research on China’s ancient architecture and Buddhism,” Chen says.

The pagoda foundation will be refilled with earth to protect the structure for future excavation.

“We’ve spent six years excavating about 5,000 square meters, but the entire ancient Qinglong Town covers about 2 million square meters,” Wang says. “It will be a long-term project.”

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