The Shimao site in Yulin, Shaanxi is a large-scale prehistoric site

Zhang Lingyun

The Shimao site located in Yulin, Shaanxi is a large-scale prehistoric site. The urban construction tradition, ritual and jade tradition embodied in Shimao have been inherited by later civilizations since the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

The genus trees of more than 4,000 years ago, the mysterious stone carvings that have been discovered, the ancient urn city and the horse face, in such a place that today seems remote and desolate, located at the junction of the Loess Plateau and the Mu Us Desert, has been washed away by wind and frost for thousands of years. The ancient ruins bear witness to the five thousand years of Chinese civilization history.

In the past 10 years, people who visit Shimao often come with doubts and leave with surprises. Most of them are still unfinished because there are still many unsolved mysteries in Shimao. I believe that the opening of the Shimao Museum and the release of new archaeological reports will further unravel people's doubts and turn surprises into surprises.

In 2019, while Shimao was in charge of the work, I was also responsible for the protection and construction of Yangjiacheng in Shenmu City. This is an ancient city only 45 kilometers away from Shimao in a straight line, but it was built more than 3,000 years later than Shimao.

For more than three thousand years, through the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, although there were divisions and disputes, they were finally unified again and again. Unification has always been the basic value and ultimate pursuit of Chinese civilization. When time came to the Song Dynasty, Yangjiacheng, 45 kilometers away from Shimao, once again witnessed the tenacity and tolerance of Chinese civilization.

This is the location of Linzhou City in the Tang and Song Dynasties, the hometown of Yang family generals, the place where the hero Yang Ye grew up, and the place where Yang Ye's father, ancestors and brothers protected the family and the country. According to the "History of the Song Dynasty", during the intermittent war between Song and Xia for nearly a hundred years, Linzhou City, as an isolated border city outside the fortress, was besieged several times by heavy troops led by Xixia leaders such as Li Jiqian and Li Yuanhao. However, it was as solid as a rock and has never been breached. . Linzhou City has been standing for a hundred years, and the remnants of the grassland silk road from Chang'an-Yan'an-Yulin sacred trees to the north still exist.

It is difficult for us to know today how many horses and supplies were transported south from Linzhou City, which was defended by the Yang family. Just from the fact that many elite soldiers and generals during the two Song Dynasties came from what is now northern Shaanxi, and half of the "Zhongxing Four Generals" in the early Southern Song Dynasty came from northern Shaanxi, it can be seen that northern Shaanxi, with Linzhou City as a shield and a spear, was the strong power of the Song Dynasty. Army land.

In mid-autumn, standing on Yangjia City, the west wind blows and the sky is clear blue. Fan Zhongyan, a generation of Wen Zong, wrote "The Proud of the Fisherman·Linzhou Autumn Poems" here: "The geese in Hengyang left without paying attention...the general's white hair and husband's tears". Fan Zhongyan, who "worries before the world's worries, and rejoices after the world's happiness", was full of helplessness on Linzhou City. The Northern Song Dynasty unified the Central Plains and the South, but it was unable to deal with the northwest, northern grasslands and northeast. The monarchs and ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty had a dream of unification, but they never realized it. It was against this background that the Yang family generals emerged who had defended Linzhou City for decades, and the Yang family generals who frightened powerful enemies appeared, and they demonstrated the heroic spirit of perseverance and loyalty to the country time and time again. Yang Ye was willing to die unyielding and died heroically for his country, which made the Yang family become an eternal hero that moved the world.

No writing has been discovered in Shimao, and the rich cultural wealth left by our ancestors has yet to be interpreted; the Yang family has history and poems, novels, and dramas. These words tell about loyalty, courage, and awe-inspiring spirit...

On the Yang family city, I Feeling the great loyalty and courage of the ancient sages and sages who knew that they could not do something, this is in the same line as the Shimao people who created civilization and persisted in civilization amidst dangers and dangers...

From Shimao to Yangjiacheng, a hundred miles away, a thousand years in a blink of an eye.