Archaeological report on Tusi City site in Tangya, Hubei Province made public for the first time

China News Service, Wuhan, November 9 (Reporter Liang Ting) "Xianfeng Tangya" (volumes 1 and 2) compiled by the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, the School of Cultural Heritage of Hubei University, the School of History of Renmin University of China, and the Tangya Tusi City Site Management Office in Enshi, Hubei was officially published recently. It is the first time that the archaeological report on the Tangya Tusi City Site in Hubei has been made public.

Liu Hui, editor-in-chief of the book and professor at the School of Cultural Heritage of Hubei University, said in an interview on the 9th that the report is the result of the archaeological investigation and excavation of the Tangya Tusi City Site from 2011 to 2014. The Tangya Tusi City Site provides important physical evidence for in-depth understanding and research of the unique Tusi culture and Tusi system.

Tangya Tusi City is located on the west bank of Tangya River in Tangyasi Village, Tangya Town, Xianfeng County, Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei Province. The site is one of the famous Tusi sites in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties in southwest China. On July 4, 2015, the Tangya Tusi City ruins, together with the Laosicheng ruins in Yongshun, Hunan, and the Hailongdun ruins in Bozhou, Guizhou, were successfully included in the World Cultural Heritage List as the Chinese Tusi series heritage.

Liu Hui introduced that systematic archaeological surveys and excavations have shown that the Tangya Tusi City Site has been preserved as a ruin since it was abandoned in the mid-18th century. Its city site pattern, various types of remains, and the environmental characteristics of its location are generally well preserved. The period from Wanli to Tianqi in the Ming Dynasty was the most prosperous period in the history of Tangya Tusi. Most of the remains in the city site were built during this period. The city site is rich in relics belonging to the Tusi period, with the most prominent remains on the ground being the archway, the Zhangwang Temple, and the Tusi tombs.

In terms of spatial structure and layout, the Tangya Tusi City Site has a multiple structural system consisting of trenches, city walls, and government office area walls. Among them, the government office area is located in the center of the city defined by regulation, with a clear central axis. The archway is located at the eastern end of the central axis and is the most important landmark building in the entire city site. The existing layout shows that the division and layout of the important functional areas in the city site are centered around the central axis.

Liu Hui said that the structure and layout highly imitate the organizational system of Han prefectural and county-level city sites, which not only reflects its own unique cultural characteristics, but also reflects the learning and absorption of Han culture by ethnic minorities in the Tusi area of ​​southwest China since the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty. He pointed out that the changes in the scale and level of the city site reflected the affiliation between the southwestern chieftains represented by Tangya chieftains and the central government and their sense of national identity.