The third Plenary Session of 18th CPC Central Committee made it clear to promote the construction of the economic zone of the Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road, thus forming a new pattern of all-round opening. Guangdong is an important birthplace of the Maritime Silk Road. Xuwen county in Zhanjiang, which is rich in cultural relics of the Han Dynasty, is one of the ports of origin in the Han Dynasty. Much efforts have been made to excavate research, conserve, and develop the ancient Silk Road culture in Xuwen, and more surprises are awaiting people in this ancient commercial port.

 

Historical origins of the ancient Silk Road starting from Xuwen

The ruins of the Xuwen Port on the maritime Silk Road in Han Dynasty. 

 

The Silk Road is a general term which represents all silk trading roads connecting China with Asia and Europe. It is categorized into two channels by land and sea respectively. The Silk Road on land was open in 138 BC and 119 BC when Zhang Qian, an diplomat and explorer, was sent by Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty on a diplomatic mission twice in order to form alliance with the Dayuezhi tribe and Wusun tribe to attack Xiongnu tribe. The three tribes are all ancient nationality in China. The marine Silk Road was open in 111 BC after setting Xuwen County. The emperor sent fleets carrying gold, silk, etc., sailing from Xuwen, the southernmost place of Leizhou Peninsula, heading south along the Beibu Gulf all the way to the coast of Vietnam. Spending nearly a year, the fleet bypassed the Strait of Malacca, arriving in southern India, then it headed to Sri Lanka, and then carried the exchangeitems on the coast back to China. According to " Geography Records of The Han History", written by Bangu, a historian and writer in the Eastern Han Dynasty, “Sailing from Rinan(a prefecture in Han Dynasty ),whose land condition is not favorable, Xuwen(a county in Guangdong province) and Hepu(a county in Guangxi province)for five months, the fleet could get to Duyuan State...In the south of Huangzhi, a state of ancient India, there’s a state called Yibucheng. Till then, the translator of Han Dynasty come back to the country." This is the Marine Silk Road to Southeast Asia and South Asia in Han Dynasty.

 

Archaeological excavations of maritime Silk Road sites

The expert group organized by the provincial government conducts field research on the ruins of the Xuwen Port on the maritime Silk Road in Han Dynasty. 

 

Archaeological findings also confirmed the record in history books. In the early 1960s, workers in the provincial, municipal and county-level heritage sector first found more than two hundred Han tombs. Most tombs are centered in Huafeng Ridge, Nanshan Town and Xuwen and others scattered in nearby port, Erqiao village, Nanshan village and so on. Decades later, more than one hundred tombs were found in Nasi village, Longtang town to the east and Dajing village, Xilian Town to the west, ranging fifty kilometers. The total number of excavated tombs till now has reached more than three hundred. There are a large variety of cultural relics in those tombs including imported goods overseas, such as pottery, ceramic beads, ironware, copper ware, silver and amber beads, agate beads, crystal beads, glass beads etc.. The most representative cultural excavations are those found in Erqiao Village, Nanwan Village and Shiwen Village in Nanshan Town.

 

In May, 1990, the experts group of the provincial archaeology department found “Wansui ” eaves tiles, which means long live, along the way from Erqiao Village to Shiwei Village, triggering a comprehensive search throughout the region. In February 1992, cirrus Ganoderma pattern eaves tiles were found in the North of Shiwei Village. Approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the provincial archaeology department and museums in Zhanjiang city, Maoming City, Gaozhou city, Xuwen County, Suixi County, Lianjiang County, Haikang County and Wuchuan County organized an archaeological team to explore in a large scale in Erqiao Village, Nanwan Village and Shiwei Village for nearly a month in December, 1993. Relics unearthed were mainly potteries, such as kettle, pots, earthen jars, basin, earthen bowls, bowls, lids, bases, ceramic rods, spinning pottery wheel and pottery net sinkers. Building materials unearthed are mainly eaves tiles made by Shengwen, a pottery decoration method, and semicircle-shaped tiles. There were also some Han bricks, eaves tiles and small stone building pieces.

 

In the ruins, archaeologists also found "Wansui" eaves tiles, turtle like and copper seal nose "Chengu private seal", Geometry seals bricks and inscription bricks with auspicious words such as “Yiguan”, “Dijunbaishi”, “Qumu” and “Tu” spade-shaped coin pattern.

 

The Han Dynasty ruins in Xuwen County is one of the ten architectural ruins discovered in Guangdong, one of four sites unearthed eaves tiles, and also one of two ruins unearthed “Wansui ” eaves tiles. Judging from the text on eaves tiles, we can not only know the construction time of the building, but also the name and location of the historical cities and palaces. For example, by the unearthed “Wansui” eaves tile in Guangzhou City, we can confirm the location of the palaces of Southern Yue Dynasty. And by the unearthed“Wansui” eaves tiles in Xuwen, we could confirm the location of Xuwen in Han dynasty, which is in the area of Erqiao Village, Nanwan Village and Shiwei Village.

 

Experts have undertook field visits and study for several times. As their research went further, they were sure that Xuwen is one of the port of origin of the maritime Silk Road in the Han Dynasty. The experts later promoted Xuwen as the port of origin of Marine Silk Road to be included in the research and development projects of Maritime Silk Road.

 

The discovery of the Han Dynasty ruins in Xuwen aroused widespread concern in academic circles. In June 2000, commissioned by the Advisory Office, Cultural Center and the Pearl River Culture Study Association of Guangdong provincial government, Huang Weizong, professor of Zhongshan University, led many famous literary historian, geographers, oceanographers, linguists, cultural experts, writers and reporter organized as the investigation group of the maritime Silk Road, to conduct research in Zhanjiang, Xuwen and Leizhou. The Panel visited Erqiao, Nanwan, Sandun and Huafeng Ridge to study the location and relics of Han Dynasty as well as the Han tomb group, and learned a lot of valuable and detailed information from the original written text.

 

In the symposium of the investigation group, experts in Xuwen studied some important cultural relics data about many living sites of Han Dynasty and “Wansui” eaves tiles and “Chengu private seal” found in Erqiao and Nanwan accumulated by the provincial Institute of Archaeology and other local cultural heritage workers for over ten years. With real relics as evidence, the group confirmed that today’s Xuwen is the Xuwen in Han Dynasty, and the Xuwen Port in Han——Taowang Port is today’s harbor near Erqiao Village, Shiwei Village and Nanwan Village.

 

Professor Gan Zijun, an oceanographer and director of the Academic Committee of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chen Lixin, an expert of Zhanjiang Port Authority proposed the theory of the South China Sea monsoon and atmospheric circulation, confirming Xuwen harbor’s favorable conditions for sailing.

 

All the documented historical data and cultural relics found all demonstrate that the Xuwen Harbor in Han Dynasty is today's Xuwen. And the specific location is in Erqiao Village, Nanwan Village and Shiwei Village.

 

Provincial government leaders required the Advisory’s Office to make the research and development of the Maritime Silk Road a key project and set up a provincial Maritime Silk Road research and development team, responsible for coordinating planning and organizing the project. Municipal government approved advocacy, protection, development and utilization of port of origin of the Maritime Silk Road, and commissioned Xuwen to establish a scientific research group.

 

In February 19, 2001, at the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress of Guangdong Province, the delegation of Zhanjiang City proposed the "Program on further strengthening the promotion, protection, development of the original port of maritime Silk Road and utilization of its culture as a tourism brand" to the convention , which drew the attention of senior officials of the provincial government. Later, experts in the Advisory Office, Cultural Center and the Pearl River Culture Study Association got in touch with Guangzhou and Quanzhou, and had consensus to jointly prepare an “Academic Symposium on China Southern Harbors and Marine Silk Road” and then make an application of declaring China Southern Harbors as World Culture Heritage to UNESCO.

 

In order to further investigate and demonstrate the maritime Silk Road being as world cultural heritage, and to provide more scientific position of this project, on Mar. 6 in 2002, the advisory office of Guangdong Provincial Government, the Research Institute of Culture and History and Zhujiang Culture Research Society composed a specialist delegation to Xuwen again, to conduct field investigation for the second time to the Xuwen Port in Leizhou Peninsula, the departure port of the ancient maritime Silk Road. These specialists and scholars held the following views:

 

1. It is recorded in Book of Han·Geographical that, the emissaries detached by Emperor Wu set sail from “Xuwen Hepu”. This is the first record of the maritime Silk Road in historical records. According to the related historical materials, Xuwen established the county in the sixth year of Yuanding in Han Dynasty (BC 111), and it belonged to Hepu Shire. In more than six hundred years from that time to the middle of Yongming in Qi Dynasty, it applied shire and county governing, and the government office was in the southwest of the present Xuwen County.

 

2. Through investigation into the ruins of Han Dynasty in Erqiao, Nanwan and Shiwei in Nanshan Town of Xuwen County, the archaeological research results can confirm that, this relics belongs to Han Dynasty, the era span is from the Western Han Dynasty to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the unearthed remains have building materials with rather standard, which have the features of government office as that time. It can be seen that here is the location of Xuwen County and Xuwen Port.

 

3. In places near the relics, villages like Huafeng, Haigang, Gangtou, Nagan and Ma Lian have rather numerous tombs of Han Dynasty; they distributes in groups, and there are tombs of ordinary civilian and tombs of civilian officials, and there are also large quantity of excavation. This reflects Han Dynasty’s social custom of “living in tribes, and burying in tribes”, which illustrates there are appreciable quantity of local residents and civilian officials with definite rank; that would be a powerful proof for seat of local government and port of Xuwen.

 

In conclusion, the peninsula cape in Xuwen Port that is in Erqiao, Nanwan and Shiwei in Nanshan Town of Xuwen County, is the one of the relics in the earliest departure port on the ancient maritime Silk Road.

 

In Nov, 2001, the advisory office and the house of culture in People’s Government of Guangdong Province combined with the specialists from People’s Government of Zhangjiang City, China Overseas Traffic History Seminar, China Cultural Relics Research Institute, the state bureau of cultural relics and scientific research institutions in universities etc, which were 88 people in all, conducted investigation in Xuwen; they visited the cultural relics exhibition of Maritime Silk Road in Guisheng academy of classical learning, Huajian Sugar Refinery on Guisheng Road in the west street in the city, the site clearing of Han tombs group in Nantan Park and the site of departure port in Maritime Silk Road. In the afternoon on Nov. 22, the academic seminar and forum between the Maritime Silk Road and China Southern Port was held in Xuwen. The host received 132 thesis , which were collected and published as the Proceedings on the Academic Seminar between the Maritime Silk Road and China Southern Port by Zhujiang Culture Research Society.

 

Strengthen the promotion, protection, development and utilization of the cultural heritages in the departure port of maritime Silk Road

The ancient port draws broad coverage by major media outlets in China.

 

The culture of Maritime Silk Road is the cultural treasure of Chinese nation. Xuwen county did a lot of work on promotion, protection, development and utilization of the cultural heritages in the departure port of Maritime Silk Road.

 

In recent years, by holding academic research conference about Maritime Silk Road, Xuwen county attracted many reporters from People’s Daily, Nanfang Daily, New Express, Southern Urban Daily, Guangzhou Daily, Zhanjing Daily, Zhanjiang Evening Paper, Guangdong TV Station, Zhanjiang TV Station, and Xinhuanet to report on Xuwen.Compile protection planning. The cultural sectors of Xuwen county made overall general survey and established records on the relics of Han Dynasty in the whole county. The county government successively issued Inform on Publishing the Second Batch of Important Cultural Relic Protection Sites in Xuwen County and Inform about Protecting the Remains of Departure Port in Maritime Silk Road in 1990 and 2000, which listed the remains of departure port on the ancient maritime Silk Road in Han Dynasty as key cultural relic protection site in the county, defined the protection scope, set up signs and strictly implemented the protection and management administrative regulations and policies, to preserve the sites of Han Dynasty, especially the sites of the departure port on the ancient maritime Silk Road.

 

In April, 2012, a historical and cultural study leading group in Xuwen County was set up to enhance the study on the culture of the maritime Silk Road. They edited and published many works about the departure port in Xuwen such as Exploration on Maritime Silk Road, Wind of Port in Han Dynasty, Records of Cultural Relics in Xuwen County, Two Thousand Years of Xuwen in Han Dynasty, Charm of the Silk Port, Silk Road of the South China Sea—the First Port of Xuwen and so on. They built up museums to make full exhibition of the cultural relics, pictures and the related materials of the departure port on the Maritime Silk Road in Xuwen. Xuwen has invested more than 10 million Yuan in the first stage to build the Three Clusters of Han Dynasty tourist attraction, construct roads, constantly optimize the site and the nearby environment of the departure port on the Maritime Silk Road and beautify the village appearance of Erqiao, Shiwei, Nanzhuang and other villages. By attracting investment, the second stage project introduced the Zhejiang Superman Group in China to forge a 4A scenic spot.

 

This year, Xuwen grasps the strategic opportunity that the central government offered to construct the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and vied for listing as the world cultural heritage. Xuwen will strive to construct the national level marine demonstration area, make scientific plans, constantly accelerate the development of marine industry and develop the economy of the port; combine the relics protection of the departure port on the maritime Silk Road in Han Dynasty with city construction and the development of tourism, to revitalize the ancient historical and cultural resources and inject new energy into the economic and social development, and to push forward the construction process of the coastal city.