The towering Helan Mountains meander in the vast sea of ??sand, blocking the cold current from the south; the surging Yellow River meanders in the vast Gobi desert, irrigating the land along the coast. It is precisely because of this kind of "care" and "love" that a "fortress to the south of the Yangtze River" has been created in the northwest.
This is Ningxia, one of the most "mini" provinces in China. It seems to have no "sense of existence", but it is an extremely "treasure place".
Ancient ancestors thrived and lived here, recording every detail of their lives using rocks as paper and pen; the Silk Road passed through here, leaving marks of the blending of civilizations; mysterious dynasties rose here, but they were very mysterious. It is about to be lost in the long river of history...
This is a dynasty full of legends but has been ignored for a long time. It started in the Tang Dynasty, traveled through the Five Dynasties, rubbed shoulders with the Song Dynasty, and stood side by side with the Liao and Jin Dynasties; it is inspiring and heroic It rises, is good at war, governs the country with an iron fist, and respects Buddhism; it invented writing, devoted itself to sinicization, blended the East and West, built mausoleums and built pagodas; it has a leader like a god of war, a cold-blooded and powerful woman, and an unyielding fighting spirit, but its final whereabouts are a mystery... …
A magical and colorful but tragic historical context, this is Xixia.
#HelanXunzong
Appreciate the long history of Jiangnan on the Fortress
★Ningxia Museum
A must-see museum in Ningxia . It is one of the museums with the richest collections in Ningxia. The cultural relics in the collection have distinctive local and national characteristics, deeply reproducing the history and glory of Xixia, and are unique among museums in the country.
Every exhibit in the museum is an important artifact of the country. The stone carved Hu Xuanwu tomb door, the gilt bronze bull, and the Hercules Zhiwen support have been identified as national treasures; the earliest existing wooden movable type in the world The printed version of the Xixia Buddhist scripture "Auspiciousness Pervades the Mouth and the Ben Tantra" is among the first batch of "195" cultural relics in my country (the first batch of cultural relics prohibited from being exhibited abroad).
Of course, you can’t miss the following: the gold hunting pattern Fangqi, the gilt bronze statue of Manjushri, the painted clay Buddha head, the gray pottery Kaling Binga...
In addition to this In addition, the image of components such as the Lux Zhiwen support used in the architectural decoration of the museum's exterior wall, as well as the decorative patterns such as Kalingbinga used on the wall, are all representatives of the historical and cultural relics of the Western Xia Dynasty and have distinctive regional characteristics.
★Hongfo Pagoda
The pagoda is about 25 meters high. It is a brick complex building with a three-story octagonal pavilion style and an overturned bowl style. The biggest feature is that the pagoda The height of the body and the pagoda are roughly equal, which is a unique structure among many pagodas in Ningxia.
The top floor of the Hongfo Pagoda is the Tiangong, which contains a large number of Xixia cultural relics: the painted silk Buddhist paintings have smooth lines and skillful brushwork, which have the characteristics of Tibetan Buddhist paintings; the painted clay statues are plump and strong, and are extremely shaped. It is expressive and reaches a high artistic level.
★Haibao Pagoda
The pagoda is 53.9 meters high. It is a square nine-story, eleven-level pavilion-style brick pagoda. It consists of four parts: base, base, body and brake. , all built with blue bricks. The architectural structure is rigorous and meticulous, with bright lines, rich layers, graceful curves, tall and rough shapes.
The Haibao Pagoda is exquisitely designed and unique in shape. It is the result of the fusion of Han Buddhist and Tibetan Buddhist architectural forms and the absorption of local Islamic traditional architectural features. It shows the various architectural styles of Han, Tibetan and Hui in ancient China. the talents and wisdom of our working people.
#大白高的王
View ancient pagodas, see rock paintings, and visit royal tombs
★Worship the Twin Pagodas at Sikou
Western Xia Period Buddhism is prevalent in the territory. The founding emperor Li Yuanhao built a Buddhist temple at the entrance to the temple on Helan Mountain. The temple was large in scale and twin pagodas were built along with the temple.
Both towers are 13-story octagonal hollow brick towers with dense eaves. They are only a hundred meters apart. The east tower is slightly more elegant and graceful, with jade trees facing the wind, while the west tower is stout and majestic.
The twin towers are gorgeous, with each floor decorated with various colored glazed tiles. The upward-looking lotus petal brake base on the top of the tower supports 13 layers of phase wheels as tower brakes.
A shallow Buddhist niche is built in the middle under the eaves of each tower. There is a brick Buddha statue in the niche. Both sides of the niche are decorated with round brick animal heads with a diameter of 30 cm, with beads in their mouths. The image is unique and rare.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, earthquakes occurred frequently in Yinchuan, and the buildings and houses near the Twin Towers were destroyed. However, the Twin Towers still stood proudly in the mountains, which fully reflected the superb construction industry of Xixia at that time. technology.
There are a large number of fragments of glazed components in the same style as the Western Xia royal tombs scattered in the courtyard of the Baisikou Twin Pagodas. According to research, these ruins belong to Buddhist temples during the Xixia period and were part of the palace building of Li Yuanhao, the founding emperor of Xixia.
Ten kilometers away from the twin pagodas of Baisikou, there once was a square pagoda of Baisigou. The Xixia Buddhist scripture "Auspiciousness Besides the Kouhe Bentan" was unearthed here, which is the earliest found in the world so far. The wooden movable type prints played an important role in dating the invention of printing in China. Unfortunately, the pagoda was blown up by criminals in 1990, leaving only the twin pagodas at Baisikou standing far away from each other, silently guarding the memory of Xixia thousands of years ago.
★Helan Mountain Rock Paintings
Helan Mountain Rock Paintings have rough and vigorous artistic shapes, simple compositions, natural postures, and strong realism. More than half of the total are mainly human heads. It also records the life scenes of ancestors such as herding, hunting, sacrifices, battles, entertainment dances, and copulations, as well as various animal patterns and abstract symbols such as sheep, cattle, horses, camels, tigers, and leopards, revealing the nature worship, The cultural connotations of reproductive worship, totem worship, and ancestor worship.
Among them, the most famous "Sun God" totem is located at the highest point among all rock paintings, where the sun shines all year round, with radiant light and wide-open eyes. There are three circles of awn lines on its head, 24, 12, and 6 awn lines from the outside to the inside, which are considered to be related to the calendar.
★Xixia Mausoleums
The Xixia Mausoleums are the imperial mausoleums and royal mausoleums of the Western Xia dynasties. They were built from the early 11th to the early 13th century. They inherited the Tuoba clan of Xianbei from Pingcheng in the Northern Wei Dynasty. To the history of Tuoba clan in Dangxixia Xixia.
Among the 119 national key scenic spots in China, the Xixia Mausoleum is the only scenic spot composed of a single imperial mausoleum. 9 imperial mausoleums and more than 200 tombs of princes and relatives are distributed at the foot of Helan Mountain , grand in scale and rigorous in layout.
Each imperial mausoleum is an independent building group in the form of a vertical rectangle facing north to south. The Xixia royal tombs are influenced by Buddhist architecture. Their form imitates the Song tombs in Gongyi, but also has strong Xixia characteristics. It is an organic combination of Han culture, Buddhist culture, and Dangxiang culture, forming a unique form among the mausoleum architecture in my country, so it is called " Known as the "Pyramid of the East".
Among them, the twin tombs No. 1 and 2 are the Jialing of Xia Taizu Li Jiqian and Xia Taizong Li Deming, and No. 3 is the Tailing of Jingzong Li Yuanhao.
★Xixia Museum
The new Xixia Museum is a special museum that comprehensively displays the history and culture of Xixia with the Xixia Mausoleum as the background.
The museum collects more than 3,000 pieces of Xixia cultural relics, including the national treasure-level wooden edge tower, which reflects the superb architectural level at that time; Xixia copper pots, gold bowls, and gold chains with typical national characteristics; the only existing ones in the country Tangut volume utensils and gold knives; Tangut documents recording the economic development of Xixia; Tangut clay movable type version of the Buddhist scripture "Vimalakīrti's Sutra" and various Tangut scriptures reflecting the development of Buddhism in Tangut; Tangut inscriptions recording the business activities of Xixia; There are Xixia woodblock prints that reflect the aristocratic life at that time; there are also a large number of Xixia woodware, porcelain, metal utensils, Xixia documents, etc.
#金石红典
Driving a long car to break through the gaps in Helan Mountain
★One hundred and eight Qingtongxia pagodas
The pagodas will follow It is built in steps by cutting stones from the mountain. It is divided into twelve stepped platforms, which increase from bottom to top. From top to bottom according to the mountain, the steps are 1, 3, 3, 5, 5, 7, 9. ······The odd numbers are arranged in twelve rows, forming a huge group of towers with a triangular shape in the overall plane. There are a total of 108 towers, so they are named after the number of towers.
The top one is larger in shape and has a square base. It is a through-hole Lama Pagoda; the 2nd to 12th floors are all solid Lama Pagodas.
The tower body is divided into 4 types: the first floor is in the shape of a bowl, the second to fourth floors are in the shape of an octagonal bulging belly and a cone top, the fifth to sixth floors are in the shape of a gourd, and the seventh to 12th floors are in the shape of a vase.
Cultural relics such as brick Buddha statues, Western Xia silk paintings, clay pagoda molds, and painted fragments of Western Xia scripture pages were unearthed in the pagoda. It is inferred that it was built in the Western Xia period.
★Xianzi Liang Tang Tomb
The six tombs are all flat-bottomed stone chamber tombs dug into the mountains. The door of the tomb is excavated on the cross section of the hill. It is a small door and the plane of the tomb is mostly square. The owner of the tomb is the He family, a descendant of the Sogdians who migrated inland, and is one of the nine surnames of Zhaowu.
The stone door leaf engraved with the Hu Xuanwu pattern unearthed from Tomb No. 6 has been designated as a national treasure. The door was made with skillful knife skills, delicate workmanship, smooth lines, vivid expressions, graceful postures, and strong realism. , has extremely high historical value and artistic value. In addition, wooden warrior figurines, horse figurines, glass balls, stone tripods, etc. were also unearthed.
# Silk Road Town
Come to Guyuan and experience multi-cultural integration
★Xumishan Grottoes
The Xumishan Grottoes were excavated in the Northern Wei Dynasty. It was built continuously in the Western Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties and flourished in the Tang Dynasty. It was the largest Buddhist temple and monastery in Guyuan in ancient times, and it was also the largest and most magnificent grotto group along the North Silk Road.
Both the Buddhist statues, painted murals and Buddhist legends in the Xumishan Grottoes each retain distinct characteristics of the times. There are both reliefs and high reliefs similar to round sculptures, which are full of rich breath of life.
The artistic techniques of stone carvings in Mount Xumi are in the transitional period between clay sculptures and stone carvings, laying the foundation for the grotto sculptures in Yungang and Longmen. The Big Buddha Tower in Cave 5 is an open-air seated Maitreya Buddha with a height of 20.6 meters. The Big Buddha is dignified and peaceful. It was excavated during the Wu Zetian period of the Tang Dynasty. Its height is second only to the Leshan Giant Buddha in China. Although it is carved from a sand cliff, the shape and carving techniques give people the same soft beauty as clay sculptures.
Cave No. 51, excavated in the late Northern Zhou Dynasty, is the largest cave with a unique shape in Xumi Mountain and is known as the "Light of Xumi". It consists of a front and rear main chamber and two ear chambers. There are niches on the left, right and back sides of the square tower pillars, with one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas in each niche. What is amazing is that on the rectangular Buddhist niche on the back wall, there are three large cross-legged sitting Buddhas 6 meters tall, which are exquisite in shape and majestic.
★Guyuan Museum
Historically, Guyuan has been the main route to the Western Regions since the Tai and Han Dynasties, controlling the Silk Road. It is both the "Gateway to Guanzhong" and the The only place you must pass from Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Zhangye, and Wuwei to Chang'an.
The collections of Guyuan Museum are most distinctive, including northern bronzes from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and Silk Road cultural relics from the Northern Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang dynasties.
The cultural relics in the collection reflect the culture of Guyuan in different historical periods and carry the epitome of Guyuan's thousands of years of history and culture. Among them, the lacquer coffin paintings of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the gilt silver pots and convex-nailed glass bowls of the Northern Zhou Dynasty are national treasures, and the gold rings inlaid with precious stones, iron knives with ring heads, Persian silver coins, Roman gold coins, etc. are all imported from Central and West Asia. The physical basis for cultural exchanges between China and the West.
In the fortress of Jiangnan, you can see the desolate ruins silent in the wind and sand, taste the history of the party that will be immortalized for thousands of years, "open" this low-key autonomous region, and see how many ancient mysteries and cultural treasures it hides?
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Editor｜Art Travel Culture