Stone City Ancient Site

Stone City Ancient Site

Stone City Ancient Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Stone City Ancient Site is located in Sanchahe Town, Fuyu County, Songyuan City, Jilin Province. It is 100 kilometers from downtown Songyuan and 1 kilometer from downtown Fuyu. This is an ancient city site dating back to the Liao and Jin dynasties. The site is rectangular in shape, stretching 500 meters from east to west and 400 meters from north to south, with city walls 5 to 6 meters high and a moat surrounding the perimeter. The ancient city walls are faintly visible, with well-preserved remnants. In May 2013, it was designated by the State Council as part of the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

The ancient city is situated on a slightly elevated terrace, rectangular in layout, wider from east to west and narrower from north to south, oriented at 350°. The city wall has a perimeter of 1,922 meters. The city has suffered severe damage—the eastern wall has completely disappeared, leaving only a barely visible slope and the distinctive soil color and texture of the wall foundation that hint at the original wall’s location. The western wall is incomplete and uneven, showing signs of human destruction, with the highest remaining section being 1.5 meters high. The southern wall has also been leveled, with a ditch dug along its foundation. Only the northern wall remains relatively well-preserved, with a base width of 13.5 meters, a top width of 2.6 meters, a trapezoidal cross-section, and a remaining height of 2.25 meters. On the western part of the northern wall, a battlement still exists, and at the northwest corner of the city, remnants of a corner tower can be seen. In the middle of the southern wall, there is a noticeable gap, likely the site of a city gate. A moat encircles the city, now silted up, with a width of 16 meters at the top.

Due to severe damage, the original layout of the ancient city is no longer visible. Only a gray soil band in the southern part and an earthen ridge in the northern part can be seen. The gray soil band in the south is about 13 meters wide and 300 meters long, while the earthen ridge in the north is about 3 meters wide. Both the gray soil band and the earthen ridge are scattered with broken bricks, tiles, and ceramic fragments, indicating the sites of former buildings. The northeastern corner of the city has been covered by residential houses.

The site has yielded a wealth of artifacts. These mainly include glazed pottery shards in soy sauce, yellow-white, and white glazes, hard gray pottery pieces, gray square bricks, textured roof tiles, and copper coins. In 1958, 20 kilograms of copper coins were unearthed. In 1981, a beaded musical mirror was excavated (collected by the Jilin Provincial Cultural Relics Team in 1982). Also in 1981, the provincial cultural relics team collected a bronze seal, which had been unearthed near the ancient city in June 1970. The seal is rectangular, 5.3 cm on each side, and 3.95 cm in total height. The seal knob and ridge show clear signs of wear, indicating long-term use. The seal is inscribed with four characters: “利涉县印” (Seal of Lishexian County), in raised nine-fold seal script. The knob is inscribed on the left with “内府监造” (Made by the Imperial Workshop) and on the right with “正隆二年正月” (First Month of the Second Year of Zhenglong). Other items found at the site include stone mortars, foundation stones, small mills, iron pots, and iron arrowheads.

The copper coins unearthed at the site include Kaiyuan coins from the Tang Dynasty, Chongning, Daguan, and Taiping coins from the Northern Song Dynasty, Jianyan and Shaoxing coins from the Southern Song Dynasty, and Zhenglong and Daguantongbao coins from the Jin Dynasty. Based on the artifacts and the reign years of the coins, the city was built during the Liao Dynasty and continued to be used during the Jin Dynasty.

Volume 11 of the "Jilin General Annals," under the section on the historical evolution of Ningjiang Prefecture, identifies Stone City as the Liao Dynasty’s Ningjiang Prefecture. This is the earliest record specifying the era of the ancient city and its administrative status. Later historians largely adopted this view. The book "History of Territorial Changes in Northeast China Through the Ages" also concludes, based on the statement that “Ningjiang Prefecture should be west of the Lalin River and east of the Second Songhua River,” that “Stone City Ancient Site is likely the former site of Liao Dynasty’s Ningjiang Prefecture.”

Since the 1980s, some scholars have disputed the claim that this city was Liao Dynasty’s Ningjiang Prefecture, citing reasons such as the city’s size not matching the administrative scale of a Liao prefecture and inconsistencies with historical accounts of Aguda’s military campaign direction from Deshengtuo to Ningjiang. The true identity of this Liao-era city remains a topic for further research. However, based on a bronze seal found nearby, the city is believed to have been Lishexian County during the Jin Dynasty.

In 1961, the People's Government of Jilin Province designated this site as a Provincial Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Sanchahe Town: Established during the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong era, Sanchahe Town in Fuyu County is a major commercial hub in northern Jilin Province. Located between Changchun and Harbin, the town is traversed by the Beijing-Harbin Railway, National Highway 102, and the Tongjiang-Sanya Expressway from the center, east, and west respectively, giving it excellent transportation and geographical advantages.

In 1985, Sanchahe Town was designated by the Jilin Provincial Government as the first pilot site for comprehensive small-town system reform; in 1994, it was recognized as one of the “Top Ten Economically Strong Towns in Jilin Province”; in 1995, it was... More details about Sanchahe Town ++

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units