Shaimi City Ruins

Shaimi City Ruins

The Shaimi City Ruins are a protected cultural heritage site of Shandong Province.

The Shaimi City Ruins are located within Nigou Town, about 15 kilometers north of Taierzhuang. The site has an irregular dumbbell shape, measuring 90 meters in length and 80 meters in width, covering a total area of approximately 7,200 square meters, with stratified deposits about 4 to 6 meters high. The elevated ruins of Shaimi City stand prominently on the plain, offering an eastern view of the village of Macun and the former course of the Maozi River, and a western view of the north-south flow of the Zao-Tai Highway, resembling an earthen fortress that stands out strikingly.

In fact, Shaimi City is likely the accumulated remnant of an ancient fortress over thousands of years. Since 1974, provincial and municipal cultural relics and archaeology departments have conducted multiple surveys here, collecting and excavating more than 400 cultural relics and samples. Among them, intact and restorable artifacts fall into three main categories: pottery, stone tools, and bone tools. The pottery is mainly black pottery, decorated with bamboo-joint patterns and string patterns, mostly larger in size with elegant shapes, representing some of the finest examples of ancient earthenware. Stone tools primarily include production implements such as stone axes, stone hammers, and stone knives, all crafted using grinding techniques. Bone tools mainly consist of bone arrowheads and bone horn handles—bone arrowheads being primitive hunting weapons, and bone horn handles serving as shafts for stone tools. Additionally, there are artifacts such as gray pottery with folded bellies from the Zhou Dynasty, intact bronze arrowheads from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Han Dynasty pottery dou (bean-shaped vessels), petal-patterned roof tiles from the Wei-Jin period, and flower-mouth bottles from the Song Dynasty.

Furthermore, examining the cross-section of the Shaimi City Ruins reveals clearly stratified ancient cultural layers—the uppermost layer, about 2 meters thick, consists of yellowish-gray soil containing pottery fragments from the Han and Zhou Dynasties, including artifacts such as gray pottery dan (vessels), tube dan, tile fragments, pottery li (tripod cauldrons), and pottery jars. The second layer of the Shaimi City Ruins dates back to the Shang Dynasty, with artifact fragments including gray pottery li feet, li rims, broken stone tools, pottery jar pieces, and clam shell fragments, about 2 meters thick. This layer can be further divided into several sub-layers, each ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 meters in thickness. Some sub-layers consist of gray soil deposits, while others are made up of unburned charcoal or red-burnt earth. The third layer of the Shaimi City Ruins belongs to the Longshan Culture period, where the gray soil contains numerous clam shells, river snail shells, as well as fragmented stone tools and polished black pottery pieces. Among the identifiable pottery fragments are items such as the feet of ghost-faced tripods, tripod rims, basin rims, jar handles, and dou handles. Based on this, it is inferred that the lowest cultural layer of the site belongs to the Chengziya type of the Longshan Culture in Shandong, with strata containing artifacts from the early, middle, and late periods of the Longshan Culture, consistent with the cultural features of similar sites in the surrounding areas. After the residents of the Longshan Culture period, the ancestors of the Shang, Zhou, and Han Dynasties all left their heavy footsteps at Shaimi City.

The immense value of the Shaimi City Ruins stems from the great antiquity of the accumulated remains and the grandeur of their scale and structure. However, the site’s original name is unknown. As for its current name, Shaimi City, it is said to originate from a folk legend related to Emperor Wu of Liang.

Emperor Wu of Liang (464–549), whose personal name was Xiao Yan and courtesy name Shuda, was a native of Zhongdu Township in Lanling Commandery during the Southern Dynasties. He possessed remarkable political, military, and literary talents and achievements, making significant contributions to the governance and stability of the Southern Qi, and eventually founding the Liang Dynasty. During his service under Emperor Ming of Southern Qi, the Qi Dynasty faced an invasion by 300,000 troops led by Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei. Xiao Yan was ordered to lead forces to the Huai River front to resist the enemy and volunteered to serve as the vanguard, marching to rescue the besieged garrison at Yiyang. Leading his army, Xiao Yan took a shortcut overnight and arrived at Xianshou Mountain, just a few miles from the Northern Wei forces. He commanded his soldiers to plant flags all over the mountain and its surroundings. At dawn, the Qi troops in Yiyang, seeing the mountain covered in fluttering banners, believed that reinforcements had arrived and their morale soared. They quickly assembled and attacked the Northern Wei forces, while setting fires with the wind. Taking advantage of the situation, Xiao Yan also launched a flanking attack. Personally leading the charge, he waved flags and beat drums to boost morale. The Qi troops fought bravely, and the Northern Wei forces, caught in a pincer attack, were utterly defeated and forced to retreat. The Qi army ultimately won the battle. It is said that during this campaign, Xiao Yan mobilized a large amount of military grain from his hometown, Lanling Commandery, transporting it via the Maozi River to support the front lines. Unfortunately, the boats capsized midway, spilling the grain into the water. Soldiers salvaged the grain sacks and spread the grain out to dry on the foundations of two ancient city platforms on the west bank—the western platform for wheat, and the eastern for rice. After Xiao Yan founded the Liang Dynasty, these two platforms gained fame through oral tradition, becoming known as “Liangwang Shaomai City Platform” (Emperor Liang’s Wheat-Drying City Platform) and “Liangwang Shaimi City Platform” (Emperor Liang’s Rice-Drying City Platform), later simply called “Shaomai City” and “Shaimi City.”

Regarding the Shaimi City Ruins, the Yi County Annals · Records of Historical Sites contains a dedicated account: “Shaimi City and Shaomai City are both located thirty li southeast of the county, separated by a path, as if one city had been divided by a road.” The road mentioned between Shaimi City and Shaomai City is the predecessor of the current Zao-Tai Highway. From the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the present, this road has served as a vital transportation route connecting southern Taierzhuang, crossing the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and reaching Xuzhou and Huai’an. During this time, the Zao-Tai Railway branch line built by the Z中兴 Company in Zaozhuang, which crossed the canal and connected to the Longhai Railway via Taierzhuang, occupied the site of Shaomai City, and due to extensive subsequent soil extraction, Shaomai City no longer exists. The Shaimi City site has also suffered repeated encroachments, leaving only remnants of its former self.

Other sites similar to, related to, or in proximity with the Shaimi City Ruins include the nearby Lanqi Ancient City Ruins, Nantanzi Ruins, and other municipal- or provincial-level protected heritage sites, as well as sites near Taierzhuang such as Leitai, Fenghuangtai, and Dentang, most of which date back to the Han Dynasty or earlier. Compared to the Shaimi City Ruins, these sites are considerably less rich in cultural significance and archaeological value. Shaimi City encapsulates 6,000 years of history within a single mound, and its remaining ruins further underscore its preciousness. To preserve this important human heritage, the Zaozhuang Municipal People’s Government designated it as a municipal-level key cultural relics protection unit in 1980, and in 2007, it was recognized as a provincial-level key cultural relics protection unit by the Shandong Provincial People’s Government.

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Further Reading:

· Third Batch of Shandong Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units