Yuyang Village Ruins (including Ming and Qing residential buildings)

Yuyang Village Ruins (including Ming and Qing residential buildings)

Yuyang Village Ruins (including Ming and Qing residential buildings) is a cultural relic protection unit of Henan Province.

Yuyang Village Ruins (including Ming and Qing residential buildings) Neolithic Age Anyang County

Yuyang Village is located on the scenic banks of the Zhang River, facing Hebei to the north, plains to the east, and hills to the west. Surrounded by neighboring villages, from a distance Yuyang looks no different from any other—it’s an extremely ordinary small village. But only when you walk into it can you feel the weight of its profound culture through every brick and tile.

Winding bluestone slabs stretch all the way until we come upon an ancient gate built from exquisitely arranged pebbles of varying sizes and shapes. Faint inscriptions on the gate indicate it was renovated in the 55th year of the Qianlong Emperor’s reign and has remained in use ever since, though its original construction date remains uncertain. The bluestone path beneath your feet also boasts several hundred years of history. All this brokenness and time-worn charm seems to silently tell the story of the village’s age and mystery.

Long Zhen Shan is known as the “soil doctor” in Yuyang Village because the relics he has collected and the conclusions he has drawn form what archaeologists recognize as a “living” history book spanning 6,000 years of Chinese civilization. Following Long Zhen Shan along the dirt paths or around collapsed old houses in the village, he chats with me while kicking around in the dirt with his foot. In no time, he’s gathered a stack of ancient artifact fragments. He shows these bits and pieces to visitors, explaining each one: that white porcelain shard is from the Song Dynasty, another brownish piece is from the Jin or Yuan period, and there’s a large fragment from a stamped pottery jar dating back to the Han Dynasty. As I’m absorbed in examining them, he takes me to another thorny area. Parting the brambles and digging with a shovel a couple of times, he uncovers two black tiles—the site of a kiln from the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi periods. Wandering through Yuyang’s streets, you’ll find ancient residences with elegant grey bricks and tiles, simple and classic in style. They don’t stand out ostentatiously but blend in perfectly with modern rural architecture, where ancient culture and contemporary atmosphere merge seamlessly.

In a courtyard, there are two relatively enclosed and well-preserved small rooms—that’s Long Zhen Shan’s museum. On the walls hang maps showing the distribution of ruins around Yuyang Village. Under soft lighting, the relics neatly displayed in transparent glass cases glow with diverse patterns and lusters, exuding a captivating charm. The rough yet concise lines resemble tree rings, telling their individual ages and tales from ancient times. Being there feels like wandering through the long river of history—an intoxicating experience. There are Ming Dynasty blue-and-white porcelains, Northern Qi clay figurines, Han Dynasty ear cups, Warring States tripods and pots, Shang Dynasty pottery li tripods, Longshan oracle bones, Yangshao pottery shards, peculiar pottery weights used in fishing nets, as well as bone arrowheads, bronze arrowheads, iron arrowheads... totaling over 3,000 items!

“On April 7, 1978, a Shang Dynasty ancient tomb was discovered on the north bank of the western gully of the village. It had already collapsed. In front of the head of the body lay a pottery li containing a animal bone with a hole drilled into it—investigation showed it was the grave of a commoner. Additionally, there were 14 cowrie shells, sea snails with round, smooth, and glossy surfaces in milky white, with small or round holes on the back. Cowrie shells were among China’s early forms of currency, recorded in Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions…” explained Long Zhen Shan.

Since 2004, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has evaluated the dynasty-classified relics of Yuyang Village as: “A powerful testament to the long history of Yuyang Village. Yuyang Village can be seen as a specimen of the 6,000-year evolution of an ordinary Chinese village.”

Further reading:

· Fourth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Henan Province