The Ancient City of Lao Shen'gang

The Ancient City of Lao Shen'gang

The Ancient City of Lao Shen'gang is a cultural tourism attraction.

Site of an ancient Chu-Han city.

The Lao Shen'gang site is high in the middle and low around the edges, shaped like a turtle’s back. It is 621 meters wide from north to south and 823 meters long from east to west, roughly rectangular in shape, covering an area of about 511,000 square meters.

The cultural layer at the site is 3.5 meters thick, and unearthed artifacts include three-edged bronze arrowheads, spade coins known as “Da Bu Huang Qian,” jade pen holders, black-glazed porcelain jars, and double-bottomed porcelain lamps. Before liberation, there were four bridges at the four sides of the ancient city. Legend has it that this place was once the ancient city of Louzhou, which gradually fell into disuse after local government offices relocated due to a prohibition against building a prison within the city. In 1984, a cultural relics survey team discovered a tablet base and a fragmentary stone tablet faintly bearing the character “邑” (meaning “town” or “city”), leading to the preliminary conclusion that this ancient city was first built during the Chu-Han period.

According to the Qing Dynasty’s Xinxian County Annals: Shen’gang was the villa of Shen Zhuliang, the Chu Prime Minister. Shen Zhuliang, courtesy name Xishang, was a minister of the State of Chu in the late Spring and Autumn period. He was enfeoffed in Ye and thus called Lord Ye, associated with the fable “Lord Ye’s Love of Dragons.”

The ancient city of Lao Shen'gang is located at the eastern end of Lao Shen'gang Village, Shen'gang Administrative Village, Dungang Township, 12.5 kilometers southeast of Xinxian County.