Ruins of Pingle Ancient City

Ruins of Pingle Ancient City

The Pingle Ancient City Ruins are a cultural tourism attraction.

The ancient city ruins are located on the southern bank at the confluence of the Lipu River and the Gui River in Nanzhou Village, Fucheng Township, about 100 meters from the river on a secondary terrace, 3.5 kilometers from the county seat. The ancient city is divided into two sections: the Greater City and the Lesser City, both rectangular in shape and approximately 100 meters apart. Each section is surrounded by a moat that is five meters wide and three to 3.5 meters deep: the city walls were all built using rammed yellow sandy soil, and the foundations of both cities can still be identified. The Greater City is 290 meters long from north to south and 84.7 meters wide from east to west, covering a total area of 24,563 square meters, with walls four meters high and 7.4 meters thick. The main gate is located in the middle of the northern wall. The Lesser City is situated southeast of the Greater City, about 100 meters north of the Gui River, measuring 113 meters from east to west and 79 meters from north to south, with a total area of 8,927 square meters. Its walls are three meters high and six meters thick, and the city gate is located on the southern side.

In August 1988, the County Cultural Relics Management Office, together with the Autonomous Region Cultural Relics Work Team, conducted an investigation of the site. At the Greater City, collected ceramic fragments included those from a cord-marked pottery jar, glazed pottery jar, pottery water channel, pottery bowl, porcelain, and broken bricks. These fragments were divided into two categories: sandy clay and clay. The sandy clay fragments were reddish-brown and gray, most of the clay fragments were gray, and the glazed porcelain fragments were yellowish-green.

Almost no ceramic fragments were found in the Lesser City, leading to the inference that the Lesser City was built earlier than the Greater City.

According to the Pingle County Annals from the third year of the Guangxu reign during the Qing Dynasty, in the first year of the Ganlu era of the Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period, Pingle County was established by dividing off part of Fuchuan and was under the jurisdiction of the Shian Commandery. The old county seat was located seven li west of the city at the mouth of the Lipu River. Based on this, the site is believed to be the ruins of the ancient county seat.