Juyan Ruins

Juyan Ruins

The Juyan Ruins are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Juyan Ruins are distributed across the territory of Ejin Banner in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Jinta County in Gansu Province.

The Juyan Ruins refer to a cluster of ruins including beacon towers and border walls along the frontier fortifications governed by the two commanderies of Juyan and JianShui under the Zhangye Prefecture during the Han Dynasty. The border fortifications stretch diagonally from the northeast to the southwest, covering a total length of approximately 250 kilometers. They were initially built in the third year of the Taichu era (102 BC) during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and abandoned in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. This defensive line served as a vital transportation route to the Western Regions and a shield for the Hexi Corridor. It also functioned to cut off connections between the Xiongnu and the Qiang, holding special strategic significance in the Han Dynasty’s military campaigns against the Xiongnu.

In 1930, the Northwest Scientific Expedition Team conducted an archaeological survey of the ruins and discovered over 10,000 Han Dynasty bamboo slips. From 1972 to 1976, the Gansu Juyan Archaeological Team revisited the site and excavated the Pochengzi Jiaqu Houguan (official residence) ruins, the Jiaqu Fourth Beacon Tower ruins, and the JianShui Jinguan (Golden Pass) ruins. More than 20,000 new Han slips were unearthed. These three sites represent three different types of beacon tower ruins. Through these excavations, a relatively comprehensive understanding of the architectural structure of Han Dynasty beacon towers was achieved.

The Pochengzi Jiaqu Houguan administrative office was constructed with two parts: the watchtower (zhang) and the enclosure (wu), both located in the northwest part of the ruins. It was a small fortress with a square plan measuring 23.3 meters on each side. The watchtower walls were 4–4.5 meters thick, built with adobe bricks, and the remaining height is 4.6 meters. To the south of the watchtower is the enclosure, which has a roughly square plan (47.5m × 45.5m), with walls 1.8–2 meters thick, built by rammed earth. Outside the enclosure gate was a curved wall resembling a barbican. Within a 3-meter area of the enclosure, four rows of pointed wooden stakes were buried, protruding 0.33 meters above the ground. Inside the watchtower and enclosure were houses, stoves, and animal pens. A wealth of artifacts were unearthed, including bows, arrows, bronze arrowheads, iron armor fragments, as well as iron farming tools, implements, and various daily-use items.

The Jiaqu Fourth Beacon Tower is located 5 kilometers south of the Jiaqu Houguan. The beacon tower is relatively large, with a remaining height of 3.4 meters, shaped like a square pyramid, and constructed with rammed earth. Each side of the base measures about 8 meters. On the southwest corner of the beacon tower is a hearth with a chimney, likely used to signal emergencies by producing smoke. To the south of the tower is an enclosure, 21 meters long and 15.2 meters wide, housing five rooms inside, with the enclosure gate facing east.

The JianShui Jinguan ruins are a border fortress city under the jurisdiction of the JianShui commandery. It can be divided into two parts: the gate ruins and the watchtower-enclosure complex. The gate has a width of 5 meters, with rectangular rammed earth platforms on both sides that house living quarters and staircases leading to the gate tower. The other part is the watchtower-enclosure (zhangwu), located southwest within the fortress. The watchtower is situated at the southwest corner of the enclosure, about 13 meters square, with a 7.8-meter square earthen platform built at its northwest corner. The enclosure is about 35 meters square, slightly smaller than the watchtower-enclosure of the commandery office. A large number of artifacts were unearthed, including weapons such as knives, swords, and arrowheads, as well as numerous fragments of clothing, shoes, and hats made of silk, hemp, wool, and leather. Grass torches used for signaling were also found. These artifacts reflect the military garrison activities of the time.

The Han slips unearthed at the Juyan Ruins cover a wide range of content, involving many aspects of Han Dynasty society, including politics, military, economy, culture, science and technology, law, philosophy, religion, and ethnicity. They not only document the garrison activities in the Juyan region but also preserve a collection of official documents from the mid-Western Han to the early Eastern Han Dynasty. These are invaluable historical materials for studying the history of the Han Dynasty. (National Cultural Heritage Administration)

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units