Ruins of the Southern Gate of the "Three Yan" Palace City

Ruins of the Southern Gate of the "Three Yan" Palace City

The ruins of the Southern Gate of the "Three Yan" Palace City is a cultural tourism attraction.

The ruins of the Southern Gate of the "Three Yan" Palace City date back 1,663 years and are of great significance to the study of the ancient Xianbei ethnic group in China: the ancient Northeast Asia region was once influenced by the Xianbei, yet there are few historical remains available to research this ethnic group. This site helps deepen our understanding of Xianbei history and its influence in the Northeast Asia region.

The city of Chaoyang was first built in 341 AD and historically known as “Dragon City.” It served as the capital of the Former Yan, Later Yan, and Northern Yan (collectively referred to as the “Three Yan”) during China’s Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Jin Dynasties. During the Tang Dynasty, it was a key military stronghold in the northeast, but was abandoned in the Yuan Dynasty. The gate ruins of the “Three Yan” Palace City are located along the north-south axis of the old city area of Chaoyang, featuring a gate structure with three passageways. According to the hierarchical regulations of ancient China, only the gates of capital cities were permitted to have three passageways. Based on this, it is inferred that this section of the gate was the southern gate built when the Former Yan established Dragon City.

Archaeological excavations have also uncovered multiple sets of Sui and Tang Dynasty buildings, large-scale Liao and Jin Dynasty architectural remains, an urban drainage system predating the Liao Dynasty, as well as a large quantity of pottery, porcelain, and ironware. On both sides, city walls extend eastward and westward, from which one can faintly glimpse the bustling prosperity and advanced urban planning system of “Dragon City” in its heyday. Through examination by the archaeological team of the gate ruins and other unearthed artifacts, it has been determined that the gate structure underwent renovations and expansions during the Northern Wei, Tang, and Liao Dynasties.

Starting in 2003, the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted focused exploration and excavation on the western side of Chaoyang’s North Avenue. In addition to the gate ruins, they discovered important relics over 1,000 years old, including buildings, roads, canals, and wells, as well as more than 1,000 artifacts such as pottery, porcelain, bone tools, stone Buddhist statues, and stone reliquaries containing Buddhist sarira. Among the unearthed relics, there were also items reflecting the social and cultural life of the time, such as bone combs, stone Go pieces, fishing net weights, copper scissors, and various human head figurines.