Tang Guangling Mausoleum is located on Yaoshan Mountain, 10 kilometers north of Pucheng County, Weinan City. It is the tomb of Emperor Mu Zong Li Heng of the Tang Dynasty. The main peak is about 1091 meters above sea level. At noon on August 21, 2021, my friends and I went to the east gate (Qinglongmen) ruins of Tang Guangling Mausoleum under the scorching sun——
The east gate site of Tang Guangling Mausoleum is located on the high ground between Qiaojiagou Village and Tangling Village in Pucheng County, northeast of Qiaojiagou Village and southwest of Tangling Village. The distance to the two villages is 500 meters, and the distance to the west is The main peak of Tang Guangling is about 1.3 kilometers. The terrain here is flat, the view is wide, and it is very eye-catching.
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We parked the car next to Tangling Village, walked into the fields to the south, and looked to the southwest. We could see two mounds, which are the east gate of Tang Guangling. The ruins of Quetai. Follow a dirt road through a field of farmland to the site of the Dongmen ruins. The two Quetai ruins are opposite each other in the north and south, about 70 meters apart, about 6 meters in height, and have a conical appearance.
On June 25, 2001, as an important part of the "Tang Dynasty Imperial Tombs", the East Gate Site of Tang Guangling Tomb was announced by the State Council as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. However, this place is far away from the core area of ??Tang Guangling and has not been effectively protected.
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About 50 meters inside the Quetai ruins, there stand two stone lions facing north and south, facing east and west, 20 meters apart. In the past, the stone lion on the north side was well preserved, while the upper body of the stone lion on the south side was broken into pieces. Now, after restoration, the stone lion on the south side has basically returned to its original appearance, and the traces of repairs can still be seen on the head.
Two stone lions squatting on the stone base are carved from a whole piece of limestone. The lion's body is connected with the base. The height of the body is about 150 cm, and the width of the chest is about 85 cm. The stone lion's head is square, with protruding brows and cheekbones, a plump body and rough carving.
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The stone lion on the north side is a male lion, with its body leaning slightly forward, its mouth closed and bared teeth, and its hair curly; the stone lion on the south side is a female lion, with its body slightly tilted forward. Lean back, open your mouth, and stretch your hair. These two stone lions are different from the stone lions left over from the south, west and north gates of Tang Guangling Mausoleum. There are obvious differences in body shape, expression and local details.
In April 2011, the Tang Tomb Archaeological Team of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology excavated the east gate site of Tang Guangling Mausoleum. At that time, it was discovered that the eastern half of the gate site was well preserved. The rammed earth foundation site was rectangular in plan, about 25 meters long from north to south and about 6 meters wide from east to west.
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The main body of the gate is a hall-type structure, facing east and west, with five rooms in width and two rooms in depth. The rooms on both sides are separated by partition walls from the inside and outside of the door. The three rooms in the middle are composed of 6 door pier stones and 4 wall pillars to form the doorway structure. During the excavation, collapsed wooden doors were also unearthed. Although the wooden door panels had decayed, the bubble nails on the door panels were still in place. Later, archaeologists packaged and extracted this part of the remains.
At that time, the archaeological excavation area was about 700 square meters, thousands of architectural relics of various types were unearthed, and more than 180 cultural relic specimens were collected, mainly broken bricks, tiles and other building materials. In addition to the discovery of well-preserved gate sites, archaeological excavations were also conducted on the Quetai ruins on the north side and the Liejilang ruins on the south side.
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The plan shape of the platform on the north side of the east gate of Tang Guangling Mausoleum is trapezoidal. The rammed earth structure of the platform forms three entrances from south to north. The four walls of the platform can still be See the remnants of the white gray wall. The bottom of the que is surrounded by a rammed earth platform. The bricks underneath the platform are relatively well preserved, and there are still bricks and water on the outside of the platform.
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In the blink of an eye, ten years have passed, and the gate site, tower and halberd gallery that were once archaeologically excavated have been backfilled. Today, standing on the east gate site of Tang Guangling Mausoleum, there are no underground ruins at all, only two stone lions still guarding here...