Original National Day Chinese Architectural History Journal
Restoration is one of the important contents in the study of architectural history. There are many different systems for the restoration of architectural sites, such as experimental archaeological means and computer technology, but they are consistent in reproducing the architectural appearance. Relatively speaking, the research on "restoration" in construction is much less. Through direct observation and analysis of materials, technology and structure, this paper effectively interprets the gate of the Huangchengtai in Shimao and traces its architectural history. The problem of construction is the focus of this study. According to the employment system of ancient books and records, the amount of employment of the gate of Huangchengtai is estimated, and the time required to try to "restore" the construction is estimated.
A hard interpretation of the gate of Huangchengtai in Shimao, Shaanxi Province
Work Norm and Construction Time of Huangchengtai Gate in Shimao
Guoqing Hua
Located in Shenmu, Shaanxi Province, the site of Shimao City was discovered in 1976, and the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology began to excavate it in 2011. Shimao is a large city site from the late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age (about 2300-1800 BC). The city gate and the city wall of Shimao show a highly mature architectural culture. Obviously, the prehistoric urban construction civilization did not start from the rocky promontory, and there must have been a long period of gestation and development before the stage represented by the rocky promontory. Therefore, the rocky headland is of great research value, and its archaeological achievements are highly concerned by Chinese and foreign scholars. Shek Mao has been continuously selected as an important archaeological discovery at home and abroad, and it has been listed in the "Top Ten Important Field Archaeological Discoveries in the World" in the World Archaeological Shanghai Forum in 2013, "Top Ten New Archaeological Discoveries in China in 2019" and "Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries in the World in the Past Ten Years (2011-2020)" in the Archaeology magazine of the American Archaeological Society in 2020.
It is the responsibility of prehistoric researchers to use scientific means to interpret the obtained archaeological data, identify, explain and reconstruct the ruins of the headland and trace the source of its architectural culture while excavating and recording the ruins of the headland. There are three different discipline systems in the restoration of architectural sites: first, experimental archaeology, a branch of archaeology, establishes ancient production and lifestyle on the premise of experiments. Second, architectural history, using the basic knowledge of architectural history, based on archaeological remains, documents or images and other information, to reproduce architecture. Third, the combination of archaeology and architecture, using computer virtual reality technology to restore buildings, to achieve simulation results.
From the perspective of building, this paper estimates the amount of labor and the time required for the construction of the gate of the Huangchengtai in Shimao, following the ancient books and hard work system. How much labor and time it takes to build the gate of Huangchengtai is a key issue in the historical study of Huangchengtai Gate in Shimao. The solution of this problem is not only of great significance to the study of Huangchengtai Gate in Shimao, but also closely related to the social population problem in Shimao.
Starting from the physical restoration and virtual restoration represented by Hattusha and Uruk, the author interprets the site of the Imperial City Taichengmen, conducts restoration research, and finally calculates the workload.
1 Hattusha: Rebuilding full-scale objects
Taking reconstruction as a research topic, based on truth, building a full-scale physical object, recording and publishing the whole process of reconstruction in detail, including construction and materials. So far, Hattusha is the first such research method.
Hattusha is the capital of the Hittite Empire (late Bronze Age, about 1700-1200 BC), located in Anatolia, now central Turkey. The word Anatolia comes from Greek, which means "the East". The aborigines here are Hatti, while Hittites are foreign, and their origins are not completely clear. They probably came from the Black Sea region and Pontic steppe, which were part of the extensive immigration at that time and arrived in Anatolia around 2000 BC. Before the Hittite Empire, it was the Hittite State (note: the Hittite State built Hattusha as its capital), and before that, it was the city-state period. Some modern scholars divide Hittite into two periods: the old kingdom (1700-1500 BC) and the new kingdom (1400-1200 BC). The reason for this division is that there is almost no information to test during the period from 1500 BC to 1400 BC. Many clay tablets were found in Hatusha, and Hittite characters were created with reference to Akkadian cuneiform in the two river basins. The most famous document is the bronze version found in 1986, which is the peace treaty concluded by two great powers-Hittite and Egypt in 1259 BC. Around 1200 BC, Hattusha was destroyed with the Hittite Empire, which scholars believe was part of the collapse of the Bronze Age.
Figure 1 Hattusha
In 1834, Charles Texier, a French architectural historian and archaeologist, discovered the site of Hattusha during the general survey in Asia Minor. In 1893-1894, it was excavated by Ernest Chantre, a French archaeologist and anthropologist. Since 1906, the German Archaeological Institute began to excavate it. Hattusha is divided into upper and lower cities, each surrounded by a wall. Xiacheng (Nancheng) belongs to the old kingdom period, and Shangcheng (Beicheng) belongs to the new kingdom period. The lower city wall is 2988 meters long and the upper city wall is 3270 meters long, with a total area of 1.8 square kilometers. The excavated building base shows the location and layout of the temple complex and the royal citadel (Büyükkale) (Figure 1). The burial area is outside the city, and most of them are cremation tombs. Hattusha is the most famous of the three gates of Shangcheng, namely Lion Gate, King’s Gate and Sphinx Gate, which are named after the stone carvings on the doorframes.
Up to 2006, the Hattusha excavation has been carried out for 68 years. With the increase of archaeological data, architectural sites and relief remains can be dated. On this basis, contemporary archaeologists have revised the date of Hattusha proposed by early scholars and demonstrated the relationship between the upper and lower cities. Simply put, the upper limit of the Hattusha era has moved forward.
Fig. 2 The lower part of Hattusha, red is the reconstruction part.
In 1986, Hattusha was included in the World Heritage List. Since then, archaeologists have worked hard to make the site an open-air archaeological museum. From 2003 to 2005, the German Archaeological Institute rebuilt two towers and a section of city wall in the lower city as exhibition buildings. For archaeologists, this is a comprehensive experimental archaeological project. On the original site, they reproduce the original appearance of the tower wall on a full-scale scale. The location is selected in the middle of the two city gate sites, next to the entrance of the ruins museum (Figure 2). The reason for deciding to rebuild the tower instead of the palace or temple is that there is only information about the facade of the tower. The information comes from indirect archaeological data-several pieces of pottery buildings unearthed in Hatusha, one of which is complete and decorated along the mouth of the pottery jar: the tower has two floors, with big beams and flat roofs, and battlements on it. The walls are red and the battlements are white (Figure 3).
Figure 3 Taocheng Tower, Anatolian Archaeological Museum
The reconstructed two towers and three sections of city walls are 65 meters long, 7-8 meters high and 7 meters thick. The plane of the tower is 9.4m× 10.1m, and the tower protrudes about 3m from the wall, with a height of 12 ~ 13m. The distance between towers is 19.2 meters (the distance between towers in Hattusha varies from 14 to 23 meters). In the three years of reconstruction, a total of 6772 people/day were employed. The goal of reconstruction is to truly reproduce the appearance of the city wall of the Hittite period, and the inside of the tower is not open to tourists. Because the pottery building only provides shape information, the structure and details of the reconstructed tower are designed separately according to local traditional buildings, such as two short walls in the tower to bear the weight of floors and roofs. In fact, the reconstruction work is the cooperation of experimental archaeology and architectural experiments.
Fig. 4 box foundation of city wall tower
The architectural technical features of Anatolia are adobe city walls and box-shaped stone foundations. If the adobe is built directly on the ground, the water on the ground will soak into the adobe, leading to the collapse of the wall. According to the inference of the site, Hatusha’s construction method is to tamp the base first, then pave the stone, and then build the stone base. Some stone foundations in downtown are built directly on rocks. The box foundation consists of two longitudinal parallel stone walls, with a transverse connecting wall between them to form a series of boxes, which are filled with soil (Figure 4). The stone used in the stone foundation is rubble from the quarry, which is large in size. The corner of the tower is made of trimmed stones, which are staggered and dry without mud. The early tower and the city wall foundation were integrated, and the later tower foundation was self-contained. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the towers were highly consistent with the city walls in the early days, and later the towers were higher than the city walls. The height of the stone foundation is unknown, and some remains are about 2 meters high. Holes were found on the vertical surface of the stone foundation, and it is speculated that the stone wall was reinforced with logs. The part of Hatusha adobe wall on the ground has not been preserved, and there are crossbars in the excavated adobe wall. Adobe is square, the size is 45cm× 45cm× 10cm ~ 50cm× 50cm× 12cm, and the adobe is mixed with grass, grass and pebbles, or only pebbles. The corners of Hatusha adobe wall are all rounded, probably because the sharp corners are easy to be damaged.
Fig. 5 Hattusha’s tower wall (inner facade), rebuilt in 2003-2005.
The reconstruction process of the wall of Hatusha Tower not only pays attention to the construction itself, but also involves the damage, maintenance cycle and life of the building under natural conditions (Figure 5). Strictly speaking, the reconstruction work is not completely in accordance with the real history, such as the use of motor transport building materials. However, every step in the reconstruction process has studied the original practice. The building materials used in the reconstruction are all traditional materials except nails and bolts, and the whole achievement was published in 2007.
2 uruk: Computer Virtual Recovery
Archaeological data show that the two river basins are the birthplace of urban civilization. Cities began to emerge in the lower reaches of the two river basins and gradually developed to the upper reaches. Uruk (Uruk, Sumerian, meaning "settlement"), located in the marsh delta downstream of the two river basins and on the north bank of the Euphrates River, was the largest city in the world at that time (3900-2900 BC). From Ubaid to Eridu and then to uruk, the time range is 5300-3900 BC. The civilizations in the two river basins were created by different nationalities, and the Sumerians were the earliest. The most important inventions of Sumerians include cuneiform writing, cylindrical seals, firing painted pottery, using pottery wheels and building boats. During the period from 4100 BC to 2900 BC, uruk was the political, religious and trade center of Sumerians, which was called the Uruk period in history.
In 1849, the site of uruk was confirmed by an Englishman, William kennet loftus (1820-1858), and was briefly excavated the following year. After 1912, the German archaeological team carried out excavation. The archaeological feature of Germany is to pay attention to architecture, and the purpose is not to find large-scale works of art. The excavation leaders are all educated in architecture and architectural history, and many of them are well-trained architects.
Figure 6 uruk
The plane shape of Uluke City is regular, and the adobe city wall is 8.7 kilometers long, surrounded by trenches. Around 3000 BC, the city covers an area of about 5.2 square kilometers. There are canals, wells, reservoirs and drainage systems in the city. There are canals all over the city to irrigate farmland and orchards. The inner and outer canals are connected (Figure 6).
Fig. 7 The integrated plan of the building in the center of uruk City, in which the colors indicate the relationship between the temples that are constantly being rebuilt.
Scholars believe that uruk developed from two settlements: Kullaba and Eanna. The highlands in the city are piled up by long-term residence, surrounded by city walls, and the new area is flat and low. The temple palace is located in the center of the city, with the highest mound and groups of buildings surrounded by high walls. The buildings around 3200 BC were not carefully planned, but the result of long-term reconstruction (Figure 7).
Figure 8 North Gate of uruk (2900-2350 BC)
As for the information of uruk City Gate, there is only one north gate plane: there is a wing wall on the outside of the city gate, and the doorway is about 3 meters wide. There are semi-circular pilasters on the outside of the city wall (Figure 8).
A) position b) plane
C) entrance
Fig. 9 Yi Rui Jiashen Temple District in the center of uruk City.
The information of uruk city walls and gates is concentrated in the "inner city". Yi Rui Jia Temple in the center of the city, also known as Irigal temple or E?gal (about 3000 BC), has a square plane. The city wall is double-layer hollow, made of adobe and covered with bricks, with a total thickness of 18.3 ~ 19.2 meters. There are two gates in the southwest, both of which are straight doorways (Figure 9).
Fig. 10 uruk Ianna Temple (stratum IVb)
A— Temple B— Colonnade (the "Z"-shaped courtyard gate is later than the stratum of the C courtyard gate in Figure 7) C— Mosaic compound.
A "Z"-shaped doorway was found in the IVb stratum of Eanna Temple Area in the center of uruk (Figure 10). The temples A and B are the same area as the compound C, and there is a height difference on the ground. You can enter the colonnade of Temple B and Temple A through Courtyard C. There are mosaics on the ground near the temple in the courtyard. The courtyard opens doors on the two walls facing the street in different forms. Double doors are symmetrically arranged on the southeast wall, and the doorway of each door is Z-shaped. The height of the courtyard wall is unknown, but it should be higher than people’s sight. "Z"-shaped doorways and gates are also found in the upper reaches of the two river basins and the Levant (Palestine and Israel). The walls of the Levant are complex and the gates are tall (Figure 11).
In 2013, a century after the archaeological excavation, the archaeological achievements of uruk were exhibited to the public in the museum. Subsequently, the German Archaeological Institute and the German Oriental Society jointly held an international academic conference. The research results of uruk published in museums and conferences include a series of restoration models of temple buildings. Since 2007, the German Archaeological Society and Berlin Virtual Conceptual Design Company have cooperated to carry out the Uruk Visualization project. According to the latest research, they re-examined the previous hand-painted restoration and built a 3D restoration model. There are three purposes of building models: first, to evaluate archives and materials, which is conducive to discussing the related work of the site. Second, it was used in the "Exhibition of Megacity uruk 5000 Years ago" (Uruk：5000 Jahre Megacity). Third, it will be displayed at the uruk Site Visitor Center. Computer models are divided into two categories: basic models and professional models. The former is used for public display and the latter for expert research. All restoration is hypothetical, so there is more than one scheme. Expert model, also known as technical restoration, considers many possibilities and compares them, but it is least inspired by other similar buildings. In other words, expert models are loyal to archaeological data and are not allowed to be interpreted freely. The specific method is to restore the map layer by layer, each layer has details, and realize the overall restoration based on various technical models (Figure 12). Using computer technology, integrating architectural archaeological data and comparing them in many aspects has become a research method of visual restoration. This emerging discipline is called"Reconstructive Archaeology".
Fig. 11 Portal and the Z-shaped doorway between them.
A) technical restoration: log is mounted on adobe wall, with flat top.
B) basic recovery: try different possibilities
Figure 12 Building C in uruk (3300-3100 BC)
3 Interpretation of Huangchengtai City Gate
Figure 13 Topography of rocky promontory
Figure 14 Huangchengtai landform
Shimao City (2300-1800 BC) was built in a mountainous area with a gentle top and a deep ditch (called "Maoo" locally), which consists of two parts, east and west, surrounded by stone walls respectively. The two parts share a stone wall and are connected by the city gate. There are four ditches in Xicheng, which merge and flow into Dongchuan ditch in the northwest, and then flow into Tuwei River at the foot of the mountain. Huangchengtai, located in the west of the central part of Xicheng, is a relatively independent Pingdingshan, which is more than 20 meters higher than the surrounding area (Figure 13). Huangchengtai is surrounded by ditches, and only the southwest corner is connected with the outside of the platform in a saddle shape. The city gate is the only entrance and exit of Huangchengtai, built on a hillside, facing 47 degrees east and north. For the convenience of description, hereinafter referred to as the city gate faces east (Figure 14). Huangchengtai has a wide field of vision. Standing on the platform, you can inspect most of the rocky headlands, ensuring direct contact with the East Gate and Gate 2 of Dongcheng and the North City Wall, and you can also look at the desert and Hetao jungle in the distance. In terms of altitude, the East Gate is 82 meters higher than the gate of Huangchengtai. The combination of the gate of Huangchengtai and the natural environment embodies the principle of local planning, and natural geographical conditions play an important role in the process of building defensive buildings.
Fig. 15 3D photogrammetry model of the gate site of Huangchengtai, June 2018.
Huangchengtai is a natural terrace with a height of 26.5 meters. The city gate is built on a hillside, covering an area of 5,300 square meters (72.6 meters from south to north and 74.9 meters from east to west) (Figure 15). Retaining walls are built on terraces along the mountain. The scale of Huangchengtai retaining wall and Huangchengtai city gate is quite large: the retaining wall located on the north side of the city gate is currently more than 100 meters long and 15.6 meters high. Pottery, bone, jade, bronze and stone carvings were unearthed in the process of excavating the retaining wall and gate of Huangchengtai, indicating that Huangchengtai is a political-religious and production-trade center. From the point of view of site selection, the builders of the rocky promontory used the terrain to protect the Huangchengtai.
Further analysis from the perspective of architecture can identify three clear and interrelated levels (Figure 16):
Fig. 16 Plan, elevation and three sections of the gate site of Huangchengtai.
A-A-South Pier Section B-B-North Pier Section
The first level is the main structure. The city gate consists of six structures: two piers, two wing walls and two barrier walls. They are the south and north piers, the south and north wing walls and the front and rear barrier walls. The piers and abutments are all solid rectangles: the south pier and abutment are long in plane from east to west; North pier, the plane is long from north to south. Wing walls are located on both sides of the square, and their rear ends are respectively against the outer corners of the two piers. The front barrier wall is a U-shaped plane independent shadow wall, which enters and exits the Imperial Tower on both sides, and the doorway is Z-shaped; The rear barrier wall is two parallel walls (discussed further below).
The second level is spatial sequence. The city gate is composed of three spaces, which is a 100-meter-long route. There is a huge square in front of the north and south piers, which is bounded by two wing walls. The space between piers and abutments is divided by small retaining walls, and the builders of rocky headlands use the terrain to protect the Huangchengtai. Further analysis from the perspective of architecture can identify three clear and interrelated levels (Figure 16):
The first level is the main structure. The city gate consists of six structures: two piers, two wing walls and two barrier walls. They are the south and north piers, the south and north wing walls and the front and rear barrier walls. The piers and abutments are all solid rectangles: the south pier and abutment are long in plane from east to west; North pier, the plane is long from north to south. Wing walls are located on both sides of the square, and their rear ends are respectively against the outer corners of the two piers. The front barrier wall is a U-shaped plane independent shadow wall, which enters and exits the Imperial Tower on both sides, and the doorway is Z-shaped; The rear barrier wall is two parallel walls (discussed further below).
The second level is spatial sequence. The city gate is composed of three spaces, which is a 100-meter-long route. There is a huge square in front of the north and south piers, which is bounded by two wing walls. The space between piers and abutments is divided into two parts by a small retaining wall, which is called vestibule and atrium in this paper. This part of the ground is paved with stones, and stone carvings are found on the ground in the atrium. Behind the north pier is a "U"-shaped space with wooden columns embedded in the wall (called "pilaster hall" in this paper). There is a door in the pilaster hall, and there is a guard room (or door school) about 5 meters in front of it. When people come to the square, they first face the front barrier wall and the north and south piers; Then enter the city gate along the bends on both sides of the front barrier wall; Through the vestibule, into the atrium; Follow the inscription and turn right into the pilaster hall. In the pilaster hall, people need to turn left and then left. Outside the pilaster hall is another school. Go on, and the gate on the imperial terrace will appear on the right.
Fig. 17 shows that there is a modular grid (grid unit is 13.5m× 10m from the south pier) with stone retaining wall, rammed earth core and stone paving.
The third level is scale and proportion. There are a series of proportional relationships between the gate structure and the site. The most important structure of the gate of Huangchengtai is two piers. The south pier has a small width and a large depth (spanning two platforms). Taking it as the basic unit, if its width is a (about 13.5 meters) and the platform depth is b (about 10 meters), the whole site size is 5A×7B；. The square size is 5A×3B；; The width of the north pier is 2A, and the distance between the two piers is 2A (Figure 17). Such a regularly display scale (or grid) is intentionally used in plan and construction. The above analysis shows that the builders of Shigao have mastered certain geodetic methods and have the technology of repairing the site. The skilled skills and level shown in the city gate planning are also reflected in the construction.
Fig. 18 A series of platforms with triangular cross-sections are built on the hillside by terrain (from north to south).
The city gate is built on a slope of 19 degrees, and there are a series of terraces since the square was built. After leveling, the terraces bear huge piers and barriers (Figure 18).
Fig. 19 Construction process of the gate of Huangchengtai (presumably): black is a stone wall and gray is rammed earth.
Up to now, the pier and abutment have not been excavated in the archaeological study of Maomao. At present, the main research object is the site topography and the gate structure. Regarding the construction sequence and construction technology of Huangchengtai Gate, the author’s research conclusions are as follows (Figure 19):
1) According to the topography, six foundation grooves are dug as the foundation of retaining wall, and the function of retaining wall is to support hillside and prevent soil deformation and instability.
2) Build three sections of platform (south side) along the contour line. Between the retaining walls, the fill is mixed with stones and compacted to form a hard and flat surface with a triangular cross section, which serves as the foundation of the south and north piers and the rear barrier wall.
3) The south and north rammed earth piers are built on the prepared platform respectively. The rammed earth pier is wrapped with a stone wall to resist the lateral thrust of soil and rain erosion. The rear barrier wall is built on the third platform and consists of a pair of parallel stone walls. The front barrier wall stands under the hillside in a U-shaped plane. Two wing walls on both sides in front of the city gate demarcate the boundary of the square.
4) Behind the rear barrier wall is the retaining wall of Huangchengtai. On the third platform, at the southern end of the rear barrier wall, an east-west stone wall was built to point the traffic route to the entrance of the north pilaster hall. There is a door before and after the pilaster hall.
The gate of Huangchengtai is a building gate, and there is a pier gate on both sides of the entrance. The pier is rectangular in plane and built on the base, which is built on the site prepared in advance. Archaeological findings show that the core of pier and abutment is rammed earth platform. Around the soil core is a circle of stone walls with a thickness of 3 to 3.5 meters, which is called the closed wall in this paper. The closed wall is made of clay bonded stones, and logs are applied horizontally in the wall. From the square ground to the center of the pier top, the existing heights of the two piers are: the soil core of the north pier is about 6 meters, and the south pier is about 4.5 meters. During the excavation, the white-faced floor was found on the south pier, which the digger thought was a relic of a building not in the same period as the Huangchengtai.
Figure 20 Looking at the North Pier from the South Pier, taken in June 2018.
The plane of the south pier is 13.7m× 21.2m, and the north pier is 26.7m× 14m.. These data include soil cores and stone walls. In fact, the closed wall consists of two or three layers of stone walls with different thicknesses, which are thinned from the inside out. It is impossible to build a multi-storey stone wall at one time. After cleaning and careful inspection, it is found that the pier angle and many parts have been greatly repaired. In other words, after weathering and other damage, stone walls have been renovated or added (Figure 20). In addition, the outermost layer of the closed walls was built on the stone paved ground in the atrium, indicating that they were added after the main stage of the city gate construction, and the width of these later added stone walls was about 1 meter. In this paper, the original stone wall is called the main wall, and the later one is the retaining wall. The multi-storey stone wall shows the continuous maintenance process of the gate of Huangchengtai.
The back wall of the north pier is the east wall of the pilaster hall. Visually, this wall is built on the north pier. In order to investigate its foundation, a hole was dug down the wall at its northern end, with a depth of about 2 meters, and the excavation stopped before reaching the original soil. Based on this, it is speculated that the wall was built on a prepared platform.
The front barrier wall is a shadow wall, with a U-shaped plane, 16 meters long and 3.4 meters wide (rammed earth core, external stone wall), with a height of more than 1 meter, and the wall surface is vertical without any points. Several carved stones were unearthed in the accumulation layer at the outer corner of the barrier wall. Stone carving is the artistic feature of Huangchengtai.
The rear barrier wall opposite the entrance of the city gate is the highest wall in the site. The rear barrier wall is composed of three parallel walls with a total thickness of 10m and a length of 24.5m. The uphill side of the wall is higher than the downhill side. In fact, the last of the three walls is much longer than the first two. It is the retaining wall of Huangchengtai, which is integrated with the rear barrier wall of the city gate. Each wall has a smooth surface, indicating that they are not completed at one time. Compared with the front and back walls, the middle wall has less stones and more mud. A row of holes with regular spacing can be seen on the wall surface of the front wall, which is used for applying logs during construction. The wall is a stone-loess-log structure (see below for details).
The square is located in front of the city gate and is defined by two long wing walls connecting the outer corners of the north pier and the south pier respectively. The tall pier is stacked on the wing wall, which is about 2 meters high. The square is about 65 meters wide from north to south and 33 meters long from east to west. In other words, the city gate retreated to the foot of Huangchengtai. In the design here, the wing wall has three functions: reaching out to embrace people who enter the Imperial Tower, guarding the gate from the wing wall and pier on three sides, and guiding the rain coming down from the hillside. The gate of Huangchengtai naturally drains on the slope of the hillside, and no drainage pipes are found.
Fig. 21 There is an inscription pattern on the ground stone in the atrium of the city gate.
In the U-shaped front barrier wall, the ground slope is 15 ~ 19, and two spaces with different heights and sizes are defined by a pair of short walls, the front is low and then high, and the front is small and then large. The short wall extends about 5 meters from the north and south piers to the doorway, and its structural function is a retaining wall. In this paper, these two spaces are called vestibule and atrium, both of which are traffic spaces, and the ground is covered with flaky sandstone, which is beneficial to drainage in the city gate and prevention of ground erosion. In the middle of the atrium passage, a group of paving stones are engraved with inscriptions, the meaning of which is unknown (Figure 21). There is no sign of wear on the stone surface, indicating that there is no wheelbarrow as a means of transportation.
A) Early remains of stone door sill and wooden door fan
B) Remains of later wooden doorframes
Fig. 22 Door address of pilaster hall
The entrance to the pilaster hall is in the northwest corner of the atrium, and two door addresses are found at the entrance. The early doorway was about 5 meters wide, and there were still stone door sills and wooden doors (identified as pine). The entrance site is downhill, and the doors are undoubtedly open outwards (Figure 22a). In the later period, the width of the entrance is about 2.5 meters. Carbonized wooden doorframes were found in front of the door, which indicated that the pilaster hall was destroyed by fire (Figure 22b).
Figure 23 Plan, elevation and photos of pilaster hall, July 2018.
The plane of pilaster hall is U-shaped, with land surface and built along the slope. On its wall, wooden pillars with regular intervals were found (Figure 23). The author focuses on the original state and function of the pilaster hall. In terms of the original state, it is unknown whether the upper end of the pilaster hall is closed because there is no evidence of the door remaining. In terms of function, the floor of pilaster hall is not paved with stone slabs, while the vestibule and atrium are stone floors, which means that their functions are completely different. After comprehensive consideration, the author thinks that the pilaster hall may be an inner hall with a roof.
The two guard rooms (or door schools) are close to the lower end and the upper end of the pilaster hall respectively. The lower bathroom is next to the northern end of the rear barrier wall, and the upper bathroom is attached to the western wall of the pilaster hall. The two bathrooms are similar in size, with a plane of 6.5m× 5.5m.. Burned wooden components found in the deposit in the upper bathroom should be the remains of the collapsed roof truss. The debris of mud wall painted with colored lines and blocks was also found on the ground, which should be the decorative layer of the collapsed wall. All these phenomena indicate that this is a room with colorful decorations and a roof. The patterns, colors and techniques of the murals here are similar to the fragments found in the East Gate, which are both evidence of the decorative style of Shek Mao.
The remains of the upper bathroom show that its structure is a wooden frame supported by stone walls. Based on all the data, it can be considered that the structure of the house is a wooden frame with slate and a flat roof. The burnt roof truss collapsed on the bathroom floor and the burnt wooden pillars embedded in the wall of the pilaster hall indicate the fate of the gate of Huangchengtai.
The layout of the gate of Huangchengtai is complex. As the first case of this kind of gate in this period, functionally, it is the only way to the Huangchengtai. Starting from the square, through the U-shaped barrier wall, there are carvings on the corner stones; Through the paved atrium, there are inscriptions on the ground stones; Enter the pilaster hall behind the north pier, and the wall is painted with colorful paintings. The winding gate route ends in front of the gate on the imperial platform. In 2018-2019, Shijie Archaeological Team excavated the gate of Huangchengtai and cleaned the stone floor at the entrance.
The materials used in the construction of the gate of Huangchengtai are earth, stone and wood, which are all from the local area: soil covered by mountains, sandstone in ditches and trees by the river. The technology used in mass building is to build a platform with rammed soil and wrap a stone wall. The stone wall is multi-layered, and the thickness decreases from the inside out, and the walls of each layer are flat. From the perspective of construction, we can know that after the stone wall is built, the wall surface is processed on site to make it flat; After the completion of the city gate, it has undergone maintenance, and several maintenance stone walls have been added outside the main structure. An important building technology in the headland is to regularly place logs in the stone wall to form a structural net in the height and horizontal direction. Regarding its function, the author speculates that logs are structural members of the wall and play an important role in construction.
With regard to the name of logs, in the 2013 report on the excavation of rocky headland, the digger borrowed the word "log". This term comes from the French Method of Construction (1103), which refers to the crossbar used in rammed earth walls ("one for every five feet"). "Building French" is the earliest, most complete and comprehensive building code in existence. According to the global archaeological data, rammed earth walls were spread all over Eurasia in the Bronze Age, so this article can’t go into details because of space. Judging from the archaeological remains in China, the early city walls were a combination of piled buildings and plate buildings. The plates used for stacking/plate building are slightly chiseled logs; Build the city wall and reinforce it with wooden stakes. Judging from the existing literature, Shuo Wen Jie Zi has the following contents: "Dry-ramming the end of the wall, planting-building a long version of the wall, and standing-rigid wood." Zhen Gan is also found in Shangshu Fei Shi. From the perspective of architectural technology, there are two research aspects of plate building: first, plate building. Second, reinforced piles. How to use the version? How to use piles? In China’s architectural history, this kind of problem is still inconclusive. Liang Sicheng was the first scholar to systematically annotate "Architectural Style". In his book "Annotation on Architectural Style", there are many discussions about the application of wood, Yongding column and hag wood in the system of building walls and cities. The discovery of archaeological sites in recent 30 years has accumulated a lot of clues to understand this kind of problem. For example, the wall of Lijiaya city site in Shaanxi (late Shang Dynasty-early Western Zhou Dynasty) was rammed with earth and covered with stone walls. There is a row of logs under the attached wall outside the East City Wall. A total of 28 skids were found under the 28-meter-high city wall, with different intervals. The wall of lianyungang rattan flower falling city site (Neolithic age) was built by stacking and adding plates.The middle and both sides of the city wall are reinforced with wooden stakes with a diameter of 20-26 cm and a spacing of 60-70 cm. The wall of Xishan city site (Yangshao era) is built in a square version. The plates cover an area of 3 ~ 4.5 square meters, and the plates are separated by regularly arranged wooden stakes. The diameter of the stake is about 30 cm. Dead wood ash was found in the hole of the wooden stake, which should be the wooden stake left in the city wall after the tamping was completed. There are gray marks left by wooden boards on the inner side of the wall of Mengzhuang city site (late Longshan-late Shang Dynasty), which indicates that the boards remain in place after tamping and have not been taken away. The Yongding column (or hag wood) and log in "Building French Style" are probably similar to the functions of wooden stakes and blocks used in rammed earth city walls. In addition, the pumping wall should be the wall where the wood is pumped away after tamping. For the horizontal logs in the stone wall, this paper uses the title of log to be consistent with the excavation report.
Fig. 24. The retaining wall of Huangchengtai regularly uses transverse rafters.
Fig. 25. Some logs protrude about 30 cm from the retaining wall of Huangchengtai.
On the huge retaining wall of Huangchengtai, the holes left by rotten clogs are easy to identify (Figure 24). Many clogs remain. They are natural trunks with bark and roots (Figure 25). The root of the tree is left outside the wall, which means that the tree is planed out. The tools found in the headland are hammered stone knives and grinded stone knives, spears and axes. It is difficult to treat the roots and barks with these tools. The horizontal spacing of clogs varies from 1 to 2 meters, with an average horizontal spacing of 1.5 meters, and the range of change does not exceed 0.5 meters. The digger thinks that the wood is about 4 meters long. The average vertical distance between horizontal wooden nets is 1.5 meters, and it is not clear whether there are vertical wooden nets at present.
A) rear barrier wall now
B) The distribution status and restoration of Mudong.
Above: there are 9 wooden holes left on the wall; Bottom: eleven clogs are restored according to the spacing law.
Fig. 26 Rear Barrier Wall
There are a row of 9 wooden holes (about 30 cm in diameter) left on the east elevation (or downhill side) of the rear barrier wall of Huangchengtai City Gate. The height of this wall is 1.8 ~ 3.8 meters, and the average distance between wooden holes is 2 meters (Figure 26a). They marked the places where other clogs were placed, and a total of 11 clogs should have been used. If four clogs are a group, the wall can be divided into three groups In other words, the wall may be built in three sections, with an average length of 7.65 meters (Figure 26b). As for the original height of the rear barrier wall, the author observed that there is a proportional relationship between the wood and the stone wall, and then thought that there was a construction relationship between them, that is, the height of the stone wall was determined by both wood and stone. It is assumed that two rows of clogs were used in the stone wall, and the vertical interval between them was 1.6 ~ 1.8 meters. Therefore, the height of the rear barrier wall is up to 5 meters.
Fig. 27 Before building the wall, the pilaster is erected against the wall.
Fig. 28 The wooden column does not exist, but the stone foundation is still there.
On the stone wall of pilaster hall, there are horizontal wooden holes and vertical wooden columns embedded in the wall (Figure 27, see Figure 23 for the location of pilaster). On the left side of the wall (facing the room), there is a row of column seats attached to the wall root, which are 20 ~ 30 cm higher than the existing ground, and the pilaster stands on the stone seats (Figure 28). There are two surviving corner columns, which are 1.3m and 1.4m in height and 30cm in diameter. Piles are part of the wall and may help support the roof.
To sum up, wood is used in three places: first, the door: wooden door frames and doors. 2. Inside the thick stone wall: logs are perpendicular to the wall facade and regularly placed. Pilaster hall: wooden columns are embedded in stone walls. They reinforce stone walls and may support the roof. The pilaster hall spans 8 meters, and no trace of pillars is found on the ground, so the possibility that the pilaster hall is completely covered cannot be determined or ruled out. The wood used in Huangchengtai has been identified: the wooden door at the entrance of pilaster hall is pine, the pilaster in pilaster hall is cypress, and the tree species of cloven wood is Platycladus orientalis.
Stone-making and wood-making technologies are dominant in the rocky promontory, which is obvious in the East Gate, the gate of Huangchengtai and the retaining wall of Huangchengtai. The use of wood for stone walls not only helps to improve the structural stability of the wall, but also plays a role in segmental construction and acts as a "scaffold" in the construction process.
Upper: North pier; Bottom: Nanduntai. Note: Dark color indicates the restoration part.
Fig. 29 Cross-sectional view of the gate of Huangchengtai (restored)
The characteristic of the city gate is the use of clogs in the stone wall, based on the fact that several clogs can be identified in the east of the north pier. Therefore, the wood is the starting point for restoration. After integrating the existing information, the following inference is made about the height of the north pier: the wall uses three layers of wood, and the vertical distance between each layer is about 1.5 meters. A gentle slope is built at the top of the pier for drainage, and a stone surface is paved, and there is a "wall" around the wall. The maximum height of the pier is 8m (Figure 29).
Figure 30 Restoration of Huangchengtai Gate
The gate of Huangchengtai has stood for 4,000 years and still retains a considerable height. Compared with the square ground, the south pier is 4.5 meters high and the north pier is 6 meters high. Assuming that only the top of the two piers has been lost, the necessity of increasing the height of the piers is eliminated, and only the top shape of the piers is restored (Figure 30).
Work hard to build the gate of Huangchengtai
According to Ci Hai, the meaning of the term "merit" is "merit", "work" and "goodness"; Also: "work hard, work also." The word "work limitation" comes from "Building French Style". The explanation of this term in the History of Ancient Architectural Technology in China is: "The quota for calculating the amount of labor in the Building Method is called’ work limit’. We can be deeply impressed by the precision and thoroughness of the calculation of labor days in the project budget of the Song Dynasty. " "Building French Style" is a norm promulgated in the Song Dynasty, aiming at estimating work and materials and providing a basis for the project budget. On the basis of the experience of predecessors and craftsmen at that time, the compilers made detailed provisions on the architectural style and scale, material preparation and the amount of labor for each type of work ("fixed work").
The scale of Huangchengtai City Gate Project is huge. To spy out its construction period, we need to know the following information: project composition, organizational structure and management technology. Based on archaeological data, this paper estimates the information of the amount of labor, construction time and labor force of the gate of Huangchengtai, following the method of determining work in Building French. The reason for this is that the entry of "work limitation" in "Construction Method" is the only reference for studying traditional construction employment. There is a difference of about 3000 years between the writing time of "Building French Style" and that of Shijiao. During this period, the traditional city building technology can’t remain unchanged, but it should remain unchanged. We might as well treat the "work limit" created by tradition as a continuous whole. Based on archaeology and literature, this paper tries to discuss the power limit of the gate of Huangchengtai.
The relevant information of the rocky promontory is as follows: the pier and abutment of the East Gate are compacted rammed earth with clear strips, obvious rammed layer and hard soil, and the pier and abutment are surrounded by a stone wall. Some orderly holes were found in the wall, with round rotten wood traces in them, and the wooden holes were reinforced with grass mixed with mud. These holes should be reserved for the trunk embedded in the stone wall. Signs of rammed small plates were clearly found in the south pier of the gate site of Huangchengtai. The plates were rectangular, and the soil color was different due to different rammed blocks, mainly yellow, white and brown, with solid soil. The soil color of the rammed earth core of the North Pier is mainly yellow and dark brown, and the soil is hard. At present, the thickness of rammed soil layer, the shape, size and distribution of rammed nests are not known.
Ramming soil and formwork construction are ancient building techniques. The principle is: spread soil in foundation trench (foundation) or between formwork (wall), and ram and compact. So, how to ram? How to make it solid? With what tools?
Ramming construction methods and regulations can be found in "Building Method", which is detailed in the article "Trenching and Building Foundation" (Volume III) as follows:
The foundation system, each foot with two loads of soil. The interlayer is made of broken bricks and stones, etc., and also bears two loads. Every time the soil is five inches thick, hit six pestles first (two people hit three pestles in each nest). Hit four pestles each time (two people hit two pestles in each nest). Hit two pestles at a time (two people hit one pestle in each nest). Each of the above shall be leveled, then rolled with a pestle to make it even, then saved with a pestle fan and rolled again. Each cloth is five inches thick and the building is three inches thick. Each cloth of broken bricks and stones is three inches thick, and the building is one inch and five points thick.
The tamping tools used in different times and regions are different: the wall of Wangchenggang in Dengfeng, Henan Province (2455 109 BC) was rammed with pebbles, and the city of Pingliangtai in Huaiyang, Henan Province (2045 175 BC) was rammed with four wooden sticks. The west wall of Zhengzhou shopping mall shows that the diameter of the rammed nest is 2~4 cm, which should be rammed with a wooden pestle.
Relevant data on the thickness of rammed soil layer are as follows: the thickness of rammed soil layer of Chu imperial city wall is 12 ~ 21 cm; The rammed soil layer of Yanxiadu City Wall is 8 ~ 12 cm thick, that of Wei Guoyin Jincheng is 7 ~ 8 cm thick, and that of Han Chang ‘an City is 8 ~ 10 cm thick. It can be said that the thickness of rammed soil layer is about 10 cm, and the maximum is 20 cm (3 ~ 6 inches in song dynasty).
In this paper, the construction method of rammed earth is used to analyze the Huangchengtai, and the labor required to build the gate of Huangchengtai is estimated with reference to the provisions of "Construction Method". Based on the research on the restoration of the gate of Huangchengtai and the source of the stone for the stone building, this paper estimates the number of workers and the time needed for its construction by using the employment regulations and calculation methods contained in the Construction Method. It should be pointed out that the construction tools used in the Song Dynasty, such as shovels for digging, baskets for moving earth and stones, should be more advanced than those used in the construction of the stone platform. Therefore, the estimated labor should be the lower limit.
"Building French" has detailed regulations on the "merit" of each type of work. Work is the amount of work that a skilled worker can accomplish in a working day. The working days in February, March, August and September of the lunar calendar are standard working days, and their workload is called "Zhonggong". It is called "work limit" if it is limited to "successful work". Article "General Rules":
The internal strength of each type is limited, and it is counted as military industry. If you hire an artificial author, you will lose one-third of the military industry (that is, if you hire someone, you will get two credits).
This means that the military industry is a standard worker. If a military worker’s workload in a day is one work, migrant workers are two-thirds. In other words, a military worker works for two days, and a migrant worker works for three days.
The provisions for calculating the workload for building a city can be found in Volume 16 "Work Limit of Trenching" of Building French Style. Types of work include: digging, carrying, building cities (laying stones, tamping muck, scraping walls) and grinding stone surfaces. To a certain extent, the work limit of the trench village involves construction management, and the contents are as follows (omitted if not relevant):
Total miscellaneous work
Sixty catties of dry soil is a load (all things are subject to this), such as eight or more people for heavy objects, five or more people for stone sections, or famous glazed tiles, etc., each weighing fifty catties is a load.
Carrying things 30 miles away, one load reciprocates one work. If one hundred and twenty steps are counted as buttons. A total of one mile is required for each round trip, and so is sixty loads.
If the work is used to carry things, if it reciprocates beyond 60 steps (that is, below 70 steps), it will only be used for work. Or those who have no work to do, each 180 bears a work. Or less than 60 steps, each short step plus a burden.
Those who dig the earth and move the confession within 60 steps will earn one work every 70 feet (for example, if the ground is hard and the sand is mixed, 20 feet will be reduced).
The soil from the bottom is used for the work of the foundation wall of the altar. If the added version is more than ten feet high, one hundred and fifty will bear one work.
The digging, loading and basket loading shall bear one work every 330 (if the ground is hard or the sand is mixed, it shall bear 130 loads).
Tsukiji
Digging the foundation sites such as halls and corridors of the temples (if you go ashore for more than ten feet, you will not count the handling work), and if you are 80 feet square (that is, one foot for each length, width and depth), you will fill and build 60 feet of earth. If you use broken bricks and stone slag, your work will be doubled.
Zhucheng
Each excavation and filling of the city foundation is 50 feet and one work. The same is true for those who cut and dig the old city and build the female head wall and the dangerous wall on the soil.
In 30 steps, the earth will be provided to build a city e, from the ground to the height of 10 feet, and every 150 feet will bear a work (from more than 10 feet to 20 feet, every 100 feet; From more than twenty feet to three feet, every ninety loads; From more than three feet to four feet, every seventy-five loads; From more than four feet to five feet, every fifty-five bears the same. Its degree and the city’s level of competition are not allowed.
There are 200 pieces of grass, or 500 pieces of pegs, or only 40 feet of cutting the city wall (including lifting the rafters), each with a merit.
The provisions on the amount of labor contained in "Construction Method" show that: first, the amount of labor for each type of work is standardized, and the value of "work" is increased or decreased according to the actual work situation (distance and difficulty of work); Second, all types of work are basically completed by "Ben Gong". When the work (such as handling) distance is far more than 70 steps, another handyman is used; Three, the use of two units to measure the workload: weight unit (load) and unit of volume (cubic feet). Weight is used to measure loose objects, such as soil, stones, bricks and tiles, and volume is used to measure excavation and filling.
This paper uses the provisions of "Building French" to calculate the work: First, "60 loads in one mile" is equivalent to "60 loads in one mile". In other words, "work" = distance × weight, or "work" = step × load. According to the Song system, 360 steps are equal to one mile, and one handling work is equal to 21,600 steps ×1 load. Second, the "I-button" of the construction site is 120 steps, that is, a circle with a radius of 60 steps (92 meters). Among them, the employment of each type of work is calculated according to the "work" of each type of work. This rule applies to "work supply" within 70 steps (108 meters). If it needs to be carried by someone other than the "worker", it will be counted as 180 loads for one work. According to 180 loads and 60 steps, the workload is equal to 21,600 steps ×1 load. If the round-trip distance is less than 60 steps, one load will be added for each short step. The value of "step× load" obtained by this algorithm is less than 21600. For example, 50 steps back and forth, 190 bears a work, and each work is only 19,000 steps ×1 bear. This should take into account the time needed for basket loading and rest. Third, "paving and filling 60 feet of soil with one contribution each" shows that paving and filling and filling are two tasks that calculate the workload separately. From the point of view of labor, the increase of height increases the difficulty of earth transportation. Therefore, the work required for paving and filling "building a city with soil" varies with height, while the construction work remains the same.
The pier of the gate of Huangchengtai is rammed with earth, and the wall of the rammed earth is protected by flaky and mud. The similar amount of labor in "Building French" is that in "Building Foundation": "Pave and fill the earth and build 60 feet each. If you use broken bricks and stones, your work will be doubled. " In the following calculation, it is assumed that the rammed earth works 60 cubic feet, and the masonry wall (including mud) works every 30 cubic feet.
The numerical value of "Building French Style" is expressed by the length and weight unit of the Song Dynasty. According to Wu Chengluo’s investigation, the conversion ratio between Song Dynasty and modern times and the conversion relationship of common units are as follows: length unit: one foot = 0.3072m, one step =5 feet = 1.536m, and one mile =360 steps = 110.592m (Note: the definition of "step" is that the left and right legs are each stepped forward as one step. From the Tang Dynasty to the early Republic of China, it took five feet as steps and 360 steps as miles). Weight unit: one kilogram =0.59682 kilograms, one load of dry soil = 60 kilograms =35.8092 kilograms. Unit of volume: One cubic foot =0.02899 cubic meters.
5 Calculation of earth and stone at the gate of Huangchengtai
Barrier wall, wing wall and pier retaining wall are all stone walls. The wall is made of flat sand and rock pieces by staggered joints, and grass is mixed with mud between the stone pieces. The wall is neat and straight, and the surface should be polished, but the stones filled inside the wall are scattered. There is a stone foundation under the wall. The stone retaining wall of the pier and abutment is composed of a main wall (3-3.8m thick) and a retaining wall (1-1.2m thick), and the stones at the junction of the inner wall and the rammed earth core are leveled.
Fig. 31 Material distribution and area of the gate of Huangchengtai (stone wall in gray and rammed earth in yellow)
In this paper, it is assumed that the neat parts of the two walls of the stone wall are 1 meter thick, and the rest are scattered parts; The height is calculated by recovery (Figure 29); The foundation under the stone wall is 0.5 meters deep on average. The gate of Huangchengtai is built on the prepared platform, that is, the platform is trimmed and the foundation trench is dug according to the terrain. From this, the stone volume of the gate of Huangchengtai (except the north wall of pilaster hall) is calculated, and the total volume of stone walls is 6938 cubic meters; Earthwork volume, the total volume of rammed soil is 1640 cubic meters, including 1225 cubic meters obtained by digging the wall foundation and leveling the land (Figure 31).
According to the construction method, the excavation labor is measured by volume and the handling labor is measured by weight and distance. This paper assumes that the physical properties of the material are: the density of ground soil (excavation) is 1800 kg per cubic meter. Rammed soil "one foot per square, two loads of soil" is converted into modern metric system, which is 2470 kilograms per cubic meter. The density of stone (flaky, stone) is 2700kg per cubic meter.
Fig. 32 Huangchengtai construction site and the scope of taking stones and soil.
According to He Limin’s investigation, one of the stone-fetching remains of Huangchengtai is located on the cliff in the southwest of Huangchengtai, from which the distance between the stone-fetching point and Gongniu is obtained (Figure 32). Assume that quarrying works every 70 cubic feet; Basket loading 330 takes a job. Borrowing soil outside the "I-button" is within 120 steps from the center of the construction site, with an average of 90 jobs. Digging according to "hard ground or mixed sand", 50 cubic feet a work; Basket loading 130 takes a lot of work.
Materials for stone wall: For every cubic meter of wall, the average amount of soil and water is 0.3648 cubic meter and 0.1396 cubic meter. Soil without compaction can be regarded as accumulation volume. According to the author’s experiment, the density of soil and mud increases with the increase of water content, and the ratio of its density to its bulk density is about 1.6 under the same water content. From this, we can get (take two significant figures): the volume of mud in the stone wall is 0.35 cubic meters (including 0.24 cubic meters of dense soil), the volume of stone (excluding gaps) is 0.65 cubic meters, and the water is 0.11 cubic meters (some water is absorbed by soil and stone). In the scattered part of stones inside the wall, grass mixed with mud and stones are irregularly mixed, assuming that the content of soil and stones per unit volume is 50% (grass mixed with mud is ignored).
The wall density is calculated according to the density of soil and stone and their respective proportions. The soil density of the neat and straight part of the stone wall is calculated as soil, and the wall density =2700×0.65+1800×0.24=2187 (kg/m3), which is 2190 kg/m3 with three significant figures; The soil density of scattered stones inside the wall is calculated as rammed soil, and the wall density = 2700×0.50+2470×0.50=2585 (kg/m3). Take three significant figures and it is 2590 kg/m3.
The calculation results are as follows: the total volume of stone is 3,965 cubic meters, the total volume of soil is 4,430 cubic meters (including 1,225 cubic meters of excavated earth), and 3,206 cubic meters of soil need to be taken outside the working button (Table 1). Grass is used to mix mud for building stone walls, and 364 cubic meters of water is needed for mixing mud. It should be noted that the water loading tools are unknown and the water intake location has not been investigated.
Table 1 Earth-rock volume of Huangchengtai
Note: 1. Take soil from outside the construction site.
2.1640 cubic meters of rammed soil is equal to 2250 cubic meters of ground soil.
Therefore, the labor for fetching and transporting water is not included.
As for working hours, the Six Codes of the Great Tang Dynasty says, "Every service has its weight and merits." The article "Look at the details and determine the merits" in "Building French Style" says: "The summer solstice is long, and there are up to sixty minutes. The winter solstice is short, as long as forty minutes. If you succeed in the first class, you will waste a lot of time. Today, I would like to amend the following article according to the Six Codes of the Tang Dynasty. Those who say that they are successful are successful. On a scale of ten, one point will be added for long work and one point will be deducted for short work. Those who have made great contributions are called April, May, June and July. Success means February, March, August and September. Short work means October, November, December and the first month. " Obviously, this is to make the best use of sunshine.
The ancients took a day and night as 100 minutes. "Look at the details", the summer solstice is 60 minutes, and the winter solstice is 40 minutes, which is the approximate sunshine time in Henan. "Building French Style" does not specify how many hours "Zhonggong" is. Assuming that the "medium power" is 50 minutes, the "short power" is 45 minutes, and there are 5 minutes (1.2 hours) before and after the winter solstice. Considering that "short-term work" should also be carried out during sunny hours, the reasonable working hours are "medium-term work" for 45 minutes (10.8 hours/day), "long-term work" for 49.5 minutes (11.88 hours/day) and "short-term work" for 40.5 minutes (9.72 hours/day).
Among the hard work of various types of work listed in Building French, it can be compared with modern times because it is closely related to the carrying distance and walking speed. Generally speaking, people’s walking speed is 3 ~ 5 kilometers per hour. You can’t keep walking fast when carrying heavy loads, but you can walk faster when carrying empty loads. Therefore, you can assume that the average walking speed is 3500 meters/hour. Also, assuming that the loading speed is one load per minute, the time used is:
Fig. 33 Labor and time required for all the functions of "Building French Method" to carry things.
"It takes 30 miles to carry things, and one load reciprocates." Thirty miles to reciprocate is equal to 33.2 kilometers, which takes 9.5 hours, about 40 minutes. "60 steps round trip, 180 loads for one work", with a total distance of 33.2 kilometers, plus 180 loads, it takes 12.5 hours, that is, the upper limit of working hours. "For those who are less than 60 steps, one load will be added for each short step", and it takes 9 hours to load 210 loads in 30 steps, which is a general working time. The handling capacity and time required for 60 to 30 steps are shown in Figure 33.
It should be pointed out that the net working time and constant working efficiency are obtained by this calculation. The actual work should take more time.
According to the method of determining work in Building French, it is concluded that the total labor of the gate of Huangchengtai is 30,572 work (medium work), that is, 30,572 people ×1 day. As mentioned above, the Construction Law stipulates that three employees are equivalent to two military workers. If it is completed in February, March, August and September of the lunar calendar (a total of 118 days), it will require 389 employees or 259 military workers. The difference in the number of employees is due to the different working hours (the workload of an employee is two-thirds of that of a military worker) or the difference in effective working hours (6 hours/day for employees and 9 hours/day for military workers) (Table 2).
Table 2 Work Content, Material Consumption and Work Consumption
The mathematical calculation of the earthwork volume of the gate of Huangchengtai shows that it is possible for 259 military workers or 389 migrant workers to prepare the site, prepare materials and build the gate in four months. However, sufficient labor must be added to collect and transport materials, manufacture and repair tools, etc. For example, the construction of the city gate requires 4000 cubic meters of stones, and the stone taking place shown in Figure 32 may be difficult to meet the needs, so it is inevitable to take stones in many places. In addition, it takes manpower to prepare grass mixed with mud, cut grass, supply water and weave mud baskets. The water may come from a stream in a ditch, or there is a reservoir on the stage. Overall, it is estimated that the manpower invested in material supply should be 50% more. In other words, it should be 45,000 working days on average.
In this paper, the architectural form and construction activities of the gate of Huangchengtai in Shimao during the period from 2300 BC to about 1800 BC were reconstructed and measured: Shimao City consists of east and west parts, and Huangchengtai is located in the west of the middle of Xicheng. The gate of Huangchengtai is the only way to enter Huangchengtai, which is a pier-type gate with complex layout. The construction technology is rammed earth high platform, surrounded by stone walls, with wooden bones inside. The building is decorated with stone carvings and colorful paintings. So far, there are no words found in the rocky headland. Stone symbols on the ground of the atrium of the city gate, or the precursor of words. It took about 400 people to build the gate for 4 months. The gate of Huangchengtai provides good data for further study of the rocky promontory.
Thanks to Li Qinyuan for his special help in 3D photogrammetry and Yan Zheng for drawing. The Master of Architecture of the University of Melbourne (Studio 5 in the second semester of 2018) participated in the research project. ］
Brief introduction of the author
Guo Qinghua, Professor, Ph.D., School of Architecture, University of Melbourne, Australia, mainly engaged in architectural history research.
WeChat official account’s pictures and texts have been abridged. For a complete reading, please refer to Journal of Architectural History, No.1, 2022. All rights reserved, please indicate the source. The standard citation format of this article is as follows, please refer to it:
Guo Qinghua. A hard interpretation of the gate of Huangchengtai in Shimao, Shaanxi [J]// Journal of Architectural History, 2022,3 (1): 109-126.
Original title: "Academic Celebration of China: A Trial Interpretation of the City Gate of Huangchengtai, Shimao, Shaanxi"
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