Stretching for miles, the Daguan Mountain Range snakes along the
southeast of Xintian County in central China’s Hunan Province. At the top of the range
perches an ancient castle whose owner remains an enigma.
On October 13, an archeological team from the provincial
administration of cultural heritage arrived at the newly discovered
castle site and carried out careful surveying work, according to a
Xiao Xiang Morning News report on October 16.
The castle ruin has been maintained in perfect condition.
Together with five other “satellite castles” located in its close
vicinity, it forms an imposing castle group.
Situated 20 kilometers southeast to Xintian County seat, the
castle sits at 685 meters above sea level, the highest in the
mountainous area.
The main castle has 17 chambers, with floor space measuring a
total of 7,000 square kilometers. The rounded inner walling is 346
meters long and 4 meters high (previously 5-6 meters), and there
are gates on its east, west and north sides.
There are two cisterns used to store water fetched from down the
mountain. The overall castle was built by fine green slate slabs,
each weighing at least one hundred kilograms, requiring complex
masonry work. The slates were bound together by a kind of compound
adhesive (a mixture of lime, glutinous rice, and tung oil).
“This compound adhesive was usually used in building during the
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644),” He Qiang, vice director of the
administration, told the newspaper.
After further survey, the experts found another castle group
adjacent to the previous one. Such a groundbreaking find naturally
attracted more archeologists.
Xintian County is remote and sparsely populated, so
archaeologists wonder why the owner spent so much money and
manpower to build castles deep in the wilderness of the mountains.
Some experts believe that they were built by someone who had a
special status and kept a low profile.
Others theorize it served as a sanctuary for the Emperor Zhu
Yunwen (the second emperor in the Ming Dynasty) after he stepped
down in the wake of a coup. The historical materials revealed that
Zhu Yunwen became a fugitive after he was ousted from his regal
status.
Xie Wujing, an archeological expert, explained that such
complicated architecture could not be completed by an ordinary
citizen or mountain bandits. However, if it was constructed by a
high official, why did he seclude it from the outside by building
it high in the mountains?
“We cannot find any records on the castles in the local annals
which even put down the account of a small mountain stronghold,”
Xie said.
He Qiang said that some evidence divulged the castles were
probably built for fortification. “They were built in the highland
and commanded broad views. There are ruins of gun muzzles and large
cisterns,” he explained. “The discovery will provide a better
perspective on southern Hunan Province’s military history in the
Ming and Qing dynasties.”
(China.org.cn by He Shan, October 18, 2007)
