"After five years of thorough research, we found no evidence of
the legendary Epang Palace," said Li Yufang, head of the Epang
Palace research team and staff researcher at the Institute of
Archeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), at an
international archeological workshop held recently in central
China's Hunan Province, according to a report by
Beijing Morning Post on October 21.
In the latest archeological excavation, the research team
drilled in an area of 135 square kilometers, extending from the Zao
River to the east, the Pei River to the west, the Wei River to the
north, and the ruins of the Kunming Lake of the Han Dynasty (206
BC-220 AD) to the south. A total of 14 historical sites were
discovered, but none of them turned out to be the magnificent Epang
Palace belonging to the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-206 BC). Li Yufang told
the workshop that all of the ruins belonged to Shanglinyuan,
another imperial palace belonging to the Qin and Han periods.
In the past five years, Li Yufang has conducted several
excavations in places that were suspected to be the site of the
Epang Palace. Up to now, however, researchers have only found a
rammed earth terrace of the front hall of the palace. With a height
of 12 meters, the terrace was 1,270 meters from east to west and
423 meters from north to south. Ruins of walls remained to the
east, west and north of the terrace. In the area enclosed by the
three walls, no Qin relics were discovered and there was also no
trace of the famous fire that burnt the palace to ashes.
"Archeological finds suggested that the front hall of the Epang
Palace had partially constructed, but the rest of the palace might
have never been built. The famous fire set by Xiang Yu didn't exist
too," said Li Yufang at the workshop.
Legend has it that the Epang Palace was built by 700,000
conscripts from all over the country at the command of Qin
Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. In Chinese
literature, the palace has long been a metaphor for the
extravagance of state administrators. Most people believed that the
magnificent palace burnt to the ground during a peasant uprising
that overthrew the Qin Dynasty.
Li Yufang's sensational discovery made a splash in archeological
circles. Some archeologists argue that although current excavations
have not found evidence of the Epang Palace, it doesn't necessarily
mean that the palace didn't exist. They insist that further
excavations should be conducted in a wider range of area in the
future.
(China.org.cn by Chen Xia, October 23, 2007)