Episode 1: Great Qin Xianyang Palace

Today’s Xianyang is an ordinary small city in western China. But more than 2,000 years ago, it was the imperial capital of the Qin Dynasty. The question of how the musician Gao Jianli climbed to the emperor's palace to assassinate King Qin became the starting point for modern archaeologists to explore Xianyang Palace. But when archaeologists tried to explore those thrilling years through Xianyang Palace, they found that the "vastness" and "bigness" of Xianyang Palace were unimaginable by people today. This put the archaeological work in trouble for a while. After research, experts believe that the imperial capital of Xianyang probably did not have a city wall at all! Its general layout is: Palace No. 1 is located in the Xianyang Palace City when it was first built. It starts from Tarpo in the west, goes northeast through Xianyang Plateau, ends at the intersection of Jing and Wei, and turns south to cross the Wei River. The entire range starts from Xianyang. In the center, there are hundreds of palaces, with a diameter of more than 80 kilometers. With the deepening of archaeological work, the outline of Xianyang Palace gradually emerged.

Episode 2: Tower of Babel

In the 5th century AD, Hu Chonghua, the Empress Dowager Ling of the Northern Wei Dynasty, built a huge pagoda that shocked the world and entrusted the fate of the entire dynasty to it. In 1962, the Institute of Archeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences established an archaeological team and began archaeological work on the ancient city of the Han and Wei dynasties in Luoyang. Among them, the most important result was to find the base of the 100-foot pagoda in Yongning Temple. Seventeen years later, when the team members were preparing to clean up and excavate again, they found a stone tablet inscribed with "Han Zhi Emperor". Could it be that this is not the ruins of the Yongning Temple pagoda base, but an imperial mausoleum? With this question in mind, the archaeological team decided to conduct a preliminary survey around the mound. Soon, the results of the survey surprised the team members. The pagoda was much more considerate than they imagined. The Yongning Pagoda, recorded in many ancient books, was excavated in this way, but its height became another mystery. After years of investigation, it was finally established as 147 meters in the 1990s. This is 500 years older than the existing wooden pagoda in Yingxian County, Shanxi Province, and is nearly twice as tall. But this pagoda did not escape the attack of lightning in the end. A thunder and fire destroyed the Yongning Temple Pagoda. Not long after the Yongning Temple Pagoda was destroyed, the decline of the Northern Wei Dynasty also began. Soon, like Yongning Temple, it became A passing cloud.

Episode 3: The Regret of Daming Palace

One day in 660 AD, Yan Liben, a famous court painter in the Tang Dynasty, received an urgent edict. The person who summoned Yan Liben was the most popular Empress Wu today. The queen wanted to build a new palace, and she wanted Yan Liben to be the designer of the new palace. During this period, the Queen repeatedly set her sights on a building on Longshouyuan that had been suspended for thirty years. This is the Daming Palace. Wu Zetian wanted to stay away from Tai Chi Palace and away from the nightmares she had had. The construction of the Daming Palace, which was suspended in the 9th year of Zhenguan, was resumed in 662 AD. In 1959, the archaeological team found the Daming Palace covering an area of ??3.3 square kilometers. But it was not until the late 1990s that the archaeological team finally discovered the frame structure of Hanyuan Hall. In this way, troops and people were mobilized, and the people and money were wasted, but the whole country remained stable and orderly. While rights and desires were being satisfied, the country was also prospering under the governance of Queen Wu, but dangers were still hidden in every corner of the palace. In 883 AD, soldiers from the Shatuo tribe entered Chang'an, burning, killing and looting wantonly. These rough nomads caused serious casualties to the Daming Palace with their rapidly destroying scimitars and torches. Since then, the Tang Empire, which was very prosperous in the Middle Ages, has passed away after 300 years of ups and downs. Although the Daming Palace has declined, Xi'an, as one of the largest cities in China, continues to shine with its civilization.

Episode 4 Huaqing Palace in the Tang Dynasty

In Lintong District, about 30 kilometers east of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province today, there is a beautiful Lishan Mountain. At the foot of it is the famous Mount Li at home and abroad. tourist attraction - Huaqing Pool. It is a building restored on the site of Huaqing Pool in Tang Dynasty. In 1982, workers accidentally discovered a building similar to a bathing pool while doing infrastructure construction. After expert appraisal, the Huaqing Pool of the Tang Dynasty, which disappeared for more than a thousand years, has reappeared. The archaeological excavation work at Huaqing Palace in Tang Dynasty lasted for 14 years.

Experts discovered 9 Tangchi ruins and Liyuan ruins at the foot of the mountain, and the Jilingtai, Chaoyuan Pavilion, and Laojun Hall ruins on the mountain. The location and shape of these ruins are completely consistent with the historical records. After in-depth and detailed research on a large number of historical materials, the overall scale of the Huaqing Palace in the Tang Dynasty was finally revealed to the world. This building covers an area of ??more than 1 million square meters, more than twice the size of the Forbidden City of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is a pity that such a magnificent masterpiece of the prosperous Tang Dynasty has been corroded by wind, rain and scorching sun for many years. Most of the buildings have fallen into disrepair and are buried under alluvial soil on the mountain. The most magnificent royal hot spring palace in Chinese history was slowly abandoned and disappeared into the smoke of history.

Episode 5: Lin'an Dream

In 589 AD, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty wasted money on Tang County, and a place name appeared in history - Hangzhou. By the Northern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou had accumulated abundant wealth and countless gorgeous buildings and gardens, and gained the reputation of "the first state in the southeast". Hangzhou should have always been so rich and prosperous. However, in 1127, Jin soldiers went south in large numbers and captured Tokyo, the capital. Under the escort of the Jin soldiers, the subjugated kings Song Huizong and Qinzong were forced to go north and became surrender ministers. At the same time, Zhao Zu became Emperor Gaozong and came to Hangzhou. Soon after, Hangzhou was designated as the capital and given a new name - Lin'an. In a very short period of time, the imperial city on Phoenix Mountain took shape. Changing from the majestic simplicity of the Han and Tang dynasties, the architecture of the Southern Song Dynasty no longer pursued grandeur in scale, and its structures gradually tended to be delicate and light. This is a major transformation in the history of Chinese architecture. In order to adapt to the warm and cold climate of Lin'an, the house is surrounded by not walls but a circle of lattice wooden windows from the eaves to the ground. This kind of building that can dissipate heat, prevent cold and keep warm is unique to the Southern Song Dynasty. Wende Hall, Daqing Hall, Wenshou Palace, the architecture of the Southern Song Dynasty is very different from that of previous dynasties. Exquisiteness replaced rigor. The emperor who was only good at poetry and painting could not successfully control a huge country, but the art of stacking stone and mountain building was full of talent in him. The design has been developed to the extreme. The Southern Song Dynasty soon perished, and Hangzhou also lost its title of Lin'an. The palaces on Phoenix Mountain have now been reduced to ruins. Today, in Hangzhou's prosperity, leisure and ease of life, the imprint left by the Southern Song Dynasty on the city can still be found, reminding According to people, there once was a name called Lin'an here.

Episode 6: King's Pagoda

On the bank of West Lake in Hangzhou, stands a well-known pagoda called Leifeng Pagoda. In 1924 AD, the Leifeng Pagoda, which had stood for thousands of years, finally collapsed. Seventy-six years later, an archaeological excavation truly revealed the legendary life of this thousand-year-old tower. In 2000, due to the needs of scenic spot planning, the Hangzhou Municipal Government decided to rebuild a new tower on the ruins of the collapsed Leifeng Pagoda. The archaeological exploration of the Leifeng Pagoda site soon began. The discovery of a stone tablet shows that the real builder of Leifeng Pagoda was a king named Qianchu of Wuyue Kingdom more than a thousand years ago. Archaeologists discovered that the Leifeng Pagoda, located next to the Jingci Temple in Nanping Mountain, was modeled after the Liuhe Pagoda, with a mixed style of brick and wood. When restoring the structure of Leifeng Pagoda, archaeologists discovered that Leifeng Pagoda was built with bricks to form an inner and outer sleeve, thus forming two corridors. This design is extremely rare. At the excavation site in 2000, this problem troubled archaeologists many times. The mystery of the day finally came to light. In just a few days, more than a thousand stone Buddhist scripture fragments were unearthed. It turns out that the outer corridor on the bottom floor of the tower was used to read Buddhist scriptures. During the excavation of the site in 2000, people discovered that the remaining text on the stone tablet inscribed on the construction of the pagoda revealed Qian Chu's wish to build a thousand-foot, thirteen-story pagoda that reaches the sky. What is puzzling is that in the paintings circulated by later generations, the image of Leifeng Pagoda is without exception, with only five floors. Later it was discovered that Qian Chu realized that his heart did not need to be taller than the tower to confirm it, so he went to the fifth floor. Deadline. In February 978 AD, the Leifeng Pagoda was finally completed after six years of construction. In the turbulent times of the Five Dynasties, with the firm will and the wealth of the country, in the hands of King Qian Chu of Wuyue, on the bank of the poetic West Lake, a pagoda with an eternal name finally appeared. However, as the country's dynasties rose and fell and theft of tower bricks became more and more frequent, the original solid foundation of the tower gradually weakened. The ancient Leifeng Pagoda is facing a new disaster. On the afternoon of September 25, 1924, the Lei Feng Tower, which had stood for thousands of years, was finally overwhelmed and collapsed.

The "Chinese Porcelain Tower" in the seventh fairy tale

There is a beautiful tower in Nanjing, China. It is known by the West for its radiant five-color colored glaze. It is known as the "Nanjing Porcelain Tower". She is the Glazed Pagoda of Dabaoen Temple. In 1408 AD, the Tianxi Temple outside Nanjing was burned to ashes by a fire. Four years later, Emperor Yongle Zhu Di decided to rebuild the Tianxi Temple. He wanted to expand the temple according to the Dauchi style, build a royal-sized temple, and also build a nine-level glazed pagoda. Facing the Baoen Temple, which has become a residential area, the archaeologists can only rely on the records and pictures left by historians. However, the glory of the Glazed Pagoda has become the fantasy in the hearts of every archaeological team member. Soon they discovered that on the top of the pagoda There is an open space in Courtyard No. 10. According to legend, this place is where the base of the Liuli Pagoda is located, and the archaeological team chose this place to start the first step of excavation work. There are two huge stone tablets on the Baoen Temple site. After inspection, it was found that the positions of these two imperial tablets have not been moved, which provides a very important coordinate for finding the base of the tower. On the north side of Courtyard No. 10 on the top of the pagoda, which had been excavated for half a year, the archaeological team first discovered the lime foundation trench. After repeated research and inference by experts, the circular place in the middle is probably the opening of the underground palace. After repeated inspections, it was finally determined that the underground palace was well preserved without any traces of excavation. A treasure was about to be opened, and a historical mystery was about to be revealed. In July 2008, the Nanjing Municipal Museum archaeological team finally prepared to officially open the underground palace. However, a small stone tablet discovered proved that this was just the underground palace of the Shenggan Relic Pagoda built by the people. Can traces of the beautiful glazed pagoda more than 580 years ago still be found? The archaeological work at the Dabaoen Temple site is still continuing. Experts are still working hard to find answers to the mystery of the underground palace. Various speculations about the Glazed Pagoda are still going on. After nearly 600 years, these colored glazes are still brightly colored and as bright as new, which is difficult to achieve even with modern craftsmanship. The Ming Dynasty was the heyday of the development of Chinese colored glaze, and the Dabaoen Temple Tower is the highest expression of Chinese architectural colored glaze art. 400 years later, the Glazed Pagoda collapsed under artillery fire from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army.

Episode 8 Fengyun Weiyang Palace

This is a powerful era in Chinese history. Its imperial palace is famous all over the world along with its splendid civilization. In such a beautiful palace In the glorious palace, imperial power and conspiracy, favored ministers and concubines staged bloody and secret killings. Today, archaeologists will restore to us Weiyang Palace, a turbulent palace in the Western Han Dynasty.