The Mianhuadi Mines in Huidong
Fieldwork by Nanny Kim and Yang Yuda, 19 November 2016
Main informants: Xin Wang 辛旺 and Deng Chengzuo 邓成佐, villagers of Mianhuadi
Mianhuadi village is located on the northern slope sits half way down a short side valley of the Jinshajiang, which descends not quite 10 km from a watershed range of over 3000 m straight east into the main valley. Although only about 5 km in a direct line far from the Jinshajiang, road access is only possible from Huidong. We reached the site from Daqiao大桥/Qianxinzhen 铅锌镇 in Huidong. As the village is too small to be known, we asked driver Mao to take us towards Xinshan 新山 (2200), the sub-county on the ridge above Mianhuadi. Mr. Mao knew the route and expected to take some 3 hours. The valley of the Daqiaohe descending to the Jinshajiang becomes very narrow a immediately downriver of Daqiao, with huge slopes to both sides. The watershed that rises up behind Xiaojiexiang 小街乡 (used to be a sub-county but is now abolished), seemingly close to Mianhuadi, is in fact over 2800 m high. Driver Mao had vigorously stated that there was no way of staying overnight in Xiaojie, and passing through he was obviously right. There is a new school, but hardly anything else that would make this a market village.
The Daqiaohe bends steadily southwards. The road clings to the northern slope, gradually gaining in height and winding in and out of many small side gullies. A former labour camp was sitting ominously on the southern slope in the morning light. Many small villages on the steep slopes, the new houses bright and visible – yet evidently not built to last. Some 30 km down the valley (probably no more than 10 km as the crow flies), the road climbs up on the ridge at Songping 松坪 (2050 m), momentarily looking right down upon the Menggu Plateau. A short way into the track that led along the southern slope we encountered a motor cyclist, who could not decide which way to circumvent our car, which had already come to a halt, and fell, but mildly, damaging only one of his mirrors.
As this was the first and only person we met, we asked anyhow, and the gentlemen was very helpful. He was in fact from Xinshan. He directed us to take another track down and even rang a relative in Mianhuadi to ask about the state of that driving track. They could not tell but stated that tractors could pass. Then he guided us back to Songping to make sure we got the right turn-off (he was heading to Songping). He also mentioned that some years back several thousand tons of slags had been sold by the villagers of 棉花厂 Mianhuachang.
From the turnoff at Songping at 2000 m, the track zig-zagged down a steep, barren nose, in fact Laotanshan 老炭市. It ended near the bottom where an apparently un-successful attempts at iron mining had cut off the last 30 m of the slope that turned into a cliff just above.
At about 10 am we left driver Mao and the car at about 1550 m and walked the motorcycle track to the village a little way up the north slope. (valley bottom about 1520 m, the lowest house of Mianhuadi village at about 1600 m). Two women with their goats left, but we found an elderly gentleman in the last of the 3 lowest houses. After initial communication problems were solved – Yuda switched to Yunnanhua (though later on he understood me, too) – he turned out to have the time and interest to be our guide. Mr. Xin Wang 辛旺, 67 years old (year of the ox), his family had moved to Mianhuadi 4 generations ago, when the mines were already closed.
Mr Xin knew about slag dumps (he referred to a “burnt slope” 烧坡) and about the old temples, and took us to all sites. We first set off to the slag site a little way up and to the east of the slight ridge on which the eastern village is built. There is a slight dell to the east with much stone and rock that leads to a massive instable slope that descends all the way from the top of the ridge to the brook below.
On the way, he told us that there used to be lots of slags when he was a kid, later a company boss bought them up, and the villagers carried them down to the Jinshajiang by mules. He paid 10 Yuan per 100 jin (50 kg), this was over 10 years ago, in the 1990s. He took part in this and maintained a mule, which he since sold. A good mule could carry 200-300 jin (100-150 kg) and it took 2 hours down to the river; they only made one trip per day. Per 100 jin some 10 Yuan porterage were paid. The trip to Menggu is reckoned as 60 li, takes from dawn to dusk [including the ferry].
Mianhuadi has about 30 households and is distributed over two small ridges. In the past, 10,000 worked the mines, and there was a Jiangxi Temple 江西庙, a Temple of the God of Wealth 财神庙, a Temple of the Mountain God 珙王庙, and a Temple of the Black God 黑神庙. Each temple had a stage.
The area in the center of the rill was still covered in slags. The extent of the slags across and especially the length (height) of the slag field could not be clearly established. The maximum width would have been across the entire rill, the length at present was about 50 m, the upper end being a recently planted orchard. Another unused area above the orchard suggests that the slags used to extend further up, possibly over more than 100 height metres. Depth in the middle was at least 30 cm, to which recent diggings extended. There were numerous ceramic sticks among the slags, many very thick, Mr. Xin knew that these shatiao 沙条 were used in smelting silver.
Mr. Xin was not clear about mines. He said that he had not seen any, but there was a story about a highly productive mine up on the instable slope, which was destroyed by a major landslide that also was the end of mining. He told us that the charcoal used to come from the opposite slope, the 炭市 [Old charcoal market].
From the slag dump, he took us back to the eastern ridge to show us the remains of the temples. The lowest was the Hongwang Temple, which extended over three terraces, beginning at about the second group of houses. Mr. Xin showed us the corner of the stage, a stone wall now about 6-7 m in height, perhaps up to 20 m wide.
Further up was the Caishen Temple. Mr. Xin explained that a wide flight of stairs used to lead down the middle of the ridge through the terraced courtyards of the temples. Some bases of the Caishen temple were still relatively intact, with built walls about 2-3 m in height and over 40 m wide and about 20 m deep. Four terraces were still in existence, with the remains of a vault gate (caomen 嶆门) in the centre of the second from the top. The temple area ended with the highest group of houses, where the ridge became even steeper. Yuda estimated the temple are at 2500 m2. We asked Mr. Xin which of the temples was the largest but he could not say. He remembered that the Caishen Temple used to have a bell that weighed 80 jin (40 kg), which could be heard several 10 Li away. It was taken away by the sub-county government.
Mr. Xin then took us to the western ridge and to the site of the Heishen Temple. This temple consisted of 5 to 6 courtyards, wich were also arranged on terraces and reached a width of over 40 m. In and near a house at the top end, we saw three small pillar bases.
In the middle group of houses, Mr. Xin took us to the home of a very old couple, where a pillar base with a diameter of 35 cm was placed. The old gentlemen’s name is Deng Chuanming 邓传明, 84 years old (year of the monkey, born in 1932), the oldest man in the village. We briefly sat down in his house, and Mr. Deng recalled that his ancestor used to be the tax master (kezhang 课长) of the mine and had come from Huguang. His name was Deng Chengzuo 邓成佐, and he oversaw the taxes of the Mines of Mianhuadi and of Shuanglong 双龙, 棉花地 [We had never heard of Shuanglong Mines in this area]. By the time of his grandfather, they were peasants and classified as landlords. They lost their land but were allowed to keep the house, which was built in the Jiaqing period. The timber of the house did not look ancient, but some parts were executed with some care.
Mr. Deng told us that there used to be 10,000 men at this mine, and 36 streets with 72 alleys, and 48 furnaces. The tax master was in charge of the furnaces. He also heard that many were Muslims. He still knew of Muslim graves, several 10 Mu of land, which are now levelled. When asked whether the miners were mostly Hui or mostly Han and where the Muslims prayed, he did not know. He remembered, however, that a stele used to exist near the house of one of his younger relatives.
This was Shen Daoming 沈道明, 70 years old. He confirmed that there was a stone tablet nearby at a small brook where the women used to wash. We went to the place at a short distance from the houses. It turned out to be a grave stele that was partly buried.
Mr. Xin or Mr. Shen then thought of another stele and we went around the group of houses. The stele was broken but carried an interesting settlement of a conflict with the charcoal burners.
As it was already 3 pm, we had to head back, as we were not keen to travel on the mountain roads in the dark. We briefly passed by Mr. Xin’s home again as he said that he had some things to show. He had lead pieces and some ore, specimen he had presumably picked from the slag dumps. We acquired a layered piece of lead that appeared to have been formed at a snout or pipe to let off the lead.
We reached the car at 3:40 and returned to Daqiao at dusk.
Results:
The existence of exceptionally large temples consisting several courtyards is certain, even if some details related by Mr. Xin were incorrect. These document an outstanding importance of the mines as well as a relatively long period of exploitation. The findings correlate with the oral tradition related by Mr. Deng. Strangely, however, the amount of slags appears relatively small, while no mines or waste heaps could be located. The extreme gradient of the slopes and the possibility that the main mining area may have been located on the instable slope to the east might explain this. The rockfall and the end of mining probably happened before the mid-19th century, as no stories of Han-Hui conflict were known.
It may be added that we also found remains of unusually large and very lavish temples at the small town of Daqiao. Including a Guanyin temple, a Jiangxi Temple, a Caishen Temple, and a Sichuan Temple. These indicate a former importance of this town, either as a mining centre itself or as the transport node of the area. We suspect that the Xiaotongchang copper mines and the Dayingchang silver mines some 20 to 30 km south of this town were far more important that a single mentioning of the place name in the Dongchuan gazetteer suggests.
