The New Shiyang Mines in Shuangbai

Records and questions:

The Shiyang Mines have a certain notoriety because these were the mines where armed conflict between Han and Muslim groups first led to large scale organized fights of militias. They are also quite mysterious because the tax quota dropped from 22,393.32 liang in the late 17th century to merely 5.5 liang by 1829, while reportedly some 10,000 men were involved in the fighting in 1849. When we visited the Old Shiyang Mines in 2011, we learnt about the New Mines and the Tianguan Mines to the east of the river.

The visit aimed to clarify the relative importance of the New Mines as compared to the Old Mines.

 

Fieldwork by Yang Yuda and Nanny Kim, 24 – 25 November 2016

Support by: Luo Xingfu 罗兴福, party secretary of Dutian sub-county 独田乡

Main informants: Luo Xingfu, Li Xun 李俊, head of the cultural bureau of Dutian sub-county

 

We reached Shuangbai just after 12. Since 2011, the country road from Chuxiong to Shuangbai has been replaced by an (almost finished) wide motor road. Luo Xingfu 罗兴福, the party secretary of Dutian 独田乡, was waiting for us with others. Over lunch secretary Luo told us that it would take 2 hours to Dutian and another 2 into the New Shiyang Mines, while the road to Dutian was just being under construction and therefore closed until 6 pm.

We therefore went for a walk around the tip of the natural lake 查姆湖 in Shuangbai, which is now a park (was a building site in 2011) to bridge the siesta break. At 2 pm we went to the local gazetteer office. A new gazetteer had just come out, which listed numerous old mines. The local historians stated that in addition to the Shiyang Mines, the Malong Mines 马龙厂, the Yeniu Mines 野牛厂, and the Tianguan Mines 添官厂 were important. Tianguan is a site south of the Malong River, in fact quite close to Shiyang, but rather difficult to reach by car. We decided to visit the Malong and the Yeniu Mines. We also obtained recent reprints of historical gazetteers.

At 3:30 we went to the Cultural Institute. It was a brand new building, and an ethnic exhibition was just under construction. The specialists of the Cultural Relics Office were away, but Mr. Su of the institute knew something about the New Shiyang Mines, specifically that old furnaces were still on site.

We met with secretary Luo for dinner and followed their car to Dutian in the dark. Dutian is a large village along a single main street, with one private guest house, new and clean, with wifi.

 

2016.11.25. Xin Shiyang Mines 新石羊厂

Secretary Luo had arranged for Li Xun 李俊 the head of the local cultural bureau and Mr Guo of the village administration to accompany us to the mines. The road to Baiheqing 白鹤箐, the last village before the mines followed the valley of the Malong river, then an upper branch heading west and eventually entered the valley of the Shiyangjiang, now turning south. The area almost entirely forested and very thinly inhabited. The forest looks to be under 20 years old.

During the long drive, teacher Li told oral traditions of Baiheqing. In 1994, a group of the Shuangbai Cultural Institute had visited the oldest inhabitant of Baiheqing, then 79 years old, who was the last descendent of local miners. The present inhabitants of Baiheqing, none has a family line with the mines. The foundation story of the mines: A story that a mule driver emperor looked for a suitable grave site for himself. He ordered someone to follow a water buffalo. The man was to walk as long as the buffalo kept walking and recognized the place blessed by fengshui by the buffalo lying down. The buffalo came down from Xiaguan 下关 and never stopped until it reached a place called Koumuzhuang 口木庄, where it lay down and would not get up again. All were convinced that they had found the blessed spot and the emperor hired many men to dig up a grave. However, every night the earth that had been dug up would grow back again. After digging had led to nothing for several months, the emperor became angry and set even more men to work. The digging still had no effect. One day, an old man who had to work on the grave realized that he had lost his pipe in the evening, so he went back on his own. Back on the site, he heard a voice saying: “We’re not afraid of a thousand men digging or a ten-thousand digging, we only fear copper nails and iron nails.” (千人万人挖都不怕,就怕铜钉铁钉钉下). He reported this and the man in charge found two newborn children, a boy named Tongding 铜钉 and a girl named Tieding 铁钉. He bought them from their parents, had two pits dug on the grave site, and buried the infants head down. They heard a terrible cry and blood spilled out of the mountain at two places, one named Xuechong 血冲, which is now renamed 德冲 (a village on the Malonghe) and the other [xxx]. In between the two sites, a white crane flew out of the mountain, the mountain dove, and it flew off towards Xiaguan. The fengshui spell was thus broken. The place where the crane flew out of the mountain was called Baiheqing, the place formerly called Koumuzhuang.

He also related the oral history concerning the conflict between Hui and Han. All miners were Hui, and the local Han in the area became jealous, so Li Wenxue 李文学 led others to take over the Hui mines. In the first battle, the Hui lost, and many were killed. A second battle followed, when the Hui returned with reinforcements to take revenge, and killed large numbers. In the mining area, many graves were left by these battles. [Yuda: this is a mixture. Li Wenxue is an Yi hero identified by Liu Yaohan 刘尧汉, who had nothing to do with the mining conflicts. Nanny: The graves near the mines appear to be from different periods, the dated ones were erected after the civil wars.]

Li Xun also told us that reportedly there used to be a huge stone mill at the New Shiyang Mines, with a stone over 10 tons, which was later covered by other material. [Guo and the village mayor stated later that they had not seen such a millstone.]. In the old times, the ore was carried out from the mines, then pounded into small pieces and washed to get rid of soil and light fractions, then ground by a mill that was worked by humans. After grounding, the ore was sieved, using five to six different sieves, that were graded more and more finely. Only the finest ore concentrated in this process entered the smelters. [Yuda: they later mentioned mills worked by oxen.]

According to local sayings, the Shiyang Mines had exploited only one of the hind legs of ten silver goats.

Li Xun also mentioned that two large old temples used to exist in the mines, the Old and the New Temple. In the New Temple, a copper bell of about 100 jin used to exist that was later taken to the primary school. At some point, an iron rod was used to strike the bell and eventually the bell cracked and was sold for waste copper.

Asked about other temples in the area of Dutian, he said that there was a temple at Zhulin’ao, which had been burnt but was now rebuilt and well frequented, and several shrines, one of which used to have 4 copper Buddhist statues, about the height of an adult, which were sold by the village government in the 1980 to finance the first phone.

The area of Dutian is 260 km2, the population 4700. Many villagers now make good incomes by selling mushrooms, timber and by raising cattle and goats. Goats sell alive at 32 Yuan per kg, not reached in the more remote corners.

Li Xun reckons that Baiheqing is at 1000 m, the Shiyanjiang at 650 and the New Shiyang Mines at 890 m. Upon asking, he stated that charcoal burning went on everywhere in the area, and that charburners from near and far used to sell to the mines.

We reached Baiheqing about 10 am. The village mayor 村长 was waiting for us and led the way on his motorbike (He also possesses a small truck and a car.) The track gradually descended along the ridge. Where the ridge became slightly wider, the mayor made s stop at the Old Temple 老大庙. The site was some 20 m above the track in the forest. Remains of a small building with earth walls consisting of 3 rooms were still standing, the main hall according to our informants. The dimensions were: height between 2.5 and under 1 m, thickness about 0.7 m, depth inside 5.6 m, total width 10.2 m. There were no remains of tiles or bricks on the forest floor, and the informants confirmed that the buildings used to have thatched roofs. Downhill of the temple site are many old graves. Some of the graves were within the temple compound, and would have been erected after the temple had fallen in disrepair. It turned out that we were at the upper end of the “Grave Mountain,” which extended down the slope and towards the river for roughly 1 km. According to teacher Li, there were some 2000 graves altogether. Nanny found three graves with small stone tablets, a readable inscription was of the Tongzhi period.

We got back in the car and followed the track down some way, until teacher Li stopped us at the site of the New temple 新大庙 and the market street. The temple site much resembled that of the old temple. The street consisted of a visible street some 2 to 2.5 m wide, with the bases of small cubicles to both houses, suggesting shops. The informants stated that this street used to be about 350 m long, but was how interrupted by the driving track. Graves extended right down to the street area. A broken up stele inscription had been assembled by teacher Li. Though missing parts, it was partly legible, recording the rebuilding of the Xiyue Temple 西岳宫 (Huguang guildhall) in the year Renshen ([lost] 一年岁次壬申, i.e. probably 1892).

Li Xun was convinced that ox carts used to be used to transport ores from the mines to the smelters and that the street had just the width for carts to pass.

A short distance on, on the SE shoulder of the ridge was a smelting site with several rows of cupellation hearths still recognizable. About 6 rows identifiable. Yuda and Mr. Guo measured the best preserved hearths:

Dome inside height 105 cm, diameter 125 cm, thickness of the front wall 35 cm, side wall 40 cm, 3 holes in the dome visible from the inside, with diameters between 1.5 and 3.6 cm. Triangular hole in the back wall, 13 cm wide. The other hearths in part showed larger inner diameters and heights. In the ceiling of the domes was a layer of ends of shatiao, around 10 cm in length, placed on end and plastered together with clay.

Slags, though apparently not in a thick layer as well as numerous shatiao around the furnaces. Below the street, the ridge falls off steeply into the Malonghe to the south and the Shiyangjiang in the west. From the lower end of rows of furnaces to about 40 height metres below the somewhat flattened and in part hollowed middle of the ridge is covered in slags. Apparently formerly in a thick layer, which has been recently dug up and shipped away for re-smelting. The driving track was evidently built for this purpose, as well as installations for loading trucks and some houses. The present surface mainly consists of waste rock from sorting, which covers the red soil to up to 2 m. The layer peters out towards the lower end of the dug up section. [Nanny: due to the steep terrain, it is impossible to say to which extent erosion has taken down waste materials.]

There were some more remains of cupellation hearths and other structures near the lower western end of the slag field. Among these was a smelting furnace with a large, square base over 2 m in width and length. According to our informants, this furnace dated to 1958. Teacher Le stated that when he first visited the site in 1995, there were some 200 tons of lead cakes piled up next to the furnace, left from the Great Leap. These would have been sold later. He also mentioned that he heard from old people that a wooden ramp was built down to the Shiyangjiang at the time to send the slags down.

A short way further down was a rectangular structure of stone walls, 4.8 m in length, 2.75 cm in width and about 1.9 m high. The height of the walls was still relatively regular, suggesting an open structure. On the eastern wall were two openings framed in bricks, 35 x 60 cm, with a square hole of 10 cm. On the northern wall facing uphill was a domed entrance, 90 cm wide, 100 cm high, about 110 cm deep, the inside opening covered with a millstone. The walls were about 60 cm thick, and there were two raised sections inside, about 80 cm deep and 60 wide, leaving a channel of about 50 cm in the middle, which was filled with earth. The purpose of this structure was unknown. [Yuda thinks that it may have been a roasting kiln] A nearby grave stele dated to 1857.

A little way down the western slope were 3 more hearths, similar in dimensions to the higher ones.

The informants told us that there were two other slag dumps in the area, but that this was the largest. Concerning the recent she selling of the slags, Mr. Guo stated that the company worked them for about 3 years, filling one [?] large truck per day. According to the village mayor, they may have sold 5000 tons of slags as well as old waste ores. The metal content [presumably lead] of known waste rock was about 3%, which was concentrated to 30% for selling. The loose rock that was visible near the smelting site was this waste rock.

The Tianguan Mines 添官厂 on a small nose above the Malonghe were pointed out to us. All informants confirmed that the Old Shiyang Mines were the largest and had the largest slag dumps, the New Shiyang Mines came second and the Tianguan Mines were somewhat smaller. [Yudan commented: according to the gazetteer, the slag dumps of the Old and New Shiyang Mines were some 4000 to 5000 tons, while there were 8000 tons at the Tianguan Mines.]

The village mayor took Nanny to look at a few mine entrances on the Western slope, clambering along northwards for a short stretch. The mining entrances began from the lower end of the graves almost down to the river, which was still at least 200 m below. According to the mayor, there were 70 to 80 on this slope. The six entrances seen were at the same level and quite close together, leading into the mountain at a slightly downward angle and about 25 m apart from each other, some as close as 5 m. Where the terrain was slightly less steep, massive fields of waste rock covered the slope. Rock of light grey with some quartz, similar to the waste rock at the Old Shiyang Mines. The mayor said that he had been inside the mines; the galleries were mostly narrow, but at times opened to large halls. The largest would be “as high as the trees,” which were around 15 m in this forest.

We returned to Baiheqing about 2 pm and had late lunch in the courtyard of the mayor. Near the village and in the forest beyond, we had a look at a recent charcoal kiln and at the remains of two kilns, which according to Li and Guo dated to the Qing. These were earth and rock structures about 2 m in diameter, with a flat dome, a door in the front and a chimney in the back. According to the mayor, a kiln produced about 500 kg of charcoal. He had not considered the amount of fresh wood that was required. He detailed that different sizes of wood could be used, as long as they were properly arranged, indicating diameters of perhaps 15 cm to thin sticks. We were also told that some of the old kilns were twice this size. We reached Dutian about 6 pm and Shuangbai towards 10 pm.

 

Results:

Findings and the information on re-smelted slags confirm that the Old Mines were considerably larger than the New Mines, while the Tianguan Mines apparently were again smaller. The scale of exploitations nevertheless was very considerable. The presence of kilns and the similar shape and arrangements of mining entrances suggests technical and organizational similarities.

The small temple remains in Nanny’s opinion are explained by the fact that these are the remains of restored buildings that date to the period after the civil wars, when re-exploitation of slags was practiced as a village industry (see Xinzuan Yunnan tongzhi, juan 64)

Last edited by: SV
Latest Revision: 2018-06-29
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