Late last month, Dr. Liu Wei, the Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), was noted for his involvement in the excavation, research and declaration of the Huang Si Pu Site in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province during 2018. The site was excavated by Nanjing Museum of Archaeology and attracted global attention and young fellow Liu Wei was acknowledged by the National Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Ancient river channel of Huang Si Pu site and ancient bridge site of Song Dynasty

The site in question was one a busy port during both the Tang and Song Dynasties. It was the departure port for Jianzhen, a great monk of the Tang Dynasty, to go east to Japan. Archaeologists successfully excavated a wooden bridge site from the Song Dynasty in the river bed. They found six long horizontal beams, two short beams and two wooden grooves without cross-beams, along with several stakes at the end of each cross beam. Liu Wei was invited by Nanjing Museum of Archaeology to inspect the site and better understand this historical bridge.

Through his observations and supplementary exploration, Dr. Liu Wei concluded that this is a Song Dynasty wooden stack bridge. The so-called stack bridge was designed to build a gate-shaped beam-column frame at intervals and lay a bridge formed on the bridge. The wooden structure revealed by the excavation belongs to the basic structure of the bridge that remained on the river bed. By examining the scale and structural details of these remaining wooden components, Liu Wei restored the construction techniques from the original bridge’s shape. The wooden piles have been around for more than 700 years. The wooden bridge was about 50 meters long, traversing the Huangpu River. This reflects the prosperous scene of Huangpu Port in the Song Dynasty.

Dr. Liu Wei’s restoration of the ancient bridge in the Song Dynasty

Dr. Liu Wei graduated from the Technical University of Munich and has been engaged in the study of ancient Chinese wooden bridge structures. Dr. Liu Wei was invited to investigate the site and the restoration of the ancient bridge. The invitation confirms his academic ability and also fully demonstrates the style of young scholars at SUSTech.