In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens famously wrote: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
No words describe the Southern Dynasty (420-589) better: an era of political turmoil, division and transformation.
Following the end of the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316), many people, including the wealthy and high-ranking, migrated southward.
In Song Shu (The Book of Song), the phrase fenggu shanze describes how aristocratic clans used their political privileges to enclose forests, mountains, and waterways on a large scale. Physical evidence did not emerge until archaeologists unearthed a relic site at the eastern foot of Jinfeng Mountain in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.
"The site turns the concept in the book into an actual, physical reality that we can observe and analyze," Chen Jing, who leads the excavation team at the Suzhou Institute of Archaeology, told China Daily.
Excavated from November to June, the site covers about 29,000 square meters, with 9,095 sq m as its core area. Inside this, and enclosed by a moat shaped like the Chinese character ri, archaeologists found two courtyards, a main hall, storage areas, and signs of metalworking, farming, and animal husbandry.
"It shows a multi-functional estate system integrating production, daily life, defense, gardens, and religion," Chen says.
"This indicates the aristocratic families did not simply occupy resources; they carried out systematic development and management of the mountain land," he adds.
The dig also unearthed stone mills, pestles, pottery spindle whorls, iron spades, and axes — tools of daily farm and textile work. Hoof prints and bones from cattle and pigs point to livestock. Slag and iron ore suggest blacksmithing, according to Chen.
These activities prove it was a self-contained world, Chen says, and were probably carried out by tenant farmers, laborers, or refugees who worked the land for the estate's owner.
He adds that these aristocratic families from the north brought with them organizational skills, technical knowledge, and a whole system for managing land and people.
It tells a bigger story about how the region developed after the southward migration.
Despite political instability, the period was known for its remarkable cultural and economic developments, with southern China becoming a hub of trade and cultural exchange, especially with Southeast Asia and lands in the Indian Ocean.
The site's core architectural remains may provide remarkable insight into the study of Chinese architectural history and its significance beyond China.
At the heart of the existing compound lies a group of building foundations arranged symmetrically along a central axis. A main hall, measuring about 249.5 sq m, is particularly remarkable. Archaeologists found that the original architect had designed it with as few interior pillars as possible to create an expansive, open space.
The whole site was carefully planned, with the moat following the land's natural shape and the courtyards divided by function. The main buildings line up on a central axis, with consistent spacing and symmetry.
"This was not built casually," Chen says, adding that it was designed first, then constructed.
"The Jinfeng site, with its remarkably well-preserved foundations and clear axial layout, offers a rare and precious archaeological reference point for tracing how architectural ideas traveled across East Asia — and how they took root, adapted, and evolved in different lands," says Cheng Yi, head of the Suzhou Institute of Archaeology.
Beyond the architectural significance, the artifacts unearthed also suggest that the Maritime Silk Road didn't stop at the coast, but moved inland along rivers and canals.
This is supported by a glass plate of Western Asian style discovered at the site. Thin, pale, and nearly transparent, it has all the hallmarks of soda-lime glass made in the Mediterranean or Sasanian Persia.
"This indirectly shows that maritime trade routes at the time may have extended from the southern coast deep into the heartland of the lower Yangtze," Chen says.
He adds that the region was not just a consumer of overseas trade goods, but also an important node in the northward extension of the maritime trade network, while playing a significant role in East-West trade and exchange at the time.
In the near future, the site will be protected and designated as an immovable cultural relic. The Suzhou Institute of Archaeology plans an exhibition at the Suzhou Archaeological Museum to show the public what was found, says Cheng.
