In Shaanxi, China, people like to call the Guanzhong Plain "cabbage heart", because Guanzhong is in the geometric center of today's map of China. Although the Chinese people have always been accustomed to dividing Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and other places into the northwest, the people in Guanzhong obviously do not agree with this.
In fact, the division of the region in traditional China is not based on the modern map, but on the core area of ancient China, the so-called "Eighteen Provinces of Han China" in modern times.
The "Eighteen Provinces of The Han Dynasty" refers to the area after the removal of the Kwantung and the four provinces of Xin, Tibet, Mongolia and Qingdao, at this time Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia are naturally northwest, and the geographical center is Hubei Province.
Hubei is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, west of Bashu, east of the south of the river, north of Xiangyang is the Central Plains, south of the river directly to Huguang. Since the initial formation of the great unification of China during the Qin and Han dynasties, Hubei is the real "cabbage heart" of China, and its provincial capital Wuhan is known as the "Tongqu of Nine Provinces", which is the core of China's water and land transportation.
But the strange thing is that in China's thousands of years of history, no one has ever built a capital in Wuhan.
There are many examples of dynasties building capitals in the south, such as Chengdu, the capital of the Jihan Dynasty, the capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasty, the early Ming Dynasty and later the Southern Ming Dynasty of Nanjing, and the Southern Song Dynasty capital of Hangzhou, but they all invariably bypassed Hubei. But after all, Wuhan is one of the core cities in China, not only has the developed water transport of the Han River and the Yangtze River, but also the agricultural support of the Jianghan Plain, why can't it be the capital of China?
Compared with Chang'an, Luoyang and Beijing, what is the difference between Wuhan and Wuhan? In the future of Wuhan, is it possible to be the capital or as a companion capital?
Since ancient times, "Wu" and "Han" have been read separately
In fact, "Wuhan" is a new administrative division, since the Ming Dynasty, Wuhan is located at the confluence of the "Han River - Yangtze River", there are three cities of Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang, collectively known as the "Three Towns of Wuhan".
In ancient times, "Wu" and "Han" had to be read separately, and the two sides were separated by a Yangtze River, and they had little to do with each other.
Wuchang, one of the three towns, can be traced back to the Three Kingdoms period, Wuchang was once called Ezhou, Jiangxia, Shaxian and Yingzhou in ancient times, and has always been a military town within Hubei. After the Ming Dynasty, Wuchang became the capital of Hubei Province, which continues to this day.
Hankou and Hanyang have long been one place, belonging to Hanyang County, and in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Hanshui river was diverted to separate Hanyang and Hankou.
In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the Han River connected the north and south trade, and Hankou became an important commercial center, the economy was very developed, and it was known as one of the "four gatherings under the heavens". After the switch at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Hankou became a concession, separated from Hanyang, and transformed into the most important inland port in China. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Republic of China directly made Hankou the first municipality directly under the central government.
Hanyang has a history of cities dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty, during the Sui Dynasty, it was renamed Hanyang, an important military town on the Yangtze River, and once administered two counties. But later, The limelight of Hanyang was stolen by Hankou, and after the Ming and Qing dynasties, it became the smallest part of the three towns in Wuhan.
Until the Republic of China period, the three towns of Wuhan still played their own, and although Wuchang was once the heart of the Republic of China, it has not yet been built. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Republic unified the planning of the three towns, which led to the emergence of the city of Wuhan across the Yangtze River.
Second, a name that has been drowned in history: Yun Mengze
Although Wuhan is a newly born city, but Wuchang and Hankou, Hanyang also has a long history, since it can be used as a "Huguanghui City", is a famous city in the central and southern region, then why is there no dynasty or political capital?
This involves the ancient philosophy of capital building.
As an agricultural society, the core of China is the words "farming" and "war", and the empire is to grasp agricultural production on the one hand and train troops to fight wars on the other.
In terms of fixing the capital, "farming" and "warfare" are equally important. Ancient emperors were the heart of the dynasty, first of all, rich, able to feed the nobles, the people and a large number of garrisons. Second, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, otherwise foreign aggression and domestic mutiny will threaten the capital at any time.
Unfortunately, in these two aspects, Wuhan in ancient times, and even the whole of Hubei, failed.
First of all, in terms of "farming", as an agricultural society, China's core economic zone has always been the Great Plain, and the North China Plain, Guanzhong Plain, and Jiangnan region are the main agricultural areas, which is why the dynasty chose to build capitals in Chang'an, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Nanjing, Hangzhou and other places. Even in Sichuan, there is a small chengdu plain where grain feeds Chengdu. But Hubei, for a long time, did not have this condition.
Some people must have come out to refute it: Can't a piece of The Jianghan Plain as large as Hubei feed the capital? The Jianghan Plain is as large as the Guanzhong Plain, and the climate is also suitable for farming, can't the ancients see it?
In fact, the ancients really couldn't see it, because in the distant ancient times, the entire Jianghan Plain was a large lake, called "Yun Mengze" in ancient times.
This piece of Daze was a barrier for the Chu state to defend against aggression in the pre-Qin period, and it was also a place where the Chu king hunted. "Yunmeng Daze" stretches from Dabie Mountain in the east, to the Exi Mountains in the west, to the Dahong Mountains in the north, and to the Yangtze River in the south, with a length of more than 500 kilometers from east to west and more than 300 kilometers from north to south, with a total area of more than 40,000 square kilometers.
Yun Mengze was a large lake in ancient times, and the water surface fell during the Xia and Shang dynasties, forming hundreds of miles of lakes, swamps, and hills, where the forests are dense, the clouds cover the sky, and the living conditions are very harsh.
Ancient Yun Mengze was full of crocodiles, and there was a tribe named "E" that specialized in hunting crocodiles for a living, and they established the State of E, from which the abbreviation of today's Hubei comes from.
Yun Mengze began to shrink from the pre-Qin Dynasty, until there were several large lakes in the Two Jin Dynasties, the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it was not completely dried up until the Tang and Song Dynasties. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Yun Mengze disappeared, and the Song Dynasty government set up a county here to reclaim wasteland, which was nicknamed "Hundred Mile Wasteland" in the Jianghan Plain at that time, full of wild animals, and from time to time there were major floods, and the development work of the Song Dynasty was very difficult.
Therefore, until the Yuan Dynasty, Hubei did not have grain production areas to support densely populated large cities.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the development of the Jianghan Plain was also very slow, because the terrain here was low-lying, the flooding was serious, and the Han River did not have a definite inlet until the middle of the Ming Dynasty, before the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Han River was a large zeal, unable to survive.
Flooding plagued the central Yangtze River until the end of the Qing Dynasty, when floods flooded half of Hubei.
This problem was not completely solved until the 20th century, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were "54 floods" and "98 floods", these disasters are difficult for even modern countries to cope with, so ancient Hubei was not only not rich, but also a sinister place.
It was not until the Three Gorges Dam was repaired that Wuhan was rescued from the flood.
III. "Nine Provinces Thoroughfare" is also called "The Land of Four Wars"
After talking about "farming", let's look at "war", in this regard, Wuhan is not as good as the traditional ancient capital.
Ancient wars were not like today's wars, with flying machines coming over the obstacles of mountains and rivers on the ground. Ancient wars were completely dependent on people to open the way in the mountains and build bridges in the face of water, and the more dangerous the terrain, the higher the cost of passing the army. In ancient China, the capital had to be "surrounded by mountains and rivers", with the dangers of mountains and the benefits of large rivers, in order to be easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Zhang Liang, a strategist at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, summed it up: (The capital city) "we must block three sides and defend, and use one side alone to control the princes." "This is the most perfect model of a capital city.
The most important capitals of ancient times, Chang'an and Luoyang, had mountains and rivers as barriers in the terrain, and Chang'an's topographic advantage was the best in the world. Chang'an is located in the middle of the Guanzhong Plain, bordered by the Qinling Mountains to the south and the Northern Mountains on the border of the Loess Plateau to the north. Two mountain ranges protectEd Guanzhong like two walls, and in ancient times, it took the strength of the country to cross such mountains, and crossing the Qin Mountains would consume the Shu Han regime.
Around Guanzhong, there is Hangu Pass in the east, Sanguan Pass in the west, Wu Pass in the south, and Xiao Pass in the north. These four fortresses blocked the way to Guanzhong from the outside world, and the troops outside could only knock on the pass by force if they wanted to enter Chang'an.
During the Warring States period, the Eastern princes and Qin fought at Hangu Pass many times, and the Qin army was able to defeat the coalition army every time with ease and waiting; during the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, and finally the national strength was spent on crossing the Qin Mountains, and Cao Wei could make Wuhou return without success as long as he blocked the main crossing.
At the same time, luoyang's geographical conditions were slightly inferior to Chang'an's, but it was also one of the best in the ancient capital.
It is easy to find from the topographic map that Luoyang is a basin surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the scientific name is "Yiluo Basin". The Iloilo Basin has the Yellow River Graben in the north, the Song Mountains and mounts in the east, and the Zhongtiao Mountains, Kunshan Mountains and Bears Ears Mountains in the west, with Luoyang in the middle.
Therefore, Luoyang has Hu prison pass, Fenshui Pass in the east, Hangu Pass in the west, Taigu Pass in the south, Guangcheng Pass, and Pingjin and Yanjin Pass in the north, which are almost a "small pass", and militarily it is also easy to defend and difficult to attack.
After looking at the terrain of Chang'an and Luoyang, the three towns of Wuhan are completely insufficient in terms of military aspects.
Since ancient times, whenever there is war, China has had three main passages of the Civil War, Xuzhou in the east, Jingzhou in Hubei in the middle, and Hanzhong in the west. Among these three channels, the Hubei region has developed the fastest because of the Yangtze River, Han River and other water system transportation, leaving Xuzhou and Hanzhong far behind, but in terms of military conditions, Wuhan is the worst.
Wuhan as the center of China's terrain, the four forces of the southern expedition and the northern expedition to hubei, this kind of "four war land", easy to incur "ten-sided siege".
The three towns of Wuhan are backed by the Jianghan Plain, and the whole shape is like a trumpet, shrinking from west to east, and Wuhan is a trumpet mouth, geographically like a border pass. The eastern and western parts of the Jianghan Plain are all Yangtze Rivers, there is no danger to defend, and in the era of the division of the masses, Wuhan on the Yangtze River is easily attacked by the south, and the water army in Sichuan and Jiangnan may drive along the river. The southern gateway of Jianghan is open, and the forces of Xiangyue in the south may also pass through Dongting Lake and go north.
In the northern part of the Jianghan Plain, Dabie Mountain, Tongbai Mountain, and Jingshan Mountain isolate Hubei from the Central Plains, and only Jingzhou and Xiangyang have a narrow terrain and are the throat to the Central Plains.
Once the north and south were engaged, only Xiangyang and Jingzhou in the north of the Jianghan region guarded the passage with the Central Plains, and Jingxiang was broken, and the entire Jianghan region had no danger to defend. At that time, Yue Fei fought from Xiangyang to the Central Plains; at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Song army died in Xiangyang for more than ten years, and finally Xiangyang fell, and the Southern Song Dynasty perished within a few years.
Therefore, compared with Wuhan, the military significance of Jingzhou and Xiangyang is more important, and the geographical location is better, especially Jingzhou, which was once considered the only suitable place in Hubei to build a capital in ancient times.
Fourth, in the 20th century, Wuhan became the front line again, can it be expected to accompany the capital Wuhan?
After entering the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Yangtze River developed water transport, and the development of the three towns in Wuhan was comparable to that of traditional cities such as Yangzhou and Hangzhou. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the British set their sights on Hankou as an open port, and Chinese mainland goods were traded from Hankou, and Wuhan was already able to sit on an equal footing with Shanghai and was well-known at home and abroad.
After the completion of the Beijing-Hankou Railway at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Wuhan, as a transportation hub in central China, was even more heavily guarded by the Qing Dynasty, and the three towns of Wuhan at this time completed the transformation from "military town" to "city".
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the revolutionary army and the Beiyang Army under the Qing government went to war, and the problem of no danger in the Wuhan area was once again exposed, and it became the front line.
Because of the geographical location of Wuhan, Dr. Sun Yat-sen was very determined to build a capital in Wuhan, after all, this is the geographical core of China and has developed transportation. But Chairman Chiang Kai-shek, who later took over as a war-bearer, would not put the country's capital in a "land of four wars" like Wuhan, so he chose Nanjing, where the tiger was in the dragon's pan.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Shanghai and Nanjing were the first to be destroyed, and a general battle broke out between Japan and China in Wuhan, and on the entire Jianghan Plain, the two sides sent out millions of people to fight for nearly half a year, with hundreds of thousands of casualties. After the end of the war, the Japanese Army was seriously injured and forced to stop further attacks on the Chinese mainland, and the Nationalist government moved to the more easily defended and difficult mountain city of Chongqing, and once the Japanese army attacked, it would retreat to Chengdu, Sichuan.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wuhan ushered in real development.
As the geographical center of China, Wuhan, in addition to the Yangtze River water transport, also has Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Kowloon, Handan, Wuhan university and other railway convergence, is one of the top ten railway hub cities in China. As the "thoroughfare of nine provinces", the convenient transportation makes Wuhan can not be ignored, the population of Wuhan is second only to Zhengzhou, is the second largest city in central China, but Wuhan's economic conditions are better than Zhengzhou.
After the reform and opening up, Wuhan is the heart of the east-west exchange, and the economy has developed by leaps and bounds, becoming the top pillar of the central region.
Historically, Wuhan was not the core city of China, but different eras have different choices, and Wuhan is a candidate for becoming a core city of the country in modern times, and is also a representative of the new first-tier cities in central China.
But unfortunately, in the foreseeable future, Wuhan will still not become the capital or capital of China. Hubei, where Wuhan is located, has a population of only more than 50 million, ranking 9th to 10th in China, and Hubei's economic level ranking is similar, not only inferior to Hunan and Anhui in the central region, but also far inferior to the eastern coastal provinces.
In addition, Wuhan's cultural influence is limited to its own province, and it cannot sit on an equal footing with the core cities of the Central Plains, Northwest China, and Jianghuai, which are large cultural circles. Compared with Wuhan, Nanjing dominates Jianghuai and Xi'an dominates the northwest, and they may be more likely to become the sub-centers of China in the future.
Text/Shogakuno
Resources:
1. "The Formation and Change of The Commercial Center of Wuhan Three Towns", Liao Lixian
2. "The Construction of China's Ancient Capital and the Change of Nature: The Rise and Fall of Chang'an and Luoyang", Wang Jun