Now, as long as you enter the city from the highway in the east of Lanzhou, you can see the statue of Huo Zhiyi in the distance, so tall and mighty that people can touch the history of more than two thousand years.
The theme of the sculpture reflects Huo's western expedition to the sick, and in August 2013, it was officially completed at the intersection of Tianshui North Road in Lanzhou City, adding another cultural beauty to the east gate of Lanzhou. It took more than two years from design to completion, with a height of 26 meters, made of cast copper and granite, using more than 200 tons of clay, nearly 70 tons of bronze and nearly 1,000 tons of stone and concrete. It is composed of the sculpture of Huo Fu's sick lord and the group of generals: Huo Fu is sick and yu Xuan Ang, swinging his sword to the west, the war horse is in good shape, the forelimbs are leaping, and they look forward with their heads held high; the generals are bold and fierce, heroic and mighty, and display the high fighting spirit of following the general of the Huns to defeat the Xiongnu.
More than 200 tons of clay, nearly 70 tons of bronze and nearly 1,000 tons of stone and concrete are not a small amount, and it is not a small number in the city where heroes are statued, and Lanzhou has become one of the most heroic cities in China because of this. The city of Lanzhou was born because Huo went to the west to conquer the Xiongnu, so Huo went to the disease and was also known as the "father of Lanzhou". Of course, without Huo's disease, Lanzhou would still become a city, but in any case, Huo's disease stood at the historical source of Lanzhou.
Heroic deeds
According to the Chronicle of History, in 121 BC, Emperor Wu of Han appointed the 19-year-old Huo Fuyi as a general on horseback. In the spring and summer, he led two attacks to attack and occupy the hun evil king and the Hun Tu king's troops in the area of Hexi (present-day Hexi Corridor and Huangshui Valley). During the spring offensive, Huo Fu rode out of Longxi with 10,000 horses and turned to the Five Kingdoms of Hexi to engage Shan Yu's son. Then cross the Yanzhi Mountain, and march for more than 1,000 miles in 6 days. At the foot of Gaolan Mountain, the Xiongnu were severely damaged, annihilating nearly 9,000 enemies and capturing the Xiongnu to sacrifice the Tianjin people. In the summer offensive, Huo went deep into the sick alone, annihilating more than 30,000 enemy troops, which dealt a great blow to the strength of the Xiongnu.
In the same year, Qiu Huo went ill and was ordered to meet the Xiongnu Hun Evil King, who led the people to surrender to the Han. At the critical juncture of some of the rebellion, Huo Fu led his troops into the Xiongnu army and killed the rebels. The Hun Evil King was able to lead more than 40,000 people back to Han. Since then, the Han Dynasty has controlled the Hexi region, laying the foundation for opening up the western region. The Xiongnu lamented for this: "The loss of my Qilian Mountain has made my six animals restless; the loss of my Yanzhi Mountain has made my wife colorless." ”
After this battle, there were almost no Xiongnu invasions on the northwest frontier. As a result, the number of soldiers guarding Longxi, Beidi, and Shangjun was reduced by half, so as to ease the burden of servitude on the people of the whole country. The battle also marked the beginning of the Xiongnu's loss of control of the western regions, leaving the Hexi Corridor west of Lanzhou without Xiongnu, namely: Jincheng (northwest of present-day Lanzhou, Gansu) and Hexi to Yanze (present-day Lop Nur in Xinjiang) without Xiongnu.
It is interpreted and grafted
History will be interpreted, as mentioned above, Huo Went ill severely injured the Xiongnu under the Gaolan Mountain, in fact, this Gaolan Mountain has nothing to do with Lanzhou, it refers to the Heli Mountain in Gaotai County, Zhangye District, Gansu Province. Gaolan Mountain is a transliteration of the Xiongnu language, the Xiongnu means heaven is Qilian, and the names of the mountains of Gaolan, Wulan and Helan are similar to the pronunciation of "Qilian", which has the meaning of Gao jun. Gaolan, Wulan, Helan and other refer to the river, is the name of the Xiongnu, Gaolan Mountain is the big mountain by the river. Therefore, to this day, many people still think that the Gaolan Mountain mentioned in the "History" is the Gaolan Mountain on the south bank of the Yellow River in Lanzhou City. In fact, as far as the combat environment at that time was concerned, the main battlefield of Huo's disease would not be placed in this place in Lanzhou.
However, the legend still comes, Wuquan Mountain, located in the northern foothills of the South Gaolan Mountain of the Yellow River in Lanzhou City. According to legend, Huo went to the sick army passing through the Five Springs Mountain, and due to the long march, when he arrived here, he was already sleepy and tired, and the soldiers were thirsty, but they could not find a water source nearby. After receiving the soldier's report, Huo went to be calm and self-assured, picked up the horse whip, and slammed the mountain rock five times, and suddenly there were five streams of clear springs gushing out, and the water tasted sweet, which was what posterity called the five springs, and the mountain was named "Five Springs Mountain".
In today's Lanzhou, there is still a statue of Huo Quyi wearing armor and a heroic posture. People "imposed" the legend of The Five Springs Mountain on Huo, but this story comes from Liang Hui, a descendant of Liang Ji, a great general who controlled the government for nearly twenty years during the Eastern Han Dynasty and was finally exterminated by emperor Huan of Han. It is said that Liang Hui's predecessors escaped the devastation of the exterminated clan and fled to the area of Lanzhou (Jincheng County), which was occupied by the Qiang at that time.
Later, Liang Hui's grandfather was trusted by the Qiang people and was elected as the leader. Liang Hui grew up to inherit his grandfather's position as the leader, and at that time, due to natural and man-made disasters and other factors, he wanted to lead his people to migrate to the area north of present-day Linxia. But when they reached The Southern Mountains of Jincheng, they were surrounded by other Qiang people. There was no water on the mountain, and everyone was hungry and thirsty. In a hurry, Liang Hui inserted a horse whip made of elm branches into the ground and slaughtered a green sheep as a sacrifice, and suddenly a clear spring gushed out, and his horse whip also transformed into an elm forest. This spring is also called Liang Spring.
This story was recorded by Li Daoyuan in the "Notes on the Water Classics": the great river is at the north gate of Jincheng. Flowing east, there is LiangQuan Zhuzhi, out of the county of the South Mountain. Case Qi Old Sayings: Liang Hui, Zi Shi'e, Han General Liang Jihou. Ji Jie, into Qiang. Later, his grandfather was pushed by Qiang and lived in this city for Qu Shuai. The land is desolate and the people are chaotic, Hui will move to Yuhan, out of this mountain, surrounded by the qiang, there is no water, Hui pointed to the ground with the elm whip he held, prayed for the mountain with green sheep, the sacred spring gushed out, and the elm became a forest.
graft! Liang Hui was "grafted" here into Huo's disease.
Father of Lanzhou
However, we do not need to blame anything for this today, it reflects the reverence and love of the lanzhou people for heroes, and also has a good wish for the reunification of the motherland. This is not far-fetched, but the "care" of history for reality, and it is more often necessary to know that the meaning of history lies in this. Some people say that this is a kind of "deception", which may be a bit extreme, because it does not affect the title of Huo Zhiyi as the "father of Lanzhou".
After Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, it was divided into thirty-six counties, and Lanzhou at that time belonged to Longxi County. At the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, it was also like this. In the second year of the Han Dynasty (121 BC), Huo Wentai led an army to conquer the Xiongnu in the west and set up a garrison of Lingju in the west of Lanzhou, opening up roads for the Han to open up the four counties of Hexi. This is the earliest record of the founding of the city in Lanzhou, it is said that people dug up a lot of gold when the city was built, so it was called Jincheng. There is also a saying that Lanzhou City is surrounded by mountains and is impenetrable, so it takes the allusion of "Jincheng Tangchi" and named it Jincheng, which is a metaphor for its solidity. We are relatively biased towards the second statement.
Either way, it is not difficult to see that Lanzhou was first built as a city for the logistical support of the Battle of Hexi in the Han Empire, so there is nothing wrong with calling Huo Go's disease that opened up the Hexi Corridor "the father of Lanzhou", but it is also worthy of the name. After that, there was the earliest name - Jincheng - as early as the Two Han Dynasties, Wei and Jin Dynasty, Jincheng County was set up here. The Sixteen Kingdoms moved to Jincheng County to rule here. In the third year of the Sui Kai Emperor (583 AD), Emperor Wen of Sui abolished the county and set up a prefecture here, where he established the Lanzhou Governorate, the name of "Lanzhou", which first appeared in the annals of history.
Came to Lanzhou
The next question may be that people are more concerned, that is, has Huo Go disease ever been to Lanzhou? This is certain, but it may not be within the jurisdiction of today's Lanzhou City. According to the Records of History and the Book of Han, there were two battles in Hexi: the first was in the spring of 121 BC, after Huo Fuyi led an army from Longxi County, he crossed the Kui Wu And consulted the Five Kingdoms of Pu, Hu Nu, and Li. The starting point of Longxi County should be in present-day Min County, Lintao, is the western starting point of the Great Wall of Qin, "Kui Wu Di" some people think that it is today's Gaolan Mountain, "Qiu Kui Pu" is the name of the Xiongnu tribe, should be in the Area of Zhu today, "Hu Nu" is considered to be the present-day Wuwei Shiyang River.
According to this, lanzhou local history experts analyzed that Huo went out to attack the Xiongnu who were entrenched in Hexi, and crossed the river at the site of the present-day hekou, and came to the north of the present-day Xigucheng. The controversy is that some people believe that Huo Wentai's first expedition was from Longxi, taking the qinghai and turning over the mouth of the capital. After the pacification of the Xiongnu, Jincheng Commandery was established in the middle of the Yu, and Jincheng County was ruled in present-day Minhedi, Qinghai, so it can be concluded that there was no large Yellow River ferry in the present-day Lanzhou Basin, and it was densely packed with lakes, and the Xiongnu should have come from Qinghai at that time.
That is to say, it is impossible for Huo to cross the river in Today's Lanzhou. But the significance of this controversy should not be very large, our view is that at that time, although there was no Lanzhou or Jincheng, but later Lanzhou or Jincheng jurisdiction contained the Huangshui River Basin, even if there is a dispute, it can be said that Huo went to the disease from Lanzhou to cross the river, Huo went to the city of Lanzhou.
The simple emotions that are extended
Now we can talk about the "feelings" of Lanzhou people and Huo's disease. Huo was born in the first year of the reign of Emperor Jianyuan of the Han Dynasty (140 BC), and was the illegitimate son of Wei Shao'er, a female slave of the Marquis of Pingyang, and Huo Zhongru, a minor official in Pingyang County. Huo Zhongru returned to Pingyang County when his errand was complete, and lost contact with Wei Shao'er at the Princess Mansion of Pingyang in Chang'an. Therefore, Huo Fuyi did not know who his father was until he became a general of the Hussars.
There is a message in this, that is, when Huo Went was sick, he may be in poor health, and his mother gave him this name, or it may be that his mother took care of him alone, did not want him to get sick, and looked down on him when he got sick, so he named him. Unexpectedly, more than two thousand years later, Lanzhou was very interested in this name, and every time I returned to Lanzhou, I could see some people touching the name of Huo on the statue of Wuquan Mountain, not only the old people, but also young people and children. Many media have also reported on this matter many times.
Why touch the name of The Disease? The name "to go to the disease" is a good name, how happy people should be if they can go to the disease! This not only reflects the reverence of Lanzhou people for heroes, but also shows people's desire for health in the present. Huo went to the disease, known as the "father of Lanzhou", so closer to the Lanzhou people, the hero here by people through the name of a very affordable want to "dip the light" psychology, close to ordinary life, more grounded, but did not affect the hero itself greatness, what is so bad about this? History, which is extended and read here, has another meaning, and it is also an expression and creation of Lanzhou people. "De-illness" makes Huo Go-to-sick, known as the "Father of Lanzhou", the icing on the cake.
References: "The Origin of Huo Go Disease and Lanzhou"; "Huo Go Disease has two statues in Lanzhou, but two things are deceiving everyone"; "Why is the nickname of Lanzhou called Jincheng?" "Words of Lanzhou" and so on.