China Youth Daily Client News (China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Li Jianping) Recently, the archaeological excavation of the ancient Haitang site in Niujiao Village, Linping District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, unveiled a period of Water Conservancy History in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The site is located in Linping District, Qiaosi Street, Donghu Expressway and Hanghai Road (Wai Weng Line) intersection of the southeast side, the stone pond is 100 meters long, the bottom width is about 21 meters, the height is about 6 meters, from bottom to top by 18 layers of stone paving, all with mortar "slits", sealing the gap between the strips of stones, to prevent the influx of tide, the more mortar from the bottom.
Zhou Xuebin, an associate researcher at the Hangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that during the excavation process, it was found that the bottom of the stone pond was made of firewood grass and rammed earth, which was 15 to 20 centimeters thick and 1.35 meters wide, which was the first discovery in the archaeology of the ancient sea pond in the past years, quite regional characteristics, and also provided important physical data for the study of the structure, masonry method and ancient water conservancy technology history of the ancient sea pond in Hangzhou.
According to the literature, in the forty-ninth year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1784), Hangzhou began to build the Yulin Dashitang from Zhangjia'an to Qibao, which was completed in the fifty-second year of Qianlong. The ruins of Dashitang and Chaitang are consistent with the documentary records, and make up for the lack of literature records in the structure of the pond in the form of physical objects, which has an important role in documenting and supplementing history. Zhou Xuebin said that the site of the ancient Haitang is now more than 5 kilometers away from the Qiantang River, reflecting the history of the vicissitudes of the Qiantang River Basin and the change of water flow.
The earliest historical record of the construction of the Qiantang River and Sea Pond dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period. In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Li Daoyuan's "Notes on water classics" recorded that Cao Huaxin of Huijian County raised soil and stones to build a large pond for sea defense. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the method of building the pond was more special, the foundation of the pond was made of rough wood of more than 5 meters long into "row piles", "horse tooth piles" and "plum blossom piles", and the rectangular strips of stone weighing thousands of pounds were used to form 18 to 23 floors, and the bottom up was stacked like "fish scales".
In the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong went down to Jiangnan six times, and an important itinerary was to inspect the Qiantang River and Sea Pond Project and pay attention to the grain tax issues in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Because since the Song Dynasty, the rich Jiangnan has become the economic center of gravity, especially in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, which have assumed the important function of "granary". The construction of the sea pond to resist the tide disaster, while protecting the safety of the people's production and life, also protects the "granary" and "money bag".
At that time, strict accountability was implemented for the construction of the sea pond, and whoever was responsible for the problem of the sea pond under its jurisdiction was responsible. Historical records record that "the pond damaged the embankment and destroyed the people, and the soul returned to the river tide to the three continents." Today, there are still 7 tombs of "Tangguan" who were cut off by themselves due to the failure of the construction of the pond in the nearby Hangzhou City of Haining.
Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3: Stone and iron ingots facing the water of Shitang.
Figure 4: Song Edition of the Notes on the Water Classics of Huaxin's record of building a pond (national library collection).
Figure 5: Commemorating Qianlong's inspection of Haitang's "Imperial Reading of Haitang" monument. All images are courtesy of Lu Yang
Source: China Youth Daily client