【"Guandu Story" Audio】Episode 2: History of Tuodong City

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【Editor's Note】

Guandu has a long history and is well-known. From the legend of the Golden Horse, to the ancient tombs of Yangfutou, from the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway to Wujiaba Airport, from the ancient ferry port of Dianchi To the new center of Kunming; the Panlong River, the Baoxiang River, the Jinju River, meandering and flowing; Sai Dianchi, Qiannanyuan, Miao Yuntai, celebrities. Here, the wind and nostalgia of history reverberate, carrying the expectations and dreams for the future...

Guandu District Rong Media Center carefully planned and produced a 35-episode series of audio "Guandu Stories", recording history with sound and leaving nostalgia in the years. Today broadcast the second episode of "The History of Tuodong City" -

Author: Xiang Wen

Announcer: Lin Zheng

In the twenty-fifth year of The Tang Dynasty (737 AD), Nanzhao, with the help of the Tang Dynasty, unified the Erhai region and established the State of Nanzhao. The Tang Dynasty made Pi Luoge the King of Yunnan in an attempt to prevent the Tubo forces from moving south to the east under the guise of his hand. However, as an emerging force, Nanzhao was ambitious, and its ambition was not in the corner of western Yunnan, and it was not willing to be subordinate to the Tang Dynasty. So he skillfully used Tang and Tu contradictions, survived in the cracks and accumulated strength, and when the time came, he used troops in all directions.

After the Tianbao War, the Tang Dynasty's forces withdrew from Yunnan. Nanzhao besieged the city and entered the Kunming area to the east. In order to control central Yunnan, in 764 AD, King Ge Luofeng of Nanzhao inspected the Dianchi area, "judging the situation, the Yanshan River can be used as a barrier, and the Sichuan land can feed the people." In the following year (765 AD), feng jiayi, the eldest son, was ordered to plan and construct in the Dianchi area, build a city, name it "Tuodong City", and order Feng Jiayi to sit in TuodongCheng as the vice king of Nanzhao.

TuodongCheng was the first city built in the urban area of present-day Kunming, which is accurately recorded in historical records, and later Tuodongcheng became more and more important in the overall layout of the ruling power of Nanzhao, becoming the capital and Tokyo. During the Dali Period, Tuodong City was renamed Yancheng City, and its status and role were the same as those of Nanzhao.

The Nanzhao Dehua Stele records that "Fengjia, the eldest man of life, is different from Kunchuan's Tuodong City". The "Yunnan Chronicle" records: "Tuodong City, Guangde second year Feng Jia Yi placed also." Its land is the old Kunchuan of Han. "Jinning Pavilion is eighty miles to Tuodong City, and eighty miles is to the ancient city of Tranquility." Therefore, the location of Tuodong City is in present-day Kunming Bazi. "Jinma Mountain is more than twenty miles south of Luoshan Mountain in TuodongCheng", "Biji Mountain is on the west bank of Kunchi, opposite the water across the water from Tuodong City", and the location relationship between the East and West Pagoda, Yuantong Temple and Tuodong City recorded in the historical records of the Tang and Song Dynasties, all fully indicate that Tuodong City is in the present-day Kunming city, and the specific location is east of the Panlong River, west of the East Railway Station, and Tuodong Road is the central axis of the area.

According to the "Kunming Chronicle", Nanzhao Tuodong City is about six miles in circumference, is a narrow and long earthen city, due to the need for defense, there are walls on the east, south and north sides, and there are wooden bridges on the river to pass through Dianchi Lake, similar to Nanzhao Taihe City.

Once Tuodong City was established, it played an increasingly huge role in the eastward and southward expansion of the Nanzhao state, and in addition, the economic and social development of the Dianchi lake area itself was ahead of other places in the province, so Tuodong City became another political, economic, and military center of Nanzhao. At the beginning of the founding of the city, it became an important town of "JuYizhao". In 781, Nanzhao changed the name of Tuodong to Shanshan, and soon after, it was placed in Yanshan Province. Because nanzhao called the capital of Dali Xijing at that time, it was designated as Tokyo in 809 AD, and then changed Tondu to Shangdu in 860 AD, and its status continued to increase, and it became the political center in Yunnan second only to Dali.

After Nanzhao built the Eastern City, a large number of immigrants filled the Dianchi area and expanded its power. According to the Book of Barbarians, "Nanzhao attacked the cities of Tieqiao and Kunchi, and all those who captured tens of thousands of households came to the left and right of Kunchuan and the homeland of Xi cuan." In the tenth year of Zhenyuan (794), when Nanzhao and Tufan were at war, more than 10,000 households in present-day western Yunnan and northwestern Yunnan were forcibly relocated to the present-day Dianchi area, and at the same time more than a thousand households moved from Yongchang to Wang Thozi and Wangwaiyu to Tuodong; in 832, more than 3,000 people from the state of Qi (present-day Burma) were attached to Tuodong. If Kunming is a city of immigrants, then large-scale migration did not begin in the Ming Dynasty, but in the Nanzhao period.

Because Tuodong City is extremely important in the Nanzhao Kingdom, and there are those who have ascended the throne here, those who have died here, and those who have lived here for a long time, so the kings of successive dynasties should continue to expand and add to it. The royal palace, official offices, pavilions, temples, and Shanzhitai (present-day South Tendai) in Tuodong Castle were readily available, and the history books also recorded that Xunge persuaded his courtiers to perform poems in Shanzhitai and other activities. Nanzhao left many relics for posterity in and around Tuodong City, such as in the third year of Emperor Wenzong of Tang (829 AD), Wang Songfeng, the envoy of Nanzhao Nongdong Jiedu, asked the Central Plains craftsman Wei Chi Gongtao to build Juezhao and Huiguang Second Temples on the waterfront of Dianchi Lake, a mile west of Tuodong City, and build two pagodas in the east and west. The Dongsi Pagoda is in present-day Shulin Street in Kunming, and the West Pagoda is in present-day Dongsi Street in Kunming, both of which are square, 13-level brick pagodas with dense eaves, which are typical Tang Dynasty buildings.

After the construction of Tuodong City, the political, economic and cultural center of the Dianchi lake area was transferred from the Jincheng area on the east bank of the Dianchi Lake to the Panlong River Delta on the north bank of the Dianchi Lake, which is gentle and open and has development prospects. Tuodong City opened the precedent of Kunming's urban development and occupies an important position in the history of Dianchi City.

On the banks of the Jinju River on Tuodong Road in Kunming City, there are famous Dali National Cultural Relics - Stone Carved Scripture Building, which was built as an ancient park during the Republic of China period and is now a Kunming Museum. The cultural relics and exhibitions in the museum silently tell people the vicissitudes of the history of Tuodong City.

Source: Au Rong Media Center