Why did "Qingming on the River" paint so many willow trees? Demystify the tree planting code of the Northern Song Dynasty's Tokyo City

□ Dahe Bao Yu video reporter Liu Ruichao Wen Picture comes from the Internet

It's Arbor Day again, and it's time for the whole people to plant trees. Adjust the time to the Northern Song Dynasty, and locate the coordinates in the capital city of Tokyo at that time, and what trees were planted in the international metropolis of Tokyo at that time? What kind of tree do you like to plant?

From the more than 5 meters long "Qingming River Map" scroll, from the poems left by the literati at that time, from ancient books and notes, it may be glimpsed that the willow tree is one of the most common tree species in Tokyo City.

【Phenomenon】Most of the more than 170 trees on the "Qingming River Map" are willow trees

Zhang Zeduan's "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty" is a seemingly realistic non-realistic work. The picture adopts the traditional Chinese method of scattered perspective, with multiple visual centers from left to right.

Some experts said that this was Zhang Zeduan's artistic reconstruction of the situation in Tokyo City at that time. Although it is not real, it can reflect the layout, style, and life of the city at that time.

According to statistics, there are more than 170 trees painted on the "Qingming Upper River Map", most of which are distributed on the banks of the Bian River. If you look closely, you will find that the canopy of the willow tree is professionally pruned, leaving only the trunk so that new branches can be re-grown from the trunk.

As a berm willow tree, the operation of cutting off the canopy prevents strong winds from shaking the canopy, causing the embankment soil to loosen and the embankment to be damaged. In fact, the pruned willow branches are not useless, and can also be bundled into utensils for river management.

In ancient poetry, the willow tree often appears in the farewell scene. Such as Ouyang Xiu's "Waiting for the Plum Remnant, Xiqiao Liu Thin", such as Liu Yong's "Where is the wine awake tonight?" Yang Liu'an Xiaofeng Remnant Moon", such as Zhou Bangyan's "Liu Yin Zhi" of the late Northern Song Dynasty. Smoke in the wall" and so on.

In the "Qingming River Map", there are characters who are sent off by Liu'an. Not far to the right of the arch bridge where people were bustling, traffic was chaotic, and cargo ships were closing their sails, there were two willow trees, and under the large willow tree, two people were facing each other, making a distinction, and a passenger ship was waiting in the water.

【Record】In the Northern Song Dynasty, Tokyo once planted willow trees everywhere "willow pond light wind"

From the "Qingming River Map", it can be found that the phenomenon of willow trees planted all over Tokyo City at that time. But after all, the picture is an artistic reconstruction, and to a certain extent, it is not a reproduction of reality.

Then, the Southern Song Dynasty literary scholar Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo Dream Hualu", as a literary memoir, reflects the different aspects of the prosperity of Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty. Tokyo Dreams mentions the willow trees of Tokyo in many places. "The eastern capital is outside the city, with a radius of more than forty miles." The city is known as the Dragon River, which is more than ten meters wide. Inside and outside the hao, willows are planted, pink walls are planted, and people are forbidden to come and go" ("Tokyo Dream Hualu Higashito Outer City"); the day before the spring... Often the flower is decorated with a railing, and the hundred drama characters are listed on it, and the haruka snow willow is dedicated to each other ("Tokyo Dream Hualu Tachiharu").

"The second spring is full of wilderness, the warm rhythm is sunny, the flowers are competing, the pink wall is thin and willowy, the oblique cage is strange... So the Qingming Festival followed" ("Tokyo Dream Hualu • Lantern Collection People Go Out of the City to Explore Spring"); "Fang Lane Royal Street... On both sides is the Royal Corridor... Each anritsu black lacquered stick... The heart of the road is also an anthuri lacquered branches, and there are two masonry stones in the two rows of branches, two lanes of royal ditch water, lotus lotus planted between Xuanhe, peach and pear apricots planted near the shore, miscellaneous flowers, between spring and summer, looking like embroidery" ("Tokyo Dream Hualu Miyaji").

It can be seen that willow trees were very common in Tokyo at that time, especially the "tooth path" (i.e., the official road) and the sides of the river. In ordinary people's homes, willow trees are often planted, such as "the courtyard is a little deep, the willows are piled with smoke, and the curtains are weightless" (Ouyang Xiu's "Butterfly Love Flowers"), "The pear blossom courtyard dissolves the moon, and the willow pond is lightly windy" (Yan Shu's "Untitled") and so on.

【History】 Large-scale willow planting was also common in Tokyo at that time

The city of Rome was not built in a day, and tokyo was not built overnight.

The Tang Dynasty Du Bao's "Miscellaneous Records of Daye" records that the Sui Emperor "sent more than 500,000 soldiers from the counties of Zhuzhou in Henan Province, opened the Jin Canal, and from the river to The Xingze into Huai for more than a thousand miles ... The water surface is forty steps wide, through the dragon boat, the two banks are avenues, the elm willows are planted, from the eastern capital to the jiangdu for more than 2,000 miles, and the shades intersect." The Bian River passes through Kaifeng at that time, and willow trees are planted on both sides.

The second time the official mobilized the people's power and concentrated on large-scale planting of willow trees was in the fifth generation of the Zhou Dynasty. According to the Northern Song Dynasty's encyclopedia of political affairs and history, "The YuanGui of the Book of The Imperial Household", Chai Rong issued another edict in June of the third year of Xiande, "Those whose streets in the capital are fifty steps wide, allow households on both sides to take the toilet to plant trees and dig wells within five steps, and build pergolas..."

In the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng continued to serve as the capital of the country. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, also issued a special edict, requiring that "the county magistrate of Yuanbianhe Prefecture often uses the spring to teach the people, and plant elm willows on the bank to consolidate the embankment." Since then, it has become customary to plant elm willows on both sides of the Bian River.

The Song Shi Hequ Zhi also has a relevant record, "In November of the fourth year of Kaibao, the river broke through the yuan, and the panshu prefecture ... In the first month of the fifth year, the edict reads: "In The counties of Hezhou, such as Huang, Bian, Qing, and Yu, in addition to the quasi-old production of art sac dates, the commissioner will teach the people to distinguish elm willows and trees suitable for the land'."

It can be seen that at that time, in addition to planting willow trees, the people also liked to plant elm trees. However, in the "Qingming Upper River Map", the elm tree is almost missing, and more willow trees are seen, which also reflects the "non-realism" of the "Qingming Upper River Map" from one side.

【Viewpoint】In the Northern Song Dynasty, the land of Tokyo was severely salinized, and willow trees were highly adaptable to the environment

Why did Tokyo plant willows on a large scale in the Northern Song Dynasty? The College of History and Culture of Henan University and the Henan Institute of Culture and Tourism analyzed this in the "Brief Analysis of the Achievements and Characteristics of the Greening of Tokyo City in the Northern Song Dynasty".

"In addition to the greening on the central axis of Tokyo City, other places are mainly planted with elm, willow, tsubaki and other tree species, and the choice of flowers is mostly local chrysanthemums that are suitable for growth."

According to the introduction, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the land around Tokyo was quite salinized and alkalinized, and it was called "the land of repulsion". The characteristics of this soil "require the planting of some plants that can prevent wind and fix sand and adsorb harmful gases." According to the study, the willow tree is a wide ecological plant, very adaptable to the environment, like light, like moisture, hardy, is a mesophytic wet tree species, "the softness of the willow itself is also favored by people."

The willow tree, the meaning is auspicious, the ancients hope to drive away disasters and evil spirits, usher in peace. The willow tree also means "stay", "once upon a time, willow Yiyi" ("Poetry Sutra • Cewei"), accompanied by farewell; the posture of the willow tree and the softness of the branches are also quite ornamental.

Of course, there may be other reasons for planting willow trees on a large scale. Under the combined influence of various factors, willow trees became a common tree species in the Northern Song Dynasty.