▲Photo by Xie Shangguo
Huzhou, located in the north of Zhejiang Province, the intersection of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, east of Jiaxing, south of Hangzhou, west of Tianmu Mountain, north of Taihu Lake, and Wuxi, Suzhou across the lake, is the only city in the Taihu Lake area named because of the lake.
When it comes to Huzhou, it's easy to associate it with a comfortable and comfortable life. It is also true that in the life of Huzhou people, there is often a word, "Baitan", which means calm, not hurried and not slow.
But in fact, a little more understanding of Huzhou will find that an innovative and practical force flows in the blood of the city's culture. And culture has also left a unique look and trace of the city.
On April 8, 2022, Huzhou held a cultural work conference of the municipal party committee. After the rapid rise and development of people to "re-evaluate the value of Huzhou", the city once again showed its determination to "cultivate cultural self-confidence and accelerate the re-emergence of northern Zhejiang".
Perhaps in the current era of fierce urban competition, each city has a clear design for its future development, but few place culture in such an obvious position. So what is the connection between culture and the rise of cities?
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Distinctive logo
First of all, culture is the most distinctive identity of a city.
Since ancient times, Huzhou has been "five mountains, one water and four fields", and its natural scenery can be described as unique. However, mountains cannot speak, water cannot speak, and what really makes the beautiful mountains and rivers spread to the world lies in culture.
"The egrets fly in front of the Xisai Mountain, and the peach blossoms flow water mandarin fish fat", which tells the color of the mountains in Huzhou; "People's portals are more near the water, and the children's careers are always mulberry", writing the style of the water town. And Su Shi, who has traveled all over the world, sighed after climbing the dojo mountain, "I came from the mountain and water cave, and I still love this mountain to see it", which made a solid endorsement for the scenery of Huzhou.
Mi Fu and Wang Meng's "Poetry of Cangxi" and "Qingbian Hermitage Map" written by Mi Fu and Wang Mengyi wrote about the landscape here, which are the best of the books and landscape paintings.
Dong Qichang has lingered in the landscape of Huzhou for many years, during which he left behind such masterpieces as "Shengshan Mooring Boat Map", "Spring Dawn Map of Cangxi", "Qingben Map" and so on... Countless calligraphers and painters splashed ink, leading to "a history of calligraphy and painting, half in Huzhou".
Similarly, in the face of the rapid arrival of urbanization, industrial mass-produced products, if they lose the embellishment of culture, can only be quickly forgotten in the times. The same is true of cities, which, without cultural identity, are nothing more than a concrete jungle where people are lost in the same way.
▲Photo by Wang Jiehan
The cultural uniqueness of a city can never be separated from the precipitation of its nature and history. As the ancestor of the establishment of Huzhou, Xiapu City was first built in the Shang Dynasty, and during the Warring States period, the Chu State Chun Shenjun set up Pucheng County here. For more than 2,000 years, the city center has not changed, and the outline of the ancient city in the shape of "turtle shell" is still clearly recognizable.
In order to adapt to the reality of the vertical and horizontal rivers in the water town, Huzhou has revitalized the city with water, and the old city water network and road system have continued to this day, and have built up a water city pattern of "Cao Desimation through the city, water as the axis, shuangxi confluence, three rings combined, and four rivers surrounded", behind which reflects the realm of "the unity of heaven and man, harmony between man and water" in Chinese.
As the birthplace of the "Two Mountains Theory", huzhou today has also been maintained for 13 consecutive years, and the water quality of Taihu Lake has been maintained above class III standards, and the "beautiful Zhejiang" assessment has been achieved, and the PM2.5 concentration has been maintained at 23 micrograms /cubic meter... From the closure of mines and the treatment of the waters of Taihu Lake, to today's "see beautiful China in Huzhou".
Huzhou in the new era still guards the livable green mountains and green waters, and also tells people a vivid story of "two mountains" with the process of taking into account ecology and development, stretching the cultural identity of the city.
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Hard-working GENES
If culture is shelved away from real life, it cannot show its moving charm, and the spirit of a city is the same, only by digging deep into the cultural genes buried under it and not drowning it in the dust of history can it bring endless vitality to this land.
Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in order to solve the problem of flood disasters in low-lying areas, the working people of Huzhou have transformed and utilized the wetlands of binhu lake through the Pugang polder system and turned mud into fertile soil. From this, the circular agricultural model of "sanji fish pond" of "fish farming in ponds, mulberry species in ponds, silkworms feeding silkworms in mulberry leaves, silkworm sand fish farming, fish manure ponds, and pond mud mulberries" was derived.
▲ Photo by Ivan
After a long period of circulation, "Sankey Fish Pond" has been used to this day, known as the only existing traditional ecological agriculture model in China, and was recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2017 as being listed on the List of Globally Important Agricultural Cultural Heritage Protection.
From the Six Dynasties period to the Sui and Tang dynasties, yiguan nandu brought the development of Jiangnan, and Huzhou's textile industry gradually became a common practice. Shuanglin Aya silk began in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the process is exquisite, there are many types, with the characteristics of "thin as cicada wings, light as morning fog". However, the production of such a piece of silk is complicated, and it needs to be soaked, turned, fiber, put, woven, refined, polished, and finished, and finally the finished product can be obtained.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Hubi was known as the "Crown of Mao Ying" with its four characteristics of "tip, Qi, Circle and Jian", and was called "the Four Treasures of The Literary Room" together with Hui Ink, Rice Paper and Duan Yan.
However, the manufacture of a lake pen has to go through twelve main processes such as pen material, water basin, knot head, sleeve, pu dun, inlay, pen selection, and engraving, and the size of the process is as many as 120.
During the Song Dynasty, Hu Yu put forward the educational idea of "bright body and use" in Huzhou Prefecture Studies, requiring students to learn not only the basic theories of scripture, but also practical knowledge such as farmland, water conservancy, military, astronomy, and almanac.
The folk proverb of "Suhu is ripe, the world is full" has spread the name of Huzhou's wealth throughout China. However, few people know that even if they have unique natural conditions, they are inseparable from the hard-working struggle, which is rooted in the depths of Huzhou culture. For Huzhou, it is not surprising that this kind of educational pursuit of "bright body and use" can be born here. It seems to be an interpretation and summary of the historical precipitation of this land, and it is also a kind of inheritance of the hard-working genes of Huzhou in later generations through education.
In recent years, Huzhou has maintained the trend of hard work and progress, and has continuously achieved leapfrog development: in terms of economic growth, Huzhou's average annual GDP has increased by 7.4%, ranking second in the province; the general public budget revenue has reached 41.35 billion yuan, ranking first in the province for five consecutive years; and the industrial added value in 2021 will exceed 100 billion. And these achievements have been made
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The future of creation
In the future, with the deepening of the transformation of the economic structure, growth will increasingly rely on scientific and technological innovation. Therefore, in addition to the investment and construction of scientific research, what really determines the competitiveness of scientific and technological innovation lies in the innovative culture and pioneering spirit of a city. And the emergence of this spirit, in the final analysis, lies in the people who live here.
From ancient times to the present, the talents bred in Huzhou are not lacking in pioneering posture:
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Chen Baxian, who was born in Wuxing, faced the crisis, stepped forward, led an army to fight against Hou Jing's rebellion, frustrate the Northern Qi army, twice unraveled the danger of the collapse of the Southern Dynasty, and created the last prosperous era of the Southern Dynasty, which was called "the emperors of Jiangzuo and the most virtuous" by later historians.
Twenty-four histories, Huzhou people wrote the third: Shen Yue's "Book of Song" is recognized as "the precursor of the opening of Zhejiang to gather", Yao Silian's successor Yao Chacheng "Book of Liang" and "Book of Chen", the style of writing is simple, the narrative is simple, and the previous gorgeous and floating style is changed.
During the Ming Dynasty, Pan Jitao absorbed the experience of the polder system in his hometown of Huzhou, and used the "forced water to return to the trough, bundle the water to attack the sand" in a very forward-looking manner, and presided over the governance of the Yellow River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal four times, and was known as "the first person to rule the Yellow River in ancient times".
In modern times, a group of Huzhou people still uphold this pioneering spirit, reform ideas, promote science, and promote the process of China's modern and modern transformation. Qian Xuantong and Shen Yinmo participated in the compilation of the "New Youth" magazine and became the fierce generals who waved the flag and shouted in the new cultural movement. A large number of Hu scholars are immersed in education and science, Hu Renyuan was the president of Peking University, Yu Tongkui was a famous chemist in modern mainland China, and Zhang Hongzhao was the founder of China's geological cause. Ren Hongjun, a chemist and educator, is one of the founders of the China Science Society and the monthly journal Science.
After the founding of New China, Huzhou is still full of talents and has made indelible contributions to national scientific and technological innovation, and 6 Huzhou nationals have entered the first academic committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Among the 160 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 10 are Huzhou nationals, and among the more than 800 academicians of the two academies, there are 18 Huzhou people. Among the heroes of the "two bombs and one star", Qian Sanqiang, Zhao Jiuzhang, and Tu Shouyi are people from the lake. In 2021, the results of the co-election of academicians of the two academies were announced, and the number of academicians of the two academies in Huzhou reached 42.
▲Xiang Fei photographed
It is precisely because of the cultural heritage of hard work and innovation that a group of outstanding figures who have created new ideas have been bred. The ancients said: "The barn is solid and knows the etiquette.". For thousands of years, many people have been able to realize the importance of economic material abundance for cultural development. But from another point of view, the prosperity and rejuvenation of culture can also drive economic and social development.
Today, when the city once again moves towards the dimension of culture, forms a unique identity of itself, re-polishes the background of hard work and innovation, and roots the development of the city on cultural self-confidence, then "rise" is only the first step in its future. For the next millennium, the land will continue to flourish and thrive.