Summer vacation is the golden period of tourism, and short-term visits to multiple locations "special forces travel" has also become a hot topic on the Internet. To talk about the pioneer of "special forces travel", it has to be the author of "Notes on the Water Classic", Yun Daoyuan.
Qing Dynasty Edition "Notes on the Water Classic"
A move to perform duties traveled all over the place
Yun Daoyuan lived in the middle and late Northern Wei Dynasty, a native of Zhuozhou, and his ancestors served as officials in various countries of the Northern Dynasty for generations. The Yun family traveled all over the north, from Guanzhong to Hebei, from Longxi to Shandong. In ancient times, when the land was relocated, frequent migration was not a good thing, but perhaps it was an alternative early experience that made Yun Daoyuan deeply interested in the rich and diverse customs, geography and hydrology.
When describing mountains and rivers in the "Notes on the Classic of Water", Yun Daoyuan often recorded what he saw and heard with emotion, such as when describing the Juyang River (now Mi River) in Linqu, Shandong, saying: "In the year of Yu Zongjiao, serving Dongzhou, until the hot summer fire, living in the weary thoughts, violin life friends, frolicking forever." Referring to Zishui (present-day Zihe), he said: "Yu grew up in Eastern Qi, and swam under it... Poetry. Entertaining and comforting. "Interest is the best teacher, and Yun Daoyuan's interest in rivers and mountains is probably the main reason why he later wrote a book on the Book of Water.
After Yun Daoyuan became an adult, the places where he worked were also relatively scattered, and he successively served as Shangshu Ancestral Bulang, Taifu Ji, Zhishu Shu Yushi, Luyang Taishou, Jizhou Zhendongfu Changshi, Dongjingzhou Spur History, Yingchuan Taishou, Zhengnan Xingtai Shangshu, Yushi Lieutenant, Xiangzhou Xingtai, and Guanyou Ambassador. Most of his positions are assistants of the central government, and when he is an official at the local level, he only does the assassination of small prefectures and counties, basically not involved in the political turmoil of the imperial court, nor is he too complicated in government affairs, which means that he has enough time and energy to "travel the mountains and rivers" and experience the beauty of mountains and rivers.
According to the "Northern History" and "Book of Wei", Yun Daoyuan liked to read scriptures since he was a child, liked to write books and said, and his many years as an official also developed a good writing ability. The needs of his position and his personal hobbies complement each other, and while enjoying the beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers, Yun Daoyuan finally came up with the idea of annotating the "Water Sutra".
The "Water Classic" is a geographical work written by Sang Qin at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which records 137 large and small rivers, but it is extremely short, only more than 10,000 words, and the content is relatively rough and simple. At first, it may just be a mistake, who knows that the next pen is out of control, and almost rewrites the "Water Classic", a total of 40 volumes, as many as 300,000 words, and as many as 1252 rivers included in his book, if the lakes, lakes, rivers, canals, ponds, and so on along the rivers are included, then as many as 2596, basically exhausting the country's large and small rivers, and has become a cornerstone classic for the study of hydrology.
The Notes on the Water Classic describes the river in much more detail than the original book. Yun Daoyuan said in the "Commentary on the Water Classic": "The pulse of its branches is the breath, the place along the road is diagnosed, the search for canals is visited, and the arrest is embellished." "In books, you can often see an account of the location of a certain river, and the distance is measured in steps. For example, describe the hundred veins water (now hundred pulse spring) in Jinan, Shandong, this small river is a tributary of the Xiaoqing River, the runoff and watershed area are very small, Yun Daoyuan probably visited this small river on the spot when he lived in Shandong when he was a teenager, not only marked the direction of the county town that flowed through, but also specially recorded the hundred veins water "water source square hundred steps", which is basically the same as the location of the hundred veins spring in Zhangqiu, Jinan today. Such a scale and meticulousness far exceeded Pei Songzhi's note "Three Kingdoms", and also had a far-reaching impact in later generations.
2. Exploring mountains and rivers is helpful to the military
From rising interest to professional investigation to writing a book, external factors and social ethos are also important. After the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty, Xun Xiao wrote the "Records of Jiuzhou", and Le Zi, who was a little later than him, wrote the "Records of Jiuzhou", and Wang Yin of the Eastern Jin Dynasty's "Records of the Tunnels of Jin", Kan Xiao of the Northern Dynasty's "Records of the Thirteen States", the Anonymous Clan "Records of the Great Wei Prefectures", Lu Gongzhi's "Records of the Customs and Lands of Later Wei Yutu", and the Southern Dynasty He Chengtian and Xu Ye's two "Records of Prefectures and Counties", Liu Chengzhi's "Records of Yongchu Landscapes", Wu Jun's "Records of Twelve States", and Gu Yewang's "Records of Public Opinion" and so on.
In just one or two hundred years, there have been far more geographical works than in the Qin and Han dynasties. What is the reason? In the last years of the Western Jin Dynasty, the five chaotic Chinese and later the northern and southern dynasties were coexisted, and the large and small separatist regimes were either bounded by large rivers and rivers, or limited by natural geographical units, confronting and attacking each other, the strong studied how to overcome the danger of mountains and rivers to destroy the country of people, the weak studied how to resist external troubles by relying on geographical conditions, the new dynasty had to compile the people with the help of accurate geographical data for the newly annexed and conquered areas, geography has become an unprecedented manifestation and rigid need of all regimes, so related works will spring up.
The Northern Wei Dynasty was particularly prominent in this regard. Northern Wei Boxing conquered Houyan in the North China Plain, Daxia in Guanzhong and Longyou, and the Zhuliang regime in Hexi, encroaching on the territory of the Southern Dynasty on the Shandong Peninsula, and finally engaged in a long-term tug-of-war with the Southern Dynasty in the Huai River Valley, and each major military victory was a breakthrough in a typical geographical unit. There is no doubt that the intellectuals of the Northern Wei Dynasty took the posture of victors to examine one newly conquered plain, basin, and mountain area after another, which was a strong stimulus for the writing and creation of geographical works.
He often shows this mentality when documenting rivers, such as his records of the Huai River and its tributaries. The confrontation between the Northern Wei and Southern Dynasties was mainly concentrated in the Huaishui Basin, and the upper reaches of Yiyang (present-day Xinyang, Henan) were particularly fierce. When Yun Daoyuan served as Luyang Taishou and Eastern Jingzhou, he was close to Yiyang, and he went to the field to investigate around the time of him. Volume 30 of the "Commentary on the Classic of Water" "Huaishui" records that the tributary of the Huai River is turbid, which has a distinct military meaning, "In the past, it was rare to send 3,000 horsemen to aid Yiyang to act in Pang Dingguang, and those who were in the muddy water." He also described the direction as follows: "The southeast of the river, the north of the Lijin Mountain, the mountains have no trees, and the steep layers are ... Because of the Lingling Ridge, the three miles back to the Zhou are the old city of the county." "Such a detailed amount can be used as a reference for the formation of troops.
The Hanzhong area was also the focus of contention between the Northern Wei and Southern Dynasties, and Yun Daoyuan was interested in the landscape there, recording a legendary story. Volume 20 "Yangshui Danshui" states that Yangshui, a tributary of Hanshui, flows through Xihe County, and there is a seisa gorge, and there is a stone cave on the left side of the gorge wall, which the local people say can directly lead to Xiajian County in Hanzhong County. Volume 34 "Jiang Shui II" also states that the Yangtze River flows through Yiling County (now in Yichang, Hubei), and there is also a stone cave on the mountain on the shore, called "Ma Piercing", and the people often see a white horse crawling out of the hole to find food, strangely entering the cave, walking far away, and actually drilling out of Hanzhong thousands of miles away. Some Hanzhong people lost their horses, went into the cave to look for it, and also came to Yiling County. The two caves in the northwest and central China can lead to Hanzhong, opening up more than a thousand miles of space, which is quite a "wormhole" visual sense. Yun Daoyuan has been to Yiling more than a dozen times, and in addition to investigating hydrology, he is also fascinated by these magical legends. Thinking about this mentality, it is probably due to the desire and reverie of both the north and south for the strategic location of Hanzhong, hoping for a shortcut to cross the formidable Qinling Mountains.
It is worth mentioning that Yun Daoyuan was immersed in the idea of Northern Wei conquest, and he probably had a strong dream of unification in his heart. The scope of the rivers recorded in the "Notes on the Classic of Water" is not limited to the Northern Wei Dynasty, but is based on the territory of the heyday of the Western Han Empire, and includes many rivers, lakes and streams outside the Northern Wei territory, as well as their cultural customs, topography and landforms. For example, in the Western Regions, when describing the source of the Yellow River, Yun Daoyuan found that there was a Xintou River (Indus River) that also originated from the Kunlun Mountains, so he recorded in the book this river that was far west of the Green Ridge and that Zhang Qian of the Western Han Dynasty had never visited, and said, "From the west of the river, the countries of Tianzhu, from the south, are all China, and the people are rich." This gesture is quite related to the momentum of the Northern Wei emperors annexing the Eight Wilderness and Extreme Eye Yu.
Yun Daoyuan's account of Hainan Island is full of admiration. Yun Daoyuan had never been to Hainan, and the "Water Classic" did not record the Hainan water system, but Yun Daoyuan specially completed it and excerpted a passage from the "Jiaoguang Spring and Autumn" written by Wang Fan of the Western Jin Dynasty: "More than 2,000 li in a week, 800 li in diameter." The people can be more than 100,000 families, all of whom are different and have been carved by hair, while the women are beautiful, white, and have long hair and beautiful sideburns. "Although he has not yet fulfilled his realm, but he has traveled and experienced it, it can be seen that Yun Daoyuan not only traveled thousands of miles, but also traveled far away.
3. Enthusiastic investigation and curious complex
Notes on the Classic of Water takes river hydrology as the outline, records a large number of humanities, geography, customs, and anecdotes, and the text is not boring, and it is quite fascinating to read.
For example, Yun Daoyuan recorded Changyang River in present-day Changyang County, Hubei Province, saying that there were sacred fish in the stream, two feet large and one foot small, and residents had to worship the sacred fish before fishing, saying how much they would catch. If you catch too much, you can get storms, waves, and trees.
Yun Daoyuan personally went here, and the Northern Wei did not conquer the border of Changyang County that year, probably passing through this place by sending an envoy to the Southern Dynasty, so he cherished this rare opportunity. He went to the source of Changyang Creek to inspect the ground, and heard that there was cold all year round, so he personally went down to the mouth of the stream to feel it, and the book said: "Yu Xiangzhi, when he went to the middle of April, he went to the cave to count the zhang, and he had to be chilled, and he said that until the middle of June, it was especially unacceptable." "The image of a curious and passionate traveller comes to life. It can also be seen that Yun Daoyuan's relatively scientific and rigorous attitude, he is not eager to verify the legend of the sacred fish, but pursues intimate contact with nature, and the reason why the "Notes on the Water Classic" has been handed down to this day depends on this.
The Yellow River in Northern Wei flooded repeatedly, repeatedly ruled but ineffective, which was naturally the focus of Ji Daoyuan's investigation. During a field inspection in Shaanxian County (present-day Sanmenxia Shaanzhou District, Henan), Yun Daoyuan recorded a long-standing local story, saying that Qin Shi Huang cast twelve golden men that year, and after Qin was destroyed, he sank in the river of Shaanxi County. It is also said that after Zhao Shihu pulled two away from the pass, he encountered wind and waves, and all the boats and belongings sank into the river, so the river water was turned into disaster. Although Yun Daoyuan knew that the Yellow River's "hanging water for more than 100 people" was caused by excessive sediment, he still recorded its incident, and also carefully studied the ins and outs of the twelve golden people of Qin Shi Huang, from Li Si writing seal inscriptions for the golden people, to Dong Zhuo's destruction of nine and three in the late Han Dynasty, and then to the people angrily pushing the golden people into the Yellow River during the Sixteen Kingdoms, with clear contexts and clear details, just like a "gossip king", which is enduringly handsome to read.
Yun Daoyuan is particularly affectionate about Shandong's record. When inspecting Wenshui and Zishui, the road passed through Laiwu County (now Laiwu District, Jinan City), probably passing through mountains along the road, and wrote about the Laiwu Mountains, such as "the forest is thick, the cliffs look at each other, or the incidence obstructs the path, or the valley is severe." The breeze is chirping, the mountains are ringing...", although the mountain road is difficult, but his writing is full of poetry. There is a spring in Laiwu Lonely Mountain, and there is a stone cave next to the spring, which is nine feet high and four or five feet wide after entering the cave, and it is not like manpower, like it was chiseled by ancient saints. In order to render the mystery of Laiwu, Yun Daoyuan also quoted the story of "The Legend of the Immortals", saying that in ancient times, a deerskin duke found a divine spring in Laiwu, and then used the hanging pavilion stairway to rise to the source of the divine spring, used it as an ancestral house, ate sesame grass, and drank the divine spring, and wandered on the top of the mountain for more than 70 years, and actually cultivated an immortal body.
Yun Daoyuan had a strong personality, his career was not very smooth, and he wandered in middle and lower-level official positions all his life. However, the difficulties of reality did not prevent him from traveling everywhere and writing words, but made him more able to pour his passion and achieve extraordinary achievements. Later, because he offended the powerful and powerful, he was sent to Guanzhong to pacify the chaotic army, but was killed by the leader of the chaotic army, Xiao Baoxun, and a generation of geography grandmasters ended up with this end, which is inevitably regrettable.
However, soon after the death of Yun Daoyuan, the "Notes on the Classic of Water" gained favor, and more than a hundred years later it became an important reference for the compilation of the "Records of Yuanhe County" by the Tang Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty's compilation of the larger general record "Taiping Huanyu Ji" still used the "Notes on the Classic of Water" in large quantities. Not only geographers value it, but also literary scholars and poets love this strange book, and Su Shi once praised: "I am very happy, and I have read the Water Sutra repeatedly." "The Ming and Qing Dynasties have greatly explored the value of the "Notes on the Water Classic", and it has been broadened to become a special "study of the Classic", which shows that the painstaking people live up to the sky, which is enough to mirror today.
Column editor-in-chief: Zhang Wu Text editor: Fang Ying Title picture source: Shangguan title picture Photo editor: Zhu Jun
Source: Author: Beijing Evening News Dongjungong