A few friends who followed me sent private messages several times, hoping that I would write about Jialing Capture Han. But I kept hesitating because I didn't understand the Jialing Han Capture Place, and I had only passed by the Luoyang area a few times, and I had not personally seen the suspected Han Capture location.
But I am still very concerned about this issue, and I have looked up a lot of information in my spare time, but the more information I read, the more mysterious and difficult it is to distinguish the authenticity of the "Jialing Capture of Han".
In Luoyang, the Jialing River and the Han River are too close together
Many people's articles say that Jialing captured the Han Dynasty, and the words are clear, saying that this incident has long been recorded in the history books: "History says: Jialing Captures the Han." This statement is irresponsible, because there is no such record in the twenty-four histories. A search on "Reading Show" can get results immediately, and the official history has long been digitized and is very easy to find.
After my search, the first person to propose the idea of "Jialing seizing the Han" was Zhou Hongwei, a professor at Shaanxi Normal University.
Professor Zhou wrote an article in 2010: The Great Wudu Earthquake in the Early Han Dynasty and the Changes in the Water System in the Upper Reaches of the Han River. This article was published in the journal "Historical Research", which has a relatively large impact, and now many arguments such as "Jialing seizing Han" come from Professor Zhou's article. The following figure is a summary of Professor Zhou's article.
Week's article summary
But there are many experts and scholars who oppose Professor Zhou's views, such as Professor Yang Xiao of Fudan University. Yang's article was also published in the journal Historical Geography, and the following is a truncation of the beginning of his article.
Summary of Yang's rebuttal article
There are also Professor Zhao Zhiqing of Henan University, who also questioned the claim that Jialing captured the Han. The picture below is a questioning article co-written by Zhao and Ren.
Zhao questioned the beginning of the article
Experts and scholars bite the text and chew the word of the research, not to mention, too brain-consuming, and the changes between ancient place names and today's place names are too complicated.
I just want to say that Zhou's formulation is not groundless, because the name and location of the Western Han Water are very easy to arouse people's associations. The place where the West Han water flows into the Jialing River is also too close to the Han River system. And at its closest, the watershed between the two water systems is also very low, only 200 meters higher than the surface of the Jialing River.
I myself have not been to this place, I dare not talk nonsense, but someone has been there during the Republic of China. At that time, the Institute of Geography sent several scholars to investigate the Jialing River, and the leader of the inspection group was called Li Chengsan, who focused on the investigation of Luoyang here, and the field survey and measurement of the Jia-Han watershed, in addition to the text description, also drew a topographic map, which is the following map.
Hand-drawn drawings of the Republic of China
The watershed is in a ditch, and the mountains on both sides are squeezed together to form a low watershed, with water flowing on one side to the Jialing River and the other to the Han River. The ditches on both sides of the watershed have their own names, the western one is called Qingnigou, the east one is called Xiangshui Ditch, and the stream in the ditch is very small.
The report of the delegation also mentioned the speculation that it was suspected that Jialing captured the Han, but at the same time raised many questions. The original text of the report reads: The watershed ridge is very low, fern-like like a saddle, covered with alluvial loess, and mixed stone dishes. This ridge used to be the course of the river, so there is no problem.
The following two figures are a paragraph from the inspection report.
The two pictures can be read consecutively
Source: Impression of Ning Qiang
When building the Baocheng Railway survey route, they also found a strange phenomenon in the watershed between Jialing and Han, and guessed that the water of the Western Han was the true source of the Han River, but their main task was to build the railway, and they did not delve into whether Jialing captured the Han.
All kinds of information are over here, in a word, many signs clearly indicate the possibility of Jialing taking Han. But the problem is that this is only a possibility, and there is no empirical evidence at present.
Professor Zhou believes that the Wudu earthquake in the early Han Dynasty collapsed Mount Hanwang, and stones flew down, forming a watershed that blocked the way of the Western Han River flowing east. Therefore, under the erosion of the water of Luoyang, which gathered into a lake, the passage to the south was opened, so the east flow was changed to the south flow, resulting in "Jialing seizing the Han".
This statement can explain the name of the Western Han Water, the Mt. Tianshui and the Mt. Jiuzuka in the Han Dynasty, and it is easy to accept. I think this statement is very reasonable, and many historical difficulties suddenly disappear.
But Professor Yang Xiao of Fudan's rebuttal is also very strong. Professor Yang analyzed the stones on the watershed and compared them with the stones on Hanwang Mountain and found that the two stones were obviously different.
This proves that the watershed was not caused by the collapse of Hanwang Mountain, which shattered the theory that Mr. Zhou's earthquake landslide blocked the Western Han water.
But is it possible that the sediment carried by the Western Han Water itself has been piled up here in the watershed for a long time, blocking the eastward flow of the water, and has to go south to join the Jialing River?
It is not for nothing that rivers set their own blockages, such as the Yellow River. When it flows slowly, the sediment sinks to the bottom, accumulates higher and higher, and finally cannot move forward, so it can only break the mouth and open another river.
The county seat of Luoyang, the turbid water of the Western Han Dynasty
During the flood period, the river also carries a large amount of sediment, which is very turbid. Qingnigou Xiangshuigou was very gentle here more than 2,000 years ago, and the flow rate of Western Han water slowed down here, and sediment was deposited. Countless years of deposition, finally blocked itself.
This possibility is not impossible, and it should not be difficult to prove it. If the composition of the sediment and stone blocks in the watershed is compared with the composition of the mud, stone and sand in the upper reaches of the Western Han River, if the two match, it can be confirmed.