Ge Jianxiong: Why China

In August 1963, a bronze artifact was unearthed in Jia Village, a northeastern suburb of Baoji County (now Chen Cang District, Baoji City), Shaanxi Province, and later named "He Zun". In 1975, archaeologists discovered a 122-character inscription cast on the bottom of He Zun, including the phrase "Zhai Zi China". He Zun was cast in the early years of King Cheng of Zhou, about the late 11th century BC, more than 3,000 years ago, which is the earliest word "China" found so far.

There is such a passage in the inscription: "King Wu has conquered the merchants of Dayi, and the court tells the heavens, saying: Yu Qi's house is China, and he begs the people from it." "It is to the effect that after King Wu of Zhou conquered the capital of the Shang Dynasty, he held a solemn ceremony to report to heaven: I have settled (built a capital) in China and ruled the people. Obviously, "China" refers to the royal capital of King Wu of Zhou.

Why can King Wu of Zhou be called "China"? This has to start with the history of Chinese civilization of more than 5,000 years.

01The origin of "China"

5,800 years ago, the dawn of civilization appeared in China. From 3500 BC to 1500 BC, Tuyi sites were formed in present-day Yuhang Liangzhu, Zhejiang, Xiangfen Taotao Temple in Shanxi, Shenmu Shiji in Shaanxi, and Erlitou in Yanshi in Henan, and other central sites were formed in the Yellow River Basin, Yangtze River Basin and Liao River Basin. Between 5100 and 4300 years ago, some regions with rapid social development successively emerged early countries and entered the stage of civilization. From 4300 to 4100 years ago, the regional civilization in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River was relatively in decline, and the Central Plains continued to rise, and on the basis of gathering and absorbing advanced cultural factors from various places, political, economic and cultural development continued to develop, laying the foundation for entering the dynastic civilization. After the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, after about 200 years of development, the largest capital in the country at the same time was built in Yanshi Erlitou, Henan, forming many concentrated population clusters throughout the Central Plains.

These duyi and juyi are called "guo" (国). "Country" is a hieroglyph, with the "mouth" in the middle representing people and people, and the horizontal one below representing a piece of land. Since this land is the basis of the life and production of this group, someone must guard it. For safety, a wall will be built around it - a large "chimney" outside. The writing of the word "country" in He Zunzhong is not as big as the big "囗" outside. There were already many such countries at that time, so there was a saying of "all nations". "Ten thousand" is not an exact number, but an adjective, and all nations describe the number of nations. According to legend, Dayu convened princes in Tushan (generally believed to be on the east bank of the Huai River in present-day Bengbu Yuhui District, Anhui), "the ruler of all nations". By the Xia Dynasty, although the number of states still could not reach ten thousand, it was certainly an increase compared to the Dayu era.

The scope and influence of the Shang Dynasty was greater than that of the Xia Dynasty, and the number of states should be larger. With the formation and strengthening of the state form and the improvement of the function of the administrative center, the residence of the Shang king changed from constant migration to long-term stability, becoming the largest and most important country. For more than 200 years after Pangeng moved to Yin, the capital of the Shang Dynasty was Yin (present-day Yindu District, Anyang, Henan). Although Yin is also one of the "nations of all nations", its status and importance are far above other countries, so it is called "China". "Zhong" was originally the name of a special large banner made by merchants to gather the people. Each time the congregation is convened, the congregation will gather around this big banner "Zhong", and over time, "Zhong" derives the meaning of center, center, and most importantly. China is the center and center of all nations, and the most important country among all nations, that is, the "Dayi Shang" in He Zun's inscription. Therefore, after King Wu of Zhou conquered the capital of the Shang Dynasty, "Dayi Shang", he could report to heaven, "Yu Qi Mansion China". It goes without saying that by the time of the Zhou Dynasty, the capital of the Zhou Dynasty—the original Zongzhou and the newly built Chengzhou—was China, and its status was higher than that of all nations and the capital of all the princely states. Until the beginning of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, China was the proper name of the capital of the Zhou Dynasty, where Zhou Tianzi was located, and the capital of the princely states could only be called "capital".

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the authority of Zhou Tianzi gradually lost, and the status of "co-lord of the world" existed in name only. Under the banner of "respecting the king and destroying the country", powerful princes competed with each other for annexation, and no longer rose and destroyed small countries due to disasters, but directly annexed them. In the Spring and Autumn period, there were more than a thousand famous states, and by the time of the Warring States, only the seven kingdoms of Qin, Chu, Qi, Yan, Han, Zhao, and Wei and a number of small vassal states remained. Zhou Tianzi's actual status had dropped to a level comparable to that of a vassal small state, and his capital was no longer as large as the slightly larger capital of the Seven Kingdoms. Any of the seven nations has a larger area of land and greater strength than him. "China" was no longer the exclusive domain of Zhou Tianzi, and the princely states, especially those in the Central Plains, had regarded their capital or the country they ruled as China. China is also known as "Chixian Shenzhou" or "Shenzhou". In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang destroyed the Six Kingdoms and achieved unification, and his capital Xianyang certainly maintained its position in China, and the capitals and territories of the Six Kingdoms became his rule, and their respective concepts of "China" were continued, so the entire Qin Shi Huang's ruling area became China. In the 28th year of Qin Shi Huang (219 BC), the Langyutai carved stone says: "Within Liuhe, the land of the emperor, the west wades into quicksand, the south ends the north household, the east has the East Sea, and the north passes through Daxia." "This vast territory has become China.

However, the existence of the Qin Dynasty was too short, and this concept of "China" was not yet popularized, and in the early Western Han Dynasty, the traditional and narrow concept of "China" coexisted. "China" in the narrow sense is equivalent to the Central Plains, as Sima Qian said in the "History of Goods and Colonies", "all Chinese the people's favor", and "Chinese people" refers to the inhabitants of the Central Plains. On the one hand, "China" is synonymous with the Han Dynasty, especially externally, for example, when Emperor Xuan of Han agreed on the courtship ceremony of the Xiongnu to call Han Xie Shan Yu, Xiao Wangzhi proposed the principle of "making China not a traitor". On the other hand, within the Han Dynasty, the definition of "China" was still inconsistent, such as the areas of the frontier where new counties were established, and the local people had identified with China, but the people in the counties that had previously been set up did not regard these places as China. Some areas within the Han Dynasty's territory that had not yet established counties and non-Chinese tribal areas were also often considered not part of China.

The Central Plains Dynasty established thereafter, from the Eastern Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, all called themselves China, and all used China as a synonym for the name of the dynasty. No matter how dynasties change and emperors change surnames, China's name has always continued and never stopped. In the period of separatism, both sides and parties to the separatist government, as long as they have the desire for reunification or in order to gain legitimacy, will regard themselves as China and will not recognize the other side as China. But when unification was restored, both sides or parties became the object of the next dynasty's revision of history, that is, they were recognized as China. Once the non-Chinese ethnic group establishes political power and rules China, or enters the Central Plains, or unifies the whole country, they will definitely regard themselves as China, such as the Han, Former Zhao, Xia, and Northern Liang built by the Xiongnu during the Western Jin Dynasty and the Sixteen Kingdoms period, the Cheng Han built by Ba Di, the Later Zhao built by the Qiang people, the Former Yan, Later Yan, Western Yan, and Southern Yan built by Murong Xianbei, the Former Qin and Western Liang built by the Di people, the Later Qin built by the Qiang people, the Western Qin built by the beggars and the humble people, and the Southern Liang built by the bald Xianbei; the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, and Western Wei dynasties built by Tuoba Xianbei during the Southern and Northern Dynasties; As well as the later Nanzhao, Dachanghe, Dali, Bohai, the Liao Dynasty built by the Khitans, the Western Xia Dynasty built by Dangxiang, and the Jin Dynasty built by the Jurchens.

The Republic of China was established in 1912 and was called China on most occasions. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the concept and meaning of China as a country name and country name continued to this day.

02 The formation of the Chinese nation

For more than 5,000 years, the Chinese nation has formed and developed into a big family of 56 ethnic groups with the Han nationality as the main body on this land.

More than 5,000 years ago, tribes scattered all over the world gradually formed tribal alliances in the process of survival and development, and used migration to avoid and resist natural and man-made disasters. After countless trials and errors, one of the larger tribal alliances moved into the most suitable living environment at that time, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. After hundreds of years of settlement in the Xia Dynasty, a tribal collection - the Xia people was formed. Because the settlement area is still relatively scattered, the interaction between the tribes is not frequent, and they have not fully integrated into one race, so they are called Zhuxia.

The merchants came from outside the Zhuxia settlement, and although they conquered the Xia people militarily and established the Shang Dynasty, they could not change the population and cultural superiority of the Xia. During the Shang Dynasty, although the mainstream culture was already the product of the fusion of Xia and Shang cultures, the majority of the population was still Xia people. After the merchants were destroyed, the remaining merchants were forcibly relocated and monitored, and the scattered merchants became part of the Zhuxia.

Although the Zhou people were the main force in destroying commerce, until the establishment of the Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou people were still a minority in the total population. The scope of the Zhou Dynasty was almost all the settlements of the Zhuxia, and the princes who were sealed and their clans, subordinates, sergeants, and servants were often in the minority in the fiefdom. Therefore, in addition to the old land of the Zhou people in Guanzhong Province, the people of the princely states, which accounted for the majority of the population, were still Zhuxia and still regarded themselves as Zhuxia. By the time King Ping of Zhou moved east, after nearly three hundred years of integration, the people within the vassal states north of Jianghuai had become Zhuxia and Xia people.

Hua, the original meaning is flower, extended to be beautiful, elegant and noble, from praising the "Hua" of Xia people's clothing to describing the "Hua" of Xia people. Zhuxia and Xia people were happy to accept it, and gradually called themselves "Huaxia". Later, Huaxia was also referred to simply as "Xia" or "Hua". There are many tribes outside Huaxia, and by the time of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, they were generally called Hu, Rong, Di, Yi, Man, etc., and were refined into Linhu, Shanrong, Beirong, Yiluo Zhirong, Chidi, Changdi, Dongyi, Huaiyi, etc. according to the distribution area, orientation, and characteristics, or retained their respective names, such as Peng Xia, Bai Zhai, Lou Fu, Tu He, Donglai, etc. With the increase of the Chinese population and the expansion of agricultural areas, some non-Chinese tribes converted from pastoralism, hunting or gathering to agriculture, and integrated with the Chinese, and some migrated to the north. By the time Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, the Yellow River Valley within the Great Wall was basically devoid of non-Chinese tribes.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Chinese population moved from the Central Plains to the Hetao area, the southern foothills of the Yin Mountains, the banks of the Yangtze River, Bashu, Lingnan, Liaodong, and Korea. During the Two Han Dynasties, the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms, the Yongjia Rebellion of the Western Jin Dynasty to the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Anshi Rebellion to the end of the Tang Dynasty, and the Jingkang Rebellion to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, large-scale population migration to the south caused the Chinese population to spread throughout the south. In this process, most of the Sanmiao, Baiyue (such as Shanyue, Ouyue, Minyue, Yuyue, Luoyue, etc.), Ba, Qi, Man, Yunnan, Xun, Jiao, Feng, Slang, and Xi in the south gradually integrated into China, and some retreated to mountainous or remote areas, forming or combining into different ethnic minorities.

During the Wei and Jin dynasties, faced with a large number of immigrants of non-Chinese ethnic groups and non-Chinese populations who had already identified with China, the main body of Huaxia emphasized that they belonged to the "Chinese" Huaxia, that is, "China". Later, China and Huaxia were called together, and "Hua" became the abbreviation of China and Huaxia, and it can also be the abbreviation of China.

In different dynasties, especially the unified dynasty for a long time, the Chinese and non-Chinese populations within the territory of the dynasty can be referred to by the name of the country, such as Han (Dahan) people, Tang (Tang) people, Ming (Daming) people, Qing (Daqing) people, and will be used for a long time after the dynasty, such as after the Han to the Southern and Northern Dynasties have the name "Han", and then often called "Han" to distinguish it from "Hu". In the Qing Dynasty, the population of the eighteen provinces in the interior was called the Han people, and the "Manchu Han" symbolized the people of the whole country. The term "Tang people" has been used until modern times, especially among overseas Chinese.

In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the constitution was organized, and the concept of "five ethnic groups" was put forward, namely Manchu, Han, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Hui. When the Republic of China was founded, the five-color flag was designated as the national flag, symbolizing the Republic of the Han, Manchu, Mongolian, Hui and Tibetan ethnic groups.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a big family of the Chinese nation with the Han nationality as the main body and a total of 56 ethnic groups was formed.

03The evolution of Chinese civilization

For more than 5,000 years, Chinese civilization has formed and developed on this land.

More than 5,000 years ago, Pei-Ligang culture, Yangshao culture, Liangzhu culture, Hongshan culture, Majiayao culture, Dawenkou culture, Longshan culture and many other civilization prototypes were formed on the land of China, and archaeologists vividly compared it to the starry sky. It is no accident that Chinese civilization presents a pluralistic pattern in its origin and early development stage, promoting each other, learning from each other's strengths and complementing each other's weaknesses in long-term exchanges and interactions, and finally condensing the core of civilization represented by the Erlitou culture, opening the civilization of the three generations of Xia Shang.

According to the research of Zhu Kezhen and others, the average annual temperature in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River at that time was about 2 degrees Celsius higher than now, and the climate was warm and humid, with abundant precipitation, which was the most suitable place for human survival on the East Asian continent. Not only can water for daily life and production be guaranteed, but crops in most places do not need artificial irrigation. The climate of the Yangtze River Basin is too humid and hot, with too much precipitation, and the climate of the Mongolian Plateau and Northeast China is cold and dry, which is not conducive to the survival of human beings and the growth of the prototype of civilization.

The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are mainly plains formed by the Loess Plateau and the loess alluvium, with loose soil, and most of them are savanna landforms. In the case of only stone tools or simple wooden farming tools, the vegetation on this land is easy to remove and easy to cultivate into farmland. Other places, such as dense primeval forests, were difficult to remove effectively until iron tools were produced and widespread, and soils with cohesive compactness or excessive sand and gravel could not be cultivated.

The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River had a large land area, which was the largest farmable land in the northern hemisphere at that time, larger than the total area of the fertile crescent belt in West Asia and North Africa. Especially after wheat was introduced, enough food could be produced, which promoted class differentiation and the expansion of the scale of professionals such as rulers, nobles, scholars, armies, priests, wizards, historical officials (divided by wizards), craftsmen, etc., and also increased the population and labor force relatively quickly. The rulers controlled more grain, which contributed to the transformation of the Zen system of "public heaven" to the hereditary system of "family world". By the end of the Western Han Dynasty, of the total population of more than 60 million, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River accounted for more than 60%.

Contiguous land without completely enclosed geographical barriers in the middle facilitates large-scale cultivation and cultivation, the spread of new crops such as wheat, the organization of production, circulation and distribution by rulers and managers, and the diffusion, migration and resettlement of populations. In the absence of mechanical or powered vehicles, the communication within and between groups in this area is more convenient, the radius of activities is easy to expand, the number of exchanges tends to be frequent, and a general expression will be formed in a larger range and close interpersonal relationships. Due to the lower cost of moving people and materials, powerful tribes controlled or administered a larger area after uniting or annexing other tribes, forming larger tribes or tribal alliances, which eventually developed into chiefdoms or early states, from the Xia dynasties to the Xia dynasty. Such an environment also gradually replaced the regional gods with large-scale and universal gods, and then formed a unified supreme god, Tianxia, which has become synonymous with known and unknown geographical scopes. The concepts of heaven and heaven in turn gave birth to the concept of great unification, and subsequent unification was based on this land and expanded.

During the Warring States period, as the scope of their rule expanded, some vassal states began to set up administrative agencies and delineate administrative regions within the newly expanded territory. Some of the men were already planning a blueprint for reunification—dividing China into nine states and defining their names. In order to make their plans acceptable to future monarchs, they named this grand plan in Dayu and recorded it in the Shangshu Yugong, and Kyushu became known as "Yugong Kyushu". Although Kyushu never became a fact, it has since become synonymous with China, and "prefecture" was also adopted as a common name for administrative or supervisory regions, which is still used today. The specific name of Kyushu has also been adopted by administrative regions, and today it is still the proper name of some political districts. In 221 BC, Qin Shi Huang generally implemented the county system, which was centralized and unified administration of the whole country at different levels and sub-regions. The Qing Dynasty also established corresponding administrative institutions and administrative regions in pastoral areas and border areas, and the political district system eventually covered the entire territory. For more than 2,000 years, although the specific levels and regions have been different, the political district system that is compatible with the centralized system has not changed substantially.

The Yellow River Basin during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods was the most culturally developed region. The founder of Confucianism, Confucius, was a native of Qufu, Lu (present-day Qufu, Shandong), who traveled around the world, returned to Qufu in his later years, and devoted himself to the collation and teaching of Confucian classics, and many of his students were mainly from Lu, Wei, Qi, Song and other countries, and his main inheritors Zeng Zi and Mencius also lived in this area, and the Qilu area was the center of Confucian culture. During the Warring States period, hundreds of schools of thought contended, and the founders and main dissemination areas of several major schools were also concentrated in the Yellow River Valley. Mozi, the founder of Mojia, Laozi, the founder of Taoism, Zhuangzi, Yang Zhu, Song Yu, Yin Wen, Tian Biao, representatives of Confucianism, Xunzi, Legalist Shenda, Shang Martin, Han Fei, etc., and representatives of other families who are diverged from Taoism, are not out of the scope of the Yellow River Valley.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, the middle reaches of the Yellow River were already a veritable national political center, with influence reaching as far as the heart of Asia. The lower reaches of the Yellow River are the economic center of the country, the most important agricultural, handicraft and commercial areas, and the dominant position of the Yellow River Basin is further strengthened by the existence of political centers. The distribution of various intellectuals, books, schools, private professors, officially selected doctors, and filial piety found in the Two Han Dynasty spanned the Yellow River Valley, and the saying "the Kanto is the prime minister, and the Kansai is the general" to a certain extent reflects the actual situation of the high concentration of talent distribution at that time.

From the unification of the Sui Dynasty in 589 to the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion in 755, the Yellow River Valley experienced another period of prosperity. The Sui and Tang dynasties successively established capitals in Chang'an and Luoyang, and the Guanzhong Plain and Yiluo Plain once again became the political centers of the country. The expansion and prosperity of the Tang Dynasty also made Chang'an's influence as far as West Asia, Korea, and Japan, making it the largest and most prosperous city in the world at that time.

As the climate gradually cools, the Yellow River Basin becomes colder and drier, and the precipitation in the middle reaches of the Yellow River decreases, mainly at the turn of summer and autumn every year. Strong erosion and erosion have caused soil erosion on the Loess Plateau and the middle reaches of the Yellow River, and have been aggravated by irrational agricultural development due to the migration of a large number of people. A large amount of sediment flowed into the Yellow River, so that the river, which was originally called "He" or "Great River", had the title of "Zhuo River" in the Spring and Autumn Period, and by the end of the 3rd century BC, the early Western Han Dynasty, it had the name "Yellow River". The raging river in the Jin-Shaanxi Gorge carries a huge amount of sediment, which is deposited when entering the open and gentle downstream channel, causing the riverbed to silt up and become a "hanging river" above the surface on both sides. Until the end of the 20th century, 1.6 billion tons of sediment flowed into the Yellow River each year, of which 400 million tons were deposited in the lower channels. In the area of Kaifeng, Henan, the riverbed is 8 to 10 meters above the surface of the two banks, while the bed of the highest section of the river is 20 meters above the surface of the two banks. The Yellow River, which hangs above the surface, is constrained by two dikes, which can cause overflow and flooding when the water level breaks through the level of the dike or the dike leaks and collapses. Since there are no mountains to the east of Taihang Mountain, Funiu Mountain and Dabie Mountain, it is easy to cause the river to be diverted due to overflow and flooding. Among the world's major rivers, the Yellow River has been diverted most frequently and in history, with the northernmost being able to enter the sea today, the southernmost Huai River into the sea, and even flowing into the Yangtze River. Each diversion will cause huge losses to local people's lives and property, destroy farmland, silt lakes and marshes, and form quicksand, leaving an indelible hazard to the environment.

The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have long been the political center, whether it is internal rebellion, external invasion, peasant uprising, or warlord chaos, if you want to seize power, establish a new dynasty, and enter the Central Plains, you must take the Central Plains as the main battlefield and the capital as the ultimate goal. In the war, the fighting parties often ignored the engineering maintenance of the Yellow River and disaster relief efforts, and even used water to replace the troops, artificially causing the overflow to be diverted, such as Du Chong in the late Northern Song Dynasty, Du Chong tried to block the Jin soldiers from the Yellow River, resulting in the first diversion of the Yellow River to seize Huai.

The war in the Central Plains drove the local population to emigration. Because the invasion of nomads generally came from north to south, the Central Plains regime also chose to move south when it could not survive, and there have been many large-scale population migrations in history. The death and migration of people caused by war and natural disasters have caused devastating damage to the Yellow River Basin. For example, during the Yuan Dynasty, the population loss of the Yellow River Basin was huge and could not be recovered for a long time.

The Yellow River Basin inevitably declined. By the Song Dynasty, the country's economic center of gravity had shifted to the south. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the cultural level of the south, both as a whole and individually, comprehensively surpassed that of the north. Although the political center remained in the Yellow River Valley, special measures had to be taken and paid a huge price in order to ensure the food supply of the capital and border guards.

The cooling climate has gradually made the Yangtze River basin warm and humid, suitable for the cultivation of grain and various cash crops, and has become a livable paradise. The spread of iron farming tools and tools has led to the reclamation of more land, the improvement of the environment, and the construction and maintenance of water conservancy facilities. The large number of southward migrants not only replenishes sufficient labor, but also brings relatively advanced culture, systems, technologies, tools, utensils, and a group of outstanding talents in all aspects. They have created a large number of new material and spiritual wealth in the diverse natural environment and rich landscape of the Yangtze River Basin.

In the lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the Western Zhou Dynasty, locals were "tattooed". In the early Western Han Dynasty in the 2nd century BC, in the eyes of the people of the Central Plains, "Jiangnan (mainly referring to the south of the Yangtze River in present-day Jiangxi and Hunan) was humble and wet, and the husband died early", which was a backward way of life of "rice and rice soup fish". However, with the repeated migration of the population to the south, the spread of Chinese civilization expanded in the south, and in the middle of the 4th century, Wang Xizhi wrote and wrote the "Orchid Pavilion Preface" in present-day Shaoxing; In the early 5th century, Xie Lingyun pioneered landscape poetry; At the beginning of the 6th century, the famous phrase "in late spring and March, the grass grows in the south of the Jiangnan, the peanut trees are mixed, and the warblers are flying"; In the early 9th century, Bai Juyi's "Jiangnan is good" and "can not remember Jiangnan" were circulated; Wei Zhuang in the late Tang Dynasty was even interpreted as "everyone says that Jiangnan is good"; By the 12th century, the folk saying "there is heaven above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below" was formed at the latest.

The rice farming culture, which appeared in the Yangtze River Basin 10,000 years ago, gradually formed a rice farming area from Jianghuai to Lingnan and Hainan Island under favorable climate and sufficient labor conditions, and became China's main grain production area. In the late Tang Dynasty, the capital Chang'an was completely dependent on Jianghuai Caoyun. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng's supply came almost entirely from Jiangnan. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, there was a saying of "Su Changshu, the world is foot", and in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it was replaced by "the lake is widely ripe, the world is foot", indicating that the middle reaches of the Yangtze River have become the base of the national commercial grain, and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River have become a commercial and handicraft developed area. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, "Songjiang (referring to Songjiang Prefecture, roughly the territory of present-day Shanghai except Chongming Island) was clothed by the world." In the Ming Dynasty, the tax revenue of Suzhou and Songjiang became an important economic support for the imperial court. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, Jiangxi has always been a cultural center in the country. Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the Ming and Qing Dynasties are known as the Humanistic Yuanxuan, and the imperial examination is the first in the world, and Suzhou ranks first.

Because of the Yangtze River, Chinese civilization as a whole has never regressed. Since the decline of the Yellow River basin, the Yangtze River basin has been supplemented and replaced. With the rise of the Yangtze River Basin, Chinese civilization has suddenly opened a new chapter, vigorous and vigorous, and forging ahead.

The Huaihe River, Qinling Mountains and Bailongjiang River are the north-south dividing lines of China's physical geography, dividing the north and south. Due to the difference in time and degree of development and development between the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, this dividing line is exactly the same as the dividing line of human geography, that is, the dividing line in terms of economy, culture, society and folklore. China has always been characterized by the difference between the north and the south, and before the Tang Dynasty, the north was in an economic and cultural advantage, with the population accounting for most of the total. However, after the Tang Dynasty, the south gradually dominated in terms of economy and culture, and the population also accounted for most of the total.

This is China, the great stage on which the Chinese nation has created civilization and history for more than 5,000 years.

This is China, the homeland of the Chinese nation that is self-reliant and self-reliant.

This is China, our beautiful, glorious and great motherland.