#我来唠家常#
▲ 龙南县南武当山。 摄影/林的边际
-The Legend of the Gentleman of Things-
Ganzhou
It is located in the southern part of Jiangxi Province
It is bordered by Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Fujian to the east
Four provinces converge and are surrounded by mountains
The story here is good enough
The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and the chances of bamboo rats suffering from heat stroke are getting higher and higher, and I don't know if they are okay.
Nearly a year ago, online video bloggers and bamboo rat breeders Hua Nong Brothers became popular for all kinds of strange reasons for eating bamboo rats, which also made more people focus on real rural life.
▲ Huangsha Village, Yangbu Township, Ganxian District, is really drying New Year's goods. Photography / Zhong Changzai
Prior to this, Ganzhou, especially in rural areas, left a very thin impression. Gannan navel orange, the old revolutionary area, seems to sum up everything here with a few simple symbols. What does Ganzhou look like when it jumps out of the camera and throws off the symbols?
Mountain, the cradle of southern Gansu
Ganzhou is mountainous. The Huanong brothers' farms are built in a lush valley that can be found everywhere in their hometown of Ganzhou.
▲ Topographic map of Ganzhou. Drawing/Paprika
Gannan is usually referred to as Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, which has 3 districts, 14 counties and 1 county-level city, and is the largest prefecture-level administrative region in Jiangxi Province. Mountains and hills account for more than eighty percent of the city's land. Among them, Jiulian Mountain and Da Yuling constitute the natural dividing line between Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces. The highlight moments of Ganzhou and Jiangxi are inseparable from this continuous mountain.
▲ Jiulian Mountain, Longnan County, the main peak of Huangniu Stone. Jiulian Mountain is a Hakka settlement, do you remember the Hakka band "Jiulian Zhenren" that has recently become popular? Photography/Ling Family Tree
There are mountains, and of course there is water. The source of the Zhangjiang River and the Gongjiang River are both in the territory of Ganzhou City, and the two converge under the Bajing Platform of Zhanggong District, the main urban area of Ganzhou, to form the Ganjiang River, which flows all the way to the north and enters Poyang Lake and connects the Yangtze River. To the south of Wuling, the Dongjiang River, a tributary of the Pearl River, also originates in Ganzhou, and flows south into the South China Sea from Xunwu County.
▲ The ancient pontoon bridge of Ganzhou, which has a history of more than 800 years. Photo by Huang Xinyi
The influence of the mountain on Ganzhou is extremely far-reaching. Obstacles, barriers, homes, treasure troves, different periods, mountains play different roles. It can be said that without mountains, there will be no Ganzhou.
The land and water are to rush, and the great rise of southern Gan
When Gannan was still undeveloped virgin land, the mountains were both an obstacle and a pathway.
In the process of unifying China, Qin Shi Huang passed through the Vietnamese Ridge in Jiangxi to unify Baiyue. Ganzhou is an important pass on this route. The establishment of Nanqi County after the war was the beginning of the establishment of southern Gansu.
▲ Longnan County, Hakka walled houses. Photo by Li Shulan
The seat of Ganzhou was moved to the location of today's Zhanggong District until the fifth year of Yonghe of the Jin Dynasty (349), at this time, the Jin Dynasty crossed to the south, and the south ushered in large-scale development, Ganzhou accommodated a large number of refugees from the north, and Ganzhou (then known as Nankang County) gradually rose.
Traditionally, China has been dominated by agriculture, and the population is closely related to the economy, and the more labor force there is, the more land reclamation will be. Ganzhou is a typical area of immigration, and now more than ninety percent of the population of Ganzhou are Hakka. Today, many of the ancestors of Ganzhou people came to settle in Ganzhou, which is surrounded by mountains, in order to escape the war. Zhong Shaojing, a native of Ganzhou, played a key role in the Tanglong Revolution and became the first prime minister of Jiangnan. He was born in the Yingchuan clan in the Central Plains, and his ancestor was the calligrapher Cao Wei Taifu Zhong Xuan, who was known as the "King of Zhong" with Wang Xizhi. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, the Ganzhou region (then known as Qianzhou) ranked among the top ten in the country in terms of population and was an important town in the south of the Yangtze River.
▲ Xinfeng County, the centuries-old Hakka "descendant dragon" folk tradition, is held from the second day of the first lunar month to the Lantern Festival every year. Photo by Li Shulan
It is not surprising that Gannan rose to prominence in the Song Dynasty. In addition to the stimulation of population increase, the strategic location of Meiguan and connecting Lingnan and the Central Plains is also an important factor. Under the auspices of Zhang Jiuling, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, Meiguan Road became the main traffic artery connecting the north and the south once it was renovated and developed. The Great Yuling, which was originally a geographical dividing line, suddenly became a busy trade route, and the status of southern Gan was also improved.
▲ Meiguan Road, Dayu County, is hidden in the mountains. Photo by Chen Yan
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the three counties of Dayu, Nankang and Shangyou under the jurisdiction of Qianzhou were separately carved out and the Nan'an Army was established to strengthen the water and land points connecting Zhangshui and Meiguan Post Road. Overseas products for the Song court were transported north along this route. It is worth mentioning that the famous article "Ai Lian Said" by the Northern Song Dynasty writer Zhou Dunyi was created in the Qianzhou General Judgment. During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, because "Qianzhou is connected to Guangdong, the rivers and mountains are dangerous, and the private thieves and traffickers are accustomed to customs, and the people are infested, and the people suffer from it", the soldiers and horses of the Jiangnan West Road were added to Qianzhou to strengthen control and stabilize the situation.
▲ Zhanggong District, Yugutai Block, Sixian Fang, Junmen Tower and other buildings are crowded. The "Four Sages" refer to four people who have profoundly influenced the historical process of Ganzhou: Zhao Luan, Liu Yi, Zhou Dunyi, and Wen Tianxiang. Photography / Hu Shiwen
Facts have proved that it is not for nothing that the Song Dynasty attached importance to the control of Qianzhou. In the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the situation was chaotic, and it became one of the places of refuge, and even the empress of Song Zhezong fled all the way to Qianzhou. At the same time, many people relied on the complex terrain of southern Jiangxi to revolt, leading officials and troops to enter Jiangxi in a big way to quell the rebellion. Yue Fei, a famous general in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, was the commander of the Qianzhou Rebellion. For the Southern Song Dynasty, which had lost half of the country, Jiangxi was a place of great wealth and could not afford to lose.
▲ The ancient city wall of Jianchunmen is in the same frame as the pontoon bridge. Photo by Wu Jian
▲ The four ancient city gates that have been preserved in Ganzhou to this day: Jianchun Gate, Yongjin Gate, North Gate, and Xijin Gate. Photo by Lu Wen
Today, the Song Dynasty city wall standing at the confluence of Zhanggong is a witness to the glory of Qianzhou City. Su Shi once wrote a poem for the Bajing Terrace, saying that here "looking at Qifu in the east, looking at the five mountains in the south, looking at the unevenness of the mountains, and bowing down the flow of the tribute", in one sentence broke the unique geographical location of southern Gansu. Xin Qiji's sentence "The green mountains can't cover it, after all, it flows eastward" made Yu Gutai's name deeply rooted in history. Wen Tianxiang led the army to defeat the Yuan army in southern Jiangnan, and the people were excited. It's a pity that Ganzhou's status also has a day when it is impacted.
▲ Yu Gutai. Photo by Lu Wen
From the top to the lag again
The Ming and Qing dynasties were the last peak of traditional China, and the decline of China since then has also caused Ganzhou to fall from the peak.
▲ Longnan County, the Hakka Wushiwei with an outer circle and an inner square. Photo by Lu Wen
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the population of southern Gan had been greatly reduced due to wars and epidemics. The records of the time said that Gannan was "scattered among the mountains and streams with few people", as if it had changed back to the vast and sparsely populated frontier land before the Qin Dynasty. A large amount of abandoned land attracted landless peasants from central and northern Jiangxi to live in southern Jiangxi. In addition, the population of Guangdong and Fujian provinces entered southern Jiangxi along the mountain range, settled and integrated into the local society, forming the main body of the Hakka people of Fujian and Guangdong. Relevant scholars divide the counties of Ganzhou into pure guest counties and non-pure guest counties, among which the pure guest counties in the west, south and southeast are almost all composed of immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong provinces.
▲ Dongshengwei, Zhengang Township, Anyuan County, was built in the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. This is the largest square enclosure house in China. Photo by Chen Luochang
At the same time, although the Meiguan-Ganjiang trade route is still busy, the days in Ganzhou are not peaceful. During the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, there were many civil uprisings in the border area between southern Gannan and Fujian and Guangdong, and Wang Yangming, who was the governor of southern Jiangxi at that time, was ordered to quell the rebellion. Wang Yangming governed southern Gannan for eight years (now Chongyi County was established as a county in his office), and he also practiced his concept of "unity of knowledge and action" here. At that time, there were also many students in southern Gannan who admired Yangming's doctrine and entered the academy to study, and even directly worshipped Wang Yangming as a teacher, and the style of learning in southern Gannan was inspired.
▲ Cheonlong Mountain, Jeonnam County. Wang Yangming climbed Tianlong Mountain, and once wrote a poem: "The peak of Tianlong Mountain is inserted into the sky, the Taojiang River twists and turns around the mountains, the four seasons do not wither the youth, and the outstanding people are heroic." Photo by Qian Weimin
Both the Ming and Qing dynasties had a strong sense of insecurity, and the maritime ban policy became correspondingly strict. In the case of Guangzhou's one-stop trade, Ganzhou has benefited from the Meiguan Post Road and has always maintained a key position in the economy and trade. Every year, a large number of goods such as Jingdezhen porcelain are shipped to Guangzhou for export, and the annual tax amount reaches tens of thousands of taels of silver. On the way back from the British Magalny mission to the Qianlong Emperor, it also passed through Meiguan. This status was maintained until the outbreak of the Opium War, after the trade of the five mouths, Guangzhou's goods were diverted, the role of Meiguan weakened, and Ganzhou's economic and trade status also declined. The Taiping Rebellion's economic and social destruction of Jiangxi made Ganzhou's situation even worse.
▲ Xiaojiang Town, Xinfeng County, Yongjiwei. Photo by Lu Shuming
There is a "little Moscow" in southern Gan
On November 7, 1931, the First National Congress of the Chinese Soviets was held in Yeping Village, Ruijin. This marked the shift of the center of China's agrarian revolution to Jiangxi, and also opened the most special period in the thousand-year history of Ganzhou.
Ruijin is located in the southeast of Ganzhou, adjacent to Fujian Province, although it is only a small city within a radius of a few miles, it can radiate more than 20 counties in Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong geographically. Deng Xiaoping, secretary of the county party committee, had good leadership and a stable situation, so Ruijin was chosen as the capital of the Chinese Soviet Republic.
▲ The former site of "Ersu University" of Shazhouba in Ruijin City. Photo by Li Sui
"Walking all over Qingshan, people are not old, and the scenery is unique here." Although the Central Soviet Region made rapid progress, in the face of the blockade and encirclement of the Nationalist Government, as well as a series of mistakes in decision-making, it finally had to make the decision to abandon the base areas and carry out a strategic shift. The red color of Gannan temporarily casts a shadow.
After the transfer of the main forces of the Red Army, there were still some cadres who remained behind with their troops and continued to fight under extremely difficult conditions. Chen Yi, who later became one of the ten marshals of New China, led his troops to wage a three-year guerrilla war in the mountainous areas of southern Gansu. In the face of the siege of a division of the Kuomintang, in such a desperate situation as "more than 20 days between the remaining wounds and diseases", he wrote the generous and heroic words of "going to Quantai to recruit the old department, and raising the banner of 100,000 to kill Yama". This can be called the best embodiment of the fearless revolutionary spirit in the land of southern Gansu.
▲ It is precisely because people are constantly creating history that the development of the city can continue and flourish. Photo by Zeng Huarong
After the transfer of the Red Army, southern Jiangxi ushered in Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Ching-kuo, who returned to China from the Soviet Union, went through a period of cultivation and study, and was arranged to take charge of southern Jiangnan. After Chiang Ching-kuo came to southern Gannan under the title of "prince", he was quite accomplished, implementing a series of measures such as tax reduction, prohibiting pornography, gambling and drugs, and eradicating illiteracy, which was called the "New Deal in Southern Gansu". The way he governed Taiwan decades later can even be seen in the shadow of the Gannan period. It's just that in the context of the Japanese invasion and the corruption of the Kuomintang, Chiang Ching-kuo's attempt could only be a castle in the air and a flash in the pan.
Mountain, the dilemma faced by Ganzhou
Ganzhou is now facing the mountains, and I am afraid that there is an extremely complicated feeling.
After the opening of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway in 1936, the Meiguan Post Road, which could only rely on carriage and horse transportation, was quickly abandoned, and Ganzhou became closed again. While the plain area is enjoying the convenience brought by the high-speed railway, Ganzhou, which is surrounded by mountains, is still waiting for the arrival of the high-speed rail (on June 3, 2019, the Changjiang-Jiangxi high-speed railway was laid and completed, ready to enter the stage of joint commissioning and joint test).
▲ Chongyi County, Shangbao Hakka Terraces. Photo by Yang Xin
The life of Ganzhou people is rich and leisurely. Whether it is the thousand-year-old Song City, the red capital, the Hakka walled houses, or the rich products of southern Gan and the authentic delicacies hidden in the streets and alleys, they are all worthy of everyone's appreciation. However, if there is no convenient transportation, it is difficult to make effective use of Ganzhou's scenery and culture. Many also choose to leave their hometowns and seek a living in neighbouring Guangdong province.
▲ Fishermen by the ancient pontoon bridge. Photo by Huang Xinyi
▲ The Nan'an plate duck in Dayu County is unique, and it is ranked among the four major plate ducks in China along with the Nanjing plate duck in Jiangsu, the Jian'ou plate duck in Fujian, and the Jianchang plate duck in Sichuan. Photo by Song Hongtao
The mountain is not so stingy, and it has also given the people of Ganzhou another gift - minerals. Gannan is known as the "tungsten capital of the world", which is an important tungsten producing area in the country and even in the world. Tungsten ore was an important source of economy for the Central Soviet District during the Agrarian Revolution. The abundant production of rare earths has given Gannan special attention in today's complex world situation. However, how to maximize the protection of the beautiful waters and green mountains that have accompanied the people of Ganzhou for thousands of years is also a problem that people need to think about seriously.