Written by Zhu Haiyan
[c]
The Yinghe River, known as Yingshui in ancient times, is the largest tributary of the Huai River. The name of Yinghe comes from the Zheng people Yingkao Shu in the Spring and Autumn Period, and was named after the place where he ruled Yinggu.
The Yinghe River has a total length of 620 kilometers and a basin area of 36,728 square kilometers, including 208 kilometers in Anhui, and it flows into the Huai River from the mouth of the Mohe River on the Yingshang.
In ancient times, the Yinghe River was one of the important passages for the transportation of copper from the south to the north of the Shang Dynasty, and it was also an important water system for shipping and agricultural irrigation in the history of the Huaihe River Basin.
Due to the development of modern transportation, the Yinghe River has lost the meaning of people coming and going by boat. But there are still some cargo ships walking on the water of the Yinghe River. Naturally, the sides of the ship lost its long penny, and the sudden rattling of the motor was more powerful than the sails of the past, allowing the boats, large and small, to sail farther and farther in the breezy water to the place where they were going.
/Beautiful locust forest on the bank of the Yinghe River (Image source network)/
The Yinghe River in Anhui is much wider and smoother than in Henan. The slopes of the river are overgrown with purple locusts, acacia japonica and willows. Native to North America, Acacia purpurea has been widely introduced and cultivated from the northeast of the mainland to the Yangtze River Basin, and has become a commonly used tree species for the greening of barren mountains, sand barren deserts and soil and water protection in the Central Plains and northern China. As for the Chinese acacia and willow, they have long been the inherent tree species in the Yingshui Basin, and their canopy is spreading, the tree shape is beautiful, and the growth is very fast. The villagers said to me: the locust tree is like the son of Yinghe, healthy and full of vitality, and the willow is like the daughter of Yinghe, slim and beautiful. They stand on the shore of Yingshui, showing a vigorous and graceful and frank bearing, all highlighting the greenest, purest and most primitive texture in Yingshui's life.
Anhui is located across the Jianghuai River, is located in the north-south traffic rush, and is the hub connecting Central China and East China, since ancient times, it is the intersection of north-south and east-west cultures. During the Spring and Autumn Period, with the decline of the royal family, the competition between the great powers became increasingly fierce, and in more than 200 years, five overlords appeared successively, and most of the territory of present-day Anhui was involved in a protracted war for population, land and political rights. It is conceivable that in those battles, Yinghe played a role. I think it must be a platform for war, and every time it is killed, half of what flows on the Yinghe River is water and half blood.
Modern people's perception of history can resonate the most. What is the most exciting form of literature, is the story, which is the scene contained in the story, whether it is joy or sadness, high pitch or low back. These classic scenes are emotionally embarrassing and heartwarming. When you remember a story, you remember a piece of history. The story is often a nation's deep collective memory, easy to enter the reader's spiritual world, it makes the reader in the story with the ups and downs of the protagonist's fate, unconsciously with the Chinese history and culture of intimate contact and impact, so that the essence of history and culture, imperceptibly affect people, let the reader see the forest from that tree, not only enjoy the aesthetic pleasure brought by the story, but also can deduce the wisdom and code of history.
The most classic story that happened on the Yinghe River is the Song Dynasty. The city of Yingzhou on the Yinghe River in the Song Dynasty is the most representative point, and it is also the key word that attracted much attention in that era. However, this point does not exist in isolation, it is a meaningful narrative unit. The reason why it is a meaningful narrative unit is that it is closely connected to another city, which is Bianliang, which is today's Kaifeng.
/Kaifeng, the ancient capital of the Eight Dynasties of the Northern Song Dynasty (picture source, network)/
At that time, Kaifeng was the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Yingzhou, which was only 200 kilometers away from Kaifeng, was not a satellite city, but it was an extremely important city in the capital city circle anyway. The rolling Yinghe River is an important water passage connecting Kaifeng and Yingzhou. Kaifeng, Yingzhou, Yinghe, and those characters running on the Yinghe River constitute a huge picture of history.
To interpret this painting, we must first start with Kaifeng.
Kaifeng is a famous historical and cultural city standing in the East Henan Plain, where the great Yellow River flows through the north of the city, giving birth to the ancient civilization here. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Kaifeng became a city, Zheng Guojun Zheng Zhuang Gong built a grain storage city here, taking the meaning of "opening up the frontier", and Kaifeng got its name from this. Kaifeng is also known as Daliang and Bianliang in history, it was the capital of Wei in the Warring States Period, the Later Liang, Later Jin, Later Han, Later Zhou and Northern Song Dynasty and Jin in the Five Dynasties period, known as the "Capital of the Seven Dynasties", and Xi'an, Luoyang, Beijing, Nanjing, and Hangzhou are collectively known as the six ancient capitals. Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty, with developed water and land transportation, a population of one million, and a large number of merchants, was the political, economic and cultural center of the country, and was also one of the most prosperous cities in the world at that time.
Why did our ancestors choose to open a feudal capital?
Because Kaifeng is geomorphologically located at the end of the alluvial fan of the Yellow River. The terrain here is flat, the west is high and the east is low, the north is high and the south is low, which determines the natural rivers around Kaifeng, from west to east or southeast to fan into the Huai River and its tributaries. The surplus water of the Yellow River or the flooding of the signal period is also flowing in this direction, thus forming the landform of rivers, rivers, hills and hills around Kaifeng. The vertical and horizontal rivers, the wide spread of water and the lush wild grasses have become a good place for the ancestors to fish, hunt and farm.
/Bird's eye view of today's Kaifeng (picture source: Internet)/
Of course, from the perspective of the natural environment, although the terrain around Kaifeng is flat and vast, it is not as good as Xi'an and Luoyang because of the mountains to form a natural barrier, which is easy to defend. Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, was obsessed with the geographical environment of Kaifeng, until the ninth year of Kaibao (976), when he went out to visit Luoyang, he still had the intention of moving the capital to Luoyang first, and then moving west to Chang'an. Even in the period of Song Zhenzong and Song Renzong, the controversy over the choice of Bianbian to build the capital was still not over.
Qin Guan wrote in his "Andu Treatise": "The situation in the world is not as good as Yong, followed by Zhou, and as for Liang, the world is just rushing...... It's not the plan of eternity......"
However, in the end, the Northern Song Dynasty did not move the capital. The reason is that they fancy the advantages of Kaifeng compared with other ancient capitals in China, which has an extremely superior and convenient water and land transportation network. If the capital is moved to Luoyang or Chang'an, the cost of transporting supplies from all parts of the country will be greatly increased, and they cannot but consider this.
Perhaps, at the original temple decision-making meeting on moving the capital, the superiority of the Yinghe River has become one of their important topics.
Since Kaifeng is the capital of the country, it is naturally faced with the problem of transportation, and most of the materials it needs such as rice, wheat, timber, silk, cloth, gold and silver lacquerware, tung oil, etc., must be transported from the Jiangnan and Jianghuai regions. The waterway that goes directly to Kaifeng through the canal to the Bianhe River is congested, which cannot meet the needs of goods transportation. In this way, the Yinghe River has become another important water passage to Kaifeng. In the book "History of the Warring States Period" written by Mr. Yang Kuan, I saw a map of the geographical location of Liang and Anyi during the Warring States Period. At that time, there was a small city called Hucheng in the northwest of Yingzhou, and from there there there was a river that went directly to Kaifeng. The name of this river is also called Sand River, Sand River originates from the Cai River of Kaifeng, it flows out of Kaifeng, it is divided into two, the east flow is Bianshui, the south flow is Sha Shui, the sand water takes the ancient wolf soup channel, the south flows through Taikang West, enters Huaiyang County, and enters Yingshui from the south of Huaiyang City. It can be seen here that the goods from the south can be taken directly from Kaifeng by taking Yingshui from the Huai River. Huaiyang and other cities on the Yingshui River, there are willow shade to stop the boat, the locust tree to stay in the horse port, once the materials from the north arrive here, this is considered to arrive at the door of Kaifeng.
/Yingzhou West Lake (picture source: network)/
The existence of Kaifeng has made the Yinghe River a veritable golden waterway connecting the north and south, and it is ushered in every day that there are some people with heads and faces. Officials came, monks came, scholars came, businessmen came, students who went to Beijing to take the exam, and women who lived on seniority in Suzhou and Hangzhou also came. In short, a group of people went, and a group of people came again, and the horses were bright, like colorful clouds on the horizon. Yingzhou, a city that is fresh and beautiful because of Yingshui, has quietly grown fat, grown up, and grown beautiful under the infiltration of Yingshui. The Yinghe River runs through the city, which undoubtedly plays a role in the development and prosperity of the city. At that time, the government did not have a land management bureau, and there was no need to apply for approval for building land. Some wealthy families in Yingzhou have built small buildings with whitewashed walls on their idle land, planted grass and green trees, or cooked restaurants, or made inns, or made green buildings. The small city of Yingzhou is dressed up very decently and tastefully. Although Yingzhou is not as good as Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jinling and Yangzhou, due to the factors of Kaifeng, it has become a city that radiates the heat of life, at least in the land north of the Huai River, there are few cities comparable to Yingzhou. Some frustrated women in Suzhou, Hangzhou and Kaifeng felt that Yingzhou was a better place for them, so they came here to bring an intoxicating and beautiful fashion to the city. Therefore, its banks and streets are long lined with jade figures and full of fragrant powder. As an important commercial town in agricultural China, Yingzhou, people from the south to the north will tear off the hidden face of weekdays when they arrive here, and become true and natural, the profligacy of literati, the profligacy of merchants, and the ten thousand customs of women, everything has become casual and free. The landscape here is also famous, the West Lake in Yingzhou is several times larger than the West Lake in Hangzhou, famous in the Tang Dynasty, and extremely prosperous in the Song Dynasty. There are pavilions, pavilions, buildings, pavilions, halls, platforms, temples, bridges, or built in Chongtai, or by the water, or lying on the blue waves. West Lake Academy, Feigai Bridge, Yiyuan Bridge, Wangjia Bridge, Qingfeng Pavilion, Liuyi Hall, Huilao Hall and other places, every day there are bureaucrats and scribes there to vassal elegance, there are salt merchants there to praise the rich, there are rich children there prostitutes and smelt the smelting.
/Yingzhou West Lake (picture source: network)/
Ouyang Xiu, who was 43 years old and went to Yingzhou to be a taishou, took office a few days ago, and took a group of officials to the West Lake to plant duanlian and boxwood, and engage in greening.
Yingzhou is magnanimous and beautiful. When he first gave Ouyang Xiu a face, he made Ouyang Xiu fall in love at first sight, he admired the unique charm of the city, appreciated the elegance and prosperity here, and made up his mind that even if he died, he would also be buried in Yingzhou.
[iv]
There are countless officials and scholars who have intersected with Yingzhou in the Song Dynasty, and it is impossible to describe them one by one.
The first to appear was Gao Fengliangjie, Fan Zhongyan, who was brilliantly written. Fan Zhongyu's ancestors were from Bin County, Shaanxi, and later moved to settle in Wu County, Jiangsu. Fan Zhongyan's biological father, Fan Yong, was the secretary of Xuzhou Jiedu in the early years of Duangong of Song Taizong, and Fan Zhongyan was born in Xuzhou in the second year of Duangong (989). His father died when he was two years old, and after the family declined, he could not make ends meet, and his mother Xie had to take Fan Zhongyan to remarry to the family surnamed Zhu in Changshan, Zizhou. Fan Zhongyan changed his surname to Zhu and became a member of the Zhu family. At the age of 23, after Fan Zhongyan learned that his mother had remarried to the Zhu family, he was greatly shocked and stimulated, and resolutely bid farewell to his mother, left the Zhu family, and went to Nanjing Yingtianfu to study. In 1015, Fan Zhongyan won the list in one fell swoop with his profound knowledge and became a scholar, he was exactly 27 years old this year, and since then he has embarked on a career in office. After he became an official, he took his mother to support him, and at the same time restored his surname Fan and changed his name to Zhongyan.
/ Fan Zhongyan (October 1, 989 – June 19, 1052 [1]) was an outstanding politician and writer in the Northern Song Dynasty. (Image source: Internet thanks to the author of the painting)/
On the screen of the millennium time, in the ranks of outstanding figures of the Chinese nation, Fan Zhongyan has always been a heroic figure who can inspire the noble emotions of those who admire. He was 29 years old and served as the official of the Jiqing Military Festival. Jiqing Army is Bozhou. Fan Zhongyan has a boss who is the general judge Yang Riyan. This person cared about the people's suffering, and later served as a transit envoy. He appreciates Fan Zhongyan's talent very much, and the two have a harmonious relationship. Many years later, when he died, Fan Zhongyan wrote a "Sacrifice to the Dragon Tu Yang to the Affair", recalling the days they spent together in Bozhou. Zhong Yan said with emotion: When I first came to Bozhou, it was difficult to live alone, lonely and easy to shake, but fortunately I was taken care of by Yang Gong, and I was very generous with one care, and I was even close to God; the exchange of ideas was intimate, the discussion must be straight, there was no hidden Tao in the middle, the understanding of the law must be peaceful, and I worked together to make peace in political affairs; and I governed Bozhou without being ignored and adjusted, and there was no injustice under it. After Yang Gong left Bozhou, he still did not forget me, and recommended and praised, and finally made me have a wing, the boundary in the sky. More than 20 years later, I still can't forget it, and I have been talking about it repeatedly.
It can be seen from the article that the friendship between Fan Zhongyan and Yang Riyan in Bozhou is indeed deep and can stand the test of time.
After Zhongyan left Bozhou, he successively went to Taizhou, Xinghua, Chuzhou, Chenzhou and other places to serve as officials. In 1033, he was transferred back to Bianjing as the right minister, responsible for correcting the lack of government and the mistakes of hundreds of officials. At that time, there was a great drought in the Jianghuai region, all the crops were cut off, many people went into exile, and there were two or three out of ten deaths. Fan Zhongli was ordered to provide disaster relief to Jianghuai. In this way, he went out of Beijing and into Beijing, and passed through Yingzhou many times. Besides, the small city called Chenzhou on Yingshui is also the place where he used to be an official, so naturally he has a little more affection for Yingshui. In September of that year, he arrived in Huainan Prefecture from Yingzhou, and learned that there was no money to buy the transferred materials, so he asked the state treasury to borrow 500,000 yuan to use it. He learned that the government's purchase of grain from the peasants was often manipulated by grain merchants, which not only harmed the interests of the peasants, but also wasted a large amount of official money. At the same time, he went deep into the people to verify the disaster situation, reduce taxes, and call on exiles to return to work. After he completed the disaster relief task, he arrived in Bianjing along the Yingshui, and what he brought to the emperor was not gold and silver treasures, jade calligraphy and paintings, but the peasants used to satisfy their hunger and poisonous "Wufu grass" grass, and asked the emperor to let the six palaces and noble relatives pass on the view to guard against extravagance. He wrote what he saw and heard as "Eight Things to Save the Evil", and Yan Li criticized the tyranny, indiscriminate rewards, redundant officials, redundant officials, redundant expenses, redundant soldiers, and other corrupt phenomena at that time, and suggested that redundant and economical expenses should be cut to ease the people's strength. Received by Injong Jana. Fan Zhongyan's Jianghuai disaster relief showed his sincere heart of worrying about the country and loving the people.
/Fan Zhongyan statue (picture source: Internet)/
Fan Zhongyan once served as the head of the secret pavilion, which was probably equivalent to a member of the emperor's secretarial team. This position of his was recommended by Yan Shu. After the death of Zhenzong, Renzong, who was only 13 years old, ascended the throne, and because he could not govern himself, he was decided by the Empress Dowager Liu and took over the power alone. When Renzong reached the age when he could govern himself, the empress dowager still regarded the emperor as a puppet. On the 61st birthday of the Empress Dowager Liu, when she received the worship gift, Renzong led hundreds of civil and military officials to celebrate the birthday of the Empress Dowager, but Fan Zhongyan was opposed. He believed that it was okay for the emperor to perform family rituals when he was in the palace, but in the court, leading hundreds of officials to worship would damage the prestige of the lord and the monarchy. He asked the Empress Dowager to remove the curtain and return to Renzong. Yan Shu was frightened by Fan Zhongyan's bold move, afraid that he would cause trouble and affect himself, so he reprimanded Fan Zhongyan for arrogance to his face.
Fan Zhongyan said to Yan Shu, I hold this position, and I often worry that I am incompetent and lose face for my confidant. I don't mean to be offended by you today because of my loyalty. Yan Shu was silent. Then Fan Zhongyan wrote a letter to Yan Shu, stating that he had committed Yan Zhi's advice. Yan Shu felt ashamed and had no choice but to apologize to Fan Zhongyan.
Fan Zhongyan worked in this position for less than a year, and was demoted to the general sentence of Hezhong Mansion for offending Empress Dowager Liu. Colleagues and friends congratulated him on his trip to Dumen: "This trip is extremely honorable. ”
After the death of Empress Dowager Liu, Fan Zhongyan was recalled to Beijing to serve as the right minister, but he was demoted to Muzhou, which is today's Chun'an, Zhejiang, because of his advice to dissuade Renzong from abolishing Empress Guo. Colleagues and friends came to his door again to congratulate him: "This trip is more glorious. ”
(Image source: Internet)
Zhongyan was forced to leave Beijing and took his wife and family to take up his post, which was naturally very unhappy. From Kaifeng along the sand water, through Taikang, Huaiyang into Ying. When he arrived in Yingzhou, it was already dusk on the eighth day, and he was going to stay in Yingzhou for a few days, and the officials in Yingzhou attached great importance to Fan Zhongyan's trip, and cleaned up the post house where the Beijing officials and officials were received very appropriately, and several colored lanterns were hung on the blue-gray tile eaves, which filled with a faint warmth. Although Yingzhou belongs to the Central Plains, but the post house on the bank of the Yinghe River has the sentiment and charm of the south, romance and simplicity, Fan Zhongyan, who lives in the post house, looks at the Yinghe River outside the window, and suddenly thinks of Suzhou with green, fat, red and thin, apricot blossoms and spring rain. He said to the officials who received him with emotion: "Yingzhou is not a hometown, but it is better than a hometown." ”
The next day, Fan Zhongyan and his family, accompanied by officials from Yingzhou, toured the West Lake. The West Lake is full of places of interest and historic sites are immersed in the ups and downs of history, and the inscriptions left by the ancestors are still faintly recognizable, although they are somewhat decadent, but they are still the spiritual home of Yingzhou people. The escort begged Fan Gongneng to leave the ink treasure for the West Lake, but Fan Zhongyan politely declined.
(Image source: Internet)
A few days later, Fan Zhongyan's family left Yingzhou, went south along Yingshui, and then diverted to Jiangnan. Entering the Huai River, he saw a kind of magnificence, the Huai River from the west, rolling a river of turbidity, Yingshui from the northwest, rolling a river of blue waves, at the mouth of the Mo River two rivers confluence of the muddy distinct, like two forces fighting day and night, there is never a winner or loser, this kind of struggle, how much like the dynasty he served, the human beings he lived in.
In the vast smoke of Huaishui, the mighty brocade sail comes to the sky one after another, and sails to the end of the world, the willows hang beautifully on both sides of the Huai River, and fly over the chirping egrets from time to time. However, the good times have not been enough, the sky is not beautiful, and the violent wind suddenly sets off on the river, and the danger is full of dangers, and the boat is almost overturned. Fan Zhongyan was not afraid of danger, spread his paper and brush, and memorized 3 poems to describe the scene at that time.
One of them said:
Wife and Child Rest,
There are many labor and life insurances;
Is the merchant guilty?
I'm in turmoil.
In order to warn his family not to complain about him, why don't you be an official in Beijing well, but you will offend people, so that you will be demoted, and you will encounter risks after this. We should be broad-minded, there are many risks on the road of life, and there is nothing wrong with the businessmen who are on the same ship as us, and they are not also subject to this risk as us.
From this poem, we can infer that Fan Zhongyan was degraded to other places as an official, and could not enjoy the treatment of "special car" or "special boat", and he was on the same boat with the merchants, took the boat and spent money to buy tickets, all the way from Kaifeng to Muzhou in Zhejiang, and it is likely that only in Yingzhou, which values love and righteousness, and Suzhou, his hometown, can enjoy free food and accommodation for a few days. (To be continued)
Introduction of Zhu Haiyan
Zhu Haiyan, a native of Lixin, Anhui Province, enlisted in the army in 1976 and served as a soldier, platoon commander, deputy instructor, and cultural officer of the division's Political Department in the Seventh Division of the Railway Corps.
In 1983, he was transferred to the "Railway Soldier" newspaper, and in February 1984, he was transferred to the "People's Railway" newspaper and served as a reporter, chief reporter and chief reporter. In 1998, he served as editor-in-chief, president and editor-in-chief of China Railway Construction News, and a senior reporter. In March 2010, he was transferred to the Engineering Management Center of the Ministry of Railways as the deputy director at the bureau level, specializing in the writing of railway construction reports.
The winners of the 6th Fan Changjiang Journalism Award are the "four batches" of talents in the national propaganda system, leading figures in China's press and publishing circles, and senior experts directly controlled and contacted by the central government. He has won the China Journalism Award eight times, won the first and second prizes of provincial and ministerial news awards more than 90 times, and won the "Five One Project" award of the Central Propaganda Department for his long-form reportage "There is War in the North". He has published 40 collections of various works, with a total word count of 20 million words. He enjoys the allowance of the State Council and is a member of the Chinese Writers Association.
Edit: Have fun