Preface
As one of the four famous novels, "Water Margin" is deeply loved by the Chinese people, and many readers are intoxicated by the story of one hundred and eight heroes who were forced to go to Liangshan. There are many people who are curious about the 800 miles of Liangshan Bo described in the book.
Are the Eight Hundred Miles Liangshanbo a fiction or a real existence, and if so, where are they?
1. Location information in the Water Margin
"Water Margin" describes how one hundred and eight heroes were forced to go to Liangshan in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and then gathered together to perform chivalrous battles, and finally failed to be defeated by the imperial court Zhao'an uprising.
Although the one hundred and eight heroes here are all from different places, their destination is the same, that is, Yangsan.
Regarding the specific location of Liangshan, there are different records in historical materials, some say that it is Taihang Mountain, and some say that it is Liangshanbo, but the most widely spread is still Liangshanbo.
Bo, from the composition of the word we can see, it is related to water, Bo refers to the lake, that is, the lake swamp, "eight hundred miles of Liangshan Bo" literally means that there are many lakes and swamps, and "eight hundred miles" is just an exaggerated modification.
Liangshan is located near today's Liangshan County, Shandong Province, and consists of seven mountain ranges, including Liangshan, Qinglongshan, and Fenghuangshan, covering an area of 500 square kilometers. Although it is a lot less than the "eight hundred miles" recorded in the novel, it is true that it covers a large area.
People who have been to Liangshanbo may find that Liangshanbo does not seem to have so much water, so is the Liangshanbo recorded in "Water Margin" real?
Or is it just the processing and transformation of reality, after all, art comes from life, but it is higher than life.
In fact, according to some historical records, we can find that the Yellow River has had several major breaches in history, and once in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Shandong is located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, so after the Yellow River bursts, many rivers pour into Shandong, some of which flows to Liangshan, where a large area of lakes is formed.
Therefore, it is speculated from these documents that it is not impossible to speculate that "Eight Hundred Miles of Liangshanbo" is not impossible, and the story in the novel happens to take place in the late Northern Song Dynasty, so it is not incomprehensible that there will be a description of "Eight Hundred Miles of Liangshanbo".
The huge lake not only represents the greatness and shock of nature, but also represents the pride and ambition of the heroes of Liangshan, and it is no wonder that Shi Nai'an chose Liangshan as the place where the heroes and heroes gathered.
2. Why did the "Eight Hundred Miles of Liangshanbo" mysteriously disappear
Since Yangshanbo is real, why can't we see such a magnificent landscape in Liangshanbo today? What changed its appearance?
It is precisely because many people did not find the scene described in the book in Liangshan in reality that they feel that "Eight Hundred Miles of Liangshanbo" is made up by the author.
Indeed, before the "water project" was launched in Liangshan County, Liangshan did not look like it was described in the book, and its lakes and waters did not even have as much arable land.
But there is a reason for all this, the formation of "Eight Hundred Miles of Liangshanbo" is related to the Yellow River, so its mysterious disappearance is naturally inseparable from the Yellow River.
Most of the large lakes at the foot of the Liangshan Mountains were formed by the sudden burst of the Yellow River, so it will definitely be affected by the water resources of the Yellow River basin again.
Nearly 900 years have passed since the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and in these 900 years, the Yellow River has been constantly changing, sometimes bursting, pouring a large amount of river water into the rivers and lakes near Liangshan, and sometimes diverting it, resulting in the accumulation of sediment to form a large number of plains and cultivated land.
Since the Yellow River has been documented, the number of floods in the lower reaches of the Yellow River has been as high as more than 1,500 times, and there have been more than 20 large-scale diversions, among which the largest changes in the Yellow River are in the lower reaches.
The original site of Liangshan recorded in "Water Margin" is also in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and it is conceivable how much the rivers, lakes and even landforms in the Liangshan area will change in these 900 years.
Because there are many lakes formed by the bursting of the Yellow River, but as the years go by, there are only three large lakes left today. One of them is Dongping Lake, which is located in Liangshan, Shandong Province, and is the only surviving body of water in the "Liangshanbo" mentioned in the novel.
Tourists go to Liangshanbo in Shandong to see this lake, although it is different from the magnificent landscape described in the novel, but you can still get a glimpse of the shock and magnificence of Liangshanbo 900 years ago from the surviving Dongping Lake.
3. Try to recover
As we all know, the sediment content of the Yellow River is quite high, so in some basins where soil erosion is more serious, the water of the Yellow River will take on a turbid earthy yellow color, which is also the origin of its name.
This sediment was carried forward by the river, some of which was deposited in areas where the flow slowed, and some of which was deposited in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, forming sediment accumulations, and some of them gradually evolved into plains and cultivated land over time.
This is how most of the cultivated land in Yangsan came from, and the original lake was deposited with sediment, which gradually evolved into cultivated land.
However, in recent years, with the rise of tourism, Liangshan County has planned to divert the water of the Yellow River and reproduce the magnificent landscape of "800 miles of Liangshanbo" through artificial means, and because of the maturity and progress of technology, many technical problems that could not be solved have already been overcome.
Today's "Shuibo Liangshan" project is the result of the efforts of local residents and the government.
In order to take into account safety and aesthetics, this "water project" is a combination of water supply, drainage and water surface projects, and an underground anti-seepage device is also installed, which can be said to be painstaking.
In order to restore the famous scenes in "Water Margin" as much as possible, many classic buildings have also been restored according to the description in the book, becoming a complete and mature scenic spot.
The eastern attractions include fishing villages, water city gates, fishing platforms, etc., and some water performances are also set up, while the western attractions include Liangshan Wharf, Water Army Barracks and Command Tower.
Although there is no large-scale lake that formed naturally as it did 900 years ago, and it does not completely restore the scene in the book on a one-to-one basis, it is a successful case of the conservation and development of historical sites.
epilogue
"Eight Hundred Miles of Liangshanbo" is indeed real, but the vicissitudes of life, after a long time, it has long ceased to be the same as it was back then.
However, we can still imagine what it used to look like from today's Liangshan ruins, and imagine what the life of the one hundred and eight heroes in the book would have been like here.