#我来唠家常#
Dunhuang was one of the four counties in Hexi in the Han Dynasty. When we look at the wider Hexi Corridor, we will find that in the land era, the "Dunhuang-Wuwei urban agglomeration" composed of the four counties of Hexi is just like the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area led by Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Macao in today's maritime age.
From the northwest to the southeast, from the land Silk Road to the maritime Silk Road, from one open era to another open era - the protagonists have alternated, the years have passed, one by one, it has been two thousand years...
▲ Dream of the Hexi Corridor, watching for a thousand years, the picture shows Dunhuang Yadan. Photo by Jin Bochen
In the eyes of modern people, openness seems to be the "proper noun" of coastal cities.
However, as early as more than 2,000 years ago, a narrow area located in western China, in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent, surrounded by plateaus, mountains, deserts and grasslands, stood at the forefront of "opening up" in that era.
Hexi Corridor
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(The desert camel bell is a dreamy sound in the Hexi corridor.) Photo by Lin Bei'an)
It is a place where nomadism and agriculture have been in a tug of war for a long time. The water and grass under the Qilian Mountain are abundant, and the farmland above the oasis is fertile, and she has both the heroic spirit of the lonely smoke of the desert outside the Saiwai and the autumn wind of the horses, and the romance of the scholars who opened up the territory and paid homage to the marquis in the Central Plains.
▲ Jiayuguan City Tower, located at the westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor, is surrounded by snowy peaks of Qilian Mountain. Photo by Wang Yutong
It is a place where Eastern and Western civilizations collide and collide. The sound of camel bells on the Silk Road, the Buddha in the Dunhuang Grottoes, she stood at the "crossroads of Eastern and Western civilizations", and built a big stage where merchants from all walks of life gathered and scenery from all over the world gathered.
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(Click on the map below to see how the "Four Counties of Hexi" became today's "Five Cities of Hexi".) Please view it in landscape mode. Cartography / Reachable Duck)
Since the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty, there has been an "international urban agglomeration" in the Hexi Corridor - Wuwei of "martial arts and military might", Zhangye of "Zhang Guo's arm", Dunhuang of "grand and splendid", and Jiuquan of "spring water like wine...... Together, they expand China's horizons thousands of miles away.
The Hexi Corridor is an open road that spans 2,000 years.
The "Road to Heaven" at the foot of Qilian Mountain
In the Xiongnu language, Qilian means "heaven", and the Hexi Corridor is an avenue of "the edge of heaven".
▲ The Xiongnu called the sky "Qilian", and in the eyes of the nomads, Qilian Mountain is their spiritual pillar. Photo by Fu Ding
It stretches from Wusheling in the east to Xingxing Gorge in the west, spanning 1,200 kilometers from east to west, connecting the Loess Plateau and the Tarim Basin, and the narrowest point between the north and the south is only a few thousand meters, just like the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Mongolian Plateau facing each other, squeezing out a narrow corridor.
▲ Topographic map of the Hexi Corridor. Cartography/F50BB
To the north of the corridor, Heli Mountain, Longshou Mountain, and Horsehair Mountain are spread out continuously, and are called "Corridor North Mountain", isolating the boundless sand sea that extends from the Mongolian Plateau;
▲ The grassland of Zhangye Imperial City, followed by the snow-capped mountains of Qilian Mountain, is just like a "road to heaven". Photo by Yang Wenjie
The so-called "spring breeze does not pass the Yumen Pass", indeed, the Yumen Pass stands at the westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor, and after the Wusheling at the eastern end, it has moved from the monsoon area of the mainland to the non-monsoon area, and the semi-arid area to the arid area.
On the one hand, the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has cut off the northward movement of warm and humid air currents from the Indian Ocean, shaping the Yellow Sands and Gobi Desert and the Lonely Smoke of the Desert in Northwest China, while on the other hand, the Qilian Mountains have intercepted water vapor in the air and become a wet island stretching out into the arid region of Northwest China.
▲ The ruins of Dafangpan City have stood in the wind and sand for more than 2,000 years. Photo by Li Wenbo
This sky-high mountain range is covered with more than 3,300 glaciers and has a storage capacity of about 132 billion cubic meters, which can be called a giant "solid reservoir".
The glaciers on the mountain melted, and the snow water gathered into a stream and rushed down, forming the three major water systems of the Heihe River, the Shiyang River and the Shule River, extending dozens of tributaries, nourishing the entire Hexi Corridor and making her vivid and colorful. Almost all of the planet's topography and features, except for the ocean, are presented in this corridor one by one.
▲ Heihe, known as "weak water" in ancient times, and the ancients said that "three thousand weak waters" is this river. Photo by Liu Yunze
After more than 100 million years of sedimentation, uplifting, erosion and weathering, the river overflowed the mountains, creating gorgeous colored mounds and danxia, like colors running wildly on the earth, turning the Hexi Corridor into a colorful "gallery".
▲ Zhangye's Caiqiu and Danxia are one of the most magnificent scenery in the corridor. Photo by Li Wenbo
When the river flows to the plain, on the originally dry and barren land, it lights up a patch of fertile oases - Dunhuang, Wuwei, Zhangye...... These majestic cities were all built on oases, becoming rich "post stations" on this geographical corridor.
Between the mountains and the plains, the river irrigates the grasslands as far as the eye can see. In particular, the Daying grassland, which lies between the Yanzhi Mountains and the Qilian Mountains, is rich in water and grass, which is extremely conducive to domesticating horses. The world's largest military horse farm, Shandan Military Horse Farm is located here, its history can be traced back to more than 2,000 years ago, the first Han "field chief" is the hussar general Huo Quai.
▲ Shandan Military Horse Farm, founded in 121 BC by the hussar general Huo Quai. Photo by Chen Min
The natural high-quality pastures have made the Hexi Corridor the home of nomadic peoples - Qiang, Di, Yueshi, Wusun, Xiongnu...... These people on horseback galloped back and forth in the Hexi Corridor, riding horses and whips.
At the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu, who originated in the Hetao area and the Yinshan area of present-day Inner Mongolia, expelled the Yueshi and other neighboring tribes under the leadership of Shan Yu Maodun (mò dú), unified the desert, established a huge Xiongnu empire, and became the master of the Hexi Corridor.
They used the grassland at the foot of the Qilian Mountains as pastures, and their soldiers and horses were strong, and they were called "300,000 men who control the strings"; their women used the saffron flowers on the Yanzhi Mountains as paint to paint their brides with gorgeous red makeup; they stood majestically on the plateau and desert, overlooking the Central Plains Dynasty in the hinterland of East Asia, and were ready to go south with iron hooves at any time.
▲ In the grassland under the Qilian Mountains, horses come and go frequently. Photo by Wang Haiyan
This time, the Hexi Corridor has become the focus of the confrontation between nomadic civilization and agricultural civilization from a natural geographical passage. In the eyes of the nomads, she is the rear of abundant water and grass, and for the Central Plains Dynasty, this will be an opportunity to open up to the Western Regions.
Han and Tang meteorology, half in the Hexi corridor
In the ancient history of China, the most prosperous was the Han and Tang dynasties. The prose writer Zheng Xiaofeng wrote: "The reason why the economy and culture of the Han and Tang dynasties can be famous in the world is because they are open-minded and hold high the banner of 'openness'. ”
▲ On the map of the Western Han Dynasty, you can see the "throat" status of the Hexi Corridor and the four counties of Hexi. Cartography/F50BB
In 139 B.C., in order to unite the Dayue clan expelled by the Xiongnu, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty decided to recruit warriors to the Western Regions, in order to "cut off the right arm of the Xiongnu", the young Zhang Qian stood up and brought a vast delegation from the Biandukou of Minle County, Zhangye today, into the Hexi Corridor, his footprints throughout the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, deep into Central Asia, West Asia.
13 years later, this middle-aged Shaanxi man, after being captured twice, crossed thousands of mountains and rivers, and finally returned to Chang'an, and brought detailed information about Dawan, Kangju, Dayueshi, Daxia and other countries in the Western Regions. This feat is called "hollowing out the Western Regions" by historians.
▲ Cave 323 of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, "Zhang Qian's Envoy to the Western Regions". Photography / Mo Feng MF, Picture / Picture Worm Creative
After mastering the intelligence, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was even more determined to counterattack. In 121 B.C., the 19-year-old Huo Qubing led his army to the west twice, once crossing the Yanzhi Mountains to attack thousands of miles, killing more than 8,900 people, and the other time he made a detour to Juyanze (now Juyanhai) and broke the hinterland of the Xiongnu under the Qilian Mountains. In the Hexi corridor, the tragedy of the Huns echoed for a long time:
"Kill my Qilian Mountain, so that my six animals will not rest
I have lost my mountain, so that my wife has no color."
After the two wars, the Hexi Corridor was incorporated into the territory of the Central Plains, and four heroic cities rose one after another, and from the moment they were born, they shouldered the rise and fall of the country, they were-
Wuwei County highlights the "martial arts and military might" of the Han Dynasty sweeping Hexi.
Jiuquan County represents the heartfelt admiration of "there is a spring under the city, and its water is like wine".
Zhangye County is the determination of "Zhangguo to open up to the Western Regions".
Dunhuang County, meaning "Dun, Daye, Huang, Shengye" grand picture.
▲ The four cities that now use the names of the "Four Counties of Hexi" are Jiuquan, Wuwei, Dunhuang, and Zhangye from top to bottom. Pictures 1 and 2 / Visual China, Picture 3 Photo / Xu Haiyang, Photo 4 Photo / Shi Yaochen
In this process, characters from all walks of life appeared one after another, turning the four counties of Hexi into an "international urban agglomeration".
emperor
The most profound influence on the Hexi Corridor was first of all Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
After Huo Qubing opened up the Hexi Corridor, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty immediately ordered the initiation of the resettlement of Tuntian, and successively recruited 180,000 officers and soldiers who went to Tuntian in the Hexi Corridor. On the one hand, they defended the frontier, and on the other hand, they brought the advanced farming technology of the Central Plains, turning the oasis into fertile land and making the symphony of agriculture and animal husbandry reverberate in the Hexi Corridor.
▲ Today's Zhangye still has fertile fields and fertile fields, thousands of miles away. Photo by Shi Yaochen
At the same time, fortifications such as the Great Wall and the Beacon Sui, as well as the post system, also began to expand westward.
In Dunhuang, the westernmost part of the Hexi Corridor, Yangguan and Yumen Pass stand quietly in the south and north; most of the grain and grass needed by the soldiers of the two passes come from the "Hecang City" located in the northwest of Dunhuang and on the south bank of the Shule River; when there is an emergency, the messenger will pass through the largest post station in the vicinity, Hanging Spring, and quickly report to Chang'an.
▲ The site of Hanging Springs was once one of the largest post stations in the Han Dynasty. Photo by Xu Haiyang
Although Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was devoted to the Hexi Corridor throughout his life, he never set foot on this land, and among all the rulers of the Great Unification Dynasty, the first to arrive here was Yang Guang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty.
Since the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty first subdued the Turks, Tuyuhun and Dangxiang entrenched on the Silk Road, and formulated the national policy of developing Silk Road trade, and sent Minister Pei Ju to the Western Regions to find out the road leading from the Hexi Corridor to the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.
▲ According to the three routes described in Pei Ju's "Atlas of the Western Regions". Cartography/F50BB
In March of the fifth year of the Great Cause of the Sui Dynasty (609 AD), Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, who liked to parade the most, held a grand event in Zhangye - this grand event invited foreign guests from 27 countries to attend, more than 100,000 spectators gathered within dozens of miles, and the lights were bright and lively for 6 days and 6 nights under the Yanzhi Mountain, which could be called an unprecedented "World Exposition". On the last day of the banquet, Emperor Yang of Sui issued an edict to set up the "Four Counties of the Western Regions" in Tuyuhun's hometown: Shanshan, Jimo, Xihai, and Heyuan.
From the four counties of Hexi in the Han Dynasty, to the four counties of the Western Regions in the Sui Dynasty, and then to the four towns of Anxi in the Tang Dynasty, through the Hexi Corridor, the arms of the Central Plains stretched longer and longer, and the intensity of opening up became greater and greater.
Monk
Even in the turbulent years between the Han and Tang dynasties, the open nature of the Hexi Corridor was never broken, but attracted a large number of monks.
Most of them came from the Western Regions and marched eastward from the Hexi Corridor. In addition to shouldering the mission of promoting Buddhism and bringing religious solace to troubled times, they also worked with local residents to create the most glorious cultural landscape in the Hexi Corridor - the grottoes.
▲ Buddhism spread eastward, leaving a long grotto belt. Cartography / Wang Yue
Hexi Grottoes is the "originator" of Chinese grottoes, which has a long history, a large scale, and a rich content, and the first to recommend the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. In 366 A.D., when the monk looked at Mingsha Mountain, suddenly ten thousand golden lights bloomed in front of him, as if he was inspired by the Buddha, so "overhead rock drilling, build a cave niche", since then opened the prelude to the thousand-year grotto construction history of Mogao Grottoes.
▲ Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, the most dazzling cultural heritage in the Hexi Corridor. Photo by Wang Jin
From the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Yuan Dynasty, the excavation of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang has never stopped. To this day, there are still 735 caves, murals with an area of 45,000 square meters and 2,415 clay colored sculptures, and in its vicinity, the West Thousand Buddha Cave, the East Thousand Buddha Cave, the Yulin Cave and other grottoes have also been hewn one after another, forming a huge group of grottoes in the Dunhuang area.
If you want to say that the influence on the Central Plains Grottoes is deep, it must belong to the Tiantai Mountain Grottoes of Wuwei. During the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Northern Liang Kingdom of Dingdu Gu Zang (zāng) (now Wuwei) advocated Buddhism, and the monarch Fuqu Mengxun built a large stone Buddha statue between the cliffs of Tianti Mountain, and took the lead in digging caves here.
▲ Tiantai Mountain Grottoes, the whole body moved into the cliffs and cliffs. Photo by Xu Haiyang
With the destruction of the Northern Liang by the Northern Wei Dynasty, many monks were also relocated to today's Datong area of Shanxi, and the statue model of the Liangzhou Grottoes was introduced to the Central Plains. The earliest "Tanyao Five Caves" in the Yungang Grottoes were built by the Liangzhou monk Tanyao, and the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang were also influenced by the "Liangzhou model".
The continuous grottoes on the Hexi corridor seem to be the footprints left by the Buddha when he walked all the way.
▲ The Big Buddha of Tiantai Mountain Grottoes. Photography by Hu Shu
merchant
By the Tang Dynasty, the strong national power ensured the unimpeded passage of the Hexi Corridor and pushed the intensity of opening up to the peak, the most representative of which was undoubtedly the merchants who kept coming and going on the Silk Road.
In the murals of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, you can vaguely glimpse the grand occasion of merchants and merchants on the Silk Road.
▲ "Hu Shang's Encounter with Thieves", from Cave 45 of Mogao Grottoes. Copy/Li Yuebo
These merchants came from various countries in the Western Regions, and most of them were collectively referred to as "Hu merchants". What they brought was not only commodities, but also all aspects of the Tang Dynasty people's way of life-
Tight and slim Hu clothes, popular Hu makeup, fat and strong Hu Ma, Hu Shi made of flour, sometimes tactful and sometimes agitated Hu Le, and even the energetic Hu Xuan Dance...... This era, which is revered as a "prosperous era" by later generations, is full of exotic customs and open atmosphere.
▲ Above: Hu Xuan Dance in the Dunhuang murals, Below: The music in the Dunhuang murals, in the middle is the famous rebound pipa image. Above/Wei Rongrong, below/Jiao Ying (the two copyists are graduates of Dunhuang College, Northwest Normal University)
The cities on the Hexi Corridor have also become important commercial towns on the Silk Road because of their trade exchanges, Dunhuang is known as "Huarong Intersecting Metropolis", and Liangzhou (now Wuwei) is known as "Hexi Metropolis".
The four counties of Hexi in this era were not only cities along the Central Plains Dynasty that opened up to the outside world, but also like a "free trade zone" at that time, which was enough to be called an "international urban agglomeration".
Bookman
The Hexi Corridor in the Tang Dynasty was so charming that it attracted groups of hot-blooded young people who dreamed of worshipping the marquis and worshiped the generals, so that there were poets with names and surnames in the history books - Li Bai, Li He, Wang Wei, Gao Shi, Wang Changling, Cen Shen, Wang Zhilian...... are willing to become the "west drifters" of that era.
▲ Compared with today's "North Drift" and "Shanghai Drift", the "West Drift" in the Tang Dynasty often writes good poems. Cartography / Sun Tai Sin Studio
They admired the famous generals of the Han Dynasty, or took the young general Huo Qubing as their idol, "born in the Han Dynasty Yu Lin Lang, and first followed the hussars to fight Yuyang"; or they preferred the veteran famous generals Li Guang and Wei Qing, "but the dragon city will fly and do not teach Hu Ma to do Yin Mountain".
Some of them had witnessed it with their own eyes when they were on a mission to the Western Regions, "the desert is lonely and the smoke is straight, and the sun sets over the long river"; some of them can sketch a wonderful scene just by imagining, "the bright moon rises out of the Tianshan Mountains, and the vast sea of clouds."
There were even a group of "Biansai poets" who were known for describing the scenery of Biansai, and in their writings, "Liangzhou", "Yangguan" and "Yumen Pass" became high-frequency words.
▲ The ruins of Yangguan stand quietly under the snowy peaks of Qilian Mountain. Photo by Sun Zhicheng
However, "Yu Yang Mo came agitatedly and broke the song of the neon clothes and feathers". When An Lushan, who danced the Hu Xuan Dance, betrayed the Tang Dynasty, a sudden outbreak of turmoil swept across the Central Plains. After the "Anshi Rebellion", the Hexi Corridor has gradually fallen into the hands of Tubo, and her fate has gone into decline together with the Tang Dynasty.
Open up! Just like a teenager
After the Song and Yuan dynasties, the Maritime Silk Road was opened, and ceramics gradually replaced silk as China's new business card, and the expansion of the territory made the Hexi Corridor no longer a border fortress, but only a throat passage in the western part of the country.
However, the opening and integration of thousands of years have left indelible traces on this land, and also made the city of Hexi show a unique and colorful color.
As a passage for wheat to enter China, the Hexi Corridor can be called a collection of noodles, and almost all the noodles in the northwest can appear here: beef noodles, noodles, noodles, fish roe, wowo noodles, fried noodles, fried noodles, dry mix noodles, elbow noodles, artichoke noodles, barley noodles, black noodles, cold noodles, alkaline noodles, fried noodles, beef and mutton stewed noodles......
▲ The production process of Dunhuang yellow noodles is very tense. Photo by Yu Shengji
Compared with the misunderstanding that "Gansu people only eat beef noodles", more classic delicacies are hidden in the depths of the corridor - Dunhuang's donkey meat yellow noodles, Hu Yang stewed cakes, Wuwei's "three sets of cars" (noodles, braised pork, tea), Zhangye's beef rice, noodles, fried guns, Jinchang's chicken mat rolls...... Here, pasta can have a thousand gestures, pushing the boundaries of imagination.
As a necessary place for the introduction of Buddhism, the Hexi Corridor is enriched with the beauty of Chinese grottoes. From the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang under Mingsha Mountain, to the Yulin Grottoes in Guazhou, the Horseshoe Temple Grottoes in Zhangye, and the Tianti Mountain Grottoes in Wuwei...... On this 1,200-kilometer passage, dozens of Buddhist grottoes are spread out in succession, forming a huge group of cave art.
▲ From top to bottom, Mogao Grottoes, Yulin Grottoes, Horseshoe Temple Grottoes, and Tianti Mountain Grottoes. Photography / Pictures 1 & 3: Xu Haiyang, 2: Li Wenbo, 4: Visual China
Among them, the most famous Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes not only influenced the aesthetics of Chinese - the image of "flying sky" on the mural has become one of the most recognizable symbols in Gansu, and the story of "Nine Colored Deer" is also well-known to women and children; it has also given birth to a characteristic discipline - Dunhuang Studies, the so-called "Dunhuang in China, Dunhuang Studies in the world", which has built a bridge between Chinese culture and world culture.
▲ The "Feitian" street lamp on the streets of Dunhuang today. Photo by Kang Hui
Today's Hexi Corridor is still full of vitality and vitality.
It is the country's largest industrial base for foreign seed production of vegetables, melons, flowers, etc., and the corn seeds produced here account for more than half of the country's corn seed demand, rendering the Hexi Corridor into a "golden corridor".
She converts the "wind" and "light" of the arid region into electricity, and there are a large number of windmills standing on the Gobi, and the park is full of photovoltaic panels, turning the special climate here into clean energy.
▲ Dunhuang, a photovoltaic power station, provides "light" and "heat" for the city. Photo by Qiu Xinsheng
When the highway to the sky extends to the Qilian Mountains, passing between Danxia and Caiqiu, when the high-speed railway is as fast as the wind on the Silk Road, crossing the Yangguan and Yumen Passes. I wonder if the ancient Hexi Corridor, the 2000-year-old open road, will remind her of what she looked like when she was young?