Shanghai is bordered by rivers and seas, and due to the alluvial accumulation of rivers and seas for thousands of years, the land space has gradually expanded, and while enjoying thousands of hectares of fertile land, it has to spend huge manpower, material and financial resources to build sea ponds to resist the threat of frequent sea floods. Nearly 300 years ago, a sea pond was built along the coast of Nanhui and Chuansha to protect the safety of the people for hundreds of years. In order to remember the achievements of Qin Lian, the first magistrate of Nanhui County, who built the sea pond, people not only named the sea pond "Qin Gong Tang" after his surname, but also built the Qin Gong Ancestral Hall in many places along the line, which is the only ancestral hall built for the living sages in the history of Pudong.
Speaking of Qin Lian, born in 1685 and died in 1745, a native of Changxing, Zhejiang, a new branch jinshi in the first year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (1723), and an alternate county master. Four years later, he was reused by the imperial court and served as the first magistrate of Nanhui County. At that time, Nanhui had just been precipitated from Shanghai County, located in a corner of the coast, and was in a difficult transition period from boiling salt to farming. After Qin Lian took office, he was full of ambitions, did everything personally, devoted himself to everything, cared about the people, tried to repay the country's kindness, and led the people of Nanhui to change the appearance of poverty and backwardness.
Statue of Qin Lian
Nanhui is close to the southeast coast, and the stability and safety of the sea pond are the basic guarantee for the people who live by the pond and the sea. When Qin Lian inspected the sea pond, he heard a local folk proverb that "don't be afraid of fire, but be afraid of the tide", Qin Lian was puzzled for a while, and a villager told him that the fire caused the destruction of the family, but people still have a chance to escape, and once the tide overflowed, it would mean that the family was destroyed, and the people and money were empty. The words of the villagers were deafening, like an initiation, which made Qin Lian wake up: Haitang is the lifeline of the people of Nanhui. When he saw that in the 12th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1584) by Yan Hongfan, the county governor of Shanghai, built the Waihan Sea Pond, after more than 140 years of wind and rain erosion, tidal "food", coupled with years of disrepair, lack of maintenance, has already revealed the dilapidated scene of the pond body is low and narrow, and the flowers are cracked. However, Qin Lian's twists and turns were like a stone sinking into the sea, not only did not get the recognition and attention of the imperial court, but was regarded as unfounded and mediocre people, and was sneered at and excluded by his superiors and colleagues. Qin Lian, who had just stepped into officialdom, returned to his hometown after nine months of taking office, with the bitterness of unpaid ambition and unwillingness.
County office
Less than seven years later, Qin Lian's admonition became a prophecy, and the catastrophe of the turbulent tide and the dam burst quietly descended on Nanhui.
In the early morning of the 16th day of the seventh month of the 10th year of the Yongzheng Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (September 4, 1732), the hurricane was raging, the rain was pouring, the frenzied tide and the vicious waves were like wild horses roaring in, and the already dangerous sea ponds broke like pieces of paper one after another, and the tide swept the fields and villages with the tendency of destroying and decaying......
According to relevant historical records, the tide caused "six or seven out of ten people to die, five animals were gone, and the house was all rubble, and it was impossible to distinguish the well". The tide receded slightly, and about half of the counties inside and outside the sea pond were "corpses and coffins plugged into the river, the flowing water was black, the grease floated on the surface, the smell was fishy, the fish died, and the crops were rotten", and the affected "hungry people begged for food in Suchang and Jiahu counties in Zhejiang...... Eat up the bark and root ......".
The Nanhui gentry and the Qing Dynasty Zhusheng Zhu Yuelin left a bamboo branch poem, which vividly and truly described the tragic situation at that time: "It is rumored that the father and the elder are the most soulful, and the sea tide during the Yongzheng period." A hurricane roared like thunder overnight, and hundreds of thousands of living beings drifted. ”
The catastrophe shocked the government and the opposition, and the Qing court also remembered Qin Lian, who wrote a letter to rectify the sea pond seven years ago. Soon, a paper appointment urgently summoned Qin Lian, who had left the official office to return to his hometown for many years, went out of the mountain for the second time, and then served as the governor of Nanhui County.
In the face of the displaced victims and the devastated villages, Qin Lian was heartbroken and silently made a vow to "steal life for the time being, and not build a fish in Zitang". Immediately, he personally went to the settlements in the disaster area to listen to the voices of the people, stabilize the people's hearts, relieve the people's grievances, and eliminate the difficulties of the people, and make careful arrangements to ensure disaster relief, comfort the people's livelihood, stabilize order, curb the spread of the epidemic, and strive to avoid the emergence of major chaos after the disaster.
In the following year, that is, in the eleventh year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (1733), just after the Spring Festival, under the impetus of Qin Lian, after several months of careful preparation, the pond repair project was started as scheduled. Qin Lian strictly ordered his subordinates not to engage in favoritism and irregularities, strictly implemented the "work for relief", and distributed bereavement relief funds and materials according to the records of each household in repairing the pond, thus ensuring the basic living needs of the victims and ensuring the manpower for repairing the pond. The coastal people, who were deeply affected by the overflow of the sea, were excited, and soon formed a vast army of tens of thousands of people to build ponds, even children, the elderly, and women participated in it, drawing a magnificent picture of "all the people enthusiastically and neighbors working together", and even the elderly women built embankments together with their royal bodies and aprons. Qin Lian, who was nearly half a hundred years old, was stationed on the construction site day and night to inspect, commanding the army to rush to work day and night, supervising and verifying the progress in sections, and even carrying earthwork hand in hand with migrant workers, ramming and building embankments.
There are folk legends that the pond construction project was extremely unsmooth at first, and many pond sections were repeatedly built and collapsed, and dangers arose. When he was at a loss, Qin Lian met a cowherd who was actually a cowherd who was actually transformed into a mortal morning glory by Guanyin, and when talking with him, Qin Lian mentioned the problems encountered in building the pond, and the cowherd told Qin Lian that when the tide rises, the chaff will be sprinkled into the sea, and once the tide is low, the chaff will leave traces of the high tide water surface, as long as the sea pond is built according to this trace, the trace is straight, the sea pond is straight, the trace is bent, and the sea pond is bent, and the pond body will not collapse. Sure enough, according to the guidance of the Cowherd, the subsequent pond construction project went smoothly. This is also the reason why the Qingong Pond is not straight and often winds in an arc. In order to be grateful to the Cowherd, the local people built a statue of the Cowherd Temple at the intersection of Huajia Road (now Hualu Village, Chuansha New Town), where the Cowherd pointed out the maze, and the incense has been burning so far.
Of course, legends are just legends after all, but the direction of the construction of Qingong Pond seems to show a truth that our ancestors have long understood, but are often ignored by modern people: respect and reverence for nature in order to transform nature.
Cowherd Temple
All of us are united, the government and the people work together, and we will overcome everything. In just seven months, a Hanhai embankment stretching for nearly 100 miles from Huangjiawan in Gaodong Town in the north to Nanhui 4th Regiment and 5 Piers (now belonging to Fengxian District) in the south was completed.
In order to remember the righteous deeds and merits of Qin Lian who led the construction of the sea pond to protect the safety of the people, the people then called the outer defense of the sea pond "Qin Gong Tang". Along the line, the first regiment (now known as the big group) to the ninth regiment (now known as Cao Lu) in the Xiasha Salt Field built the Qinlian Ancestral Hall on the inside side of the sea pond to worship the statue of Qinlian and accept the worship of the people. The so-called "ancestral hall" refers to the ancestral hall built for those who are still alive and have made outstanding achievements and great achievements in the local area. As far as I know, there is no one else who has been worshiped at the Xiangsheng Temple in the history of Pudong except Qin Lian. Until the beginning of liberation, every year on the fifteenth day of the tenth lunar month, it is said to be the birthday of Qin Lian, and the official family specially organizes the "official ceremony" activities, and each regiment holds the "Qin Guild", carries the statue of Qin Gong and parades along the pond, walks into the village and enters the house, and accepts the people to pay homage and worship. This shows the people's heartfelt admiration for Qin Lian.
After the construction of the Qingong Pond, Zhu Yuelin was full of emotion, happily ordered the pen, and then gave Zhu Zhi a poem: "Suppress the dragon is not arrogant, and the dangerous pond is strong and strong." How much idle incense is in the village, it is only burned in the temple of the Qin Gong." The whole article is just 28 words to vividly describe the spectacular scenery of the towering side of the Qin Gong Pond, the prosperous scene of the Qin Gong Ancestral Hall, the incense burning, expressing the true feelings of the people to Qin Lian and Qin Gong Tang, coupled with the catchy, Xiao Chang and bright and become a popular local folk song, chanting in the fields, in front of the house and behind the house......
In the fifteenth year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (1810), Chuansha was established independently, and the northern area of Changren Township, Nanhui County, and the Eighth Regiment of Xiasha Salt Field (now Chuansha New Town) and the Ninth Regiment were included in the Chuansha Fumin Hall (the first year of the Republic of China, that is, in 1912, the hall was withdrawn and the county was established). Since then, Qingongtang has belonged to Nanhui County and Chuansha Hall (County), and Qinlian has also become a god worshiped by the people of the two places. After the liberation, due to the influence of well-known factors, most of the Qingong Ancestral Halls that once spread along the Qingong Pond were abandoned and demolished, and disappeared into oblivion. The only surviving record of the Qin Gong Ancestral Hall that can be found in historical materials is from the "Village Chronicles of Pudong New Area" published by Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House in 2013. It contains, located in the southeast of Qiming Village, Caolu Town, the Longwang Temple on the side of the Qingong Pond, had been in the second year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1876) in the temple courtyard to build the Qingong Ancestral Hall, the temple hall is Lianying, the temple is left and the temple is right. In the eighteenth year of the Republic of China (1929), the ancestral hall established the Qingong Junior Primary School. In 1988, the relevant religious policies were implemented to rebuild the Longwang Temple, and the statue of the Qin Gong Temple was set up in the side hall for worship. The Qin Gong Ancestral Hall in the Dragon King Temple may be the only remaining Qin Gong Ancestral Hall. "Qin Gong" and "Dragon King" are united and sacrificed in the same courtyard, which is enough to see the high position of Qin Gong in the minds of the people.
Qin Gong Ancestral Hall in the Dragon King Temple
With the continuous eastward expansion and siltation of tidal flats and people's greed for land resources, several sections of reserve ponds such as Ligongtang, Xiaoweitang, and Chengongtang have been built in a few miles outside Qingongtang, attracting the extremely poor to flee to Qingongtang. Compared with the relatively stable and solid situation of the people in Qingongtang, it is different from the mud. The folk proverb that circulates on the bank of the Qingongtang says: The reeds are dangling, the cow urine soup, and the marriage of a daughter is better than the Qingongtang. Qin Gongtang has almost become the dividing line between prosperity and poverty, tranquility and disturbance, "villa area" and "shantytown".
Since the completion of the Qingong Pond, until the early days of liberation, after more than 200 spring and autumn periods, regardless of hurricanes and huge waves, Qingong Pond has always stood proudly on the coast of the East China Sea, caring for the peaceful life of the people in the pond and the harvest of the year...... Even though a number of reserve ponds were built outside the Qingong Pond later, the Qingong Pond is still the most important barrier to defend the sea. On the third day of August in the 31st year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (September 1, 1905), a huge typhoon hit Chuansha and Nanhui head-on, and there were many executions in the outer Beitang, and the tide flooded, and the losses outside the Qingongtang were heavy, and thousands of people were killed, while the Qingongtang was safe and sound. As a result, Qingongtang is also called "life-saving pond" by the local people.
If you have the opportunity to walk along Yen Kung Tong, you will find that most sections of Yen Kung Tong are not accompanied by the Suitang River like other sea ponds. The main purpose of digging the river with the pond is to solve the source of the earthwork for the pond construction, and at the same time it is conducive to water transportation, irrigation, drought resistance and drainage. Qingongtang did not follow the Tang River, so how could the earthwork needed to build the pond be obtained? There are different theories in the market, one is that at that time, because the pond was close to the coast, it was difficult to ensure the stability of the pond due to the large sand content, so the clay transported from other places was used to ram the sea pond; Another theory says that the original Suitang River in Qingongtang was only later disappeared due to years of silting up and artificial landfilling. The two theories are inconsistent, and which is right and which is wrong needs to be verified.
Statue of Qin Lian
Turning over the long scroll of history, Qingongtang not only played a huge role in flood fighting, but also greatly promoted the north-south transportation and cultural exchanges in the coastal areas. In the past, Jiangzhen, Shiwan, Cailu, Heqing, Dengzhen, Zhudian, Huanglu and other commercial towns were all established and prosperous according to the Qingongtang, and the old place names such as Zhoujia Wharf, Xijia Wharf, Shamud Wharf and Big Wharf recorded the busy and prosperous distribution of goods across the pond sea and river in those years. These market towns and "wharves" scattered on the Qingong Pond are like crystal clear pearls, decorating the entire Qingong Pond shining and full of vitality.
In the 24th year of the Republic of China (1935), the Shangchuan Railway (commonly known as the Chuansha Railway) used the small barracks of Qingongtang (now the barracks village of Heqing Town) to lay railroad tracks and build train tracks in the southward section of the barracks, which extended all the way to Nanhuizhu Bridge, thus becoming the link between the southeast coast and Puxi. "Taking the train to Shanghai" has become fashionable and beautiful talk for a while.
In May 1949, Xie Zhenhua, the founding major general and the commander of the 30th Army of the People's Liberation Army at that time, led his troops through Fengxian, turned north and advanced along the Qingongtang, and after liberating Nanhui and Chuansha counties successively, continued to go north along the Tang, won the victory in the Battle of Gaoqiao, controlled Wusongkou, and cut off the road for Jiang's army to flee by sea. Qingongtang is known as "the road to liberation and victory of Shanghai".
On the night of July 24, 1949, the three evils of typhoon, heavy rain and astronomical tide hit the coasts of Nanhui and Chuansha. Everywhere the tide went, it was full of devastation and sorrow. The nascent people's political power immediately took action, mobilized and organized forces to provide disaster relief, and all sectors of society actively responded by making strong contributions to ensure that the people affected by the disaster "had clothing, food, and housing." The unaffected families in the Qingong Pond vacated their houses one after another to settle the displaced people, and went to the outside of the pond to help the victims open canals and drain water, dredge and return fields to fields, and resume production, playing a magnificent movement of great love between the socialist world.
On August 3 of the same year, the rescue project of Chuansha and Nanhui Outer Sea Pond was fully launched, and on September 8, it started from Wusongkou in the north and entered Fengxian through Chuansha and Nanhui in the south, with a total length of 112 kilometers and the new sea pond was completed. On October 6, the Mid-Autumn Festival, a grand project acceptance and celebration meeting was held on the Nanhui Haitang construction site. At the meeting, according to Mayor Chen Yi's proposal, the restored sea pond was named "Renmin Pond".
After the completion of the people's pond, governments at all levels attach great importance to the safety of the pond, set up special institutions, strengthen the management, guarding, maintenance and renovation of the pond, and constantly invest manpower, material and financial resources to reinforce, heighten and widen the pond body, improve the flood resistance level of the pond, make it an unbreakable copper wall, the coastal people's dream of "the tide is not troubled" for hundreds of years has been realized, and the Qingongtang has gradually retreated to the "second line" and finally completed its historical mission, which can be described as a complete merit and a perfect ending.
In 1972, with Qingongtang as the roadbed, the pond body was cut down, paved and flattened, cut and straightened, and rebuilt into a two-way two-lane highway. It is bounded by North Sichuan Highway (now known as Huaxia East Road), the north is called Dongchuan Highway, and the south is renamed South Sichuan Feng Highway because it connects the original Chuansha, Nanhui and Fengxian counties. In the past 20 years, the Dongchuan Highway and the Chuannanfeng Highway have been widened and reconstructed many times, and the original appearance of Qingongtang has long been gone. Almost everything in the villages, market towns, farmhouses, farms, etc., inside and outside the pond, has also undergone earth-shaking changes.
While we are happy that the old appearance of the coastal areas along the river in Pudong has been renewed, we are also more or less sorry for the disappearance of many scenic spots and old scenes. Not long ago, in a small gathering with friends, I heard a few old people with Nanhui accents at the next table chatting about Qingongtang, which aroused my strong interest, and I learned that in the east of Chuannanfeng Highway, Huinan Town, Nanhui, there is a country road called "Qingongtang Road", which is the only remaining remnant of the old Qingongtang. After returning home, I urgently checked the "Gaode map" and found that the whole journey of Qingongtang Road is 37.3 kilometers, and there are many intersections with Xiayan Road, Chuannanfeng Highway, Gongbei Road, etc. The results of this search show that the length of the Qingongtang Road is equivalent to more than two-thirds of the total length of the Qingongtang recorded in history, which is obviously contrary to the record that the Nanchuan Feng Highway is the old Qingongtang. Perhaps, the name of Qingongtang Road is only borrowed from the name of Qingongtang, and it has nothing to do with Qingongtang itself, or it is possible that some of the sections of the road are indeed remnants of Qingongtang. With doubts, I verified the authenticity through the old rain and new knowledge that worked and lived in the former Nanhui, but the answers I received were vague and difficult to confirm. This inspired me to continue to expand the scope of my research and solve my confusion.
In fact, gratitude is the most permanent sacrifice. Although the name of "Qingongtang" has been far away from us more than half a century ago, whether it is due to habit or in order not to be forgotten to commemorate, or driven by the preservation of the past and nostalgia, to this day, many people, especially the older generation, still insist on calling Dongchuan Highway and South Sichuan Feng Highway - Qingongtang.
Source: The past is hooked and sunk to talk about Chuansha, and the copyright belongs to the original author