Written by Zhu Haiyan
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After the Yuan Dynasty benefited from this sea transportation, it deeply understood the importance of the dredging of the Grand Canal, and the plan to build a canal trunk line connecting North China and Jiangnan has always attracted the attention of the Mongols. In 1283, Kublai Khan ordered the construction of a section of the canal in Shandong. In 1289, the Jeju River between Imcheong and Dongpyeong was excavated. This section of the canal crosses a series of existing natural and artificial waterways, allowing direct travel from Beijing to Jiangnan. Since the formation of this main line, little has changed and forms the basis of the current Grand Canal.
When Marco Polo traveled to Guazhou, a transportation station on the Yangtze River at the time, he was impressed by the Yuan Canal project, writing:
A considerable amount of grain was transported to Guazhou and was to be transported to Dadu (Beijing) via the canal for the consumption of Kublai Khan's palace. All the grain needed by the Yuan court came from this part of China. One must know that Kublai Khan had opened a waterway from Kuazhou to Dadu. The waterway appears to be a wide, deep channel that connects rivers and lakes. It is like a big river and can sail large sailing ships.
/Yangzhou, Jiangsu Ancient Canal Scenery (Image Source Network)/
Due to the opening of the canal, silk, medicinal herbs, wood, tea and various special products from the south were continuously transported to Beijing through Zhangjiawan. In addition, businessmen and officials who come and go from the south to the north must pass through Zhangjiawan when they take the waterway. After the spring of each year, the boats from all over the country arrive at Zhangjiawan through the North Canal, and here is the spectacular scene of hundreds of thousands of boats and sampans. There are more than 10,000 people serving river transportation in the Zhangjiawan area, such as sailors, shipwrights, and stevedores and shippers, and there are more than 3,000 stevedores at the commercial ships berthing at Dongguan and Beiguan in Tongzhou alone. In addition, the service industry that is engaged in hotels, restaurants, and food stalls all year round is even larger.
Entering the Ming Dynasty, the Grand Canal was the busiest and main travel route. Most of the scholars who went to Beijing to take the imperial examination took the Cao River waterway. In 1572, on his seventh trip to Beijing to take the exam, Gui Youguang found that his ship was improvised and frozen about 160 miles from Zhangjiawan. He estimated that nearly 1,000 ships were blocked, all heading for the northern end of the Cao River. According to him, "half the world is here". It is conceivable that there are about 4,000 people who take the entrance examination at one time, and when they finish the examination and leave Beijing at the same time, it will bring a lot of trouble to the traffic.
Traveling on the Cao River is not a blissful smooth thing. It took 38 days for Gui Youguang to travel north from Suzhou to Beijing. But, as already noted, he had to cover the last 160 miles in five days due to the freezing of the Cao River.
/Beijing Grand Canal old photos (picture source: Internet)/
Matteo Ricci wrote in his Notes that when he first arrived in Beijing in 1598, the Ming government denied him access to the capital. On his return to the South, he gave this account of his experience: "The empty ship on the return voyage was almost free of charge to carry passengers, but this time the greed of the owner made the ship very unfit for ride, because it lacked the protection of weapons and did not have enough sailors. It took him one month to complete the 500-mile journey from Beijing to Linqing. On this point, he wrote: "When winter comes, all the rivers in northern China are frozen so thick that it is impossible to sail on them, and cars can pass on them. From his account, although it is difficult to tell how long Matteo Ricci was delayed in Linqing, we can know that he will not be able to continue his journey south until the following spring.
A Japanese man named Tsukihiko Shuryo kept a journal of the travels of Japanese envoys. The journal says that in 1539, the mission had to stay in Ningbo for 195 days before it was allowed to leave for Peking. After the mission was finally able to set off on the journey, it took 85 days from the Yangtze River into the Cao River to Zhangjiawan, the northern end of the Cao River, and 66 days on the return journey.
The Empress Dowager Xiao River flows to the east through the north of Zhangjiawan, and it is connected with the Grand Canal, which should be the main wharf of Zhangjiawan at the beginning. Standing on the empty ancient pier and looking into the empty distance, I seemed to see Emperor Kangxi walking out of the Forbidden City and patrolling various places. He was emperor for 61 years, of which 18 years were spent on 130 inspections. The most influential among the people was his six southern tours along the canal, totaling 549 days.
/Kangxi South Tour Map along the Canal (Image source: Internet)/
The purpose of Kangxi's southern tour is mainly to investigate the people's situation and the governance of local officials, he said: "The king of the ancients, living in the deep palace, does not know that there are many people suffering from the people, I patrol all over the place, because of the witness, I know very accurately. In 1684, he made his first southern tour, on the journey of more than 200 miles in northern Jiangsu, he walked for 12 days, and saw that the river workers transported earth to build the embankment, and worked hard, he specially stopped the boat many times, personally comforted him, and told the minister of the river to strictly prevent unscrupulous officials from eroding the already meager labor wages, and to make sure that everyone can get a fixed amount of money.
Kangxi took a boat along the canal to the south, when crossing the Gaoyou Lake, he saw that the folk fields were submerged in water, and he was very uneasy, so he landed on the boat and walked the lake embankment for more than 10 miles, inspected the situation, and convened the local fathers and scholars to understand the root cause of the flood in detail, and to find a way to relieve it. He said to the Governor of Liangjiang, who accompanied him: "I have made this trip to visit the people for their own sake, and if there are advantages and disadvantages in any place, they will not be able to get rid of them, so that each of them will have their own place. Now witnessing the flooding here, where can you not try to save it? So he issued an edict that all the flood-stricken states and counties should be investigated in detail one by one, and after accurate verification, they must be solved, and they will not hesitate to use as much money as they need.
On that day, Kangxi couldn't sleep at night, and gave an ancient style song:
Huaiyang was hit by floods, and the waves were often mighty.
The dragon boat puppet passed, looking at the island of the state.
The fields are all sinking, and the houses are half toppling.
The people are naked, and they are lying deep.
After Kangxi, I also saw another emperor, who also boarded the ship many times from this ancient pier called Zhangjiawan at my feet, this person was Qianlong, he was Kangxi's grandson. He learned from his grandfather Xuanye everywhere, Kangxi patrolled Jiangnan 6, and he also patrolled Jiangnan 6. But the form is the same, but the style is different. Qianlong is very particular about pomp, every time he makes a southern tour, he has to bring the palace personnel, princes and ministers and guards, as many as 2,500 people, and the hundreds of boats that travel are connected from head to tail, as long as more than ten miles, among which the emperor and his family also specially built 5 huge dragon boats. These boats used 3,600 river soldiers to pull fiber, which is the so-called "dragon beard fiber". Sometimes, in order to emulate Emperor Yang of Sui, he also ordered local officials to recruit women on both sides of the strait to pull fiber, and he sat on the bow of the boat, enjoying the beauty of the world and the beautiful scenery, and was very happy.
Qianlong's southern tour, for one person, caused the people along the canal to work and lose money, and mobilized the people. He played outside the palace, where the rules and quality of life could not be reduced, and wherever he went, the local officials naturally had to whitewash the richness of their jurisdiction, and do their best to honor the local specialties and curiosities of the world, and always give feasts to the local officials, the squires, and the old ministers who had returned to their hometowns. Therefore, before each tour, Kyoto specially transported the cattle and sheep to be used thereafter to the banks of the canal. It is said that more than 170 dairy cows alone are needed for a single patrol, and thousands of sheep are needed in the dining room.
Qianlong paid considerable attention to daily drinking water. Before he left Beijing, he had to load several boats of pure water from Yuquan Mountain in western Beijing, and he also had to choose famous springs on the way, such as Pearl Spring in Jinan, Hupao Spring in Hangzhou, and so on. At the place where they parade, the gentry were very busy, because it was also the best time for them to catch their horses. Everywhere you go, the streets and alleys are decorated in a thousand ways, the colorful sheds, the lights are colorful, and the gardens and historic sites are renovated so that the emperor can enjoy the amusement. During Qianlong's first southern tour, Jiang Ji, a member of the criminal department, donated a Huangsha road in Suzhou and took out 300,000 taels of silver, which is really more expensive than building an asphalt road now.
After Qianlong's 6th southern tour, he was 75 years old, and although he was in good health, he ended his southern tour. Before, many officials did not approve of his southern tour, but the emperor who was scheduled to be the Emperor of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, how could he listen to it. Yin Huiyi, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, came back from inspecting Jiangsu and reported to him that after several southern tours, the people were suffering and complained. When Qianlong heard this, he was annoyed and ashamed, and accused Yin Huiyi: "You said that the people are suffering, try to point out who it is?" You say that you are complaining, try to point out who it is? He toured all the way south, and everywhere he went, all he heard was "Long live my emperor!" Banzai! Hooray! "Yes, the people's suffering, the situation of complaints, why didn't the emperor see it, so that you Yin Huiyi saw it? Yin Hui had a hard time arguing, so he had to admit his guilt and join the army.
/Qianlong Southern Tour (Image Source Network)/
In Qianlong's later years, the Qing Dynasty began to decline from its peak, and he already felt it. After becoming the emperor, one day he talked to Wu Xiongguang, the governor of Zhili, and said that he had reigned for 60 years, and he had no immorality, and he only had 6 southern tours, which cost the people and money. He also said that if Emperor Jiaqing also wants to tour the south in the future, if you don't dissuade him, you won't have the face to come to see me. Later, Wu Xiongguang really relayed Qianlong's words to Jiaqing.
Although Qianlong likes to talk about pomp and circumstance, he still realizes that he was wrong in the end. But some emperors have done a lot of wrong things that should not be done, and he will not admit his mistakes until he walks into the coffin, and it is the nature of most emperors to go all the way to the dark.
These are all stories that happened on the canal, and the beginning of the story began with the first pier of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal - Zhangjiawan.
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At that time, the transportation of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was undoubtedly the biggest growth point for the development of the commercial economy of Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou and even the whole of Beijing. The arrival of each batch of ships will push the "GDP" of this area to a new level, and the variety of goods in the bazaar will increase significantly. And some of the local products and tea from the south that the sailors on the boat engaged in along the way are naturally indispensable. After a long period of water transportation, green tea is not fresh enough, so the people of Zhangjiawan process it into flower tea and sell it on the market. It is likely that the dependence of the people of Zhangjiawan on tea began in that era. When most people talk about their family history, they will talk about the businessmen who lived here for generations and relied on the canal for their food.
/Zhangjiawan Gucaoyun Wharf (Image source: Internet, thanks to the author)/
Now the nearest place from the wharf, there lives a family surnamed Chen, his ancestors were not from Zhangjiawan, in the era of developed transportation, his ancestors bid farewell to their hometown, came to Zhangjiawan to settle down, and settled on the side of the wharf, and started a bamboo business and restaurant business. They were accustomed to hearing the trumpets sung when the boats lifted anchor, hoisted the sails, and tuged the boats. Different jobs are accompanied by different horns, each with its own tune, full of "hey, hey" sounds. In the autumn of Jiaqing 12 years ago, the boat song sounded again, almost deafening the eardrums of Zhangjiawan people, and few people thought that life on the river would say goodbye to Zhangjiawan forever. The course of the North Canal moved eastward, and the era when Zhangjiawan was full of boats disappeared.
However, the eastward movement of the North Canal did not bring evergreen vitality to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. In modern times, due to the blockage of the Grand Canal and the frequent wars, the transportation of grain to Beijing was blocked, and the amount of grain transported to Tongzhou every year continued to decrease. In the first year of Xianfeng, the amount of grain that entered Beijing was only 2.2 million stones, and three years later, it was reduced to 1.1 million stones. In order to solve the grain supply in Beijing, the Qing government actively opened up the grain market in the north. Northeast China, Zhangjiakou, Shanxi, Henan, Inner Mongolia and other regions have all become important grain bases in Beijing, thus changing the situation that Beijing mainly relied on Nancao for grain in the past. With the decline of Caoyun, Tongzhou's position as the center of waterways continued to decline.
At the beginning of the 20th century, with the development of railway construction, the Cao Yun system was abolished, and the Cao Yun finally ended its historical mission for many years. Tongzhou's historical status as a waterway hub connecting Beijing with the southern provinces came to an end.
/Caoyun Ancient Town Zhangjiawan (picture source: Internet)/
The end of the canal transportation is a great progress of modern civilization, but the "interruption" of the canal culture brought about by the end of Caoyuan is a great retrogression of history. Over the years, we have built along the canal in exchange for the cost of destroying the canal, how could we have thought that those abandoned and transformed old things are the carriers of history, carrying the memory of history, and their historical and cultural value cannot be measured by money, and the losses caused are irreversible. When our generations were proud of the canal, and when we hated the debauchery of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, we thought that if we were paying tribute and protecting the canal, we were far behind Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty.
The canal is not only a river of transportation, but more importantly, it is also a river of history and culture, just like the Great Wall, which cannot be demolished without resisting the enemy; Just like the Forbidden City, the Forbidden City cannot be demolished because there is no emperor. If there is a day when the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is declared as a world cultural heritage, reproducing the prosperous scenery of a river with blue waves, willows on both banks, and sailboats on the river, then the tour of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is no less than the tour of the Li River and no less than the tour of the Three Gorges. Whether the nation that dug the Grand Canal has the ability to bring the Grand Canal back to life and benefit both sides of the river and mankind is being watched by history with deep affection. (End of full text)
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 the 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.
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