The thousand-year-old town of Huaquzhou
Liu Qu
The historical origin of Qujiang Ancient Town
The agricultural civilization in the Qujiang River basin began in the Neolithic Age, reached its development in the Warring States Period, and reached a new height in the Qin and Han dynasties. It lasted until the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty and experienced seven or eight hundred years of prosperity.
Aerial view of Qujiang Town, Quxian County
In the Later Han Dynasty, border troubles were frequent, wars were endless, and the people were burdened heavily. The political corruption of the imperial court, the gradual rise of powerful forces, and the intensification of the exploitation of the people by local officials. Ethnic contradictions in various localities have deepened, and barbarians have continued to rebel or gather crowds to rebel. Prefectures and counties often lead people to conquer and conquer, resulting in a great reduction in their household registration, economic decline, and unbearable forced labor, and even rise up. The country was in chaos, and finally the "Yellow Turban Rebellion" broke out, and the Eastern Han Dynasty came to an end. The war between the Three Kingdoms was chaotic, and the ditch suffered deeply. The upper strata of the people were divided and disintegrated, Qu Shuai rebelled away from Yizhou, a large number of households passed through Hanzhong and Beitou Cao Wei, the social and ethnic autonomy of the people disintegrated, and the people as a whole completely declined.
Between the two Jin Dynasty, due to years of war, Shuzhong household registration became increasingly empty. Li Shou of the Cheng Han State "led the bureaucrats into Shu" to Siba, and the population of Shu was empty. However, the Men were hunters in the mountains, and they were all over the valleys, plundering the people, and the counties around the basin were particularly badly affected. "Taiping Huanyu Ji" contains: (Danqu County) "At the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the land was invaded by the barbarians, and then it was deserted. "It forms a historical landscape of soldiers in exile and aborigines fleeing in all directions.
From the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Liu Song Dynasty, the Southern Qi Dynasty, and then to Xiao Liang, the Qujiang River basin was barren for a hundred years.
Xiao Yan replaced Qi with Liang, and picked up a ready-made one. In the early days of the Liang Kingdom, there were 23 states, and later exaggerated its "cultural and martial arts", and a large number of prefectures and counties were added, and the number of prefectures and counties increased to 107 in Datong. There has been a phenomenon of one state, one county and one county, and there are even cases where there are no counties in the state, or there are empty overseas Chinese counties and deserted counties. Nanliang Prefecture was indiscriminate, but there were many founders, and new state and county names were added.
In 522 A.D., that is, Liang Pingping established Beidanqu County and Liujiang County in three years, and governed Qujiang Town (changed to Qujiang Street in 2020), and the history of construction has gone through 1500 years. In the 1980s, the office building of the Qu County Government was renovated, and the "Ruimai" and "Zhicao" monuments erected in the county hall of Liujiang County in the Song Dynasty were dug out from the ground, and the stone carving was established in March of the fourth year of Yuanyou (1089), and the name and origin of the county lieutenant were dug out from the ground to boast of the Taiping auspiciousness. Sitting here is where the Liujiang County Ya of the past dynasties is located.
In 537 A.D., that is, the third year of Liang Datong, Quzhou was placed in Beitangqu County, and Qujiang Town was now a state, county, and county. Quzhou, Beidanqu County, Liujiang County, and the three-level political districts are all implemented. The county was governed for 839 years (537-1375).
Quzhou became a local political region twice during the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Quzhou was changed to Danqu County, and later reverted to the prefecture and became a local first-level political district government office, which was nominally equivalent to large and medium-sized cities in China, which had a significant impact on the creation and finalization of Qucheng. In the Tang and Song dynasties, Quzhou had a developed economy and a prosperous culture, and the density of Buddhist temples in the prefecture and county was very high, and the religion was extremely active. Two miles in the north of the city is Longxiang Mountain, that is, the Hejaz "Fute Mountain", there is the Northern Song Dynasty to worship the Han Dynasty chariot general "Renji King Feng Qi Temple", commonly known as the Tuzhu Temple. The emperors of the four dynasties of the Song Dynasty successively issued edicts to confer honorific titles such as "King Renji", and upgraded local sacrifices to royal acts.
"Shuzhong Famous Places" recorded the "Tianning Temple Record" of Liujiang in the Northern Song Dynasty: "The ancient county of Tangqu is a city based on the mountain. From the east of the Pearl Ridge to the stone gate, volcanic and special, faintly rumbling; From the north of the county straight down to the south, for the saddle, for the climbing, for the west rock, hugging Kunwei, ascending and descending to the plain, the county is governed. The gang is divided into ridges, the east direction is the rock of the Yuan family, the south turns to the mountain of the Qu family, and the bottom view of the Bajiang River stretches the shins, and goes straight to the waterfront and then beyond. "It's a place of great importance.
The basic pattern of today's Qujiang Town began in the Ming Dynasty. In the fourth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Sichuan was incorporated into the territory of the Ming Dynasty. The province attached Guo Liujiang County into Quzhou, nine years (1376) to reduce the state to the county, originally called Qu County. There were no walls at first. Chenghua, the beginning of the construction of the earth city. In the eighth year of Zhengde, the county ordered Ganze to plan and build the county seat, the surrounding width is four miles and two points, the city is one zhang and five feet high, and five city gates are placed, and the city guards the clouds roughly. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the war was chaotic, and the city was destroyed three times. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Yongli regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty was entrenched in Dabin Mountain, and in the sixth year of Shunzhi (1649), "the beginning of the return (Qing Dynasty) territory", the county government office was in the north of the county in Zhoujiazhai for 18 years. In the second year of Kangxi, Lei Minglu of Zhixian County "repaired the city wall", completed the reconstruction in three years, and the county government returned to the county seat from Zhoujiazhai. In 1939, the Republic of China implemented the "new county system", and the "city" was established as "Qujiang Town". In 1953, it was democratically established and renamed Chengguan Town; In 1983, the county successively revoked the commune and rebuilt the township people's government, and named it Qujiang Town.
In the township reform in December 2019, there were 15 towns and 45 townships in the county. After adjustment and merger, a total of 28 towns and 6 townships were set up, and at the same time, for the consideration of the future construction of the city, the county was divided into "Qujiang Street", "Qunan Street" and "Tianxing Street", and the urban pattern was changed. At the end of 2022, the built-up area of the urban area reached 42 square kilometers, with a permanent population of more than 200,000.
Qujiang and Liujiang counties
The establishment of Liujiang County began in the Liang Kingdom of the Southern Dynasty. The old city of the ditch is abandoned, and the county is governed here, which not only considers the environmental conditions, but also has the historical basis for the gathering of villages.
Judging from the documentary records, the settlement "Wakou" (obvious topographic features, referring to the villages on both sides of the Liujiang estuary) during the Three Kingdoms period is contained in the "Book of Shu · of the Three Kingdoms": "In the 20th year of Jian'an, Zhang Hetun Hanzhong, several crimes were committed in the Bajie. The first lord ordered Zhang Fei to enter the ditch and fight with He and others at Wakou. The year is 215 AD, 1807 (215-2022). In terms of the development process of residential settlements, the rise of Qujiang Town has been nearly 2,000 years.
Jiaqing's "Qu County Chronicles" said: "The revival of the peaks and peaks from Wangguan Mountain on the side of Zhushan is for the young ancestors. Since it is a branch, there is a welcome and a send-off, the momentum is like a thirsty dragon drinking the river, from the north gate field under the Longxiang Mountain, forming a county governance. Diving (i.e., Qujiang) and Liujiang are on the left, and West Cliff and Jade Toad (i.e., Ma'anshan) are surrounded on the right; Near the Jin beam leads, far away Guanshan Gongwei. Cover the area of scenic spots, too. ”
The historical position of the Qujiang River
Quzhou has an important historical position in the northeast of Sichuan.
The terrain of Quzhou City is dangerous. Since the opening of the canal city, nearly a thousand years for the state, county, government (division) reason, it is precisely because of the terrain surrounded by rivers and ravines, there are mountains to defend. As the key point for the waterway to go from south to north, and from the east to the west by land, it is important for a while.
According to records, Quzhou was listed as a "military state" in the Song Dynasty. In the later period of the Southern Song Dynasty, Meng Yuan waved his army south, and the battle in Shuzhong was the fiercest. In 1236, Quzhou fell to the Mongol army. The Mongolian army withdrew from Sichuan for a time, but still set up military bases in the surrounding area. After Yu Jue, Pu Zhizhi was appointed as the envoy of the Sichuan system, built a walled city defense on the military artery, constituted the defense system of the whole Shushan City, and insisted on the anti-Yuan struggle. In 1255, Zhang Zi, the governor of Quzhou, Li Hui of the Fu army, and Hu Zairong, the envoy of the regiment, led the army and civilians to migrate to Liyi Mountain and build a city to defend it. By 1275, the city of Liyi fell to the enemy, and the prefecture and county supported the war and held it for 20 years. It is one of the few fortified cities in Sichuan, which effectively cooperated with and supported the defense of the Diaoyu City Defense Center in Hezhou, making Sichuan the longest and last base for the Southern Song Dynasty to persist in resisting. On the day of the destruction of the Liyi Mountain City in Quzhou, Zhang Zi committed suicide and Hu Zairong died in battle, announcing the end of the Southern Song Dynasty's rule in Quzhou. In the Yuan Dynasty, Quzhou first set up the military and civilian administration, and then set up the Quzhou pacification department, and the nature of military management was obvious. The economy and culture are declining, and the status of the people who have lost the country is very low, and only one Jinshi has been admitted for decades.
The water gate of Liyi City still exists today
In modern times, especially during the Japan War of Aggression against China, Quxian was one of the important food bases in the rear of the Anti-Japanese War. The Sichuan Provincial Grain Storage and Transportation Bureau set up an office (transportation station) in the county and set up a wooden boat transportation brigade to operate military rations. According to the survey in 1940, there were more than 660 large and small ships, operating more than 1,800 tons of grain per month. There are 11 shipping points in the county border section of Sanhui, the county seat, Xiandu, etc., and only one county town transported 31,600 quintals of rice (8,000 tons) in 1941. As a result, Qucheng became the target of Japanese air raids, and in August 1940 and July 1941, it was bombed by Japanese planes with 89 sorties three times. The county was rebuilt on the ruins and was not restored until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945. With its superior geographical location and topographical environment, Qucheng has established a historical position in modern military history and is one of the strategic strongholds in eastern Sichuan.
Quzhou has a developed economy. The formation of Wakou villages and towns in the Han Dynasty is related to the suitability of fishing and agriculture in this area. The ancient city of Liujiang has always been the reason of the prefecture and county, indicating that the economy recovered in the later period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the city also had a considerable foundation. In the Tang Dynasty, as the capital of the local government, the city was further expanded in size and showed a prosperous scene. According to the "Old Tang Chronicles", cotton silk and medicinal materials "selling Zimu" seeds are the tributes of Quzhou. The Qujiang River Basin is a traditional production area of ramie, and cotton silk is a hemp fiber processing product, which is comparable to Shu brocade in western Sichuan. The full recovery and development of production contributed to the prosperity of transportation and commerce. In addition to the Qin and Han dynasties, the Chengdu (Du) Wan (Zhou) Avenue crossed through the county, and the ship transportation was busy. At that time, Liujiang County was classified according to the level of economy and household registration, and Liujiang County was "middle and upper", ranking second among the fourth-level counties.
Before and after the dynasty, the economy of Liujiang County in Shu remained stable.
The Northern Song Dynasty put an end to the division of the country, and a peaceful and stable political environment led to great economic and population development. "History of the Song Dynasty · Geographical Chronicles" said that Sichuan "has no inch of land, and it is harvested three or four times a year." "Agriculture has reached new heights. By the late Northern Song Dynasty, the population of Sichuan had exceeded 10 million, which was more than that of the Han and Tang dynasties, the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and the density was the highest in the country. The density of Tongchuanfu Road, where Quzhou is located, also exceeded that of Liangzhejiang Road, which was rich in the south of the Yangtze River at that time. "Yuanfeng Nine Domains" carries the Liujiang River as a "tight county", which belongs to the national second-class and local first-class counties. There are 15 townships and 18 towns in Zhizai County (divided into Matou, Dongguan, Shuimen, Yong'an, Dazhu, Xinxing, Yue'an, Baitu, Longtai, Exi, Lianhe, Longhe, Shenshi, Lantan, Lingba, Nanyang, Nanxi, and Lechuan). That is, before 1085, there were more than 3,000 households in Liujiang County. The total number of households in Quzhou (3 counties) is 20,900.
Quzhou has a developed economy and culture, and its name is important. The literati He Xizhi wrote about it:
If you want to say that the city is good, first praise all things.
After the golden soup is harvested from rice, before the red wax falls on the plum;
According to the seat plough is purple, and the pile of lily is fresher;
Snow vines are still different, and there should be no flower notes.
(Author's note: This "Echeng" refers to Qucheng, the meaning of Tuogu)
The poet selects several products and typical figurations, and then sketches a pastoral landscape in white strokes, praising the agricultural scene and affluence of Quzhou, which can be called beautiful. Liujiang County has been repeatedly divided, mainly because of the substantial growth of economy and population, the more active commerce, and the rapid formation of market towns. The construction of the county seat (state governance) is more prosperous, the ancestral temples and pavilions stand in a forest, the Buddhist temples and Taoist temples are surrounded by Leh Zhou, the morning bell and the dusk drum, a prosperous and peaceful scene.
Quzhou is prosperous in culture, and there is no shortage of celebrities. Since the Wei and Jin dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Buddhist temples and Taoist temples have come into being, widely distributed in Zhou County, among which the more well-known ones are Zhidong Lishu Temple, Huangjiang Temple (later changed to Xiangfu Temple), Zhixi Tianning Temple, Zhinan Chongxiang Temple, Zhibei Nanyang Temple and Jingbian Temple opened up in the western thoroughfare of the Later Tang Dynasty. In the era of agrarian civilization, the level of scientific cognition and productivity was very low, and religion had a broad mass base, so it was extremely developed, which was a prominent cultural phenomenon.
The state and county humanities are rising, and the crown is on the one side: Jingshu Li Qian Jinshi is respected by Ouyang Xiu and is as famous as Su Xun's articles; Yuan's nine jinshi have been inscribed one after another, which is rare in Shu in the Song Dynasty. Quzhou of the Northern Song Dynasty completed two volumes of "Danqu Chronicles" (contained in "Song History· Art and Literature Chronicles", no extancy). According to the records of Qu County of the Republic of China, there are 97 Jinshi with election titles in the past dynasties, of which 61 Jinshi have names that can be checked in the Song Dynasty, accounting for a very high proportion. From one side, it reflects the development of the humanities of the two Song Dynasty.
During the Tang and Song dynasties, there were many famous scholars in the state and county, and left a lot of poems and inscriptions. Chen Ziang, Yuan Zhen, Li Chunfeng, He Xizhi, Zheng Gu, Cui Tu, Chen Yun, Wang Juci, Xu Zhongzhang and other generations have come (or passed by).
Two poets of the late Tang Dynasty entered Shu, arrived in Quzhou successively, and left poems with a certain influence, which some people do not bother to quote and even use as historical materials to prove academic problems. In 886, Zheng Gu entered Shu for the second time. He roamed to Quzhou and wrote the poem "Qujiang Travel Thoughts" in the Huangjiang Temple on the other side: "Wandering and repetitive, making friends and passing away for a long time. It's not undesirable to seek a life, and what is the desire for life. Therefore, Chu Chuntian is wasted, and there is a lot of rain in the poor and miasma. Draw people to tears, and sing bamboo branches every night. The poem is full of the loneliness of being in a foreign land and the pathos of not being able to realize your ambitions in troubled times. Cui Tu's inscription Chongxiang Siyun: "The Central Plains Yellow Thief (referring to the Yellow Nest) instigated the rebellion, and the advance soldier Cui Tu avoided in Quzhou." In the spring, you will visit the temple alone, and you will return the next day. And inscribed the poem: "The water flows and flowers are ruthless, sending the east wind through Chu City, the butterfly dreams of thousands of miles away, and the sub-rule branch is on the third watch of the month." The old garden book has been extinct for many years, and the spring curtain of Huafa is full of mirrors, and it is obtained if it does not return, and there is anyone who fights for the smoke scene of the five lakes. ("Spring Eve" or "Spring Eve" travel Huai) "Jisheng of the Land" :(Quzhou) Chongxiang Temple is forty miles away from the state city, and it is the Dingguang Buddha Dojo. This poem is said to be the title of Tang Cui Tu Xizong to avoid chaos to Shu. Today, there is no ink left. There is an inscription between the rocks of Dingguang: "Advance Shi Cui Tu looks at it from here, and returns north the next day." It can be proved that the poem is in Quzhou.
This poem reflects the poet's intense depression during his travelling career. The imagery of the whole poem is hazy, the artistic conception is profound, and the style is gloomy. In Tang poetry, the depiction of life in detention has an important position. The specific age of the poem is unknown, but the general background can be known. Cui Tu, a Jinshi in the fourth year of Guangqi (888) of Tang Xizong, a strong guest in Bashu, and an old tour of Longshan, wrote a lot of works of travel sorrow. Its "Spring Eve Travel" is quite popular. "All Tang Poems" is preserved in 1 volume of his poems.
Quxian Confucian Temple, during the Jiading period of the Southern Song Dynasty (1208-1224), was built in Shizigang in the city. Yuan Ming moved outside the southern city and destroyed it again. From the second year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty (1662) to the first year of Daoguang (1821), it was repaired and improved in 158 years. Since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, the spring and autumn sacrifices are carried out every year, and it is the only well-preserved Confucian temple in Dazhou City. In 2005, Quxian Confucian Temple was listed as a national key cultural protection unit.
Quxian Confucian Temple performs spring festival activities
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Source: Sichuan Provincial Office of Local Chronicles
Text/Photo: Liu Qu (from Qu County, Sichuan, born in 1958. Former staff member of Quxian Party History Research and Local Chronicles Compilation Center)