On January 4, 1994, Junxian County of Henan Province and the provincial capital Zhengzhou became the third batch of national historical and cultural cities in China, which also means that among the 8 national historical and cultural cities in Henan Province (Zhengzhou City, Luoyang City, Shangqiu City, Anyang City, Nanyang City, Puyang City, Kaifeng City, And Xun County), only Xun County is a county-level national historical and cultural city.
In 1994, the third batch of national historical and cultural cities
Since the end of July 2021, due to the impact of heavy rainfall, Xun County has been surrounded by floods, and a total of seven townships in the county, six of which have now been soaked in water, and some of the Baisi slope flood storage areas and Xiaotanpo flood storage areas located in its territory have been put into use. Why did Xun County suffer from such a flood?
Two flood detention areas in Xun County
In fact, in history, Xun County is definitely not the low terrain of today's county, and some areas exist as flood detention areas. On the contrary, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was also the location of the famous Liyang Cang.
Liyang Cang was established during the Reign of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty, and has been used until the Northern Song Dynasty, and is a national official warehouse, located in the north of Da Ling Mountain in the east of Xun County, with the saying that Li Yang Harvest and Gu Jiu Zhou". Because of its large scale and large grain storage, it is known as the "granary of the world", with a total reserve of about 33.6 million jin. In September of the thirteenth year of the Sui Dynasty (617), after the Wagang army occupied Liyang Cang, it opened the warehouse to release grain, and within ten years, it had more than 200,000 soldiers. From this, we can know that the scale and far-reaching influence of Liyangcang are huge, and it can be known that the area around Today's Xun county must be a high-lying area that is not easily invaded by floods.
Imagine if the terrain around Xun County during the Sui and Tang Dynasties was the same as today, and the precipitation was large enough to become a "Ze country", and the ruler would not have set up such an important granary here under any circumstances.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" >how did Xun County change from a national granary to today's flood detention area? </h1>
Such a change has an inflection point, and this inflection point is also the key point of the name of Junxian County from Liyang to today's name Junxian County.
Before the Song Dynasty, Xun County was named Liyang, and its name comes from the Da Ling Mountain in the southeast of the county seat of Jun County. According to the Qing Dynasty's "Chronicle of Xun County", Da Ling Shan, also known as Li Shan. Because today's Xun County: "Lishan Mountain is in its south, the river flows through its east", because the county seat is located on the north side of the river, in ancient times, "Shannan Water North" was the yang, so the county was Liyang.
The Great Ling Mountain in the Records of Xun County in the Qing Dynasty
Liyang was located in the Western Han Dynasty, and liyang camp in the Eastern Han Dynasty was an important military town. "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Zhi, Emperor Wu": In the fifth year (200) of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yuan Shao "led troops to Liyang and crossed the river", which refers to this place. Liyang belonged to Wei Commandery in Wei and Jin, and after Northern Wei Xiaochang to Northern Zhou, Liyang County was established as Liyang County. During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, it was ruled by Li Prefecture. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Li Prefecture was also placed under the rule of Li Prefecture. However, most of the time it belonged to Weizhou. Five generations later, in the first year of Jin Tianfu (937), Liyang County was changed to Hua Prefecture.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="26" > during the Northern Song Dynasty, in Liyang Shengjun Prefecture</h1>
In the first year of the Northern Song Dynasty (988), in the fifth year of Liyang(1115), the army was promoted to Junzhou (浚州), which was called Junchuan Junjiedu (浚川軍節度), which was later changed to Pingchuan Junjiedu (平川軍節度). In the seventh year of the Jin Tianhui (1129), Xunzhou belonged to Hebei West Road. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Liyang County was abolished and entered into Junzhou, which belonged to Zhending Road in Zhongshu Province, and in the second year of the Yuan Dynasty (1265), it belonged to Daming Road in Zhongshu Province. In the first year of Ming Hongwu (1368), the road was changed to a prefecture, and in March of the second year of Hongwu, it belonged to the Daimyo Province. In April, XunZhou was demoted to Junxian County.
The Jin Dynasty's Junzhou
It can be seen from the above situation that the key node of Liyang County's transformation into Junxian County was in the early Yuan Dynasty when Liyang County was withdrawn and merged into Junzhou, and Junzhou was demoted to Junxian in the second year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, completing the transformation from Liyang County to Junxian County.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="28" > so why is there such a shift? </h1>
This reason can probably be found in the early establishment of Junzhou and Junchuan Military Festivals in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Junchuan means dredging the river. According to the Book of Shun, "Feng Ten has two mountains, Junchuan. Kong Chuan: "If there is a stream of rivers, then the depth of the river makes Tongli." From the name "Junchuan", it can be imagined that in the area of ancient Liyang and today's Xun County, during the Northern Song Dynasty, it was already necessary to dredge the river in time to make the water flow down.
In the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was a suitable place to build granaries, and in the Northern Song Dynasty, it was necessary to dredge rivers to ensure that the water flowed down, how did such a huge change occur?
There are many rivers left after the Yellow River was diverted below the Northern Song Dynasty
The cause of this great change was the great river (now known as the Yellow River) flowing through the east side of Liyang City. The flood of the Yellow River mainly comes from the middle reaches, the sediment in the river water mainly comes from the middle reaches, the good degree of vegetation maintenance in the middle reaches of the Yellow River determines the severity of soil erosion, and whether the land in this area is farming or animal husbandry is the key to determining the safety of the lower reaches of the Yellow River.
Before the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, due to the small population in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the main nomadic herders, human activities were not too large for the downstream rivers, but after the Anshi Rebellion, because the peasants who escaped the harsh tyranny arrived in the middle reaches of the Yellow River to reclaim wasteland, causing water and soil damage and loss, the downstream riverbed was also getting higher and higher, and floods occurred frequently, so the scourge of the lower reaches of the Yellow River after five generations was also more and more serious.
River map in the Records of Xun County in the Qing Dynasty
By the Time of the Northern Song Dynasty, the frequency of the Yellow River's breaches had reached an average of once every 2.4 years, and the Yellow River had undergone major diversions in the first year of Jingyou (1034), the eighth year of the Qing calendar (1048), the third year of The Emperor (1051), and the fifth year of Jiayou (1060). The diversion of the Yellow River not only caused the people along the river to suffer from floods, but also caused the Yongji Canal, which was originally dug by the Sui Dynasty to enter the Yellow River downstream, to lose its discharge channel. Not only that, the old road left behind after the yellow river was diverted, because the silt was higher than the ground, it also became an obstacle to the flow of the Yongji Canal. It may be precisely because of this that the dredging of rivers and rivers in the Liyang area has been carried out.
Satellite maps around the 1970s on the map of Junxian Huaxian County
Satellite images from the 1970s show sand dunes left by the Yellow River between the county seat of Huaxian County and the town of Daokou
Because the Reason for the Yellow River makes the Yongji Canal drain poorly, it is necessary to dredge, and then set up an administrative area with the name of "Dredging", and eventually replaced the name of "Liyang", which is famous for its granaries.
Do you know that this is the case, welcome to discuss at the bottom of the article.