Aerial view of the Canal Cultural Park in Wujiang District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, taken on May 8. Photo by Xu Congjun/Guangming Image
In the long history, dozens of cities have arisen on both sides of the canal, which represent the highest level of urban development in ancient China and are also rich areas of the brilliant culture of the Chinese nation. Today's canal city not only preserves a large number of tangible cultural heritage such as buildings, gates, docks, stations, bridges, etc., but also preserves countless fangzhi, notes, novels, poems and art. The spatial changes, historical evolution, population agglomeration, commercial rise and fall and cultural changes of the canal city are truly recorded.
First of all, without canal cities, there would be no canal literature. However, the latter also truly records the "historical details" of the former, which has important historical value of canal cities. The rise of the city is the most important historical, economic and social event that took place on both sides of the canal. The most familiar thing about this is Beijing, the "city that floated from the canal." Li Dongyang, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty University, once gave a poem: "Emperor Wen built the capital, and the rule of the south will be paid." The name of the state is tong, as my east barrier. The high city is majestic, with soldiers and people. Caohe Came north, and Fed Millet Yuntun . The reserves are increasing, and the new city is built. The construction of Tongzhou New City has become an important platform for Beijing to "drift from the canal".
Not only Beijing, but also some small towns along the canal that were originally inconspicuous, have also become historically important regional center cities because of the Grand Canal. For example, Tianjin in the Yuan Dynasty was called Zhigu Zhai, which was originally a military guardhouse village. After the Capital of Beijing in the Yuan Dynasty, whether it was to transport materials to Dadu through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal or by sea, Zhigu Zhai was a necessary throat road. According to statistics, from the twentieth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1283) to the second year of the Celestial Calendar (1329), the amount of grain transferred from 4650 stones to 3.52 million stones increased. Because it undertook the new function of transporting grain, the original ordinary Zhigu Village became a commercial port full of thousands of trees. The process of this urban development is vividly recorded in poetry. For example, "Eastern Wu turned to the sea to export japonica rice, and the tide came to collect ten thousand ships overnight" (Wang Maode's "Zhigu"), "The Three Forks of the Dawn, Lianliang Collected Ten Thousand Ships" (Zhang Yi's "Daiqi Meizhou Tianfei Temple Ci Zhigu Zuo"), "One Day Grain Ship to Zhigu, Wu Poppy More and More Streets" (Zhang Yi's "Reading Yinghai XiQi's Absolute Sentence Qingyuan Because the Slogan Numbers Poems Show Ninety Percent are Also One of Them"). After the capital of the Ming Dynasty moved north, the status of Zhigu Village became more important, so there was Zhu Di's "name Tianjin".
Another example is Huai'an, which rose up because of the water transport. Fu Chonglan wrote in the "History of China's Urban Development": "Huai'an is located in the center of Xuzhou, Yangzhou and Yancheng, and is the throat of the southern provinces to the north, with a prosperous economy and a prosperous street market. The busyness of Caoyun directly gave birth to the development of the city, and Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty had already called Huai'an "the first state in the southeast of Huaishui" ("Gift to Chuzhou Guo Jun"). The development of the city has brought about the prosperity of literature, such as Wen Tingjun's "Farewell to Huaiyin City at Night, A Song of Moonlight High-Rise Buildings" ("Gift to youth"), Su Shi's "Tomorrow's Huaiyin City, White Fish Can Be Fat" ("Return from the Wind in the Middle of Fa Hongze"). In addition to poetry, in ancient novels such as "The Words of the Plum in the Golden Bottle", "Journey to the West", and "Water Margin", there are also a large number of records and descriptions of Huai'an city life. They provide important perspectives and documents for today's study of canal cities and understanding the historical changes of the Grand Canal.
Secondly, the canal city is essentially a commercial port-type city, which is unique in the ancient Chinese urban system; canal literature profoundly reproduces the unique essence of the canal city, and has an important impact on ancient Chinese literature and classical aesthetic spirit. Unlike political centers or military towns, canal cities are mainly economic centers, transportation centers, commercial trade centers and consumption centers, and can also be collectively referred to as "commercial port cities". With the urbanization of population, the commercialization of urban functions, the diversification of lifestyles, and the diversification of culture and ecology as the basic characteristics, canal cities are very different from agricultural civilized cities with limited population size and underdeveloped consumer economy. Taking population agglomeration as an example, the most typical of them is Hangzhou. According to statistics, when the Grand Canal of the Sui Dynasty was first opened, the population of Hangzhou was only 15,000 households, but by the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, it expanded to 260,000 households. From this point of view, Liu Yong's "Looking at the Sea Tide and Southeast Shape Victory" says that "there are 100,000 people's homes in jagged distance", which is by no means a fiction of the poet. In the development of commercial port-type cities, Yangzhou is represented. Yan Shoucheng once wrote in "Canals in Sui and Tang Novels": "Because Yangzhou is a consumer city, where merchants gather, shops are lined up, and all kinds of goods, from high-end jewelry to daily necessities, exquisite and gorgeous, everything is exquisite and gorgeous." There are not only beautiful landscapes, but also countless advocates, taverns, tea shops, graceful prostitutes, skilled entertainers, skilled chefs and delicious dishes full of strong local colors, which can be enjoyed by people to eat, drink and enjoy splurge. Whether it is day or night, life in Yangzhou is always immersed in a lively, bustling and noisy atmosphere. This is the same as Du Mu's "falling rivers and lakes carrying wine lines, Chu waist slender palm light." Ten years of Yangzhou dream, won the Qinglou Bo fortunate name", can also be said to constitute a "poetry and history mutual verification" cycle.
Not only does literature record and construct cities, but cities also influence and change literary writing. The mainstream of ancient Chinese literature is based on Confucian thought and practical rationality, and maintains a high degree of consistency with the value standards and aesthetic spirit of the agricultural civilization of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce". With the commercial port city as the swaddling, canal literature has become the spiritual representative of ancient Chinese commercial civilization. Even in the canal city of qilu, it is therefore more and more deviating from the Confucian spirit of "worrying about the road and not worrying about poverty" in terms of culture and lifestyle, and becoming more and more similar to suzhou, which is "a place of first- and second-class wealth and wealth in the red dust". The most representative is Jining. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal makes Jining, located in the Section of the Jeju River, a national commercial city that radiates from the surrounding hundred counties. The Kangxi Jining Zhou Chronicle records that Chen Boyouyun of the Ming Dynasty: "Jidang is the throat of the north and south, the meridian is to rush, and the four million ships of our country are passing through its land." The gentry's public opinion is like a weaving, and the merchants of Fujian, Guangdong, Wuyue, and the merchants of capital are also scaled and obscene. That is, the husband of the negative seller and the lover of the teeth, it is also necessary to be rich in words. Correspondingly, Zhu Derun of the Ming Dynasty has "Feihong Bridge Poem": "The trade crowds in the city of Japan and China are gathered, the red felt and blue bowls are piled up like mountains, the merchants are restless, and the restaurants and song halls are noisy." In the Qing Dynasty's "Bamboo Branch Words", the metaphor of "Jining People's Small Suzhou" also appeared, which is also a true record and vivid portrayal of Jining's "slight difference between Huanhua and Zou Lu".
Third, canal literature is not only a literary work, but also an encyclopedia of canal society, which not only writes many big people in the "history of youth", but also objectively records the sorrows and joys of ordinary people on both sides of the canal. "The water flow, the Surabaya stream, flows to the ancient dutou of Guazhou." Wu Shan was a little sad. Bai Juyi's popular "Sauvignon Blanc" is also a masterpiece of chanting canals. The water in the word is the Yellow River before it was diverted, and the Yellow River and the Yellow River first converge in Xuzhou, then merge with the Surabaya River, and then enter the Huai River and the Yangtze River. Guazhou is in the south of present-day Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, so it is said that the green mountains of Wudi can be seen when it flows to Guazhou. As for why Bai Juyi is so familiar with the canal, it is related to his life experience. In 782, the 9-year-old poet went to Pengcheng with his father Bai Jigeng, and lived in the canal city of Xuzhou for a total of 23 years. This "Sauvignon Blanc" is not only a love poem, but also a sublimation of the poet's many years of life experience on the banks of the canal.
With more than 6,000 miles of space and more than 2,500 years of history, the Grand Canal itself has become a winding and winding gallery of characters, which includes the grace of poets and rioters, the generosity and tragedy of benevolent people, and the slight sorrow and joy of small people. For example, the story of "Golden Turtle for Fine Wine" that occurred in Rencheng. He Zhizhang met Li Bai here by chance, and he had fewer drinks than a thousand glasses of wine for his confidant, but when he checked out, he found that he did not bring money. He Zhizhang resolutely untied the imperial court's gift to officials, the golden turtle, to pay for wine. During the Tianbao years, Du Fu Li Bai was here to "drunkenly sleep in autumn and walk hand in hand with Japan" (Du Fu's "Seeking Fan Ten Hermitage with Li Twelve Whites"). Many years later, Qianlong felt nostalgic and once wrote that "the distinction between poetry and poetry is always out of the crowd." Li Du is inferior to see how to see, one is suitable for oneself and one is pregnant with jun" ("Four Songs of The Second Yong Nanchi", part iii). During his tenure in Rencheng, Li Bai wrote famous articles such as "Difficult to Walk", "Will Enter the Wine", "Liang Fuyin", "Sleepwalking in Heaven and Staying Away", "Answering the King's Twelve Cold Nights alone and Having a Heart", which can be said to have been helped by the canal.
Wen Tianxiang's "Song of Righteous Qi" has "For Zhang Suiyang Teeth", using the Tang Dynasty Zhang Suiyang scolding thieves and chewing teeth are broken. Its ability is in the famous canal city of Shangqiu. The relationship between Shangqiu and the canal can be traced back to the warring states period. The canal made Shangqiu economically prosperous and made it a place of contention for soldiers. "Cover Suiyang with the river, shield Huai Xu, where the boats and cars will meet." Since ancient times, in the Central Plains, there has not been a person who does not take Suiyang as a waist. In the first month of the second year of Tang Zhide (757), Zhang Zhu and An Qingxu's 130,000 rebels fought a bloody battle in Suiyang, but were captured because "there was no grain and grass inside and no rescue troops outside", and they were killed for refusing to surrender. Regarding this bitter battle that lasted 10 months, fought more than 400 battles, and killed as many as 120,000 enemies, Zhang Zhu once wrote "Shou Suiyang Zuo": "The spring of the engagement is bitter, and the isolated city is becoming more and more dangerous. Close the moon halo, and keep the fish beautiful. Repeatedly tired of yellow dust, when the white feathers are waved. The sores are still out of the line, and the blood is even more ascendant. Faithfulness should be hard to defeat, and perseverance and forgiveness will not be moved. No one repays the Son of Heaven, and his heart is full of tricks. "There is no hero in ancient times.
There are also some ordinary people who are also rumored to be associated with the canal. For example, Bai Ying, an old man in Wenshang who was proficient in water conservancy, once lamented that "the ridge of the earth was originally divided from north to south, and the old man could recognize the fruits and fruits" (Qianlong", "Titled Water Dragon King Temple", V). There are also river workers and boatmen on both sides of the canal, whose hard work and optimism have also remained in the history of literature. For example, Xie Zhaochun's Nanwang Picks the River: The is far away, the river is mimi, and the front of the watershed shrine is like an ant. The quail clothes are short and stiff, full of good sons of the six counties. The shallow water has no mud and no mud, and the five are fast until midnight. In the middle of the night, the west wind and rain and frost, ten people eight or nine toes want to break. For example, the canal trumpet created by the working people themselves: "Pull up, pull up, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, "These are all important parts of the cultural value and spiritual connotation of the Grand Canal, and they are also what we should not forget today to inherit and protect and innovate the canal culture."
(Author: Liu Shilin, Professor, Institute of Urban Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)