In recent years, real estate agents have always divided Tianjin into "upper three districts" and "lower three districts". When I first heard the word, I doubted my own loneliness. Later, after I poured out some historical materials, I confirmed that the so-called upper and lower three districts were completely speculation and nonsense by real estate agents.
Even the origin of Tianjin is not known, how to call yourself a Tianjin native? Therefore, this article should start from the source and sort out the ins and outs of Tianjin Wei. (It takes about 8 minutes to read this article)
People often say that Tianjin is a "land of retreat", but in fact, this statement is not accurate. Because at the time of the Quaternary glaciers 18,000 years ago, the sea level was about 120 meters lower than it is now, and even parts of the shallow sea areas of the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea were land. After the ice age, the sea rose back, and by the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Tianjin's coastline had been pushed to the Seven Mile Sea of the Ning River and the Dongli Junliang City. In the following thousand years, the loess silt brought about by the Haihe River system and the diversion of the Yellow River gradually silted up into the outline of Tianjin today.
Tianjin first appeared in history, such as Cao Cao's Eastern Expedition to Wuhuan, which excavated canals in wuqing and Baodi, opened salt works in Lutai during the Sui and Tang dynasties, and set up "Salt Courtyards" in Baodi. However, for the historical record of Tianjin's urban area, there has been a lack of written records in the history of letters.
▲Tianjin historical map, you can see the location of the ancient coast
In the Song and Liao dynasties, the Haihe River was once the boundary river between the two countries, with the Haihe River to the north belonging to the Liao State Youdu Prefecture and the Haihe River to the south under the jurisdiction of the Song Dynasty. Until the second year of the Jin Dynasty (1214), the Jin Dynasty set up Zhigu Village on the west side of the Three Forks, first for defense, and second, to supervise the transportation from the Central Plains and Jiangnan, to provide the imperial court with abundant grain, which is the earliest origin of Tianjin called "Zhigu".
The specific location of Zhigu Village is on the west side of today's Lion Forest Bridge, near the Jade Emperor Pavilion. It is only because when the Haihe River was cut and straightened in the last century, the three forks were moved 400 meters north to the current position. For the story of the Haihe River cutting and straightening, see "From "Longqing Switch" to "Cutting the Bend and Straightening", an article that tells the past and present lives of the Haihe River.
▲ Tianjin urban area map published in 1905
Tianjin people all know the phrase "first there is Dazhigu, then there is Tianjin Wei", so they often take The Dazhigu in Hedong as the origin of Tianjin. In fact, there is a misunderstanding here: the Zhigu Village established by the Jin Dynasty in 1214 was on the west side of the Three Forks. The Dazhigu area around Liuwei Road in Hedong was often silted up and flooded by the Grand Canal in the Yuan Dynasty, and most of the grain from Jiangnan was shipped to Dadu. Therefore, around 1282, the Yuan Dynasty set up a shipping reception hall and a Linqing WanhuFu in Dazhigu, Hedong, and built a Zhigu Guangtong Warehouse to be responsible for the transfer of haicao to hecao. Hedong Dazhigu is half a century behind the Jin Dynasty Zhigu Village, and this Zhigu is not the other Zhigu.
However, tianjin's biggest twist of fortune came from the early years of the Ming Dynasty.
In 1400, Zhu Yuanzhang's fourth son, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, raised an army from Beiping and fought all the way south to Nanjing, seizing the throne of his nephew Zhu Yunjiao and becoming the third son of the Ming Dynasty, known in history as the "Battle of Jingnan". And Zhu Di's road to seizing power was to cross the river from Tianjin to the south. After ascending to the throne of the Son of Heaven, Zhu Di, who was obsessed with the Haihe River, set up Tianjin Wei in the land of crossing the river, and this day was November 21, the second year of Yongle.
This day is December 23, 1404 AD, and tianjin was first established
At that time, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di ordered the establishment of Tianjin Wei, Tianjin Left Wei, and Tianjin Right Wei, which were collectively called "Three Guards" at that time. "Wei" is a military structure of the Ming Dynasty, with a quota of 16,800 soldiers in the Three Guards to defend the Beijing division established and maintain local security. At the same time, the Ministry of Works was ordered to carry out a large-scale construction here, and the Tianjin Weizhi records: "In the second year of Ming Yongle, Emperor Wen ordered the Ministry of Works to order Shangshu Huangfu, Pingjiang Bo Chen Xuan, and All commanded Lingyun, tongzhi Huanggang, and built a pond."
▲Ming Chengzu Zhu Di statue
The reason why the Yongle Emperor gave the name Tianjin is to commemorate the "Tianzi Jindu". In those days, where did Zhu Di "Jindu" come from? According to a number of experts, the river zhu Di crossed is the South Canal, and the specific location is between Jinhua Bridge and Admiralty Bridge on Hebei Avenue in Hongqiao District.
According to expert research, on the inner page illustration of the "Changlu Salt Law Chronicle" of the Yongzheng Period, it can be seen that east of Jinhua Bridge (ancient known as the North Pontoon Bridge), there were two arches built by Zhu Di, named "Dragon Fly" and "DuJi". Both of these words are used by the emperor and imply "nine days of dragon flying" and "tianzi crossing the river". The "Old Record of tianjin rebuilding Yongquan Temple" also records that "since childhood, Zhigu crossed the south, and its name is Tianjin".
In addition, in 1960, a Ming Dynasty stone stele was found near Beidaguan, on which was engraved the Ming Dynasty scholar Li Dongyang's "Monument to the Reconstruction of the Three Officials Temple", which was noted with the words "Tianjin, symbolizing the place where the Tianzi's carriage and horse crossed", which also shows that Zhu Di crossed the river nearby.
Nowadays, in the land where Zhu Di crossed the south, a riverside strip park was built, which recorded the historical story of the Yan King Zhu Di's southward Jing Dynasty, and interested readers may wish to go to see it.
▲ Sixteenth-century Tianjin under the pen of European painters
In the Ming Dynasty, the military establishment from large to small was town, road, guard, institute, and battalion, just like today's divisions, regiments, battalions, companies, and platoons. "Wei" is a defensive unit set up on an important geographical location. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the integration of soldiers and farmers was adopted, and Zhu Di sent his sons and soldiers from Fengyang in Anhui to Tianjin, and the families of soldiers who migrated from Fengyang to reclaim the surrounding tuntian. As a result, this group of Anhui Fengyang people became the first residents of Tianjin City, and Anhui Fengyang dialect also became the official dialect of Tianjin Wei. Later, it gradually evolved into the local dialect of Tianjin, Tianjin dialect.
During the Ming Dynasty, Tianjin Wei, although only a military establishment, was also responsible for handling local affairs for the imperial court, supervising the transfer of grain, and the monopoly of salt industry. During the Xuande years, he set up a "household department" in Tianjin to manage the transportation and warehouse affairs. At that time, there were many warehouses in Tianjin, such as 30 rooms in Tianjin Wei Dayun Warehouse, 45 rooms in Tianjin Zuowei Daying Warehouse Jiuxiao, and 35 rooms in Tianjin Right Wei Guangbei Warehouse Seven Warehouses. In addition, 1,400 Lutun warehouses were also established, and during the Yongle period, there were "million warehouses built in Yin'erwan, Zhigu" (its location should be in the area of present-day Beicang), which shows that the storage and transshipment capacity of Grain in Tianjin was already very important at that time.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court abolished the Ming Dynasty's weishu system. According to the "Chronicle of Tianjin County", in the ninth year of Yongzheng, the 143 tuns under the jurisdiction of Tianjin Weishou were incorporated into the vicinity, and at the same time, 267 villages in Wuqing, Jinghai, Cangzhou and other places were assigned to Tianjin, and the prefecture was promoted to a prefecture, with six counties under its jurisdiction. At this point, Tianjin has changed from an acropolis to a provincial-level unit.
▲The whole map of Tianjin City Box Baojia drawn by Qing Guangxu in the 25th year
From the Ming Dynasty onwards, the role of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal became increasingly prominent, and commerce became increasingly prosperous on the north side of the old city of Tianjin. At this time, the yiyi street and bamboo pole lane have been small in scale. In the Qing Dynasty, Tianjin gradually became a distribution center for Changlu salt, and the salt administration of the Qing court moved to Tianjin, which further stimulated the development of Tianjin's city and water transport. In the first year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Qing government moved Hexi Wuguan to Tianjin and established Tianjin Banknote Pass. This Tianjin banknote pass is the most bullish "North Pass" of that year.
If you want to talk about Beidaguan, you must first start with the "Luhe Supervisory Map" treasured in the National Museum.
▲ The full text of "Luhe Supervision and Transportation Map"
The author of this painting is the painter Jiang Xuan of the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, and the "Luhe Supervisory Map" is 41.5 centimeters high and 680 centimeters long, which is colored on silk. Looking at the whole map, the atmosphere is majestic, the water is flowing in the clouds, and the entire long scroll takes the overseer official ship as the clue, and the spring opening of the salt lump as the core unfolds to the left and right sides. It uses delicate and realistic techniques to depict the scenery on both sides of the strait about ten miles from the pontoon bridge of Cheguan to the Zizhulin Village of Haihe River.
According to the perspective of the picture scroll, the painter should be standing on the drum tower of the old city box or the corner tower in the southeast corner, looking at the north, east and south directions respectively, and the real scene in the picture is within reach. There are 64 official ships, merchant ships, cargo ships, fishing boats, etc., and more than 820 officials, merchants, ship households, women and children, and salt lumps. The characters are different in shape and full of life. Docks, offices, shops, liquor stores, and residential houses on both sides of the strait are dazzling, and like the "Map of the Upper River of the Qingming Dynasty", they belong to the boundary paintings of great historical value. Mr. Zhu Qizhao, a famous Chinese architect, said in the inscription at the end of the volume that "it means that it is especially close to Zhang Zeduan's work of "Qingming On the River Map", which is allowed to be a national treasure." Because the picture is too long, I only excerpted parts.
▲ Beiguan pontoon bridge and banknote pass, part of the "Luhe Supervision and Transportation Map"
This picture is the South Canal North Wharf area, the left is the upper reaches of the canal, and then to the left, the river turns a big bend to the north, that is, the West Bay, and the picture stops in front of a pontoon bridge, which is the "Banknote Pass Pontoon Bridge" outside the north gate of Tianjin City, also known as the "North Pontoon Bridge". On the north bank of the pontoon bridge there was an official court, which was the Banknote Gate (about the location of the Gold Collar Garden today).
Banknote Pass is on the west side of the North Bank Road of the Beiguan Pontoon Bridge, carved beams and painted buildings, tall and majestic, and the people commonly call Beiguan. There is a tall archway in front of the door, and the horses on both sides represent the majesty of the imperial power. There were public cases on the hall, and because it was not time for the boats to pass, the tax collection hall was empty, and the officials handling official affairs were still gossiping under the porch. The pontoon bridge is the "throat" of the Jingshi Avenue, and the pontoon bridge is opened once in the morning and evening, and the merchant ships preparing to cross the pontoon bridge must wait on both sides of the pontoon bridge, so on the shore at the lower end of the scroll, the boats are lined up and masts are like a forest.
According to the "Miscellaneous Records of Jinmen", "Tianjin Banknote Pass, next to the Hebei Pontoon Bridge outside the North Gate, is known as Daguan, and collects taxes on land and water goods. At that time, the merchant ships that entered Beijing from the WeiHe River could only pass through the banknote customs after paying taxes, and the people called it "Beida passed".
▲ The Yanyuan Yamen on the north bank of the canal, part of the "Luhe Supervision and Transportation Map"
The largest and most famous of all the customs, Beidaguan not only collects taxes, but also inspects the illegal cargo of various ships. Originally, in order to encourage the enthusiasm of shipowners to participate in the transportation and reduce the cost of the transportation, the Qing government allowed the official ships of the Caoyun to take the native products of the south to sell along the way. When you return home, you can also take the products from the north back to the south for sale. However, it is stipulated that the proportion of smuggled goods carried by each boat shall not be greater than 20%, and in fact, the owner of the ship with smuggled goods is far more than this standard. Entrained overweight will affect the safety of navigation, so the banknote customs officials should check and measure ship by ship, approve the type and weight of goods and verify taxes. Therefore, many ship owners simply unloaded the entrained special miscellaneous goods here and went ashore to trade directly to avoid fines and confiscations, thus achieving the prosperity of "Xiaoyang Cargo Street", "Needle Market Street" and "Yiyi Street", and also spawned the commercial prosperity of the Beidaguan area.
There is a poem in the Miscellaneous Records of Jinmen that reads:
Jinguan is located in the river trunk, and it is difficult to collect taxes when it reaches the river ice.
I only hope that the new autumn wind is good, and the foreign ships are wide to Prozac.
It turned out that when the canals froze in winter, there were no boats, and the tax collectors could only look at the ice and look forward to the coming year. The so-called foreign ships in the poem refer to merchant ships from Fujian and Guangdong, which are called foreign ships because they go north through the open sea and travel far into the ocean. Every year, they brought sugar, rice, tea, fruits, bamboo and various miscellaneous goods imported through Hong Kong from the south, and then returned with goods such as mountain goods, medicinal herbs, beans, cotton, and cloth from the north.
▲ The Jade Emperor Pavilion on the three forks and the south bank, part of the Luhe Supervision map
The area around Beidaguan has become an important commercial port, with countless merchant shops, prosperous business, busy traffic, and lively. The local products from the north and south were traded here and transported to all parts of North China, and the merchants of the four parties lived along the houjiahou, Yiyi Street, North Gate, Needle Market Street, and Zhugan Lane on both sides of the South Canal, and the permanent population increased significantly, and the commercial trade became increasingly prosperous. During the Qing Dynasty, Jia and Dao, the area outside the North Gate became the birthplace of Tianjin's commerce and the economic and trade distribution center of the north.
In 1860, Tianjin was opened as a treaty port, and a large number of foreign goods poured into Tianjin. These foreign goods are gathered in the foreign goods street outside the North Gate, Houjiahou Street, Yiyi Street, North Gate, Needle Market Street, Zhugan Lane and other places, and are sold to the mainland and the surrounding areas of Tianjin. After 1880, in the area outside the North Gate, there were Ruixing Yimian Yarn Village, Yuanlong Silk Satin Village, RuiXing Xiang, Qian Xiang Yi, HuaZhu and other large businesses. The area around Jiayi Street, Beimenwai and Guodian Street has formed a commercial center in Tianjin, and is also one of the most historically qualified typical representatives of China's commercial old streets, and well-known brands such as Zhengxingde and Longshun Rong were born here and continue to use today.
As a result, tianjin's prosperity as a commercial city was born, and these originated in The Hongqiao District, the oldest urban area in Tianjin.
Hongqiao District is not only the source of Tianjin City, but also the birthplace of Tianjin as a prosperous commercial city, which has long been irrefutable. But what everyone may not know is that Hongqiao District is also the cradle of Tianjin's national industry.
Li Hongzhang, the promoter of the Western affairs movement, photographed in 1896
Since the Yuan Dynasty, with the prosperity of water transport and shipping, the handicraft industry in China has come into being. After the Ming and Qing dynasties gradually formed a certain scale, there have been hundreds of handicraft workshops along the river. In 1860, Tianjin opened its port, and the Qing court promoted the "Foreign Affairs Movement" to stimulate the emergence and development of modern national industries. From 1860 to 1914, a gathering place for the cast iron industry and machine manufacturing industry centered on Sanjo Stone Street and dominated by national capital was gradually formed.
By 1914, there were 17 iron workshops in Sanjoshi, and a division of labor between the machine and the cast iron industry appeared. Moreover, at that time, Tianjin Port became the largest port for cotton exports in the north, and the demand for cotton balers and looms also increased sharply, which further stimulated the development of the foundry industry and machinery manufacturing industry of Sanjoshi. By 1937, there were 300 factories and handicraft workshops in the Sanjoshi area, and the branches and semicolons spread throughout more than a dozen provinces and cities across the country, and the products were not only sold to North China, but also exported to the Nanyang Islands.
The Sanjoshi area, known as "Iron Factory Street", has become the birthplace of the veritable Tianjin machinery casting industry and is known as the "cradle of national industry in North China". In 1956, when the public-private partnership was launched, sanjoshi had more than fifty machine factories, and after the public-private partnership, it laid a solid foundation for the development of Tianjin machinery manufacturing industry.
▲ Female workers at British American Tobacco in Tianjin are packing
In addition to industry and commerce, Hongqiao was also the only "key school district" in Tianjin at that time.
In 1898, Yan Xiu, who resigned from his official post and returned to his hometown, in order to display the concept of education to save the country, hired Zhang Boling, who graduated from the Beiyang Marine Teacher School, to set up a school hall in Yan's family home, opening the floodgates of modern Education in China, and from this small primary school hall located in the hongqiao district to the world-famous Nankai University.
▲ In 1916, the classroom of Nankai School
In addition to the Nankai School, the Beiyang University Hall, which was restored by Yuan Shikai in 1902, was also located at the original site of the Xigu Arsenal on the south bank of the North Canal (now on the south side of the Beiyun River and the Taohua Causeway), which is the later Beiyang University and today's Tianjin University. Today, tianda's school song "the flower causeway is misty, the north is gushing, and the majestic school is high in the north", which refers to the Big Red Bridge of that year.
The above historical facts prove that the two famous universities in Tianjin are from Hongqiao, which is the birthplace of higher education in Tianjin.
▲Beiyang University is located on the site of the former Xigu Arsenal
In addition to universities, Tianjin Government Middle School and Hebei Dasi Primary School are the earliest official schools in Tianjin. At that turning point in the century when the national fortunes were ups and downs and the rejuvenation of the nation, Hongqiao District became the most developed area for education in Tianjin. From the number of school halls and the early establishment of the school, it can be called the first of the Jinmen. At that time, there were sixteen government primary schools in Tianjin, of which Hongqiao District accounted for seven or eight. Those pioneers who founded modern education left behind not only one school after another, but more importantly, the mind of worrying about the country and the people, the deep affection that benefited Sangzi, the courage to revolutionize the past and the unswerving exploration.
Education and culture are always inseparable. Hongqiao's education was the top of Tianjin's year, and culture was the pinnacle. Because if you want to talk about tianjin's culture, you must not go around Shuixizhuang, which is located on the south bank of the canal in Hongqiao District.
Everyone knows that Mr. Jin Yong is a master of martial arts literature, and his works such as "Flying Snow Shoots White Deer in the Sky, Laughing Book Divine Hero Leaning on Bi Duck" are well known to everyone. Mr. Jin Yong, whose real name is Cha Liangyong, is a descendant of the Cha family of the Haining Wang clan. And one of the Haining Cha family settled in Tianjin in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and it also became a famous party. Therefore, the Cha family has the saying of "Southern Cha Bei Cha", and in modern times, Nan Cha has found the martial arts master Jin Yong (Zha Liangyong), while the North Cha has produced the standard-bearer of modernist poetry, Mu Dan (Zha Liangzheng), and these two people are still cousins in terms of generations.
In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, Zha Riqian of the Haining Cha family wandered to Tianjin, from scratch to walking the rivers and lakes, because of the salt industry and became a huge rich man in Tianjin. Cha Riqian's eldest son, Cha Weiren, was imprisoned for a scientific expedition and refused to return home after being released, so he built "several slab houses on the banks of the South Canal, where daily reading and meditation were quiet." These slab houses are the Flower Shadow Nunnery of Suiseiso, and since then, the large-scale construction of Suiseiso has begun.
▲ From the "Autumn Village Night Rain Reading Chart" to see the whole picture of Shuixi Village
In addition to doing business, the Father and Son of the Cha family invested a lot of financial resources to focus on the operation of Shuixizhuang, introducing Jiangnan culture, so that Shuixizhuang has both the atmosphere of the northern country and the Qingqi of Jiangnan. Pavilions and pavilions, in order to achieve perfection, pile mountains and ponds, exquisite and exquisite. Therefore, Yuan Ming, a great talent of the Qing Dynasty, called the Jinyi Shuixizhuang at the northern end of the canal the "three major private gardens of the Qing Dynasty" together with the Yangzhou Linglong Mountain Pavilion at the southern end of the canal and the Xiaoshan Hall in Hangzhou.
Shuixizhuang gathered a large number of intellectual elites from the north and south, from emperors, dignitaries and nobles, to literati and celebrities, as many as hundreds of people before and after, of which the Qianlong Emperor stayed in Shuixizhuang four times and left poems, and also inscribed a plaque of "Mustard Garden", leaving a road name for Tianjin. At that time, a large number of literati such as Zhu Min, Wang Xun, Jiang Shi, and Ji Xiaolan lived here, leaving behind many famous sayings and good sentences that have been recited for a long time.
▲The remains of Shuixizhuang in historical images
The poetry of Shuixizhuang is sung and sung, and the pomp is unprecedented. Literary leader Mei Chengdong (the grandfather of President Mei Yiqi) founded Tianjin's earliest literary group " Plum Blossom Poetry Society " in Shuixizhuang. Fan Bin said in the "Small Order of Jinmen":
Tsumon is good, and Baumeshi has a garden pavilion.
Autumn moon white in front of the water building,
Count the evening green smoke by the sail platform,
Sing and gather good friends.
Cui Xu's "Jinmen Hundred Songs" also praised Shuixi Zhuang:
Mustard Garden high by the Wei River,
The pavilions reflect the green poplars,
It was once a place of poetry and wine,
Pedestrians refer to Shuixizhuang.
The situation of gathering and singing surpasses the poetry club in "Dream of the Red Chamber", and shuixi zhuang created by the Zha family with great wealth has gathered bureaucrats, intellectual elites, and literati inkers in Tianjin, which not only contributed to the prosperity of Shuixizhuang, but also promoted the formation of the "Jinpai" culture.
▲ Shuixizhuang plaque inscribed by President Xu Shichang of the Republic of China
The Cha family of Shuixizhuang is enthusiastic about Tianjin's cultural undertakings. In the sixteenth year of Qianlong, Zha Weiyi donated the mansion of the Drum Tower in the city and let Lu Jian, the envoy of Changlu Salt Transport, found the "Qingjin Academy" here. There is a "hidden library" built in Shuixizhuang, which contains tens of thousands of volumes, and is the largest private library in Tianjin. In addition, the Cha family also founded the "Tongyi Book House" in Shuixizhuang for engraving and printing books, which was one of the best in Tianjin at that time in terms of quantity and quality.
According to the famous red scholar Mr. Zhou Ruchang, the prototype of the "Dream of the Red Chamber" Grand View Garden is Shuixizhuang, Cao Xueqin once took refuge in Shuixizhuang, and did things like Wenmu for the Cha family, and also took a side room that is a daughter of the Cha family, and many plots and courtyard descriptions in "Dream of the Red Chamber" are also related to Shuixizhuang, such as "Dream of the Red Chamber" has lotus champs, and Shuixizhuang also happens to have lotus champs and so on.
▲Group photo of the Shuixizhuang Ruins Protection Committee
Unfortunately, in the middle of the Qianlong period, Zha Weiren and Zha Weiyi died one after another, and the Zha family gradually declined. During the Xianfeng and Tongzhi years, the Mustard Garden Embankment broke twice, and the pavilions in the village fell and deteriorated day by day. By 1900, Shuixizhuang was occupied by the military police, and a generation of famous gardens were destroyed. Today, the only surviving stone lion in Shuixizhuang is a pair of stone lions in front of the gate, which still stands in front of the gate of the Baoding Road Water Supply Company.
In the rise and fall of Shuixizhuang in the past two hundred years, the Zha clan was in the ninth dynasty of Tianjin, and the sons of each generation were mostly erudites, Zha Riqian and Zha Weiren were the leaders of Tianjin's cultural circles at that time, and the descendants of Mu Dan (Zha Liangzheng), who were on a par with Xu Zhimo, were rated by Xie Mian as "the first person in modern Chinese poetry", and their achievements were enough to be written into the history of Chinese literature.
▲ Mu Dan during the Chinese Expeditionary Force
Mu Dan, a graduate of the Southwest United University who joined the Chinese Expeditionary Force at the age of 25, followed General Du Yuming through the Great Retreat of Yunnan and Burma, experienced the Battle of Savage Mountain, which shocked China and foreign countries, and escaped from Savage Mountain with a lot of white bones. Then he wrote the following verse:
Under the shady trees, at the water's edge of the rapids,
The passing of June and July, in the middle of no man's land in the mountains,
Your bodies are still struggling to return,
And the nameless wildflowers are already blooming on the head.
The hunger of the bones, the impact of the torrent,
The night of the bite and the pain of the poisonous insect,
You can't stand to tell people,
Now it is the happy trees that have forgotten everything.
The past is your struggle against death,
You die for the survival of the people who want to live,
The white-hot strife has not stopped,
But you have not heard of it again during the cycle of the forest.
Quietly, on that forgotten hillside,
It was still raining, and there was a drizzle,
No one knows that history has walked here,
Leaving the spirit to breed in the trunk.
——Excerpt from Mudan's "The Charm of the Forest"
Mu Dan later taught in the Department of Foreign Languages at Nankai University, and was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, while a generation of poetry leaders cleaned toilets in the NTU library. On February 26, 1977, mudan, then 59, died of a heart attack. Today, in front of the building of the Department of Foreign Languages of Nankai University, a statue of this great poet stands. He still locked his brows, as if recalling the distant mountain of savages that devoured all life.
▲ Mu Dan's wife Zhou Youliang founded the Biology Department of Nankai University
Before the end of his life, Mudan revealed his inner monologue in the poem "Meditation":
And now suddenly facing the grave,
I looked back a little bit at the past,
Only to see its twists and turns irrigated sorrow and joy,
All disappeared into an ancient desert.
Only then did I realize that all my efforts were nothing more than the completion of ordinary life.
Seeing this, everyone knows the origin of Tianjin and the various contributions of Hongqiao District to industry, commerce, culture and education. But it must still be strange, why is our big red bridge called red bridge? So at the end of the article, I will continue to answer your questions.
The name of the Red Bridge is naturally inseparable from the bridge, and this bridge is a large iron bridge located on the Ziya River, which was built in 1882 during the Guangxu Period and was also the first iron bridge in Tianjin Wei. It was originally an iron bridge that Lord Li Hongzhang planned to build in front of the Gate of the Governor of Dahutong, but because it blocked the boats on the canal, it was fiercely opposed by the officials of the Transportation Bureau, and it was helpless to rebuild the iron bridge that had been built to the Ziya River ferry.
Unfortunately, the Ziya River is slightly wider than the South Canal, and the length of the bridge is slightly shorter. In desperation, the construction personnel built a bridge platform with blue stripe stone at each end of the bridge, which was barely fitted. This iron bridge is shaped like a rainbow, flying on both sides of the river, so it is named the Great Rainbow Bridge, and the people call it "Great Red Bridge" according to the harmonic sound.
▲The Big Red Bridge on the Ziya River
The iron bridge was destroyed by floods in 1924, and later rebuilt on the original site in 1933, the iron bridge in its eighties is still solid as ever, firmly occupying the position of the first bridge on the Haihe River.
This is where the name Red Bridge comes from.
From 1404, when Yongle was ordered to set up guards, Tianjin originated from the present-day Hongqiao District. Whether it is Yiyi Street or Sanjo Stone, whether it is Yan's Family Academy or Shuixi Shengjing, the historical Dahongqiao has made a good start for Tianjin's industrial and commercial cultural and educational undertakings, and has also laid a prominent position for Tianjin on the map of Chinese cities.
Therefore, don't say anything about the upper three districts and the lower three districts, the cultural heritage in the bones of Hongqiao is really worthy of pride.
Incidentally, spoilers: CCCC, a giant central enterprise, is about to launch a brand new residential project development in my towering Dahongqiao District. This project is the first Chinese work of CCCC Real Estate in Tianjin, with a modern architectural façade and a master design garden, with excellent quality. This livable project with a construction area of about 300,000 square meters will reshape the regional urban interface and renovate the cover of the main city habitat, which is worth the expectations of people who love Dahongqiao.