one
In March of that year, when the warblers were flying and the grass was growing, standing on the Yellow Crane Tower, I suddenly remembered Li Bai's poem "Farewell to Meng Haoran in Guangling", and I highly admired the artistic conception of "Fireworks Falling to Yangzhou in March". So I suddenly had a whim, could I hire a boat, bring melodies and wine, and sail to Yangzhou from the rouge-colored waves, rest when I met the port, sing to the moon, half drunk and half awake? My friend also wanted to experience the leisurely life of the Tang people, so he volunteered to look for the passenger ship. If you can't find a sailboat, it's better to find a motorized boat. A few days later, my friend told me in frustration that not a single sailboat or boat could be found on the vast Yangtze River. Furthermore, Yangzhou is not on the Yangtze River. Even if we hire a boat, we can't reach the city outline on the edge of Slender West Lake that fascinated Li Bai. Only then did I realize that the elegance and romance of thousands of years ago have long been forgotten classics.
I once wrote about this kind of confusion in the essay "Fireworks Under Yangzhou in March". Although disappointment has been fermenting in my heart, I still have doubts about why the ancients could enter Yangzhou from the Yangtze River? I remember that Guazhou Ancient Ferry is the interface between the canal and the Yangtze River. Now, have the two and three stars of Guazhou also sunk into the vastness of history?
Another time, about two years ago, I visited Huatuo Village in Yongcheng County, Henan Province. It is only more than 20 kilometers away from Bozhou and is the fiefdom of Xiao He, the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty. An old man in the village told me that the center of the village was once the old canal from Yangzhou to Luoyang. When farmers build houses, they often dig out some residual rudders and anchors from the ground. Of course, there are also some broken masts and rotten ship planks. The old man showed me a rusty iron anchor. I touched it as if I were touching a piece of history that had come to an abrupt end. Walking out of the village, whether looking east to Yangzhou or west to Luoyang, I couldn't see the boat rafts floating on the waves. The endless green gauze tent no longer allows a mast lantern or a fishing fire to linger here for a moment.
Over the past few years, due to various opportunities, I either walked on the dried up riverbed of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, or watched the waves in the sunset on the section of the river where it was still flowing. Siltation and dredging, excavation and abandonment, glory and decline, protection and development, it seems that it will always have endless sadness and endless pictures. Standing on the Gongchen Bridge in Hangzhou, I hope to see the black-paneled boat coming from the depths of the mist; on the Qingming Bridge in Wuxi City, covered with misty spring rain, I wonder why the running water under my feet is no longer Nor can we wander to the land of Youyan, where we can listen to the Beijing-style drums and wash away the rouge of the Northern Kingdom next to the Deng Deng Buddha Relic Pagoda in Tongzhou?
To rise in history, one must remain silent in history. The midnight Zen bell of Hanshan Temple is still there, but the passenger ships are no longer there; Yangzhou still has no shortage of fireworks in March, but the canvas sails that greet travelers have long disappeared in the distant mountains and rivers ahead.
Could it be that the man-made artery flowing with prosperity and splendor can only be found in thread-bound books that have been attacked by insects?
two
If you are looking for the greatest symbol of ancient Chinese civilization on the map of history, the Great Wall and the Canal should be the first ones. One of them stands proudly, the other flows quietly; one traverses east and west, one pulls north and south; one is accompanied by iron horses and jingang, and the other is immersed in the sound of oars and the shadow of lights. A static masculine, a dynamic feminine. Compared to humans, they should be a couple. One is cold and the other is brilliant; one is conquering and the other is nurturing. They were born together and stayed together for thousands of years. From their combination, powerful dynasties were born one after another.
However, today, in the pedigree of human civilization, the Great Wall is much more famous than the canal. The battlements and brick forts on the Great Wall still fascinate the world; while the fleets and waves in the canals seem to have withdrawn from people's sight.
As an expression of life for Chinese people, canals predate the Great Wall. In the fifth century BC, when human piety was still in the age of myth, a king of a vassal state decided to dig a canal in the north of the territory he ruled to transport grain and fodder for the war. The king's name is Fucha, and the canal is called Hangou. Six years ago, I went to Yangzhou and made a special trip to visit Hangou. What a thin ditch. In Yangzhou, where the water veins are strong, it seems too shabby. The way it is now, not to mention transporting grain and grass, even lotus picking boats cannot pass through. But I know that this is not the original appearance of history. The man-made river that has been flowing since 486 BC should be an artery rather than a capillary. After more than two thousand years of historical changes, we have long been accustomed to the sense of strangeness after the vicissitudes of life. The truncated or blocked glory can only allow us to get close to the fragments of the ancients' ideals.
The distinctive feature of a dead river is the disappearance of the sound of oars and the shadow of sails. This is a bit like Populus euphratica in the desert. It retains its growth posture, but it can no longer nourish the earth with green. Fortunately, the canal is not completely dead and has not turned into a mere relic for people to admire.
Although Hangou has declined, the history of the canal begins with it. Since Fucha, generations of emperors have been engaged in a relay race to dig canals. By 1293, in the hands of a Mongol emperor who ruled China, the canal from Hangzhou to Beijing was completed. The canal was built around 1800 years ago, and its total length is about 1800 kilometers. The length of time is the length of the canal. This is not a coincidence, this is a miracle that China has presented to mankind.
Strangely enough, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was associated with dozens of emperors. But those who had the greatest influence among the people were none other than King Wu Fu Chai and Emperor Yang Guang of Sui Dynasty. The two people made the greatest contribution to the canal, but both of them were fools. Yang Guang took a brocade boat from Luoyang to Yangzhou via the canal, where he died suddenly. When I went to Yangzhou, I went to Leitang to see his tomb and made four remarks:
The poplar flowers have withered and the plum blossoms are fragrant. Who can say whether it is right or wrong underground?
All the iron horses and golden sails have passed by, and I am speechless at night and go down to the thunder pond.
Qin Shihuang was tyrannical, but without him there would be no Great Wall. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was dissolute, but he allowed the canal from the south to flow to the north. Limiting ourselves to morality, we cannot objectively evaluate the merits and demerits of history. The Canal is a big book. When we read it in any dynasty and in any environment, we will have different feelings and emotions.
three
Someone asked me, can I say the words "canal civilization"? Before answering this question, I would like to quote a passage from Chapter 27 of Volume 3 of my long historical novel "Zhang Juzheng" written by Ming Shenzong Zhu Yijun to the young eunuch:
In the Huaiyang area, Yangzhou, Yizhen, Taixing, Tongzhou, Rugao and Haimen have high terrain and are not invaded by lake water. The five counties of Taizhou, Gaoyou, Xinghua, Baoying, and Yancheng are like the bottom of a cauldron. The lake often overflows. Fortunately, there is a dike as a barrier. This embankment was first built by Zhang Lun, the transshipment envoy during the Tianxi period of the Song Dynasty. Because Chen Deng's old site was built in the Han Dynasty, a dike was built in the middle to boundary the water. The embankments converge to the west to form a lake to receive the sky. Fengyang water veins pass through Guazhou and Yizhen to connect with the river, forming a north-south thoroughfare. The border east of the dike is called fields, and because the fields are ditches, the five states and counties are collectively called fertile soil. It starts from Shaobo in the south and reaches Baoying in the north, covering a distance of 340 miles. There was no sluice originally. In the sixth year of Longqing's reign, the embankment broke, so a sluice was built on the embankment. You remember that the edict to build the gate was issued by me personally after I ascended the throne. In the next two years, thirty-six gates were built, costing tens of thousands of dollars...
When this passage was said, Ming Shenzong was sixteen years old. He was not giving a piece of geographical knowledge. Rather, he is describing his own strategy for governing the country. In the Ming Dynasty, there was a theory of the three major political affairs in Jiangnan. These three major political affairs are water administration, river administration and salt administration. The "cao dike" mentioned by Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty refers to the embankment of the canal. In the Ming Dynasty, the canal was also called Caohe. Among the three major political affairs in the south of the Yangtze River, river administration and water administration are both related to the canal. Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne at the age of ten. In the next two years, Zhang Juzheng, the chief minister, presided over the construction of thirty-six gates in the canals in the Huaiyang area. In the early days of Wanli, when the finances were on the verge of collapse, this could not but be said to be a forced choice.
In the Ming Dynasty, almost half of the ministers of the Ministry of Industry were water conservancy experts. The funds for river management listed in the imperial fiscal budget are limited to the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Huaihe River and canals. This shows the importance of the canal to a huge empire.
During the 1800-year-long excavation process to connect Beijing and Hangzhou, the canal has always been a national project. During the Ming Dynasty, especially after Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing, the canal reached its heyday. In the twelfth year of Yongle, the grain transported to Beijing from the southeast, now the Yangtze River Delta, via canals rose from about 400,000 shi in the past to 2.6 million shi. From then on, it became the main transportation line connecting the north and south of the Ming Empire. The quantity and type of transported supplies continued to increase, and a canal supported the capital of the empire and the vast northern kingdom.
Starting from the Sui Dynasty, this transportation artery ran through the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, connected the five major water systems of the Haihe River, the Yellow River, the Huaihe River, the Yangtze River, and the Qiantang River, and connected dozens of lakes. Jining, Huai'an, Yangzhou and other more than a dozen prosperous cities also came into being because of it. During the long Middle Ages, especially the Ming Dynasty, China had a special army called the Cao Army. The number of this army was as high as 300,000 along the entire canal. An army, or a branch of arms, was born because of a river. This is also the unique cultural scenery of the canal.
The word civilization, as far as I understand it, refers to a certain way of survival of human beings with distinctive characteristics. It covers all aspects of culture, economy, system, and customs. If we extrapolate from this, the theory of canal civilization can be established. Because this greatest man-made river on earth has played a significant role in China’s economic history, water conservancy history, transportation history, urban history, science and technology history, military history, financial history, etc. over a period of more than a thousand years. Profound impact and huge changes.
In contrast, the other two canals on the planet, namely the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and Asia and Africa; and the Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and the Pacific, have played a role in reorganizing the world due to their important strategic position. But its significance is mainly reflected in two aspects: economic and military. And because their age and length are much smaller than the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in ancient China. The Suez Canal is only 168 kilometers long and was officially opened to navigation in 1896; the Panama Canal is 82 kilometers long and was opened to navigation in 1914. The development and growth of a civilization requires a long time and a vast territory as prerequisites. From these two points, neither the Suez Canal nor the Panama Canal can be compared with the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
It is undeniable that the Canal Civilization is an integral part of Chinese civilization and a brilliant chapter in a great civilization system. In this chapter, we have felt the changes of the times, the evolution of customs and the joy of life.
Four
When I was a child, I read Du Mu's "Jiangnan Spring Quatrains":
Thousands of miles away, the orioles are singing, the green is reflected in red, and the wine flags are blowing in the water, villages and mountains.
There are four hundred and eighty temples in the Southern Dynasty, and there are many towers in the mist.
I have always expressed a great yearning for the Jiangnan scenery expressed in this poem. Du Mu has been in Yangzhou for ten years, and the beautiful scenery surrounded by mountains and rivers in his eyes is a vivid portrayal of the canal basin. Later, I read "Jinling Crossing" by Zhang Hu:
Jinling Jindu is a small mountain tower, and a person who travels all night can worry about it.
In the setting moon of the night river when the tide is falling, two stars and three stars are shining in Guazhou.
Guazhou Ancient Ferry was once the busiest and most prosperous ferry on the canal. In Zhang Hu's writings, Guazhou is full of tranquil poetry and the sorrow of boat passengers.
Many poets in ancient times wrote popular poems about the canal. Mr. Dongli in the early Ming Dynasty was the only person who left us poems about canal travel. Mr. Dongli's name is Yang Shiqi. He is a bachelor and cabinet minister who is deeply relied upon by Emperor Yongle. In the eighteenth year of Yongle's reign, Zhu Di decided to move the capital to Beijing, and Yang Shiqi and his staff embarked on the road to moving the capital. Along the way, he took an official ship, enjoyed the scenery on both sides of the canal, and wrote six poems. In the poem "Early to Yizhen", he wrote:
The autumn air on the white sand beach is clear, and the early tide rises in Yizhenguoli.
Looking at Jintai Road from the north of Wuyun, it is the first step toward the sky.
In the last song "Looking at Beijing from the Garden", Yang Shiqi expressed his mood like this:
The golden palace tower looks out at the capital gate, anticipating the coming of the Ming Dynasty to pay homage to the Holy King.
The Long Live Mountain is soaring with royal energy, and the five clouds in the sky are glowing with dragon characters.
Moving the capital was a major event that affected the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty. Judging from the historical results, Zhu Di's move was a wise move. But leaving the flower-filled south of the Yangtze River and settling in the windy and snowy North was not a happy thing for the officials who were attached to the dark willows, bright flowers, bright clothes and fine food. Therefore, the issue of moving the capital once caused fierce controversy in the Yongle court, and it can even be said to be a political crisis. As the most prominent civil servant in the court, Yang Shiqi supported Emperor Yongle's proposal to move the capital. Therefore, in his canal poems, we cannot read sadness, but we can see the joy of moving to a paradise.
It should be said that Yang Shiqi's mood was also Yunhe's mood. The capital of a country must be the political, economic and cultural center of the country. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was opened to transport abundant materials from the southeast to Beijing. After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he abandoned Beijing and built Nanjing as the capital. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal declined rapidly. Imagine that if Zhu Di had not moved the capital to Beijing, I am afraid that before the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the canal would have been blocked and abandoned due to no one managing it. Beijing has been the capital twice before, but because they were both governed by ethnic minorities in the north, their living habits and material needs did not rely too much on the south. But after Zhu Di moved the capital, Beijing had its first Han ethnic group. As rulers of the empire, they brought the living habits and customs of Jiangnan to Beijing. In order to meet the needs of the Han people, a large amount of Jiangnan products must be transported to Beijing. Therefore, the canals of the Ming Dynasty were most effective, and their business was far greater than that of the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Huaihe River. In order to enhance navigation and transportation capabilities, the Ming court invested a lot of material and manpower. It can be said that no other dynasty regarded the canal as an irreplaceable river of life like the Ming Dynasty.
five
The most glorious era of the canal was in the Ming Dynasty, and it took nearly a century for its rapid decline. Due to the birth of roads, railways and aviation, water transportation, especially inland waterway shipping, has been declining. What was once the pride of agricultural civilization suddenly became the outcast of industrial civilization. The canal ceased to be the nation's artery. This leads to the degradation of the function of the canal and is also an important reason why it fades away from our lives.
Back then, it took more than a month to take a boat along the canal from Hangzhou to Beijing. Today, the railways and highways connecting the two cities only take about ten hours by car. If you take a plane, it is shortened to less than two hours. The development of science and technology has led to the creation of transportation tools, and it has also caused great changes in people's minds. In ancient times, it would be such a pleasant pleasure to travel on the water for a month, keep company with sailing oars, make love with gulls and herons, enjoy the scenery on both sides of the bank and nourish the heart with the waves on the river. But today, everyone seems to be dealing with many things, and they can no longer enjoy the leisurely life. Changes in lifestyle have made the poetry of the canal disappear from our hearts.
In recent years, some people of insight have been vigorously calling for the rescue of the canal and seeking to declare the canal as a world cultural heritage. Hearing this increasingly strong voice makes me both happy and worried. Fortunately, my close friends in the canal are still there, and their actions are by no means out of self-preservation, but to cherish and affirm a way of life that has passed away. The worry is that a living canal has become a legacy. Everyone knows that everything that becomes a heritage is a relic of culture. They no longer belong to life, but to history; they no longer belong to enjoyment, but to condolences.
Anytime the word heritage is mentioned, for some reason, I feel inexplicably nostalgic. The loss of their spiritual hometown makes modern people increasingly homesick. This nostalgia is not nostalgia, but introspection. I really want to go back six hundred years ago and hire a passenger ship to sail from Hangzhou to Beijing like Mr. Dongli did. But I know that this can only be wishful thinking.
