The emperor foresaw the eastward migration of Chinese cities from the Yellow River valley to the Jianghuai River basin, and also foresaw his own fate. He is Emperor Yang of Sui, a genius and willful figure.
In the last days of his life, he often felt sorry for himself in Jiangdu City, sighing, "Good head and neck, who will cut off my head?" "Emperor Yang of Sui's willfulness and prophet eventually led to the chaos in the world, but what he left to future generations was a famous city that was about to flourish for a thousand years - Yangzhou.
The late Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin once wrote the poem "Sui Palace" after visiting the ancient palace of the Sui Dynasty in Yangzhou, expressing his deep feelings for Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty.
The rise of Yangzhou City marks a turning point in the history of China's urban development. Prior to this, the center of China's economic development had long fluctuated between Chang'an and Luoyang in the Yellow River Valley.
However, with the development of the Jianghuai region during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the economy here grew significantly. Before the Anshi Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty, China's economic center was still the Yellow River Valley.
However, from the Yellow River basin to the Huai River basin and then to the Yangtze River basin, the center of gravity of China's economic belt is gradually shifting eastward. In 581 AD, after the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, the capital was still located in Chang'an in the west.
At this time, the political center was still in the west, but the economic center had begun to move eastward. In order to transport the wealth of the Jianghuai region to the Guanzhong region, from 605 to 610 A.D., Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty spent six years, requisitioned millions of laborers, and finally dug out a road with Luoyang as the center, connecting Chang'an, Luoyang, Yangzhou and Jiangnan from east to west, running through Hangzhou and Zhuojun (Beijing) from north to south, with a total length of more than 4,000 li, connecting the Haihe, Yellow River, Huai River, Yangtze River and Qiantang River, the predecessor of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
Yangzhou, a city with a long history, is located at the confluence of the Yellow River Basin and the Jianghuai River Basin, and is the center point of the cross of the Sui-Tang Grand Canal. Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty tried to unify China through megaprojects and campaigns such as the construction of the Grand Canal and the Three Expeditions to Goryeo, but the result was the fall of the Sui Dynasty.
However, the opening of the Grand Canal became the lifeblood of the Chinese Empire, connecting the bloodlines of the east, west, north and south. As a result, Yangzhou rose and became a citywide capital.
According to the records of Bao Zhao, a person from the Liu and Song dynasties of the Southern Dynasty, Yangzhou was already a prosperous city at that time, and there was a saying that "the waist was wrapped around 100,000 yuan, and the crane rode down to Yangzhou". The excavation of the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty made Yangzhou the center of the intersection of China's east, west, north and south, and had the three geographical advantages of "Xiangjiang, River Control, and Sea Distance".
"Xiangjiang" refers to the proximity to the Yangtze River, "Konghe" refers to the intersection of the east, west, north and south of the Grand Canal, and "distance from the sea" refers to Yangzhou in the Sui and Tang dynasties, which was a coastal city and one of the important starting ports of the Maritime Silk Road.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty once wrote a poem: "By asking where Yangzhou is? Huainan River, Beihai West Head. This not only shows the important geographical location of Yangzhou, but also expresses the mood of Emperor Yang of Sui who is full of expectations for it.
Overall, Yangzhou was an important city in Chinese history, and its geographical location and historical status made it the lifeline and crossroads of the Chinese Empire, and the opening of the Grand Canal strengthened its influence.
Yangzhou, a city bordering the Yangtze River, sitting on the canal, and navigating the sea. Quan Deyu praised Yangzhou as a transportation center city with "eight directions called radiation, five up to Pingping" in "Guangling Poems", and Li Bai praised its prosperity with "Ten Thousand Boats Come Here and Sail Through Yangzhou".
Du Mu stayed here for three years, calling it "five thousand miles of the Yangtze River, with millions of people coming and going". During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Yangzhou, as the center of the Grand Canal, became the central axis of various freight transportation such as official ships, private merchant ships and passenger ships.
At the same time, due to the prosperity of the sea, Yangzhou has also become the four major commercial ports in the East with Guangzhou, Quanzhou and Jiaozhou.
During the Tang Dynasty, there were thousands of Arab merchants in the city for a long time, and there were countless merchants from Persia, Dashi, Brahmin, Silla, Japan, Goryeo and other countries.
This also made Yangzhou at that time known as "between the Jianghuai River, Guangling (Yangzhou) town, rich in the world". At that time, "the heavenly scribes, half of the set of Weiyang", half of the country's intellectuals have been to Yangzhou, so that "the waist is wrapped around 100,000 yuan, riding a crane to Yangzhou" has become a beautiful yearning for people from all walks of life from the Southern Dynasty to the Sui and Tang dynasties.
Zhang Ruoxu, a local poet in Yangzhou in the early Tang Dynasty, finally wrote "Spring River Flower Moonlight Night", which was called "a solitary story covering the whole Tang Dynasty" by later generations. This poem is plain and peaceful, calm and introverted, showing the charm of beauty, life and eternity from a grand perspective of life and the universe.
However, in the Tang Dynasty, "Spring River Flower Moon Night" was not taken seriously, and it was not until the revival movement flourished during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty that this poem began to be included in various Tang poetry anthologies, and later, the Ming and Qing dynasties paid more and more attention to this poem.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, scholar Wang Minyun called it "a lonely story, but for everyone", and scholars Wen Yiduo commented that "this is a poem within a poem, the peak of the peak".
Yangzhou Night View": Yangzhou, the most prosperous magic capital in history, is located at the center of the cross of the Grand Canal, witnessing the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty. After the Anshi Rebellion, Yangzhou became the first economic city of the Tang Empire due to the smooth passage of the Grand Canal, and was known as the representative of "Yang Yi Yi Yi II".
Vernacular translation: "The Moonlit Night of the Spring River" depicts the beautiful scenery of Yangzhou. Four years before his death, in the 14th year of the Tang Dynasty (726), the poet Zhang Ruoxu, the 26-year-old Li Bai (701-762), who had left Sichuan on a journey to the east, passed through Jinling (Nanjing) after a trip to Jiangxi to write "Wanglu Mountain Waterfall", where he met the 37-year-old poet Meng Haoran (689-740).
Li Bai has been conceited all his life, and even ignores his little fan brother Du Fu, but he has great respect for Meng Haoran. They went to Yangzhou together, and Li Bai wrote "The Pavilion at Night": the boat went down to Guangling, and the moon was bright to conquer the pavilion.
The mountain flowers are like embroidered cheeks, and the river fire is like a firefly. Guangling in the poem is the old name of Yangzhou. According to historical records, Li Bai and Li Gongzi, who were born in a huge wealthy family, stayed in Yangzhou for half a year this time, "scattering 300,000 gold, and there are down-and-out sons, all of whom are helped."
The bold Li Gongzi spent money roaming around, but Meng Haoran, who had never met Huai Cai, had no intention of playing, and then went to Chang'an along the waterway from Yangzhou to participate in the imperial examination. Until nine years later, in the twenty-third year of Kaiyuan (735), Meng Haoran, who had fallen many times, met Li Bai in Jiangxia (now Wuhan), this year, Meng Haoran was 47 years old and Li Bai was 35 years old.
In the Yellow Crane Tower, Meng Haoran took a boat east to Yangzhou again, and his old friend Li Gongzi wrote a poem for him to see him off: the old man left the Yellow Crane Tower in the west, and the fireworks went down to Yangzhou in March. The lonely sail is far away and the blue sky is exhausted, but the Yangtze River skyline is seen.
But the rolling Yangtze River, the deep friendship of Li Gongzi's send-off can hardly hide the sadness of Meng Haoran's hopeless career. In Yangzhou's famous Yangzijin Ferry, Meng Haoran wrote "Yangzijin Wangjingkou": Beigu is near Jingkou, and Yishan is near the seashore.
The river wind and white waves rose, and the ferryman was killed. In the history of Tang poetry, Yangzijin and Guazhoudu are two important geographical terms. As the two most important ferries outside Yangzhou to travel from south to north and east to sea, Yangzijin and Guazhoudu frequently appear in Tang poetry and Tang Dynasty historical materials.
If we cannot understand the historical geographical location of Yangzhou in the Sui and Tang dynasties, it is difficult to understand the significance of Yangzijin and Guazhoudu to Tang people and Tang poetry. Because this is the Sui and Tang dynasties, the center of China's transportation, here, is not only the vast place of history, not only the huge ships and people come and go, but also the poets travel to Weiyang, south and north love and hatred.
1.100,000 yuan, ride a crane to Yangzhou. In the heyday of Yangzhou City, in the Tang Dynasty in 833, Du Mu went to Yangzhou at the age of 31 to serve as the shogunate secretary of the Huainan Jiedu envoy Niu Monk and Ru, and spent the best three years.
This city made the poet Du Mu nostalgic. In "Judge Han Sui of Yangzhou", he left the impression of Yangzhou as a merry city: the green mountains are hidden in the water, and the grass in the south of the Yangtze River has not withered in autumn.
On the moonlit night of the twenty-four bridges, where does the jade teach **? 2.In front of the affectionate and loving prostitute of the Qinglou, Du Mu wrote a poem: "Hire more than thirteen, cardamom tips in early February."
The spring breeze is ten miles of Yangzhou Road, and it is better to roll up the bead curtain. However, three years later, Du Mu was recruited by the imperial court to supervise the imperial history, and before going to Chang'an, the prefect Niu Monk and the child held a banquet for him.
At the farewell banquet, the cow monk Yin Yin advised Du Mu to quit sex and take care of his body, so the talented Du Mu pretended to be stupid and said that he had never set foot in the fireworks willow hall. Niu monks and children laughed, and people carried out a large box of documents, which recorded that in the three years that Du Mu was in Yangzhou, he ate and drank there overnight, and when and where he encountered any disputes, and how the plainclothes bodyguards sent by Niu monks and children helped him secretly settle the matter.
Du Mu was ashamed. 3.Under the witness of many talented people, Yangzhou has gradually entered the peak of prosperity. As the commercial center of the Tang Empire, it was a place where talented literati and wealthy businessmen gathered after the Anshi Rebellion.
The poet Bai Juyi recorded in "The Salt Merchant Woman" a case of a Yangzhou woman who married a "big businessman", because her husband became extremely rich because of her husband's salt industry in Yangzhou, and she also lived a prosperous and wealthy life.
4.The late Tang Dynasty poet Xu Ning was haunted by his dreams. In "Remembering Yangzhou", he fondly recalled the woman he loved and the city that fascinated him: "Xiao Niang's face is thin and difficult to cry, and the tip of the peach leaf eyebrows is easy to feel sad.
The world is divided into three bright moonlit nights, and the two scoundrels are Yangzhou. The poet Zhang Hu (c. 785-849) also remembered Yangzhou. Write "Three thousand miles of the homeland, twenty years of deep palace."
A sound of He Manzi, tears fell in front of the king", this talented man, has a bumpy career in his life. At the beginning, Linghu Chu, the envoy of the Tianping Army, admired Zhang Hu's talent very much, so he personally drafted a chapter to recommend Zhang Hu, and dedicated Zhang Hu's 300 poems to the imperial court.
Seeing Ling Huchu's recommendation, Tang Xianzong summoned Yuan Zhen, a bachelor of Hanlin who was also a famous poet, to ask him how Zhang Hu's poems were written, but he didn't expect Yuan Zhen, who was jealous of Zhang Hu's talent, to deliberately slander and say: "Zhang Hu's poems are just small skills of carving insects, and the eldest husband will not write like him."
If you reward him too much, I am afraid that it will affect your Majesty's customs and education. Since the great poet Yuan Zhi commented so, Tang Xianzong's impression of Zhang Hu was naturally average.
Yangzhou, once known as the "City of Dreams" of the Tang Dynasty, endured five years of warlord warfare before eventually decaying in sieges and famine. Wei Zhuang, a poet in the late Tang Dynasty, walked through this once prosperous city and wrote "Passing Yangzhou": "Back then, people didn't know soldiers, and they sang at night in Qinglou everywhere.
The spring in the flower hair cave is eternal, and the moon is bright and windy. After King Huai went, there were no chickens and dogs, and Emperor Yang returned to bury Qiluo. The twenty-four bridges are empty and lonely, and the green poplars destroy the old official river. "The prosperous era of Yangzhou is gone, and it has become a thing of the past in the mournful voice of Tang poetry.