Chishui ancient city wall

Chishui ancient city wall

Chishui has a long history. The ancient city of Chishui is located on the South Bank of the famous downstream of Chishui River, across the river from Jiuzhi Town, Hejiang County, Luzhou City, Sichuan Province. It is close to the mountain and the river. The Chishui River rushes all the way from the foot of Wumeng Mountain. Here, however, it converges its wild and unruly willfulness. It flows gently from the west of the city to the north, flows through the east gate, turns East, and then rushes to the Yangtze River. This is also an important factor that Chishui has become an important ancient city in northern Guizhou and southern Sichuan since ancient times, an important material distribution center and one of the four ports for Sichuan salt to enter Guizhou.

Historical origin

The ancient city walls of Chishui are not as magnificent and famous as those of Xi'an, Nanjing and other ancient capitals, and they are not as well known as those of ancient cultural towns. However, they also lose the function of being used for a lifetime. They stand there silently, standing on the Chishui River bank to the east of Taotao, for people to touch and hang on, to recall those golden age and iron horse years. With a strong sense of vicissitudes, it gives people an indelible impression, like a vast historical book, recording the glorious past of Chishui.

In the Zhili hall annals of Renhuai written by Daoguang of Qing Dynasty, it is said that "Renhuai depends on Guizhou on one side and faces Shu on the other side. If it is spoken by Shu, it will live in the belly. If it is spoken by Qian, it will be the gateway of the extreme edge." It is also because Chishui River goes around the city, and the river course is similar to Liyuan (sound: y ú an), a tool for ploughing in the rural areas of Northern Guizhou and southern Sichuan. Therefore, the ancient city of Chishui was called "Liyuan dam" in the early days, and later called "Liuyuan dam" until it was established in the county seat of Renhuai County in Ming Dynasty.

There were human activities in Chishui River Basin in ancient times, but because it is located in the transition zone from Yunnan Guizhou Plateau to Sichuan Basin, with high mountains, deep forests and many rivers, it was developed later than some areas in Guizhou, with few literature and historical sites. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that Jimi, shunzhou, nengzhou and Xizhou appeared in Chishui River Basin, but no one knows where they are. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Zizhou, an administrative organ, was officially set up in the Chishui River Basin, under the jurisdiction of Renhuai county. In today's Chishui Fuxing Town, Renhuai county was later removed and Renhuai fort was set up. At this time, there were also Anxi Village (now anjuba, Jiuzhi Town, Hejiang County, Sichuan Province), Suiyuan Village (now Yaling farmer's new village, Wanglong Town, Chishui City), Qingshan village and yaogai Village (remote filling) in the Chishui River Basin I don't know. From the unique geographical location, liyuanba should have a village, whose name is unknown. But at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, Yuzhen established a political power in Sichuan and occupied Northern Guizhou. Huaiyang county was set up in liyuanba to reinforce and repair the existing Village Fort. In the fourth year of Hongwu (1371), the regime of Yuzhen in Ming Dynasty collapsed. The following year, the Ming Dynasty reset the Xuanwei envoys of Bozhou, and changed the Yuan Dynasty to set up 36 places as Li. Renhuaiguzi and other officials set up chishuili (later renamed Langcheng City, also known as shangchishuili) and renhuaili. Because the former renhuaiguzi and other officials were destroyed by the war, the chieftain of Wang family of renhuaili moved renhuaili to Huaiyang county of liyuanba, and made a compensation to them It is expanded and reinforced. At this time, renhuaili's Governance Center, the south side of the village wall follows the ridge, and the west, North and east sides face the Chishui River. Since then, because the annual flood of Chishui River has seriously threatened renhuaili's governance and submerged it, the chieftains of the successive dynasties have reconstructed the wall along the river and rebuilt it with stone strips. By the 29th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1601), when Renhuai county was rebuilt, its city had a certain scale and was relatively strong, which hindered Cao Yike, the first magistrate of Renhuai County, from choosing Tucheng as the governance After that, renhuaili city was chosen as the county seat to create conditions.

In the 29th year of Wanli, the war of "changing the land and returning to Liu" launched by the Ming Dynasty ended. According to the "notes on the aftermath of Pingbo", Bozhou was divided into two parts: Pingyue Prefecture, Guizhou Province, and Zunyi Prefecture, Sichuan Province. At the same time, in order to prevent the resurgence of Bozhou chieftain, it is also stipulated that the government, prefecture and county should build a new city wall within one year. It is also required to choose the place with relatively complete preservation and moderate terrain to build a new administrative post, emphasizing that it should be built as a stone city, "where there are few stones, brick should be used instead." Cao Yike, the first magistrate of Renhuai County, was forced to choose liuyuanba renhuaili City, which had no land on the North Bank of Chishui River, to build a new County after he was blocked in choosing Tucheng as the county seat. The reason is that the city was not ravaged by war and was built of stone. The main reason is that after the Pingbo battle, the population of all places decreased greatly, just as Qing Daoguang said in Zunyi Fu Zhi City“ At that time, the people had not yet gathered, and the soldiers were retired from the field. Because they were soldiers, they were given the "rule of the county and the city" by the workers. At this time, the Renhuai camp stationed in Renhuai county had only 120 officers and soldiers. It was responsible for the defense and public security of Renhuai County, which was equivalent to most parts of Chishui City, Xishui County and Renhuai City. It was also responsible for the transmission of Tang newspaper and other tasks. It was impossible to dispatch more manpower to participate in the construction of the city. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty used troops for many years, and the Treasury was empty, so it could not allocate money to build the city In order to maintain the rule over Bozhou and prevent the resurgence of Yang's remaining tillers, we can only set up military garrison to solve the problem of military expenditure. In order to complete the construction of the city, the magistrate Cao Yike had to choose renhuaili city of Yuanba for reconstruction and reinforcement.

After reinforcement and renovation, the pattern of Chishui ancient city was finally formed. Its scale is as the record of Renhuai Zhili hall annals · urban construction annals · Chengyuan: the ancient city of Chishui is 475 feet around, five li three points, one Zhang four feet high, 1133 crenels, three water caves, four cannons, four gates and four towers The city wall is made of bluestone, red stone and other stone strips, with lime pointing, and loess, gravel and other tamping in the middle. The bottom of the wall is 6 to 7 meters wide, and the top is 4 to 5 meters wide. There is a horse road leading to the top of the wall at a certain distance. The four gates are named "Qingyang gate", "Nanxun gate", "Jujin gate" and "Tianze gate" according to the East, South, West and north respectively. The style of the gate is roll gate hole. From the wall to the arch, all the gates are made of stone, which makes them solid and stable. The gate is made of hard miscellaneous wood and covered with iron sheet. The city wall in the south of the city is built on a high hill. From east to west along the ridge, the south gate is built between the two hills in the middle. The south gate is also the highest of the four gates, which is magnificent. The west, North and East sections of the city wall are curved along the high Chishui River bank. The top of the arc is the north gate, where there are "Pingsha village, many shops, Luzhou road and Guandu." The west gate is upstream of the north gate. At that time, the road leading to the hinterland of Guizhou started from here. The east gate is located at the downstream of the north gate. It is a transit station for salt ships from the Yangtze River to carry Sichuan salt to Guniu ships. It is also an important wharf for carrying passengers and goods out of the river to Hejiang, Jiangjin, Chongqing and other cities along the Yangtze River. The city wall encircles the residential buildings, market shops, government academies and temples on liuyuanba one by one, becoming the strongest defense barrier of Chishui ancient city during the cold weapon period. At the same time, it also serves as a barrier to distinguish urban and rural areas. Through the tall city buildings, it controls the valves to enter and leave the ancient city, making people work at sunrise and enter at sunset, and forming a red wall with the Yellow Jue trees standing on the river bank A magnificent landscape on the river.

In the long history after that, Chishui ancient city wall experienced the chaos of Shuixi Sheyin in the late Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong's army sweeping Northern Guizhou in Sichuan, the rebellion of Wu Sangui in the early Qing Dynasty, the transit of Taiping Army in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the siege of Hao army, the Siege of Comrade army in 1911, the siege of bandits and Sichuan army in the early Republic of China and the siege of bandits in the early liberation The ancient city of Chishui has never been conquered by the conquerors. It has always accompanied the residents and merchants living in it silently through the golden moon. From the third Renhuai county magistrate to the period of the Republic of China, the city walls collapsed many times due to rain or flooding, and the maintenance and reinforcement never stopped. However, they still stood firmly on the Bank of Chishui River, enduring the merciless erosion of war and wind, frost, rain and snow, recording the changes, history and culture of Chishui City. After the history entered the Republic of China, with the cold weapons withdrawing from the modern war, the pure military defense function of Chishui ancient city wall gradually decreased, and Chishui City also developed into a prosperous border city of Northern Guizhou. The Tongzi warlords, who took Zhouxi as the first place, took this place as the birthplace and convenient for transportation. In the late 1920s, they successively opened new east gate and new West Gate on the walls of Chishui ancient city. In the 1940s, Chishui county government planned to open new north gate, but failed. By the liberation of Chishui in December 1949, Chishui ancient city had six gates. Due to the loss of the defensive function of the city wall, Zeng Huihong's magnificent city building has become a shelter for the homeless, and gradually dilapidated.

After the liberation of Chishui City, the socialist construction began on the basis of a hundred wastes waiting for prosperity. Due to the restriction of funds, the ancient city wall became the stone warehouse of urban infrastructure construction. The new East Gate Tower was the first stone for the pavement maintenance of the East Gate vegetable market. The new West Gate Tower and the city wall to the south, the South Gate Tower and the nearby city wall became the foundation of the county Party committee auditorium and the cornerstone of the unfinished Cultural Palace of the working people. In 1954, the ancient city wall along the Chishui River bank was strengthened and raised to meet the needs of flood control. The two sections of the wall were 10 meters higher than in the past. The outer surface of the wall near the river was re jointed with cement mortar below 237.5 meters above sea level, and the inner wall foundation was reinforced by digging foundation trench and laying stone strips with lime mortar. At the same time, a channel was built to drain the water from the Chengnan Creek directly into the Chishui River from the lotus pond, and the water was discharged into the Chishui River The large drainage ditch of shangjiawan from Yong'an bridge to huangmugou by weir and pond was rebuilt. The stone materials required for these projects were all removed from Ximen to Xindong

Chinese PinYin : Chi Shui Gu Cheng Yuan