Shu streets
The Shu Roads ( Chinese 蜀道 , Pinyin shǔdào ) were a system of mountain roads between the Chinese provinces of Shaanxi and Sichuan , laid out and maintained since the 4th century BC. Outstanding technical achievements are the Zhandao ( 棧道 / 栈道 , zhàndào ), sections in which the streets were laid out on steep rock faces as balcony-like wooden structures.
history
In 316 BC, the Qin Empire , whose center was the capital Xianyang in the Guanzhong Plain in today's Shaanxi Province, conquered the Shu Empire and the Ba region to the east . In this context, the first roads were laid through the mountains. From the Gold Ox Road that goes forecast , the ruler of Shu have let them build to the ruler of Qin to send a golden ox as a gift. The remaining roads are certain to have been built by the Qin State.
Over time, the stretches that were not on planks were paved. Even so, they remained a challenge for travelers. One poet wrote of the “hard road to Shu”, another of “heavenly ladders made of wood and stone”. Several fortified checkpoints and towns were built.
During two armed conflicts, parts of the wooden walkways were burned: After the fall of the Qin dynasty in 206 BC. The successful leader of the uprising, Xiang Yu , banished his strongest competitor Liu Bang . He withdrew with his army to Hanzhong and destroyed the plank walkways behind him to be safe from any pursuers. He later founded the Han Dynasty . In peacetime the mountain roads were restored. Four hundred years later, Liu Bei , founder of Shu Han State, destroyed the footbridges in the mountains again in a war with the other two of the Three Kingdoms . They were also restored afterwards. After Marco Polo had spent the years 1275 to 1295 in China on his Asia trip (1271-1295), he described the Lianyun Street.
Over time, the population and economic centers of China shifted from the western mountain regions further to the east, and accordingly the traffic flows. But the Shu streets remained the main routes in traffic between the western basin provinces.
In the warlike turmoil at the end of the Ming period, Sichuan suffered destruction and population loss and large parts of the Shu streets fell into disrepair. With the rebuilding of the province during the Manchurian Qing Dynasty , the roads were also restored. They remained important transport routes until the first decades of the 20th century.
The first modern road to Sichuan opened in 1937. When building the motorways, the old routes were largely followed, so the famous plank roads were destroyed in the process. What there is today on these footbridges was built as a tourist attraction after the modern road construction and has never been used for traffic.
geography
The streets connected three basin landscapes surrounded by mountains. The northern basin is the Guanzhong plain ( 关 中 平原 , Guānzhōng píngyuán - "flat land between the passes") in the province of Shaanxi, through which the Huang He and its tributary Wei He flows . The Hanzhong Basin in the middle drains the Han Jiang , a tributary of the Yangtze River . The Sichuan Basin in the southwest is traversed by the Yangtze River in the south. Its tributaries converge like a fan in the middle of the plain. Between these basins, two mountain ranges running in an east-west direction with partly extremely steep rocky slopes, the Qin Ling north of the Hanzhong basin and south of it the Micang mountains ( 米 倉山 / 米 仓山 , Mǐcāng Shān - "rice storage mountains ") extend as natural barriers and to the east of it the Daba Mountains .
Road courses
In the following, the streets are enumerated from west to east and places or circles are listed for a street that mark its course.
Roads across the Qinling Mountains
Chencang Street
The Chencang Street ( 陳倉道 / 陈仓道 , Chéncāngdào ) is next to the former town (now city district) (Chencang 陳倉區 / 陈仓区 , Chencang Qū - "Old Memory") named:
- Chencang District , east of central Baoji
- Weibin District , in the center of Baoji
- Feng County , south of central Baoji
- Qingni Ling Mountains ( 青泥 岭 , Qīngní Lǐng )
- circle Lüeyang
- Mian County
- Nanzheng County , south of central Hanzhong
Baoye Street
The Baoye Road ( 褒斜道 , Bāoyédào ), or "Baoxie Dao" written in many texts "Baoxie Road" is, after two rivers, the Bao Shui ( 褒水 , Bao Shuǐ ) and the Ye Shui ( 斜水 , Yé Shuǐ , today: Shitou He 石头 河 ), named. Places:
Tangluo Street
The Tangluo Street ( 傥骆道 , Tǎngluòdào ) is after the camel canyon ( 駱峪 , Luo Yu ) in the north and the Tangshui River ( 儻水河 , Tǎngshuǐ Hé named in the south):
- Zhouzhi County ( Erqu 二 曲 镇Municipality , Èrqū Zhèn )
- Laoxiancheng village ( 老 县城 村 , Lǎoxiànchéng Cūn ) in the Houzhenzi ( Groß 畛 子 镇 , Hòuzhěnzǐ Zhèn ) district in Zhouzhi County
- Large village Huayang ( 华阳镇 , Huayang Zhen ) in the county Yang
- Yang County ( Yangzhou Municipality 洋 州镇 , Yángzhōu Zhèn )
- Chenggu County
- Nanzheng County , south of central Hanzhong
Ziwu Street
The Ziwu Street ( 子午道 , Zǐwǔdào ), according to a large village named:
- Chang'an, now Xi'an
- Greater community Ziwu ( 子午镇 , Zǐwǔ Zhen ) in the circle Xixiang
- circle Ningshan
- Yang County , earlier connections to the east-west road through the Hanzhong Basin further east:
- Nanzheng County , south of central Hanzhong
Kugu Street
The Kugu Street ( 库 谷 道 , Kùgǔdào ), named after a narrow valley (库 谷, Kùgǔ or 库 峪Kùyù ); 库(kù) means "warehouse", 谷(gǔ) "valley" and 峪yù "gorge":
- Yinjiahui ( 引 驾 回 , Yǐnjiàhuí ), today Yinzhen ( 引 镇 街道 , Yǐnzhèn Jiēdào ) street district in the Chang'an District of Xi'an City
- Xiaoyi Ting ( 孝义 厅 , Xiàoyì Tīng ), today's Zhashui County
- Greater community Qingtongguan ( 青铜关镇 , Qīngtóngguān Zhen ) in the district of Zhen'an
- Ship passage in Xunyang County on the Xun He ( 旬 河 , Xún Hé ) from the village of Liangheguan ( 两 河 关村 , Liǎnghéguān Cūn ) of the Xiaohe ( 小河镇 , Xiǎohé Zhèn ) municipality to the Zhaowan ( 赵湾镇 , Zhàowān Zhènowan ) or to the confluence with the Han Shui
- Xing'an Fu ( 兴安 府 , Xīng'ān Fǔ ), until 1913 the name for the entire present-day city of Ankang , west of it through the road through the Hanzhong basin off the Han river
Lianyun Street
The 连云 道, Liányúndào , ("connecting road") offered an additional link between Chengcang Street and Baoye Street.
Roads between the Hanzhong and Sichuan basins
Jinniu Street
金牛 道, Jīnniúdào , "Gold Ox Road":
- Nanzheng 南郑, today Hanzhong汉中
- Mian xian 勉县(circle)
- Ningqiang宁 强
- Guangyuan广 元
- Jianmenguan (剑门 关, "sword gate pass") in Jiange剑阁 district
- Zitong梓潼
- Mianyang绵阳
- Hanzhou 汉 州, now Guanghan广汉
- Chengdu成都
Micang Street
米 仓 道 / 米 倉 道, Mǐcāngdào , "Reisspeicherstraße". The course through the mountains of the same name is largely clear. Two very different routes are given south of it:
It remains to be seen whether the difference can be explained by a fork or changes over time. Qongqing was in the 4th – 3rd Century BC not yet founded.
Yangba or Lizhi Street
The 洋 巴 道, Yàngbādào or 荔枝 道, Lìzhīdào (from Lìzhī , " lychee tree ") ended in Fuling (涪陵), in the east of Chongqing on the Yangtze. That did not belong to the Shu state, but to the Ba state (巴 國):
- Yang洋县(circle)
- Xixiang xian 西乡县(circle)
- Zhenba xian 镇巴 县(circle)
- Wanyuan万 源
- Xuanhan xian 宣汉县(circle)
- Dazhou达州
- Linshui邻水
See also
Sources / web links
- ↑ This error is due to an incorrect reading of the character 斜 at this point, the most common reading of which is xié . Among other things, it is read yé in the place names that refer to the Yeshui River . See: 康熙字典, 標點 整理 本Kangxi Zidian , biaodian zhengli ben , 上海 Shanghai 2007/2008, p. 426; 漢語 詞典, 第七卷Hanyu Da Cidian , di qi juan , 上海 Shanghai 1991, pp. 335-336; 漢語大字典, 第三 卷Hanyu Da Zidian , di san juan , 成都 1988, pp. 2253-2254; 中華 字 海Zhonghua Zihai , 上海 2008, p. 971.
- ↑ Australia-China Cooperation, Shu Roads Project: China's Qinling Plank Roads to Shu source for large parts of the article
- ↑ 蜀道 简介 Roads of some Shu streets , (in Chinese characters )
