What role does the Shu Road play in connecting the Central Plains and the Southwest region, promoting the exchange and integration of various ethnic groups, and maintaining national unity? What is the historical value of the rich natural and cultural heritage along the Sichuan Road? Recently, "Dao Zhonghua" interviewed Professor Ma Qiang from the School of History and Culture at Southwest University. Dao Zhonghua: What is the Shu Road? What roads does this transportation network include? Ma Qiang: In the traditional sense, the Shu Road refers to the ancient transportation network that crossed the Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountains from Chang'an (now Xi'an, Shaanxi) during the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties, passing through the Hanzhong Basin and leading to the Chengdu Plain. Among them, the Qinling section mainly includes the old road (Chencang Jialing Road), Baoxie Road (also known as "Lianyun Plank Road" during the Ming and Qing dynasties after the Tang and Song dynasties changed the road), Tangluo Road (also known as Luogu Road), Ziwu Road, and Yinping Road. Yin Ping Dao crossed over the Motianling Mountains from Wen County in Longnan and entered Shu. It gained fame in history due to Deng Aijing, a general of Wei during the Three Kingdoms period. The ancient roads passing through Daba Mountain in the Hanzhong Basin are mainly Jinniu Road, Micang Road, and Lichi Road. Litchi Road is related to the transportation post road built by Yang Guifei, who enjoys eating fresh lychees. The Shu Road is therefore known as the "North Five South Three". Many sections of the Shu Road meander through the valleys and dangerous gorges of the Qinba Mountains, requiring logging and stacking for walking. Therefore, the Shu Road is also known as the "Plank Road" in the works of poets. In addition, the Xiajiang Ancient Road, the Sichuan Yunnan Ancient Road, the Sichuan Guizhou Ancient Road, and the Sichuan Tibet Ancient Road all belong to the broad sense of Sichuan Road. Dao Zhonghua: When it comes to the Shu Road, people associate it with Li Bai's "The difficulty of the Shu Road is greater than reaching the blue sky!" How was the Shu Road excavated and created? Ma Qiang: The earliest ancient path to pass through the Shu Road (Chencang Jialing Road), also known as the "Zhou Road" in the bronze inscription "San Shi Pan" by Wang Guowei, was already in use during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The vast majority of its areas were formed on the basis of natural trampling by ancestors along the Jialing River valley. The old road is circuitous and remote, but it can basically walk along the valley. The Baoxie Road, Tangluo Road, Ziwu Road, and Jinniu Road of the Shu Road pass through the dangerous river canyon in many areas. The ancestors invented the "plank road", which means digging stack holes on the stone walls of the Linjiang River, inserting wood as beams, standing water as columns, and erecting bridges and pavilions for passage. This is a major form of plank road. However, during the Qin, Han, and Three Kingdoms periods, the plank roads were built near water, and once mountain floods broke out, they were easily destroyed by floods. Starting roughly from the Yuan Dynasty, some sections of the road were changed from "plank roads" with inserted columns and bridges to "narrow roads" mainly composed of soil and rock, that is, excavation of soil and rock on the mountain to form roads and climb up the mountain. The "Biandao" spirals and rises, some reaching the top of the mountain, and its steepness is even greater than that of the Zhandao. In the early Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial court ordered the expansion of the Baoxie Road, and ancestors excavated the first artificial mountain tunnel in Chinese history, the "Shimen", at the southern exit of the Baoxie Road. According to historical records, it was excavated using the method of "burning water with fire", that is, using firewood to burn the rocks red, then pouring cold water on them to cause the rocks to burst, and then drilling holes in the mountains. Dao Zhonghua: In ancient China, what role did the Shu Road play in connecting the Central Plains and the Southwest region? Ma Qiang: Bashu and its connected regions such as Guizhou, Yunnan, and Tibet, in China