Shui Jing Zhu: A Thousand Flows of Rivers and a Thousand Flows of Nian Jia Guo (Confucius said Shiyun)
2023-05-19
The role of rivers in the development of human civilization cannot be overemphasized. Han Ying from the Western Han Dynasty praised the river in his "Han Shi Wai Zhuan" as follows: "Heaven and earth are formed, groups of things are created, the country is peaceful, and everything is peaceful." Many ancient books have abundant records of the river, including the Book of Songs, the Book of Mountains and Seas, the Book of Shangshu, and Shuowen Jiezi. Around the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms periods, there appeared a "Water Classic" with over 10000 words, which recorded the origin, process, and destination of 137 waterways. The author is no longer testable. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, an official named Li Daoyuan felt that this writing was too rough and lacked analogical information. Therefore, he collected relevant materials, reorganized and annotated them, involving over 3000 rivers, rivers, and various water bodies. The book was written in 40 volumes, totaling over 300000 words, and constructed a complete medieval geographical system. This is the "Shui Jing Zhu", which had many misfortunes after its completion: first, after more than 50 years of war and chaos, it finally reached the Sui Dynasty and was only collected by the state; It took over 500 years for this book to transition from a handwritten version to a printed version; But when it was first printed, it was already incomplete; After more than 7 centuries of relay proofreading by many scholars, it was basically restored to its original form. Why can "Shui Jing Zhu" still be basically and completely passed down to this day after such ups and downs? The reason is very simple. This is Li Daoyuan's "Wonderful Book of the Universe" written during his time as an official and cavalry officer, using various local literature and information obtained from field investigations (as stated by geographer Liu Xianting in the early Qing Dynasty). In order to write this book, Li Daoyuan extensively collected and possessed information, and based solely on the information listed in each chapter of the "Water Classic Annotations", there were over 430 books. Qing Dynasty scholar Shen Deqian believed that in ancient Chinese writings documenting rivers and waterways, the "Water Classic Annotations" can be described as "indispensable and cannot have two". Why do you say that? The book provides a detailed and orderly description of the origin, flow direction, inflow of secondary and tertiary tributaries, and final destination of each waterway; Detailed records have also been made of the large and small towns that the waterway flows through, as well as their construction history and war sites; Not only that, but also the natural environment within many waterways and watersheds - mountains, valleys, plains, climate, soil, vegetation, etc. - as well as cultural landscapes - palaces, gardens, nurseries, temples, bridges, inscriptions, etc. - have been meticulously described; At the same time, we have spared no effort in documenting local water conservancy projects, local customs, myths and legends, natural resources, and folk songs and proverbs. In this regard, British scholar Joseph Needham praised it as a "broad description of geography". Among them, "Shui Jing Zhu" has important reference value for studying the historical changes of geography. For example, the Waterfall Record records over 60 waterfalls, which not only have accurate locations but also record the height of many waterfalls. By using this point, compared with today's position, the speed of waterfall retreat can be accurately calculated, thus the speed of headward erosion of the river can be calculated. According to the location of Hukou Waterfall recorded in Shuijingzhu, the historical geography historian Nianhai once compared it with the location recorded in Yuanhejun County Annals of the Tang Dynasty. The calculated result is from the third year of Xiaochang in the Northern Wei Dynasty (527 AD) to the eighth year of Yuanhe in the Tang Dynasty（
Edit：Luo yu Responsible editor：Wang er dong
Source：people.cn
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