Read thousands of books and travel thousands of miles. The famous saying of Tai Shigong was once again experienced by Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In his life, he traveled to more than half of China and read a lot of geography, hydrology This work corrected many mistakes of the predecessors, and wrote the famous hydrological geography work "Shui Jing Zhu" in a beautiful style.
In the seven hundred miles from the Three Gorges, there are mountains on both sides, with almost no flaws. The mountains are stacked with rocks, hiding the sky and blocking out the sun. At midnight, there is no bright moon in the pavilion. As for Xia Shuixiang Ling, it was blocked along the way; or the king's order was urgently announced, and sometimes the White Emperor came to the White Emperor in the morning and arrived at Jiangling in the evening. During the period of 1,200 miles, even if he rode against the wind, it was not due to illness. In spring and winter, the green pool is green with clear reflections, and there are many grotesque cypresses growing there, and suspended springs and waterfalls. Every sunny day and the first frosty day, in the cold woods and austere streams, a tall ape often screams, which is very bleak and bleak. Therefore, the fisherman's song goes: The Badong Three Gorges Wu Gorge is long, and the ape calls three times and sheds tears on his clothes.
This beautiful description, in just over a hundred words, describes the scenery of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River and the clear skies of the four seasons so vividly that it can be compared with a long giant scroll. The author is Li Daoyuan, a famous geographer in the Southern and Northern Dynasties of China. Li Daoyuan, courtesy name Shanchang, was born in Zhuoxian County, Fanyang County (now Zhuoxian County, Hebei Province) in the Northern Wei Dynasty. There is no explicit record of his birth date in history books. According to recent calculations, he was probably born in the first year of Tian'an (466 AD) or the second year of Yanxing (472 AD) in the Northern Wei Dynasty. He was born in a family of officials. His father, Li Fanguan, came to General Pingdong, governor of Qingzhou. Li Daoyuan loved nature since he was a child. When he was young, he went to Shandong with his father and traveled among the beautiful and majestic mountains and rivers of the motherland. The young Li Daoyuan was deeply attracted. After he became an adult, he inherited his father's title and began his official career. It was the time when Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty was in charge, and he was determined to be the emperor during the period of the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties. When Emperor Xiaowen went on tour, he was able to accompany him. The first time he went from Pingcheng to Luoyang, Yecheng, and then back to Pingcheng; the second time he visited Shuozhou in the south and Yinshan in the north, all the way to Wuyuan City. Looking at the historical sites and interviewing local elders opened up my horizons, especially the Fenshui, Wenshui, Jinshui and other waterways in Shanxi. Because they are close to Pingcheng, they are the only way to travel, so Li Daoyuan knew it in detail in Pudi. When crossing the river, he reviewed the dangers of Youmen and wrote that Mengmen is the upper entrance of Youmen. It is actually the name of the huge film of the river and Mengjin. This stone was carved by Shi Yu. Deep, the cliff is falling back to defend, and the huge stone is in danger. If it falls, it will fall back. The ancients said: Water can penetrate into the stone without cutting it. It is true that the travel and knowledge not only enriched Li Daoyuan's geographical knowledge, but also inspired his research. Interest in landscape geography.
In addition to official duties, Juan Daoyuan still devotes himself to learning wherever he travels. He searched the ditches and collected them, and accumulated rich experience and materials, which laid a good foundation for his later writing of "Shui Jing Zhu". Why did he write "Shui Jing Zhu"? According to his own words: Between heaven and earth, water plays an extremely important role in people's lives. When Tadong personally investigated geography and read ancient books, he was very familiar with previous geographical works, such as "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" and "The Book of Mountains and Seas". Works such as "Yu Gong", "Yu Ben Ji", "Zhou Li, Shi Fang", "Han Shu # Geography", "Shui Jing" and other works always feel very simple and fail to explain the ins and outs of the waterway clearly. As time goes by, geographical phenomena continue to develop and change. The situation in ancient times is very unclear, and the rise and fall of cities and changes in rivers have many different names and inconsistent descriptions. The development of social economy and the need for water in production development are also inconsistent. New works were also required to explain it. Therefore, he felt that it was necessary to record the geographical features that often changed in ancient times as accurately and in detail as possible based on the investigation of geographical changes and the textual research of ancient books, so that future generations could have an understanding. For this reason, he determined to engage in geographical research. Based on the "Shui Jing", he wrote "Shui Jing Zhu", a comprehensive geographical masterpiece.
"Shui Jing Zhu" ***. There are 1,252 waterways recorded, nearly ten times more than the "Shui Jing", with a total of 40 volumes and about 300,000 words in existence, nearly 20 times more than the "Shui Jing". It records the mountains, hills, and marshes in the areas where the river flows, as well as important passways, pavilions, ancient city ruins, land properties, and river changes.
After detailed textual research on the differences in ancient book records, "Shui Jing Zhu" is actually a scientific work re-created on the basis of "Shui Jing". He paid special attention to field investigations. For example, the accounts of the source of the Ru River are different in each book. When Li Daoyuan was appointed as the governor of Luyang County, he personally led people to conduct the exploration. Finally, he finally found the Dayu Mountain with deep and high rock barriers, dense mountains, and rugged stone passages. The source of the Ru River was found in the Mengbai Valley.
"Shui Jing Zhu" is a hydrogeographic work. Li Daoyuan conducted an in-depth investigation of the evolution of river systems in large rivers and rivers. Through the analysis of river valley landforms, he proposed new perspectives that were completely different from those in the past on issues such as water system diversion, river diversion, and lake formation. Exploring aspects such as the formation of water bodies has extremely high scientific value. In "Shui Jing Zhu", Li Daoyuan's description of the divisions and mergers of the main branches and tributaries of the water system is particularly detailed. He describes the source, flow direction, tributaries, undercurrent phenomena, direct current phenomena, etc. The concepts of direction and location are extremely clear and have great significance. High cognitive value.
"Shui Jing Zhu" attaches great importance to the description of hydrological phenomena. His records of water levels include specific times and heights; his records of sand content pay attention to the relationship with the soil and geological conditions in the basin, and also reflect the seasonal changes in sand content; , water supply methods and river water backflow, etc., all gave reasonable explanations. 3 These insights are full of originality, not only providing a large amount of reliable information for later hydrological research and water conservancy development, but also his rigorous and scientific research attitude and methods. , and also provided valuable reference for later hydrological work.
"Shui Jing Zhu" is not only the most systematic and complete hydrogeographic work in the history of ancient Chinese geography, but also records a large amount of engineering data on farmland water conservancy construction and other economic geography data on industrial and agricultural production. , which has extremely high historical value for the study of ancient society, economy, technology, culture, etc.
Li Daoyuan's "Shui Jing Zhu" paid great attention to the collection and arrangement of literature materials. The whole book cites as many as 437 kinds of books, including all relevant topographies before the Northern Wei Dynasty. The book also contains many inscriptions from the Han and Wei dynasties. Most of these books and inscriptions are now lost, but fortunately the "Shui Jing Zhu" has been preserved.
There are many economic and geographical materials in "Shui Jing Zhu". For example, in Juyang Shuizhu, when writing about Xunye Spring, it is pointed out: Sidi Gai was the location of the ancient smelting official, so the water was named Yan. In the Notes on Glue, it is written that the glue flows north through a mountain of earth and flows into the sea: To the north of the mountain of earth in Hainan, there are salt and beneficiary inheritance, and repairs and cooking continue. In the notes on the Gushui River, it is written that when the Gushui River flows through Hunu County, rice fields were opened and the people were taught how to plant them, making the people prosperous. These records of ancient iron smelting, salt boiling, agriculture, etc. are important materials for economic geography, as well as for studying the development of northern agriculture and handicrafts at that time.
Li Daoyuan paid special attention to water conservancy projects. In "Shui Jing Zhu", he not only recorded the distribution of rivers and ditches, but also described in as much detail as possible the rise and fall of farmland water conservancy after the Warring States Period. For example, Bao Shuizhu records the reasons for the construction of Fuling Weir in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, project details, irrigation area and harvest conditions, etc. In addition, "Shui Jing Zhu" retains a large number of folk songs, proverbs, dialects, legends, etc., which today are very valuable historical materials.
Wang Xianqian, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, once pointed out an important feature of "Shui Jing Zhu", that is, water is used to prove the earth, and it is the earth that preserves the past. All counties, counties, townships, and towns are oriented by waterways. Both clear and accurate. For example, the Yishui chapter of "Shui Jing Zhu" records that Wuyang, the capital of Yanxia, ??said: Yishui also passes eastward to the south of Wuyang City. Gai Yi came out of Kuanzhong Liwufu Guandong, so it is known as Jianwushui. Therefore, the capital of Yanxia is known as Wuyang. On the left, there are wet branches and Jin, so there is no trace. There is a small city in the southeast of Wuyang Dacheng, which is the old city of Gu'an County. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty made Prime Minister Shen Tujia a marquis. The city is two miles east to west and one and a half miles north to south. Gao Yuyun said: The Yishui River flows eastward outside the southern part of Gu'an City, which is the Si River. Temptation is a trick, as evidenced by facts. Jinshui flows to the southeast corner of the city, and it was also called Yishui in ancient times. Wuyang, the city where King Gai Zhao lived, was twenty miles from east to west and seventeen miles from north to south. This record is completely consistent with the actual situation of the Yanxiadu ruins today. Therefore, Liu Xianting, a geographer of the Qing Dynasty, commented on the "Shui Jing Zhu" and said: The traces of thousands of years of history are like counting family treasures by looking at the palm prints. This is indeed a perfect theory.
Li Daoyuan was rigorous in his scholarship throughout his life, but due to the wide scope of the "Shui Jing Zhu" narrative, he could not have experienced all the situations, especially at the time when the north and the south were divided, and there were few geographical works on the Jiangnan area, so There are many errors in many records, especially those about the waterways south of Jianghan. But this does not detract from the value of the book.
"Shui Jing Zhu" is still a precious historical and geographical work.
Because Li Daoyuan was a powerful official and did not avoid the powerful, he offended Wang Yuanyue of Runan. So Yuan Yue encouraged the imperial court to send Li Daoyuan as the ambassador to Guan You to patrol Xiao Baoyu, the Yongzhou governor who was plotting rebellion, in order to borrow a knife to kill people. In the third year of Xiaochang in the Northern Wei Dynasty (527 AD), Li Daoyuan was killed by Xiao Baoyu's men on his way to office. But his contribution to geography and his down-to-earth spirit will always be admired by future generations.