Among the local customs and proverbs in China, "There is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below" should be regarded as the most widely circulated. Wei Zhuang's words once said: "Everyone says that Jiangnan is good, and wanderers only grow old in Jiangnan. Spring water is brighter than dawn, and the painting boat listens to the rain. "
As for its origin, people who study proverbs at present can only cite late documentary evidence. Among them, seven manuscripts and records in ancient and modern novels are cited more, but they are all from Ming Dynasty. In the later southern Jiangsu folk song "Scenery of Gusu", also known as "Big Nine Chains", it was also sung: "There is heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below", "There is no West Lake in Hangzhou, and there is no mountain pond in Suzhou. Alas, there are two good places. "
But in fact, the saying that there is heaven in the world and Suzhou and Hangzhou in the world has obviously been around for a long time. According to the examination, the saying that there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty.
Can be divided into two parts. The former part compares Jiangnan to heaven. Ren Hua, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, praised "People say you are from Jiangnan, but I say you are from Heaven!" It can be regarded as the origin of comparing Jiangnan to heaven.
In the second half, Suzhou and Hangzhou were the representatives of Jiangnan, which was obvious in the late Tang Dynasty. Among them, the title of Bai Juyi plays a key role. Bai Juyi used to be the secretariat of Hangzhou and Suzhou, and wrote many poems praising the local areas during his tenure in these two States. At first, he just praised Hangzhou. When he was appointed as the secretariat of Hangzhou, he once boasted to Yuan Zhen, the secretariat of Yuezhou: "Knowing that you stole several counties in the south of the Yangtze River, Hangzhou is inferior." Later, he was appointed as the secretariat of Suzhou, and said that Suzhou is "the best in the world in one county, surrounded by extremely seaside". Later known as Suzhou and Hangzhou, he is quite proud of being the "Lord of Suzhou and Hangzhou". When I returned to the north in my later years, I also remembered Suzhou and Hangzhou. He once wrote in a poem with Yin: "The famous county in the south of the Yangtze River is Suzhou and Hangzhou, which was written in the Yin family for thirty times. Your memory of being a traveler is still bitter, but I will never forget the Secretariat. The situation leads to the poetry of the country, and it is good to get drunk. In order to miss the old tour, the ship will go straight to Canglang. "
It goes without saying that "there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below" is a collection of Bai Juyi's questions and a word-of-mouth metaphor for heaven in Jiangnan.