origin
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 was also obsessed with 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.
Circulation reason
A widely circulated sentence
Among all the customs and proverbs in China, "There is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below" should be regarded as the most widely circulated. I didn't know where I heard this sentence when I was a child, so I admired the artistic conception of Wei Zhuang's poem. Wei Ci said: "Everyone says that Jiangnan is good, and tourists only share a white head with Jiangnan. Spring water is brighter than dawn, and the painting boat listens to the rain. " This is really an exciting artistic conception.
Obviously, there is a long-standing saying that there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below, but at present, people who study proverbs can only cite late documentary evidence. More familiar are the seven manuscripts and ancient and modern novels, all of which are from the Ming Dynasty. In addition, the southern Jiangsu folk song "Scenery of Gusu" also sings at the beginning: "There is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below", but this song, also known as "Dajiuhuan", is composed of several folk songs, and the scenery of the two places is really sung behind it: "West Lake in Hangzhou, Suzhou has no mountain ponds, alas, two good places." Obviously, it doesn't have an ancient origin like another famous folk song "Moon Bends in Kyushu". The latter has been circulating since the Southern Song Dynasty.
Poets in the Tang Dynasty set a precedent.
The author thinks that the saying that "there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below" can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty at the earliest. Can be divided into two halves, the first half is to compare Jiangnan to heaven. Ren Hua, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, once chanted in the master cursive music of Huai Su: "People say you are from Jiangnan, but I say you are from heaven!" This should be the origin of comparing Jiangnan to heaven.
The title of Bai Juyi is the key.
The other half took Suzhou and Hangzhou as the top card in Jiangnan, which was also obvious in the late Tang Dynasty. The key is Bai Juyi's product title. 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. However, at first, he only praised Hangzhou. When he was the secretariat of Hangzhou, he once boasted with Yuan Zhen, the secretariat of Yuezhou, that "Knowing the monarch is plotting against the counties in the south of the Yangtze River, except Hangzhou." Later, it was the secretariat of Suzhou, also known as Suzhou's "one county is the best in the world, surrounded by extremely seaside". Since then, they have been called Suzhou and Hangzhou, and they are quite proud of being "the Lord of Suzhou and Hangzhou". In his later years, he returned to the north, especially for Suzhou and Hangzhou. In a poem with Yin, he wrote: "Suzhou and Hangzhou, a famous county in the south of the Yangtze River, was written in chapter 30 of Yin Jia. 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 the confluence of this topic, and it is also a word-of-mouth metaphor for heaven in Jiangnan.
Praising heaven is not just about wealth.
Suzhou and Hangzhou are so highly respected, which is undoubtedly related to their wealth. But it doesn't all fall from the sky. Looking around, we can find that there were many famous counties in the south of the Yangtze River at that time, such as Changzhou and Huzhou, and their wealth was well-known. Changzhou was promoted by Li Hua as a "famous state outside the customs", and Huzhou even got the evaluation of "the big river table and Xing Wu are one" in Gu Kuang. Those places have not become the crown of Jiangnan, which is largely related to their natural scenery. Bai Juyi once praised: "Hangzhou is beautiful and healthy, and the Soviets are rich and vulgar." This poem shows that the two places have a common feature: "Li", which is irreplaceable by the word rich. He also described the scenic spot of Hangzhou in the famous article "Recalling Jiangnan": "Looking for laurel trees in the Moon Zhongshan Temple, watching the tide on the pillow in the county pavilion." Suzhou's joy is "Wu wine and a cup of spring bamboo leaves, Wu Wa dances and Lotus is drunk." For many people, this kind of scene can only be enjoyed in the sky.