Is Yangzhou Jiangnan?

Yangzhou is Jiangnan, which literally means Jiangnan. "Jiang" has a special meaning in Chinese, which is the Yangtze River. Jiangnan originally refers to the area south of the Yangtze River. In ancient times, Jiangnan often represented a prosperous and developed culture and education and a beautiful and rich water town scene, and the region was roughly the south bank of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. There was a saying of Jiangnan in the pre-Qin period. Until the Sui Dynasty, the Central Plains was still the center of geographical coordinates, and Jiangnan often referred to Hunan and Jiangxi. Jiangnan Road was established in the Tang Dynasty, and later it was divided into Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road and Guizhou Middle Road, which became the beginning of defining the meaning of modern Jiangnan, and later Jiangnan became the proper name of Jiangdong area. Historian Feng Xianliang said, "Geographically, Jiangnan is undoubtedly the most prosperous area in China since modern times. But the definition and application of the word Jiangnan has never been unified since ancient times. "

historical development

The evolution of administrative regions named after "Jiangnan" in history is as follows: before the Tang Dynasty, the area referred to by the word Jiangnan included Jiangnan and the vast areas along the Yangtze River, including Jingzhou (southeastern Hubei, Hunan) and Yangzhou (southern Jiangxi, Anhui, Fujian, southern Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang). Jiangnan West Road (southeastern Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi, southern Anhui) and Jiangnan East Road (Fujian, southern Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang) were established in the Tang Dynasty. Jiangnan West Road (most of Jiangxi, southeastern Hubei) and Jiangnan East Road (northeastern Jiangxi, southern Anhui and Nanjing) were established in the Song Dynasty. Jiangnan province was established in the early Qing Dynasty, which was later divided into Jiangsu Province and Anhui Province.

Emperor Taizong established Jiangnan Road, covering the whole middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, south of the Yangtze River and Guizhou and Fujian. Tang Xuanzong subdivided Jiangnan Road into Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road and Qianzhong Road. Jiangnan was divided into eastern Jiangnan and western Jiangnan in ancient times. Jiangnan West Road and Jiangnan West Road were established in the Tang and Song Dynasties, covering Jiangxi, Hunan and southern Hubei in the west of the Yangtze River, and originally belonged to Jiangnan in a broad sense. In the late Tang Dynasty, Jiangdong was called Jiangnan, and the cultural concept of "Jiangnan" came into being. Later, with the narrow concept of Jiangnan, Jiangnan West Road evolved into today's Jiangxi Province; Jiangdong area is centered on Nanjing, mainly including parts of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. In the Qing Dynasty, the Governor's Office of Two Rivers was established, which governed Jiangsu Province (including Shanghai), Anhui Province and Jiangxi Province, and the two rivers included Jiangdong and Jiangxi.

Jiangnan in a narrow sense and Jiangnan in a broad sense

Jiangnan in a broad sense refers to the whole Jiangnan area in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, that is, Jiangnan Road excluding southern Hunan, southwestern Jiangxi, Guizhou and Fujian. Including the narrow sense of Jiangnan, the north of Jiangxi, the south of the Yangtze River in Hubei and the north of Hunan. But some areas in Fujian are sometimes called Jiangnan. Jiangnan in a broad sense was widely used in ancient times, for example, Du Fu wrote "Meet Li Guinian and Go Down the River" in Changsha. Jiangnan in a broad sense is also used in modern times. For example, Jiangnan in weather forecast refers to Jiangnan in a broad sense; The three famous buildings in Jiangnan (Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, Yueyang Tower in Yueyang and Wangtengting Pavilion in Nanchang) refer to Jiangnan in a broad sense.

Jiangnan, now in a narrow sense, refers to the area beautified by literati. That is, except Fujian Province and southern Zhejiang Province, Jiangnan East Road takes Nanjing to Suzhou as the center, including parts of Anhui Province, Jiangxi Province and Zhejiang Province south of the Yangtze River, namely southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, southern Anhui and northern Jiangxi. Some areas north of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, such as Yangzhou, are located in the north of the Yangtze River, but their economy and culture are similar to those of Jiangnan, and they can also be regarded as part of Jiangnan in the cultural sense. But it is not the Yangtze River basin, and it is considered to be some areas south of Taihu Lake or even south of Qiantang River, such as Shaoxing and Ningbo.

In the autumn of the 25th year of Jiaqing (1820), Yongning (later called Guang Guang), Xuanzong of the Qing Dynasty, just inherited the unification. At that time, the most prosperous Jiangnan area was in good weather, rich and peaceful, but a great plague never seen in the history of the dynasty quietly appeared. In the following years, this epidemic, which is said to have been introduced from Fujian and Guangxi by sea, spread rapidly in this area, and continued to spread westward and northward, resulting in a catastrophe that almost spread to more than half of China. The prelude to the periodic epidemic of true cholera in China for more than a century has also been opened.