From Jiangyuan to Dangqukou (Tibetan "Qu" means "He"), it is 358 kilometers long and is called Tuotuo, which is the source of the Yangtze River.
The length from Dangqukou to Batang Estuary in Yushu County, Qinghai Province is 8 13 km, which is called Tongtian River.
From Batang estuary to Minjiang estuary in Yibin City, Sichuan Province, it is 2308 kilometers long and is called Jinsha River.
The total length from Minjiang Estuary to Changjiang Estuary is 2,884 kilometers (the voyage is shortened by 80 kilometers to more than 2,800 kilometers after Jingjiang River bends straight), commonly known as the Yangtze River.
Among them, Yibin to Yichang City, Hubei Province, because most of the Yangtze River flows through Sichuan Province, commonly known as Chuanjiang, the total length is 1030 km.
Zhicheng, Hubei Province to Chenglingji, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, is commonly known as Jingjiang River because the Yangtze River flows through the ancient Jingzhou area;
The Yangtze River was named after the Yangtze River ferry near Yangzhou and Zhenjiang in ancient Jiangsu Province.
Since ancient times, the pace of human exploration has never stopped. Why are people so keen to find the source of rivers? What's the point of finding the source of this river? As early as the Warring States Period, there was a saying about the source of the Yangtze River in Shangshu Gong Yu. The full text of Shangshu Gong Yu is only 1 100 words, which is the most scientific geographical work in the pre-Qin period. Among them, Guiding Landscape describes the general trend of the distribution of mountains and rivers in China, which is the oldest existing national regional chronicle in China. Most scholars who studied geography in past dynasties regarded Gong Yu as their ancestors.
Expert: According to this book, the Yangtze River is "the river that reaches the Minjiang River". The birthplace of the Yangtze River is the Minjiang River in today's Sichuan Province. Of course, this statement reflects some views of China almost 4,000 years ago. Later, people already felt that it was inappropriate, but they regarded it as a classic and a sacred classic! Then no scholar dares to change his mind easily.
This is the recorded beginning of Jiangyuan. It doesn't matter whether the beginning is right or not. What is important is that our ancestors' thinking about rivers and flowing water more than 2000 years ago has pointed to the source. Although the source is still unknown. In the historical records of the Western Han Dynasty, some people have a new explanation for the theory of Minshan River Diversion. He believes that the Minshan recorded in the book is not the Minshan where Jialing River is located, but the Minshan in the north of Songpan in western Sichuan today, which is the birthplace of Minjiang River. In this way, the Minjiang River was regarded as the positive source of the Yangtze River, and the mistake of Minshan River Diversion was changed and continued. On the contrary, Jinsha River, the real mainstream of the Yangtze River, is considered as a tributary.
Expert: In the Geography of Hanshu written by Ban Gu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it is recorded that "the water flows out of the river and enters the river through the ridge", so this statement refers to the Jinsha River entering the Yangtze River from Yibin. This record is correct, but it mistakenly regards Jinsha River as only a small tributary of the Yangtze River. This record is wrong. Li Daoyuan, a great geographer in the Northern Wei Dynasty, misquoted the record in Geography of Hanshu, saying that "water flows out of the river and enters the river through the ridge". This statement is wrong. Why? Since ancient times, the standard for judging the source or positive source of a river is the length of the river's water flow, and the long and large water flow is the source of this river.
The water flow of Jinsha River is obviously greater than that of Minjiang River, and the river length is also longer than that of Minjiang River. Why did our ancestors seek the approach of Minjiang River instead of Jinsha River when talking about the source of the river? There are two explanations: First, Ban Gu or Li Daoyuan never made a field trip to these two rivers, but only drew relevant conclusions from folklore and ancient books. This inference is completely understandable. Both sides of Jinsha River and Minjiang River are mountains. Even today, with the development of modern transportation, it takes great hardships to cross these two rivers. In ancient times, there were no roads and no means of transportation, and it was even more difficult to conduct field trips. The second explanation holds that Dayu has an almost sacred influence in China. In people's minds, the story of Dayu and the trial of Dayu are also irrefutable truths, but Ban Gu and Li Daoyuan certainly cannot get rid of this limitation. When you open the map, you can see that the Yangtze River starts from Yibin, named Jinsha River, and reaches Lijiang, Yunnan, and reaches the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in Yushu, Qinghai, which is the Tongtian River Basin. However, what is the relationship between Tongtian River and Jinsha River? What's its connection with the Yangtze River?
An accident changed people's understanding of Jinsha River. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the war between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo continued. In the Tang Dynasty, in order to make peace, everyone in the world was encouraged, and Lu Dongzan, the Tibetan envoy, won the title with wit. She married Princess Hui Wencheng to praise Pasong Zan Gambu for Tubo. After Qian Shan Wanshui Wencheng came to Tubo, she helped Songzan Gambu to manage Tubo, taught Tubo people cultural knowledge and production experience, treated people with acupuncture, and stopped the spread of the plague. At that time, Sino-Tibetan exchanges took place in the Tongtianhe area of Yushu, Qinghai, indicating that people had a good understanding of Tongtianhe above Jinsha River at that time. But people at that time didn't seem to think that the Tongtian River flowed downstream to the Jinsha River, that is, the ancient rope water.
Expert: At the earliest time, there was a monk in the era of Zhu Yuanzhang. He went to Tibet to learn the scriptures and passed by Qinghai on his way back. He witnessed the fact that the Jinsha River is the source of the Yangtze River. So he wrote an article about seeing the source of the Yangtze River. Judging from the articles we have found now, this article may be the first to discuss that Jinsha River is the source of the Yangtze River.
Zong Ling, a monk who went to the Western Regions to learn Buddhist scriptures, gave us the answer, which shows that people's understanding of Jiangyuan at that time was a big step forward than that of the Tang Dynasty. So how much did our ancestors know about the source of the Yellow River? There are many sayings about the source of the Yellow River in history. The earliest record is in Shan Hai Jing. The book records: "Kunlun Mountain, the river flows out", which means that the water of the Yellow River comes from a place called Kunlun. Since then, there has been a saying that the river flows out of Kunlun.
Shan Hai Jing records a lot of information about ancient rivers in China, but no one knows who wrote this book, and the writing age has not been determined, which has become a mystery. Li Bai, a famous poet, said that "the Yellow River runs from the west to Kunlun Mountain, roaring Wan Li touches Longmen Mountain", which made the statement that the river flows out of Kunlun Mountain more widely circulated. However, Li Bai, who was uninhibited, played a modest joke on later generations. He also explained the Yellow River and said, "How did the water of the Yellow River flow down from the sky to the sea and never return?" . What's going on here? Some people explain that this is not contradictory. "Yellow River from west to Kunlun Mountain" refers to the source of the Yellow River, and "How the water of the Yellow River moves out of the sky" refers to the source of the Yellow River itself. There is nothing wrong with falling from the sky, so the two are not contradictory. Others think that "how the water of the Yellow River moves out of the sky" may be just a romantic association of Li Bai. Because in ancient times and even today, people often mentioned heaven and earth in their poems, where did the water of the Yellow River come from?
Expert: During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it is well known that there was a kingdom like Tuguhun, which rose in Qinghai and Xinjiang. Then people in the Central Plains had contacts with him at that time, so it was possible to get a message from there that the river did not flow from there, not from Kunlun Mountain, but from where? But from the sea of stars.
In the ninth year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, in 635 AD, Tuguhun took advantage of the war in the Central Plains and harassed the mainland from time to time. Emperor Taizong sent generals Li Jing and Hou to visit the source of Jishi Mountain in Baihaishan, Xingsuchuan. The White Sea here refers to today's Zhaling Lake, and the Star River refers to the Star Sea to the west of this lake. Although they didn't really see the source of Heyuan in the history books, it was the earliest record that the Central Plains reached Heyuan, which was a step forward than in the past.
Expert: As we all know, the Yuan Dynasty brought the present Tibetan areas under the jurisdiction of the Central Plains Dynasty for the first time. Because of this situation, Kublai Khan of Yuan Shizu, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, decided to build a city at the source of the Yellow River, so he sent a man named Du Shi to lead some people there to investigate where the source of the Yellow River was. One of them went with him is his younger brother. Du Shi's younger brother is called Keke. He is an academician, so he wrote a book called Records of Heyuan. According to the records of Heyuan annals, he actually went to Xinghai instead of going there again, so he didn't really investigate the source of the Yellow River.
The sea dotted around the source of the river is the open land of Sichuan where the Yellow River flows between the two mountains. There are no waves or waves. This is a foam on an abandoned beach. It is as quiet as a virgin, with different sizes and scattered all over the place. At night, under the moonlight and starlight, the bubbles on this grass beach will also dream of stars, hence the name "starry sea". Xinghai is not far from the source of the river, but it is still not the real source of the river. Throughout the history of human development, it is not difficult to see that the origin of human civilization is almost inseparable from rivers. From Yangtze River, Yellow River and Lancang River to Nile River, Tigris River and Euphrates River, every big river is the cradle of human civilization. In the eyes of China people, the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Lancang River are the three dragons occupying the land of China.
On this map, besides the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, we can clearly see the vein of the Lancang River, which enters Tibet from Qinghai, then flows through Yunnan, leaves China, passes through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, and then flows into the South China Sea. This is an international river. In foreign countries, Lancang River is also called Mekong River, which means the mother of many waters and the river of many waters. As a cultural corridor and natural waterway that flows through the five countries, it breeds creatures on both sides of the strait and things in different languages and countries, creating a long-standing civilization in Southeast Asia. In China, the Lancang River is far less well-known than the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, but it is world-renowned for carrying and leading the oldest and highest-lying ancient tea-horse road.
Expert: Judging from this term, since a large number of tea trees and tea exports in China were planted after the Tang Dynasty, it seems that this road may have been opened from the Tang Dynasty. It is an important cultural exchange and channel for Tibet, China and Southeast Asia. It should be said that this road is still useful now.
Since ancient times, countless tourists have entered and exited the Lancang River, and their footprints are all over the Lancang River Basin. However, few tourists left historical records, only two strange people left traces of travel along the Lancang River. Marco Polo, a foreign land from Europe, was the first person to report China to Europeans in the history of the world. During his travels, he recorded more than 40 cities and places in China, with more than 65,438+000 chapters. Described in detail the natural and social conditions in China at that time. Therefore, Kelpolo is regarded as a great traveler in the Middle Ages, a friendly messenger in the history of Sino-Western communications and Sino-Italian relations. Kyle Poirot was born in a merchant family in Venice, 1275. Kyle Poirot, aged 2 1, followed his father and uncle for three years and traveled to China, the capital of Yuan Dynasty. Kublai Khan was so happy that he hosted a banquet in the palace to welcome them and left them to live in North Korea.
Expert: Kyle Poirot is very smart and has a strong language ability. He quickly learned Mongolian, and the Yuan Dynasty was loyal to him, so Kublai Khan appointed him as an official of the court at that time. He was an official in the Yuan Dynasty 17 years and visited the Lancang River many times. However, due to the conditions at that time, he could not find the source along the Lancang River as the source.
More than 300 years later, a second person visited the Lancang River. He is China traveler Xu Xiake.
Xu Xiake, a traveler, geographer and essayist in Ming Dynasty in China, was the first person in China who took traveling as his lifelong career. He was born in a declining gentry family in Jiangsu. He is very clever and likes reading since he was a child. Xu Xiake started his travel career at the age of 20, and traveled all over China, traveling the farthest and taking the longest time. The most wonderful travel notes are written in Lancang River, Shajiang River and surrounding areas. However, he is interested in the Lancang River itself. He is so obsessed with Yunnan, why on earth did he come here?
Expert: There are two main reasons. First of all, he traveled for more than 30 years. He travels alone, brings his own dry food, walks by himself and walks on two legs. The source of the Lancang River passes through a steep mountain bend, so it is difficult for him to continue. Second, Xu Xiake is a scholar. His style of study is very rigorous. He pursues practical learning. If he is not sure, he basically doesn't talk.
Today, it is still difficult for our film crew to explore the source of Lancang River. The natural environment here is harsh. On the way to the source, we have to pay a huge price for every step forward. According to the film crew, we do our homework almost every day. Sometimes it takes only a few hundred meters a day, and it takes eight days to get to the source as long as 60 kilometers. The shock absorbers of three off-road vehicles need to be replaced, four tires need to be replaced, and two engines, fans and belts need to be replaced. Crossing Caotan Road is the mire road, and crossing the mire road will enter the river beach road. Today, we have cars, sufficient materials and advanced auxiliary equipment. It is still so difficult to find the source, let alone the ancients.
Xu Xiake is a person who is very interested in exploring the source of rivers. He specially wrote a book called Heyuan Examination. Xu Xiake boldly analyzed and revised the sources of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River according to the evidence obtained from his field trip, thus completely changing people's understanding of the sources of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. Perhaps we can say that Xu Xiake's travel and inspection in the Jinsha River area of Lancang River in Yunnan Province is one of the greatest dreams in his life. Xu Xiake was the first person to correct the theory that Minshan Mountain leads to the Yangtze River, thus confirming that Jinsha River is the upstream source of the Yangtze River. After exploring the source of the river step by step, he bravely wrote the article "Heyuan Examination".
Expert: This article used to have more than 20,000 words, but now there are only 2,000 words left. It is a great pity that most of the records about his exploration of the source of the Yangtze River have not been preserved, but only from the source research of more than 2,000 words he has preserved, he clearly shows that Jinsha River is the source of the Yangtze River and Minjiang River is only a tributary of the Yangtze River.
At that time, people knew little about the source of the Jinsha River in Tongtian River. Xu Xiake can make such an inference, which is a leap in understanding and points out the direction for exploring the source of the Yangtze River in the future. Xu Xiake's contribution is not limited to this. Then, according to the relationship between the general trend of Chinese mountains and the source of rivers, Xu Xiake concluded that the Yellow River originated in the north of Kunlun and the Yangtze River originated in the south of Kunlun. However, due to the limited conditions at that time, he only went to Lijiang, Yunnan, and could not trace back to Jiangxi to understand what had happened. For Lancang River, Xu Xiake adopted a clever evasive attitude. Perhaps it never occurred to him that the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and the Lancang River originated in the same place, the Sanjiangyuan area. Perhaps, he missed an opportunity for a major discovery.
In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the west wind spread eastward, and the border troubles continued, which promoted the great progress of China's geography. Due to the frequent exchanges between Han, Tibetan and Mongolian nationalities on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, people have described the source of this river in more and more detail. 1704, Emperor Kangxi sent people to explore the Qinghai-Tibet region in order to compile a national map. However, due to traffic obstacles and bad weather, he could not enter the depths of Heyuan, so he had to explore on the spot. This time, although the source of the Yangtze River has not really been determined, at least people have a more intuitive understanding of the source area, and this exploration also includes a visit to the source of the Yellow River. At that time, in order to eradicate this troubled river, the Qing emperor urgently needed to know the source. After passing through Zhaling Lake and Crocodile Mausoleum Lake, it reached Xinghai, leaving a written record of the source of Xinghai, "Koizumi is like a trillion stars, surrounded by mountains" and a topographic map of Xinghai, reaffirming the conclusion of the Yuan Dynasty and taking Xinghai as the source of the Yellow River. Will this be the final determination of the source of the Yellow River? From 1707, under the auspices of Emperor Kangxi, French missionaries Bai Jin, Jean Baptiste Regis and Du Demei led China surveyors to carry out large-scale triangulation in China, which lasted 1 1 year, and drew the map of the empire in 17 18. This is In this atlas, the source maps of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River are also drawn respectively.
Expert: In 47 years of Qianlong, 1782, the Yellow River in Qinglong, Henan Province burst its banks. Emperor Qianlong sent Amitabha, who was also a bodyguard, to pay homage to the river god in Xining, Qinghai, to explore the true source of the Yellow River. As a result, Amitabha arrived in Xinghai, and they continued to say that the river flowed out of Kunlun. Therefore, the exploration of Heyuan in Qing Dynasty should be said to be another breakthrough.
This is an interesting phenomenon in determining the source of history. The Yangtze River was misquoted in 2000 because of its clear words. As early as 1300 years ago, that is, in the first half of the 7th century, it was suggested that Kariqu was the real source of the Yellow River, but it was always doubted and denied. Du Fu's poems in Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 1280) and La Xi's poems in Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1704) have all been to Heyuan to see the stars and the sea, but they still don't know where the source is. 1952, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission organized an expedition to the source of the Yellow River, which took Yuegu Zonglie Canal as the real source of the Yellow River. It has existed for more than 20 years, but it has always been controversial. In another investigation in the summer of 1978, it was found that three rivers flowed into Xinghai, namely Zhaqu, Yogu Zonglie and Kariqu. Compared with the three rivers, Kariqu is the longest, with a drainage area of 700 square kilometers and a length of about 30 kilometers. The conclusion about the source of the Yellow River can be traced back to the first half of the 7th century. Carrick is the real source of the Yellow River. Kariqu originated in Geziya Mountain in the north of Bayan Kara, with an altitude of 4,800 meters. There are quiet lakes and springs at the foot of the mountain. At that time, the clear spring water gushing from the spring eye was the source water of the Yellow River. In 1970s, China drew a one-millionth map of the source of the Three Rivers based on satellite data. At this point, the first map accurately reflecting the mountain water system in the source region of the Three Rivers was born, which provided an important scientific basis for future field visits. In the summer of 1976 and 1978, the state organized Jiangyuan expedition twice. After in-depth field investigation, it was found that there were dozens of rivers, large and small, between Tanggula Mountain and Kunlun Mountain, among which the larger ones were Chuma River, Tuotuo River and Dangqu River. The comparison of these three rivers is as follows: Chumar River has a small water volume, while Dangqu River has the largest area and water volume. Further along Tuotuo River, Tuotuo River divides into two tributaries. The east branch originates from the southwest of Gladandong Snow Mountain, the main peak of Tanggula, with an altitude of 662 1 m, and the west branch originates from Gaqiadirugang Snow Mountain with an altitude of 6513m. The east branch is slightly longer than the west branch, and the positive source of the Yangtze River should be the Gladdang Snow Mountain, the main peak of Tanggula. At the top of Gladandong Snow Mountain is a huge Jianggudi glacier, and the dribs and drabs formed by glacial meltwater are the initial outflow of the Yangtze River.
1978 65438+1October 13, Xinhua News Agency released the latest news of the investigation of the source of the river to the whole world, and also announced that the total length of the Yangtze River is 6,300 kilometers, instead of 5,800 kilometers in the past, making it the third longest river in the world.
Our film crew finally reached the foot of Glacier Glacier after going through a lot of hardships. Under the leadership of Tibetan compatriots, we are almost moving towards the ice pagoda forest. The sky began to snow, and the snow kept hitting us with cold wind. It's more than five kilometers away. If it is in Beijing, we can walk for an hour at most. However, we walked on this 5 km Glacier Tour for more than 5 hours, at 2 pm. God seems to be moved by our spirit, and the sun quickly reveals thousands of rays from behind the clouds. Gladstone Mountain is particularly dazzling in the sun. It is the melting glacier water on Bingta Mountain, which drips into the rolling Yangtze River and breeds Chinese civilization for thousands of years.
The search for the source of Lancang River is much later than that of Yangtze River and Yellow River. 1866, six Frenchmen set out from the hot and humid forest in Vietnam and traveled long distances to the cold mountainous area in southwest China without any map data of Lancang River, which lasted for two years. Due to the limitation of natural conditions, it is difficult for them to accurately determine the length of Lancang River and provide sufficient evidence to prove its source. 1994, American explorer Michelle Peissel and his two companions set out from Yushu Prefecture to find the source along the Lancang River. They walked for a few days and arrived at a local place called Lombra, thinking that it was the source of the Lancang River. Michelle Peissel is 58 years old. He has paid a lot of hardships that ordinary people can't understand, but his identification of the source of Lancang River proved to be a mistake. Where is the source of the attractive Lancang River hidden? 1June, 1999, a scientific investigation team composed of experts from China Scientific Investigation Society 18 embarked on a journey to find the source of the Lancang River, but found that the source area of the Lancang River was densely covered with river networks, mixed water and lakes and swamps. By comparing the measured results of Zanaqu and Zaaqu, it is considered that Zaaqu should be the positive source of Lancang River.