Life Tips & Miscellaneous Travel and History Zen Philosophy and History Art and Sport Navigation of this blog
Summary
Travel is an act for human beings to visit new places and experience different cultures and histories. Through travel, people can actually feel historical events and people’s lives by visiting historical places and cultural heritage sites, and can gain a deeper understanding of history and broaden their own perspectives. In this section, we will discuss the historical background of the trip and the places visited based on Ryotaro Shiba’s “Kaido yuku” (On the Road) about this journey and history.
On the Road to Jiangnan, China, Volume 19
In the previous article, we discussed the Han no Kuni travelogue.. This time, we will travel to Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, and Ningbo, which built a great ancient civilization through Jiangnan (a vast fertile area south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River), China, which has close relations with Japan throughout history.
This trip starts from Suzhou, where the relationship between the Song Dynasty and Japan is described along the existing city gate, and the influence of Chinese tea on Japan is described by looking at the tea plantations of Longjing (Dragon Well). In Shaoxing, he visits Lu Xun’s former residence and discusses the life of the Chinese intellectual class. In Ningbo, his last stop, he visits the port where the Tang Dynasty envoys and students from the Kamakura period landed, and Tendo Mountain, and reflects on the Japanese people of the past who worked to absorb the culture.
This trip will be a journey through China. Ancient China was a huge lighthouse of civilization, and the surrounding peoples of East Asia, large and small, have been covered by its light and created their own unique cultures since ancient times.
China is a multi-ethnic country with more than 50 ethnic minorities. They have existed since B.C. and played a role in the establishment of ancient civilizations. For example, as for iron, there are historical traces that barbarians (non-Han people) were the first to possess it, as described in “Rational Thought in Ancient China: The Guanzi,” “The Shan Hai Jing,” “The Spring and Autumn of the Lu Clan,” and other texts. The origin of tea, as described in “The History of Tea and the Japanese Tea Ceremony,” was introduced by the Han Chinese from the customs of the ethnic minorities living in the mountainous areas.
In agriculture, people south of the east-west line of the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River grew rice and ate rice, and in the Spring and Autumn period, they were regarded as a group with different temperament and culture from the people in the middle plains where there was no rice and grain, and were called “Jingban”.
Furthermore, the Qiang, a Tibetan pastoralist people who lived in the northwest corner of China, were related to the royal family of Zhou, and it is said that most of the people of “Qin”, the first unified country, might have been agriculturalized by the “Qiang”.
Moreover, as described in “History of the Silk Road and the Plains“, there is an example that horses, which had been pulled by vehicles until then, were changed to be ridden and fought by people under the influence of nomadic tribes in the plains inside the Eurasian continent.
From the perspective of this melting pot of civilizations, Ryotaro Shiba’s trip this time will visit Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, which were the windows of exchange to the Japanese side of the Tang, Ming, Song, and Qing dynasties that greatly influenced Japanese culture.
First, we will start with Suzhou, which was the capital of the Wu Dynasty in the Spring and Autumn period and the center of the Wu cultural sphere. It is also known as the “Venice of the East” because of its water transportation through canals, and its history is much older than that of Venice.
Suzhou is located next to Shanghai, China’s second largest city.
In Suzhou, we visited the Ban Gate. This is the gate that was built by Corporal Castle, the man who brought Sun Wu to the stage of history, as described in “The Roots of Problem Solving: Sun Tzu“, In the battle between Wu and Yue, he played an active role for Wu’s King Tongryeo, but his son, Huzhe, was estranged from him and ordered to commit suicide due to the admonition of a wicked advisor. “Cut out your own eyes and place them on the city gate in the southeast (in the direction of Yue). He became famous for his death with his last will and testament: “Cut out your own eyes and place them over the city gate in the southeast (toward Yue), so that you can watch Yue destroy Wu.
Next, the group will travel to Hangzhou. Hangzhou was the capital city of the Southern Song Dynasty, which influenced Japanese Zen Buddhism as described in “History of Zen, Temples, and Kamakura (Rinzai Zen and the Five Mountains of Kamakura)“. Currently, it takes 1 hour and 40 minutes from Suzhou Station to Hangzhou East Station by High-Tie (Chinese High Speed Rail).
In Hangzhou, we will visit the Yue Wang Temple, the tomb of Yue Fei, a popular Chinese military commander along with Guan Yu.
Both are worshipped as gods after their death. While Guan Yu was a figure from the Three Kingdoms period (about 1,700 years ago), Yue Fei was a figure from the Southern Song dynasty (about 900 years ago), and was active in the wars between the Manchu-based Jin dynasty and the Song dynasty in the period before Yuan unified China as described in “Mongolia on the Road“. He had “Zichung Bokoku” tattooed on his back and rallied the inferior Song forces, winning one victory after another.
In response, the Song emperor and his prime minister, Qin Cypress, thought that they could achieve a peaceful world without war if they made peace by paying huge sums of money to Yue Fei, who would win the war, and considered him a hindrance. The people of Jiangnan later cleared him of the charges and began to worship him as a god. Furthermore, it is said that there was a custom to make a statue of Qin Cypress and Zhang Jun, the viziers of the Southern Song Dynasty who had wronged Yue Fei, sitting upright in front of Yue Fei’s statue and spit on the statue. (This custom is now prohibited.)
As for Yuefei, it used to be available on amazon prime drama, but it is no longer available. In book form, it can be seen in the 17-volume Gakehi Biography by Kenzo Kitakata.
After leaving Hangzhou, Ryotaro Shiba visited the tea plantations of Longjing (Longjing) and described the influence of Chinese tea on Japan (see also “History of Tea and Japanese Tea Ceremony“).
Shaoxing wine is brewed with glutinous rice and spring water from Jianhu, Shaoxing, and stored and aged for at least three years before becoming yellow wine (huangjiu, or brewed wine). In China, it is also called Jianghu wine because it is brewed with water from Jianghu Lake. The alcohol content ranges from 14 to 18 degrees Celsius. It is used not only for drinking but also as a seasoning. Shaoxing wine goes well with oily Chinese dishes, but some people add sugar or sugar cubes to it because of its strong sour and bitter taste.
Lu Xun was a literary figure active in China after the Xinhai Revolution. He studied medicine in Japan and turned to literature after returning to China, practicing white-language literature in “Shin Seinen” magazine from 1918. His best-known work became “A-Q Shōgen” (The Legend of A-Q Shōgen). While continuing his classical studies and creative works in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai, he was also involved in political activities against the rightward shift of the Nanjing Nationalist government, and encountered the Shanghai Incident, and died in 1936 as the Japanese invasion intensified.
The last stop on the Jiangnan route was Ningbo. In Ningbo, he visited the port where Tang Dynasty envoys and students from the Kamakura period (1185-1333) landed, and Tendo Mountain.
In the next article, we will discuss the Shu path in China.
コメント