Northwest Travel Notes: Xining Story

It’s been a long time since I traveled with a group.

I still remember that when I was in graduate school, six boys met to go on a self-guided trip to Europe. They were nervous and uneasy, but they actually found that it was not that difficult when they arrived in Italy and Switzerland. Things were stolen, cars stalled, and... Being fined on the highway... all kinds of troubles encountered during travel will become the most wonderful memories in the future.

From then on, Al fell in love with self-guided travel. The preparation beforehand and the memories afterward seemed to make a vacation infinitely longer.

However, this time when you challenge China’s Great Northwest Ring Road, should you choose to do it yourself? This is the choice we face from the beginning.

Considering that Qinghai and Gansu are vast in size, and the distances between towns are too far, and we are not familiar with the place, if something happens, there is really no way to call for help. So I decided to travel with a group later. There are four boys in the group, who were also members of the group who bravely traveled to Europe together. In fact, at the beginning, I was always worried about whether I would not be able to integrate into the group. Fortunately, the trip experience exceeded expectations and the group members all became very good friends, so I decided to write a travel diary.

Al has always been accustomed to recording all his feelings and joys in his travel notes. However, this trip is closely related to the theme of "Silk Road", so I want to challenge it and add more history, geography, and geology. knowledge, filling the entire Great Northwest Loop into a more complete knowledge chain.

This idea came to me in the last few days of the trip, and I started to check the information constantly. Some of the content may be boring, but I tried my best to sort out these historical stories in a way that ordinary people can understand.

For the sake of completeness, each article will be very long. If you want to know the Xining, Qilian, Zhangye, Dunhuang, Delingha, and Qinghai Lake that you have traveled through, what shaped them into what we see now? Welcome to read and help you sleep.

Also as a gift to the new team leader Onio.

The first part of the story begins in Xining.

Living on an island, I have never been to the western region. Before signing up for this trip, I had always been full of imagination about the Northwest. What does the desert look like? What does the plateau feel like? I can only extend it from the "seaside beaches" and "alpine meadows" I have seen before.

"It's probably like multiplying it by 1,000 times, right?" This is my psychological expectation. Of course, I was also worried about the local conditions, so I brought a lot of dry food and snacks, so that the tour leader was shocked when he saw my heavy luggage.

Arrive at Xining Caojiabao Airport at an altitude of 2,184 meters. The airport runway is close to the mountain wall and the scenery is magnificent.

Caojiabao Airport is located in Haidong City, about a 40-minute drive from Xining City. We got into a taxi, and since it was getting late, we didn’t see any special scenery along the way.

After putting our luggage at the hotel, we hurried to the nearby Mojia Street for dinner.

To a tourist, Mojia Street is just a night market with all kinds of food. Jufan Kang mutton, yogurt, fermented glutinous rice, yak bone soup... are full of the characteristics of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

However, besides eating and shopping, if you pay careful attention to the scenic spots you have visited, you will find that many obscure place names in China actually have historical allusions.

For example, the Mojia Street you see in front of you.

There are two opinions about its origin.

The first theory is that it is related to the father and son Yan Song and Yan Shifan, the great traitors during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.

It is said that Mo Huaigu, an official of the Ministry of Rites, treasured "Wenliangzhan", a kind of jade wine cup, in his home. Use this wine glass to hold wine. When you drink it in winter, it will be lukewarm. When you drink it in summer, it will be cool and the wine will taste mellow.

Yan Song's son Yan Shifan heard that Mohuaigu had this treasure, so he used his power to ask him to hand it over. Mo Huaigu was unwilling to hand it over, so Yan Song and his son framed him and demoted Mo Huaigu to Xining. After arriving in Xining, Mohuaigu built a temple there and enshrined his ancestors' tablets. The road in front of the temple was called Mojia Street.

This statement is very dramatic and fits Yan Shifan's image as "cunning and greedy for money".

After all, Emperor Jiajing was superstitious about Taoism, and Yan Shifan was good at writing the religious ritual "Qing Ci". It is said that Yan Song relied on his son's skill to gain the emperor's favor; Yan Shifan was also the left minister of the Ministry of Industry as his father. Make plans and make plans.

In addition, Yan Shifan also likes to collect rare antiques.

Gu Gongxie during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty wrote a story in "Excerpts of Summer Leisure Notes": "Wang Yan of Taicang collected the famous painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" by Zhang Zeduan of the Northern Song Dynasty. After Yan Shifan knew about it, he forcibly asked for it. Wang Yan He presented the copy to Yan Song. Tang Chen, the framer, recognized that the painting was a fake and said, "Just look at whether the bird in the corner of the house has stepped on two tiles." Yan Song was so angry that he took the opportunity to kill Wang Yan." /p>

Gu Gongxie is from Taicang, Jiangsu Province, and Wang Yan is also from Taicang, Jiangsu Province. It is reasonable and reasonable for Gu Gongxie to write stories to avenge the injustice of his fellow villagers 200 years ago.

According to historical facts, Yan Song did imprison and kill the responsible official Wang Yan because the Luo River burst its banks. However, is it because of the dramatic factor of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival"?

We don't know.

The problem with the story of Mo Huaigu being demoted to Xining is that it is too dramatic. It is almost the same content as the Ming and Qing opera "A Handful of Snow". The protagonist of "A Handful of Snow" is named Mo Huaigu (only one character different from Mo Huaigu mentioned above), and the prototype character is believed to be the Wang Yan mentioned above.

It is worth mentioning that Yan Shifan also has a famous image of "lustful". It is said that the prototype character of Ximen Qing in "Jin Ping Mei", one of China's four great wonders, is Yan Shifan.

Then Lan Ling, the author of "Jin Ping Mei", said that his true identity was Wang Shizhen, the great scholar in Nanjing during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Shizhen’s father is Wang Yan.

Therefore, the first theory about Mojia Street is probably just attached to this legendary injustice case involving "The Plum in the Golden Vase" and "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".

The second theory is based on the preface of "The Genealogy of the Mo Family in Ancient Huang", which was written by Zhang Sixian, a poet in the late Qing Dynasty.

In this version, the ancestor of the Mo family is called Mo De. He followed Zhu Yuanzhang in the uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Due to his military merits, he was named the hereditary commander of the Xining Guard (equivalent to the captain of the Public Security Bureau), and was later appointed by Geng Bingwen. , responsible for the Xining city building project.

Please note that the word "hereditary" is added to this position of command.

Do you feel intimidating?

In fact, it is because when Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was designing the system, he had an extremely conservative desire for control and wanted to tightly tie household registration, occupation, and land together.

——In other words, whatever profession the father has, the son can only do that profession.

——If the father becomes a butcher, no matter how weak his son is, he will still be a butcher. And you can only stay in your hometown forever. If you want to bring your skills to work in the city, you are not allowed!

In terms of military affairs, the Ming Dynasty adopted the "guard system". A guard station is a military unit. For example, the "Xining Guard" is a guard station. According to Lao Zhu's design, all soldiers and junior officers in the unit are hereditary.

Therefore, after Mo De died, his son Mo Yun inherited his position! Later, Mo Yun was awarded the title of Commander-in-Chief (equivalent to the deputy director of the Public Security Bureau) for his meritorious service, and was given permission to build the Mo family's mansion in the city.

So the road in front of the Mojia Ancestral Hall was called Mojia Street.

This statement is consistent with historical facts. According to "Records of Taizu", in 1386 AD, Zhu Yuanzhang planned to build a city in Xiningwei. Puying was responsible for building it, but it was not completed at that time. Why is it not finished? Because the following year, Pu Ying was transferred to follow Feng Sheng in his northern expedition to Mongolia.

Please remember the name Feng Sheng. When this series of stories tells about Jiayuguan, he will be introduced in a big way.

Although Puying has been transferred, the unfinished projects must continue. In 1387, Geng Bingwen, who had just finished conquering Yunnan, was transferred to Xining and took over the city building project.

For the job of building the city, Geng Bingwen was the right one. His military reputation was "good defense". When he was playing against Zhang Shicheng, he was responsible for defending Zhejiang Changxing. He faced Zhang Shicheng across Taihu Lake for 10 years!

He was also one of the few survivors of Zhu Yuanzhang's massacre of heroes in his later years, so after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, King Zhu Di of Yan launched the Jingnan Rebellion, and there were not many veterans left who had fought in the war! Geng Bingwen, 66 years old at the time, was ordered to guard Hebei in the face of danger, but Zhu Di was unable to break through. It is a pity that Emperor Jianwen later replaced the veteran Geng Bingwen with Li Jinglong, the son of Cao Guogong Li Wenzhong... In the end, Zhu Di became the founder of the Ming Dynasty.

By the way, it is said that the famous Beichan Temple in Xining was also built by Geng Bingwen.

The story backgrounds of the above two statements are more than 150 years apart.

Geng Bingwen and Mo De were figures in the early Ming Dynasty.

Yan Song, Yan Shifan, and Mo Huaigu (assuming that such people really exist) have entered the late Ming Dynasty.

In these two stories, there is hidden historical information about Xining. The city of Xining seems to be isolated on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and seems to be very alienated from the Central Plains Dynasty? Is that really the case?

Let me give it a try first, and I will reveal it to you later.

At 10 o'clock in the evening, the team leader called everyone for a meeting in the hotel room.

After everyone introduced themselves, I felt that everyone was a little brother or sister in their 20s or early 30s.

Why did you sign up for this group in the first place? It is because it has an upper age limit, and you cannot participate if you are over 40 years old, so we quickly seize the tail of youth before the upper limit is approaching.

That night I only remembered the names of the leader and deputy leader. After briefly introducing the itinerary, the tour leader asked everyone if they had any questions. I immediately raised my hand: "Which days of the trip are the coldest?"

The tour leader said: "It will be the coldest when entering the Qilian Mountains tomorrow."

It was the end of August, the day we arrived in Xining At night, I felt that the climate was very dry and pleasant, which was different from what I imagined on the Tibetan Plateau. In fact, the climate in Xining is indeed pretty good. The average monthly temperature throughout the year will at least not drop below zero during the day, and in summer it is around 25 degrees. ——However, this is a special case of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Since Xining is located in the Huangshui River Valley, the valley and river water regulate the local climate.

There are not many warm valleys on the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Xining and Lhasa each have one.

If you look down from the sky, the urban area of ??Xining appears in the shape of a cross. Developing along the river bank, the horizontal line is Huangshui River, and the vertical line is the tributaries of Huangshui River, Nanchuan River and Beichuan River.

As for the Huangshui River, it is a tributary of the Yellow River. You can go down the river from Xining to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province.

This geographical factor has greatly changed my understanding of the "Starting Point of the Silk Road" route.

Speaking of the "Silk Road", we all know that this is the trade route across Europe and Asia. The eastern starting point of the Silk Road can generally be located in Xi'an.

From Xi'an along the Weihe River Valley, you can reach Tianshui. From Tianshui, you can reach Lanzhou by crossing the hills and following the Tao River Valley. Lanzhou is already located in Gansu Province. Next, we will go northwest to enter the Hexi Corridor, Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, Dunhuang, until we exit Yumen Pass in the west. It seems logical from the map. …This is what most of us know as the “starting point of the Silk Road.”

Unfortunately, there is a small immature problem in the middle.

This small problem occurred in the section "entering the Hexi Corridor from Lanzhou".

In addition to ramen noodles, the importance of Lanzhou is also reflected in the fact that it is the gathering point of the Loess Plateau, Guanzhong Plain, Hexi Corridor, and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with transportation extending in all directions. But there is a mountain range in the northwest of Lanzhou. Everyone must have heard of it, called "Wushaoling".

In geography textbooks, Wushaoling is the dividing line of monsoon Asia. In other words, the water vapor from the Pacific Ocean can only blow as far as here.

South of Wushaoling is a temperate monsoon climate zone with an annual rainfall of more than 400 mm, which is still suitable for agriculture.

North of Wushaoling is a temperate continental climate zone with an annual rainfall of less than 400 millimeters. Basically, it can only be used for grazing.

Although the width from north to south is only about 10 kilometers, the average altitude of Wushaoling is more than 3,000 meters. It lies between Lanzhou and the Hexi Corridor, making business travelers who take this road miserable.

What’s the hard part?

The description of Wushaoling in history books uses eight very specific words: "Snow is flying in midsummer, and the cold is biting to the bones."

For example, Lin Zexu was dismissed by Emperor Daoguang during the Opium War and sent to Xinjiang. He recorded in "He Ge Ji Cheng" that he passed through Wushaoling in the summer of 1842 (please note that it was summer). Situation: "Wuli Wushao Ridge is not very steep, but the ground is very cold. The mountains outside the mountains to the west are snow mountains. This is Ridu Ridge. Although I wear leather clothes, I can't stand the cold."

Why is Wushaoling so cold?

Because Ma Ya Snow Mountain and Leigong Mountain next to Wushaoling are both high mountains of about 4,400 meters, covered with snow all year round. Due to the cold weather, the average annual temperature in Wushaoling is only minus 2.2 degrees Celsius.

Modern transportation in southern Gansu and northern Gansu is relatively convenient because the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railway double-track construction project started in 2003. It took three years to open up the 20.05-kilometer "Wushaoling", which was the longest in Asia at that time. Railway Tunnel". In 2013, five more "Wushaoling Highway Tunnels" with a total length of 43.84 kilometers were opened.

However, going back to the ancient times of the Silk Road, if you want to go from Lanzhou to Zhangye via Wuwei, walking through Wushaoling is undoubtedly a chore.

Fortunately, you have a second option, which is to go directly west from Lanzhou along the Huangshui River Valley and enter Xining. Then go north from Xining through the mountain pass and reach Zhangye. The journey is not much farther than crossing Wushaoling.

Boating is possible in the first half of this route, and agriculture can even be done in the warm valley. It was called the "Hehuang area" in ancient times.

The second half of the route is an ancient road called "Biandukou".

Therefore, we can re-understand the city of Xining in this way.

Although it is located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, due to the existence of the Huangshui River, Xining is not as far away from Lanzhou, Tianshui, and Xi'an as imagined.

During the Western Han Dynasty, Xining had been included in the territory. It was called Xiping at that time and belonged to Liangzhou.

During the Three Kingdoms era, Xiping belonged to the territory of Wei. Zhuge Liang made five Northern Expeditions, two of which came out of Qishan. The battle lines were all in the Baoji and Tianshui areas. After Kong Ming's death, Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition route moved further west. His strategic purpose was to contact the Qiang people and cut off the connection between Wei and Liangzhou. Therefore, Jiang Wei once sent troops to Xiping in 249 AD, but returned without success.

So we know that historically, Xining was a prominent part of the Han Dynasty on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (although it was sometimes occupied by other ethnic groups).

A large part of Xining’s value relies on the Silk Road, because it belongs to the southern line from Lanzhou to Zhangye.

When the Silk Road prospers, Xining will prosper.

If the Silk Road declines, the importance of Xining will become irrelevant to the Han Dynasty.

Now, do you still remember the two stories about Mojia Street?

In the more reliable story, Zhu Yuanzhang and Geng Bingwen, who built Xining City, were both from Haozhou, Anhui; Pu Ying was from Luzhou, Anhui; and Mo De was from Shouzhou, Anhui. These places all belong to Huaixi, and most of the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty came from here, so they are called "Huaixi Honors".

In other words, they are all Zhu Yuanzhang's fellow villagers.

If it was an unimportant place, would Lao Zhu inexplicably send fellow villagers to build a city? And let fellow villagers inherit the position of the health center? Do you allow fellow villagers to build mansions in the city?

That's because in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the country's military was still strong and it could still control the Western Regions. A series of guard posts were set up from Dunhuang to Hami, and the Silk Road was still open.

At that time, the city of Xining was still booming.

However, time passed by and 150 years later, the Ming Dynasty was riddled with internal problems and could no longer maintain the glory of the Silk Road. In 1521, Emperor Jiajing even ordered the closure of Jiayuguan Pass. It means that business travelers no longer have legal channels to enter China from the Hexi Corridor. So how can a series of cities that rely on this Silk Road to survive have a good life?

Therefore, the legendary official of the Ministry of Rites, Mo Huaigu, was framed and "demoted" to Xining.

It is conceivable that in the late Ming Dynasty, Mongolian chiefs traveled across Qinghai and invaded the city several times. Xiningwei has lost the economic and trade benefits of the Silk Road and is short of money and food. It can only support itself. What normal official would want to stay in a place like this?

However, Xining people have their arrogance!

During the Chongzhen period, rogue bandits broke out everywhere and the world was in chaos. The local border ethnic groups in Qinghai rose up in resistance. Li Zicheng also fought westward for a time, and the entire Shaanxi and Gansu provinces fell. Only Xining, an isolated plateau island, could not be conquered.

The Xining people held on for several months before they were broken by Li Zicheng's general Xin Enzhong.

Two months later, Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself on Meishan, and Ming Sui died.

Regarding the series of domino effects before and after the closure of Jiayuguan in the late Ming Dynasty, I will explain the story clearly in the next few articles. I hope everyone will have the patience to watch it.

Before going to bed, I took a bunch of grapes from the team leader. The fruits were small and green but very sweet. My friends actually laughed at me because the team leader was so kind to me. Little did he know that this little friend would actually do such indescribable things with the tour leader later (just treat it as a travelogue preview)!

I didn’t sleep well tonight in Xining City because of a mosquito.

The quality of my sleep was poor and I really suffered the next day. Because the Great Northwest Loop starts tomorrow, the journey we have to take is the Zhangye South Line mentioned earlier, entering the name that all Chinese have read in history textbooks and longed for - Qilian Mountains.