The historical significance of the ancient road

Tibetan compatriots on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have been eating cheese, beef and mutton for a long time. The hot and difficult to digest food requires tea to help digestion. During the Han, Tang and Song Dynasties, in order to strengthen military power, a large number of horses were needed, and the tea horse trade began. start. By the Yuan Dynasty, Kangding was still a desolate land. During the Ming Dynasty, because the tea in some areas outside southern Shaanxi was not good, it affected the tea-horse trade. Therefore, the Ming government strictly controlled the sale of tea. The most prosperous tea-horse trade market was in Kangding.

Shaanxi merchants arrived in Kangding via the "Qin-Shu Ancient Road". Kangding merchants mainly came from Shaanxi, Sichuan and other provinces. Shaanxi merchants were the earliest to enter and had the strongest economic strength. Shaanxi merchants stepped on the ancient tea-horse road, which is called trip The ancient road, "Tanggu Road" was the Tea Horse Road that could sell tea across regions in the country at that time.

Tibetan merchants crossed Jingning Mountain to the Kangding area, and Shaanxi merchants and Sichuan merchants poured into the Kangding area from the mainland. It broke the barrier of "the Han people cannot enter the Fan, and the Fan cannot enter the Han".

Tea and horse trading mainly took place in the Kangding area today. However, the market at that time only lasted for two or three hours around noon and ended soon.

As the demand for tea gradually increases, traveling back and forth is no longer suitable for the development of the business situation, and it is necessary to settle down in Kangding for a long time.

Shaanxi businessmen were the first to adapt to the development of the situation. After arriving in Kangding, they set up pots to cook. Tibetan businessmen and businessmen from other places came to wholesale tea. First, they could buy fresh tea, and second, they were new arrivals. If you don’t know the market, you can buy it at a good price. Later, the place where there was a pot became a market. Shaanxi merchants built a wall to protect themselves from the wind and built houses around it. The open space in the middle became a place for tea and horse exchange. We put the inhabited place It was called a village. Shaanxi businessmen missed their hometown, so they called it Guozhuang. Later, the Tibetan compatriots built their own Guozhuang in order to facilitate transactions. Men went out to buy goods and women took care of the Guozhuang. Guozhuang dance also emerged.

"Records of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty" (Volume 251) records: "Tea from Qin and Shu was used for more than five thousand miles from Diaomen, Li, Ya to Duogan and Wusizang. No one can live without this for a day." This is enough to show the huge demand and wide range of tea at that time.

. "Chronicles of Tibet" mentions Dajian Lu, saying: There are many business people in Xi'an here.

1935 "An Overview of Tibet" reported: Without Lao Shaanxi, grass will not grow.

The "Economic Yearbook" of the Republic of China: Most of the Shaanxi people living in Kangdi were alone, and after a few years, they became wealthy businessmen.

Kangding gradually developed into the center of border tea trade.

In the seventh year of Yongzheng's reign (1729) in the Qing Dynasty, a Dajian furnace hall was set up to garrison troops.

The British and other invaders wanted to use Indian tea to replace Shaanxi tea and Sichuan tea, so as to separate Tibet from the motherland. However, the Tibetan people did not recognize tea printing, which made the invaders' sinister plot come to nothing.

The tea-horse trade uses "Guozhuang" as the medium. The tea-horse economy firmly combines the Han and Tibetan people, stabilizes the frontier, and develops the frontier, which is of great significance.

The contribution of Shaanxi businessmen is indispensable.