The Three Gorges Ancient Plank Road _ an epic on the cliff ―― The Three Gorges Ancient Plank Road that is gone forever

As a miracle in China's ancient traffic history, the ancient plank road in the Three Gorges area brought the local economy, people's livelihood and even military struggle to a thrilling and colorful height. As the deepest cultural landscape on the Three Gorges, they were once inseparable from the life of Xiajiang people. But now, they have been buried in the calm river, leaving us only endless memories and imagination.

Mr. Feng Jicai once said, "No matter how much energy will be generated after the Yangtze River is cut off, we will lose the great river of Wan Li forever. We are cornered by one of our own ideas, and we must choose one of them; In the end, we chose "necessities of life" at the expense of our mother river, which has nurtured us for at least 7000 years. What we have lost is not only its unique and changeable landscape, but also the mountains and rivers bearing countless magnificent and charming legends, the monument that will never come back to life, and its caring for its mother. We are all sinking its 7000-year history into the bottom of the sea 100 meters ... "

Now, all this has happened. Countless landscapes and historical sites sleep quietly at the bottom of the water, falling into complete silence, as if they have never been to this world, just like those once thrilling and beautiful ancient plank roads of the Three Gorges. As the deepest cultural landscape on the Three Gorges, the ancient plank road has become a pure history, and they have completed their mission, but our recollection of the ancient plank road has just begun.

Three Gorges ancient plank road

The plank road is thousands of miles away, leading to Shu Han. -Warring States Policy? Qince

Before the impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam, when ships sailed in the Three Gorges Gorge, plank roads on the cliffs could be seen everywhere.

On the cliff next to the bellows in Fengxiang Gorge, eight vigorous Chinese characters are written: "The Golden Calendar of the Secret" and "Pioneering Outstanding Work". These eight characters describe and praise the ancient plank road, which is called one of the "Three Gorges Mysteries".

The plank road is a common road form in steep mountainous areas, which has existed in China since ancient times, and the earliest known record is in the Warring States Period. Warring States policy? In Qin Ce, Fan Ju, Prime Minister of Zhao Haoqi of Qin State, said that "the plank road is a thousand miles long, which leads to Shu Han", which shows that the plank road was very developed at that time. According to legend, Jinniu Road built by Qin State is the earliest plank road in China. Of course, there are plank roads not only at home, but also abroad. According to Tang Xuanzang's Records of the Western Regions, when he crossed the green ridge on the way to learn from the scriptures, he crossed the hanging mountain plank road. This so-called plank road is to cut some stone holes in the cliff. Those who want to cross it will take two wooden pegs and cross the stone holes alternately with their hands. That kind of plank road, without extraordinary courage and strength, is definitely impossible. At present, the plank road is the most developed in China, which is concentrated in Qinba area with overlapping mountains and dangerous roads.

Undoubtedly, the need of survival and development gave birth to the excavation of the ancient plank road. In the Three Gorges area, the mountains are high and steep, the speed of beach danger is fast, and the traffic has been extremely difficult. From the Warring States Period to the end of the Qing Dynasty, in order to solve the traffic problems in high mountains and canyons, the ancestors in central Sichuan dug holes in the precipice, set up fences to build sheds, or cut roads abruptly on the precipice under extremely difficult material conditions. There are mainly two kinds of roads in the canyon area: wooden plank road and slotted stone plank road: wooden plank road is to drill holes in the stone wall, drive thick stakes, and then lay boards on the exposed crossbar; The grooved stone plank road is a "groove" cut on the cliff for people to walk on.

We usually call the ancient plank road of the Three Gorges these stone canals.

From a distance, these plank roads are vaguely like narrow paths, most of which are only more than one meter wide, and the widest place is only about two meters, like a thin belt, hanging high on a cliff dozens of meters away from the river. This plank road is a typical mountain road in ancient China, concentrated in the border areas of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing and Hubei. These superficial plank roads have thus turned an almost insurmountable natural barrier into a thoroughfare.

The ancient plank road of the Three Gorges is fifty or sixty kilometers long. Qutangxia section starts from the east bank of fengjie county Caotang estuary and ends at Zhuangyuandui Mountain on the other side of Daxi in Wushan County, with a length of about 10 km. Wuxia section starts from the other side of Wushan county and ends at Qinglianxi at the junction of Sichuan and Hubei, with a length of about 30 kilometers. The rest are scattered in Xiling Gorge. According to the data, after the plank road was cut through, the road surface was once widened, and cars came and went, and the trackers could walk side by side with the bearers. Later, due to the weathering of rocks, the plank road became narrower and narrower.

In the long ancient times, the Yangtze River was the most powerful and largest channel in China, forming a huge water transport network from upstream to downstream and its tributaries. However, the dangers of the Three Gorges Waterway are also world-famous. Tan Bangwu, a 90-year-old boatman in Badong County, Hubei Province, said that from Fengjie to Yichang, the beach is fierce and the water is bad, and at least 1000 people are buried at the bottom of the river every year. This situation didn't change until the Gezhouba project was completed and the water level rose in the 1980s. In the past, due to the danger of waterways, especially in flood season, navigation was often closed. When navigation is closed, business travel depends on these plank roads along the river.

After 1980s, due to the construction of expressway along the Yangtze River and the great improvement of navigation conditions along the Yangtze River, most of these weathered ancient roads were abandoned, and few pedestrians paid attention to them. Only travelers who cross the Three Gorges on foot occasionally visit there, and only the section from Fengjie to Dongqutang Gorge is well preserved and relatively easy to pass.

These stone aqueducts are wonders in the ancient traffic history of China. Stone aqueducts are not only the most typical ones in the Three Gorges area, but also the most intact ones. The longest section of Qutang Gorge is more than 200 meters. In addition, many engineering methods used in this road are still widely used in today's highway construction, such as using explosives to clear the way, using tunnels similar to tunnels, and considering the flood level of the road surface. The opening of this road has the greatest significance of communicating the most direct connection between Wushan and Fengjie, creating a very good track for Qutang Gorge and indirectly promoting the development of water shipping.

But now, it has been sleeping under the stagnant river.

Life experience of Daning River ancient plank road

The southern section starts from Ningchang, goes south along the right bank of Daning River, and reaches Longmen Xiakou in Wushan. The original name of the whole journey is 270 Li, and there are more than 6,800 wooden and stone caves on the rock wall.

-"Wuxi County Records"

Compared with the ancient plank road on the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, the Daning River ancient plank road belonging to the Three Gorges area is even worse.

Before the impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam, the ruins of Daning River ancient plank road can be seen from Wushan County on the cliff on the west side of the canyon, which has the reputation of "Little Three Gorges". It is said to be a relic, but in fact there is only one plate hole supporting the plate beam. This is a neatly arranged small square stone cave, 6 inches square, with a hole depth of more than 2 feet and a hole spacing of 5 feet, all cut on the cliff. In dry season, the height from the river surface is about 15m. If the pavement is paved, it is like a suspended road, hanging on the wall of a deep valley, and walking on it, such as walking in the clouds, is very thrilling. Except for the main stream below Ningchang, all tributaries in the north have similar plank road caves, starting from Zhuxi in Hubei in the east, Zhenping in Shaanxi in the north and Chengkou County in the west, forming an ancient plank road network of thousands of kilometers. This scale is quite amazing.

It can be speculated that this large-scale plank road network played an extremely important role in ancient political, military, economic and cultural exchanges. However, there is almost no record of who built such a large-scale ancient plank road and when. A grand project that was originally worthy of a great book has become an eternal mystery.

There is no record in official history, but there are legends among the people. There is a famous local legend about the origin of the cave on the cliff of Daning River. Master Lu Ban and Guanyin Bodhisattva saw the hardships of ordinary people and planned to do something good for them. In the duet, Lu Ban built roads for the people on the cliff overnight, and Guanyin made 100 pairs of embroidered shoes for the people. Whoever finishes first is the winner. Lu Ban knocked on the cliff with his prescription and knocked out an eye every 5 feet, which was very fast. Guanyin peeked at Lu Ban's progress before dawn and found that he was almost finished. Worried that he would lose, he cried like a chicken. Luban thought he lost at dawn, so he stopped, leaving a long row of neat caves on the cliff.

Although it is a legend, it expresses the simplest wishes and views of ordinary people: it is unimaginable to build such a dangerous and great project as the Daning River ancient plank road on a cliff that is directly inserted into the water like a knife. Unless it is a skilled craftsman, it can only be completed by mortals.

But mortals are finished!

It is impossible to know exactly what the completed Daning River plank road looks like, but it is recorded that the plank road is very flat and solid, and you can even gallop on it.

Is it really possible to race horses on such a narrow path?

"Riding the world of mortals and laughing, who knows that it is litchi." These two seemingly simple poems by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, contain a lot of bitterness, and also make future generations lament the extravagant life of Yang Guifei, who was spoiled by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. But how did the southern fresh litchi, which won a smile from the imperial concubine, get to Chang 'an? Qin Jianming, the cultural relics investigation and research office of Xi 'an Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Center, thinks that it was shipped from the plank road of the Three Gorges, because fast horses can run on the plank road, and fresh litchi can be delivered to Chang 'an in a day or two.

Litchi for Yang Guifei from afar is from Sichuan. Litchi was abundant in Sichuan in the Tang Dynasty, instead of Guangdong, which we usually think of today. If litchi is sent from Guangdong to Chang 'an, it will rot on the road no matter how fast. This typical example proves that the ancient plank road of the Three Gorges can indeed be used for horse racing.

People who have personally contacted the Daning River ancient plank road project will be very surprised, because they can't imagine the hardships and difficulties of the ancients, and they will be shocked by their determination and courage. In ancient times, when the material conditions were far worse than today, it was not only difficult but also very dangerous to dig so many deep holes on steep cliffs, not to mention solving many problems such as geological exploration and measurement.

What is even more surprising is the number of square caves in the ancient plank road on the cliffs along the Daning River. According to the "Wuxi County Records", "the southern section starts from Ningchang, goes south along the right bank of Daning River, and reaches the Longmen Xiakou in Wushan. The original name of the whole journey is 270 Li, and there are more than 6,800 caves on the rock wall. " According to the records of Wushan County, "From Longmen Gorge to the north along the cliff on the west bank of Daning River, caves are evenly arranged, generally about 20 meters away from the water surface ... to Daning Salt Factory, there are 6,888." On April 20th, 2000, Mr Gong, the former director of tourism in Wushan County, personally led several young people to make a field trip, and made a section-by-section investigation, and obtained the accurate figure that "there are 4,288 plank road caves in the 50-kilometer-long Little Three Gorges from Longmen Xiakou to Tujiaba, accounting for 62.3% of the 6,888 plank road caves in Daning River". Wushan River accounts for about two-thirds of the total length of the main channel of Daning River, so the above three groups of figures are basically the same. If the number of caves in the northern section is added, the total number of caves should exceed 654.38+0 million!

When and how were so many caves dug?

Some experts believe that the construction of Daning River plank road has such a scale, which should be related to the opening of Bashu Road in Qin and Han Dynasties. In ancient China, plank roads were built on a large scale only in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the 30×30 cm Daning River plank road cave was the standard size of the plank road cave in the Qin and Han Dynasties.

As for the method of drilling holes, Gong thinks there are two possibilities: one is to build scaffolding from the bottom of the cliff and drill holes in the rock; The other is to hang a rope from the top of the cliff and drill several holes. Wushan adopted the first guess, and once built an 80-meter-long ancient plank road in the Three Gorges Cuidi Gorge. As a result, it took more than 80 people three months to finish, and it took 50 cubic meters of wood. The project also used advanced tools, such as pneumatic drills and motorboats, which were not available in ancient times. The technology over 65,438+0,000 years ago cannot be compared with today. It is conceivable how difficult the 400-kilometer ancient plank road is.

The mystery of the use of Daning River plank road

The cave was a new chisel in the Qin and Han Dynasties, so that salt springs could be brought to large factories and boiled with bamboo poles.

-Daning County Records

What is the purpose of Daning River ancient plank road? This problem has always been a controversial topic among experts.

As for the origin of the ancient plank road, the Records of Wushan County records that in the seventh year of Yongfeng in Han Dynasty (AD 64), "I tasted this spring in Wushan, and iron pot flourished it". "Daning County Records" records that "the cave was newly chiseled in Qin and Han Dynasties, so that the salt spring was brought to the big factory for cooking with bamboo poles". According to folklore, this is the channel through which Zhuge Liang attacked Wei-Zhuge Liang stationed troops at the city gate. When attacking Wei, we went out of Wuxia gorge along the plank road, and put wooden stakes and boards in the caves to facilitate the passage of troops. When retreating, dismantle wooden stakes and boards while walking, so that the enemy can't pursue them.

Of course, there are many sayings about the plank road being built because of the war. For example, starting from Pingshuo, resisting Tang and Zhang Ruchuan.

These are all different opinions, and no one can say for sure. But in all kinds of debates, the theory of "salt transport" has always prevailed.

The starting point of the ancient plank road of Daning River is Ningchang Town (formerly known as Daningchang), an ancient town of salt industry for thousands of years. Ningchang Ancient Town is located in the lower reaches of Houxi River, a tributary of Daning River, at the north of Wuxi County 15km, less than 2km away from Daning River, and Bailu Salt Well is at the foot of Baoyuan Mountain on the north bank. The "Bailu Salt Well" mentioned here actually refers to the "Dragon Pool" built by Lei Shuo, the supervisor of Daning, during the Chunhua period of the Northern Song Dynasty (990-994 AD). A steady stream of natural salt springs flows into Longchi from the foothills. Longchi is about 7 meters higher than the river, and the first hole at the starting point of the ancient plank road is near the "Bailu Salt Well". Liu Weiguo, Ren Guiyuan and other experts believe that since the starting point is Daning Salt Field, it proves that the ancient plank road is directly related to Ningchang Salt Industry.

Is that so?

The whole plank road starts from Daning Salt Field, starts from Ningchang Ancient Town, turns into Daning River at Houxi Estuary, and runs north and south along Daning River respectively, and is divided into two sections. In the southern section, from Ningchang Town to Longmen Xiakou, Wushan County, the horizontal and spacing of the caves on the plank road are arranged neatly, and the shape and size of the caves are also uniform, while in the northern section, they are completely different. From Ningchang Ancient Town to Daning River, the northern section turns to Xixi River and its main tributary Dongxi River to push westward, reaching Yangjiaodong in Zhuxi County, Hubei Province, Zhumudong and Xiaoyuhe in Dahe Township, zhenping county, Shaanxi Province, and Hekang River in Dongan Township, Chengkou County, Chongqing. The plank road connects with the mountain road, criss-crossing, not less than a thousand miles, forming a huge plank road network. The arrangement, distance, gap size and shallowness of caves on the plank road in the north section are different, which is in sharp contrast with the uniformity of caves in the south section.

Experts believe that the plank road and mountain road in the northern section of the two rivers are actually connected into a network, forming a mountain traffic pattern extending in all directions. In this way, the salt and other daily necessities produced in Ningchang ancient town can be transported to the north of Houxi River, the upper reaches of Daning River and the surrounding provinces and counties for sale, and can also be trafficked back to local materials from these areas. As Yan Ruyu said in Jiaqing period of Qing Dynasty: "Mountain people? In addition to porridge, salt, cloth and odds and ends are mixed together, so we have to borrow money from merchants. " Therefore, the ancient plank road in the northern section plays an irreplaceable role in connecting various mountain roads, expanding the transportation and marketing of salt industry in Ningchang ancient town, promoting material exchanges and economic exchanges with surrounding areas, and promoting local economic development.

Of course, the plank road can not only transport salt, but also run people and soldiers, but military actions are often sudden and temporary. When the army acts, the choice of route has great flexibility and uncertainty, and there are many routes that can be taken. Only when the enemy is cornered, or when the enemy wins a covert and surprise attack, and a retreat is reserved during the defense period, will temporary passages be built on the cliff, but it is not necessary and impossible to build such a long plank road. Therefore, on the whole, the plank road in the northern section of Ninghe River was not built to meet military needs. On the contrary, it is particularly important for the salt vendor industry. The main purpose of building it is to solve the problem of salt transportation. As far as its main function is concerned, it is a salt transport channel, and others are auxiliary functions. Therefore, Liu Weiguo and Ren Guiyuan believe that the northern section is directly related to salt transportation.

While the southern part is directly related to the introduction of halogen. Judging from the arrangement of plank road holes in the south section, the position of the caves is in a straight line, which seems to have been measured with a level. But from the whole survey, it is gradually declining according to a certain slope. The starting point of the cave on the plank road in Ningchang ancient town is about 237 meters above sea level, and the end point is Longmen Gorge. The cave is only about 140 meters above sea level. The whole journey is 80 kilometers, and the natural drop is 97 meters, with a decrease of 1.2 1‰. So in a small range, it is almost horizontal, with no ups and downs in the middle. This is ancient times.

Now it is called brine transportation, and the main equipment for brine transportation is naturally indispensable. The old brine transportation pipeline is very different from the current brine transportation pipeline, mainly in the following aspects: First, the current brine transportation mainly depends on electric equipment. Because of power, salt water flows forward in the pipeline. In addition to the fast flow rate, it can flow downward and upward. In the old days, there was no power equipment for brine transportation, and it could only flow to lower places by natural drop. The trend of caves on the plank road in the south section of Ninghe River fully shows that our ancestors used natural drop to transport brine. Secondly, the materials of salt water pipelines are quite different. At present, steel pipes or plastic pipes are generally used as salt water pipes, but in the past, only bamboo was used as salt water pipes, that is, the inner section of bamboo was cut open first, the bamboo was reinforced with iron rings to prevent the bamboo from cracking and leaking, and then the bamboo was connected one by one by the method of holding plants together. Thirdly, from a technical point of view, both steel pipes and plastic pipes can be connected by joint or welding, and appropriate elbows are connected at the corners, so that the pipeline will extend forward along the terrain and bend with the elbows. Bamboo pipeline is different, because it has no plasticity of metal material, so it can't adapt to irregular turning terrain. In order to solve this problem, the ancients created a method of "supporting other branches", that is, configuring a round wooden basin at the corner, drilling holes in the round wooden basins in two directions at the corner to connect the bamboo forests turning in different directions. In this way, the brine can flow from the upstream bamboo to the tub, and then from the tub to the downstream bamboo in the corner direction. Because of this process, bamboo can rotate freely along the terrain. But in this way, the whole pipeline was cut into several small sections and could not be closed. Therefore, there can be no ups and downs in the middle, and it can only be extended forward according to the preset slope, otherwise the brine cannot reach its destination. The results show that the caves on the plank road in the south section of Ninghe River are arranged horizontally. ...