Where do we often refer to Jiangnan?

"Jiangnan is good and the scenery is old. When spring comes, the sun rises from the river, the flowers on the river are brighter than red, and the green river is greener than the blue grass. Can you not remember Jiangnan? " The scenery in Jiangnan is very beautiful. Jiangnan is an important area in China, which has a special position in economic, cultural and social development. Since modern times, Jiangnan generally refers to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, that is, the south of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces and the north of Zhejiang Province; In a narrow sense, Jiangnan refers to the south of Jiangsu Province and the north of Zhejiang Province to the east of Zhenjiang City. In a narrow sense, it only refers to Taihu Lake Basin. However, from ancient times to the present, the meaning of the word Jiangnan has been relatively fixed after a long and tortuous change.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, Jiangnan mainly refers to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, which is roughly equivalent to the south of Hubei Province and Hunan Province today. Historical records. The Biography of Qin Shihuang contains "... cutting Chu, taking Wujun, and Jiangnan as Qianzhong County", which is the western part of Hunan today. After the death of Qin, Xiang Yu moved the Emperor of Chu Ci to Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, and the history book records it as "moving to the south of the Yangtze River". During the Xin Mang period, Yidu County (now Yidu City, Hubei Province, which was once changed to a branch city) was changed to Jiangnan County, which was enough to explain the region referred to by Jiangnan at that time.

Compared with the previous generation, the concept of Jiangnan in Han Dynasty was broader, including County, Danyang County and even the northern part of Huiji County (also known as Wu County), that is, today's Jiangxi Province, Anhui Province and southern Jiangsu Province. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bi was appointed King of Wu, with Guangling as its capital (now Yangzhou, Jiangsu). Because Wu has both Huiji County and Danyang County to the south of the Yangtze River, the north-south traffic from Yangzhou to Zhenjiang has become the main transit road. In this case, the concept of taking the northern part of Huiji County as the south of the Yangtze River came into being. However, it is worth noting that Jiangnan still mainly refers to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River at this time, and people in the Eastern Han Dynasty often refer to Jingzhou area with Jiangnan, even Jiangling (now Jingzhou City, Hubei Province) located north of the Yangtze River is no exception. Therefore, Jiangnan, which was customarily said at that time, was not strictly bounded by the Yangtze River.

Today's southern Anhui and southern Jiangsu areas were not called Jiangnan in Qin and Han Dynasties, but Jiangdong, because the Yangtze River ran southwest-northeast between Wuhu City, Anhui Province and Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. People who cross the Yangtze River naturally regard this section of the Yangtze River as the east coast and the west coast. During the Three Kingdoms period, Jiangdong was often used to refer to the State of Wu living in the southeast corner. According to the traditional habit of sitting north facing south, Jiangdong can also be called Jiangzuo. By the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the word Jiangnan, with a much larger concept, had replaced Jiangdong and Jiangzuo. For example, in Yan Zhitui's family precepts, many places compare Jiangnan and Hebei, and compare the differences between North and South customs.

During the Tang Dynasty, the whole country was divided into ten roads according to the principle of mountains and rivers. From then on, the south of the Yangtze River in Hunan Province to the east to the seaside was Jiangnan Road, and Jiangnan became the proper name of the division. At that time, the concept of Jiangnan with the Yangtze River as the boundary was formed. In the Tang Dynasty, Jiangnan generally referred to the area south of the Yangtze River. For example, there is a saying in Bai Juyi's "Light Fat" that "there is a drought in the south of the Yangtze River, and people in Quzhou eat people". Quzhou is now in Zhejiang Province. But in fact, the meaning of the word Jiangnan in Tang Dynasty often exceeded the scope south of the Yangtze River. Han Yu's unique Jiangnan actually refers to the whole southeast region south of Jianghuai and north of Nanling. By the Tang Dynasty, the Jiangnan area had flourished, and the word Jiangnan became a household name, which became the object of many poems and songs, and even the name "Recalling Jiangnan" appeared. Wei Chan's poem "Orchard under Helan Mountain, Jiangnan in the north of Saibei is old and famous" praised the developed economy and culture with "Jiangnan in the north of Saibei". Today, Jiangnan in a narrow sense is often represented by Jiangdong and Jiangzuo in the Tang Dynasty.

Since the Song Dynasty, the theories of Jiangdong and Jiangzuo have been gradually abandoned, and they are mostly called Jiangnan. The Book of Southern Tang compiled in the Southern Song Dynasty contains "... soldiers burned Yangzhou and people moved to the south of the Yangtze River". During the Song Dynasty, the southern part of Jiangsu Province and the whole territory of Zhejiang, east of Zhenjiang today, were divided into two roads, Zhejiang. Due to the high economic development, this area has gradually become the core of Jiangnan area. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a slogan "Suzhou (state) lake (state) is ripe, and the world is enough". After the Ming Dynasty, the economic development of Zhejiang and Zhejiang provinces has been at the forefront of the country. Qiu Jun, a great scholar in the Ming Dynasty, once said that "(tax) Zhejiang ranks 19th in the south of the Yangtze River". Taihu Lake Basin is the richest in Zhejiang Province, so Qiu Jun also said that "Jiangsu (prefecture), Songjiang (prefecture), Jiaxing (prefecture) and Huzhou (prefecture) are also in 19 counties of Zhejiang Province". It can be seen that taking Taihu Lake basin as the narrowest concept in the south of the Yangtze River means not only a geographical area, but also a certain economic area. Today, Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou in Jiangsu and Hangjiahu in Zhejiang are still the most developed areas in China in industry, agriculture and culture. It's just that Hangzhou is outside the Taihu Lake basin, so it is excluded from the concept of Jiangnan in the narrowest sense.

It is worth mentioning that Yangzhou, located in the north of the Yangtze River, has been regarded as the south of the Yangtze River since the Tang Dynasty. The formation of this phenomenon has profound historical and cultural reasons. The name Yangzhou was first seen in Gong Yu's "Huai Hai only has Yangzhou". Yangzhou, as an administrative division, has long been located in Nanjing, the largest city in the south of the Yangtze River, so the concept of Yangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River is deeply rooted. After the Sui Dynasty moved Yangzhou to Jiangdu (now Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province), Yangzhou still represented Jiangnan culture. Yangzhou's economy was very prosperous in the Tang Dynasty, and there was a saying that "Yang Yi Yi Er (Yi refers to Yizhou, now Chengdu, Sichuan)". Du Mu, a famous poet, wrote in his poem "To Han Chuo, the Magistrate of Yangzhou": "The green hills are covered with water, but the grass in the south of the Yangtze River is not withered in autumn." The Jiangnan style of Yangzhou is faintly visible. Until the early Qing Dynasty, due to the special geographical location of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and the prosperity of the salt industry, Yangzhou's economic advantage remained undiminished and the city was quite prosperous. At this time, Yangzhou still maintained the pattern of Jiangnan in cultural psychology.

Jiangnan in a narrow sense: generally refers to southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, but the specific scope is not very clear. This concept probably began in the late Tang Dynasty and took shape in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The clearest core area in Jiangnan only includes Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and other cities around Taihu Lake. Nanjing is also located in the core area of the south of the Yangtze River, but because the language of Nanjing has gradually become Mandarin (Jianghuai Mandarin) in the changes of the times, the recognition of Nanjing in Wu dialect area is not high. Shanghai's administrative history is relatively short, but because of its important economic status, it has basically been included in the modern concept of "Little Jiangnan".

However, it is not the Yangtze River basin, and it is considered to be some areas south of Taihu Lake or even south of Qiantang River, such as Shaoxing and Ningbo. Some areas north of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, such as Yangzhou, are located in the north of the Yangtze River, but their economy and culture are similar to those of Jiangnan, and sometimes they are regarded as a part of Jiangnan in the cultural sense. Similarly, because of Jiangbei dialect, the narrow sense of Jiangnan does not necessarily include Yangzhou and Zhenjiang.