Suzhou and Hangzhou

Suzhou and Hangzhou

Suzhou and Hangzhou are Chinese words. They come from "heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below", which is the combined name of Suzhou and Hangzhou.

The saying that there is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. It can be divided into two parts. In the first part, Jiangnan is compared to heaven. Ren Hua, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, once wrote in the cursive song of master huaisu: "people say that you come from Jiangnan, I say that you come from heaven!" This should be the origin of comparing Jiangnan to heaven. Before that, Jiangnan had been called "beautiful land" because of its prosperity in the Southern Dynasties, and there was no precedent to compare it to heaven. The name of "jialidi" continued in the Tang Dynasty, and there was a tendency to squeeze other places out of the ranks. This is closely related to Bai Juyi's taste. Later, Suzhou and Hangzhou also became a place of rich beauty and livability.

In the other half, Suzhou and Hangzhou were the leading cities in Jiangnan, which was also obvious in the late Tang Dynasty. The key is Bai Juyi's taste. Bai Juyi once served as governor of Hangzhou and Suzhou, and he wrote many praises of the local poetry. At first, however, he only praised Hangzhou. When he was appointed as governor of Hangzhou, he boasted with Yuan Zhen, a governor of Yuezhou, that "he knows the number of Jiangnan counties, but he is not as good as Yuhang." Later, he was the governor of Suzhou, also known as Suzhou "a county marked the world, surrounded by the sea.". Since then, he has been known as both Suzhou and Hangzhou, and is quite proud of being the "master of Suzhou and Hangzhou". When he returned to the north in his later years, he never forgot Suzhou and Hangzhou. In a poem with Yin Yaofan, he wrote: "the number of famous counties in Jiangnan is Suzhou and Hangzhou, which is written in 30 chapters of the Yin family. You are a traveler, but I am more unforgettable for the governor. The realm leads to chant the true poetry country, and the prosperity enters the Sheng song, which is a good place to be drunk. In order to remember the past, I will go to Canglang by boat It is self-evident that "heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below" is the confluence of this title and the comparison of Jiangnan with the reputation of heaven.

It's not just wealth that makes it heaven,

No doubt, it has something to do with being so rich. But it's not all about the sky. Looking around, we can find that there were many famous counties in Jiangnan at that time, such as Changzhou and Huzhou, which were also famous for their wealth. Changzhou was promoted by Li Hua as "a famous country outside the pass", and Huzhou even got Gu Kuang's evaluation of "Jiang Biao Da Jun, Wu Xing Yi". Those places have not become the crown of Jiangnan, which is largely related to their natural scenery. Bai Juyi once praised: "the land of Hangzhou is beautiful and healthy, and the people of Suzhou are rich and common." This poem shows that the two places share the same characteristics: "beautiful", which is not the word rich can replace. He also described the beautiful scenery of Hangzhou in his famous "memory of Jiangnan": "looking for Guizi in the mountain temple in the middle of the month, looking at the tide on the pillow of the County Pavilion." And Suzhou's pleasure is "a cup of spring bamboo leaves for Wu wine, and the two dances of Wu children are drunk with hibiscus." For many people, this scene can only be appreciated in the sky.

Fan Chengda, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty in Suzhou and Hangzhou (1126-1193 A.D.), wrote in Wu Jun Zhi: "there is a saying:" heaven in the sky, Suzhou and Hangzhou in the earth. " "Su lake is ripe, and the world is full." Hu Gu doesn't catch Su, hang is Hui Fu. As the saying goes, "Su first and hang later..." Then, he cited Bai Juyi's poems to prove that "in the Tang Dynasty, Su's prosperity was the first in Zhejiang."