domeet webmaster

▲ Heze, originally known as “Zeming”, belongs to the Weishan Lake Basin, with dense water networks in the territory. Graphics/Paprika

She is east of Jining, Shandong, and she has the heroic spirit of “eight hundred miles of water on Liangshan Mountain”. Liangshan is in Jining, but the “Tuota Heavenly King” Chao Gai, “Timely Rain” Song Jiang, and “Zhi Duo Xing” Wu Yong in Liangshan Hero are all Heze Yun City people.

▲ Cao County National Wetland Park of the Old Course of the Yellow River, a plain, water and rural atmosphere. Photography/Shi Yaochen

She is connected to Xuzhou, Jiangsu and Suzhou, Anhui to the south, and has the Huaiyang charm of the transition from north to south. Shanxian County in the southwest corner is the hometown of the Han empress Lu Phae, known as the “cross of four provinces and eight counties”, and is closely connected with Liu Bang’s hometown, Fengxian County, Xuzhou.

She also has a strong personality from the Central Plains. Heze is surrounded on three sides by Puyang, Xinxiang, Kaifeng, and Shangqiu in Henan. And the one with the closest connection to the Central Plains and the most profound influence from the Central Plains culture is the “center of the universe”: Cao County.

Photography/Shi Yaochen

Geographically speaking, Cao County, this ancient land, is flatFertile but troubled “Yellow Flooding Area”.

The Yellow River rushed down from the Loess Plateau, and after Zhengzhou, Henan, it became moody. On the one hand, the silt trapped in the upper reaches of the river deposited thousands of miles of fertile fields, allowing this land to nurture a brilliant farming civilization; on the other hand, the Yellow River has been diverted many times and entered the sea from the Haihe, Gujishui, and Huaihe rivers in different periods, causing Severe local floods.

Historically, the culture of this “Yellow Flooding Area” also has similarities. It is not only Heze that belongs to the Central Plains Mandarin District, but also Jining and Zaozhuang in Shandong, Bozhou and Suzhou in Anhui, Xuzhou and Suqian in Jiangsu. When the world is peaceful, these cities are often granaries for good harvests. Whenever the world is in chaos, they become a battleground for military strategists.

▲ The “Central Plains Mandarin Distribution Area” east of Zhengzhou roughly coincides with the location of the Yellow Flooding Area. Cartography/monk

The stage of Caoxian people is also slowly unfolding on this ancient and heavy land.

Second, there is “Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou” today, and “Qilu Cao” in ancient times

It is said that Shandong is the “land of Qilu”, but Cao County is unique.

The Cao of Cao County is the Cao of Caozhou and the Cao of the State of Cao. If you have to use words to define it, in addition to “Qi Culture” and “Lu Culture”, you might have to add a “Cao Culture”.

1. Cao’s Cao: Shangqi Shangtang on the top, Spring and Autumn on the bottom

The history of Cao County is even longer than that of Qi and Lu.

Shandong Caoxian, Henan Shangqiu, and Anhui Bo (bó) prefectures are located in a straight line. The distance from north to south is no more than 100 kilometers. According to expert research, this area is China’s first dynasty with written records of the same period-the founding capital of the Shang Dynasty, Bo (bó) is the place where Shangtang was born.

▲ At the entrance of Caoxian Railway Station, the five characters “The First Capital of China” are impressively visible. Photography/Shi Yaochen

On both sides of the ancient Yellow River, due to flooding, the ancestors could only live in “small soil packs” by the water, which locals called “堌dui”. In Cao County, many Hudui sites from the Shang Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn Period have been excavated.

In history, although the size of Cao, the capital of Taoqiu in Heze, was small, it was one of the “Twelve Princes” in Sima Qian’s “Historical Records.” Being able to sit on an equal footing with Qi and Lu-just like what we said today, the “North, Shanghai, and Guangzhou” are leading the way, and the land of Shandong, which has a profound heritage, once had the “Qilu Cao” triad.

▲ Northwest Shandong + Shandong Peninsula + a small part of the mountains in South and Central Shandong, which is about the scope of Qi State; the hilly area of ​​Central and South Shandong is about the scope of Lu State ; The Heze area in the southwest corner was exactly the scope of Cao State. Graphics/Paprika

Since then, the State of Cao was destroyed by the State of Song, located in Shangqiu, Henan today. However, the name “Cao” was derived from the son of King Wen, Cao Shuzhenduo, but it has survived in the local area and has been used for thousands of years.

2. Cao in Caozhou: the land of the prosperity of the Han Dynasty, the source of the death of the Tang Dynasty

Because of the fertile land, dense population, competitive position of military strategists, coupled with the occasional turmoil of the ancient Yellow River, the “Yellow Flooding Area” where Cao County is located, there were many “peasant uprisings” in ancient times:

Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, who was “the first thing against Qin”, was in the uprising in Daze Township, Suzhou, Anhui today; Liu Bang and Xiang Yu are a couple of old friends from Xuzhou and Suqian, Jiangsu; the famous “Eight Hundred Miles of Water Po Liangshan” , Located in today’s Jining, Shandong; Huangchao who “killed a hundred flowers after my flowers bloomed” is a native of Caoxian County, Heze, Shandong…

▲ Cao County National Wetland Park of the Old Course of the Yellow River, because of the dense water network, vast plains, and the flooding of the Yellow River, there were frequent peasant uprisings in this area in ancient times. Photography/Shi Yaochen

In 202 BC, Liu Bang, who became the victor in the “Chu-Han Contest”, settled in Shandong Dingtao(now Dingtao District, Heze City)(now Dingtao District, Heze City)

The ceremonial ceremony for the ascension to the throne of the sun of Baoshui of span>, the Han Dynasty was formally established; after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, this land continued to use the name of “Ancient Cao Country” and was successively called Caozhou several times.

▲ Cao County Museum, Han pottery horses at the Xihoudui site. Photography/Shi Yaochen

It is said that “all roads lead to Cao County”, but some people were born in Cao County.

For example, Huang Chao. This native Caoxian was born in a salt merchant family and had few talents. He went to Chang’an several times to participate in the imperial examinations but failed to do so. He responded with anger to the Wang Xianzhi uprising, a fellow township in Puyang, Henan. At the “center of the universe” Cao County raised his arms and launched an attack on Chang’an, where “all nations came to Korea”.

“The incense of the sky penetrates Chang’an, and the city is full of golden armor.” Tang Dynasty nobles were destroyed in large numbers, and countless clothes were all over the country. The last emperor of Tang Ai, Li Jong, died in Caozhou and was buried in Jiyin County. Dingtao Township(now Dingtao County, Heze, Shandong).

▲ Cao County People’s Park, today’s city landmark of Cao County. Photography/Shi Yaochen

The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, once the rain beat the wind.

Three, thousands of rivers and mountains, not as good as a bowl of soup in the county seat

Everyone has a “Cao County” in their hearts.

“A suite in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen is not as good as a bed in Cao County”, of course, is a joke in the Internet age; “Thousands of mountains and thousands of waves are no better than a bowl of soup in the county”, but It is the lingering hometown complex of contemporary young people in small towns.