The history of Shanghai county: ups and downs surrounded by city walls

Today, people look at Shanghai, and the prosperity around the Bund is the most prosperous, many of which are from the heritage of the concession period. Since the opening of the port in the late Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, as a trading port, has also ushered in brand-new development opportunities under the humiliating background of foreigners' existence, and finally became an international metropolis.

This period of history is turbulent and bizarre, and it has always been the darling of literature, film and academic research. However, few people pay attention to the history of Shanghai before the "transformation". At that time, she was as simple and ordinary as countless counties in China, but there were some interesting things to tell.

Vicissitudes surrounded by city walls

Unlike many "ancient capital" cities, Shanghai has never had a capital in history, and even the county was established very late.

129 1 year, the Yuan Dynasty approved the establishment of five townships of Changren, Gaochang, Beiting, Xinjiang and Yuhai in the northeast of Huating County as Shanghai County. This is the beginning of establishing a county in Shanghai.

However, although Shanghai is nominally a county seat, it has never built a wall. First, as a coastal town, Shanghai is rarely troubled by war; Secondly, most local residents go out to sea to make a living. With the city wall, it is extremely inconvenient to go to sea. Therefore, although the ancients regarded the city wall as the standard of an "orthodox" city, Shanghai has maintained a "no city wall" for more than 200 years.

Restoration map of towns and counties in Shanghai from the end of Song Dynasty to the middle of Yuan Dynasty

By the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had implemented a "sea ban" policy to curb the activities of peasant troops fleeing to the seaside, banned or restricted coastal maritime transportation, and ordered coastal people to move inland. This hindered Japanese businessmen from making money, and also urged them to develop from "armed business" to "armed plunder" together with the peasant army who fled here.

With the development of navigation technology, the "Riot" became more and more serious.

In the thirty-second year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1553), the world entered the era of great navigation, and Shanghai was most seriously invaded by the Japanese pirates. In the first half of the year alone, Shanghai County was looted three times by Japanese pirates, and countless possessions were looted.

Shanghai County in Jiajing Period of Ming Dynasty

In response to the invasion, "Songjiang magistrate adopted Gu's suggestion, namely the original Guanglu Temple, and decided to build the city wall immediately. In October of the lunar calendar, the wall-building project officially started. The whole county has suddenly become a construction site, and Shanghainese have the money to make a strong contribution. Gu donated 4000 stones to help build Chaoyangmen (small south gate). Shi Mei, the wife of Shen Lu, secretary of Taichang Temple, not only donated 500 mu of land and 2,000 taels of silver, but also demolished a number of her own houses to help build Baodai Gate (Xiaodongmen), so Xiaodongmen is also called "Lady Gate". "In less than two months, the wall of Shanghai county was erected."

The completed Shanghai wall is 9 miles long and 20 feet high. The moat is 1620 ft long, 6 ft wide and 10 ft deep, with 6 gates and 3 sluices.

This is the landscape of the "old county town of Shanghai" in Qing Dynasty described by later generations according to historical records.

There are six doors on the wall of the old city, namely Chaozong Gate (East Gate), Baodai Gate (Small East Gate), Guolongmen Gate (South Gate), Chaoyangmen Gate (Small South Gate), Yifeng Gate (Old West Gate) and Salt Haimen Gate (Old North Gate).

The Zhonghua Road and Renmin Road in Shanghai today were called "Zhonghua Road" and "Republic Road" before liberation. Before 19 12 (the second year of the Revolution of 1911), those older historical rivers all existed with the "city wall" as the carrier. Through today's map of Shanghai, we can still vaguely see the outline of the county seat.

From the dense alleys and representative buildings in the city wall, we seem to have returned to a typical ancient city in China-Confucius Temple, which represents the respect of the ancients for education. The pavilions and pavilions of Yu Garden were once surrounded by poems and songs, and the incense of the Town God Temple was lingering. Street names such as "Ham Lane", "Sky Lantern Lane" and "Patrol Street" seem to bring people back to the bustling market in the past, where there were vendors, servants and yamen patrolling. This has been the citizen life of China people for thousands of years.

Trade City: the Germination of Capitalism

The city wall represents the "stable" urban ideal in ancient China.

After the completion of this wall, it really effectively resisted several Japanese attacks. From 65438 to 0559, the Japanese invasion in Shanghai was basically eliminated. Shanghai has returned to a stable small town life. But now, it seems that a city wall protects the residents from the Japanese invaders, but it also shuts out the budding international trade, which can be described as "a city wall, a city wall".

It was not until the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty that the closed state of Shanghai really changed.

First, the port gradually prospered-Shiliupu, near the county seat of Shanghai, originated in the late Qing Dynasty1860s. At that time, in order to defend against the attack of Taiping Army, local officials in Qing Dynasty organized businesses inside and outside the county seat, forming 16 "shops" responsible for public security and public affairs. Shiliupu is the largest "store", including Dadongmen and Xiaodongmen outside the county, Cheng Hao in the west, Huangpu River in the east, Xiaodongmen Street bordering the French Concession in the north, and Wan Yu Wharf Street and Wangjia Wharf Street in the south.

Map of Shanghai county 187 1

Second, the number of commercial organizations has increased significantly. 1654 (Tongzhi period of Qing dynasty), the first organization of migrant countrymen-Kanto Office (Kanto+Shandong Business Group) was born in Shanghai. 1685 (twenty-four years of Kangxi), the Qing dynasty promulgated the policy of "relaxing the ban on coastal transportation" and maritime trade resumed. Businessmen from coastal provinces came to Shanghai to handle handicrafts, cotton textiles, sand boats and so on, and Shanghai gradually became the "city in the southeast of China". Immigrants and mobile businessmen from all over the world have established many fellow-townsman organizations in order to contact their peers and fellow-townsman feelings, most of which are around the old county.

According to incomplete statistics, there have been more than 400 guildhall (offices) in Shanghai since the establishment of Guanshan Office for 300 years, most of which were built by local businessmen. Before the opening of Shanghai, most of the halls (offices) were carved with dragons and painted buildings, equipped with stone tablets, which were used for offering sacrifices, contacting homesickness and adjusting contradictions and disputes among fellow villagers, with strong feudal local protectionism.

Merchant Shipping Pavilion, 20 12 Media reported that it was in disrepair.

Take the Merchant Shipping Hall as an example. It was a trading post for merchants engaged in sand boat transportation along the north and south coasts in Shanghai in the Qing Dynasty. It was built in the fifty-fourth year of Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty (17 15). There is a two-story hall, a two-story stage and an octagonal algae well in front of the hall. Two-story wing rooms were built in front of the hall, left and right, for watching the play. There is a conference hall behind the hall, and a two-story conference building on the right side of the hall. "

Some indescribable emotion formed by regional identity enabled the staff in the organization to abide by the rules and perform their duties spontaneously, but in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, when the social structure changed dramatically, this emotion became more alienated and prosperous, "which is an important witness to the history of Shanghai and Hong Kong's common prosperity".

Most of the fellow villagers' organizations near the old city of Shanghai not only have the friendship of fellow villagers, but also set up industry rules in order to flexibly cope with the pressure brought by urban economic, social and political changes. However, the guild hall (institute) built after the opening of the port is a combination of Chinese and western architectural styles, and its nature has gradually changed into a capitalist industrial organization, and it has participated in the urban construction of Shanghai, playing an important role in strengthening the development of national industry and commerce and resisting foreign invasion in turbulent times.

References:

Lu Qiguo, the wall of Shanghai,//archives.sh.cn/shjy/shzg/201203/t20120313 _ 6409.

Zhang, The Story of Shanghai City Wall,//Archives.sh.cn/shjy/shzg/201203/t 20120313 _ 6290.

Xinmin Evening News, "The inscription on the gate of the oldest guild hall in Shanghai, which has been in disrepair for a long time, is difficult to distinguish",//chinanews/cul/2012/05-03/3862520. s

This article is excerpted from the project "Finding the Way to the Beach". Please do not reprint without authorization.

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