The Chinese nation originated from the Yellow River, but why is the Yangtze River more important to us?

Originally, under the situation that the production technology had not yet been reformed and the population was concentrated in the Yellow River Basin, China’s political and economic center of gravity was in northern China, especially after the Zheng Guoqu was built by the Qin State. After hectares, the harvest is one acre. So Guanzhong is a fertile field, and the Qin is prosperous and strong, and the princes are the princes." The Guanzhong area of ​​fertile fields has become a key area affecting the lifeline of the dynasty for hundreds of years. However, with the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the split of the Three Kingdoms in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the Eight Kings Rebellion in the Western Jin Dynasty and the Yongjia Rebellion, as well as the colder climate, the economic status of North China was constantly undermined. In the heyday of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was even more dependent on the canal to transport rice from the south of the Yangtze River to supply the prosperity of the capital of Chang'an. This is revealing the trend of the economic center of gravity shifting south.

Later, due to a series of disasters such as the Anshi Rebellion, the Huangchao Rebellion, and the Jingkang Rebellion, large-scale population migration to the south accelerated the development of the Yangtze River Basin and the rise of economic status. In the Tang Dynasty, Han Yu (768-824) once said, "Today's riches come from the world, and the south of the Yangtze River is the 19th." This is a portrayal of the economic development of the Yangtze River Delta. By the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, the southern registered permanent residence slightly exceeded that of the northern. During the reign of Song Shenzong, the number of cultivated fields in the southeast accounted for about 64% of the country. Therefore, Song Dynasty official Fan Zuyu (1041-198) said that "the country is fundamental and the southeast "It can be said that the core role of the Yangtze River Delta is shown concisely and concisely.

Then in the process of the confrontation between Song and Jin and the Mongolian conquest, the wars in North China were far worse than those in the South, resulting in greater population and ecological depletion. According to an estimate of the Chinese population in 1291 AD, there were only about 10 million people in the north, accounting for 14.9% of the national population, and 57 million people in the south, accounting for about 85.1%. Since then, this absolute gap in population between North and South has continued to this day, and the super-productivity brought about by population advantages has naturally provided the country's needs. Coupled with the development of the commercial economy after the Song Dynasty, the growth rate of household registration and class mobility, the economic location of the south has become more important.

Therefore, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, in addition to the phenomenon of "the lake is ripe and the world is sufficient" in grain production, the specialized towns and production divisions in Jiangnan were further refined, and the state's financial use also became more dependent on the local area. Gu Dingchen, the Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites of the Ming Dynasty, said, "The seven houses of Su, Song, Chang, Zhen, Jia, Hu, and Hang are the best in the world. Liu Xianting, a geographer in the early Qing Dynasty, also introduced that the core of China’s economy at that time was “the world is in four gatherings, the north is the capital, the south is Foshan, the east is Suzhou, and the west is Hankou. However, on the coast of the East China Sea, outside of Suzhou, there are Wuhu Yangzhou, Jiangning, and Hangzhou are divided into different areas; in the west, only Hankou ears.” Except for the capital city of Beijing and Foshan, Guangdong, the other cities mentioned by Liu Xianting are all located in the Yangtze River basin, which also reveals how deep the development potential there is.

Therefore, when the British forced the Qing Dynasty to open the trade port in 1840 after the Opium War, although only Shanghai and Ningbo were included in the Yangtze River Delta, the changes there were soon due to the invading imperialist forces with the advantage of industrialization. Unfold. Although the national industry sprouted quite hard under the invasion of foreign powers, the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China still relied on the Westernization Movement and slow construction, making Shanghai, Wuhan, Wuxi and other cities and towns become traction engines for China's staggering progress. Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Bureau , Jinling Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, Hanyang Arsenal, and Shanghai Guang Dialect Museum have all become the young plants of China's modernization. According to statistics, on the eve of the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan in 1937, there were as many as 1,279 companies of a small scale in Shanghai alone, accounting for 32.5% of the total number of Chinese companies.

Although this pattern is due to the uneven regional development caused by the invasion of foreign powers, it is also the release of the Yangtze River’s economic energy over the millennium. Therefore, the Nationalist Government after the war also intends to inherit this historical trend and promote the unsustained concept of "Greater Shanghai". "Urban Plan" intends to build Shanghai into a gateway to the great eastern port and the rejuvenation of China.

After the People’s Republic of China, the East China Bureau of the Central Committee led Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Anhui, Shandong and other provinces and cities to stimulate and coordinate local economic growth. This can be said to be a respect for the evolution of the historical situation. After all, the integration of the Yangtze River Basin has lasted for thousands of years.