問道嶺南

All ROADS LEAD TO LINGNAN

Text by Peter Translation by Leo Photos by VCG & IC Illustration by Sandy

Ancient stone-paved roads And footprints of horses told of the long history of Lingnan.

Said to be the land of “Southern barbarians”, oldtime Guangdong, part of Lingnan (South of the Five Ridges), was not as isolated from the rest of China as many people imagined. Best evidence for this argument is the many historic trails that have been excavated and restored across the region. Historical data and remains show that more than 2,000 years ago the region was connected by multiple ancient roads to the North, West and East sides of the Five Ridges.

Like today's highways, these routes were important lines of communication through which tradesmen, travellers, migrants and materials in ancient times moved from Lingnan to the rest of China or vice versa. Some experts hold that, in those times, it was far easier to travel around the region along waterways than on roadways. Therefore, water channels like the South China Sea, along with the ancient roads, formed a network of transportation that thrived for more than 1,000 years.

The Meiguan Ancient Road that connects the Yangzi River and Pearl River systems is typical of all ancient trails in the region. It is a golden passage through which the north and the south of the Five Ridges communicated both economically and culturally.

Meandering from the city of Dayu in Jiangxi Province to the city of Nanxiong in Guangdong Province, the trail was uniquely positioned as one of the few gateways into Guangdong from the north of the Five Ridges. A pass was set up for military purposes on the Meiling Mountain at the border between Jiangxi and Guangdong in the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC), but years of war made it barely passable. In the Tang dynasty (618-907), then Prime Minister Zhang Jiuling was charged with the construction of a road that pierced the mountain barrier. In just two months, he cut an opening into the mountain and built a 3-metrewide and 15-km-long artery connecting Central China and South China.

As a Chinese saying goes, “A road is the fi rst step to fortune.” It is said that thousands of people travelled the route each day following its construction. Commercial taxes collected by the governments of nearby towns such as Nanxiong, Nan'an Jun and Qianzhou increased throughout the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), indicating a boom in trade and commerce in the areas along the route. For this reason, the road has been well maintained since the Song dynasty.

Some famous poems were composed by poets when they passed by the Meiguan Pass. On his way to a new off i ce in Lianzhou (Guangdong) following his demotion, great poet Su Dongpo wrote, “The fading of plum blossoms is followed by the blooming of hundred fl owers; you didn't show up before all passers-by were gone.” Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), a highly successful playwright of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), wrote The Peony Pavilion in his retirement, a play based on a romantic story that he heard of when he travelled along the route to Zhejiang Province in East China for a new off i cial post.

The ancestors of most native residents in today's Pearl River Delta region migrated by way of the Meiguan Ancient Road. One of the earliest settlements along the route was the town of Zhujixiang, which was home to thousands of households and merchants in its heyday in the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). These immigrants belonged to one of the 141 clans whose ancestral halls can still be seen today across the town and which attract many tourists.

In the last 100 years, the role of the ancient route has been replaced by modern means of transportation (railways, high-speed railways, motorways, etc.). Though postal stations and caravansaries are nowhere to be seen, the stone-paved path survives and continues to be trodden by tourists who come to see the plum blossoms. When plum trees in the south of the mountain begin to wear green buds in the warm month of March, those in the north start to blossom. A few months later, these trees will be heavily laden with fruits, which can be made into plum wine.

石板古道上，馬蹄行進的噠噠聲與留下的深淺印記，伴著嶺南走過漫長歲月。

雖有南蠻之地的說法，但古時的廣東并非人們認為的那樣封閉，逐漸被挖掘、復(fù)原的古道便是最好的證據(jù)。從歷史資料和現(xiàn)存遺跡中可發(fā)現(xiàn)，早在2000多年前，這里就有多條道路溝通五嶺南北，和東西兩翼的交往也從未中斷。

作為古時的“高速公路”，古道上承載著南來北往的如梭商旅，物資云涌，氏族遷徙。有專家認為，古代的嶺南一帶，水道交通在很多時候要遠遠便捷于陸道。因此，廣東古道不僅限于陸路，以南海通道為代表的水上交通，與陸上古道一同，構(gòu)成了暢通千年的交通網(wǎng)絡(luò)。

連接著長江與珠江的梅嶺古道是嶺南古道的代表，它是中國古代經(jīng)濟往來中水陸與陸路的樞紐對接點，也是南北文化交流的黃金通道。

南入廣東南雄，北進江西大余，特有的地理位置讓梅嶺成為古代溝通五嶺南北的咽喉。梅嶺設(shè)關(guān)始于秦，秦代開的山道用于軍事，歷經(jīng)戰(zhàn)亂后不堪行走。至唐代，張九齡奉詔在此劈山開道，用了不過兩個多月的時間，打通了一座大山坳，開設(shè)了一條寬一丈余，長三十多華里的山間大道，成為南北交通的大動脈。

路通財通，沿途的經(jīng)濟得以發(fā)展。自梅關(guān)古道修建以來，南來北往的商旅挑夫“日有數(shù)千”。北宋前期至中后期，梅嶺道附近的南雄州、南安軍、虔州等地商稅都有增加，說明道路上商品交易的繁榮。因其重要，從宋代開始歷朝歷代都有修路之舉。

經(jīng)過梅關(guān)的人，還有不少文人墨客，他們在此留下了不少詩作。蘇東坡被貶連州時，在古道留下了“梅花開盡雜花開，過盡行人君不來”。湯顯祖在經(jīng)古道赴浙江遂昌擔(dān)任知縣的途中，聽聞了杜麗娘還魂的故事。五年后，辭官歸里的他寫下了“情不知所起，一往而深”的《牡丹亭》。

今天珠江三角洲的居民，其先祖也大多是經(jīng)梅嶺古道南遷的。位于古道上的珠璣巷成為了南遷先人的聚居地，南宋極盛時，珠璣巷內(nèi)的商販和居民多達數(shù)千戶。歷史上南遷的珠璣移民現(xiàn)今共有141姓，巷中大小祠堂林立，如今，這里已被開發(fā)成中國的姓氏文化旅游區(qū)。

粵漢鐵路、雄余公路、323國道、京珠高速，近百年來，隨著越來越先進便捷的道路先后開通，梅嶺古道在交通方面的地位已被取代。驛站、馬店淡出了視線，唯有石板路仍在，成為了游人們的賞梅之道。陽春三月，山南花落，山北始開。幾個月后，青梅累累，梅酒飄香。

XIJING ANCIENT ROAD西京古道

As little historical data is available, many details about the Xijing Ancient Road remain unknown.

Located within Daqiao Town about 40 km from the seat of Ruyuan Yao Autonomous County in northern Guangdong, the route was fi rst built in the sixth year of Emperor Wu's Jianyuan Era (135 BC) and was one of the few ways to Chang'an (today known as Xi'an), the capital of the Tang dynasty. Some of the bridges, pavilions and cottages along the route have survived the vicissitudes of time.

SHUNTOULING RIDGE ANCIENT ROAD順頭嶺古道

Built about 1,000 years earlier than the Meiguan Ancient Road, the Shuntouling Ridge Ancient Road was the fi rst of its kind to connect central China with south China. With this post road traversing it, the city of Lianzhou in northwestern Guangdong became one of the fi rst developed areas in Lingnan. By the Tang dynasty, the city was home to more than 30,000 registered residents and was one of the three key administrative centres across Lingnan, along with Shaozhou

(today's Shaoguang) and Guangzhou.

TRACING ANCIENT ROUTES IN GUANGDONG

古道尋蹤

CHENGJIA ANCIENT ROAD

秤架古道

The Chengjia Ancient Road meanders through the 1,000m-high mountains in the northeast of Yangshan County in the city of Qingyuan. With a varying width of 50-95 cm, the narrow winding trail is basically in good condition. It is believed that the path was fi rst built for off i cial use before being turned into a commercial route.

ANCIENT MULE-HORSE ROAD騾馬古道

A poem by Du Mu, a poet of the Tang dynasty, read: “A horse gallops across the land at full speed, and the concubine laughs. Who else knows it is lychees coming.” The Ancient Mule-Horse Road was the exact route through which lychees were painstakingly carried from Guangdong to Chang'an to please Yang Guifei, the favorite concubine of Emperor Xuanzong (685-762). Also known as Hunan-Guangdong Ancient Road, the trail stretched from a village in Shaoguan to the city of Chenzhou in the south of Hunan Province. The path, completely coved with stone together with the footprints left by working horses and mules, was testimony to the boom in trade and commerce of the time and beyond.

GOAT HOOF RIDGE ANCIENT ROAD羊蹄嶺古道

Located within Haifeng County in the east of Guangdong, the Goat Hoof Ridge Ancient Road is a route running east-west through the Lotus mountain range, a branch of the Five Ridges. According to an expert in cultural history, there is still a 15km-long intact section of the historic road of varying width.