4 | Thursday, May 2, 2019 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY COVER Highway: Riding a road into the past
From page 1 of the Qinzhidao are forgotten, bur ied in wild grass. The annals of Sima Qian, a histori an of the early Han Dynasty (206 BC220) who traveled the Straight Road, are the earliest and most detailed records of the road, and they are still consulted by most research ers of this magnificent project. According to Sima Qian, the road stretches about 800 kilometers north from Liangwudi village in Chunhua county, Shaanxi, to Baotou in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Qin Shihuang, who founded the Qin Dynasty after conquering six other major kingdoms, ordered Gen eral Meng Tian to build a road con necting the Guanzhong Plain — the Qin’s heartland — with the Great Wall in the north. Although it should have been a time to give the people a period of rest after years of war, the Qin rul ers forced them to undertake grand projects, including building a road network of 6,437 kilometers within a short time, among which the Qinzhidao was the most impor tant. The highway was intended to facilitate the transportation of sol diers and provisions to the borders of the nomadic peoples, and also to make the emperor’s inspection tours of the dangerous north more convenient. Leading 300,000 of Qin’s best Statues modeled on the Terracotta Warriors stand on the Qinzhidao, in Miaogou village, Xunyi county, Shaanxi province. PHOTOS BY HUO YAN / CHINA DAILY troops, Meng started work on the project, supervised by Fu Su, the emperor’s oldest son. However, the to settle on the Hetao Plain, increas work only lasted about two years ing the leverage of the Han people after Qin Shihuang’s sudden death in a region where the Mongolian in 210 BC prompted a palace coup. and Hui ethnic groups previously Meng and Fu were purged and dominated. both died in 210 BC. They were bur The road was in use until the end ied in Suide county, Shaanxi, not far of the Qing Dynasty (16441911). Over from the road, where they were hon the course of more than 2,000 years, ored by local people. it served as a transportation artery Ironically, the only time Qin Shi for commercial, cultural and reli huang used the road was when his gious exchanges between Han farm body was transported back to Xian ers in the south and the nomadic yang, the Qin capital. The dynasty peoples of the north. was overthrown by a peasant upris Wang Junmin, a farmer in ing a few years later. Liangwudi village, the road’s start “It is no surprise that many of ing point, said: “Although the Qin’s grand projects, which were Qinzhidao is largely deserted now built to promote lasting peace and adays, it is still alive in the lives of the stability of the Qin (Dynasty), Left: Wang Junmin (right) and Yang Zhixi, two farmers from Liangwudi village, Chunhua county, Shaanxi province, display a Qin brick in the local residents. Many of our expedited its collapse,” said Zhang the village on April 14. Right: Ren Baojun, a photographer from Chunhua, points to the ruins of the roadbed of the Qinzhidao in Liangwudi houses and yards were built with Xiaobing, a professor of history at village, the starting point of the road, on April 14. ancient bricks and tiles found near Yan’an University in Shaanxi. it. They are of good quality and are Zhang conceded that his opinion ideal building materials, even echoes that expressed by Sima Qian today.” in his annals after he visited the Liu Hulin, a painter and chair Qinzhidao with the seventh emper man of the Ganquan county Feder or of the Han Dynasty in 110 BC. ation of Literary and Art Circles “The Qin rulers’ desire for great who has been inspired by many ness and success left so many engi trips along the ancient road, said: neering wonders for future “Farmers have lived near the Qinz generations, but it also doomed hidao for generations, and their them,” he said. lifestyle, construction technologies Work on the Straight Road was and even language are unique. For largely suspended, though its main instance, the way they build a parts were completed, leaving an house and courtyard, and some of even road with an average width of their vernacular language can be about 50 meters, with dozens of cou traced to the Qin and Han dynas rier stations, passes and fortresses ties.” built along its length, most of which Archaeologists were not really are ruins today. aware of the road until 1962, when a national newspaper published a ‘Cooked soil’ local reporter’s essay on the sub The ridge of the Ziwu Range is ject. generally even, and the builders In the mid1970s and late 1980s, tried their best to make the slopes a number of archaeologists, histori gentle, the road straight and its sur ans and artists organized field face sturdy. research tours along what It is said that the mixture used to remained of the road. Their find construct the roadbed included ings largely accorded with Sima gravel and large amounts of “cooked Qian’s records and confirmed the soil”— earth heated to a high tem existence and the main route of the perature, partly to kill off all flora Lovers of the Qinzhidao drive along the ancient road in Fangjiahe village, Ganquan county, Shaanxi province, on March 19. legendary thoroughfare. and fauna — with rice milk used to Zhang Zaiming, an archaeologist glue it all together. with the Shaanxi Academy of Stone rollers were then used to Straight Road of the Qin Dynasty overlooks the valley on either side of against invaders from the north. Archaeology, told China Central make the road surface even and the Ziwu Range — the main route He Yiping often arranges for peo Television: “These (the findings) compact. To prevent landslides, the the Great Wall for invaders from the north — the ple interested in the Qinzhidao to are apparently not enough to high builders paid special attention to Baotou road could serve as a defensive forti hike along the ancient road. “Not light the importance of the road. reinforcing the roadbed and the fication for Xianyang, in the event of many people have walked on the Academically, it takes more con BEIJING slopes, and they employed sbends INNER MONGOLIA enemy forces breaching the Great road over the past few decades, crete and professional archaeologi to minimize the gradient during Wall. which has helped to protect it. The cal findings, which would be ascents and descents. The road played an important ancient ditches, tombs and smoke complicated and costly, to match Where the Ziwu Range ends at role in maintaining the stability of towers are largely well protected, the Qinzhidao with its status in his the northern border of the Loess the north during the Han Dynasty, hidden in grasses and forests,” He tory.” Plateau, the road continues Yellow River giving potential invaders cause to said. In the 1990s and the first decade through the Erdos Plateau, the think twice because of the ruler’s of this century, Shaanxi, Gansu Kubuqi Desert and the Hetao ability to send quickresponse forces An enduring puzzle and Inner Mongolia — the three Plain, and meets a fortress affiliat via the road. It remains a puzzle how Meng provinciallevel regions the road ed to the Great Wall at the foot of Wang said: “The Great Wall is and Fu could complete so much in traverses — put certain sections of the Yinshan Range in Inner Mon GANSU like a shield, while the Straight just two years. Despite the road the Qinzhidao within their juris golia. Road is like a spear. And if the being unfinished, it only took about dictions under government pro “Basically, the Qinzhidao is like an Xianyang Great Wall is a bow, the Straight three days for the Qin army and its tection, and turned some into expressway, although primarily for SHAANXI Road is an arrow.” supplies to reach the north, as tourist attractions. military use, in the modern sense,” CHINA DAILY According to He Yiping, curator opposed to two weeks in the days Despite those moves, much of the said Ren Baojun, a photographer in of the museum of Xunyi county, before the highway existed. oncebusy road remains asleep Chunhua who has been taking pho Shaanxi, the Qinzhidao was used Zhang Haibin, a researcher at the under the grass, largely unknown to tos of the ruins along the road for skill of the Qin people. It is hard to Wang Zijin, a historian who spe at least twice in the Han Dynasty Cultural Relics Administrative most people. many years. imagine how they finished all of this cializes in studies of the Qin and and the Tang Dynasty (618907) to Department of the Baotou govern “Whenever I walk on it, I am with just manpower and livestock,” Han dynasties at Renmin University help transport large numbers of ment, said the road allowed large Contact the writers at astonished by the perseverance and he said. of China in Beijing, said that as it troops from Central China to fight numbers of people from the south [email protected]