She is an oriental water city, allowing the world to read the traces of an ancient nation sticking to its homeland and longing for access; She is a paradise on earth, allowing human beings to understand the beauty of reverie and the beauty of reality that wisdom creates brilliance; She is a kind of philosophy. The exquisiteness of classical gardens and the wonderland of small bridges and flowing water reflect the depth and simplicity of history and modernity; She is like a myth, with gorgeous double-sided embroidery and dancing sandalwood fans accompanied by melodious and soft Pingtan, singing harmony and distance;

She——is my hometown, my relatives, my life, my poetry... This place first had only water, and it was called Zeguo in ancient times.Later, the sea receded, and the mouth of the Yangtze River moved eastward, so Zeguo became a net-like alluvial plain embedded with swamps and rivers and lakes, so this place is also called "Water Township Zeguo".When the dust settles on this watery place, the entire area around Taihu Lake is covered with shrubs and jungles unique to humid areas, lush oaks, firs, camphors, and dense bamboos and reeds. kind of animal... The ancestors of the primitive tribes began to live and thrive on this land with fishing and hunting as the main means. At the same time, they started the earliest sericulture production in my country and created the famous Liangzhu culture, leaving a legacy for this ancient land. The most precious human heritage and traces of civilization.

In the 11th century B.C., at the end of the Shang Dynasty and Zhou Xing, Tai Bo, the son of King Tai of the Central Plains, and his second brother Zhong Yong, in order to give way to their younger brother Ji Li, the two brothers fled thousands of miles to the south of the Yangtze River. Ben Wu".At that time, the area around Taihu Lake was a land of barbarians. Taibo and Zhongyong brought the advanced farming and construction technology of the Central Plains, as well as relatively excellent political culture and new vision. They soon became the local leaders and established a tribe. The small country is called "Gou Wu" in historical records, and the glorious history of Wu State began from then on.

Over time, in the era of Taibo and Zhongyong's 19th Sun Shoumeng, "Gouwu" began to grow stronger. After his son ascended the throne, he officially moved his country from a small town by Taihu Lake to the current Suzhou city site.At that time, Suzhou City was actually just a site about the size of a dozen basketball courts, and it was all built with earth. According to historical records, it was the "child city" of Wu State, which is also the first name of Suzhou City. Although Zicheng is small, a historical drama of a palace coup was staged, that is, the famous "Zhuzhu assassination king".At that time, Prince Guang (He Lu) of Wu State was dissatisfied with the leadership of his uncles and brothers, and wanted to go out to steer the ship of this small Jiangnan country by himself, so he recruited a knight named Zhuan Zhu and asked him to present a gift to King Liao of Wu who liked to eat fish. Yushi assassinated Liao with the sharp sword hidden in the belly of the fish, thus winning the throne.Helu was the first king who created the state of Wu to become a powerful state. His main achievement was to spread the advanced agricultural production technology and advanced farm tool manufacturing technology of the Central Plains to the state of Wu, which made this southeast water town Ze state rise rapidly and become the five tyrants in the Spring and Autumn Period. one.

During the decades when Helu and his son Fucha were in power, Wu's strength was mainly displayed in two aspects.One is the metallurgical foundry industry, which produced the famous "Ganjiang Sword". The most prominent feature of this sword is the high degree of integration of first-class ore raw materials and sophisticated casting technology.Wu Jian achieved the hegemony of the Wu Kingdom.Another reason for the rise of Wu State in this era is the rapid development of the silk weaving industry. Wu Ling, Shang Wan, Lu Jin, Chu Silk and Shu Brocade have become the five wonderful flowers of ancient silk fabrics.It is said that Wu Ling was smuggled to Japan by two brothers during the Eastern Han Dynasty and became the earliest sample of "kimono"; "kimono" is a homonym of "Wu Fu", which is actually Wu Fu.

Sword casting and silk weaving, the hard and the soft, have achieved the hegemony of the Wu Kingdom, and also nurtured the essence of the culture and folk customs of this area.Didn’t today’s Suzhou people create a new historical glory and a great era by relying on the toughness of doing things and the kindness of doing things? The hardness of steel and the flexibility of water are the personality of Suzhou people, and the simplest and most vivid form of expression overflowing from all the connotations of Suzhou yesterday and today.These two have written the history of Suzhou. Let’s talk about Gusu:

It was a certain day in 522 BC. A man from the state of Chu crossed thousands of mountains and rivers and came to this relatively prosperous land of the state of Wu.He's not here to do business and earn a living, he's here for revenge.This person is Wu Zixu, a loyal minister of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and his father Wu She was beheaded by the king of Chu for admonishing justice.Wu Zixu, whose hair turned gray overnight, fled in a hurry.But where is the place to return to?Wu Zixu finally decided: go to the state of Wu, and borrow troops to come back for revenge in a good day. When the fateful hero of the Chu State came to Suzhou, the capital of the Wu State, he looked like a lunatic and a beggar on the side of the street.Wu Zixu has nothing on him except a bamboo flute in his hand.With his hair disheveled, he sang—

The mournful voice of the Chu man made passers-by stop.At this time, a physiognomist came out of the crowd. He looked at Wu Zixu carefully, and couldn't help but turn pale with shock: "There are many people in my phase, but I have never seen such a good-looking person! This person must be a man who has turned the world upside down!" So The face-face gentleman pulled Wu Zixu up and said, "Come on, come with me to meet someone." Mr. Xiangmian took Wu Zixu to meet Wu Wang Helu.The king of Wu appreciated Wu Zixu greatly, and later made Wu Zixu the prime minister of Wu because of his repeated military exploits.Wu Zixu was also unambiguous. He helped King Wu break the state of Chu, and at the same time avenged his 19-year vengeance - dug out the dead King Ping of Chu from the grave, whipped the corpse three hundred times, and killed the king of Chu. The royal ancestral temple was burned down.

Wu Zixu later helped Helu's son, Wu Guoxin's new monarch Fu Chai for decades, making Wu a powerful hero among the Eastern Zhou states.Later, Fu Chai didn't listen to Wu Zixu's good words and persuasion in the grievances and grievances with Goujian, King of Yue, which led to the destruction of Wu by the State of Yue.Wu Zixu committed suicide in anger, leaving a painful tragedy of loyal ministers in history. The sea is vast, and the years are flowing.For thousands of years, people in Suzhou, a land of prosperity, have never forgotten the name Wu Zixu. This is because Suzhou, the unique and well-preserved water city in the world, was built by Wu Zixu back then.In 514 BC, in the eighth year when Wu Zixu went to Wu, he "taste the water like the heaven and the earth", and built Gusu, which was called "Helu City" at that time, in order to be loyal to the king of Wu and benefit the people of Suzhou. city.This great effort made Wu Zixu the most respected person in Suzhou's thousands of years of history, and his contribution to Suzhou is also unprecedented.Helu City is green with autumn grass, and Wuque Bridge is red with the setting sun.

The pipes are blowing in front of the buildings everywhere, and the boats are sailing outside every house... (Tang Dynasty Bai Juyi's "Looking at the Gate of Changmen") More than 2,500 years have passed, and Suzhou has experienced countless vicissitudes of life and wars, but she has never changed its unique pattern of adjacent rivers and streets, parallel water and land. The pattern is also known as the "double chessboard" with three vertical and three horizontal water city patterns. "Water City Suzhou" is a masterpiece left by Wu Zixu to Suzhou, China and the world.

Suzhou lives because of water, prospers because of water, and prospers because of water. More than 100 years after Yue State destroyed Wu, Suzhou fell into the hands of Wu Zixu's enemy, Chu State. Three verticals and three horizontals were perfected into four verticals and five horizontals, and the east and west warehouses were built to develop Suzhou's urban commerce and make the prosperous city more prosperous. During the Qin, Han and Three Kingdoms periods, the water city of Gusu was never in war, but the Central Plains, thousands of miles away, was still at war.Since then, Suzhou people have understood one thing: making a fortune in silence. Making a fortune in silence is a long-lasting law that has allowed Suzhou to prosper for thousands of years. It has also left another piece of spiritual wealth and valuable experience to the surrounding common people and the government; , It has been spread to the whole land of southern Jiangsu, such as Shanghai. Suzhou people’s “making a fortune in silence” has left us far from our own traditional virtues of strengthening the land and enriching the people, and it also provides Suzhou with a great opportunity to attract and accept talents from other places that no one else can match.For example, during the period of the Three Kingdoms, when wars raged in the Central Plains, a large number of virtuous men and wealthy businessmen fled to the state of Wu. They brought groups of child servants, boxes full of gold and jade, and advanced agricultural technology to Suzhou to settle down, adding to the already wealthy Gusu. The prosperity and prosperity of several steps made Gusu fundamentally change the appearance of the original Ze country described by Sima Qian as "rice, rice, soup and fish, with vast land and few people".The wealth and prosperity of Suzhou appeared when Sun Quan was the emperor of the Three Kingdoms. At that time, the water commerce in Suzhou was already very great. Going from Kunshan to the sea, its shipping business can reach Liaodong, Taiwan and other places, and even Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia. At that time, Shanghai didn't even have a beachhead, only a few fishing boats. The opening of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in the Sui and Tang Dynasties provided wings for Suzhou's economic and commercial take-off.At this time, the city of Suzhou was already "thousands of dendrobiums are goods, and tens of thousands of dendrobiums are the city", which can be called the largest metropolis in the east of the Yangtze River in China. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, China's economic center shifted from the Central Plains to the south of the Yangtze River, and Suzhou naturally became the most prosperous economic and commercial center and metropolis in the south of the Yangtze River. The population is too dense to overwhelm Yangfu, and the square is noisy for half of Chang'an."At that time, there were 100,000 merchants in Suzhou paying taxes to the emperor, and the various markets in the city were dotted with excitement. At that time, the saying "Suhu is familiar, the world is full" was spread among the people, which is a true portrayal of Suzhou.This portrayal is like gold burned on the city wall, and it has made Suzhou's face shine ever since... The words of the people are plain and straightforward.But in the writings of poets and writers, Suzhou is described in another way. "Suzhou and Hangzhou have been known as counties since the past", this is a poem written by Bai Juyi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, in "Yong Huai".Fan Chengda, a poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote down the romantic proverb "Heaven above, Suzhou and Hangzhou below" in "Wu Jun Zhi". The famous sayings of the ages. The famous Italian explorer Marco Polo visited Suzhou in the Yuan Dynasty. When he saw Suzhou’s “amazingly beautiful, prosperous commerce and crafts” and the magnificent “water city”, he couldn’t help saying that “ Venice of the East".In fact, the beauty of Suzhou is far more exciting and splendid than that of Venice in Europe, because it has a long history of culture and legend for thousands of years, and it also has the vitality passed down from generation to generation to strengthen the country and enrich the people. Not only the beautiful scenery, but also the beautiful culture and gentle folk customs here, and of course the confidence in the future and the eternal hope in this unique land. "There is heaven above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below", these eight words are now well-known by everyone, and seem to have become a mantra, but in Hangzhou, some people may not be willing to say such words, because Hangzhou people think they are provincial. As a prefecture city, Suzhou is a small prefecture-level city. People in Hangzhou are somewhat reluctant to put the word "Su" in front.But the saying "There is heaven above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below" was handed down by the ancestors, and it is not easy to change it. Suzhou was before and above Hangzhou, not just because the ancients tried to pronounce it catchy. Before the founding of New China, Suzhou was objectively one of the few metropolises and regional towns in the south of the Yangtze River. This fact is indisputable. Beyond the Yuan Dynasty, Suzhou in the Ming and Qing Dynasties entered the most splendid period of great development. Its commercial prosperity and the region's economic aggregate are among the best in the country.From Wanli in the Ming Dynasty to Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, the urban population of Suzhou exceeded 500,000.By the eve of the Opium War, Suzhou had an urban population of one million, making it one of the largest cities in the world at that time.Another example: In the second year of Ming Hongwu (AD 1369), Suzhou paid 2.74 million shi to the government, accounting for 11% of the national total, exceeding the sum of the four provinces of Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan at that time!Which province and city do you think Suzhou is worse than? Gusu in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, her light illuminated China.In this era, Suzhou has encountered another period of great development, which can be described as "thousands of merchants gather".It is said that there were more than 50 guild halls in Suzhou City at that time, and more than 150 public ones! During the reign of Kangxi, Suzhou was already the residence of the governor of Jiangsu. Jiangsu had jurisdiction over Suzhou, Jiangning (now Nanjing), Changzhou, Songjiang (now Shanghai), Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Huai'an, and Xuzhou. More than 60% of.Seeing how rich Suzhou and Jiangnan were, Emperor Kangxi was a little worried that they would fight against the imperial court, so he had a plan: strengthen the "avoidance" system for officials-local officials and Han officials cannot be chief officials in the province.Although Kangxi had his own calculations in this plan, the "avoidance" system for officials is still a good policy for governance, so it is still used. People in Suzhou didn’t hate Kangxi’s cunning trick. Not only did the official “avoidance” system not hinder Suzhou’s economic development, but it gave Suzhou another rare opportunity for great development: those foreigners who came to Suzhou to serve as officials were more The relationship between the imperial court was good, and even those royal relatives who were officials rushed into Suzhou City with their family entourage and soft money.After being an official for a few years, these people found that Suzhou was not only a place for promotion and prosperity, but also a place for them to live and work in peace and contentment, so they simply stayed in Suzhou, and now a group of relatives and friends followed to settle in Helu City.Hey, Suzhou is rushing to a more prosperous and prosperous peak again... But the long history will not leave a city and harbor with eternal peace and prosperity, and Suzhou is no exception. The British invaded China with opium, which damaged and destroyed the powerful body of this big eastern country. As the most prosperous and powerful business capital at that time, Suzhou suffered from opium even more.It is said that there were nearly 100,000 opium smokers in Suzhou City at that time. A beautiful and rich city has since become a declining city with smokers singing songs. The smokers inside the city and the thin ghosts suffering from schistosomiasis outside the city accelerated the development of Suzhou. The wheels go straight back.This was around 1860.What is even more frightening is another catastrophe a few years later, which reduced this thousand-year-old city and China's wealthy capital to a second-rate and third-rate small town. The city burned for three days and three nights... Suzhou has since declined.However, Shanghai, a hundred miles away, began to rise at this time, so a large number of Suzhou elites moved to the banks of the Huangpu River, together with the deposits of shops, family properties and banks, as well as the way of doing business and the "dull sound" handed down by their ancestors for thousands of years. The concept of "making a fortune", wiped away the painful tears, wiped off the dust left on the body when the ruined city left home, and joined the ranks of creating another new city in the Oriental Dagang.This is the fate of many Suzhou people, and it is the fate of most "Su businessmen". Speaking of "Su merchants", the current definition may be called Jiangsu merchants; in fact, Jiangsu Province in history was originally part of Jiangnan Province. During the Kangxi period, Jiangnan Province was divided into two provinces, Anhui and Jiangsu. The collective name of Suzhou Prefecture, so "Su Shang" refers more to the businessmen in Suzhou.  Fengqiao Tielingguan has a good person who separates the word "Jiangsu" and thinks that "Jiang" is three points of water plus a "gong" character, and the traditional "Su" character is composed of "grass", "fish" and The word "he" is formed, so the word "Jiangsu" can be understood literally as follows: handicraft laborers by the waterside transport food, aquatic products, silk and other products to all parts of the country, making this hot land a world-famous rich and prosperous place. place.Some people have verified that Suzhou Dongting merchants, known as one of the top ten merchant gangs in Chinese history, haunted the Taihu Lake in the southwest of Suzhou. The financial beachhead and the largest city in the East in the future. People today only know that what Suzhou people left us is a city of "Oriental Venice" with countless gardens and small bridges and flowing water, but they don't know that Suzhou people have more valuable and major historical contributions than these.In the past few years since the beginning of this century, the total industrial output value of Suzhou City has been closely following that of Shanghai, becoming the second largest industrial base in China!This figure makes Suzhou people themselves a little unbelievable: What's going on? This pattern began in 2004, when the city's total industrial output value was 956 billion yuan. Except for Shanghai, all other cities in China were behind Suzhou. By 2008, this arrangement and situation had not changed much. Suzhou was still like a galloping horse, far ahead of many cities and even many provinces in China.When the word "development" becomes the main theme of contemporary society, a developing city and a developing region have always been respected by others and set up as a model and a banner. Faced with the unchangeable development facts that have been going on for so many years, Suzhou people themselves still can’t believe it: Since ancient times, Suzhou seems to have always been a small area, how could it become the golden land of an important city in the country? Moreover, Suzhou people have discovered an even more exciting fact in recent years: the income of farmers in Suzhou is the highest in the country, with a per capita income of 11,680 yuan (2008), while the national average is 4,761 yuan. In 2008, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Suzhou was 23,867 yuan, and the city's total fiscal revenue was more than 150 billion yuan. In accordance with the concept of the scientific outlook on development, many places no longer regard GDP as the standard for measuring a local economic strength, and local fiscal revenue seems to have become a real strength standard. During an interview in Suzhou, the mayor Yan Li told me: In 2008, the city’s total fiscal revenue was more than 150 billion yuan, and the local general budget revenue was 66.8 billion yuan. "We handed over about 80 billion yuan to the state and province..." The mayor had a look of pride on his face when he said this. The mayor went on to say: "Since the Song Dynasty, China's economic center has been in the south, and the south is mainly in the south of Jiangsu, so Suzhou has always been a major taxpayer for the country. There is a saying: Suhu is familiar, the world is full. Land Suzhou, which is located in the Taihu Lake Basin, has been China’s rice granary for generations since the Southern Song Dynasty. The people of Suzhou have worked hard, making this water town known as “the food and clothing half the world”. Handicraft products. Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, Suzhou has become an important base for the national industrial economy and foreign trade economy. This is the biggest highlight of our Suzhou today.” "The wealth in the southeast is the most important in Gusu; the water conservancy in the southeast is the most important in Gusu; the people in the southeast are the most prosperous in Gusu." This is a popular saying in Chinese society during the Qianlong period.In thousands of years of agricultural civilization, the people of Suzhou have created the brilliance of Chinese agricultural civilization with their diligence and wisdom.The brilliance of traditional agricultural civilization in history shines on this land, and it puts all its essence into the extremely soft and charming water town of Zeguo. The prosperous charm it presents reflects the social and economic characteristics of Jiangnan in China. Therefore, the history of Suzhou people Sexual contribution can be described in terms of a beautiful mother delivering a steady stream of milk to her thin, growing offspring. For thousands of years, China would have been unimaginable without such a beautiful, charming, generous and selfless mother and her sweet and abundant milk. In today's modern industrial civilization, this situation has not changed much.Suzhou still plays the role of such a beautiful, charming, generous and selfless mother in the big family of the country's economy and development. This spirit seems incredible to some people.But if you look at the ancestors of the Wu people, you will no longer be surprised.Bearing the burden for the country has been firmly rooted in the hearts of the ancestors of the Wu people - in the 11th century BC, Tai Bo and Zhong Yong sincerely made virtuous and dedicated spirits for the country, which has been buried in the hearts of the Wu people for thousands of years In the blood, it is still the same to this day. Taibo's tomb in Meili and Zhongyong's tomb at the foot of Yushan Mountain have been incensed for thousands of years, entrusting the irresistible respect of descendants of Wu to their ancestors.Everyone who reads history knows that because of the abdication of the two brothers Taibo and Zhongyong, ancient Chinese society had a sage monarch and a great Zhou Dynasty. A few hundred years later, a sage named Confucius, who created the great culture of the Chinese nation, came out of China.This Confucius sage was a very romantic idealist. He pursued "propriety" and "benevolence" all his life, and he had a strong vision for the future world, eagerly looking forward to a well-off society where politics and religion are clear and people live and work in peace and contentment. The idealistic goal set by the sage began in the 6th century BC, went through dozens of dynasties, and continued until the late 20th century when the communists ruled China. This dream of "well-off" was pushed forward by another great sage. Reality-