1．漫漫歲月余杭史

1．漫漫歲月余杭史

杭州位于錢塘江下游北岸、杭嘉平原的南端，是中國的七大古都之一。在古代，杭州稱錢唐，到宋代時又稱臨安。杭州是由原來的一片淺海灣發(fā)展成為城市的，從秦朝在杭州設(shè)置錢唐縣至今，杭州建城已經(jīng)有2000多年的歷史了。

杭州在古代只是一個與東海相連的淺海灣，只有幾座山頂露出水面，像一個個小島。杭州另外一個名稱余杭的由來也有一個有趣的故事：相傳大禹治水成功之后，到紹興一帶的會稽山會見諸侯，途中經(jīng)過杭州時曾經(jīng)乘方舟到小島上。在中國古漢語中，“杭”有方舟的意思，大禹登陸的地方便稱為禹杭，經(jīng)過千百年的流傳漸漸轉(zhuǎn)為余杭了。盡管這一傳說已經(jīng)無法考證，但這一名稱還是沿用了千百年。

春秋戰(zhàn)國時期，杭州地區(qū)是越國的北部邊陲，楚國滅掉越國后便成了楚國的屬地了。杭州第一次有了歷史記載是在秦朝時期，秦始皇統(tǒng)一全中國后，在這一帶設(shè)置了以蘇州為行政中心的會稽郡，在會稽郡下屬的二十幾個縣中便有杭州的前身--錢唐縣。令人遺憾的是，秦朝錢唐縣的具體位置到現(xiàn)在還無法準確得知。

西漢時，錢唐縣仍屬于會稽郡，但地位卻日益重要起來。王莽時期把錢唐縣改為“泉亭”。東漢建立以后，又重新改為錢唐。東漢順帝永建四年（前129）錢唐縣歸屬吳郡，當時，為了防止水患，便在這里修筑了錢塘。關(guān)于錢塘這個名字，還有一段很有趣的故事：傳說有位叫華信的官員，招募百姓往江邊運送土石，承諾給運送土石的百姓發(fā)賞錢。這樣不到幾天，老百姓便運來了大量的土石，此時，華信卻不兌現(xiàn)發(fā)賞錢的承諾，憤怒的百姓便把運來的土石統(tǒng)統(tǒng)倒掉，海塘就這樣形成了。

三國兩晉南北朝時期，北方一直處于戰(zhàn)亂之中，人民開始大批南遷，錢唐縣也隨之迅速發(fā)展起來，逐漸成為錢塘江下游一個重要的縣城。到了南北朝末期的陳代，錢唐縣改為錢唐郡。

杭州這個名字正式出現(xiàn)是在隋唐時期，589年隋文帝楊堅滅掉陳國，統(tǒng)一了全中國，廢除了錢唐郡，改名為杭州，州治（相當于現(xiàn)在的省會）就在余杭縣，591年又從余杭遷到鳳凰山麓的柳浦。第二年，便在柳浦西面建造州城，現(xiàn)在的杭州市就是在這個基礎(chǔ)上開始發(fā)展起來的。以洛陽為中心的大運河開通以后，杭州和東都洛陽之間有了直達的水路運輸，這大大促進了杭州的發(fā)展。杭州逐漸成為一個重要的商業(yè)城市。

唐朝末年，錢鏐任鎮(zhèn)海節(jié)度使，907年，他被封為吳越王，建都杭州，對杭州進行了大規(guī)模的擴建經(jīng)營，為杭州的發(fā)展建立了一個良好的基礎(chǔ)。當時在候潮門到通江之間是受海潮沖擊最嚴重的地方，為了保證國都的安全，他下令修筑了長達百里的海塘。他采用夾板筑塘的方法，用巨木做堤柱，打下六層木樁，每層中間用裝滿石頭的竹籠填實。人們把這座海塘稱為捍海塘。他有效保護了杭州城，為經(jīng)濟的發(fā)展創(chuàng)造了條件。

杭州成為國都后，統(tǒng)治者在各個方面極力經(jīng)營，錢鏐在公元910年進行了大規(guī)模的城市建設(shè)，對市內(nèi)的街道、河渠、市場、房舍等進行了相應的規(guī)劃與修建。百姓得以休養(yǎng)生息，經(jīng)濟的發(fā)展也促進了商貿(mào)活動的繁榮，在這一時期，杭州同海外的貿(mào)易有了極大的發(fā)展。

到了北宋時期，杭州成為一個州的州治，但城市卻沒有遭到破壞，經(jīng)濟繼續(xù)發(fā)展，仍然是中國東南的一個大都會。北宋被金朝滅掉以后，宋高宗趙構(gòu)稱帝，史稱南宋。經(jīng)過幾年的奔波后，1138年南宋正式把杭州定為都城，杭州首次成為王朝首都，并持續(xù)了150多年，杭州也因此成為中國的七大古都之一。

到南宋末期，杭州成為全國的政治和經(jīng)濟文化中心。

元代改臨安為杭州，這時杭州雖然已經(jīng)不是國家的政治中心，但仍然是中國東南的一座名城和對外貿(mào)易港口，而且還是當時江南最大的手工業(yè)中心。意大利的旅行家馬可·波羅稱杭州是一座“天城”，“是世界上最美麗的、最華貴的城市”。到明清時期，杭州是全國的棉紡織業(yè)中心，是全國主要的商業(yè)城市之一。那時的杭州造船業(yè)十分發(fā)達，當時就能建造上千噸的大船。到了清代時，杭州的絲織業(yè)已經(jīng)居江南織造之首，是杭州絲織史上的鼎盛時期。

1. History

Hangzhou lies on the north bank of the lower reach of the Qiantang River and at the south point of the Hangjia Plain. Seeing the current bustling scenes of the city, perhaps none could imagine the city was just a few small islands in a shallow bay in the distant past and has a recorded history of more than 2,000 years.

Throughout the history, Hangzhou had several different names: Qiantang, Lin'an and Yuhang. A story tells the origin of the last one. After Dayu (a leader in the primitive society) successfully harnessed the overflowing rivers, he went to Huiji Hill to meet his dukes. When he passed by the shallow bay, he rowed a boat to one of those small islands. In ancient Chinese, "hang" means "boat" and thus the place where Dayu landed was called Yǔhang. After thousands of years, "Yǔ" was changed into "Yú". Though it is impossible to verify whether the story is true or not, the name remained in use for hundreds of years.

In the Spring and Autumn period as well as the Warring States period, today's Hangzhou was just the northern borderland of the state of Yue. After Yue was defeated by Chu, the borderland became Chu's possessions. The first historical record of Hangzhou could be found in the Qin dynasty. After Emperor Qinshihuang defeated all the other states and unified China, he set a Huiji prefecture with today's Suzhou as the seat of government. Qiantang county, today's Hangzhou, was one of the counties under the jurisdiction of Huiji prefecture. Unfortunately, no historical records have been found to tell the exact location of Qiantang county.

In Western Han, Qiantang County became increasingly important though it was still under Huiji prefecture. When Wang Mang (a royal relative who seized the throne in the late years of Western Han and ruled the dynasty for eight years) was in power, he renamed Qiantang as "Quanting" which was replaced again by Qiantang in the Eastern Han dynasty. In 129 BC, in order to prevent flooding, a dyke named Qian was built. As for the origin of the name, there is an interesting story. It was said an official named Hua Xin hired some people to carry earth and stone to the riverbank, promising money would be given to those people. Thus, they worked very hard and a great deal of earth and stone was piled up just after a few days; but Hua Xin refused to honor his promise. People were so angry that they pour all the earth and stone onto the ground. Thus a dyke was formed and people named it Qian ("Qian" in Chinese means money).

After the Han dynasty and before Sui, the north of China was literally a big battlefield. As people fled from the north to the south, Qiantang county gradually developed into an important county which was finally promoted to prefecture by the Chen (557-589) in Southern Dynasties.

The first historical record of Hangzhou as the name of the city is found in the Sui dynasty. In 589, Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty defeated Chen and unified China. Then he ordered to abandon Qiantang prefecture and named that area as Hangzhou with Yuhang county as the seat of the government. In 591, the seat of the government was moved from Yuhang county to Liupu at the foot of the Phoenix Mountain. In the following year, a new city was built to the west of Liupu and this is embryo of today's Hangzhou. After the Grand Canal was put into use, a direct waterway connected Hangzhou and Luoyang which was then the secondary capital of the Sui dynasty. Thanks to that, Hangzhou gradually developed into a city of commercial significance.

In the late years of the Tang dynasty, a military commissioner Qian Liu was promoted to be the prince of Wuyue. After he chose Hangzhou as his capital, he ordered a large scale reconstruction of the city in 910, providing a solid underpinning of its future development. Among all the contributions he did, the most noteworthy one is the Haitang Dyke which effectively prevented Hangzhou from being flooded by the tide and thus guaranteed a favorable environment for economic development.

The layout of streets, rivers, markets and residential houses were carefully planned before they were built or rebuilt. During this period, no longer ravaged by wars, people were able to restore production. As a result, economic activities and foreign trade developed by leaps and bounds.

In the Northern Song dynasty, Hangzhou, the provincial capital, still enjoyed a prosperous economy and remained a metropolis in southeast China. After Northern Song was defeated by the Jin dynasty, Zhao Gou announced the establishment of the Southern Song dynasty and finally made Hangzhou the capital of Southern Song in 1138. For the first time in history Hangzhou became a feudal capital and remained so for more than 150 years.

In the late years of Southern Song, Hangzhou became a national political, economic and cultural center.

In the Yuan dynasty, though Lin'an (present Hangzhou) was no longer a national political center, it remained a metropolis in southeast China, an important port for foreign trade and the biggest handicraft industry center in south China. In his travel journal, Marco Polo described Hangzhou as "a city in heaven" and "the world's most beautiful and most gorgeous city". In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Hangzhou became a national center for cotton textile industry and one of the important commerce cities. In the Qing dynasty, Hangzhou became the best silk producer across the country. Shipbuilding industry was well developed as well in that the loading capacity of a ship was as high as a thousand tons.